#posting ship art....... remains the most terrifying thing to me

[lucdrawsthings]

finally....... I widowed (1) mauk.... in time for @widomauk-week day 5's nightmare prompt

[izzy-b-hands]

Inspired by this fabulous art:

A fic in which two dads are awoken by their scared kids late at night except they aren't dads they're co-captains and those aren't kids, that's a drunk ass crew that needs to go to bed asap lmao.

TW for drinking, mentions of drunkeness, some vomiting due to the previously mentioned.

My thanks to my friend who read over this for me prior to posting and made sure it was good to go!!! 💛💛

---

"Captain?"

Barely a whisper. What an odd part of the dream. But so realistic, Ed could almost feel breath on his ear.

"Blackbeard, sir?"

"Please call me Ed," Ed grumbled. "I've asked you all a million times..."

"Sorry," the voice whispered and suddenly Ed recognized it.

"Iz?"

He sat up, rubbing at an eye to find Izzy knelt by his side of the new bed (it took up most of the now shared captain's quarters, but Stede didn't mind the loss of space.)

"What are you doing in here?"

"I wouldn't have woken you unless I had to," Izzy continued, wobbling slightly to one side.

"Are you drunk?" Ed laughed. "I haven't seen you drunk in ages! You finally broke down and had some fun, good! Need help getting to bed?"

"No, we need help," Izzy whispered, anxiously looking around the darkened room.

"Who, you and the rest of the crew?"

Izzy nodded. "They're terrified, and I would take care of this myself, and I should; I'm sorry I bothered you -"

He attempted to stand, and slowly stumbled onto the remaining couch they'd managed to squeeze in the room.

"Nah, you need bed," Ed said, and crept over to pull Izzy up to standing again, wrapping his arm around him to keep him upright. "Rum can make you see things, did you forget that?"

"You'll see," Izzy mumbled. "When we get onto the deck... I'll kill it. I will. You go back to bed."

Izzy tried to pat his cheek, but missed and landed on his shoulder instead.

Ed frowned, and helped him towards the door, thankful Stede slept more heavily. "You aren't in the shape to kill anything, except some water."

The door to the quarters swung open with a push, and Izzy ran from his arms (though not a particularly good run. More of a trip and fall, if Ed was honest with himself) to puke over the side of the ship.

"Maybe overdid it a little, huh?" Ed asked, rubbing Izzy's back as he hung his head over the side of the ship, gagging and whimpering. "I'll get a bucket, and then I'll keep an eye on you for the night."

"No," Izzy stood, stumbled back a step, then forward another. "I'm. Hang on, hang on."

He leaned back over the ship once more, and vomited hard enough that Ed winced. It had to hurt.

"You fucker!" Izzy shouted as he stumble-ran away, wiping vomit off his mouth. "I challenge you...to a duel! If you come on this ship, and think you'll, that you'll-"

"Izzy, no!" Frenchie caught him by a shoulder, and smiled when he saw Ed speed walking over to them. "Oh thank fuck. Where's Stede?"

Ed took a deep breath. "It's four in the morning. He's sleeping."

"Was."

Everyone jumped a foot before observing a yawning Stede standing there.

"What's the emergency?" Stede continued as he moved closer to Ed, slumping against him a bit.

Ed slipped an arm around his waist. "No idea. But whatever it is, Izzy is going to duel it now."

Izzy nodded, leaning heavily on Frenchie. "Need my sword; I left it... somewhere..."

"Are you all drunk?" Stede asked. "Good lord, all I smell is rum!"

"It was good rum!" Lucius called from their tiny assembly further to the other side of the deck. Just a bunch of boxes and barrels for seating, and a number of empty rum bottles around them.

"Seems like," Ed laughed. "Seriously though, what is it?"

Izzy pointed to the far end of the ship. "On the rail. That motherfucker."

There was a dark shape there, on the rail. But it was impossible to see what it was.

Stede nodded. "Okay. What is it?"

"An accursed sort of bird!" Buttons crowed, charging over to them. He handed off his bottle of rum to Frenchie, who took it gladly in exchange of Izzy. "A bad omen, a hex!"

"S'why I have to kill it," Izzy burped. "My sword, where the fuck!"

"On your hip," Ed said gently. "Where it usually is."

Izzy looked down, looked to Buttons, and they both broke into giggles.

"He's not bad, like this," Stede whispered to Ed. "I can handle this version of Izzy."

"He also threw up multiple times on the side of the ship," Ed noted.

"Ah," Stede nodded. "That's unfortunate."

"He needs to go to bed," Ed murmured. "They all do. Don't get me wrong, I respect the partying spirit, but..."

As Buttons let him go, Izzy pulled his rapier from his hip and headed for the far rail. He let out a fierce growl, tripped over his own foot, and promptly dropped to the deck with a thud.

"Aw, bud," Ed sighed. "It's alright, Buttons. Get yourself to bed, all of you. We'll deal with this one, and the evil bird."

"He's right," Stede nodded, and clapped his hands. "Off to bed, now! I'll come by with water and to check on you all shortly, so bottoms had best be in bed by the time I get there!"

"Or you'll scold us?" Izzy grumbled, barely audible with his face still smashed against the deck.

"Yes," Stede said sternly. "A very sound scolding!"

Maybe it was the rum, maybe it was general respect, maybe it was both. But slowly, the crew wandered off to quarters, giggly and hanging onto each other as they went.

"I'm glad they had fun though," Stede smiled fondly. "Even you down there!"

Ed pulled Izzy up again, and tossed the rapier off to Stede, who promptly tossed it randomly onto a nearby box. The last thing they needed was anything sharp and dangerous now.

"They're good kids," Izzy muttered. "Don't deserve a bird curse..."

"Buttons is older than you," Ed chuckled. "He's still a kid?"

"No, he's..." Izzy frowned, as if he couldn't find his words. "Like a bird. Shaman. Expert, but he could live among them, the things he knows of them..."

Stede nodded. "He does have a connection with them."

"There's the matter of that bird," Izzy pointed back to the far rail. "Ed, let me go."

"I'm the only thing holding you up," Ed reminded him.

Izzy leaned hard into him, and whimpered. "I don't even like rum. Wine is better."

"I agree," Stede said as he walked past them, patting Izzy's back as he went. "Let me see this cursed bird. I'll make short work of him!"

They turned, and watched as Stede made it to the rail, and fell into a fit of laughter.

Now he was the one to stumble as he made his way back, but he shook his head to Ed's questioning gaze. "Izzy...oh bless all of you. My goodness. The bird has been taken care of. Would you like to sleep on our couch, for tonight?"

"I don't trust him alone," Ed murmured. "Think most of these empty bottles might have been him."

"They were," Izzy said miserably.

"Okay, we need water, and bed, and a bucket," Ed sighed. "And no laying on your back. People die that way."

"Calico Jack?" Stede asked dryly.

"Nearly, but this one got him rolled over and cleaned up," Ed gestured to Izzy. "I don't think he enjoyed it-"

"That man is a twat," Izzy growled. "Worse than that... he's..."

"Rude and brash and unthinking of others," Stede stage-whispered to Izzy.

Ed nodded. "That pretty much nails it, actually."

Izzy stumbled away from Ed to lean on Stede instead. "You get it. You understand. Absolute bullshit that man has put us through."

Ed was glowing watching them. They were finally bonding. Not necessarily over what he might have hoped, but he'd take it.

"Why don't we let Ed check on the others, and I'll get you back to the couch," Stede suggested. "You can take off your boots and some of the leather, borrow a robe of mine, and rest. I'll get you some nice cold water, and you can tell me how that Calico Jack has pissed you off. How does that sound?"

Izzy managed a nod, and Ed waved them away. He could handle water and a drunken crew, that was Pirate 101 shit.

A drunken Izzy was a bit more, but by now, Stede could handle it.

They watched Ed walk off towards the kitchen for water, his floral robe fluttering in the slight night breeze.

"Goddamn it," Izzy muttered. "He's fucking gorgeous."

Stede nodded. "He really is. We can talk about that too, if you like."

They began a slow traipse back to Stede and Ed's quarters, with Izzy mumbling somewhat legibly the entire way.

"You know I like him," Izzy sighed as he let Stede drop him onto the ornate yellow couch. "That's it for me then. I'll go in the morning."

"Don't think the hangover will let you go anywhere," Stede said, and sat on the bit of spare couch left. "Besides, why would that make you leave us again?"

"What?"

"I think we all know you like him like that," Stede continued. "You're not as discreet as you think. But then, neither am I with it anymore!"

He smiled and chuckled, but Izzy was tearing up.

"Oh, none of that," Stede patted his leg. "There's no need for tears over that!"

"He hates me," Izzy said. "As he should. For everything."

"Would he have let you back on this ship if he didn't at least like you?"

That stopped Izzy for a moment. "No. Probably not."

"Okay then," Stede said softly. "I'm going to get you some water from what we have stored in here, okay? I'll be right back."

He could feel Izzy's eyes on him as he made the short trip to their water barrel, tucked in one of the few available corners of the room. It wasn't a sharp sort of angry feeling like Izzy's usual gaze though.

When he turned to walk back, he could see it was something he'd not seen in Izzy before. Uncertainty.

"Wine does this to me," Stede said as he handed Izzy the wooden cup of water. "The stories Mary could tell you...you'd like hearing those, I think. Though she's just as bad with it, I should note."

Izzy was silent, sipping his water. Still watching him with nervous eyes.

"Fuck's sake, what is that face for?" Stede smiled. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"You could," Izzy said. "I'd deserve it."

Stede shrugged. "Yeah. But the extra stab wound turned out looking pretty tough and rather cool, in my opinion. Wasn't ideal, being stabbed, but it's happened a few times now and I'm getting used to it I think."

Izzy snorted. Then laughed, hard, as he sat up. An arm came to rest around Stede's shoulders, and his heart skipped a beat.

But not in the usual way. No fear that Izzy would demean or make fun of him. No, this was Izzy with the rough outer shell ripped off. Or at least, the professional pirate demeanor lowered.

Along with, apparently, any dislike of Stede. Or most of it.

"Thank you," Izzy sighed. "For this. What an embarrassment. Usually I'm the one dragging drunkards to bed."

"About time you took a turn on the other end then," Stede said brightly. "You know, there's nothing wrong with a break now and again. You can relax on here, if you'd like."

"I would like," Izzy said. "Don't know that I know how to anymore."

"I'm worried you never have," Stede chuckled. "We'll teach you."

Izzy set the cup down on the floor, carefully, mindful of the fancy rug under the couch.

It was a chaste kiss. Lips closed, but warm on his. The faint taste of rum lingered.

"I'm sorry," Izzy said as he sat back. "That. I'm drunk."

"Seem a bit more sober," Stede noted. "And don't be sorry. I...well. It wasn't bad."

"No?"

"No," Stede replied. "But, a second opinion would be good. Ed-"

"-ward Teach, born on a beach!" Ed announced as he walked into the room. "They are sleeping safely, and doing much better after some water."

He made his way to the couch, and took the empty space on Izzy's other side. "How about you? Feeling a little less shit?"

Stede nodded to Izzy. "Ask him if he'd judge for us."

Izzy shook his head. "I know what he'll say."

"No you don't," Ed smirked. "What am I judging anyway?"

Izzy looked to Stede, who gave him a nod.

"I...may have kissed him," Izzy pointed to Stede. "He says it wasn't bad, but I know that's a lie."

"It isn't," Stede said. "But someone's finally feeling some feelings properly, and I think it's scary. Right?"

Ed nodded. "Was scary for us. It's all new, but it's good, but it's weird at first because you feel all vulnerable and whatever. Takes getting used to."

"If you hate me after this, I want you to throw me overboard," Izzy said as he turned more to Ed. A slower kiss, but just as chaste. Izzy was slower to slip back away from Ed as well, and when he looked back to Stede, he seemed terrified.

"Not bad at all," Ed said. "Might need practice."

"I can think of some times we could help you practice," Stede added.

"Not tonight, you need sleep," Ed said.

Stede nodded. "But later, if you want..."

Izzy looked from Ed to Stede. "Both of you?"

"If you want," Stede echoed softly.

"I really wish I wasn't about to be sick again," Izzy mumbled. "Or I'd drag you both to bed now."

Ed slipped a battered metal bucket by him. "Yeah, tonight's not the night for that. Or duels. Or anymore drinking."

"What happened with the bird anyway?" Izzy asked Stede, even as his face paled.

"I have to disappoint you," Stede said as he rubbed Izzy's back, hoping it might ease whatever nausea he was feeling. "It was a bit of old sail and rope. But in the dark, the shadows it cast did look awfully bird-like."

"This night can't get more embarrassing, can it," Izzy sighed.

"No, because it's bedtime now," Ed said, standing and tossing Stede a blanket to drape over Izzy. "Boots off at least, sleep on your side, and aim for the bucket as best you can. If you need us, we're right here, just shout."

They didn't go back to the bed until Izzy had kicked his boots off, laid down, and curled up on the couch, blanket wrapped around him.

"Never thought I'd finally act on that," Stede giggled softly to Ed. "Never thought he'd actually like me like that."

"I had money on you two angrily making out at least once," Ed admitted. "Roach is running a pool on it, but I like this much better. We co-captain, he'll keep on as first mate, and whenever we aren't doing that..."

Ed took Stede's hand in his. "We get to be just us. And Izzy can remember what that is for him, finally. He wasn't always this gruff, you know."

Ed yawned and lay down, still hanging onto Stede's hand.

