#or will he actually relate to the player for having to struggle in life again

[hexxter]

What if Luxu and Player encounter each other with each of the player’s reincarnation

Luxu who is stealing bodies vs the kid that keeps coming back to life

[yuujispinkhair]

NERD!SUKUNA HEADCANONS - Part 1

Modern!Sukuna x Reader (female). College AU. 2k words 18+, fluff + smut (Sukuna has some dirty fantasies about Reader. The actual smut will be in Part 2). "Enemies" to friends to fuckbuddies to lovers. Reader is shy and struggles with her grades. Sukuna is a genius but bad at feelings ;) Minors don't interact. Divider @/.lacedolliee. Credit for the super sexy fanart of Nerdkuna goes to my sweet friend @winterrbluess. The pic was used with Winn's permission 🖤 You asked if someone could write a little something about your fave sexy nerd, and I couldn't resist ;) I hope you'll enjoy it!

Nerd!Sukuna, who looks like a bad boy but is actually at the top of all his classes and a huge nerd when it comes to his studies and his various interests. Very intelligent, passionate, and hardworking. Sukuna always wants to be the best in everything he does.

Nerd!Sukuna, who could be one of the most popular guys on the whole campus if he wanted to, with his good looks and impressive height and fit body. But he keeps everyone at arm's length, not giving a fuck about popularity and not wanting to get distracted from his academic success.

Nerd!Sukuna, who once beat up a football player who tried to make fun of Sukuna's passion for all things history-related, and ever since that day, no one dared to bother Sukuna again.

Nerd!Sukuna, who is arrogant and condescending and thinks (rightfully so) that no one is fit to hold a candle to him. He is constantly looking down on everyone around him and would rather spend his free time perfecting his skills and studies than doing something useless.

Nerd!Sukuna, who hates group projects and prefers to work alone because everyone else is just holding him up, and Sukuna has to control all of their steps to fix their mistakes.

Nerd!Sukuna, who rolls his eyes in annoyance when he gets paired up with you for an assignment. A shy little thing whose name he never heard before, which means you are definitely not playing in the same academic league as him.

Nerd!Sukuna, who towers over you with his backpack slung casually over his broad shoulders and his tattooed face cold and hard when he informs you that he expects you to work hard and not fuck up his grades, or he will make your life hell.

Nerd!Sukuna, who is fully convinced this will be a disaster when he sees you wring your hands nervously and promise him you will work your ass off for this assignment because you really need a good grade so you can pass.

Nerd!Sukuna, who is a control freak who plans everything ahead and, therefore, doesn't let you have a word on how often you meet or when or where. He doesn't like having people over at his place, but he invites you over anyway because his kitchen table is his favorite place to study.

Nerd!Sukuna, who fixes you with a stern look through his nerdy glasses as he shoves a huge stack of books across the table, informing you he expects you to read all the needed information, which he already marked for you with various color-coded sticky notes. "Because you probably don't even know what we need for this assignment."

Nerd!Sukuna, who is surprised by how thoroughly you work and by the questions you ask him, which let him know you aren't as dumb as he thought.

Nerd!Sukuna, who likes how you hang on his lips when he explains stuff to you, clearly impressed by his detailed knowledge. And maybe, just maybe, he intentionally lowers his voice a bit more, just to see you get all nervous when he is talking in such a husky way, almost as if he isn't explaining political intrigues in the Heian era to you but rather telling you what he wants to do to you in his bed.

Nerd!Sukuna, who finds devilish joy in seeing how flustered you get around him and how clearly intimidated you are by his tall and broad body and his tattoos and arrogant attitude.

Nerd!Sukuna, who has to admit (only to himself) that getting paired up with you isn't too bad because at least you give your best, and you are actually kind of cute. The kind of sweet, shy girl who usually doesn't cross paths with him.

Nerd!Sukuna, who catches himself watching you during study time in his kitchen or in the library. He tells himself he is just checking if you really do your work, but his gaze mostly lingers on your glossy lips, which wrap around your pen while you focus on something or on your nose, which looks super cute when you scrunch it up in confusion.

Nerd!Sukuna, who isn't one to brag because he thinks that is something for losers, but he can't help but mention casually some of the academic awards he already won just because he is getting addicted to the buzzing in his veins when he sees the way you gulp hard and get all shy and cute on him, muttering something about how you struggle to even stay in college.

Nerd!Sukuna, who usually loves to be a little sadist and make fun of people who have bad grades, but somehow, he can't bring himself to do that when it comes to you.

Nerd!Sukuna, who instead surprises himself by reaching out and ruffling your hair, telling you that he will help you with your studies.

Nerd!Sukuna, who forms a strange little companionship with you, almost looking forward to your meetings and even preparing an extra plate of snacks for you.

Nerd!Sukuna, who usually isn't someone people would refer to as nice, but who drops his arrogant and mocking attitude at least a little when he is in his kitchen with you and instead jokes around with you and feels his heart throb weirdly when you get his humor, and laugh about his even most sarcastic remarks.

Nerd!Sukuna, who likes it when you come out of your shell more and more, joining in on his playful teasing or telling him about your favorite books and shows.

Nerd!Sukuna, who accidentally overhears you telling your classmate that you don't have time to go to the coffeeshop with her because you are already meeting your friend Sukuna after class, which leaves Sukuna standing in the middle of the hallway for a whole thirty seconds, with his mouth hanging open, completely stunned and looking like a brainless idiot as his mind tries to wrap around the fact that you see him as your friend when Sukuna never had a friend before.

Nerd!Sukuna, who makes sure to bake your favorite muffins and prepare your favorite type of tea before you come over that afternoon, wordlessly showing you that he values your companionship, or friendship, as you called it, too.

Nerd!Sukuna, who feels a small smile tug at his usually smirking lips when he sees your big happy smile and hears your sweet "For me? Oh, thank you!" when you see the plate with muffins on your place at his kitchen table. And yes, he refers to it as your place, and the thought makes him feel strangely warm.

Nerd!Sukuna, who playfully teases you for your Hello Kitty pens and glittery pink notebooks, asking if you are in some "Little Princess Kindergarten Club" or something. Only for you to march up to him the next morning before class to press a Hello Kitty text marker set against his chest so he can join the club, too, causing Sukuna to sit in class with a stupid grin on his face for a whole hour.

Nerd!Sukuna, who likes how easy things feel with you. How he can put all his hard work into your assignment and also see you working hard on it, but also have this light-hearted, playful banter with you, making him realize how boring and dry his afternoons used to be before you became his assignment partner.

Nerd!Sukuna, who has to admit that you definitely aren't as bad of an assignment partner as he thought you would be. He even allows you to fill out a whole page all by yourself, which is the biggest compliment he can give you.

Nerd!Sukuna, who catches himself playfully flirting with you, smirking smugly when he catches you staring at him when he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "See something you like, princess? Aww, no need to be embarrassed. I know those glasses look sexy on me."

Nerd!Sukuna, who loves to tease you like that and who ducks just in time when you scream in embarrassment and throw a pen at him while looking so fucking cute that Sukuna just teases you even more.

Nerd!Sukuna, who is quite happy with how your assignment is going. Usually, he would do the whole presentation by himself because he trusts no one else to deliver it the way he wants to, but Sukuna knows how shy you are about talking in front of the class, and Sukuna wants to teach you how to lose that fear.

Nerd!Sukuna, who just smirks at you when you complain loudly, "I can't do that! I am so bad at presenting things. I get all nervous and flustered, and then I mess up. Please do it yourself, Sukuna! You are so much better at this!"

Nerd!Sukuna, who tells you, "If you always run away from everything that scares you, you will never make it in life. So, nope. You will do your part. But aren't you such a lucky girl that you have me as your teacher?"

Nerd!Sukuna, who makes you stand in front of his fridge and practice your presentation over and over again while Sukuna sits on the kitchen chair, long muscular legs spread, tattooed arms crossed in front of his broad chest, occasionally pushing his glasses up as he watches you with an amused expression on his tattooed face, providing a brutal but honest opinion and actually helpful advice.

Nerd!Sukuna, who isn't just an overly critical and perfectionist asshole, but also someone who gives praise when he thinks it is deserved. And you, his cute little assignment partner, really deserve it. Sukuna walks over to you, stopping in front of you with a broad grin, "You did really well, princess. I'm proud of you."

Nerd!Sukuna, who wonders why your pupils look so blown out all of a sudden when you tilt your head to look up at him, stuttering in a slightly breathless voice, "Th... thank you. You were a really good teacher."

Nerd!Sukuna, who laughs and pets your hair as he smirks at you, saying something about how he could teach you lots of other things, too. Not sure anymore whether he is still just teasing you or if he really means it in a sexual way.

Nerd!Sukuna, who realizes he has a little big problem when he starts noticing the way your tits get pushed up and almost spill out of your shirt when you press a stack of books against them. Or when he loses his thread because you decided to wear a sexy little skirt, and now Sukuna can't stop thinking about how cute it would look if you were bouncing on his cock while still wearing that little skirt. Or when you suck on your stupid Hello Kitty pen, and Sukuna can't help but imagine how those sweet glossy lips of yours would feel wrapped around his cock instead.

Nerd!Sukuna, who tries to suppress those thoughts though, not wanting to mess this assignment up.

