#not bad as in bad but bad as in not interested in interacting with them outside of specific contexts

[monstersholygrail]

Imagine getting isekai'd into your favorite Monster Romance Dating Sim.

After one too many bad dates with the men you’ve met on your countless dating apps, you figured why not give fictional men a try. Anything would be better than this. You were tired at this point, so you really can’t be blamed for simply looking up the top ten most obscure dating sim games and downloading whichever one got placed number one.

It didn’t matter at the time that you hadn’t realized the website didn’t have any other articles on their entire platform. Nor did you seem to notice that the article specifically used your name when offering the list on what you may like. All of it just flew right over your head.

And when the time comes that you’d be able to notice anything amiss, you’re already too obsessed with the game to care. Thinking it just has to be a coincidence that the game seems to know everything about you. How it somehow manages to anticipate your every need.

Even the Monster bf you mained appeared to favor you, although all the monster bf’s seemed to be addicted to you. It was his interactions you seemed to get the most of. Every option you picked was the right one and only made him even more in love with you. You never had such good luck in a game before. It should’ve raised at least one red flag.

But you figured it was just because it’s a good game. Definitely nothing strange going on. It was first on that website. Though come to think of it, you can’t seem to recall what any of the other games on that list looked like. All you could remember was seeing this one in such big bold letters that it was the only one you were really drawn to.

Yet still, after all that, you didn’t expect it when during another night holed up in your room your computer began to glitch. The colors mixed together till it created a strange sort of whirlpool. You were too shocked by what you were seeing to feel the strong breeze pushing you forward and sucking you up into the computer.

When you come to, it takes you a minute to process what you’re seeing. Instead of your room you’re now in a familiar looking tavern. The very same tavern in your game, in fact. Except now you’re not looking at it through a screen but in real life. Or whatever this is. Virtual life? You really couldn’t make sense of it.

You really needed a drink and some time to figure all this out. But the moment you sit down, a large shadow casts over you. Looking up your jaw drops, all five of your Monster romantic interests standing before you. And every single one of them stare down at you with a raging hunger. Looking like they want to tear off your clothes, shred them into tiny pieces, and ravage you till you’re a mess and fucked dumb on their cocks.

Only so that they may gain your love and finally claim you as their perfect mate, of course. And until you decide which one of them has won your heart, they see no problem sharing your body. Over and over again until your health bar drops to zero and you pass out from utter bliss.

[69spicykitty]

Roommates AU - HCS

warnings: wc: 1K, college roommates au, cait is a bit jealous/possessive, nsfw

notes: english is not my first language so forgive me for any mistakes and lack of diversity on my vocabulary, constructive criticism is appreciated

♡ At first she didn't like you, not at all. You were messy, and talked too much, always asking a lot of questions.

♡ With the days going on she started to like you a tad bit more, you talked too much? yes. But was kind, smart and had a very nice ass. It was round, well defined… She honestly wanted to put her hands on it and never let go… Wait. She shouldn't be thinking those things about her roommate, right? 

♡ You have liked her since the first interaction, she was calm, collected, elegant and super intelligent, with an insanely pretty face. She was a whole package, and for your disgrace eventually you found out she was a lesbian. Was bad because even though you could have a chance with her at the same time you probably didn't have any, since she always acted like she disliked you.

♡ The things between you two started to happen on exams week, you studied a lot but Caitlyn? She didn't sleep, eat, she was seeking the highest grade - yes, she is the kind that needs academic validation,  of course - and neglect herself in the way. 

But you were a very attentive person and noticed her behavior and patterns. If you order food, you would order two and silently place it on her desk then walk away. If she slept mid studying session you would cover her with a blanket. She noticed all that and definitely started to grow fond of you. 

♡ Each day you two got closer, more comfortable with each other. Went to class together even though you two had different classes you would go with her or get back to the dorm with her. Lunch together? Yes. Watching a movie or a show before bed? Definitely. 

♡ The problem with all that started when one of your classmates got a bit closer to you, he would arrive with you at the cafeteria, smiling a bit too much at you. When he touches your arm she almost pukes on jealousy.

Because of him getting too close, too touchy, she starts to wait for you outside the class door like a guard dog, she didn't want him spading not even one second more with you. You find that weird but she brushes off saying she just was passing by and chose to wait for you.

♡ The poor boy stayed being a bit too friendly with you, and she hated it even the thought of it. So she in a really nice and kind way threatened to end his social life if he kept trying to be more than a classmate to you. You got confused all of the sudden he was being so weird but didn't think much of it.

♡ That was until every person that got too friendly or smiled at you in a way that she didn't like, they would stop talking to you out of nowhere.

♡ One day you were renting to your closest classmates that you were having a hard time making friends and on getting some action on your social life and she said “of course you are, your roommate makes everyone that seems interested in you run away.” At first you thought that your friend was being insane,  but you kept thinking about it for quite some time and realized that she was right. Everytime Caitlyn saw you with someone shortly after they would get distant. 

♡ You decided to confront her about it, but you were never even though everything was point to her doing that, looked a bit off… Why would she do that? One day you gathered all your courage to confront her about it. “Caitlyn, why are you making everyone that gets closest to me get away from me?”

At first Caitlyn was quiet for a while realizing that you notice what she has been doing, but she finally spoke. “Because I don't like them getting too close to what is mine.” She simply said it was the most normal thing. 

♡ At that very same day she basically claimed you and asked you to be her girlfriend. You were confused at first since you thought that she disliked you, but now everything made sense and you always liked her, so why not?

♡ Caitlyn being your girlfriend was the most wonderful thing that ever happened! She was careful, and paid attention to everything that you said. If you were craving something it wouldn't take long to her order you or even take you out to eat. 

♡ She definitely loves to spoil you, lucky for her that she was filthy rich so she could do and buy what she wanted for you without any worries. 

♡ You on the other hand was a normal college student, a bit broke so you would spoil her on your budget. You knew all the kinds of manual stuff, crochet, drawing, baking, cooking. And you did all that to your amazing girlfriend. 

You even gifted her a knitted sweater made by your very own hand on Christmas. It was a navy blue color to match her beautiful blue hair and keep her warm.

nsfw headcanons 

♡ You were kinky but Caitlyn was even more, she was up for pretty much anything and always wanted to try new stuff, new toys, new places, new positions. 

♡ Caitlyn buys sexual toys for you, she likes to watch you use them on yourself or use on you. Both drive her insane, all the noises you make using those turn her on. 

♡ Study sessions can easily turn on her fucking you against the desk, your face pressed against the papers you two were using to study. 

♡ Picking up a book in the library? She ends up pressing you against the bookshelves with her hands inside your pants finger fucking you, her other hand on your mouth blocking all the moans you want to let it out. 

end notes: let me know what you think and if I should keep writing more of this au! 🖤

♡ If you smile too much at someone, give too much attention she will make you remember who you should be paying attention to.