"What was he like before?" Stede asked.

"Stede," Ed murmured. "It's past five AM. The sun will be up soon. I'll tell you then. Besides, you know you get grumpy if you don't get enough sleep."

Stede gave in, and lay back to snuggle up to Ed. He was eager for Izzy stories (and young Ed stories by default) but Ed was right. It could wait a bit.

The ship was silent now. Except for the far rail, where sat Buttons and a swallow.

"I know what you are," Buttons whispered. "And I'll not let you harm anyone here."

The swallow, being a perfectly normal swallow, said nothing and picked up the coconut it had been struggling to fly with, and resumed its journey away.

Buttons watched it with a hard stare. Next time, he'd be ready.

[d-andilion]

i did have a few grievances with this season so i'm going to talk about those below.

of course, none of these bits come close to ruining the season for me - overall i absolutely loved it and this blog will remain a place of positivity for it. i'm not here to shit on the whole show so if that's your vibe, do me a favor and dni.

eskel. i've only interacted with the show and the books, and i'm not really into eskel's annex of the fandom, but i was a little disappointed about what happened with him. i was expecting to get a chance to enjoy his character and now i don't which kinda sucks. i did hear that there were scheduling conflicts so it seems that real life got in the way of the art, but yeah. not great.

triss' hair. this one i am significantly more bitter about and i will not ever get over it. as a black woman, seeing her natural hair get whitewashed like that without them even attempting at an explanation makes me seeth. bad and gross.

the other witchers. i was really excited to see how many more witchers there were and what a family they were to each other, so the fact that damn near all of them died in the last battle was kind of crap to me. and the fact that ciri is responsible for all of them if only by accident - i hope they acknowledge how that must hurt her next season because otherwise it's doubly frustrating.

lambert and geralt. maybe we'll get this next season, but i wish there was a scene when the two of them talked to reconcile lambert's anger at geralt and so they could grieve a little together over their brother.

creepiness. this is more personal preference cause i'm a pansy about scary stuff, but this season was very creepy with the monsters. especially the bruxa, that was kind of horrifying (and eskel's corpse post-wolf munch, that was not fun). i feel sometimes that the showmakers are feeling the pressure to be game of thrones with the gore so they throw it in there where it doesn't need to be and it's jarring to switch from this amazing character driven show with such great relationships to the most terrifying thing ever. not saying they need to cut back on action or anything cause i love the fight scenes, but maybe cool it with the nightmare-inducing beasties.

geralt and jaskier. i'm sure this is no surprise considering my ship tags, but i wish there'd been a bit more of them talking, especially with the apology. i wish they'd had that conversation face to face. also are we just not going to discuss the fact that jaskier was tortured at all? no?

why is the young yennefer in the hut a white girl? i had no idea who she was supposed to be until yen said it out loud. did they think we wouldn't notice?

like i said, i loved the season and i'll keep screeching about everything i loved, but these bits bug me a little.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I finally played more RE8

This was copied from my DeviantArt journal when I finished it before I posted it.

Yes...after a week of a lot of crap going on. Personal stuff and whatever else. But also me focusing more on playing NethterRealm games. Mainly MK11 and MKX. I finally decided to play more RE8 and some spoilers ahead. I got distracted from making this right away. It's been many minutes and was on the internet for a bit. Just gonna talk more about my experience.

You know, with all the complaining from people who expected more vampire MILF's...which they shouldn't have. I mean, I am trying to play without looking online for stuff. And my game time has been 4 hours and 36 minutes...

Despite all that complaining...gonna say...it felt like I took forever in Castle Dimitrescu so I can't really complain. And the fact those ladies scared me despite all the fame they get. Really, I kind of want to get this done with and talk a bit more about the game itself.

So I finished Castle Dimitrescu. I killed Cassandra and Daniela(The other daughters), and later one, I got me a bigger briefcase to hold this sniper rifle. I used my sniping skills to do a lot of damage on Alcina's final form. Mainly ended it with a shotgun that I recall. I wanna joke about that I used my 360 no scoping skills...but I'm not a person who does 360 shit lol.

Will admit because I felt intense in Castle Dimitrescu. I hoped to see the Lycans again and luckily after that castle part, they came around again. Honestly, Castle Dimitrescu was a pretty solid area. One of my favorite sections of the game honestly...

After that, experienced the part Hotdiggedydemon made a animation about(Yes, I have seen it and I don't mainly like the guy) in the game, was in the village for way too long trying to get to the home with the red chimney, got me a new pistol that I decided to sell anyway. Which was the M1911. Even this special ammo I found for other weapons I don't have yet. And after I got back to the Duke, sold some stuff, even decided to add that Mr. Everywhere charm onto my pistol...that's gonna be amusing to have as I play the game. Just gonna have fun with that.

And I still haven't sold Alcina's remains...from what I know, there's a special pistol that you can get if you I think sell them...but I'm not sure...I'm not selling her crystalized remains in case.

Also forgot to mention during that village part as I looked around. Such as finding Luiza's necklace, and remembered she was that older lady...but also, the most amusing thing is that I got scared by a pig that hit me...a pig scared me like a pig scared Mac in Predator...and I still didn't kill the pig. Didn't even kill the other pig I saw. Mainly protected it from these new flying enemies.

Now I'm just gonna talk more about the game. While I haven't been more in depth of why I dislike this game. To be honest, my experience has been nice. I do feel like the journey of just playing the game is something I like. I get to experience myself. The gameplay is fine, and a lot of things work well. 

It's just I'm disappointed to know how the story will end up. And why I have such this dislike towards it...and this all started because I hate the fact Jill isn't brought back. Time to sound negative, I hate how in these new main games. I hate how many of the characters that I grew up liking are just straight up ignored or forgotten. I mean, when RE7 was still new. I liked seeing Chris come back as a surprise...but I'm just sick he's the only old character that came back and why I'm disappointed that Ada wasn't even included in this. Because she was in the concept art. Also the fact he acts like a fucking asshole from what I know. Yes, I know the reason, but I'm not spoiling that.

I'm also upset of how Capcom or...the writer decided to approach this story and it again, makes me not want to have Resident Evil 9. Seriously, I like a lot of stuff from RE8. I love the introduction of the Lord's and other crap. But I fucking hate how these new games don't have a better connection to the older games. It's strangely a reason why I kind of disown them from canon. 

There's other criticisms such as how they approached Ethan and Mia in this game's story. And I just feel like...the problem started with RE7...it's a weird experience for me. I get and do like what Capcom tried to do...but I dislike how they handled the story aspect mostly. 

Sorry to sound negative if you really liked this game. There is no problem with that. It's just I really wanted to delve a bit more of why I have some reasons to dislike 7 and 8. And that I felt they both could of benefited from some changes. I'm saying that as someone who REALLY liked the first half of RE7 and even didn't mind the ship part...but REALLY DISLIKED of how they handled Eveline as a character and even the Bakers in a way. Mainly Eveline is the one that bothers me the most.

Also gonna admit and I'm taking this idea from someone. Maybe to get people less complaining, that you could have had the choice to go to Castle Dimitrescu first or not...but it's the writing and whatever the Hell. Looks like I have a choice between Donna's place and Moreau's. Which I liked. But Heisenberg's factory didn't show up on the map that I saw. And Castle Dimitrescu had a big X on it.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. I may of forgotten some shit. I have wondered of trying to be funny and negative...but I guess I decided to just be honest about what I felt without sounding mean or whatever.

Trying to remember what else. Love the fact I get to meet my favorite Lord possibly of this game which is Donna. Haven't seen much of her in game and didn't wanna spoil much for me of her part. I wanna experience that shit. It's just that Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters got the most attention for understandable reasons. Basically folks thirsting for them which is fine.

Man, listening to RE8's save room theme while making this gets the feeling right. Yet I'm just recalling how goofy and scared I was in Castle Dimitrescu. I appreciate this game making pretty looking and scary women basically making me feel terrified ha! I'm taking to long to remember what else. I should just post this.

Edit forgot to mention him. Hey bro @kaijuguy19 look what I did man. :)  I kind of fulfilled a promise or so lol.

[mediocre-life-span]

3 about your OC

- original post by @radioactive-synth (thanks for the template fam!)

Captain Alex Hawthorne (outer worlds OC)

1. List 3 things you like about your OC

-From an artist's POV, I like her outfit and how easy it is to draw lol.

- I like her courage! She never backs down from fight but isn't afraid to run away if it's pointless.

- Her intelligence and silliness combined. Even though Alex acts like an idiot most of the time, she is actually rather smart. She'd pull on a push door but can solve a complicated equation easily to put it bluntly.

2. List 3 things the other characters like about your OC

-Her individuality. Most people have never met someone like her. She dances around and makes obscure references which makes her stand out almost as much as her purple hair!

- Her ability to go from adorable to terrifying in 0.5 seconds. Don't call her cute guys, don't...

- Her selflessness. She would sacrifice everything she's worked for and herself without a second thought if it saved someone else.

3. List 3 things your OC carries all the time

- Her ace ring! Mine is important to me and it is to her! Ace rings serve as reminder that other people feel the same and ur not alone, so ofc Alex buys Parvarti one!

- Some sort of sweet snack! She's got a real sweet tooth and TTD uses a lot of energy!

- Do weapons count? Alex always carries her Dead Eye Assault Rifle and two plasma cutter that she uses like lightsabers.

4. List 3 things your OC does in their free time

-She's got her guitar so she like to sit on the Unreliable roof and chat with whoever whilst strumming along.

- Her playlist has soooo many songs on it so she dances around the ship and sings along sometimes!

- She used to draw cartoons when she was back on Earth, so when she finds some art supplies she gets back into drawings again.

5. List 3 strong points of you OC

- Alex can lighten the mood of any situation and seems to always cheer up her friends. It also helps in a fight that she puts people at ease and lowers their guard.

- She is an amazing shot and rarely misses. She usually uses a sniper rifle and shoots the enemies from really far away.

- She has a very high mental endurance. She can go for ages before breaking down but when she does usually it's a big breakdown:/

6. List 3 flaws of your OC

- She doesn't take care of herself as much as she should. She doesn't sleep a lot or talk to anyone about her problems. It's really not good for her but she cares too much about other people to "hurt them with her own hurt"

-Alex's attention span is *quite* short so she does little things like spin around on her chair, slide across floors, jumping up and down to keep her attention on things

-She is completely oblivious to any kind of flirting lol.

7. List 3 physical traits of your OC

- Purple hair!

- She's got a round face and big eyes that people seem to find adorable.

- Alex always wear something to cover up her arms, she's not very confident with people seeing them...

8. List 3 people your OC loves the most

- Wilson, (my other OC) who is her brother and only remaining relative

- Felix lol. It takes a while for her to notice his very obvious feelings but she gets there in the end and there's a whole drama about how she doesn't want him to suffer because of her etc

- Honestly I can't rank them but Parvarti, Ellie, Nyoka, Max, SAM and also ADA are her closest friends!

9. List 3 food/drink items your OC eats the most

- Purpleberry bunches! As I said, she's got a sweet tooth!

- Tripicale. She has no idea what it is and is determined to find out.

- Mock apple juice. It tastes like orange juice.

10. (Optional) List 3 of your favourite screenshots/gifs/art of your OC

I put a couple of ma favourite things of her in a lil collage

And tag time!

@the-laridian @captastra @thisisrigged4 and @jumpship90

GO FORTH MY FELLOW OUTER WORLDS MUTUALS!

[vcg73]

Glee Memories

Someone reblogged an old post to which I had contributed this run-down of my entire Glee fan experience. It made me laugh to read it, because I cannot deny ANY of the reactions even now. This is truly what it was like to watch the show in original air date Fox TV real time - endless mid-season hiatuses and all. Reposting just my own section:

Season 1 - SO good and fun! I want to see more of this!  Kurt, I love you. You’re so funny and I especially loved the second half of the season when you started singing solos and being a Cheerio!  Even the characters I didn’t really embrace I still want to learn more about. And the songs, and the hope for next year’s competitions…  Damn you, summer hiatus!

Season 2 - OMG, not as fresh as last year but still some amazing stuff!  Burt and Carole are cute together, though a little oblivious. Why didn’t we ever get any blended Hudmel family scenes?  Especially at Christmas.  *pout* Didn’t care for Kurt being basically sidelined at Dalton Academy for half the season, and his crush is kind of an oblivious jerk, but I have hope. Things much better by the end with Kurt back at McK and no joy to the bullies. Can’t quite make up my mind if I want to forgive Karofsky. He was awful, but also terrified. I’ll make up my mind next year. Aw, Jean Sylvester has died, I liked her.  Finn, a funeral should not inspire you to dump one girl and chase another. You big drip. Too bad about Nationals, but it’s okay that they didn’t go straight to the top. More reason to put out all the stops next year!  I liked this season a lot overall. Damn you, summer hiatus!

Season 3 - What the fuck has happened to this show? Blaine transfers in, acts like a dick, steals opportunities and insults people, but by the end every single character is completely up his ass. Wha-?  Wait, are Finchel a couple again for the 4,869th time, or are they broken up again?  I can’t keep up.  Am I really supposed to care about the suddenly evil Warblers and their smirking meerkat boss? Cause I don’t.  Warbler Council I miss you.  Shue, you’re horrible, get off my screen. Sue, go with him, you’re not funny anymore. Kurt ends up stuck in Lima with no prospects, while Rachel of the world’s worst audition gets his spot at the fancy performing arts school? What the hell!  And what do you mean, he only applied to ONE school, that makes no sense given his historic ambition to escape Lima, and determination to help Finn get out too. Someone at NYADA is a lazy bastard who couldn’t be bothered to send out the acceptance letters until JUNE, so most of their prospectives have probably accepted other offers by now.  This entire season made no sense and left a bad taste in my mouth. Thank God for summer hiatus!