Nerd!Sukuna, who feels like encountering a world boss in a computer game, when you have a breakdown at his kitchen table, the evening before your presentation, crying and sobbing because you are nervous and convinced you will fuck up. And suddenly, Sukuna finds himself comforting you, gently caressing your arms with his large hands while murmuring reassurance to you. "Hey, stop being a brat. I know you can do it. You learned from the best, after all, didn't you, princess? And you got me. Just look at me the whole time, ok? Nothing bad can happen when you just look at me."

Nerd!Sukuna, who is surprised by how protective he feels over you at that moment. You are sitting in front of him looking like a wet cat, with your eyes all red and swollen from crying and snot running out of your nose, but somehow you still look so fucking cute to him, and somehow you make him so much softer and less rational than he usually is.

Nerd!Sukuna, who sighs and growls, "Oh, just come here." sounding annoyed but contradicting it by pulling you into his strong arms and holding you until you feel ok again. Sukuna still complains that you got his shirt wet with your tears, but his words lack the bite.

Nerd!Sukuna, who is genuinely proud of how much you improved when he watches your part of the presentation the next day. He even catches himself smiling a real smile at you when he congratulates you after class.

Nerd!Sukuna, who experiences a strange fluttery feeling in his stomach when you smile back at him and put your small hand on his tattooed biceps, "Thank you, Sukuna. It was really nice working with you."

Nerd!Sukuna, who manages a "same," but then just stands before you, opening his mouth and closing it again, not knowing what else to say because there are too many thoughts racing through his mind, and all of them seem to be too honest. And you do the same, shuffling around shyly, looking at him with wide eyes, parting your lips, but no words come out. And so both of you just lift a hand in an awkward farewell gesture and leave on opposite sides of the hallway.

Nerd!Sukuna, who tries to tell himself he is glad that your assignment is over and he can work in solitude again but then ends up staring longingly at the empty chair at his kitchen table, where you used to sit those last few weeks.

Aww Sukuna, do you miss us? ;)

I AM VERY ATTRACTED TO HIM AAAHHHH please, Kuna, tell me more about history and physics and every other subject that there is!!! You are so sexy!! 😘😘

Winn's fanart of Nerdkuna made me swoon so much and fall in love with him, and I always picture him as being at the top of classes anyway, so I think it was really time to finally write about him living his best nerdy life.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the headcanons! I will post Part 2 in a few days 💗 Will Kuna find a way to get us back onto his kitchen chair?

Comments and reblogs would be very sweet!

Here is Part 2

[crownedhades]

talking about killer sans again. and szpd.

this is part 2 to this post that i made a bit ago. please read it before this one, otherwise you will not understand a damn thing. thank you kindly.

also i will be mentioning color again lol. you can probably guess what my favorite dynamic is by now.

.°• ੈ♡₊˚•.

now, before we begin, i would like to further empathize why i don't actually think killer has szpd. he has many traits that simply disprove the possibility.

hes an emotional train wreck whenever hes not surpressing them (phase 1)

but also because he Misses People and Misses His Old Self

schizoids do not miss people. its rather uncommon and fairly rare.

it is specifically noted here in this comic drawn by rahafwabas that he wants to be sans again, he wants to return to his old self, and that he hates what he has become.

this comic clearly depicts traits that disprove the possibility of him being schizoid. sure, whatever, hes trying to supress his emotions even now, but only because hes a delusional idiot (the comic is about him thinking that he Has to listen to the player) that color had to knock some sense into.

so, at most, if youre really depserate to tie szpd to this kid, then he might have "schizoid tendencies," aka schizoid coping mechanisms. but never the actual disorder.

if you want another reason why hes not schizoid,, take this comic drawn by rahafwabas.

yes, schizoids can dissociate from reality where things start to feel Unreal. but.

in this comic, shortly after petting the cats snd notices dream, he almost immediately gets up and goes over to dream. almost out of subtle desperation.

this would probably not happen with an actual schizoid. we would be far too "get away from me" to walk over to dream and squeeze his face or whatever. why would we even touch someone like that, also?

not only that! but the title of his timeline is "something new" based on his desire to feel something new, a new emotion, when hes not supressing. schizoids have no desire to feel anything much less something new.

emotions, to many schizoids, are a threat to us. theyre unsafe and lead to illogical decisions that we resent.

illogical decisions? such as the one comic (that i dont have saved this time) drawn by rahafwabas where killer was tied choosing between color and nightmare. killer, if he was truly schizoid, would never feel conflicted. if i, a schizoid, were in his shoes, i would have cut off both color and nightmare for having the audacity to force me to have an emotional reaction.

of course, that comic is far more complicated than just that, but you get what im saying, right? right? hes not schizoid!

.°• ੈ♡₊˚•.

but now on to me comparing him to schizoids aka myself bc i relate to him 😋

theres this specific comic that i reblogged that i heavily resonate with, at least when it comes to my own relationships with people.

now, keep in mind, what i am about to talk about i feel absolutely nothing for. at most i might feel irritated, confused, or bewildered. its not a vent, just reasons why i relate to killer.

i am a schizoid that is not entirely repulsed by the idea of having friends and long-lasting connections. especially since i am a schizoid that is trying (struggling) to achieve remission.

but it becomes difficult when i begin opening up about my disorder since not everyone understands it, especially if i open up later on into a friendship rather than being clear about it right at the start.

mostly when it comes to how i feel about people. i hold very little, almost zero attachment to even friends i have known for years. it does not bother me whether or not they are or aren't in my life. i am fully indifferent to the possibility of i or them leaving. the second i deem someone unsafe or a waste of time, i cut them out of my life.

which is a problem to people who are emotional and hold strong attachments.

imagine you have a friend that you love spending time with. they always know the right things to say to you and theyre just your best friend overall. now imagine they start opening up about a disorder, claiming that their feelings for you is not mutual and they care little about the sentimental times you have spent together.

that has to hurt, right? at least thats what people have told me. that my lack of feeling or attachment to them hurts, even if i prioritize them above everyone else that i know. even if i tell them everything they want to hear.

i feel like this hits home with killer and the people that care about him. sure, there are moments where he genuinely cares, but phase 2 and beyond he just... doesn't. in redemption stories phase 2 and up might logically deem the person to be a priority, someone he is obligated to be around, but its not like he actually feels anything for them.

phase 1, of course, would love color as a friend and companion more than anyone else in the world. color is his other half, the only person who is willing to put up with his emotional variations and bullshit.

sure, there are stories and interpretations where color gets exhausted and tired of killer's... everything, but the community has made their connection undeniable.

now, i do not understand the concept of queer platonic partners, but i do try to understand it. and i kind of think that the concept of qpp fits killer and color. i dont see them as having romantic feelings for each other, but i do think they would be very close to the possibility.

qpp or safety person, color is the first person to have ever successfully reach killer and his unstable heart. the first person to look past the villain killer depicts himself to be and just... sees killer for himself. his true self.

.°• ੈ♡₊˚•.

if you look up posts on reddit about schizoids, you may notice that reddit schizoids are overt heavy, meaning that they are unlikely to mimic others to blend in. at most they might try to act normal in professional settings.

now on tumblr, it is covert heavy, where mimicking and schizoids having connections outside of work is a bit more common. sure, they still talk about dropping people in a snap, but theyre simply more... willing to try. not everyone, of course.

universally, i have noticed, is that anger is the most common emotion that schizoids feel.

there is this post specifically that i have reblogged where a user is talking about how annoyed he gets with other people.

now, killer would not avoid confrontation like we would. so he does not relate to schizoid in this manner. but i do find comfort in the fact that killer would do everything that i would not. he is a source of feeling anger freely and shitting on people in my head, or imagining him just going... beserk because someone pissed him off.

i really like it when killer is angry. i like it when he is violent and just... acts on his hatred. his determination. i like it when hes not supressing anything. i like it when hes uncontrollable and purely unpredictable, like a rabid animal that wants to destroy what it loathes.

theres a deep sense of satisfaction that i feel from it. a man who is nothing more than a walking paradox. where on one hand he supresses his emotions as much as he can, but on the other hand theres a part of him that relishes in the chaos that he creates. where he hurts people. where he doesnt care about the consequences of his actions, he just does whatever he wants.

where he defends his autonomy and independence. where he doesnt give a flying fuck what nightmare does or says to him.

killer will do what he wants even if it means he has to fight for his freedom til his very last breath. even if it means dying because nightmare has lost use for killer, or realizes that killer wont be some stupid rag doll for him to manipulate like chara/the player did to killer.

this is the version or interpretation of killer that i like. a version where gaslighting and guilt tripping doesnt work because he doesnt care. where even if nightmare would blackmail or threaten other peoples lives, killer continues to not care about anything but his own freedom.

.°• ੈ♡₊˚•.

i might make a part 3, i dont know.

this is literally just me rambling about killer. there is no coherent consistency and i do not plan for it to be orderly or consistent.

i am just dumping whatever first comes to mind.