[falandosozin]

uhhh @not-human-never-human i mean sure? im a little tone deaf so i cant tell if you're saying that in bad faith or you're actually curious but im on vacation and bored and ive answered questions like these a thousand times before both online and offline so it's fine

1. "negating someone's identity when it's clearly false" we are back to my original point here, in which i tell you i know myself and know who i am and you just tell me you know more than me and you know for a fact that im wrong. the differences between transracial and transgender are many, but just to illustrate it: ethnicity is determined by phenotype, meaning, in summary, something in your appearance determined by the genes you inherited. im going to use myself as an example. im biracial, but my skin is lighter than most biracials. that doesn't change the fact that im biracial, because even if my skin is whiter than most, it is still not white, and that's because of my heritage. my skin is the way it is because of what my parents, grandparents and everyone before them looked like. even if i bleached my skin and shaved my hair and got plastic surgery to change every single non white detail about me, it would not change my heritage, it would not change my parents' skin and their parents' before them and so on and so forth. it wouldn't change the racial inequality accumulated across generations in my family, but it would change my appearance. meanwhile, my sex is essentially arbitrary, undetermined by my heritage and completely independent from what my ancestors' sex was. being black or white isn’t simply a matter of internal identification or physical appearance, it is also a matter of how your community and ancestors have been treated by other people, institutions, and governments, historically speaking. denying my ethnicity would, necessarily, erase the historical fight my ancestors had in a way that being a man or a woman wouldn't. my mom is a feminist. it doesn't erase her fight if im not a woman, regardless of whether im a cis or a trans man, because my gender is independent to hers. my mom is biracial. if i wasn't biracial, it'd either mean im not her son, i have some rare biological condition or she married the world's whitest man, which she did not. in summary, race classification tracks intergenerationally inherited inequalities. gender does not.

also the idea that sex is, like race, fundamentally unchangeable, pre-determined and everything but malleable is called gender essentialism and, philosophically speaking, is a dead end. here's some more about it if you're interested, but that's the short answer.

why do you think it's controversial for immigrants to identify with the country they came to? i have genuinely never heard of that before, but im not american, so maybe that's some weird us specific phenomenon.

im certain that the comparison between changing your sex legally and committing a crime was done in bad faith, but still: im talking about autonomy to decide what to do with myself and my own body. im talking about autonomy as in having the right to decide if i want to get my name and sex marker legally changed or not, if i want hrt or not, what pronouns i want to be called: all things that only really impact me, but have been proven to have a positive impact. meanwhile a crime, by definition, would have a negative impact in society as a whole.

what harm does it cause people if my friend chops her dick off and starts going by mary? none. then why shouldn't she have the right to do it if she wants to? that's her own body she's changing, that's her own name she's changing, no one else's. that's the autonomy i mean.

2. true that i didn't have to interact with you in particular, but you also had no need to jump on op's post. op said "stop grouping trans men with women" and you said "but that's feminism trans men ARE women" and im joining the conversation as a trans man going "not really and we don't want to be included in your feminism" and your response is "well no one talked to YOU"? like girl. im replying to what you said on op's post because i agree with op and the post is about trans man and i am a trans man. im perfectly justified in my response seeing as the topic is a demographic im a part of. if you didn't want me interacting, don't talk about me in a public website.

also - nothing wrong with recommending radical feminism. but there's a difference between recommending and imposing. say you were walking down the street and a preacher stops in front of you to tell you jesus loves you no matter what and he'll always love you so you should be forever thankful for him. the person may have good intentions at heart, but it is still, at the very least, inconvenient, is it not? compare that to you passing by a church and there's a preacher by the door and he tells you that if you want to come in and get to know the place you're welcome to, and that jesus saved his life, and if you feel like you need help maybe he'll save yours too. that's recommending. the other is imposing. the other is essentially what you're doing - no matter what trans men tell you, you insist on repeating in public online spaces that feminism is for them regardless, that they're women no matter what they say, and they should join radical feminism because that's the branch of feminism that helped you in particular so surely it'll help everyone. do you understand the analogy? do you see how aggravating this is?

3. funny, i dont feel taken seriously when i tell you i know i am a man and your response is "lol no you're not, you're a trans identified woman and you'll never be a man". of course therapy should be accessible. but the thing is that what you're doing is not pointing out material reality, because my material reality is that i am a man. people see me as a man. i pass as a man. they call me "sir" in airports and clinics. my id says male. you're not pointing out a material reality, you're invoking the past, and that's literally all you're doing. i understand that what defines a woman, for you, is a vagina, and i don't really care about that. i dont care about whether or not you actually believe me to be a man or not. i only care that you respect me regardless. so what if you don't understand why i say im a man when i was born with a vagina? the important part is i am an adult and i recognize myself as a man and i live my life as a man. your understanding is unimportant. it's your basic respect that i want. i simply want people to respect me enough to believe me when i tell them i know myself.

i know what you'll say to this - just saying things doesn't make them true, and that'll lead you to "so WHAT makes you a man, then?" and while i maintain that what makes me a man is unimportant, the important part is that im telling you i am a man, i suppose it's still a fair question. i guess the short answer is i made myself a man. i defined, in my head, what it means to feel as a man and what it means to feel as a woman. everyone's definitions are slightly different, but to me, "man" and "woman" are only labels. they mean nothing about who i am as a person, but they determine how i should be referred as.

what makes me a man is simply the fact that for my entire life i have been uncomfortable with being called a girl or a woman. not with girly things, i dont care about that. i always played with """girl""" toys and """boy""" toys alike, but when it came down to it, i felt bad when people called me "girl", "lady" or even my deadname. parallel to that, i felt good when people "mistook" me for a boy and referred to me as such. so, essentially, i have a disorder that makes me feel genuinely bad if im referred as a woman, but it also makes me feel genuinely good if im referred as a man, and that only has an impact on me and no one else. no one else is impacted by me going by young lady or young man. no one else is impacted by me going by he/him or she/her. it changes nothing to no one else, except for me. it's no skin off anyone's back, but it helps me if they respect my self id. so what's so bad about it?

i am not being neglected by doctors. as ive linked above but i can show you more studies if you'd like: research is very conclusively telling us that trans people have an increase in quality of life if they're allowed to socially and/or medically transition. how is this medical negligence? she's not even getting paid more - my doctor is a part of a program in the state i currently reside in that sets trans people up with endocrinologists for free. she's not gaining anything from helping me other than the personal satisfaction of having helped someone in a way that doctors unanimously decided is the best way to help someone in my condition and, furthermore, it's the treatment that i want and have been dreaming about for years. again, in what optic is this medical neglect?

4. im not a woman because i look around me and i see that women are comfortable being called women. ive never met an actual woman who has reported crying after being referred to by she/her.

i experience gender euphoria when being treated as a man. that means that im happier and able to live a more fulfilling life that way. why are people so against it? literally what's the big fuckin deal

5. whatever helps you sleep at night.

ALSO you cannot say you include trans men in your feminism and in the same breath call them “women who identify as men”.

TRANS MEN ARE NOT WOMEN. YOU CANNOT CLAIM YOU CARE ABOUT THEM AND THEIR WELLBEING WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING AND RESPECTING THEIR IDENTITY AND WHO THEY ARE.

[kenzdolls]

JAX W/ EEL READER HEAD-CANONS .

⌗ pairing: (TADC) jax x eel! reader

⌗ anon request: hi! I saw your requests are open and i really liked your jax headcanons. do you think you could do relationship headcanons where the SOs digital body resembles an eel? (if not that’s okay) thank you :)

⌗ a/n: thx for requesting this!! sry this was so late buddy..this is not my greatest work my bad..and me actually using emojis?