Season 4 - Better in some respects. Really stupid in others. Kurt does an amazing audition and gets a second chance (that he should have had the first time) to get into his school.  I’ll take it.  Blaine, you’re a lying, cheating, selfish sack of shit and I’ve given up hoping you’ll ever improve. Just go away and stop horning in where you don’t belong. Adam Crawford, you’re a cinnamon roll too good for this world, but no way too good for Kurt. :)  I’m not usually a shipper, but you’re forcing me to ship hard.  New Glee Club, your boring clone selves need to step it up and show some originality if you want anyone to like you. Uh, wow, did that nasty Cheerio girl really try to kill the other girl by making her anorexic and totally get away with that with no consequences? Epic fail. Shue, you’re revolting. Oh, Unique. I like you, but why did you leave a star position at Carmel only to be meek about being shoved into the background at McKinley?  Really thought Blaine might get offed in that stink-bomb of a school shooting episode. It would have had emotional resonance for others and retired that character with a shred of dignity. Wasn’t that the point of having people declare Blaine teen angel/Jesus-standin for half the season? But no. Nothing happens and they chuck Becky-used to be cool but now is just super annoying-Jackson under the bus instead. (Also, why did nobody on the New York side even seem to know this headline-making event even happened?) Rachel, taking insensitivity and selfishness to new heights in New York. Why is Kurt suddenly your care-taker and general servant? Blech. Sarah Jessica Parker, completely wasted from great starting potential. Did Sam’s brain fall out in the deep end of the swimming pool and float away? Cause, whoa. Finn? Finn! Pay attention, dude. Cut your losses and go to your classes at Ohio state (or wherever). Burt, thank you for squashing that stupid proposal idea. But where is Adam?  Come back, adorable little cupcake!  Summer hiatus, thank you, I need a break but kinda like where everyone finally ended at the last of this year. This has definite potential.

Season 5 - Dead Finn = sadness. I kind of wish they had just retired him to off screen college somewhere. Wait, what?  God Damn It Writers! You can’t just transplant Finchel’s planned storyline to a totally different couple and expect it to make perfect sense, especially with no work or real character improvement to the horrible hair-gelled menace!  Copy glee club remains boring, and I don’t give a rat’s ass about their wash-rinse-repeat romances or lifeless competition performances. What the heck has happened to the timeline of this show?  Where did Adam go? Oh hey, it’s Demi Lovato and Adam Lambert!  Aww, I really like Elliott. It’s about time Kurt got a genuine friend. Rachel, just go away. I can’t deal with you anymore. Burt has been replaced by a pod-person. Creepy puppets more lifelike than most of their human counterparts by now. One Three Hill, I love you!  But I can already see that this is another great start with soon to be wasted potential when the contracts run out.  Damn it, writers! Don’t put Blaine in NYADA, that makes no sense at all.  If this school was as particular as you claimed, he wouldn’t have even made it to the audition round. Combat Jocks are all hot for Kurt, YESSSS!  Santana, I’ve never liked you because you’re horrid to everyone but you’re finally starting to grow on me a little. Aw, Chris Colfer’s episode plays like old time Glee!  Fun. More, please. Shirley MacLaine gives me the creeps as the old cougar lady. And we’re taking an early hiatus after shedding viewers like snake-skin all season. Can’t say I’m not relieved. I’m determined to see this show through, but my god…  

Season 6 - Only a dozen episodes this year? I can make it.  Ooo, Kurt dumped the albatross and sent him packing. That’s promising.  Rachel’s ego blew up in her face and she’s back in Ohio. Even more promising.  New New Directions, I surprisingly actually like you guys a little, though I liked One Three Hill much better. (And the Apples, whatever happened to those folks?) This could actually end with a bang instead of a whimper!  Aaand, I spoke too soon. Kurt get your cute butt out of Ohio, you can do so much better in New York, preferably single and dating new appreciative men!  Whoa, Sue is full on demented and dangerous this year. Why is she still in a teaching position again? Shue, you’re useless. Get off my screen. Santana previous potential goes right to hell in one fell swoop. Nice briefly knowing you, emotional development. Kurt, I’m serious, go back to NYADA and find whatever locker you left your spine in please. DO NOT take that asshat back for the 8,937th time, please!  He’s not worth it.  You … what …?  Oh my God, he did it, and fucking Dave Karofsky actually helped them along.  *beats head on wall*  No, please tell me everyone isn’t about to bend over backwards to put Rachel back on top of the heap again!  *sigh* That’s it. I’m done. 7 episodes left of this series and I just can’t take it anymore.  The writers-room monkeys have mixed pieces from 10 different puzzles, mashed them into a frame with a mallet, eaten the finished product, shit it into their hands, and tossed it at the few remaining fans still watching through the bars.

And that’s what you (lucky souls) missed on Glee!

[irandrura]

Third and final post: what were my other thoughts?

 Let’s talk about the game’s mechanics first.

I am overall very pleased with the battle gameplay. On the battlefield itself the gameplay is more-or-less unchanged from the past, but the character advancement and customisation system is significantly improved. Moving to a single overall character level and giving every character the ability to change classes at will is a much more fluid and elegant system than in the past, and the ability to choose the specific combat arts and abilities each character takes looks like it adds a lot of depth. It’s probably appropriate for the overall ‘teacher’ theme of the game that you have much more power to mould each character’s skills and talents, but I’d like to see it in other games as well. There’s an important balance to strike: on the one hand, characters should not be infinitely malleable, and should all have their personal strengths and weaknesses. On the other, so much of the fun of the game is in developing characters and watching them grow that it’s really good to be able to specialise them.

Speaking of battle gameplay, divine pulse is great. The Fire Emblem series has always struggled a bit with accessibility, and while casual mode definitely made the series easier, it also felt to me like missing the point. Casual mode is too easy, and by removing any risk of permanent death, it felt like it removed a lot of the game’s tension. Divine pulse is a much better way to make the gameplay a bit easier and less frustrating while still keeping the same feel as classic FE gameplay. It gives you just enough room to survive a lucky enemy crit, or a small misjudgement on your part, without totally removing the need to be careful. I approve. That said, I did feel that by late-game you probably had access to too many pulses and it removed the need to conserve them. With a dozen pulses, there isn’t much risk any more, whereas if it stayed capped around three to five, each individual pulse might have felt more precious.

 (Apparently Mila’s Turnwheel in Shadows of Valentia actually did the mechanic first, and I totally forgot about it. Oh dear…)

Other gameplay innovations were more hit-and-miss, for me. Battalions were fine, but I don’t think I would have missed them if they weren’t there. They helped make the battlefield seem busier and more populated, but they don’t seem to have had a massive impact on the game. Similarly, monsters were mostly fine (Cindered Shadows boss notwithstanding), but again, I don’t think I’d mind very much if they didn’t come back. They rarely actually felt like the most dangerous enemies on the battlefield, and just required a slightly different strategy, and… well, maybe it’s just me, but it feels weird for FE to have boss monsters like that. I suppose arguably it’s been a tension in the series going all the way back to the original game? Marth was supposed to fight monstrous dragons, but his entire game was about enemy soldiers, and dragons didn’t stand out as the terrifying beasts they ought to have been. Still, I’m not sure I’m sold on them here.

When I started playing I complained that exploring the monastery was tedious. You can get into a routine later on, but for the most part, I did think it could have been streamlined more. Having lunch with students or going for special training or browsing the marketplace are all fun things to do, but a bit less sprinting all over the map to talk to everyone and return lost items would have been appreciated. The lost item mechanic in particular feels like busywork. A bit of exploring is nice, but only as long as it doesn’t get tedious. It might have been lovely to explore other locations as well – Enbarr, Fhirdiad, the army camp outside Gronder, etc. – but I can understand that the amount of work required would not be practical.

Speaking of tedium, though… I really could have done with a few more maps. Maybe this is my fault for constantly choosing battles, but I found myself replaying the same forest, plains, beach, or volcano map too many times for comfort.

I might also have liked for crests to be a bit more mechanically impactful, given their important to the world and the plot. I regularly forgot which of my units have crests, and what any of the crests do, since most of them have so little effect as to not matter. The only one I did usually remember was Felix’s Crest of Fraldarius, and that was mainly because it makes him do more damage and sometimes made him kill people I’d hoped to leave on one or two HP. I don’t think crests should have been overpowering, but a little more power would still have been nice. It should not have been so easy to forget that they exist.

Similarly, by the time I finished the game I realised that I had never used a Hero’s Relic, even once. I would like to say that this was a principled decision on my part, given that they turn people into monsters (and it looks like I was right about them being made from bone?), but it was mostly just the BUT-WHAT-IF-I-NEED-IT-LATER effect. They all have quite low durability, and while I understand that infinite durability, as with relics in previous games, was not an option due to breaking how combat arts work, it was still enough to discourage me from using them. Perhaps on a higher difficulty they would become necessary? I always feel a bit sad when for mechanical reasons I never let characters use their most iconic weapons.

 Moving on from mechanics…

There is technically a shipping mechanic, with an S support for the protagonist, but it really felt like an afterthought to me. I don’t think the game would lose anything significant if you just removed all the S supports. Compared to a game like Awakening or Fates, where the second generation makes it mechanically important and the plot seems like it works best with a bit of romantic drama (f!Robin/Chrom and m!Robin/Lucina looking particularly intended), Three Houses is surprisingly chaste. I suppose picking a character to be your waifu might be part of the culture now, perhaps looking also at the growing influence of waifu gacha games, but for me it felt tacked on. I can imagine potentially rewriting the game to make romance a more important theme – perhaps talking about Jeralt and Sitri a bit more? – but to be honest I think that that would have been worse for the game overall.

In particular, it stands out to me as sitting a touch oddly alongside the teacher concept. One of the things that stands out to me about Byleth as a protagonist is the way that Byleth is in a superior position relative to the other units. You are a professor, in a position of authority, and you have more life experience. Your job is to teach and mentor these younger characters. This contrasts strongly with Robin, who I think was presented as the equal of the other Shepherds (your relationship with Chrom is that of comrade and friend), and with Corrin, who was presented as an inferior or junior (your siblings are older than you, and they start off with higher status). Because of that superior position, then, I found the game suggesting a feeling of responsibility towards them, and a feeling of pride in their accomplishments.

This might be a bizarre comparison, but in some ways a game that Three Houses reminded me of while playing was Princess Maker 2, a weird little DOS game from 1993 about raising a girl. The core loop of choosing activities to raise the stats of a character in your care, punctuated with occasional outings to fight monsters and get loot, felt quite similar. Similarly, the emotions that seemed to be evoked, to me, were emotions of care and pride: perhaps not paternal as such, since Byleth isn’t that old, but certainly the satisfaction that comes from nurturing a younger and less experienced person.

For the most part that actually worked, and I certainly applaud it for feeling less icky than Fates. If I compare tea parties to that weird Fates mechanic where you could invite characters to your room and touch their face, it is vastly less creepy. So I’m glad that the romance has been toned down.

And speaking of things that I’m glad aren’t prominent…

I’m deliberately burying this part in the middle of a long post. Tumblr is famously ruthless on issues like this, but fortunately I have a very low follower count and you’re all nice people. Basically, one of my worries going into the game was that Three Houses might be the ‘woke’ Fire Emblem game. I am glad to find that concern averted, at least so far. A person could perhaps make some pretty cringeworthy interpretations of Duscur to do with racial politics, but the game itself does not push you in that direction. Tumblr and AO3 love slash shipping, but as far as I can tell that remains as canonically unsupported as ever. Interestingly, while Three Houses has a small handful of same-sex romantic S supports and endings, as far as I can tell they’re all for Byleth and they’re all simply copy-pastes of the opposite-sex versions. It’s enough for me to genuinely wonder whether they’re in the original Japanese at all, or if they were added. I know translations of FE games have played around with character sexualities before, so it’s possible. At any rate, part of me was concerned that this might be the Dragon Age: Inquisition of Fire Emblem, and fortunately it isn’t. (I mean, I did actually enjoy Dragon Age: Inquisition, but at times it did get to be a bit much.) I’ll take this as a valuable lesson when it comes to not believing posts I see on Tumblr. You’d think I would have learned from previous games: popular fan interpretations of a character are often completely wrong. Three Houses seems for the most part to be a very traditional Fire Emblem game.

In terms of the overall series trajectory, I take Three Houses to be an overall positive sign. Awakening and Fates seemed to be taking the series in a direction that I didn’t care for as much, with heavy use of player avatar characters, much more fan service, and more trope-driven plots. Three Houses seems like a return to deeper worldbuilding and characterisation. The cast of characters overall has definitely been a high point: in Fates I sometimes struggled to build a team of characters that I felt truly fond of, but in Three Houses there were usually more characters I wanted to use than I had space for, and there were no recruitable characters that I truly disliked.

Really, the biggest disconnect between me and Three Houses, in the end, is the fact that Three Houses is built for replayability, and I don’t like replaying games very much. However, I don’t think I can in good faith call that a flaw or poor design: obviously there are a lot of people who love replayability, and considering that I got a good eighty hours of gameplay out of my first playthrough (DLC included) and enjoyed it, I’m not really in a position to complain.