[chibishortdeath]

Bunch of random stuff I forgot I hadn’t posted—

Explanations under a cut cause it’s fun to rant :3

Leon pose study! I don’t remember which pose reference website it was I used tho augh

A Leon headcanon (0_o)— yeahg I like the headcanon that his gloved hand is a prosthetic. This headcanon lead me on a really cool rabbit hole looking up medieval prostheses and stuff and there’s a guy from the 1500s I think named Götz whose hands are in a museum— anyway really cool stuff, if I can find it again I’ll add the link to some of the websites I ran into about it :3. It also lead me to research the time period Leon is from and I discovered that Leon would actually not have been a crusader fun fact! His game takes place approximately two years before the crusades are presumed to have started, he likely would’ve been a knight in other conflicts. Actually the year he got knighted (pretty sure it was like 1088???) lines up with a revolt that happened in northern France and southern Britain, and given that he has a French last name, it would make more sense if he was a part of that— he actually would’ve left his baron title to go fight Walter instead of fighting in the crusades! Again I’ll have to idk maybe make a post with a ton of random historical stuff cause it’s really interesting :3

More Leons hehehe— it was supposed to be a much larger whole page dedicated to each Belmont thing, but this one just kinda ended up doodles related to mostly just one headcanon lol. I’ll probably come back to it later, but hehehe I uh got into something else too and uh well that’s for another doodle on this post—

It was so hard to figure out how to simplify Leon’s hair, but it was worth it. Look at him with his cute little smile :)!

They’re all gaming on the same weird off brand arcade cabinet thing I have in my house hahahaha yay projecting! Anyway, they’re playing Darkstalkers. Richter is a Felicia main and is wayyyyyyyy too competitive to let Leon win. Leon (picked BB cause he thought she looked nice— was surprised when she had a gun lol) has never played an arcade game in his life and is struggling lol. Both Trevor (plays as Morrigan and Talbain and button mashes) and Simon (very serious Anakaris, Zabel, and Lilith player) are desperately trying to give him pointers, but they’re both conflicting with each other and it’s all fighting game lingo that Leon doesn’t know so uh 💀💀💀💀💀. Christopher (Rikuo main) is waiting his turn, as is Juste (bizarre secret Marionette copy character main). Julius is laughing at the whole situation and will not be playing, not because he’s not like an arcade fighter fan or anything, but because he’s just more of a Tekken and Soul Caliber guy.

This is a redraw of a way older doodle that I can’t find the original of rn, it might be on Instagram idk. The text says “I can lift him! :D” and yes, Trevor evidently can lol. Simon is a little uh only unsure about it 💀.

Uh oh— bro’s really lost— found himself in the dungeon’s of fear and hunger—

Heyyyy so this one references the thing I just got into recently uhhhhh— I just started transformers :D. Yay! Anyway Simon has met Optimus Prime before fun fact, dream mix tv fighters is a game for sure. Text says “bisexual”. I can’t blame him, Optimus is pretty cool tbh— but but hear me out on Ratchet I mean Anyway, expect more transformers stuff cause I already made OCs.

[lesbianvampirefanatic]

Hi I'm back for now until I forget the app exists again!! As of late I've been obsessing over ratiomei, avenpaz, and castordei. Very different ships with their own tragedies and their own struggles. I feel as if the hsr fandom doesn't appreciate them enough or just completely ignores them and how interesting their dynamic is.

Ratiomei are genuinely some of the greatest foils I've ever seen and I feel as if people don't acknowledge them enough. I feel as if people try to make both of the characters something they're not. "Ruan Mei can't feel love." She doesn't understand it and that's completely understandable. Love is so complex and figuring out how you love someone and how you actually do is so hard at times or maybe I'm just weird. Ratio isn't some heartless uncaring teacher. If anything he seems like a dick because he cares. He genuinely has so much care for others and has a deeper sense of understanding others and their emotions. He understands his own very well. Ruan Mei will do what it takes to get her answer and she understands the risks that come along with it. Ratio however cannot stand the idea of putting others at risk for answers. "They wouldn't work then because of their morals." Ruan Mei always has a backup plan and knew the trailblazer could handle the bug. She didn't just set it loose. Again she struggles with understanding love and we can see her start understanding that with her creations towards the end. She struggles understanding their emotions and she slowly learns that they have feelings too. Ratio could help her with that. He could help her understand how to recognize others emotions. They're rather endearing.

Avenpaz has so many angst opportunities and people ignore that. "You entrusted him with your cornerstone something as valuable as life." Clearly Topaz has a deep trust in him and whether or not that trust is misplaced is up for debate amongst yourself. They truly care about and value each other. I could go on about how many mistranslations that they have and how it has messed up how English players enjoy the game. I know wiki isn't the most relatable but they do tease each other and Topaz joining teams with Aventurine says if I remember correctly, "It's nice to work with people who care about each other." Aventurine and his struggling with seeing himself worth anything and yet Topaz caring about him as if it's as easy as breathing. They're so doomed.

Castordei is genuinely so interesting because of the characters themselves. Please no spoilers for 3.1 in the comments I've been extremely unmotivated to play but I'll do the quest eventually. Castorice struggles with her existence and her trial and yet Mydei is the only person who might understand her struggle in his own way. Imagine just being able to end lives with a simple touch and having someone who cannot die and has probably had attempts on his life by others. She probably craves being held by another human but due to her ability she cannot but then there's Mydei and flipping everything she's known. Imagine being so lonely and being touch starved and meeting someone you couldn't kill. I feel like Mydei could just feel understood with her and he could talk about everything he's witnessed. She's a good listener and she's just so welcoming even though if you get too close you could die. It's a bit more fluffy especially when you head canon that Mydei builds up an immune system to it. He can get closer than others can because he's not going to die. It'll probably just be like falling asleep.

Holy yap anyways I promise I'll at least try to be more active and if you've made it this far thank you for listening to my insanity. Bye bye!!

[negrowhat]

Sports Themed BL Dramas

In honor of the Olympics, I saw someone make a sports themed Anime rec list and decided I could do that for my fellow QL watchers out there (I promise I'm not using QL and BL interchangeably).

The Rebound (Thailand)

Freshly completed. The Rebound is a basketball centered series. Ryu and Zen are both basketball all-stars and used to be each other's rocks on the court in middle school. Fast forward to high school and Zen is trying to put together a new team under a new coach and Ryu is somewhere in the streets playing illegal and highstakes street basketball. Watch Zen re-recruit Ryu back onto the team and back into his life while they both deal with homelife struggles, keeping the basketball team afloat, Ryu's mafia ties, and love rivals.

You're My Sky (Thailand)

This is a multi-sports BL with 3 couples. Follow Fah and Torn as they reunite in college and join the same basketball team and work to repair the damaged relationship and also make their basketball dreams come true. Join freshman soccer star Saen as he juggles his sport and pursuit of his intellectual senior Aii and also taking time out of his day to give Torn love advice. And the last pair features two track stars Dome and Vee who struggle with their growing attraction to each other while Dome is actively dating Vee's sister Pan. This series is all about love and sports.

History 2: Crossing the Line (Taiwan)

This is a high school volleyball bl that focuses on retired player turned manager Qiu Zi Xuan and reluctant newcomer Hsia Yu Hao. Zi Xuan splits his time with training his team and teaching Yu Hao the essentials of the game so he'll be ready in time to compete. What happens when Yu Hao's annoyance for Zi Xuan fades and he begins to catch feelings for the school senior? And how will Zi Xuan deal with a sudden new love interest when his first love has always been volleyball...not to mention his baby sister has a huge crush on Yu Hao. There is a side pairing that features step brother who have an interesting history involving a kidnapping.

Between Us the Series (Thailand)

Okay so this series isn't technically sports-themed but there's a lot of sport in it. 3rd year uni student Win is VP of the swim team and the team has just recruited freshman Team. Win and Team are both very serious about their sport but Team does struggle because of some past swimming related trauma from his childhood. Win takes an immediate interest in Team so he gives him extra special attention outside of the team and soon they begin a sexual relationship (immediately actually). Team soon finds that being with Win helps him sleep peacefully at night so he begins to sleep over in his dorm. They both establish a bond but can't quite slap a label on with Win's commitment issues and Team's trauma. (There's more swimming in Between Us' parent drama Until We Meet Again). There are quite a few side pairing in this series.

Love By Chance (Thailand)

Again this series isn't sports themed but there's a lot of sport in it. This series follows uni freshman Ae and who has just joined the school's soccer team. He's an honest and simple guy who isn't afraid to speak his mind or stand his ground. He meets another freshman named Pete who opposite of him in personality, a quiet and shy guy who speaks politely to everyone. Ae feels the need to protect Pete because he finds Pete to be the delicate type and he doesn't want anyone to take advantage of Pete. Ae splits all his time between Pete and soccer. The second couple also follows another member of the soccer team named Can who gets into it with one of Pete's classmates named Tin. Tin and Can but heads every time they see each other but Tin's hatred for Can soon evolves into interest. Half of the cast in this series is on Ae and Can's soccer team so they spend a lot of time on the soccer field. The other two side pairs are there but I'm not gonna lie I skip them.

The Eighth Sense (South Korea)

This series follows freshman uni student Kim Jihyun who joins the school surfing club because he's looking to branch out but really because he met a cute guy named Seo Jaewon at his job and discovered he was in the surfing club. This series follows Jaewon and Jihyun through club surfing escapades and their instant and growing interest in each other. Jaewon's traumatic past does weigh heavy on his life and he allows the people around him to take advantage of him but Jihyun is there as a beacon of light for him, leading him out of the darkness and into a bright future together for both of them.