FIRST TIME MEETING:

▹ jax literally does a double take when you first spawn in because??? an eel??? in a digital circus??? okay he's seen weirder but there's something about your sleek design that makes him go "huh" instead of immediately planning a prank

▹ definitely doesn't stare at how gracefully you move he's just... observing. for prank purposes. obviously.

▹ first interaction is him trying to "test the newbie" by putting something slippery in your path but jokes on him you're an eel you literally glide over it like it's nothing and he's just standing there like 🧍‍♂️

▹ "so... you're like... a water sausage with eyes?" (cue you giving him the most deadpan stare) "...i'm kidding! ...mostly."

▹ when you first speak he's expecting some kind of sophisticated underwater creature voice but you just sound??? normal??? and he's weirdly disappointed but also intrigued

▹ absolutely tries to get a rise out of you by calling you "slippery" and "fish stick" and when you just roll with it he's like... damn okay this one's different

▹ lowkey impressed when you navigate the circus like you're swimming through air, all smooth and fluid-like, and he's trying so hard not to watch but failing miserably

▹ first time he sees you get actually startled (probably by one of his pranks) you do this thing where you coil up defensively and he's like "...that's actually pretty cute wait what did i just think"

▹ makes so many water/ocean puns around you that even he starts cringing at himself (but doesn't stop)

▹ absolutely does not think about how your eyes are actually really pretty he's just noting that they're... effective. for seeing. obviously.

FALLING IN LOVE:

▹ this man is in denial with a capital d-e-n-i-a-l like he's convinced he just finds you "interesting" and "fun to mess with" (kinger: "jax you literally follow them around like a lost puppy" jax: "i do not—")

▹ starts doing pranks specifically designed to get your attention, like really elaborate ones that require you to come find him to complain about them (which you usually don't, and it drives him insane)

▹ definitely doesn't time his walks around the circus to "coincidentally" run into you he's just... exploring. the same hallways. repeatedly.

▹ when you laugh at something (especially one of his jokes) he gets this stupid little smug smile and ragatha's like "oh my god you're whipped" and he's like "shut up"

▹ starts leaving little objects in places he knows you'll find them, nothing romantic (he tells himself) just... things. like a cool marble here, a interesting button there. (it's totally romantic and everyone knows it)

▹ gets weirdly protective when abstraction is mentioned around you, like suddenly he's not joking anymore and there's this serious look in his eyes that nobody's really seen before

▹ pomni catches him just... watching you sometimes and he gets so flustered trying to explain why (spoiler: he can't)

▹ absolutely refuses to admit he's memorized your daily routine but somehow always knows exactly where you'll be at any given time

▹ starts making jokes that are specifically catered to your sense of humor and when you actually laugh he's internally like "yes" but externally he's just 😏

▹ doesn't totally saves the really good pranks for when you're around to see them because your reactions are the best part

▹ gets genuinely upset when other people don't appreciate your unique qualities like "what do you mean you think they're weird they're perfect" (immediately regrets saying that out loud)

▹ lowkey panics when you seem sad or stressed and has no idea how to help so he just... hovers. awkwardly. trying to think of ways to cheer you up that don't involve pranks

▹ starts asking really random questions about eels and ocean life like he's doing research (he is) (it's not subtle)

▹ zooble: "just tell them you like them" jax: "like them? who said anything about liking them? i find them tolerable at best" (his invisible tail is literally wagging as he says this)

HIM AS A S/O:

▹ honestly the confession probably happens during some crisis situation where he blurts it out thinking you're about to abstract or something and then you're both just standing there like "...well okay then"

▹ dating in the digital circus is weird because there's no real privacy but jax finds ways to make it work, like secret hideouts he's discovered through years of exploration

▹ absolutely the type to play pranks on you but they're like... affectionate pranks? if that makes sense? like he'll hide your favorite things but always in places where you'll find them easily + maybe discover something nice along the way

▹ learns that you can actually breathe underwater (in whatever digital water exists in the circus) and now he's determined to find a way to join you because "it's not fair that you have a whole secret area i can't access"

▹ definitely doesn't totally keeps a mental list of all your favorite things and things that make you happy for future reference

▹ gets so smug when the others realize you're dating like "yeah that's right the eel chose me" (you: "i'm literally right here")

▹ still calls you weird nicknames but now they're fond instead of teasing (though still teasing) like "my favorite sea pancake" or "electric noodle" [i cringed writing this comment..]

▹ absolutely tries to impress you with increasingly elaborate pranks and gets genuinely excited when you appreciate the creativity behind them

▹ learns to read your moods really well since your expressions can be subtle, and he's surprisingly good at knowing when you need space vs when you need company

▹ definitely the type to remember random details about things you've said in passing and bring them up weeks later (you mentioned liking a specific color once and now everything he gives you is that color)

▹ protective but in a "i'm the only one allowed to mess with them" way, like if anyone else tries to prank you he's immediately like "absolutely not that's my job"

▹ finds excuses to touch you casually because your skin is smooth and cool and it's actually really comforting?? like he'll just grab your hand randomly and be like "just checking if you're still slimy" (you're not slimy and he knows it)

▹ late night conversations where he's more vulnerable and actually talks about his fears about abstraction and being stuck forever, and you're one of the only people he trusts with that side of himself

▹ absolutely tries to learn more about your species/form so he can be a better partner, like he'll ask innocent questions about what you need to be comfortable and then quietly make sure those needs are met

▹ gets jealous in the most ridiculous ways like if you spend too much time talking to pomni he's like "what does she have that i don't have" (you: "social anxiety and an exit obsession" jax: "...okay fair point")

▹ your relationship is basically built on affectionate banter and mutual weirdness appreciation, like you're both odd in your own ways and somehow that just... works

▹ absolutely does not totally daydreams about what it would be like if you both weren't stuck in the digital circus and could have a normal relationship but he keeps those thoughts to himself mostly

▹ ragatha: "you two are actually really sweet together" jax: "ew no we're not we're cool and mysterious" (he's holding your hand as he says this)

⌗ taglist: @idexmids @siriuslyginnychase @eleteo125 @st4r-dustx @corpsebridenightamare @boreaswrites [OPEN]

✦ REQUESTS ARE OPEN! ✦

© KENZDOLLS 2025 . do not copy, translate, or plagiarize my work in anyway including the use of ai onto any other social media platforms or it will permit an instant block on all platforms.

[katiekatdragon27]

"AWWWW BRO NOT THIS SHIT AGAIIIIIIIIN!!!" Me at myself for reattaching to an interest I had long before time had a name.

Anyways hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I'm back with the milk- wait. How long have I been gone? *Looks at comically large Calander* 5 YEARS????? HOW HAS IT BEEN 5 YEARS???

Revisiting this game series has really showed me how much I've changed as a creative since quarantine. My old takes were all kindaaaaa severely mid (if anyone SOMEHOW remembers my old art from 2020 no you don't). Not to blame my younger self, I was veeeeery much just absorbing the general headcanons and shipping of the times, but MAAAAN are they kinda buns looking back. I'm happy with how I've grown as a media consumer and analyst lol.