So in the end, then, I think that while Three Houses is not my favourite Fire Emblem and does have some places where it could be improved, for the most part I think it’s quite a good outing and a significant improvement on the last few. It is not designed entirely to my tastes, but what is here is mostly good. Three Houses leaves me feeling much more optimistic for the future of the franchise than Fates did.

[jackiesieks]

Psychological Break Down of Dutch van der Linde

First of all, allow me to say this post will contain spoilers for Red Dead Redemption I, and Red Dead redemption II. If you have not played either, or wish to avoid spoilers, please stop reading. Just in case as well, I'm going to add a content warning for mentions of abuse, mental illness, and trauma.

Second, I would like to state that from a psychological perspective, Red Dead Redemption II is truly fascinating. Not just graphically, or musically. It is a game that has, in my opinion, remastered the art of story telling. The slower pace allows time for viewers to stop, reflect, think, rather than being hustled from story line to story line. Players can absorb the events of the game with in depth immersion, losing themselves for hours in an open world platform.

This game is a psychological goldmine.

As Arthur, you roam the open world. You can lay out under the stars, cook food around a campfire, listen to the sounds of nature. It is quiet. It is free. Most importantly, it puts you in the position to understand why they member of the gang fights so hard to maintain this freedom. The city of Saint Denis is loud, the air filled with toxic fumes of the factories. Rhodes is so torn apart by its own politics, it is stuck in a perpetual war with itself. The "great" civilization everyone seems to desire is filthy, corrupt, and the van der Linde gang wants no part of it.

However, for this installment, I'd like to focus on Dutch van der Linde, the charismatic leader of the van der Linde gang. While he did many wrong things, I do not believe he is a bad guy, or even a villain. I would, however, like to present to the table the theory that he is mentally ill.

Dutch shows classic signs of a person who experienced childhood trauma, even abuse. We know he lost his father in the Civil War, an event that never truly left him. An argument could be made that he suffered from survivor's guilt, possibly even post traumatic stress disorder. Recall, these things didn't have names at the time. There was no therapist, no medication, and untreated mental illnesses can get worse. We know he didn't see eye to eye with his mother, but we don't exactly know what that entails. Men really couldn't talk about abuse, trauma, or any such things at the time because that meant they were weak. Dutch van der Linde is many things, but weak he'll never be. We have to look at his actions, his reactions, to really understand him as a character.

Dutch has two personalities. One is Dutch van der Linde, the leader, the showman. He is the conductor, the gang members are his instruments. All eyes are upon him. He surrounds himself in luxury because he dreams of a better life than the one he's been given, yes, but because he's also leading by example. In various conversations in camp, he comments that he raised Arthur to be a proper gentlemen. That is what Dutch wants, to be seen as a proper gentlemen. He has a very nice horse, a very nice tent. This has never been uncommon. On pirate ships, the Captain has the best quarters. In war, the leaders have the better tents/rations/things. So we cannot use his luxury as the sole definition of his personality. We don't know what was stolen, or if he used camp money to acquire these things.

I don't believe he is narcissistic. He doubts himself far too much to be a narcissist. This can be heard during quiet conversations, when he removes the showman's act and becomes just Dutch. He doubts himself, his choices, his actions, and the best course forward.

During my second play through I spent way more time in camp just listening and watching. If you haven't done this, I highly recommend doing so. One peculiar instance really stuck out. I followed Dutch around. He would leave his tent, talk to everyone, give encouraging words, before returning to his tent to read or write. After the Pinkertons show up and tell Arthur they only want Dutch, we see a sudden shift. He leaves the tent and stands at the edge of the cliff, and remains there for over twelve hours. (Results may very). This is the only time I've seen any member of the gang remain still (unless they had a mission). All night, into the next day, he stands at the edge of the cliff. When Arthur speaks to him, his answers are almost angry or perturbed. For the next three game days, his answers to the exact same dialogue prompts seen hopeless, forlorn.

Then, suddenly, it shifts again. He's back to walking around, talking to people. His answers sound confident again. I thought, perhaps, I'd reached the end of the animation cycle until I realized Molly was suddenly unhappy when she'd been fine before. At various moments Dutch claims he can't get a moment's peace.

We do see moments where Dutch accuses Arthur early on about doubting him, and while it could be seen as a manipulative tactic, I think it's more along the lines of he is doubting himself, and assumes Arthur does as well. He trusts Arthur, Hosea, and John too much. The idea of them doubting him plays hard on his insecurities. I honestly believe Dutch suffers from a mild form of psychosis.

We see an even bigger shift in his personality after he cracks his head in Saint Denis. Some interesting facts about brain injuries.

A man working on the railroad had a rail shoot through his brain. He managed to live, much to the surprise of everyone, but his entire personality changed. This incident helped give birth to neuroscience.

A man suffering from depression decided to end his life. He shot himself, and managed to live. He destroyed part of his brain, but it happened to be part of his brain where his depression came from (disclaimer: do not attempt)

Stroke patients often undergo a radical shift in personality depending on which section of the brain that was damaged.

We see clear evidence of the radical personality shift. If Dutch had an unknown mental disorder, a traumatic brain injury could very well have made it worse. So, you have the perfect formula for a mental breakdown, or a psychotic episode.

Childhood trauma

Worsening mental illness

High stress

Traumatic brain injury

Even in his worst moments we see little signs of lucidity that quickly become buried under the avalanche of mental mess ups.

Many argue that Dutch is bad, he's a villain. I completely disagree, and present to you this evidence to support my claims. The following contains strong SPOILERS for RDR2 and RDR1.

Sadie and John seek out Micah, and get surprised by Dutch's presence. Sadie probably became a bounty hunter shortly after Arthur's passing, and we know it took her years to track down Micah. That's with connections, working with the government, etc. Dutch lost everyone, so it probably took him years to track down Micah as well.

Given how he obsesses, we can assume he obsessively searched for him, tricking him to get closer to him and get his Blackwater money back. But if Dutch was a bad guy, truly, why didn't he shoot John?

Micah had Sadie, she was injured, couldn't fight back. Dutch could have easily taken him out right there. Instead, he shoots Micah, and leaves the money behind without a word.

We all know what happens when Dutch walks away. Something, or someone, dies. Obviously there is a lot we could break down from that lone interaction, but let's step forward.

In rdr1, John's family is taken hostage, and the only way he can see them again is to hunt down and kill the last of his gang. John doesn't want to, he wants to live out his life as a rancher. But his hand is forced, and he must now resume the life he swore he'd leave behind.

The first time John and Dutch see each other again, Dutch asks about his family. John responds he hadn't seen them in a while. We know Dutch is smart. John suddenly surrounded by lawmen trying to find him, he knows John doesn't want to be there. He even says "We all make mistakes, John, I never claimed to be a saint." Dutch is out gunned, yet he attempts to goad him into shooting him. Power play, possibly. Once again, Dutch and John have the perfect opportunity to take each other out, but they don't. Dutch shoots the girl and runs away.

Multiple times John and Dutch run into each other, each presented with the perfect opportunity to the each other. Yet neither of them take the opportunity. Both men are highly skilled gunslingers, highly trained to murder. They seem capable of murdering everyone around them, but not each other. Why?

Then we come to the final scene between Dutch and John.

Stood atop a cliff, they are once more faced with the perfect opportunity to end each other. Dutch could have shot John, and vice versa, but neither move. John shot Dutch, but it wasn't a lethal shot. Dutch could have easily healed from it. Instead, he chooses to fall to his death.

Suicide by jumping is a truly terrifying way to go, and it's a method rarely used as most suicidal people want quick and painless deaths. While it could be argued that Dutch was cornered and that was his only way out, I disagree. Dutch could have killed John and found a way to escape. There are millions of scenarios that could have happened, but didn't. He jumps. But then the question becomes, once more, why? Jumping from a cliff to their death, suicide in general, has always been a taboo subject, but it was even more taboo back in the early 1900s. A narcissist wouldn't allow for such an undignified exit, he'd want something far more grandeur to ensure he's remembered. A truly evil, or bad, man would have ended John rather than run away. It doesn't make sense. Unless, you look at it as an act of mercy.

Dutch knows he wronged John, wronged them all. He knew he messed up with Arthur, with Micah. The loss of so many of his family members probably haunted him every step of the way. I think he threw himself off the cliff as a final mercy to John so he didn't have to pull the trigger, and to give into the pain he felt he deserved for all he'd done.

I think he was sloppy because he wanted to be found. How else do you explain him disappearing for years, then popping back up? His whole philosophy has been about getting money and disappearing, yet he holes up in a fort. Even when he knows John has found him, he doesn't leave. He shows up when he wants to be found.

While I am not saying Dutch is a good man, I do not consider him to be the villain, or the evil narcissist everyone claims him to be. I think he was a sad little boy with a mental illness, who became horrifically misguided, and drove himself crazy before ending his own life.

I hope you all liked this! If you did, maybe I'll do another break down!

[juhihuji]

my big cringy text post full of useless info about Juhi Zo (oc)

Uhhh this is in response to the anon from curious cat who asked ‘bout my oc...it was too much text.......

Hey. HEY? r u tryna make me cry cuz that's how you do it I'm so happy ppl like her when I was so ashamed and embarrassed to show her lmao Ah...there's so so so much about her and I've tried typing it out over n over but it's hard to tell her story without going off on long tangents trying to explain other details. Like, it wouldn't make sense without them...and I didn't wanna make this post super long and I'm still embarrassed about talking about it ...I hope u r cool with just hearing random facts and snippets of story about her ah I'm sorry ;_;

I created her with the intention of using her for self inserting/shipping lmao but that's probably obvious...and idk if she breaks any rules of the universe and I feel weird talkin' about her cuz I'm only in the middle of Shippuden so I don't know what the whole world is like lol but uuh

She's left handed

One of her hobbies is jewelry making. She mainly uses wire and ceramic beads and gives them as gifts to her friends. They might wear it to be polite but nobody really likes it lmao

Her team consists of herself, her lil brother Zitien, her big sister Agneya, and is lead by her mom or dad. They switch out cuz they care about spending time with their kids lol

Some of my art depicts her skin tone as richly saturated for aesthetic reasons, but she's meant to be quite grey because of a mineral in her body! It's part of her kekkei genkai™

She has a seal on her back and it's got two parts! One seals her entire weight, the other seals her entire temperature???? Kinda like how Tsunade's holdin' in her old, like suckin' in a gut. It's like that with Juhi's body temperature and weight and she can partially open each seal individually. Full grown at 5'4", she weighs 3.4 tonnes unsealed and her body is a hot hot 2100°C when unsealed. She's just super dense and hot and heavy! Like she's made of metal or something. When fully unsealed the weight and heat can warp her body structure as if she's melting, and when she seals that shit back up and her body cools back down she could remain permanently deformed! There are doctors on her home island who specialize in fixing some of that through corrective surgery, like parts of her skeleton fusing into one big mass, but not everything can be fixed! So she's gotta watch it!

 She has nightmares about her face melting and people being scared of her or not being able to recognize her cuz you can't bring the face back to normal after it melts. Everyday she wakes up and checks her face obsessively to make sure all her features are the same distance apart and the same shape and whatnot

Even when fully sealed, full grown she weighs 300 pounds with an internal body temp of 40°C and for that reason she sinks like a rock and is terrified of large bodies of water! Learning to walk on water was the first thing ppl of her clan with the same kekkei genkai learn.

When her temperature is higher, she can (for the most part, aside from the melting at the highest temps) withstand and survive temperatures the same as hers or slightly higher, but for example at an internal temp of 400°C she will burn at 450°C

 I love drawin' sweat and I even draw Juhi with sweat on her body cuz I can't help it but she doesn't sweat! She's always dehydrated and most of her body's moisture evaporates through exhalation as a complication caused by her kekkei genkai.

People from her island are trained to use a different type of chakra and her kekkei genkai also makes her body extremely efficient in using that chakra, so a little goes a long way. One of the things that comes from that is she doesn't typically get uncomfortably hot or cold. She can sense changes in temperatures, but her body is really efficient at maintaining homeostasis and she just don't get too bothered by it! To a point, anyway.

wow i talked lots about her KG but just the boring useless facts about it and not what it actually is but i did say random hahee :•)

For her Naruto AU she exists on a branching timeline, one branch where she falls in love with Shino and one where she falls in love with Kankuro! ew!

In the Shino timeline she takes on a more taijutsu focused fighting style thus we have taiJuhi! 

Because of her weight/density she moves pretty slow for a ninja, but her mental reaction speed is typical of any decent shinobi. So don't let her catch you cuz her punches swing like a cannon and she will grapple her opponents and cook them alive. Her weight also makes it hard to knock her off balance.

Not great at long distance fighting. Sometimes uses a metal two-handed weapon.

Bein' a ninja's really tough for her since she's slow, but she wants it badly and works hard to keep up

Later in life she moves to and works in Konoha at a nuclear power plant owned and run by her clan wtf

Shino has been to Juhi's home island a couple times and he has to wear a lead suit to survive the harsh and nearly uninhabitable environment. The people from the island evolved to withstand it.

The first time he went, they took a ship to the island then went by train for a few hundred miles into the centre where the village is. The first time was for a mission, another Aburame came too. Some time during their friendship, Juhi gifted Shino beetles from her island that can survive the environment. Shino selectively bred them to be usable as an extra layer of protection beneath his and his clansman's skin to protect their internal organs while on the mission! How goofy

In the Kankuro timeline she takes on a more ninjutsu focused fighting style thus we have ninJuhi! 

