#plot without context

[twig-tea]

I'm still thinking about Dee being apparently so much of a mess with a history of bad decisions that Kao gets one [1] voice memo (which Dee had time to send Kao but not Yak, apparently??) in which Dee presumably casually mentioned he was going to pop by Ter's to work on the presentation and Kao comes running.

[firstkanaphans]

It cracks me up that 23.5 “plot what plot?”-ed their own trailer in favor of giving us three minutes of OngsaSun being adorable. They know their audience, that’s for sure. Who needs a plot when there are lesbians?

[legionofpotatoes]

everyone hates crunch and everyone wants the new dragon age to have 4x the scope with 8x the quantum content

[queerofthedagger]

the fact that there are ten entire years between the breaking of the siege and beren turning up in nargothrond. ten whole years with celegorm and curufin in nargothrond. like, i don't even mean this (only) in a curufinrod way (although i do also mean that. can we talk about that. ten years !!) it really is just insane to me that they just hung out there for an entire decade before it all went to shit. i'm not a 'the oath straight-up forces you to do things' truther, and ten years are perhaps not the same to an elf as they are to us but still. ten years. that's a long time to coexist, to have your people mingle, to live in the court of a king who is one of those annoying arafinweans, to have two feanorians under your roof. just, the minutae of the every-day-life of that is beyond fascinating to me on so many levels, and we know so little about it - celegorm and curufin helping with/running patrols, acting in some capacity as advisors, gaining power among both people - while there must have been so much. man

[xolbor-art-creator-again]

I'm tempting myself into writing a fic by drawing art for it now

[novella-marello]

Novella: "Does this mean we're going to hell?"

Pierce: "Oh! No! Absolutely not"

Novella: "...."

Pierce: "what?"

Novella: "We're literally burying bodies"

Pierce: "Yea- of other criminals!"

Novella: *face palms*

date night went wrong:

pierce: “hey would you look at that… we’re on a roll this year. this makes it … what, the fifth holy place of worship we deconstructed? and its only august!”

novella: “….. we should probably call my dad.”

pierce: “yeah you do that, im gonna start taking apart the bodies and burning our shit.”

@novella-marello

[katatty]

Cute pic from my uberhood challenge hood... I have always kinda shipped these two but they didn't end up together in Pleasantview Plus.

In this hood Ophelia and Ripp started flirting on their own, but Ripp was constantly trying to flirt with her right in front of Johnny and she was constantly turning him down (because her actual boyfriend was looking!), so they kept falling in and out of love, haha. I moved Ripp in with Ajay Loner when he grew up and he ended up booty calling Ophelia on his day off. I guess they're "on" again? xD

(Don't feel too bad for Johnny, I was playing his house and he kissed Kristen Loste :O)

[fruitsofhell]

can we start extra-judicially executing people who use the clip of Tidus and Yuna laughing out of context as an example of bad vidoe game voice acting without explaining that the point of the scene is the characters doing forced laughter?

[ebony-underscore]

The brainrot continues

Anyway I have pokemon mystery dungeon-ificated my ocs (EoS edition)

Russel fills the role of amnesiac former human, and as frustrated by his lack of memory as he is, he throws himself into guild work, partly in order to ensure he can keep a roof over his head but mainly because it's something meaningful. He spends his free time trying to study possible causes of his amnesia, how to cure it and whatever information about humans he can find... Also has the occasional existential crisis, you know how it is

Reena is a thief amateur treasure hunter that convinced Russel to form an exploration team with her, and has been using guild work to hone her skills and wrangle more treasures. She's particularly interested in discovering the origin of her relic fragment. Also if anyone asks it's a family heirloom and she did not steal it do not listen to team skull-

[greater-than-the-sword]

If I could rediscover whatever kind of creative juice i was drinking when I wrote Earth's Champion and put just half of that energy into a published fiction I'd be happy forever

[octo-l95]

Tfw deranged game theory actually gets confirmed by unused text in the text dump

[flowerandblood]

[chrollosnenfish]

I know I haven’t posted in a hell of a long time

but I just wanted to say that I finished the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint almost a week ago and I am in my ORV era. I have been perusing the ORV tag on tumblr, the ORV subreddit, ORV art on Pinterest, ORV stuff on AO3 (mainly Joongdok and Sangsoo, with some YooHanKim thrown in there), and I’m so glad that it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface on what ORV content there is out there.

This story was one of the greatest works of fiction I’ve ever read, with amazingly written characters, great relationships between each of the characters, a plot that’s to die for, and twists that made sense (that didn’t seem like they were just for shock-value). Hard topics are covered in a tasteful way, and it’s the best found family dynamic I’ve ever read.

Just wanted to go on a little ORV rant and recommend it to anyone who is thinking about reading it. It takes up a bit of time, but you’ll breeze through it when you really get into it. I think it took me a solid two weeks cuz I was reading it during all of the free time I had, but if you’re reading casually, then it’ll take you longer.