Honorable Mentions and one Dishonorable Mention to:

Pit Babe the Series (Thailand). which is a series centered around racecar drivers in an omega universe but I don't think that's an Olympic sport. PB is still very much a sports-themed series but there's also a lot of like...kidnapping, murder, mind control, and apparent mpreg going on in that series. The main pairing is alpha for alpha! Def a great watch.

Love Mechanics (Thailand). Features two swimmers as the mains but their plot is mostly about cheating and lying more than anything else. Sure there's swimming but it's not like that important to the series. Mark has a crush on his senior but that senior already likes someone else and Vee swoops in and sleeps with Mark and then they begin a side romance while Vee refuses to break up with his girlfriend even though she's cheating on him and he knows it. He's got quite a few hang ups and Mark just can't seem to leave that man alone. It's not my favorite series but it's not a bad series, it's quite good and YinWar are amazing but I just wanted to fight Vee more than anything else lol.

Waterboyy the Series (Thailand). This series is very much sports themed and follows two university swimmers on a swim team but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Waii is the swim team's all-star and Apo is a newcomer on the scene who seems to be the only one who matches Waii. Unfortunately Waii is very much an asshole to everyone and he and Apo are quite dysfunctional. Also there's a sideplot where a canon lesbian character "realizes she's straight" typa vibe and also Waii's father gets into a realtionship with Waii's old best friend (it's very weird). The overall tone of the series is not a vibe but hey if you're interested in seeing New Thitipoom and Earth Pirapat as a ship then go for it.

[dogtoling]

how would you go about designing a sona-adjacent character for splatoon? I know I’m going with octoling bc I play as them exclusively and this is more a character made from my ingame avatar, but everything else has me indecisive.. sorry I know this is a vague question but I’m interested in hearing your thoughts

this is a cool question! I struggled with this for a really long time and have had MANY sona designs (which either got trashed or became separate characters over time). Really i think how you approach a sona is different for every person. sorry if this is incoherent as i'm typing at 6am from bed

So basically first thing is what are you planning on using the character for? For example in my case when I used to try making splatoon sonas I made them *too much* like me to the point where i didn't like them and they didn't really fit in the world or were interesting at all. But that's just talking personality-wise. I could make an extremely bland octopus guy who doesnt play Turf War or ever go anywhere but it's also like, what is even the point of having a Splatoon sona at that point. What you want to use your sona for kind of affects how they would ideally be in my opinion.

So the way I ended up designing my sona (Koira) was to have us share traits but not have them specifically BE me, which is an approach that I find works really well in creating a connection to a character while still letting them be a character of their own. I would refer to it as more like making a self-insert character to control in a setting rather than physically being there and feeling confined to being yourself if that makes sense? it probably doesnt. But the self-insert player character is kinda what you already do in Splatoon anyway.

I find it a good approach to go with a mix of aspects that are accurate to you but combined with things that are kind of out there. Then you can have a character that's still interesting and appealing to you and might seem similar enough at face value to be relatable, while not being like, super boring. I don't remember my exact design process with Koira, I wanted the design to be silly and stand out and be relatable to how I play the game and approach the series, while at the same time not being confined to what I would realistically do or be like. Like I do not own a labcoat in real life, or mismatched boots, or round shades.

But I DO own a pair of broken shades i found from a trash can, and in the context of being an avid squid researcher online I felt it would be very fitting to make my in-universe guy an actual squid scientist, and i WISH i had shoes like that because theyre pretty cool. And he has split ends because I DO have split ends (there are so many), but i don't have blonde hair. I picked yellow because it's my favorite color. I would NOT touch turf wars with a ten foot pole if i actually existed in the splatoon world and was the same person there that i am in real life, but like, in the context of Splatoon i might as well have my Splatoon guy represent some aspect of my gameplay experience, hence they own like every weapon but don't really play. Et cetera.

So really again people have different preferences with how to approach making a sona, or sona-adjacent characters like you said, personally the Player Character approach tends to work pretty well for me. I try to reflect my real physical in-the-flesh self less, because that's kind of boring (i literally already exist), and go for the more exaggerated version where some aspects represent me but it's not Literally Me. Like, I'm trying to make What If I Was An Octoling, and not What If An Octoling Looked Like Me The Human. The process of how to get there is a little patchy and again, probably different for everybody, and bear in mind that you might make a sona and not like it and start from scratch. That might happen 5 times. That might happen 10 times. You still learn something more about the process every time.

Here's some questions I can present to help with sona designing...

1. What are some traits that I think reflect myself? How can I include those in the character design?

2. In tandem with the previous question; what species should I pick? (You already picked Octoling, so this one is a bit obsolete - but it's worth thinking about for people who struggle to pick.)

3. If I existed in the Splatoon world, what would I probably, somewhat realistically be doing with my life? What kind of job or hobbies would I have? Can that be reflected in the design?

4. Do I care about any of the above stuff or do I just want to come up with something original? Could I use some of my answers to work with and fill in the blanks with other things that are just cool?

5. How would the ways I play Splatoon be reflected if translated to an in-universe character? (For example, based on how I play, my game-realistic Splatsona would just be a full-time Salmon Runner...)

6. Do I want to use in-game gearsets, or reference the kind of style I prefer in real life, or maybe come up with something unique?

7. Can my main weapon or playstyle be directly equated to my character's personality or appearance? Do I want their personality to be game-accurate, real life accurate or somewhere in between?

8. Finding inspiration through your player character's Badges, Banner and Title that you currently have; what do those say about the player? Or what about the locker?

9. What are some things I love about the setting of Splatoon that I could reflect in a sona or self insert? (For example I made mine an in-universe Inkling researcher to reflect my own obsessiveness about Inkling biology. And squid suckers. I have a dried squid in a minigrip bag on my shelf)

10. The obligatory step in any character design: Can i do something to make it fun or appealing to myself? Adding some flavor.

Aside from all that and I definitely forgot SOMETHING, my general character design tip is do not expect the first draft to be the final perfect result. I watched a video once that said to draw every character design Three Times before 'finalizing' it and it works EXTREMELY well when youre whipping up a character basically from scratch and have an idea in your head, but on paper, you just need some kind of first draft to see if that idea works. The second and third iterations usually help trim out whatever didnt work in the earlier designs and when you keep making more, the parts that DO work are solidified and refined over time.

Rule number 2: if you make a sona design and don't like it, ask yourself why. Then change it! It's not the time to start some kind of self reflecting journey, maybe you just want a more interesting haircut than what you have in real life and you can totally do that if you're bold (my hair is brown, I didn't want the splatoon to have brown hair when like half the point of the game is Neon Color). Maybe you want bright pink eyes. Maybe you want a ridiculous job that you could never do in real life but that would make your character way more interesting. Maybe you want to give them a pet slug because you would LOVE ONE in real life but dont have one, and that would complete the character.

i forgot my point but hopefully this helped and was useful even a little bit? yay

[slime-sandwhich-nom]

GUESS WHO'S BACK WITH HEADCANONS?

scu edition. You can tell I was struggling because I kept talking about charlie. Help me.

- charlie does not blame himself for banishment, he feels SUPER bad for Grizzly's death and whole corruption thing, but does not think it's his fault.

- bizly is kinda like nimona y'know? Always shapeshifts

- nobody can tell what charlie is. Is he a slime? Hybrid? Human? Something else? Nobody actually knows.

- no because, 100! Days charlie is the OPPOSITE of Godcicle (despite one being based on the other.)

Godcicle is not a perfect hero, he's childish, arrogant, never takes no as an answer, always thinks he's right,

But none of these things match 100!days, it's like if he's the better version of his god counterpart.

- condi was already a reptile hybrid before he became a god, nobody can't tell if he's a dragon, lizard or something else. His god powers probably messed that up.

- aside from charlie, the rest of council were all mortals who were turned into gods. (I LIKE THE "charlie was a god all along and was just playing around" THING OKAY?? IT MATCHES WITH WHY HE NEVER TALES THINGS SERIOUSLY)

- grizzly is actually the one who can cook. charlie can grow ANYTHING but can't cook for the life of him. mainly because he plays with the food rather than actually cook.

- Condi is like the mom of the group.

- they all listen to charlie because they are convinced he has more experience on the god stuff, but they don't quite realize that his "god stuff" is playing around with mortals.

- charlie breaks the fourth wall a lot.

- charlie calls his followers "subscribers".

- bizly was actually the one who gifted charlie the little slimes on Charlie's shoulder and head.

- and so charlie, gifted bizly beewee.

- grizzly gets constantly called a furry by everyone because he's a dog hybrid.

- charlie has no idea on how to be a normal guy. If he has to disguise as a mortal, he's SHIT at it.

Yes, the others know how to, they used to be mortals, but charlie? Has zero idea.

- charlie played it off as a game, but he really just made his mortals friends gods because he was... lonely and because he was scared of the inevitable death that soon would reach those three.

- grizzly IS a fucking furry. He's a DOG. FUCKIN DOGGY. like he's a small fluffy puppy dude. He just takes the form of a human. (The only shapeshifting he can do, really.)

You know his dog persona? Y'know his little mascot? That little DOG WITH HUMAN HANDS?

that's grizzly.

Why? BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING FUNNY KYLE

- charlie is not human. That's for sure.

- bizly glasses work like queen's glasses in deltarune.