Later in life she works a job 6 months out of the year on her home island as a sentinel for the family who governs the island?? 

In this timeline she dies some time during the events in Boruto ig (still haven't gotten to Boruto yet tho). Her seal malfunctions and everything she touches burns or melts and everywhere she stands she sinks into the ground. She's far from home and all she can think to do to save everyone from herself is to run into the ocean. Her footfalls sound like thunder and the ground shakes deeply as she pounds the ground running towards the shore. The sand turns into a hard crust beneath every foot step that hits the beach. Suddenly, her sprinting figure turns into noise and white haze as she reaches the tides and nobody can see her anymore. It's the water, hissing deafeningly loud as it evaporates into thick clouds instantly upon contact with her body. Her body's efficient energy usage takes her far into the ocean before she begins to run out of chakra. Her body starts to cool down from the ocean water and she's getting too tired to hold up the weight of her 3.4 tonne body. Eventually she crumples on the ocean floor and dies, melting and embedding into the earth's crust.

She loves spicy food

uhhh that was a lot of boring information sorry about that! wanted this post to be short but got carried away :•( her life's supposed to be kind of a crooked painful mess but she's pretty cheery cuz to her it's all normal and she's got the love and support of her friends and family baby! ain't that how it always goes in Naruto also sorry for sloppy writing im dum

[crvelsovls]

—

ophelia tate has been walking around town. hazelgrove is familiar of the thirty-one year old hunter. she is aware of the supernatural residents in town. the people of hazelgrove can agree that the librarian can be vehement yet still be reticent. let’s just hope things in town can settle down. + delicate fingers adorned with moonstone gem rings, a coy smile spread across peach-tinted lips and a slender form shrouded in an air of mystery and intrigue. 

s’up buttercups ?? ‘tis me again, here with my second gal ; ophelia. she’s my clever lil huntress who’s loosely based on various past muses of mine. she’s a lot more... innocent that delphine but she’s still quite fiery and sarcastic dkjsdsh anyways, i’ll save you all from my pointless babbles but as usual, pls flick that lil grey heart n i’ll shimmy my irish butt into your ims for plots !! : )

FUNDAMENTALS.

full name. ophelia penelope tate.

nicknames. o, phe, & effie.

current age. thirty-one.

birthday. january thirty-first.

gender. cisgender female.

pronouns. she / her.

species. human.

nationality. british.

religion. raised a catholic but no longer practices.

birthplace. london, england.

current residence. hazelgrove, me.

sexual orientation. bisexual.

romantic orientation. demiromantic.

education. english literature degree.

occupation. librarian at hazelgrove public library.

CONNECTIONS.

birth mother. natalie tate. †

birth father. alexander tate. †

full blood siblings. astrid tate. †

maternal grandmother. katherine reynolds.

maternal grandfather. marcus reynolds. †

paternal grandmother. anika tate.

paternal grandfather. edward tate. †

maternal aunts. odette reynolds.

maternal uncles. none.

paternal aunts. sophia tate.

paternal uncles. duncan tate. †

PROFICIENCIES.

spoken languages. english, french, & latin.

negative traits. capricious, ornery, impulsive, guileful, & caustic.

positive traits. ardent, whimsical, intrepid, graceful, & poised.

strengths. etiquette, bold, rational, practical, original, perceptive, direct, & sociable.

weaknesses. dramatic, impulsive, quick-tempered, insensitive, impatient, risk-prone, unstructured, misses the bigger picture, & defiant.

skills. skilled with blades and various knives, hand-to-hand combat, perception, persuasiveness, good judgment, & able to use initiative.

talents. retaining information, memory recall, knife throwing, & quick thinking.

APPEARANCE.

eye colour. blue.

hair colour. blonde.

height. five feet, four inches.

weight. 52 kg.

build. she is of quite a petite stature, and slender with mild curves.

scars. a long, silvery one running along half her spine.

tattoos. n/a.

piercings. earlobes.

glasses. yes, but usually wears contacts.

MISCELLANEOUS.

zodiac. aquarius.

element. air.

house. ravenclaw.

myers briggs type. estp-t.

alignment. neutral good.

enneagram. type seven.

temperament. sanguine

intelligence type. interpersonal.

character label. the orphic.

past mental disorders. post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, & suicidal tendencies.

current mental disorders. undiagnosed.

addictions. nicotine.

vices. wrath, envy, & pride.

virtues. temperance, charity, & diligence.

allergies. penicillin.

diet. vegetarian.

dominant hand. left.

accent. mostly english with a mild twang of notable american.

blood type. b negative.

vehicle. bottle green 2015 volkswagen beetle.

BACKGROUND.

trigger(s). mention of exorcism, mentions of murder, & mentions of death. 

born and raised in london, the tate family seemed picture-perfect. though, underneath, the story was very different from how it seemed. while ophelia and her younger sister were showered with love and affection, their parents remained mostly absent albeit for fleeting moments in time. it wasn’t until ophelia grew older that she became more curious about what led her parents astray for weeks at a time. under the illusion that her parents were simply important figures, perhaps lawyers or detectives, a childish ophelia had never considered that their lives had been tainted by a much more corrupt presence. 

eventually, it transpired that her parents were hunters. more specifically, people who hunted down supernatural creatures and put an end to their existence. or, tried, at least. how ophelia stumbled across this fact was by pure chance. her grandfather had been visiting and she had walked into the basement where she witnessed her father and his father attempting to exorcise what she then described as a ‘man with black eyes.’ nowadays, she’d refer to said man and his kind as demonic bastards. 

of course, with their sights elsewhere, the demon managed to free himself only to murder her father and grandfather in the process. if it hadn’t been for her mother, ophelia would have ceased to exist that night also. it was that night that her mother shipped them off to live with their aunt for a while but eventually, after a week or so, her mother returned.

seemingly, everything had been fine until one night when their home was attacked by a pair of vampires. these vampires having been survivors of their mothers attack on their nest, thus they tailed her and laid low until the most opportune moment where they attacked. how ophelia managed to escape that night was anybody’s guess. though the rest of the household hadn’t been so lucky.

having lost her parents, sister and aunt to supernatural creatures, ophelia grew up with a deep rooted hatred for every creature of the night. it had taken her many years to learn of each creature, their weaknesses, strengths and, most importantly, how to kill them. but once she had mastered the art, she set out on a mission to hunt like her parents before her. admittedly, in the beginning, she’d had some near misses, brushing with death many times. but with more hunts under her belt, the better she became.

eventually, ophelia decided to leave london behind in search of the states where she was certain there would be ample supernatural beings endangering the lives of innocents. she moved around for a few years until she settled in hazelgrove where she soon learned that the town harboured an abundance of things that went bump in the night. it was this fact alone that she opted for staying put where she also works as a librarian; constantly researching and reading up on various creatures.

becoming a hunter hadn’t been something that had ever crossed her mind until she’d lost everything. in fact, it had been a path that she should have never stumbled across if it hadn’t been for her witnessing the demon that night. still, nevertheless, it was the road she’d travelled down now and with resentment deep in her bones, there would be no stopping her.

PERSONALITY.

to all who encounter her, ophelia can appear on the surface an extremely reckless and careless woman with a huge tendency to adopt a sardonic tongue during almost all occasions. given her demeanour and attitude, it would be fair to assess that all the blonde is, is a satirical mouthpiece with a permanent simper corroded into the corner of her lips. despite this all, the shell of ophelia does contain much more substance. regardless of her blasé attitude, a passionate, whimsical girl remains deep within the high walls of her persona. it’s almost safe to say that the facade she paints over herself every day is nothing more than a basic ruse; a temporary fixture to aid in slowly but permanently fixing the broken fractions of her mind. it goes without saying that ophelia is constantly shrouded in mystery, concealing her true emotions and feigning any feelings whatsoever. although a sensitive, vulnerable aspect of her persona remains, it seldom prevails against her impulsive, sarcastic, intelligent nature. the problem with being clever is already knowing the things others try so desperately to hide from you. ophelia knows how others view her, she sees how they look at her. everybody assumes she’s too difficult to reason with and believe she’s even tougher to understand. it is this that enables ophelia to flirt with danger, use her words as a weapon and also a bargaining chip. it is this that gives ophelia an overwhelming sense of adrenaline, swimming through her veins and fuelling the fire that lies within the pit of her stomach.

QUICK FACTS.

can drink any man under the table.

smol but fierce.

one of those people who just excels at everything they try their hand at.

has a very high pain tolerance. seriously, it’s kinda freaky.

the only thing she’s truly terrified of is spiders. those eight-legged cretins have her shaking like a leaf.

absolutely adores animals. much prefers them to humans.

was raised a catholic and went to an all-girls catholic school but she no longer practices.

doesn’t drink much as she doesn’t like to be out of control even in the slightest.

she quite likes being a hunter and she does the job very well. attention to detail is key when she’s working.

is a very reckless driver, it’s a surprise she hasn’t been in an accident yet.

looks innocent but really isn’t in every sense of the word.

she’s that bitch that loves reading and has a thing for poetry.

she’s quite adventurous and loves to feel the adrenaline in her blood.

doesn’t take herself or her life too seriously.

a bit meddlesome and a troublemaker.

always up for a good time and is usually the life of the party.

outspoken and quick-witted with a sharp tongue.

WANTED PLOTS.

for wanted connections and potential plots, i’m open to just about anything so feel free to hmu for connections or any plots you can think of !! some i’d really love are :

best friend ( pls give my girl a bff she can tell everything to and can party with and just do best pal stuff with like platonic soul mates pls. )

childhood friend ( they maybe drifted apart ? )

an on off relationship ( pretty much like a fwb type situation or casual hookup situation that could develop into feelings or just remain casual. )

a potential love interest ( bonus points if it’s angsty. )

exes / past flings / one night stands.

enemies and rivals.

drinking / party buddies.

and obviously connections with fellow hunters and the supernatural oOoOoOo.

[peachpeachtea]

Region base leaders/apprentices

I briefly mentioned the leaders and their kiddos on the last post so we’re gonna get into them now here we goooo (excuse the old art on my part i dont have time to make new refs--also all artists/contributors will be tagged accordingly) 

Lark Base--Base Leader, Cadi--Apprentice, Marna  Cadi: She’s the youngest of the 6 base leaders stationed in Asnia (At 20), and the most temperamental. She values hard work and independence, and despises it when people try to coddle or underestimate her abilities. While she runs a tight ship, she tends to be brash, LOUD, and impatient overall,--she’s self assured and very much carries her pride for everyone to see. Her partner is a Dubwool, Clementine, and in her spare time, Cadi has a herd of Wooloo that she takes care off and is v e ry protective over--she often spends nights taking care of them and making sure no trespassers startle the sheepies (and if she catches anyone they get whacked with her staff at BEST--her neighbors aren’t unaccustomed to hearing loud, Galarian swearing in the middle of the night). On that note: she has a really bad sailor mouth. 

Marna: Similar to how Cadi is the youngest of the leaders, Marna is the youngest of the current apprentices in the region. She has a curious nature, and is a bit of an energetic busy bee, who rarely has time or patience to sit down/relax--she’s constantly working on something or another, whether it’s helping Cadi do paperwork (see: doing it for her because Cadi is incapable of filing decent paperwork and Marna cannot stand disorganization), or working in her normal duties. Her work ethic is, in a word, unreal, and that’s one of the reasons why Cadi values her so much as an apprentice and friend. Marna tends to be a bit picky and stuffy, but she thrives in her work and loves helping people. She’s the one to ask the most questions/the one to have the most answers. She’s also loves birds!! Swablu, Cirrus, is a testament to that. She loves him and he can usually be seen perched on her head sleeping. 

-------- Cypress Base--Base Leader, Hades--Apprentice, Lethe  Hades: The leader of the north mountain base, Hades is a confident transman who leads with a rather cool head. In his past he was a very feared individual known as "Hel, ruler of hell" due to his grip on the gang life of the region. He's done things he's not proud of and would likely never talk about. A skilled climber and dedicated to his job and training of his partner Drednaw Cerberus-- he's just a supportive dad figure. Has known Russell for many years, and as mentioned, is a sort of father figure to Lethe. 

(Hades and his art belongs to @edwardsbraid btw!)  Lethe: The least energetic of the apprentices, Lethe is a troubled but soft hearted boy who didn’t intend to become a Ranger at all--he was living by himself with no income for years, on account of having no parents to speak of (abandonment issues ahoy)--his recommendation to the academy was a complete accident, but the school had free boarding and it gave him a purpose, so he took the opportunity while he had it. While he loves what he does, and has made two good friends out of this, he’s struggling to come to terms with his issues and struggles to keep up with his peers.  He tends to be a trouble magnet, so the plot hammer will not be kind to him umu. He’s a bit indecisive, timid and an easy crier, but he genuinely loves pokemon/people and wants to be of use to everyone somehow. He’s not much of a logistical thinker but he’s definitely not a push over physically, which comes in handy--he has no partner pokemon for plot reasons that i will reveal later. 

---------- Red Oak Base (Base is still in development so this portion is likely to be updated in the future)--Base Leader, Bridget--Apprentice, Alex

Bridget: Bridget- A senior base leader with a strong sense of morality and an attitude to back it, she has no trouble rearing in even the most stubborn of rangers. Only the most confident and worthy are able to perform an apprenticeship under her and are expected to take over all Union duties alongside the Base Leader role. In times of peace and outside of work, she enjoys quiet days in her cottage with her trusted Luxray (Queenie) and looking after her Granddaughter Fraise. Her base is integral to communications between the south and north sides of Asnia Rangers, because geographically it’s in the exact center of the region (and her area has the best weather of the two sides). This is typically where all the leaders and apprentices meet up for important meetings and such. 