It's lowk gonna be a yapfest below with lots of Rupert and... uagh... DURRRRTTT STUFFFF. So, if you wanna check those out feel free lol:

Henry: (There's no such thing as "bad people". Just good people who do bad things.) Rupert: Jump. Henry: (What?) Rupert: J U M P.

Rupert: WHEN I GET YOU STICKMIN GRRRRRRRRR Henry: (Hmm... I wonder if there's other banks I haven't robbed yet...)

Rupert. Oh Rupert, Rupert, Rupert. Watching you suffer is such a joy.

Yeah, guys, soooo actually paying attention to all the game plots has made me realize how much Rupert's hatred of Henry would not only be one of the strongest forces on Earth but also be incredibly one-sided. I could probably write a whole essay about how important Rupert is not just to the plot of the story, but to Henry as a staple of how his actions impact everyone who's interacted with him (Dave falls into this category too, but on the opposite side of the spectrum).

But to keep it simple, the entire trajectory of Rupert's life was swerved off because of Henry, and in a way, his own negligence. I do not blame Dave at all for the package. It quite literally just spawned in outta nowhere and he was new to the job. HOWEVER, I do blame Rupert because he was blatantly negligent with a new employee and in turn got the guy fired. Absolute blunder my man, do better.

And he did. In the police force. And then the military. By being a sweat. And being traumatized but that'll make this post too long.

Can you tell who my favorite character is? Can you? I bet you can't (It's actually Burt).

SPEAKING OF BURT. AND DAVE. And Rupert.

Burt: (Oh my god he's taller than me while slouching. If he tried to escape, I'm so COOKED.) Rupert: (WTF is he eating? He's so TALL.) Dave: Hello!

WHY DID YOUNGER ME HAVE SUCH BEEF WITH TALL DAVE BRO WHYYYYYYYYY??? IT'S SUCH A BASED DESIGN AND CHARACTER TRAIT EXPLORER.

I love tall Dave. And it's canon kinda, so heck yeah. The reason why he's kinda shorter as a prisoner is because he slouches a ton to make himself look smaller. (If you lined up these three at full posture it would go Burt, Rupert, and Dave.)

And heh, speaking of prisoner...

Mmmmm exploring dynamics that had no shot of being canon.

Younger me was such a Durt stan but would literally draw it like that one Yaoi base🥀🥀🥀 I got some people to ship them lol, but it was very poorly written. There were good ideas for it that I made, but I did not have the skill to write that level of complex relationship.

However, I've grown. So, here's another short synopsis of their hypothetical dynamic.

Okay for some context for this image: Dave has been imprisoned for a while at this point (this takes place after ItA if you don't free Dave) and is completely uncooperative with Tophat interrogations. It's gotten to a point where the clan basically left him to complete isolation, which messed him up BAD. That is until a rising communications member is transferred to the airship for a month.

When they meet, it's very neutral on the slightly negative side, but once they begin to talk, they begin to build a bond. For Burt, this means intel, especially because the clan wants to get their hands on the diamond before dipping into space, but it eventually turns into affectionate sympathy and sadness for the guy. For Dave, this means willing company, which then turns into sever codependency.

In the context of the image: Burt tells Dave that he's being relocated again to work on the spaceship, but he brings up how they are probably going to dump the prisoners in the jungle after takeoff so Dave could be a free man. Dave is very distraught about this, and insists he becomes a Tophat so that he and Burt can still be friends (or more) without Burt getting in trouble, completely ignoring his personal needs. Burt, however, knows being a Tophat would destroy Dave, so he has to put his foot down and helps Dave realize that he wouldn't want that life, and that there's no way they could be together in this reality. Burt brings up how Dave being happy is all he wants for the guy, but Dave doesn't know how to be happy alone anymore, and he cries about it into Burt's shoulder. But it was short, Burt's ship was going to arrive in 5 minutes, and they never see each other again.

So yeah, doomed Durt. As it should be.

Lastly, some random doodles and a character card of my persona as a thsc character (may or may not be lore relevant in a possible AU in the future).

Let's see how long the fixations sticks gang 💔Have a good one pookies.

[adorable-pink-cinnamon-roll]

Hera divorcing Zeus was a lazy retcon of all the complexity & nuance behind their relationship towards the beginning of the comic, and nothing will ever convince me otherwise. _(:'3 」∠)_

I believe there were multiple factors that led to this "decision," all of which are ultimately attributed to bad writing. It's def partly due to the reccurring problem of RS biting off more than she can chew by introducing deeper, more interesting plotlines just for the fun or challenge of it ig?? But she'd either get bored with it or realize the topic was too heavy for her to handle, so the plots would become inconsistent & oftentimes retconned altogether, and this very much seems like what happened with Zeus & Hera's story.

But I think another recurring problem is also to blame, being RS seeing her readers headcanon or leave "OH, but what if fill-in-the-blank happened!?1!" comments like the adolescent-minded fangirls they are and she'd just go, "Oh yeah, let's do that!!" just to give them fanservice. Hence the readers shipping Hera with Echo after seeing them interact for two seconds and RS slapping them together with legit no buildup whatsoever.

But there's still yet another recurring problem that's at fault here, which is sort of similar to the previous one tbh. RS's warped perception of feminism basically boils down to this bizarre combination of victimizing women in every possible way by putting them at the mercy of chauvinist men then making them "move past" their trauma without any actual healing process and those same women looking down on & mistreating people who aren't even a threat to them simply to feel better about themselves.

Therefore, the narrative portrays Hera simultaneously as a victim of Zeus & Kronos' horrible abuse (Rightfully so, don't get me wrong) and a boss babe who gets back at her cheating husband by having an ongoing affair with his brother & divorcing him for someone who's part of a class she's discriminated against her entire life.

If that isn't true feminism, Idk what is. /s (￣ ￣|||)

Sooooo... Yeah, it couldn't be more obvious that the divorce was pretty much just a last minute writing decision under the guise of feminism for the sake of appeasing her audience for brownie points. I'll never not hate this disaster of a "plot twist" when I know for a fact just how much potential there was for an actually suitable & satisfactory ending, when I know it could've been so much more... (ಥ‸ಥ)

But welp, that's what writing fanfiction is for ig huehuehue. (・`ω´・)

[fallenrocket]

omg, I love this post. The Ed-Frenchie interactions in 1x05 are just nummy to me, and I wish the show had done more with their friendship--IMHO, the Kraken era was a missed opportunity to dig deeper into that.

But in this episode, it's just everything. Much has been made of the scene where Ed is upset about the dinner and comes across Stede and Frenchie on deck, and for good reason. "What'd they do to you, man?" is my Roman empire, and once it was pointed out to me, I couldn't get enough of the way Ed gives Frenchie a quick look when Stede says to let him handle it, like he's checking, "Can I trust this white guy?" But that first scene between them is so good too--as you say, Frenchie is so carefree as he breezes into the room, and I just love that Ed invites him to come to the party with them.