- condi fav is probably charlie lmao

- bizly favorite unironically is grizzly

- you know that video of 100 players going against the gang? I imagine it just being charlie gathering a bunch of followers of his and said out of nowhere one morning "we have 100 people tracking us down!!!" To the others in the council.

- no, no one actually knows (aside from willbur) that each single slime in each single server is a different guy. (Simply because Wilbur has a similar situation)

Like, y'know slimes? How they split? Yeah. They were all part of one big slime, who knows where that is, and they one day split and become a slimecicle!

And some are oddly similar. (For pure coincidence, esmp and 100! Days are similar in design, despite not being really related in lore.)

Also, before anyone gets confused, 100!days is the only one who didn't come from the mother slime, he's an experiment.

The rest, yes.

But also remember that the whole splitting part is not literal(maybe who knows.) it was for you to understand,

They surely come from the same mother slime though!

It's like if they were created from the same thing and put in different parts of the world to interact.

Please it's late please understand bro

- bizly looks up to charlie, surprisingly

- after Grizzly's death and the defeat of the ender dragon, charlie was never seen again. It's like he dissapeared.

condi and bizly have NO clue of where he is.

- IF condi and bizly would ever meet a slimecicle, they wouldn't get any answers, aside from "nope, wrong guy! Nope, wrong slimecicle!"

- grizzly can't sleep with the lights off. He needs at least something on.

- charlie just can't sleep, he's an insomniac.

- we don't talk about condi sleep schedule.

- at least every, or well, most slimecicles gives the uncanny feeling. Look human, isn't human. The more you stare, the less human it looks.

- the slimes in slime story exist! They are all the slimes that can be found in the different biomes and places!

It was thanks to Bizly, creating them after charlie little silly doodles and ideas of random slimes he thought would be cool to have around the world.

It was like a little gift, and charlie reaction made it all worth it.

- the equivalent of going afk is the character stopping everything they are doing and just stare into space and be unresponsive until they come back, charlie is the only guy who says he went afk, though.

- charlie has BAGS under his eyes to the point you think he draws them to be dramatic.

- condi is just, idk I think someone dug under his eyes.

- somehow, despite charlie being an insomniac and quite literally developing a coffee addiction just to stay awake, he is the most energetic (after bizly)

- condi takes naps around.

- bizly is literally the youngest but he has a BEARD.

- grizzly bullying bizly in scu is the equivalent of Charlie's influence on him

- everyone was so mean to Bizly and for what. Now look at him he flinches whenever someone shouts.

- fallen and charlie have so much beef with each other that it's ridiculous at this point. They probably make out afterwards but fuck do I know they sound stupid (don't take this part seriously)

- Jschlatt is evil because he feels like it. He doesn't have a reason like fallen, he just wants to be evil because he woke up angry on a Monday.

Also he's a demon. Not a god.

- apparently it's canon (from what my 2am brain understood that night when I watched 100!days) that parallel universes exist in scu so GUESS WHAT MESS I CAN DO WITH IT WITH MY "THE SLIMECICLES" HEADCANON?

- each server is a different place. Dsmp? Qsmp? Esmp? All different places. All different slimecicles. All aware. All from the same place.

- condi probably does drugs man

- I need to stop talking about CHARLOE BUT I CANT

- charlie definitely has favorites. Bizly isn't one of them.

- NUH HUH JSCHLATT IS HIS FUCKING RAM CUTE PERSONA IN HERE. NO SCARY DUDE. NO. HE'S A FUCKING CUTE LITTLE RAM WITH HIS LITTLE SWEATER ON AND HE ALWAYS HAS TEO CATS HE PETS WHENEVER HE TALKS BECAUSE HE HAS T W O HANDS.

- charlie interacts with mortals so much because he's so fascinated by them. He surely think of them as just a little playmate (aside form a specific little mortals.) But he's so curious and interested in them. They come up with random drama over something so stupid, OVER LAND!

It's the best thing and the stupidest thing charlie has ever seen.

He loves it.

The rest of the council hates it, really. They experienced it, unlike charlie, and they know how awful mortals actually are. They are selfish and ruthless, they are SO glad they don't have to deal with them anymore. They can just ignore them.

- charlie actually gets so happy whenever a mortals donates something in the churches and whatever they make, the rest ignore those things.

- I'LL KEEP SPREADING THE WORD! GENDERFLUID SLIMECICLE. HE ISN'T HUMAN. HE HAS NO CONCEPT OF GENDER. HE'S SLIMECICLE.

- I bet condi just stopped caring about gender, he's just condi. (Not genderfluid, but agender.)

- charlie is extrovert shy. He's all confident but when he actually meets someone knew he gets super shy and quiet.

- bizly is extrovert.

- grizzly is ambivert.

- condi is introvert.

- condi and charlie spend their time together just by being in the same room, or literally "talks nonstop x listens"

- charlie likes doodling. He makes funny doodles. They look like kids drawings but it's just him having fun.

- bizly and charlie are "talks nonstop x also talks nonstop"

- grizzly and charlie are "sunshine x sunshine"

- they were very happy bro. Like. Seriously. Banishment ruined everything bro.

- Condi probably invented medications and all that stuff with his potions

- grizzly is super pissed because he can't eat chocolate

- so fallen now eats chocolate ANGRILY and AGGRESSIVELY but gets stuck in the bathroom for an hour or two later.

- I imagine fallen being that one villain who is actually evil and has good reasons behind them, but no one ever takes him seriously.

- fallen can't bring himself to hate the council. He's just really really mad at them.

- charlie is actually very nice to Bizly whenever they are alone. Whenever no one's watching charlie is a real sweetheart to Bizly.

- condi dosen't like talking much, so he always gets Charles to be his little talking box.

- grizzly is that one guy who uses the most fanciest words just to say he took a massive shit earlier.

- grizzly and bizly are morning people, condi and charlie are NOT.

- charlie is my favorite character therefore he's cursed in being a small self insert of mine along with all the trauma in the world.

- grizzly is a very touchy guy, he enjoys hugging and dragging people around. And he likes chasing sticks.

[randomlonelymusician]

Legacy of Lacey: Cooking Rabbit's Exploration of Mental Health and How Life Sometimes Sucks

Digital horror has exploded within the past few years, especially thanks to the Lacey Games series. Lacey's exploration of trauma and abuse set the stage for a new landscape of digital horror influenced by personal experiences. One such series that fits this new subgenre, though not actually inspired by Lacey, is Mononiiz's Cooking Rabbit series.

As of now, August 2023, there are five installments in the series: Cooking Rabbit parts 1, 2, & 3, and Dressing Rabbit, Pretty Rabbit. They follow Percy, a rabbit working as a chef at a restaurant. As the game's instructions say: "Percy the Rabbit needs help! He needs to prepare food to feed his very hungry customers! Follow the arrows to help him prepare today's specialty!"

The installment goes pretty normally, with the player helping Percy make a pizza. But when he goes to put it in the oven, things start to go a bit wrong. Dark clouds start to appear around Percy, and things become more distorted than usual.

The second upload follows the same gamplay, but with more distortion. (And cool animations start to appear, too!) But when Percy goes to put the food in the oven again, things cut to a different screen.

This is where a major theme of the series is revealed: Percy's struggle with mental health. The quick sequence of images and animations after this illustrates his self-worth issues, depression, and suicidality.

The next installment adds to the themes of suicidality and loneliness, using a voiceover as Percy's inner negative thoughts. But each day, despite all his struggles, he goes to work and puts on a happy front. He's stuck in this cycle of loneliness, fear, depression, and self-hatred. He's constantly miserable and blames himself.

The next two uploads follow a similar theme, but in a different way. Dressing Rabbit's gameplay is normal until black pixels start to creep in from the side. And when the player is tasked to dress Percy in an outfit for work, things go downhill quickly. Percy is quite literally being chased by his demons, and even after all his cries for help he still has to return to work the next day.

Meanwhile, Pretty Rabbit opens with saying Percy hasn't left his room in 5 months, adding again to the theme of depression. But when you go to brush Percy's teeth and he doesn't want you to, the game sedates him and a gory sequence follows. After, Percy is sent back to what looks like a screen out of Cooking Rabbit. But when the player clicks on "settings", they're brought to a screen reading: "It's so painful I'm so tired it's so painful..." over and over again.

I've been really loving the influx of flash game inspired series with great storytelling and a focus on lesser talked about topics. The Cooking Rabbit series, in my opinion, is about a young adult struggling with his mental health also trying to keep up with his work life and social life. We watch Percy fall apart, and have thoughts of suicide and self-harm. It's something a lot of people can relate to, and it's great this subgenre of digital horror could bring us something like this.

Here's Mononiiz's channel, where all the installments are! Also her Twitter! Please support the series and heed the trigger warnings!