  Alex: Bridget’s apprentice and a stubborn lad--he and Bridget are often bickering with each other. He’s a dumb little hothead who likes to challenge people and bicker with his mentor. He and her fight like siblings and poke fun at each other’s age (he calls her Granny). Will do things just because someone says he can’t (IE try to lift a log twice his size just because someone said he couldn’t), eagerly and affectionately combative. Possibly has a crush on one of the other apprentices but umu thats a topic for later. 

(Both Alex and Bridget belong to @humanblt​!)

--------- Willow Base--Leader, Russell, Apprentice-- Hestia  Russell:  A former violent tempered and loud mouthed delinquent, used to be Hades literal partner in crime and has been his close friend for many years--eventually, after some personal events that i’ll get into later, Russell got tired of his crime sprees. He has since turned over a new leaf and is a quiet, amicable young man who wouldn't hurt a fly--he’s determined to get as far away from his past as possible, to the point where he dropped his real name and decided to go by Russell. He refuses to hurt people if the need isn't dire, and has been labeled as a weenie for his pacifistic behavior/even temper. While soft hearted, he can be stern, and isn’t afraid to be tough when needed. Dearly loves his town and his new life as a peacekeeper. Terrified of ghosts/creepy places (ironic because he works in the spooky part of Asnia--the local ghost types like to pick on him). Usually seen helping old ladies across the street and chopping fire wood--very sensitive about his age and scarred face, and cries when someone points out a gray hair. Has a Corviknight, Cobalt, who is usually perched at the top of the base. In charge of keeping people out of the deeper part of the woods behind his town. Has a long term crush on Carys and clams up when she's around.

(art done as a collaborative by me and  roseheart-exe)  Hestia: Hestia is a cryptic but very sweet and dedicated girl from regions unknown. She often gives off the vibes that she knows more than she lets on, and often speak in riddles or vague non sequiturs. Locals tend to be unnerved by her general disposition, comparing her to a “ghost, at best”. She hates fire, is creeped out by dolls of any sort, and is easy to startle, despite her best efforts to appear calm and collected. Hestia tries to be kind and amiable, and loves her few friends very deeply, but she’s incredibly stubborn and refuses help when she needs it. Her upbringing made her a firm believer in self reliance. She dislikes people who pry or ask too many questions, and worries over others constantly. She looks up to Russell as a mentor and is especially close to him. Her Pokemon is a Lampent, Chandelle (Chandy). She’s never seen without her hat or her lantern, which glows very dimly--she’s very possessive of them and avoids questions regarding either. Incredibly difficult to make her cry: some people are convinced she can’t. Very sensitive, feelings hurt easily--May or may not be pining after one of her base colleagues, who we will get to in another post. Tends to go “Teehee” when dodging questions or lying. Cadi’s current greatest enemy, because Hestia wanders at night and has accidentally startled her sheep on multiple occasions. 

------- Seabream Base--Leader, Ripley--Apprentice, Melanie  Ripley: Ripley: A beachside base leader!! Very beautiful, but also very terrifying to many. She broke a man’s arm once, and while the context has been lost to time, the reputation she got from it remains strong. Isn’t afraid to flex her reputation when it suits her. Has a mermaid-esque beauty that has earned her a fan club. Her base members are her family, and she is a fierce mama bear when it comes to protecting them. Has a Sharpedo, Shin. Became close with Hestia after a few plot related happenings. 

(Ripley and her art belong to @nimikyu​!)  Melanie: A bright and upbeat former lounge singer working under Ripley, loves nothing more than making people smile and smiling in return. Incredibly patient and impossible to piss off, and loves writing letters to her friend in Pinnate base and sending her little gifts. Tends to be a bit oblivious when not working, often described as having her head in the clouds. Takes her job more seriously than she lets on, and works incredibly hard to meet her Leader’s standards--she admires Ripley more than anyone--Melanie also is incredibly popular because of her former status as a singer so she gets way more attention that she bargained form--but she’s an entertainer at heart and tourists love her, which is why she’s in charge of them/in charge of making sure they don’t wander places they shouldn’t. Has a Wingull, Rio, who sometimes delivers her letters. Makes necklaces as a hobby. 

------- Pinnate Base--Leader, Carys--Apprentice, Rudy  Carys: Cadi’s older sister--A mild mannered, surprisingly strong young woman from Galar. Much calmer and levelheaded than her baby sister, although, sometimes she's too calm, and can come off as overly-relaxed and airheaded. An incredible swimmer, she also works part time as a life guard in her spare time. Cheerful and smiley, eager to help, spends alot of time with the local kids/local elders. (Not to say that she doesnt have a temper, because if you set her off you'll be subjected to Cadi 2.0). Tries to offer help to her sister often, only to be vehemently refused over and over. Can beat all the sailors in her town at arm wrestling, wears sunscreen on her face to encourage others to do the same. Runs a very tight ship and values teamwork and bonding. Has a Swampert, Johanna, who helps keep an eye on the weather/preform water rescues. Vocally skeptic about the supernatural, as an important side note. 

(Fantastic art done by @bastart13​ !! check their art out its gorgeous)

Rudy (bio will be updated periodically)!: A bit of a no nonsense, kind of moody boy--He has alot of respect for Carys in particular because he tends to be blunt and she's the only one who isn’t phased by it and doesnt let it affect her opinion of him. He reminds her alot of Cadi, so she's used to it and knows how to handle the teenage angst. Has a Sandyghast, Gobi! Sometimes Gobi loses their shovel and has a little flag instead. 

(This little man belongs to @liimonpriince​)!  And that’s the gist for all the major protags--supporting cast will come next, and then we’ll get to the bad guys :) 

[starshipsandsuperheroes]

Top 5 DnD moments from a campaign you were in?

Ok so this is the most difficult ask to answer because when I sat down to come up with my top 5 I accidentally came up with a list of my Top 46 that I might post later and offer to expand on any story that piques anyone’s interest because lbr all I ever want to do is talk about the incredible stories I feel blessed to be able to tell, because my friends and party members are so fucking talented as actors and as storytellers and are just wonderful people and I -

Anyways

I’l put my top 5 under a cut, and y’all stay tuned if you want more where this came from for the teaser version of what I consider my “best of” list

Ask me my top 5 anything!

This is literally the hardest list in the world but ok in no particular order

1.) The Ship In A Storm

I’ve told this story before on here so I’ll keep it brief, but the moment that truly led me to understand how DND really could be anything was the day wizardsoup had us roll initiative to help handle a ship caught in a storm.  The campaign’s no longer running, but it changed how I play, no word of a lie.  We made skill checks and decided what needed to be done (and the order it needed to be done in), then on the storm’s “turn,” based on what we had done/not done, the action progressed accordingly.  It was creative and flexible and so so cool, and was super formative in my understanding of what you could actually do with DND.

2.) Slightly Damaged Horse Mug

From the Ambiscade campaign, run by my wife of twelve years wizardsoup.  This is a more recent one, and decidedly not a long one, but in raiding a criminal group’s hideaway, ding-dong-diddly-dick’s mullet cowboy bard found the best fucking item ever to come out of an investigation check, the Slightly Damaged Horse Mug.  Does it do anything?  Well it holds liquid.  Is it magic?  No.  Does it have a slightly damaged horse head protruding from it that gives it a certain… je ne sais qui?  Absolutely.

3.) The Eris Arc’s Culmination

The longest campaign I’ve ever played in has run for three years, and we’ll be going into our fourth year come September.  The first arc of the campaign ran for a little over a year with sammygiddings at the helm (where she remains, champion of DM’ing and my heart).  It’s a campaign based and flavored in antiquity, blending Greco-Roman and Egyptian mythological theming primarily with splashes of other mythologies here and there for taste.  I’m so fucking lucky to be a part of it, y’all have no idea.

The arc, for the most part, saw us retrieving items off a list provided to us by an “ally" in an attempt to gain power necessary to locate and rescue the gods from whatever had been slowly taking them and hiding them away.  Eventually, we learned that the angel worked for Eris, the manifestation of chaos older than almost everything in the world, whom we had previously identified as the antagonist of this campaign.  Unfortunately, everything we did in our attempt to stop her played straight into her hands.  We led her to Heh, her counterpart, in an attempt to get his help - which is what she had wanted all along.  Almost like it was nothing had our two demigods get kidnapped alongside the one we had gone to find so we could warn him, since it turned out that list was actually meant to more give the universe a hard reset, and the secret ingredient was three demigods.  

The session where everything broke down, the party (save for my and one other PC) travelled to the Shadowfell to free the gods, while the demigods tried to frenetically figure out how to not get used for Bad Ending Soup.  The party was on top of their fucking game, freeing the gods so they could return to their domains.  We managed not to get made into Soup, but it was primarily because Heh was looking out for us - when Eris moved to strike after a particularly moronic “What are you gonna do, kill me?” on my part, he leapt out and engaged her in battle.

It was a fucking treat to watch.  They fought each other like it was the best thing that had happened to them in hundreds of thousands of years, and sammygiddings played the parts incredibly.  There was a rip open to Tartarus, which would imprison either of them were they to fall.  Eventually, Heh caught her in a hug, whispered to her a moment, and tipped the both of them down the pit.  The utter silence that the room was filled with will never leave me.  I just remember shaking, looking around the rest of the room in disbelief, and the utter silence followed by the quiet murmuring that started up as we processed that it had really worked.

Also, after something like that, reuniting with your party Hits Different.

4.) Snow in Giza

This is a moment from during the Eris arc when the Gods Getting Taken thing started to go in a very serious direction.  Our paladin suddenly lost access to his powers, and, knowing what that might mean, we rushed to Giza (his home city and the location of the temple of Horus, his father) to see what was going on.  He jumped off the boat and sprinted through the city, my character hot on his tail to make sure he didn’t run into trouble alone.  

We made it to the temple and pushed past the perimeter the Temple of Mat (basically the police) had set up to find the ceiling cracked, the statue fallen, and the clerics in disbelief.  What really sticks out in my mind, though, was when we left the temple.  The paladin and I were the only two PCs from Egypt - which made it all the more impactful when we stepped just out the doorway and sammygiddings, in an artful moment of setting a terrifying tone, described the small, white, cold flakes that had begun to fall from the sky.  It was snowing in Giza.

It wasn’t a huge moment, technically?  But for whatever reason, every time I think through that experience, I lose my entire mind because it’s so vibrant.

5.) The Popcorn Fight

I debated for a while which experience from the Lakewood Campaign (a wild west, anti-capitalist, anarchist, and overall delightful campaign) I was gonna put on this list.  I almost put our Astral Plane Adventure, but I could dedicate an entire post to that, so I picked something a little more succinct from literally two sessions ago - the popcorn fight.

The characters in this campaign have taken a long time to get to what most parties fall into easily.  There’s been, for a long time, a lack of trust, a lot of secrets, and conflicting motivations between characters that made it hard to settle into a comfortable rhythm, mostly as a PC but even to some extent as a player.  The story was thrilling, the characters were electric, but the conflict made it difficult for them to connect.  

Recently, that’s started to shift a lot.  Our characters trust each other, even if they won’t say it.  Dare I even speak it, they like each other, and they care for each other.  I could have told you this was the direction everything was going without this moment, but the popcorn fight solidified it.  Having retrieved an NPC party member from a deal gone wrong (long story) with the help of a guest player, the main party returned to where we’ve been staying, and immediately our snack devolved into a full-out food fight.  Said NPC party member was hanging by the door, and had almost decided to go out again, when she realized what was happening inside and came in to join us in battle.

It was lighthearted and fun, something rare to find in this campaign.  More than that, it was a sign and manifestation of something shifting in the party’s dynamic that was really fulfilling.

Ok sorry for the ASS long answer and I’ll probably post the abbreviated list of my favorite moments with the offer to elaborate on any of them for anyone interested in a bit lakjsdfa ty for the amazing question and excuse to ramble about how creative and talented my friends are

[mlmdarkfiction]

Power of Three

For a Friend who wishes to remain anonymous

Fandom: Dead By Daylight Ship: David King /Jeff Johansen/Danny Johnson Description: Instead of confiding in each other when odd things begin to happen to them in their everyday lives, David, Jeff, and Danny decide to keep it to themselves instead, leading to things becoming worse and worse until they all disappear one by one. No trigger warnings, however the fic is very canon divergent/close to a different canon entirely. Read on AO3: 

Read Below:

Jeff wakes with a start, covered in a sheen a sweat, hair sticking to his face. A nightmare. That’s what it was. He recognizes this fact immediately, as he’s met with the familiar surroundings of the apartment he shared with his boyfriends.

He’d fallen asleep on the couch again. A bad habit the man had formed some time ago. His nightmare, he notes, was probably caused by the playing of Halloween, left on the TV.

He’s sure Danny was watching with him, but maybe the other man had ditched him when he’d started to snore. Wouldn’t be the first time he complained about Jeff falling asleep while they’re supposed to be watching something, and then snoring so loud he can’t actually enjoy it.

Turning the TV off doesn’t calm his post nightmare anxiety, neither does realizing he can hear both of his boyfriends bickering somewhere else within the apartment.