Also, if this is the first time you’re hearing about ORV, then I would recommend catching up to the manhwa, then either starting again from the start of the web novel, or starting from where the manhwa ended (there’a usually a comment on webtoon telling everyone the chapter of the webnovel that the manhwa chapter ended)

I also made this matching Lock Screen and Home Screen pair

[theminecraftbee]

The room is a dim basement room. It has no windows. There’s a liquor cabinet, though, and a bookshelf full of notebooks, and a table and chairs, and a candle lighting the place. The candle doesn’t let off much smoke, but it’s steadily alight, indicating that the room’s oxygen content is still acceptable. A small, blinking device next to it confirms that any other electronic device in the area is well and truly dead. There’s tape sealing the door, so that no one can see the flicker of the candle inside.

There’s a bottle of brandy on the table. The glasses suggest neither party is bothering to savor it. It’s not a brand worth savoring, anyway; for all Scott could easily afford the expensive stuff, that’s not what he feels like he should drink while he’s down here.

He’s slumped forward on the table, hair askew. The hoodie he’s wearing doesn’t fit, because it isn’t his; neither are the sweatpants. He knows for a fact his contact is laughing at him for that. Whatever. She’s one of the only people who gets to know he has enough of a personal life to steal sweats from someone else anyway. May as well take advantage of that while he can. It’s not all impeccably-designed bulletproof suits out here.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” Pearl says from across the table.

“Fuck off,” Scott says.

“...are you already drunk?”

Scott huffs. “So what if I am, huh? It’s not like I need to be alert while you’re out here in full costume.”

Pearl peels herself off the wall. She’s a relatively muscular woman wearing red and black. Her face is masked with a simple red circle. A lunar eclipse. Scott still has no idea how she sees through that thing. He’d made fun of her, back when she chose the getup for her criminal activities. Told her she looked like an evil dinnerplate or something. She’d told him in turn that he looked like a pretentious dork in his chosen costume. Judging by the whispers through the Hero Association about the two of them, though—

God. Through his Hero Association, or just about his. 

“Promoted to Vice Commander, huh?”

“I’ve sold my soul,” Scott says, and he takes another deep swig of his brandy. 

“You already did,” Pearl says.

“God, I hate you,” Scott says.

“It’s a good thing the feeling’s mutual,” Pearl says.

“I wish we’d never fucking met,” Scott says.

“I killed someone yesterday,” Pearl says.

Scott’s quiet.

“You can’t go telling me that,” Scott says. “That’s another thing to hide. You can’t just—Pearl.”

“I know,” Pearl says. “I know. But for all everyone’s scared of me, I normally manage to avoid—”

“Hah. We were both there when—”

“I know,” Pearl says. 

Scott sighs. He pours Pearl a glass and pushes it across the table. Pearl takes off her mask. Her eyes are rimmed red, and her face is covered in splotches. She’s always been terrible at hiding she’s been crying. She’s been terrible at it since they were ten, and had both quite suddenly realized that if it had been hard to have their powers alone, it was even harder once there was evidence they weren’t both just going crazy.

He’s hated her since he was eleven, really. Took the year to realize he probably would have always seen what his powers gave him as useless nightmares, otherwise, but after that, well. The feeling’s mutual, at least. He wouldn’t have been able to stand it, if the feeling hadn’t been mutual.

(A girl who can see deaths, and a boy who can see alternate universes. They make quite the pair.)

“I probably kill more people,” mutters Scott, halfway between a consolation and a competition.

“Not with your own hands.”

“Yeah, does that make it better? I’ve sold my—you know this. You know this.”

“Yeah,” Pearl says. “Yeah, I know. Thought I should congratulate you on succeeding.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome!”

They’re both quiet for a while. Pearl takes a drink from her own glass and grimaces. “You can afford better brandy than this,” she says.

“Fuck off,” Scott says. “I can buy the cheap stuff for this.”

“Your taste is stupid,” Pearl says primly. “Next time we come down here to plan, I bring the drinks.”

“Right. Planning. Because we’re doing so much of that today.”

Pearl sighs. “Does Jimmy know you’re here?”

“Jimmy doesn’t exist, as far as you’re concerned,” Scott snaps. “I buried the man’s documents myself.”

“Eclipse will make anyone exist for the right price,” Pearl tells Scott.

“Jimmy doesn’t, or you don’t,” Scott snaps, voice low.

“Oh, now you’re sounding like a Vice Commander.” Scott gives her a two-fingered salute. Pearl shrugs. “Just saying.”

Scott considers arguing harder. Instead, something in his stomach shifts, and he pours a full glass of brandy. It’s not how you’re supposed to drink the stuff. He might have a good tolerance by now, but he fully expects to wake up with the worst hangover he’s had in years tomorrow. He deserves it.

“You uh… got enough alcohol there?” Pearl says.

“Got unclassified access to the Black Ops files when I was sworn in,” Scott says.

“Jesus,” Pearl says.

“I sold my soul,” Scott says. “I’m in charge of that now.”

“Jesus,” Pearl says again.

“And I kept thinking about the plans we had to—I can’t just dismantle that, Pearl. I can’t just—what are we doing?” Scott realizes his shoulders are shaking. “What are we doing, Pearl? The best of all possible endings? Don’t make me laugh—I can’t see this universe once we’re in it. Who are we to decide, huh? Who are we to, to try to…”

Pearl watches him for a while.