[muppetears-stuff]

Warren hate has always been ableist in the very beginning. He gets too much shit for not understanding Max's body language. He gets a lot of hate 'for not taking a hint' or understanding social cues. Hell in the very beginning of the fandom like in 2015 i think i remember there were angry pricefielders calling Warren the literal r slur because he's 'so stupid'. Their words not mine. l I've seen people talk about how they're convinced he's a s*ciopath or a n*rcissist or a ps*chopath which I find ableist and uncomfortable. I think the biggest red flag from the fandom is how there's a lot of shit talk about Warren is an 'obsessive freak/stalker' in their eyes to talking in general about how 'obsessiveness' and 'obsessions' are red flags and are signs of 'evil' apparently and not symptoms of mental illness or neurodivergency apparently. I really relate to Warren and I also suffer from obsessive and actual intrusive thoughts, so i find this fandom to be extremely cruel and alienating toward people with stigmatizing illnesses which I find explains the Chloe demonization bc she is so BPD coded. I don't think Warren is autistic coded like Max but I do think he's ADHD / OCD coded in a way I can't explain. Sorry to drop this really long rant in your inbox, but you're not wrong about the Warren demonization and I just wanted to say something about it. Becauze the demonization of all these characters go back to ableism and the Life Is Strange fandom is the most ableist fandom I've ever been in at all and that really speaks volume about how atrocious it is.

THIS ^^^ YES. FUCKING YES, ABSOLUTELY.

I find the Warren hate unwarranted (hehe) and SUPER FUCKING ABLEIST. you make amazing points, thank you for putting my thoughts into words anon🙏🙏

He very much struggles with social interactions, very evident by the way he only talks teachers or people that are into the same stuff as him, he can become very chatty, sometimes too much, when it comes to things he likes which comes off as "annoying" and "obsessive" when he just wants friends.

Mr. Well's talks about it in his student file, btw.

I share. Alot of the same traits as Warren, with myself also having ADHD and liking science and talking excessively to the point where I find MYSELF annoying.

It's so upsetting too that the developers leaned INTO the stalker/obsessive Warren allegations that I can't even fucking talk about him or mentioning that I like him on certain platforms without the fear of people saying I "support stalking" which I don't. I can't defend him and say that he wasn't stalking without someone going, "but it's canon, the developers confirmed it!!" Yeah well, Mark and Nathan have done some more fucked up shit and I still see people defend them. (I love Nathan too for his complexity and ability to become better. He just needed help, but it doesn't excuse anything he did.)

Warren is the best character. He had so much potential to be an amazing recurring character, but he was their simply for plot convenience or to make the player not suspicious that Mark could be behind everything because Warren was "creepy"

I'm probably gonna have people saying I'm being a baby over this and that he's a fictional character and stuff, you can totally have your own opinion on Warren Graham, I'm not telling you you can't, just please stop calling people who like him "stalkers" or say they support stalking and creepy behavior, when that isn't true. The amount of hate towards anyone that isn't Max or Chloe, and then the immediate hate on YOU for not liking them or liking/defending another character makes me sick, as well as the flat out abelism. The reason why I left the fandom in the first place before picking it back up because of Warren<3

Thank you again, Anon. For sending me such a lovely ask(?) And letting me rant about him because he's my favorite, and I agree with you so much, you're so right<3

[stiffyck]

Very relatable tags about DL! I have some thoughts too that I wanna share but I’m not brave enough to say on main

I loved the concept of the game; the gimmick for sharing health with someone was very creative and was an incredible opportunity to pair up new players. We got rancher duo out of it!

However, I didn’t like the fact that 1) desert duo was paired again and 2) the cheating arc was a thing.

As someone who struggles with over attachment to certain characters and pairings, the story desert duo told with DL upset me a lot. I didn’t like the cheating arc and I didn’t like how upset Grian seemed to be paired with scar again. Logically I know they’re great friends and it’s all exaggeration for comedic purposes, but in the moment it feels too real to me and upsets me (personally!! This isn’t a slander on Grian at all- he’s wonderful; I just didn’t like the character he played in DL if that makes sense)

Now with FANON it’s- as you said, 100x worse. I feel like after double life, a lot of people started to portray desert duo as a one sided friendship / relationship where Grian is mean to Scar or whatever. Which upsets me a lot because of the whole attachment thing but also because it’s so inaccurate. Yes they had their angst thing, but Grian isn’t a mean person, and he’s certainly not intentionally malicious towards scar. Shipping aside, they’re very close friends and enjoy each other’s company. It hurts to see people portray them as toxic yknow?

Idk if any of this makes sense but I wanted to share :>

Makes sense dw! I agree! It didn't really upset me per se? More like it annoyed me.

Like you said, nothing against the ccs. It's a fun block game! I mostly had fun watching it and I'm sure they had fun playing!

I didn't mind desert duo being paired again but I did mind the way it made the duo super toxic in fanon. Canon wasn't really my thing in dl either but fanon was so much worse for me.

I don't care if people enjoy stuff where grian is the abuser or whatever, I just wish people didn't try to portray Grian as the one who was somehow the victim in this situation and also???? TAG YOUR ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS PROPERLY

I've stopped trusting desert duo/scarian fics after dl ESPECIALLY when most of them are grian centric because I never know if it's actually hurt/comfort OR if it's Grian being birderline abusive and Scar chasing after him, giving him comfort and forgiving him because he loves him no matter how many times grian hurts him.

Literally just tag the abusive and toxic shit properly ohh my godddddd

[dious-chaos]

I've been deeply delving into Supernatural at the moment and I just put something together that I felt should be out in the interwebs.

Dean Winchester and his layers

Obviously we have the stuff everyone already knows right? He likes pie, he has anger issues, he feels overprotective of Sam. But Dean is actually incredibly intelligent yet downplays it for Sam (nothing against Sam cuz I love that man too) and everyone else, some examples of that: He made his own emf reader out of a cassette player and electromagnet from a microwave, he hacked/disarmed a museums security alarm, referenced Vonnegut; Homer; Lord of the Flies and Tolkien, watched and loved Star Trek, he plays dress up/cosplays/larps, etc. Dean was also the one who cared about holidays, trying so hard to give them to little Sammy, and being hurt when adult Sam wanted none of it. Dean had to take on the role of mom and dad for Sam his entire life, even going hungry so his little boy didn’t. He's an amazing cook, has crazy good mechanical skills, loves anything to do with music- karaoke, guitars on his wall, cassette to Cas- and Dean even had a career picked out which had nothing to do with hunting… he wanted to be a firefighter. Dean even took a teaching role as PE teacher in one episode when he could've picked anything else, that just builds a better image of the caring man Dean raised himself to be. Not to mention the fact that when Sam was in the cage with Lucifer Dean GOT OUT!! He wanted that apple pie life, the life he pushed Sam into his whole life because he knew only one of them would get that chance… and of course he'd want it to be his brother/son.

He grew up to hide his wants and dreams in order to please the man who only wanted a soldier, Dean even went so far as seeing his own life as less than Sam and pushing to die instead of the brother he took care of alone. Dean gained food insecurity, he never knew when he would get to eat and we see this throughout the show as he shoves any free food into his mouth like he'll never eat again. He also showed signs of CPTSD, a mental health condition that can develop if you experience chronic (long-term) trauma.

It involves stress responses, such as: Anxiety (maybe like how got scared and he immediately apologized after not shooting John, and then knew it wasn’t his father because the demon wasn’t upset), Having flashbacks or nightmares (post hell is the first thing that comes to mind), Avoiding situations (trying to keep the peace between Sam and John), places and other things related to the traumatic event (avoiding Lawrence KS for decades), Heightened emotional responses, such as impulsivity or aggressiveness (he gets really upset in difficult conversations first and then the other emotions come later), Persistent difficulties in sustaining relationships (come on, Dean is a ladies man).

Examples of chronic trauma include: Long-term child physical or sexual abuse (tell me that John didn’t physically abuse or "discipline" his boys), Long-term domestic violence (again.. Physical abuse by John), Being a victim of human or sex trafficking (not canon… but it could have happened in all the years his father neglected them and fucked off to fight the monsters while his own kids struggled to get by), War (hunter and monsters are at war), Frequent community violence (hunters and monsters alike can be POS). While CPTSD is often associated with chronic trauma in childhood, adults who experience chronic trauma can also develop the condition (which means it only gets worse for Dean as he gets older and doesn't get help for it).

So yeah. Dean deserved better than a piece of rebar at the ass end of Supernatural, that’s all..

[letmereadinpeace4]

I have decided to start House in Fata Morgana and went in almost completely blind (which is very unusual for me) - because apparently having 2 to 3 games to finish and a TV show to continue wasn't enough for me.

I finished the first door and my analysis brain was tickled. I have so many theories and things to talk about, which are probably going to not be valid anymore if the characters reappear, which I don't think they will (aside from the "player", the maid, and the white-haired girl), but maybe.... Anyway the below is only based on the first chapter.

Let's start with Mell and Nellie. They are introduced to us in this sort of idealist, picturesque setting, with Nellie singling and playing in the garden while Mell reads a book. The picture is one of sibling harmony, as Nellie set herself as her brother's princess while he is her prince. Yet, even then, some cracks are visible. Nellie must get her brother's attention, he does not give it by himself, and Nellie is unconcerned with dirtying her brother's book. We can already see the fatal flaws that will doom their relationship to tragedy: Mell perfosrm the role of the doting, attentive older brother, but seems to follow Nellie's lead more than anything else, while Nellie is dismissive of her brother's actual wishes.

A few years later, when we meet them again, Mell is seventeen and struggles with deciding what to do with his life. He has vague, undefined dreams about travelling to other countries and wanting to have a career, but little else. It doesn't help that other people are pushing their expectations onto him: the priest wants him to go to university to study theology and become a priest, Nellie is still pushing the role of "her prince" onto him, a role that he finds himself more and more stifled by, and his father, while he doesn't appear, apparently doesn't seem too keen on letting him do what he wants. Mell has very little space to define himself and grow as a person.