Jeff lies on his back, staring up at the ceiling, his eyes making patterns in the white paint.  The dream, or more accurately the nightmare is still fresh in his mind. It’s odd enough that he remembers it at all.

Woods, dark woods, and he’s running for his life from something but…he can’t quite remember what. Whatever it was that was chasing him, it was blending into the darkness, blending in and-

“Hey! Why’d you turn the movie off?”

Any more thoughts on his nightmare are interrupted by Danny literally flopping onto him on the couch. He’s got a bowl of popcorn with him, as reaches over for the remote. “You don’t get to fall asleep on me and turn off my movie, that’s fucked up.”

“Sorry. What were you and David fighting about?” “What do we always fight about?” Speak of the devil.

Danny doesn’t elaborate, just sticking his tongue out at David before shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“Fuck you.” “Fuck me yourself, coward.”

It’s normal. The normalcy is enough to calm any left-over anxiety. He readjusts the Danny on his lap, sitting up to enjoy the rest of the movie.

-

Danny is jittery. Something just doesn’t feel right about his walk. He grips the knife in his pocket, he carries it for protection, even if his boyfriends argue it’s a bit much.

It’s not uncommon for him to go out this late. He does it all the time, taking photos of things just slightly off putting enough to be interesting.

The photos he takes for the paper are all mundane, just shots of people and events, things that are boring and a waste of his time. No one cares about the photo’s he actually wants to take. No one but Jeff…and maybe David. Danny’s still not convinced that David just pretends to be interested in what he and Jeff talk about when it comes to art.

He doesn’t take long to think on this though Every other step he takes fills him with anxiety. It’s like something in the darkness is watching him.

He’s the people watcher, he’s the predator. This role reversal is what makes it incredibly nerve wracking. He knows what he would do if he were the stalker in this situation, and it terrifies him.  

Finally, he’s had enough, pointing his camera into the darkness and taking a photo. The flash lights up the dark…at least some of it. Danny saw it, a large portion of the darkness, a blob of it seemingly unmoved or caring about the camera’s flash.

Maybe his eyes are playing tricks on him, maybe…

Danny snaps another photo, just in case he is seeing things, but no, the flash once again penetrates only some of the darkness.

The rest seems to be advancing on him, getting closer, and closer.

Fuck.

Whatever it is advancing on him, he’s not waiting to see what it will do. He turns, high tailing it off the path as fast as he can, not even stopping when his camera slips from his grasp crashing onto the rocky ground below, only to be absorbed like everything else into the darkness.  

-

David went out to the bar by himself. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy spending time with his boyfriends, he does, but it’s much easier to blow off steam without them. You see David enjoys getting into fights. He enjoys the adrenaline rush he gets while tussling with some drunken rando, and he enjoys the fact that nine times out of ten he wins. And he used these fights, and these wins, to justify his masculinity to himself.

One of the reasons his boyfriends insisted he doesn’t need to do this. That he has nothing to prove to himself, or to others.

David knows, on some level that they’re right, but that doesn’t stop him from needing to do this. So when Danny’s sick, and Jeff’s busy taking care of him he manages to convince them both he’ll be fine to go out on his own for a little. He does feel a bit guilty leaving his sick boyfriend just to go out drinking and fighting, but he needs this. And besides, it’s not as if there’s anything he can do that Jeff can’t.

The bartender knows David, even with how little he’s come in recently, David see’s how the man’s eyes narrow. A reminder that he will be kicked out if he starts anything inside, any fighting he wants to do should be outside the bar. David can respect that.

He keeps to the rules, at least until he finds a man drunk and belligerent enough to piss him off. David’s the one who gets up, grabbing the man from the shoulder, and pulling him back from the bar.

“Come on- You and me. Outside.”

The drunken man blinks several times, taking multiple minutes to actually understand what it is David’s said to him, and by then the much younger man’s already pulling the drunkard out of the bar and into the street.

David doesn’t even get a chance to throw a punch before the other man is torn free from his gasp, fist colliding with the side of David’s face.

It stings, but more than the physical pain is the shame of knowing he just got slammed by someone who was far more intoxicated then him.

This was supposed to be an easy fight, once David could win without a scratch, and then return home his ego inflated, not get almost KO’d in one shot.

He stumbles back, leaning against the wall, and it’s then he realizes there’s something off with this man he’d chosen to fight. What was definitely just a regular drunkard before was now definitely… something inhuman. It’s the eyes. That’s what makes him realize that something is wrong.

The drunkards eyes, they’re pure black.

All David knows is that suddenly he’s back, in front of his home, no strange black-eyed man in sight. He makes his way inside, but no matter how much he tries, David’s unable to relax until sunrise.

- Maybe things would have gone differently if they had told each other about the odd things that were happening. The nightmares, the stalking, the strangers with pitch black eyes.

But they don’t. All three seemed to silently agree to keep their discoveries to themselves. Jeff simply doesn’t want to worry his boyfriends with something as simple as reoccurring nightmares. Danny’s afraid that his experiences are nothing more than his mental state deteriorating, and what revealing his struggles to his boyfriends could mean in the long run. And David is simply unwilling to admit to the others that this problem all came back to his fighting, something he was supposed to have given up already.

And by refusing to share their experiences with each other, they doomed themselves.

It’s Danny who goes missing first.

He was there one day, and the next he was gone. As far as David and Jeff knew, aside from them, he had no friends, no family, no one else to miss him. It was almost as if he’d never even existed in the first place.

But that’s not true. He did exist. And they did miss him. Everyday.

Both men were a wreck, and although they tried everything in their power to figure out just what had happened…

They never learned anything.

The police even went as far as to claim that, because there was no evidence, that perhaps Danny had willingly left to start fresh somewhere, or that he’d even gone as far as to kill himself, doing so in a way that they hadn’t yet found the body.

But neither man could allow themselves to believe such a thing. For all his quirks and occasional bitterness, Danny loved them. There’s no situation in which he’d leave them, but even if somehow, for some reason, Danny did decide he was going to leave…then why would he leave his camera?

It’s his prized possession, and like all of Danny’s other things, it stays untouched exactly where he’d last left it in the apartment.

When Jeff goes missing-

At least when Jeff goes missing David’s able to make some sense of it.

His mind is whirring with all sorts of theories.

But the one that makes the most sense, is what the police thought happened to Danny.

David thinks, tries to accept, the very real possibility that Jeff killed himself.

The man had struggled with his mental health long before Danny had disappeared, and although Jeff had done his best to keep it from David, he wasn’t stupid, he saw how everything just kept getting worse, and that there was nothing that David could do to stop it.

And with both Jeff and Danny gone, all that left was David. David completely alone in an apartment far to big for the one person, an apartment filled to the brim with reminders of people who are no longer with him.

He breaks within days.

David doesn’t care about the black-eyes stranger that he’d confronted before at the bar, or the fear the man had caused.

He wants a drink.

And what’s more…

What does he care? What does he have to be afraid of? What does he have to live for now?

David welcomes the inevitable fate that awaits him that night when he goes to the bar. He welcomes the group of men, talking in too loud drunk voices, about mugging him. He welcomes the fight and beating that follows.

It goes as well for David as one would expect. A three versus one fight, that leaves David bleeding out alone in the dark of the alley way behind the bar.

But…he doesn’t die.

Despite his deliriousness, the alcohol, the bleeding out, David is still aware enough of his surroundings to notice the shift. He notices the way the world around him shifts into darkness. The void shifts and turns around him

-

When David comes to, it’s not the dim streetlights of the alleyway that he’s faced with, but the unfamiliar crackling of a campfire.

“Jeff- Jeff he’s awake!”

He doesn’t get to question what’s going on. The campfire, the unfamiliar female voice, and the name. Jeff’s name.

David doesn’t get to question it because he’s pulled into an embrace, a familiar one at that. It’s Jeff. It smells like Jeff, it feels like Jeff, and the fast talking, blubbering voice above him definitely belongs to Jeff.

“Jeff?”

“Yeah?”

“Please stop crying. I have a headache…and that sound is just…the worst.”

It’s comfortable though, being held by Jeff again, after all this time thinking he was dead. Even if David can feel the prying eyes of strangers watching the two of them.

“I thought you were-“

“Dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Not dead just…here.”

David finally looks around to get in a look of their encompassing surroundings. Fog, a darkened forest, and the campfire surrounded by equally confused and damaged looking group of people.

“Where exactly is here?”

He listens to the explanation from Jeff and the others; an Entity, and a never-ending game of life and death meant to keep it fed on all of their individual suffering.

Still despite the explanation, David’s just thinking one thing.

He cups Jeff’s face.

“If you’re here does that mean….”

The other man doesn’t have to answer, the look of despair on the metal heads face is more than enough of an answer.

Danny isn’t here.

-

At least as far as they know.

Because Danny is within the Entity’s realm, simply not with the survivors. Danny was sent to the side of the Killers, their own fire, a sanctuary for them as well in between the trials.

He knew why.

Why he’d been chosen to be a killer and not a survivor.

He’s not ashamed of what he’d done before coming here, he refuses to be ashamed of his art.

But then Jeff arrived

The only thing Danny had missed at first in his pseudo captivity were his partners.

And then Jeff arrived.

His course of action was simple, and easy.

Under no situation was Jeff allowed to know that Danny was here, and under no situation was Jeff to find out what Danny had become- no, who Danny had always been.

Keeping his secret hidden was an easy enough task. It’s not as if the killers and survivors had any contact outside of the trials, and when faced with one another well…

Danny made sure Jeff was sacrificed. Every time. Every single trial.

-

This task only got harder with the addition of David, however.

David, who was more than happy to put himself between Jeff and harm’s way.

David, who without fail got Jeff down from the hook before the Entity could come.

And when David finally got tired of defending, and of saving, he got angry. The anger grew until he fought back.

A piece of glass lodging itself within Danny’s shoulder blade as he carried the boxers towards the hook.

The scream that ripped from his lips was familiar.

His game was over.

Identity discovered, not by the removal of a mask, but the pained scream which ripped from his throat.

There was no mistaking the glint of familiarity in David’s eyes, nor the way it was quickly replaced with betrayal.

Although the injury was far from severe, Ghost Face wasn’t seen for the rest of the match, the survivors, David included, were all able to leave, (mostly) unharmed.

-

David doesn’t tell Jeff.

He can’t bring himself to.

This place has already taken so much from the two of them, and there’s no reason to add to Jeff’s suffering.

It’s nicer, David thinks, to let Jeff continue to believe that Danny simply left them in the real world.

To let him think that at least one person he cares about may still be free, living a happy regular life, and not trapped in this hell hole.

[notyourinquisitormate]

I see people ranking the Love Death + Robots eps so here's my list 🖤❌🤖

From best to worst:

1. Sonnie's Edge

Oh dear, where do I start. Amazing animation, great story and an even greater monster fight scene. The double twist in the end won my heart. My top fave Love Death + Robots episode. I could talk about this one all day. Honestly, Sonnie's Edge should be at least an 1 hour movie.

2. Good Hunting!

I fell in love with the story and the art style fit the setting perfectly. Combining steampunk themes with magic, while exploring the effects of modernization on both humans and magical creatures was a brilliant idea.

3. Beyond the Aquila Rift

Again, awesome animation?? I loved it from start to finish (except maybe for the long and completely irrelevant to the plot sex scene😂). I see many posts about how this episode fucked people up and, to be honest, the ending did leave me a bit shaken too. However, Greta remains an intriguing character and I would have loved to see more of her. Or at least a last attempt from her part to communicate with Thom after her revelation.

4. Three Robots

This whole episode had me laughing and I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic settings. With wholesome characters, a fascinating and unique plot idea and some great comedy, this could easily make a succesful mini series. I would watch the shit out of it.

5. Shape-Shifters

Werewolves. Marine werewolves. I personally didn't really need much else to love the ep description. In addition to the very interesting concept of supernatural beings living amongst humans without always having to hide their true identity, this episode was also an amazing piece of animation. Good fight scene, and even though my heart still hurts i really enjoyed it as a whole.

6. The Secret War

For about half the ep I was sure it was a live action short film (or at least partially). Good plot and we do get closure in the end, which doesn't really apply to all the episodes of Love Death + Robots. Still one of the sad stories of the series.

7. Zima Blue

This one was deep. And can we talk about the remarkable art style?? The ending was a nice plot twist and the story left me contemplating it's meaning for some time afterwards. I mean, all that journey around the cosmos only to return to a simpler way of thinking in order to find fulfilment? The bizarre murals that depicted the universe and then, im the middle of it all, Zima's whole world? This was some really deep shit and you can't change my mind.

8. Suits

Did anyone else think the art style was similar to Sims 4? Like, that's all I could focus on until things got tough for the characters. Also a sad story, but the zoom out in the end made things more interesting. (Couldn't help thinking about the battle of Wakanda during the last scene either😁).

9. Lucky 13

Another super realistic piece of animation. I would have liked some more details about the missions and Lucky 13. We learn that ships have personalities and I hoped to see 13 and Cutter interact at least once. My mind kept coming up with different theories about what exactly happened to the 2 crews before Cutter's, and we never got answers about any of the most important things. Still, a beautiful story though.

10. Helping Hand

Ok this one fucked me up more than Beyond the Aquila Rift. It's not just the whole concept of floating in space, helpless and running out of oxygen, that I find absolutely terrifying, but also the sacrifice the poor woman had to make in order to survive. I would have taken my suit off and embraced my death the moment I would hear that help is more than 50 mins away. Seriously, that's the stuff of nightmares.