There are plenty of factors in why their connection works so well, but I think one of them is that Frenchie's natural state doesn't really do hierarchies. I mean, he can recognize them, and he can turn it on when he has to, otherwise he wouldn't be able to scam the rich racists as well as he does. In his day-to-day life, though, he talks to authority figures much like he talks to his friends. Frenchie doesn't speak to Stede with the care that Oluwande does, and he doesn't make a show of challenging him the way Pete does either. Instead, he just sort of says whatever comes into his mind, which can be good, bad, or neutral. He can help Stede out ("Maybe you said it on your own,") offhandedly criticize him ("What, [you forgot] to be interesting?"), and everything in between--I just love Frenchie's brief turn as Stede's scribe.

And once he gets over his initial worry about whether Blackbeard and his crew are going to kill them, Frenchie is chill and relaxed around Ed. He doesn't get starstruck like most of the crew does. When Lucius says, "Everyone is worried all of the time whether they're interesting or adventurous enough for you," that doesn't include Frenchie. And in addition to Frenchie's other good qualities--quick-witted and observant, skillful code-switching, racial solidarity, etc.--I think Ed appreciates someone who doesn't keep him at arm's length by treating him with reverence.

Ed and Frenchie connecting right away always makes me smile.

Their connection in 1x5 feels instinctual. We see Frenchie carefree, walking into the captain's quarters with a flourish in his new outfit. He's comfortable with them, and when Ed and Stede decide to go to the party, Ed right away asks Frenchie to come along if he doesn't have any plans.

Then when Ed walks out of the party upset Stede is not the only one to respond to that. Frenchie's body language immediately changes from relaxed and having fun to standing straight up, concern on his face followed immediately by a crack at the societal people.

We don't see it directly on screen but Frenchie and Olu used their earlier agreement with Abshir over the pyramid scheme to get Stede the information for the passive aggression moment.

We don't know much about Frenchie's past, only that he worked in "service," can play the lute, and is an absolute gem at pulling off ploys.

I have written about how Frenchie and Ed have similar coping mechanisms with their trauma, and while not on the surface or talked about, it adds to their connection.

(This connection also explains why Ed keeps Frenchie aboard at the end of the first season and why he chooses Frenchie to be first mate.)

Now I feel like I'm rambling but my point is, we learn so much about Frenchie's character in this episode and the relation between Ed and Frenchie is instant and sweet. I love the effortlessness behind connections between people in this show.

The Best Revenge is Dressing Well is a great episode and these small moments, this link makes it all the more deeper.

[dakusan]

I have been drowning in your ask posts about the vampire AU and I am kind of obsessed now

I wanted to ask, and I apologize if you are not comfortable with the idea because I know it's not some people's cup of tea so feel free to ignore <3, but does the soulmate bond only work 1 on 1 or could people have more than one soulmate at the same time? I don't even necessarily mean any of the members specifically when I ask lol I just got really curious because I imagine the dynamics would be really interesting if it were at all possible to have more than one, specially considering the Normal vs Abnormal characteristics of the vampires in your AU, like would that make it worse for them because it means there's technically less blood to go around between them and that unlocks a "competition" aspect to their biology or does it mean they could form a camaraderie of sorts? Like, now there's someone who wants to keep their soulmate happy and safe as much as they do?

Anyways, your AU is just so detailed, it's a lot of fun to read what you post, thanks for sharing your stories with us <3333 (again, sorry if this is outside of your boundaries, I tried to check if it would be against any of the "rules before interaction" but it didn't seem like it, I could have interpreted them wrong though so 🥲 my bad if that's the case)

oh you sweet little drowned thing 🩰🕷️ come in. wipe the blood off your mouth. you’re welcome here.

first of all: thank you for being so thoughtful with your ask 🖤 you're right, it can be a sensitive topic in some circles, but you’re golden. and you asked so genuinely and curiously, i am absolutely gonna sink my teeth into this one. so—

· · ──────��♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

✦ V A M P I R E ! S K Z S O U L M A T E L O R E : T H E O N L Y

🧬 LORE FACT: YOU CAN’T HAVE MORE THAN ONE SOULMATE.

This universe runs on blood law. Not dreams, not delusion, not desire. And in the core matrix of this world, you only get one soulmate — full stop. This is not a “choose your favourite route” situation. It’s coded into the marrow.

This applies across the board:

Abnormals? One soulmate. Their blood won’t even react to others.

Normals? Also one. They’re just slower to recognize it. More human in that sense.

Humans? They often don't feel the pull as intensely at first, but once bitten? They’re locked in.

Turned Vampires? Still only one. But theirs might be someone from before the turn. Unlucky bastards.

That means:

No harems.

No “soulmate A and soulmate B.”

🕯️ THE WHY: COSMIC DESIGN

The soulmate bond is soul-anchoring — a metaphysical override switch. It fuses blood resonance, memory, desire, and legacy into one. It’s not soft. It’s sacred violence.

Your soulmate exists to:

Tame your madness (especially for Abnormals)

Trigger fertility (because vampire reproduction is locked behind bond activation)

Unlock full abilities (particularly Abnormals who go feral without grounding)

If more than one soulmate existed, the whole system would collapse. Think corrupted data. Too many passwords to the same vault. Too many tethers trying to stabilize the same chaos. It doesn’t work.

❗FURTHERMORE: MULTIPLE ABNORMALS + ONE HUMAN = CATASTROPHIC

Let’s pretend — for lore's sake — that a glitch happened. Let’s say a single human somehow imprinted on two Abnormals. What would happen?

They’d tear each other apart.

Abnormals are already unstable. Sharing their anchor? Biologically impossible. Their blood would reject the bond, fight it internally, or go into bloodrage (a state of uncontrollable frenzy where they’ll destroy anyone who threatens the bond).

One soulmate. One anchor. One thread between madness and mercy.

🤝 BUT COULD THEY TEAM UP, LIKE YOU ASKED?

Now this part? Is ✨interesting✨. If two vampires share a purpose — say, protecting someone who isn’t soulbonded to either of them, but they both love? That’s where camaraderie comes in.

Like:

Minho protecting Chan’s soulmate because Chan is his oath-bound king.

Jisung watching over Felix’s bonded lover because he understands how fragile the bond is.

Seungmin helping a new human adjust after Jeongin nearly ferals from first bite.

So yes — vampires can team up. But not share.

🩸 BLOOD DOLL ≠ SOULMATE

but they can be.

Blood dolls are humans who allow (or are contracted) to let vampires feed from them.

Sometimes it's transactional (pleasure, payment, protection).

Sometimes it’s emotional (devotion, manipulation, obsession).

You’ll see vampires with multiple blood dolls. Especially aristocrats, entertainers, or those with hedonistic streaks. But they’re not soulmates.

Feeding ≠ Bond. Hunger ≠ Destiny.

💍 SOULMATE = BLOOD DOLL (sometimes)

But can a soulmate also be a blood doll?

YES. 100% YES. In fact, it’s very common — because vampires want their soulbonded partner to be their only source of blood. It's pure, unmatched, chemically euphoric.

Once the soulmate bond activates:

The vampire’s body rejects other blood.

The taste of others becomes ash in their mouth.

Only their soulmate’s blood soothes their instincts, anchors their rage, heightens their pleasure.

One bond. One bite. One ruin.