Meanwhile, Nellie has grown into a spoiled, immature and selfish fourteen-year-old. While cute at first glance, she takes very badly to not having what she wants and pushes her desire onto Mell, entirely ignoring what he wants and expecting to always be his first priority. The scene at her birthday party is a perfect encapsulation of their relationship, with Nellie dancing with an untalented and very uncomfortable Mell.

In this sibling dynamic, it is very easy to get swept away in Mell's perspective and feelings, especially since they are very relatable. Of course he wants to pursue a romance with the mysterious girl, doesn't he have the right to find his own love? Of course he is in the right to push away his little sister and tell her to grow up and get over herself! After all, she is so annoying and pushy. And let's be honest we all agreed with him!

Yet, I would argue that Mell is also, at his core, deeply selfish. He claims that he once was entirely devoted to his little sister, but we actually see little of that devotion on screen, to the point that I wonder if it ever truly existed. I don't think he ever hated Nellie, but I think he unconsciously allowed himself to get pushed into this role of doting older brother. The only "brotherly action" we see him doing is buying a butterfly necklace for her. All the rest, he is pushed into it. In his romance with "the white-haired-girl", he gets carried away by his feelings for her without actually getting to know her. Just like Nellie projected this image of prince and princess onto their relationship, so does he project this image on his relationship with the "white-haired-girl". He does not mean to be insensitive, and overall, his actions are perfectly understandable for someone who never had the opportunity to mature. Yet, I think it is telling that the relationship between him and the white-haired-girl advances strictly through his own prompting, aside from the time she goes to kill him to avenge her father.

Huh, there really are a lot of parallels between his relationship with Nellie and his relationship with the white haired girl. It makes sense, since it would have been his strongest relationship and we often model the relationships we know.

As for Nellie, it is easy to see her as the villain of the piece. She is fairly unlikeable through a large part of her story, to the point when I found myself cheering when she got told off my her (classist, misogynistic, rude) fiance and her brother at the theater. Yet, I also find myself sympathizing with her in some ways. Most of the people she got the opportunity to befriend were here because of her status, she has no "real" relationship aside from her brother, since their parents don't appear at all and don't seem to be very invested as parents, she is hopelessly spoiled instead of disciplined, and she is forced into an arranged marriage that she has no interest in. Losing her support system when her brother gets interested in someone new truly broke her, and for good reason. In many ways, she is a pitiful person, who never got the help she needed and was enabled in her worst tendencies. I cannot help but think that if an adult had stepped in to discipline her and socialize her with other people, she might not have turned so bad.

In the end, I feel pity for both of them. They were failed by their parents in many ways, and had to face emotionally intense situations they were in no way equipped to handle. While the maid claims that all the mansion's residents faced tragedy, I do hope for them that they were able to rebuild themselves away from their childhood home.

[ikram1909]

https://www.tumblr.com/ikram1909/759930198479257600/httpswwwtumblrcomikram1909759922279410958336

Yeah I think Luka’s fans can be a little too defensive. Some of it I think comes from the fact that most people acknowledge he is an incredibly gifted player but too much of a crybaby, that he complains too much to the refs and sometimes his teammates. So fans can get pretty defensive with any type of criticism of him. I can tell you as a long time Luka fan even I am starting to get more and more irritated with this attitude of his but I’d still defend him most times cause I really want him to succeed and I think he has everything to be historic. I personally haven’t seen them be specially hateful towards Steph (my fav player as well 🫶🏼) but I guess some of it might have to do with the fact that a lot of people still say he is the best point guard in the league and Luka fans think he has already surpassed him

And yeah some older players seem pretty resentful of Steph, although I think it has calmed down a lot through the years and they’ve come around. I think many just don’t like the way the game is played now, all about the three as opposed to when they played where it was more physical and playing at the rim, and they (rightly tbh) blame him for this. Another thing is that he comes from a well off family (his dad used to play in the nba) and many of the most successful players come from a more harsh background, with poverty and violence, and survived and where able to get their family out of this situation through basketball. So there is resentment there for “being born with a silver spoon” and “having the easy way” into the league, even though if you know his story that is obv bullshit. But yeah he’s been doubted and underrated pretty much his whole life for being “too little” or “not athletic enough” and he’s broken all this beliefs and stereotypes of what a basketball player has to look like and be from to be not only successful but historic

(Ps Kendrick Perkins is clueless and a hater, he needs attention like breathing and will say almost any bullshit to get it)

Yeah he does complain a lot and it's a turn off 😭😭 the teammates part is definitely worse tho. I think he just needs to mature in that regard and he'd be set. He has everything that could make him become historic like you said. Perhaps changing teams would help too since he needs help. about the fans, I've definitely seen many fans of his try Steph for some reason like at least so far. Some of them genuinely talk like Steph is a bum it's crazy to me 😭😭

Yeah, it's insane how every reason they came up with to hate on him is completely out of his control 😭😭 he didn't choose his family and he had his own struggles and they aren't less relevant just because they can't relate to them. His story is very inspiring in its own way. I get the whole thing about him changing the game when it comes to the 3 points shots but is it really a bad thing? 😭😭 It's actually impressive how he revolutionised the game, very few people can say they were able to do that. But every other criticism is very much a reach. He didn't have it easy at all. He's been an underdog his entire career and they constantly came up with reason to undermine his achievements. Oh no he doesn't have a fmvp. Oh no he's not clutch. Oh no he was carried by KD (which is funny to me because he literally won before KD and again after him 😭😭) I'm just glad he got to prove all of them wrong time and again.

Yeah Perkins is absolutely an attention WHORE and he knows bringing up Steph's name will get him the clout he's desperate for so he takes advantage of it as much as possible. Gil Arenas too for that matter 😒😒

[until-another-one-comes]

big nate au mentioned tell me everything i’m going insane right now

Thank you so much for asking I haven't yapped to new ppl about my au in ages

UHHHH WHICH ONE?

Off the top of my head:

Different Roads au: The one where Nate grew up with his mom instead and the trio's lives are changed before they meet each other again in adulthood

Superpower au: What it says. Au where the kids have powers. (Nate has pyrokinesis and super speed, Francis has telekinesis and Teddy has earth power) (the rest of the kids have powers too but I only used the trio for my fic) (also have another one where its ridiculously lore heavy)

Angels and Demons au: Okay this is a bit too lore heavy and tbh had jack shit to do with BN. I just wanted to draw the characters as angels and demons

Two-Player Game au: Almost the same as Different Roads but this time Nate grows up with Randy who's parents split up wayyy earlier and they just so happen to end up living in the same town.

Adult AU: Okay this isnt even an AU this is just the cast aged up and what I imagine their future to be like. (also fanchildren but I understand thats not up to everyone's taste)

Two Future AU: Nate meets 2 different versions of his future selves. The first version is an art teacher and the second one is a famous rockstar. But the more Nate gets to know them the more he learns about whats actually important in life and what actually makes your life meaningful.

Start Over AU: Based on the A Silent Voice anime, an au where Randy gets in serious trouble in middle school and become a social outcast in high school and learning to grow and overcome his past with new people. Scrapped because I have no idea what to do with this and too OC heavy

Ummm those are the general AUs. I have a few others but they're all ship related, mainly for Randy/Marcus.

If you're interested:

Role Swap AU: Randy and Marcus swap places so Marcus is the school's main bully and Randy is the popular kid. Swap!Marcus is way more brutal than og!Randy and Swap!Randy is a theater kid with 0 social skills but is popular anyway cuz he's rich. They meet after Randy pays asks Marcus to help him shape up for sports.

Infinity Train au: If haven't watched Infinity Train its this show where people end up in this train with infinite number of rooms that are designed to help you overcome your internal problems, flaws and struggles. So yeah Randy and Marcus end up on this train and learn to be better people together.

[captainsspnanon]

C2E69 - The Kings Cage - rewatch reaction

The episode that should have been NiceTM, and was not.

Whyyyy are the subtitles so fucked for this episode? They’re covering Travis’s face! I’m guessing it’s because of the PC icons that showed up. Wait, is this the first time that this has happened??? *checks previous episode again* Oh man, I’m so used to seeing this that 1) I didn’t notice when it wasn’t there and 2) I didn’t realize that this was the first time they showed up! I don’t remember this fucking up the subtitles before or in other episodes….maybe this was first time issues?

I am super distracted by Matt not noticing Sam’s shirt.

Funnily enough, this entire scene matches what the one dnd playtest is talking about with warlocks. Sometimes they are the only one calling for a short rest and you have this disparity in what the players want to do.

It is now July 4th, I last touched this a full fucking month ago. I have watched ~30 minutes of the latest Candela Obscura, but am struggling to get into it (a sad reality of me and CR one shots and mini-series.) SO LET’S GET BACK TO THE DRAMA!!

...I’m only 17 minutes in….*starts over from the beginning*

Oh geez I forgot that this was episode 69. They went into this with teasing hype for months about ‘lul 69’ and then they got this heart wrench of an episode.

Sam and Laura play the “I have Not(t)” bit really well. There’s just a touch in Jester’s tone which is inserting a comma in there ‘I have, Nott’, but it’s a clever bit of attempted deception as well, even though it fails.