“I could have told you it would be bad,” she said.

“Do you think I didn’t know that?” Scott snaps.

“I killed someone yesterday. It’s not uncommon,” Pearl says.

“Great, so we both deserve to be executed!” Scott says, throwing his hands up. “Some of them started in the scholarship program, Pearl, they were scouted at sixteen!”

“And we were eleven,” snaps Pearl, and Scott shuts his mouth and looks away.

“Yeah, well. That’s not the Association’s fault, is it.”

The air hangs heavy. It smells like booze and candlelight and misery. Distantly, Scott wonders if Pearl was maybe right, asking if Jimmy knew where he was. The only other person on the list of people allowed to know Scott has a personal life, and he’s going to be disappointed in Scott again. Great. Scott’s lucky that, legally, the man doesn’t exist; if someone who legally existed was mad at Scott, he might just finally have to do something about it.

“You’re right,” says Pearl, finally. ”What are we doing?”

She slumps forward in her chair. She knocks back her own drink, but doesn’t pour herself another. Scott isn’t surprised. It’s not safe for both of them to be drunk. If the newly-promoted Vice Commander of the Hero Association is caught drinking with an infamous information broker, it’ll be the end of their house of cards. Scott’s powers helpfully decide to show him what happens at this juncture in that universe. Scandal, collapse, corruption—the worst part is, he thinks, is that it can’t even be all that different from this universe, only that the guy on the inside trying to change anything won’t be in power to do so. Maybe it would even be better.

Pearl ‘slits her throat’ in the night, his powers inform him. It’s not a suicide.

Scott can be selfish about that much. So can Pearl. They can’t be caught.

“I already knew most of it,” Scott says, finally. “But I’m in charge now. I sign the orders, right next to the Commander. I sign the ones his name can’t be caught on, too. I’m in.”

“Who better to lead than a man who can see the future?” Pearl says.

“You know that’s not how it works,” Scott says.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taunted you,” Pearl says.

“Jesus. Don’t apologize. You’ll make me think you’re an imposter,” Scott says.

“Yeah, well, the plan goes forward,” Pearl responds.

“Sure. Yeah. The plan goes forward,” Scott agrees. “The plan goes forward.”

Pearl reaches her hands across the table. Scott looks at them and, after a moment, reaches his own across to grab them. They sit there, holding each other’s hands, for a while, and it’s almost like they’re ten, and every horrible future the two of them can see flash by as possibilities is the end of the world, instead of another messy quagmire of maybe-just-as-bad-as-this-one. It had seemed much clearer then, really. It had seemed much easier. Scott doesn’t know. Maybe they were just stupider as kids.

Then again, he’d hated Pearl by eleven. He couldn’t have been that stupid.

He squeezes her hand tighter.

“Do good by them?” Pearl says, and it’s quiet and pained.

“Yeah,” Scott says.

“Okay,” Pearl says. “Okay.”

Slowly, Scott lets go of Pearl’s hands. He grabs the brandy again. He pours another glass. “I’m gonna get blackout drunk now,” Scott says.

“Sure. Just for tonight. I reserve the right to be sad and drunk next time,” Pearl says.

“Great planning,” Scott says.

“Yeah, well, we’ve still got a few hours,” Pearl says.

“I hate you,” Scott says.

Pearl smiles, for some ungodly reason.

“Yeah, me too.”

They stay there until Scott’s too drunk to stand up straight, and then Pearl lifts him around her shoulders and gets him outside to a cab. In the clothes he stole from Jimmy, no one can recognize him anyway. He’d think the hair would be distinctive enough, but apparently not. He won’t be caught today.

He muddles forward into the one future he can’t quite see.

[unordinary-diary]

Do you think Elaine will appear more? I think she "walked out the story" after she healed Isen (Roughly chapter 304 ish) and hasn't appeared since.

My answer? Probably not.

Elaine recusing herself from the story seems to have been a way of tying off a loose thread— it gives her a satisfying ending, and an explanation for why she isn’t in the story going forward.

Narratively, I think the reasons she was written out are as follows:

Having Elaine around is too convenient. The story is getting serious, and we can now be certain that Elaine is not willing to get involved with any of their illegal shit. She said she’s still available if she’s needed for anything urgent, but now that they’re openly fugitives, Elaine saying she’s not friends with them and doesn’t want to get involved in anything pretty much crosses her name off the list of people to ask for help. This means higher stakes for the main characters.

I also think this is Uru’s way of handling cast inflation. There are so many characters that have been in plot jail for so long, because new characters are coming in and the story doesn’t have room for all of them. So, some characters get killed, some get left in plot jail indefinitely, and some, like Elaine and Claire, remove themselves with intention.

Another reason is that Cameron seems to be a healer of sorts, and with him around, Elaine’s help may not be necessary. In other words, Elaine left to make room for other characters, and one of those characters happens to have the skillset to replace her.

So no, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Elaine again in the story.

[quackle]

i can imagine reading this with no context is a wild time