So if you see a vampire with only one blood doll and they’ve never fed from anyone else again? Yeah. That’s the soulmate. That’s the real thing. You can tell.

🩸 IN SUMMARY:

Vampires can have multiple blood dolls.

But they’ll only have one soulmate.

And when those two things align?   → Feeding becomes sacred.   → The bond becomes unbreakable.   → No one else will ever taste right again.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

thank you for such a thoughtful ask. the way you approached this lore question with care and genuine fascination? it means so much.

come back any time. 🦷 the door’s always open, and the candles never go out 💋🦇

[orange-highlighter]

More updates from my family stranger things rewatch in my hope to convert my family into Bylers:

(we're on season 3 btw)

Right after the rain fight my mom said "I forgot that this is the season where they become emotional and defensive teenagers" which I find interesting because it was after THAT scene specifically. Not Mike and El's fight, Mike and Will's fight. My mom's always been supportive of the lgbtq community (her friend at work just got married and he's gay) so I have hope for her.

Also basically this whole season my brother has been saying "Mike you're fumbling bad" every time he interacts with El and he sarcastically said the scene where Mike shares m&ms with El is so romantic. When Mike and El made out in the beginning he kept saying gross. At least he can see how terrible Mileven is lol.

Last but not least, they were all utterly silent when Will was destroying Castle Byers which I am grateful for because they usually make 'funny' comments in sad scenes and make fun of the character.

I told them Mike seems really different this season and they agreed but couldn't explain why and now the seeds are planted 🤫

[wilnotwill]

Malevolent headcanons? Hand them over!!

OH BOY OH BOY DO I HAVE SOME ‼️

- yellow has really bad emetophobia on account of the red right hand stuff. also yes im a she/her yellow truther

- yellows a big fan of dance, it is to her what poetry is to john, music to arthur, ectect. shes fascinated by it and especially different cultural dances, though her favorite style is ballet (though followed closely by modern and indian classical dances (particularly bharatanatyam)). her all time favorite ballet is giselle

- corporeal yellow talks a lot with her hands

- more corporeal yellow!! similar to the hc before the last one she likes more physical arts in general, plus sciences. dance, tailoring, chemistry ectect i think shed fw heavy

- oscar is left handed, thus has to relearn like. everything. post 38

- noel is jewish!! he doesn't actively practice as much any more though, but its still something he holds close

- noel is intersex

- bella played piano as a kid and was envious that arthur was able to play so freely. theyed tried a couple times to compose together but never finished anything

- bella taught arthur to sew, not anything extravagant but he knows how to mend and stitch pretty well. in the dreamlands whenever he could hed try and fix whatever was torn during their encounters. along that line hed also like to sit and watch her sew, shed talk a lot about it to him. while he wasn't particularly interested he'd remember certain details and try to engage

- arthur saw ride him cowboy for the first time bcs parker dragged him to it. then john wayne ended up being his bi awakening and he saw it 3 more times on his own. parker never shut up abt it

- arthurs not a big movie fan in general. he has his exceptions but hes just not a particularly big fiction fan anymore. hes eat up concert movies or documentaries tho

- arthur was a big fan of mythology as a child

- butcher loved fairy tales and folk tales as a child, his mom had a big book on them she'd read to him after his father went to sleep. cinderella, jack and the beanstalk, and the dog and the sparrow (from a convo with @bef0re-i-sleep !!)

- butchers dad got him into hunting as a child, where he got his metaphorical start as the butcher in a way (from the same convo with @bef0re-i-sleep )

- john doesnt have a gender, the concept doesnt really exist in the dark world but partly due to being merged with arthur and partly bcs he just finds it neat he tends to align more with men. likewise no bio sex as the kiy

- johns a big fan of romcoms and mystery movies. hed fw alfred hitchcock movies HARD. timeline wise i think he wouldve been able to see some too?

- johns favorite color is purple bcs its the opposite of yellow, him trying to get away from his identity of the king in yellow. he also likes more earthy muted tones, silver, gray, green, brown, ectect

- john isnt used to physical touch, so almost every time they need to physically interact with someone its arthur doing it. corporeal john especially would struggle with this and hed be between being desperately touch starved but also not really being able to properly express it. even seemingly simple things like handshakes would feel weird to him and hed leave most of the initiating to other people. you could give bro a hug and hed just be there like 🧍

- stole this one from someone else (i dont remember who unfortunately) but johns hand develops tremors cuz hes gone from experiencing little to no sensation, particularly pain, fear, or worry, to suddenly feeling an almost incapacitating amount of it

- johns favorite kind of art is expressionism

- john likes making arthur pick up cool rocks or sticks he sees sometimes. they have quite the collection now (ik its not canon but its mentioned in the christmas special that they have a shelf of oddities from their adventures and i love that so its canon to me)

- arthur, being blind, sometimes looks straight into the sun on accident and john complains about it hurting his eyes

- arthur teaches john how to play piano, he catches on pretty quickly

giant sexuality hc comp

- arthur: arobi

- john: panro greyace

- oscar: gay

- noel: bi

- kayne: arobi

- bella: aroallo lesbian (victim of comphet💔)

- lilith: lesbian

- yellow: demi

- parker: bi. pref for women

- butcher: gay

uuu i have some more specific hcs set in an au i have but those are all my main ones outside of that!!

[otomedetective]

after finishing my second route i just couldn't get all the things bothering me out of my head so i just. made this list

game starts off with completely average heroine thinking about how boring her life is and how she wishes something interesting would happen

what the hell is going on with her necklace? it's her last memento of her dead parents and its important enough that she risked getting attacked by monsters to find it. and then it never got mentioned again?

why did we need to wait until halfway through the game to reveal that the hot guys are the magical girls. come on it's getting increasingly improbable that the heroine hasn't pieced it together yet??? you cannot dismiss this as a coincidence five times in a row????

why does everyone talk like therapy textbooks whenever theyre talking about trauma

side note i feel like everyone talks about the trauma they're feeling rather than, like, actually seeming like theyre feeling it

why do you need to spell out explicitly that this guy is a tsundere and he's actually nice. i know the archetype you don't need to explain every time how everything he does is really nice

what the actual fuck do you mean the boys lose their powers when they fall in love but she doesnt??? "my feelings for you go deeper than romance so i keep my powers" SO DOES THIS BOY LOVE YOU LESS?!

they have the blond villain boy whose thing about his route is that he's a freak and then they stop making him a freak

i dont understand why the blond villain boy and the heroine like each other because his thing is that he literally was like grown in a lab and acts like an attention-seeking child because he was never taught any better. so the heroine takes it upon herself to teach him so she is teaching him basic concepts of words like a preschool teacher to a five year old. and his thing is that he likes her and wants her to pay attention to him but when did that childish attachment/amusement turn into romantic love?

the hero route kills off the heroine's best friend but the villain route keeps her alive because she just. took some meds first. i still dont get why she couldnt have taken the medicine in the hero route as well?

even though the friend survives in the villain route she still doesn't do much

it's called the villain route but everyone's morally grey at worst and the heroine just makes the villains stop hurting people which feels really misleading

the english localization makes it so that no one uses honorifics and always call each other by their first names which makes scenes where the chosen love interest asks u to use his first name really stupid

the two routes i played dragged on so long. i can't 100% this there's 9 different routes and 48 endings i can't do this.

even though this game has 8 love interests i feel like they're not using their cast size really well??? like on the hero route i only interacted with the chosen love interest and occasionally his friend. i didn't see the other two members of the team. on the blond villain boy's route we just did not see the other two members of the villain team for the entire route? ??? there are very few group interactions??? i don't know what the dynamic between the team members is????

okay so why do the villains' skin get darker when they go evil mode? what?

so yeah. i don't think i can play the other routes

oooofff yikes omg. that's really disappointing :(

i kind of wondered for a moment when you mentioned the cast size, since the last game i played with that many LIs i had to drop after 3 routes (Charade Maniacs btw) because the writing just wasn't. good. I had the opposite problem though. The routes were too short, not very fleshed out, and kind of boring. there also really weren't any bad endings to make the game feel like it had any stakes. I think when there's that many routes to write, the writing can really suffer as a result.

i hate!!! when there's a villain LI and you don't even get to let them be awful. what is even the point lmao. let them be evil freaks!!!