I’d forgotten that Nott claimed the flask defined her as a person. T.T Once the campaign is over, it’s easy to remember the goblin alcoholism as mostly jokes, but there were some really deep and painful moments. I don’t personally know anyone who struggles with addiction, so I know there are aspects of this emotionally that I don’t relate to, but there these small moments are incredibly well done. Sam talked about how he discussed Scanlan’s attempts at addiction with Brian, I don’t recall if he also went to him for Nott?

The juxtaposition of Jester very seriously expressing her worries to Nott about how when Nott is drunk, she’s less cautious and will run straight at things without looking for traps, versus everyone else loosing their shit when she says ‘or trigger them’. I’ll have to try to pay attention, but I think even after this RP, Nott still doesn’t become someone super careful about looking for traps. We, of course, know her big moments in the future (happy fun ball time!), but I’m unsure if Sam/Nott is more on top of it.

I really do love the push/pull relationship that Nott/Veth has with her family and her love of adventure. In hindsight, I feel like Sam managed to hold the balance of it very well and very realistically. For most of the PCs, I feel like the epilogues give me enough to have a very good idea of their lives going forwards, even if only for a while. Veth is the one I’m curious about the most though, how does she continue to balance her love of adventure with her family? The dynamics have certainly changed from how they were pre-campaign, and that helps a lot, but I wonder if sometimes she may instigate small things for the Nein to go on, or if she insists she get invited along to someone else’s trip (maybe one of the trips to Aeor?). Or does she find herself content with the chaos of the summer camp in addition to her homely life?

LOL Sam and Laura pushing for Caleb to have a chin that matches Liam, and Liam at every instance making it clear with official art that Caleb absolutely does NOT have a cleft chin.

Does the whip ever actually get used in combat? I know it gets given to Fjord when he loses his power…. TELL ME, CRITROLESTATS. Actually transcript search might be better for this, I don’t think critrolestats says what weapon is used. I think it’s only used in the Obann fight here, and then with the purple worm by Fjord, and then by no one else ever again. XD It gets mentioned in another episode or two as a possibility to use (catching someone who might fall), but I don’t think it does?

WE NEED MORE CALEB AND YASHA MOMENTS!!! Him suggesting she be in the middle of the group, her not being sure, him saying that protection is not a bad thing, her saying it could be and then almost asking him permission to be on the front, him making it clear he’s not telling her what to do. Seriously, this pairing has SUCH a good dynamic and it only gets better from here, but we have so little interaction. :( I will forever grump and mourn and exclaim that we need more Liam and Ashley scenes. We were robbed of Pike and Vax moments in C1, robbed on Caleb and Yasha moments in C2, and I could ALWAYS use more than we currently have in C3.

LOL at the matching nat 1s for trying to determine what the sigil is. Very very glad that Caleb had fortune’s favor and could re-roll. The sometimes frustrating aspect of dnd is some PCs failing at stuff they should 100% be able to do. I’m reminded of the Hand’s heart scene where Liam kept failing checks for Caleb where everyone else was succeeding, despite the fact that it was arcana related.

...Torog? Moradin? Sehanine? What’s with all these 5e names, Matt? I’d thought you’d thoroughly switched to unique epithets by now. You’re even using with with the Allhammer and Moonweaver!

Why do they immediately assume devil upon red skin, yellow eyes, two horns? They’re all gasping before he gets to the wings, but couldn’t he just have been a tiefling with the description?

Did we ever find out what Obann thought he was actually getting from the Angel of Irons? We know they opened abyssal rifts, and that they were trying to free Tharizdun (without knowing that’s what they were doing). So like, is it just an image of an angel saying ‘free me by doing this, oh and also tear the planes apart to let demons in?’ ..demons? devils? This is the hardest part of 5e for me, dammit. Demons. Demons from the abyss. But Obann’s a devil. Aaagh as much as I enjoy the angel of irons subplot, it’s also I think the sketchiest plot in all of CR with no clear understanding of goals or what or why.

...Is this the first “making my way”??? *checks transcripts* Oh, it’s not – the first was in episode 60. BUT I think this is the first time since then, so here’s where it becomes a running gag?

Huh, not letting Fjord get off his eldritch blasts that triggered the whole initiative.

“what do a devil and a tree have in common? Intelligence” …..not gonna lie, I don’t get the joke at ALL. Tasha’s Hideous Laughter would fail just because I’m so confused. I’m ASSUMING that it’s just calling Obann dumb….if so I feel like it would be better if the object were ‘rock’ or ‘brick’, based off of ‘dumb as a rock’ or ‘dumb as a brick’.

I’ve seen some people say that Matt picked up the trick of stating a DC ahead of time from Brennan, but here he just stated that Beau needed at 25 DC acrobatics to do a flurry of blows on Obann (she fails with a 22), so it’s something that he has done beforehand. I think it’s just not something that he prefers to do much.

Only two rounds to free the Laughing Hand? Well, I guess it’s something that Matt really needed to have happen so that makes sense. I think I would have liked three or four rounds to give the PCs more time to do shit, but that’s just personal preference.

Oooo!!! I forgot that over the break he replaced the sarcophagus mini with a broken open sarcophagus! Fun!

Counterspell a Shield! Not quite a counterspell a counterspell, but still sexy.

Ashley interrupting to inform Matt that because of her Ring of Protection, Yasha’s saving throw was actually 3 instead of 2. I LOVE HER.

I really love the moments where something truly horrible starts happening to the PCs (Yasha being turned against them, being an unwilling creature for Fjord’s thunderstep) and while the PCs are NOT happy about it, the players are stoked and excited! It’s a fun juxtaposition of the true fun of ‘what’s going on’ in the game especially when compared with the more settled RP moments where the players are in full PC mode and their personal enthusiasm is sometimes hidden by the RP. Fjord is furious with Yasha for betraying them, but here Travis is wiggling and singing “this is getting interesting!”

I’m not going to research it, and a comments check didn’t help, but I wonder how many PC rolls the Bless-that-should-have-dropped actually helped. Quick check of the livetweets for critrolestats, maybe Yasha’s saving throw against the Hand’s laughter, and the rest are Beau attacks. However, Beau had advantage on many of them, rolled consistently high, and I think actually forgot the bless a number of times? So honestly? I think even if bless had dropped correctly, things still would have played out the way they did. Oh wait...Fjord’s last hit for the HDYWTDT was because of bless. (very sad the the critrolestats livetweets did not include Ashley correcting for Yasha’s 2 to 3 for the wisdom save XD)

MIGHTY NEIN ONE SHOT ANNOUNCED AS FIRST LIVE SHOW SINCE THE PANDEMIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (though I’m seeing some people saying they’ll be level 20, but can’t find any actual statement saying what level they’ll be?? Hoping before I post this that someone will let me know)

Beau using Stillness of Mind to end fear, UGH SO GOOD. Seriously, with the new UAs and everything for the new dnd I keep hearing about how bad monks are, but I haven’t ever experienced it because Beau is so GOOD (and I haven’t played with a monk yet. Someone had done a monk/cleric multiclass, but that game ended while we were still in level 2 due to some session 0 miscommunications)

Lesser Restoration not being able to cure fear, but Greater Restoration does just seems weird to me. Like, Lesser can cure blind, deaf, paralyze, or poison. While Greater…..wait. Greater doesn’t cure frightened either! It only reduces exhaustion, ends charmed or petrified, undoes a curse, undoes an ability score reduction, undoes an effect that reduces hit point max. Fear is none of those. So, neither of the restorations RAW end fear??? Well, I guess that’s the reason for Calm Emotions.

NOTT GIVES YASHA A FLOWER FROM HER HAIR I’m having my heart being crushed by things I didn’t remember! And Jester knew that Yasha was controlled, she tried to Charm her back but it didn’t work! All I really remembered from the Nein was Jester being very sad and Fjord and Beau being very angry, I didn’t remember that others knew she didn’t have a choice!

Oh FUUUUUCK I never realized that when Fjord is brought down by Yasha, only to come back with Relentless Endurance, when he asks her “why” he asks her in his true voice. MY HEAAAART.

I know everyone mentions it, but Ashley’s exaggerated sad-face when Taliesin starts to count her then skips her for Bless, then Matt winking at her and her grin. Even when they have such heavy emotional episodes like this combat turned to be, signs like that are some of the clearest that they’re all still having a blast.

Obviously didn’t say much for the combat itself, I think my only ‘analysis’ of it is that it’s one of the higher stakes combats in C2, easily matching the level of some C1 fights. Even a good chunk into C3, C1 is still the reigning champion for most intense combats. While I don’t all into the hivemind that shouts that Matt takes it easy on them, I do think there are times when Matt is taking it HARDER on them, and this certainly was one of those combats. I really do enjoy the combats where they are fighting an intelligent and evil enemy who is fully intent on destroying them. You get such great tactics and some real creativity in those moments that you don’t get as strongly on a standard 6v1/7v1 creature combat.

Ending the episode with the side by side of Matt and Ashley as Matt gently narrates the confusion in Yasha, the uncertainty of if she is being controlled or doing this on her own, it’s beautiful, heartbreaking, and perfect. (aside from the fact that because of the table layout, they end up facing away from each other during the close ups XD Who knows, maybe that makes it more jarring to go with Yasha’s mindset?)