(Sidenote: gonna recommend Yang from Piofiore right now while I'm on the topic of awful freaks. his route really doesn't shy away from the bad stuff lol)

the villains' skin darkening when they're evil is... a choice. a bad choice. unfortunately i feel like I've seen it before though in other media too.

the honorifics thing is another pet peeve of mine in translated games. it always comes across so weird. i try to get around it by listening to the voice lines and editing the written words in my head until it feels more natural lol

kinda sucks when a game with an interesting premise disappoints so bad :(((

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

I think it's really interesting how it's not just Alhaitham, but apparently Kaveh too, who is actually quite awkward when it comes to social interactions (e.g when Alhaitham was like "I hope you're aware of your lack of social skills"), but masks it super well. And he always seems fine with social interaction, until he gets flustered or brings up Alhaitham. I like this part of his character, it gives him so much depth too. :') Your analysis are always really fun to read!

Part 1/2

Hiya! I’m so sorry this took so long to answer! I took a little (aka longer than I expected ☹) break from being online but i’m back to brainrot hehehe <3 as a testament, this became such a long post that i've had to split it into two! this post will focus more on alhaitham's sociality and communication style

ahh YES I also love this aspect of awkwardness in their characters, especially with it being highlighted in the archon quest and kaveh’s voicelines that Alhaitham knows his way around people, and with kaveh’s veneer of success inherently requiring, and being built upon, social interaction. I think there’s a really nice link when it comes to awkwardness in sociality between how the two navigate social settings!

With Alhaitham, he’s an interesting specimen. he’s first established to have a good grasp on people and how they react to certain situations, like with shani in the archon quest, where she refers to the exiled scholars as ‘village keepers’ rather than ‘mad scholars’, due to cyno’s presence as the general mahamatra. Still, his communication style is abrupt in delivery, in that he prefers to cut out rhetoric and get straight to the point or to reach a solution, which aligns with kaveh’s claim that Alhaitham knows his way around people, and can be perfectly polite, but prefers not to

This can also be seen in alhaitham’s story quest, where he ascertains exactly what a scholar is thinking in regard to waiting to know the preferences of newly elected sages before undertaking any projects, and explicitly airing this allusion is labelled as ‘blunt’

Also, in alhaitham’s character trailer, the narrator states that as Alhaitham cuts out the fluff in conversation, this can come across unfavourably to staff members in the akademiya who enjoy small talk

As this is alhaitham’s manner of speaking, and he has no reservations in doing so, awkwardness then stems from the other parties in conversation if unused to this communication style, or if he is disinclined to contribute (like aarav baiting Alhaitham and Alhaitham at first refusing to comment)

so I personally have a soft spot where this confidence falters, such as when he unintendedly muses aloud that the house is nice and quiet, and when questioned by dehya, he stumbles (in the ENG dub at least) and dismisses his accidental LOUD thinking of kaveh as ‘nothing’. Okay!!! Embarrassing, I’m embarrassed for you!!!

also when he tries to get out of having to explain to the traveller and paimon regarding Siraj by saying that he’s off-shift now, as if his friends are business associates, which he’s rightly called out for, then hesitates when he sees that this was not the right move, and fixes it by inviting them to his home, something very deeply personal to him!?!?! I want to SHAKE!!

And ofc an honourable mention to a parade of providence where his teasing results in kaveh’s genuine upset and Alhaitham audibly stutters (thank you ENG va) before backtracking and changing the subject completely. also after the round officially ends, alhaitham leaves the scene hastily with kaveh calling after him, which contrasts with their typical exchanges where Alhaitham is petty and down bad and either initiates or chases their conversations, so it's inferable that Alhaitham knew kaveh was genuinely hurt and didn’t want to push further

Whilst on the topic of his and kaveh’s exchanges, it’s essential to talk about the line you mentioned, where Alhaitham critiques kaveh’s lack of social awareness, after kaveh lectures Alhaitham for not cleaning the living room when otherwise they were discussing rather heavy matters, but ??? when it comes to griping at each other in social situations, Alhaitham is a massive hypocrite your honour!!!

He has absolutely no issue with picking at kaveh about things in the presence of other people, and he does so in kaveh’s hangout, referring to things that the traveller and paimon have no context for

Also, why are you, as the impartial commentator, commenting on kaveh’s mindset and values in front of the competitors, and then praising his sense of justice?? Embarrassing!!

overall, i really love alhaitham's communication style, and i think it's handled so well in his writing, especially when his matter of fact speaking is contrasted heavily with his goading of kaveh in the archon quest, which highlights the nuances of his character!

(kaveh's sociality and awkwardness will be discussed in part two!)

[fnord888]

Unironically, I think the best thing ChatGPT can do to help you write fiction is encourage you.

Ask it what it thinks of a passage, and it might or might not have suggestions, and they might or might not be good. It will very often have follow up questions and those questions will (in my admittedly very limited experience both as a fiction writer and a LLM user) usually be bad things to follow up on.

But, in my experience, it will tell you your writing is good and interesting almost without fail.

And the single most common piece of advice for aspiring writers is to do a lot of writing. So if being told your writing is good and interesting will encourage you to write, you've now got a great source for that on tap.

I'm sure lots of writers have actual people who can do this for them. That's great! I'm sure I don't have to tell you to cherish those people. But I think a lot aspiring writers don't, or do know people who would but are too shy to ask them. LLMs as a substitute for real human interaction is something I'm deeply ambivalent about, but in this specific domain it seems like a win.

[zenigatas-eyelashes]

is there anyone out there who enjoys Zenigata × Goemon ?

Ugh I just think their relationship would be so deliciously awkward. They both probably have some respect for each other. Goe respecting Zeni for his tenacity, strength, quick thinking etc. and Zeni respecting Goe for his stoicism, self-determination, strength, looks, assertiveness, etc. Also, they're sorta the only members of the gang who seem to hold higher value to tradition and their culture (Obv Goemon moreso but yk.) Additionally (in my hc) Goe is the only member of Lupin's gang, or the only person in general, that matches / exceeds Zenigata's stature and height. At the same time, it's so clear they probably have very little reason to interact so they sorta just think to themselves "hey, he's not so bad."

Like I need to put them in situations. I need them to be left alone with each other. So I can observe the awkward silence, Zenigata trying small talk, them both hating small talk. Finally finding a common interest and nerding out. Need them to be in unfortunate competition of who can blush more, who can avoid eye contact more, who can get caught staring more, etc. etc. etc.

[mensahbots]

pic from roseanne liang of tamara podemski (bharadwaj) and noma dumezweni (mensah) on the hopper set.

i was kinda hoping their characters would interact more after the interesting/fun interactions between them in episode 2. i loved that scene so much... it was easily one of the top five scenes in the show for me solely because of how it was acted and shot and how the dialogue was written... and what it added/expanded about the characters from the source material in terms of the interpersonal stuff. i like that they seem to be good friends in the tv universe, and i wish we could have seen more of bharadwaj and/or mensah interacting with the team in general to illustrate their rapport with more depth, esp with more emotionally meaningful conversations and more fleshing out of the characterization of the human-human dynamics that are positive and mutually caring/respectful. it's really too bad we didn't get to see that. i wish bharadwaj's trauma had been handled with more care/attention and she'd been more meaningfully expanded, too, but i wasn't expecting that... until that episode 2 scene, which made me sort of think there was some intention to expand her and also give her and mensah's dynamic some more attention/emotion. so this pic made me renewed levels of sad about how much more we could have gotten to see from the presaux characters' feelings and interpersonal stuff that was in the spirit of the novella. but anyway, whatever. whatever.. more importantly, it would be a great album cover.

[itsmywritingtime]

✦ 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐓

𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬 — its all apart of the game until someone remembers.

𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦 — DELTARUNE SPOILERS FOR ALL CHAPTERS AND ROUTES, desensitized player/soul, not romantic but soul is obsessed with kris, brief description of strangulation, nonbinary kris dreemur, they/them pronouns for both chara and frisk, soul has played both pacifist and genocide route in undertale, gaster is narrator

𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗦 — 1.1K A/N — Something a little different than usual in both genre and game! I finally played Deltarune after holding off for 4 years and I fell in love with it!! I knew I had to write something about it and a handful of drafts later I settled on this.

How many times have you been forced to reset? How many times have you died and be force back at the save point?

You couldn’t remember. Did it even matter anymore?

You couldn’t die. Death was evitable. You would just go back to the place that you saved

Your choices became less of a way of progressing but rather doing whatever was more interesting.

Countless cycles passed in the Underground before HE had decided a better use for you.

At first, you were excited. It was something new. Something interesting. HE had even allowed you to create your own vessel this time! You had grown rather fond of that fallen child, they were rather an exemplary vessel, but you had played out their story an innumerable amount of times. It was a much needed change of pace. Their story was over.

Your hopes were quickly dashed however as your vessel was discarded just as your excitement had reached its pinnacle.

You were placed into a non-customizable vessel.

Kris.

They were different than the previous child. A little older and a little more resistant.

You noticed it immediately. Every step you took always had the slightest bit of pushback, every item you interacted with was felt with a hint of annoyance.

Fascinating.

The world you had been placed in was curious. So many familiar faces in a highly unfamiliar situation. This world in comparison was much more kind, less violent. An odd change, but not a bad one.

Then, you and that girl, Susie, had fallen into the Dark World. That’s when a sense of normalcy had came creeping back in.

That shining save point. It was grey now instead of the usual yellow but it made no difference.

You had saved, as usual, your file overriding the one that was already there. The one that was named, Kris.

A new story had been laid out for you.

The monotony had come creeping in again. There was a road block in the story. Unlike the previous narrative you had been it, it seemed like this one was released periodically. So, you had reset. Went back and redone everything again. Taking in every detail missed.

At some point that got dull.

You started again. Instead of ACTing you had fought, watching as every monster had ran away before you could get the final blow in. You took interest in every new piece of dialogue you were given. Susie’s initial approval, Ralsei’s alarm.

Something new. It felt nice. But, perhaps you had gone too far this time. You didn’t know what you expected. Forcing Noelle to proceed knowing damn well what happened to the previous monsters you had fought.

You had done worse, but it still left a bitter taste in your mouth. The first time at least.

All in the name of getting stronger. It felt slightly sweeter knowing that that you were the only entity truly in this body. This wouldn’t come back to bite you later like it had during your time in the Underground.

Right?

You had been shoved into the lower cabinet a little harsher than usual this time. Kris had meandered out the bathroom window, you noted that they took slightly longer than they had in previous cycles.

It didn’t really matter. The end result would still be the same.

-

No matter how many cycles passed, you would always like Noelle’s house. It was calming, if you ignored all the events that happened in it.

It was slightly different this time. It was the first time that your and Kris’ roles were truly cemented.

They the puppet and you the master. It seemed like in this version they had finally realized that you couldn’t completely be controlled. Shutting you in a cage at night could only do so much when you were active during the day. They definitely tried their hardest. Trying to shut Noelle up had been a valiant effort, but keeping the thorn ring in their pocket had lead to their downfall.

A seed had been planted.

How eye-opening.

The beating you got for afterwards was nothing more than a mere afterthought. You had long forgotten what it felt like to feel pain. Kris was doing no more than damaging their legs.

You hoped it wouldn’t interfere with Dark World activities.

How many cycles has it been now? 10? 20? It didn’t matter. You could wait. Besides DETERMINATION, PATIENCE was also one of your virtues.

This cycle you had gone back to ACTing. Another chances for you to check up on any details you may have missed, though at this point you had everything memorized.

You had chosen to be extra nice after the last cycle. Perhaps your soul had conjured up some old guilt. Nevermore, what was done was done. No use crying over spilt milk.

Everything had been going according to script. Defeat King, seal fountain, go home, get ripped out of Kris’ chest. Totally normal.

But instead of being thrown in the cage like you usually were there was a pause. You were held, tightly, in Kris’ palm. They were shaking.

That was new.

How intriguing.

Their chest heaved up and down, clearly jolted at the feeling of ripping something out of their chest, but their grip never softened.

Their voice was raspy, out of breath. “..what…are you.”

You didn’t respond, not that you could. With no response, they squeezed you tighter, akin to a stress toy.

“What have you done?” They trembled, but now you could clearly tell it was from barely concealed rage. You had done quite a bit so it was hard to narrow do—“…Noelle”

oh?

Last cycle you had placed the thorn ring back onto her finger, but that would mean…

A vessel remembering a previous cycle? Well that wasn’t something that hadn’t happened before, but this story wasn’t over. So why? Only Chara had remembered after all was said and done. They had seemed to remember the second time and the time after that, seemly grown perturbed by your continued perversion. But Kris was no Chara.

You wondered if you reset again would they remember?

If you had a human body, Kris’ hands would probably be around your neck, squeezing the life out of you. Your oxygen supply would be brutally cut off and the life would be slowly drained out of you. It had been so long that you’ve forgotten what a human death looked like, a much greater scene than simply fading into dust.

But you weren’t in an human body and they couldn’t hurt you without hurting themselves.

You couldn’t tell if your relationship was symbiotic or parasitic. You both needed each other after all. One could not be complete without the other.

”Your love will become theirs. Their love will become yours.“

How exhilarating.