11. Fish Night

Loved the colours and the story is similar to dreams I've had over the years. I will never forget that one quote from the ep. Didn't really have anything else to offer apart from the good animation. The plot was kinda boring and the ending didn't save it at all.

And finally Ice Age, I guess

Ok this one was the least interesting from the episodes I liked. The ending confused me a bit cause how was the whole thing able to start over when he had unplugged the freaking refrigerator. Maybe it didnt work that way, dunno. I needed more information, like where did they get the refrigerator from? Or why weren't they more shocked when they discovered what was hidden inside it?

And then we have the eps I didn't really care about:

1. Sucker Of Souls

A story about Dracula, so I thought I would end up liking it more. In the end the only thing I care about is Gary (cause let's be honest, Gary was the best and we all liked this character). The plot was meh and the ending even more disappointing and anticlimactic.

2. When the Yogurt Took Over

Ok this one at least was actually referring to how technology makes our lives easier and raised questions about what would happen to humanity if we suddenly had to live without it. However, I personally found it a bit boring and would never compare it to the episodes mentioned above.

3. The Witness

I seriously don't understand why so many people love this episode. Apart from the great art style there was nothing else worth liking. The story was a mess and we all spent the whole ep watching a naked lady run for her life, boobs bouncing, and a guy stopping to get his d*ck sucked while chasing her around the city. I've tried to gather some info on the ending cause I really needed to understand it, but the best explanation I could find was that she is actually running away from her demons. Still doesn't explain the endless loop so I just gave up trying.

4. Blindspot

Yeah..this one had no plot and not a single piece of information was given to us about the characters and the mission. I could have just skipped it and I wouldn't have missed anything.

5. The Dump

I have to admit that I didn't expect that turn of events, so points for that, I guess. Overall a boring story I won't be watching again soon.

6. Alternate Histories

What the actual f*ck was that?? When I read the description I thought it would be a very interesting episode that would explore different possibilities regarding the impact Hitler had on the history of the world. But no.. it was just a messed up story that made my eyes bleed and a complete disappointment.

[forestwater87]

A big box o’Gwenvid AU ideas: A is for "Aww” and “Angst” and “AAAH”

This post is fucking rad as balls, and I started thinking of fun AU ideas . . . until I remembered that I already have approximately 2 billion WIPs already and don’t necessarily know if any of these have legs as actual fics. But it was fun to think about, so here we are! This is the first of . . . presumably 26 of these? Who knows, but this post we have:

Accidental Marriage AU

In which Campbell convinces incredibly wealthy investors known for their focus on “family values” that the Camp is a sweet family business run by a husband-and-wife team of counselors. The problem, of course, is that it isn’t sweet and its head counselors aren’t married. Campbell only has enough booze to fix one of those situations. 

He’ll figure the rest out in the morning. He thinks better with a hangover, anyway.

(Yes I think this one would be awesome in Campbell’s POV. You cannot change my mind on this.)

Actor AU

Okay, real talk this would just be @whiskyarts​‘s gameshow AU. Because I kinda love the idea of Jerk!David who just pretends to be a sweetheart for the cameras. Except I would cover it with my filthy Gwenvid hands and make it shippy in that antagonistic-hatemance-eventually-turns-into-something-resembling-feelings. There would be lots of angst and snark and sparkly clothes and I would love it and probably no one else would.

Alien AU

An Interplanetary Anthropologist, Gwen, manages to land a position on the Campbell after years of education and networking and plain old hard work. She is an employee of the most impressive warship in the galaxy -- sure, it’s gone to seed a little bit in the last few decades, but it still has its shine if you look at it sideways and squint a little -- and more importantly, it’s work experience! Paid work experience . . . as a janitor.

When the Campbell picks up a POW that the ship’s commander plans to (illegally) sell to the highest bidder, Gwen decides to treat it as an opportunity to build a real-life case study on one of the universe’s rarer life forms while it’s within arm’s reach. But the more she learns about the strange, sunny alien who was his platoon’s only survivor, the more uncomfortable she is with letting him disappear into her captain’s nefarious dealings and -- 

Oh fuck, this is The Shape of Water, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve never seen The Shape of Water but I’m pretty sure that’s what this is. Fuck. Goddamn it. Fuck.

Amnesia AU

David takes a rogue bus to the . . . well, everything -- something that’s more or less routine by now -- and hits his head hard enough to knock him out for almost a full day. When he wakes up, he’s the same cheerful David the camp is used to . . . except for three strange new things:

He doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing -- doesn’t, in fact, remember anything after some vague memories of childhood.

He’s completely terrified of the forest, and especially of Spooky Island.

He has no idea who Cameron Campbell is, but he’s quite positive he hates him.

Android AU

Actually @ciphernetics​ and I put this idea together a little while ago! Basically Camp Campbell has a state-of-the-art off-brand helper android named David, who is a perfect camp counselor, childcare provider, and comes equipped with the finest Forest Survival software Cameron Campbell could find for free online in half an hour.

Gwen, the new (requisite human) hire, hasn’t ever really interacted with androids, and doesn’t especially want to now. David is used to the distrust, even outright hostility -- very few of the campers seem to like him, and he knows that his presence can be unsettling to humans, and look, it isn’t a D:BH AU okay? It just looks like one, and acts like one. And is one.

Angel/Demon AU

Um the perfect Angel/Demon AU literally already exists, but they only wrote one chapter back in 2017 and never updated, and that makes me absurdly sad. Regardless, David being very bad at being a demon and Gwen being very bad at being an angel is the ideal setup for this kind of AU, in my humble opinion. 

However, David being an angel trying to reform his fallen ABFEL (angel buddy for eternal life!), who probably became a demon over something stupid and probably horny, also sounds extremely cute. They’re still friends, even though that is against literally all of the rules, and they secretly meet and hang out. David is convinced he can bring her around, and Gwen insists that she hates having him hanging off her nonexistent wings all the time. 

Honestly, probably neither of those things are true. Gwen wasn’t cut out for heaven -- and probably, neither is David.

Apocalypse AU

Cameron Campbell was probably doing something dangerously stupid in the hopes it could make him money. That, or the Quartermaster was doing something dangerous for reasons only he could ever understand. Hell, maybe that’s what that weird Daniel guy’s cult was trying to do. Whoever was doing what, they ripped a hole in their dimension at the bottom of Lake Lilac, and all sorts of awful things start creeping through.

There were signs, of course -- that weird fish-monster certainly didn’t come in through customs -- but an inopportune explosion, or wayward firework, or the rumblings of Sleepy Peak Peak, or something ripped a hole in the fabric of reality big enough for Lovecraftian monsters to start crawling through. There’s no stopping it. Really, there’s no chance of even fighting it. 

The second the rift opens, the story becomes one of just trying to stay out from under the Elder Gods’ feet.

Arranged Marriage AU

I think the easiest way to make this one work is by making either David or Gwen Campbell’s actual biological child -- maybe an heir, albeit to a highly illegal fortune and a mountain of credit card debt. But Campbell gets in trouble, the kind of trouble where he’s gambled everything and the only collateral he has left is a kid he got saddled with because their mother had better lawyers. A kid he’s been more than happy to put to work for the last 20-something years, who happens to have caught the eye of a ludicrously wealthy magnate -- not for her own sake (though Campbell would’ve been open to that too) -- but for her child, one she loves more than anything and keeps carefully shut away until the Right Person comes along.

His kid isn’t necessarily the right person, but for the first time in his life Cameron Campbell has a genuine treasure on his hands.

And, like all the fake treasures he’s passed off over the years, he just has to find a way to shine them up and make him a fortune.

Artist AU

Gwen is a starving artist living in a rat-infested hovel in the city, scraping by on a series of uninspired landscapes she paints on postcards and the goodwill of friends, family, and significant others. One day, a bright young man bounces up to her “studio” (it’s a cardboard box outside the park) and tells her excitedly that he’s been looking for her for weeks; he thinks her postcards are the most beautiful things he’s ever seen, and he would like to know if she’d be interested in moving down to a cabin by the lake. He runs a summer camp, he explains, and he knows they’d all be honored if she would teach them art lessons -- and of course paint in her spare time! The views are indescribable, and he’s sure she’ll have no shortage of inspiration.

She weighs the cost of what little artistic dignity she has remaining against room, board, and a steady paycheck for three months, and takes the job immediately.

Art Student AU

Put them in an art college -- maybe condense the ages so that the campers are like, younger students? -- and have Gwen as the Serious Art Student who cares a lot about theory and form and doing things right, and she’s constantly irritated by her classmate David, who sits at the same table as her and has declared them art buddies, and is convinced that the point of art is just to have fun and do your best! Maybe force them to do a group project together and really see them clash.

(Alternatively, there is the infinitely more shameless route of one being an art student and the other being a newd model for figure drawing. I am obviously much too classy to ever insinuate such a thing, but if someone was really looking for a way to write smuht . . . it’s sitting right there. On a table. nekkid. I HAVE TO CHANGE THE SPELLING TO MAKE THIS GO IN THE TAGS ARE YOU KIDDING ME)

Athlete AU

There are 4 major ways this one can go, I feel like:

Basically HSM: Gwen is a small part in her school’s musical (techie, maybe, or the orchestra) and lanky jock David -- which is the most hilarious phrase ever but he’s probably a runner or tennis player, something light on muscles and heavy on speed and springiness -- who’s well-mannered and cheerful but not the brightest, is put into the show as an extra-credit way to bump up his GPA so he can keep sporting his sports, and it turns out he’s both very good at and super enthusiastic about it.

A little like HSM, but as grown-ups: Gwen is the head of the drama/art department, which has just faced heavy cuts to support the superstar sports program, and she furiously storms over to the head coach’s office to let him know exactly what she thinks about him and his stupid meathead jocks. Of course, when the man who opens the door is a sweetheart beanpole with big eyes who already knows her name, she finds it hard to keep up her righteous indignation. And when it turns out that he was completely ignorant of the hit her department took from the budget cuts (or maybe not ignorant, just terminally oblivious) and is almost as upset as she is to hear about it, she’s forced to reconsider everything she’d assumed about Coach Greenwood; maybe he’s not the enemy after all, but someone with whom she can formulate a new battle plan.

Reporter/Famous Athlete AU: Either Gwen is a professional sportsball person and David is the shy, bumbling photographer eager to prove himself, or she’s the plucky, intrepid reporter and David is a good-natured professional athlete who she’s determined to interview.

Teammates AU: Professional or amateur sports team, and they’re just trying to scrape their way out of the bottom of the league without killing each other. 

Author AU

There are a lot of potential interpretations of this AU, but my personal favorite is Gwen as a novelist with two distinctly differing careers: as G. E. Santos, the high-concept writer whose books are critical darlings in the maybe 3 publications that care about such things but whose sales can’t quite crack the triple digits; and as Annabelle Elizabeth, whose steamy erotica regularly tops the bestseller lists and is reviled by all of G. E.’s colleagues as “populist genre trash.” 

The only person alive who knows about her Jekyll-and-Hyde author personas (besides her older sister Audree, who plays the part of charismatic and sensual Annabelle flawlessly) is her editor, David. He’s an odd choice, as her colleagues in both fields have pointed out -- reading her romance novels with his pen in one hand and the other covering his eyes, peeking through his fingers to write tremulous notes in the margins; stumbling through her ponderous literary works with a dictionary in his lap and his tongue between his teeth, poring through them like he’s learning a new language -- but he’s the only person Gwen will allow to touch her writing. 

Maybe it’s because he always seems like her biggest fan. Maybe it’s because she’s known him since they were at a summer camp together years ago. Maybe it’s because he believes in her in a way no one else does -- in a way she absolutely doesn’t believe in herself.

David is, for reasons she’s not entirely sure how to explain even to herself, the only person she trusts.

Avian (Bird People) AU

Centuries ago, it was said, avians were a rarity, an aberrant mutation to be locked up and intently studied but never trusted. Some people thought they were antichrists, a sign of the end times, when all normal humans would be destroyed and only the strange bird-people would remain.

In a way, maybe they were. Because when the earth’s crust ripped open and flooded the planet with magma and boiling water miles deep, avians were the only ones who could take to the sky.

Not all of them, certainly. In fact, most were locked up in detention centers and laboratories when the Swamp formed, and were unable to escape in time. Considering the people who could get to high enough elevations to escape the deluge, there were decades afterwards where the decimated human population outnumbered the avian one. Those were periods of tension, outright war and tentative alliances -- even romances, the kinds of great love stories that dragged both avian and human populations a few generations along when one or both of them should’ve died out.

That was over two hundred years ago, however. Now the Swamp is a murky expanse of scalding water and the boiled remains of civilization transformed into unrecognizable muck, with islands of “land” cobbled out of what remains. This is where the avians live, now. And humans don’t live anywhere, not anymore.

At least . . . that was what they thought.

[eddtober]

Eddtober Masterpost: About, Rules, Boundries and Prompt Lists.

I hadn’t done anything about it until now due to no response - however the wonderful @ldhenzel​ suggested that I do it this way for mobile users. 

About Eddtober

Eddtober is a list of prompts made in an effort to encourage the Eddsworld Fandom to spread their wings of creativity beyond the norms that they are used to, during the month of October.

It is all without harming others or causing drama, a neutral ground for all fans of Eddsworld to come and have fun, no matter what side of a discourse they’re in.

It hopes to promote inspiration beyond the usual angsty and over-dramatised content, to revive a spirit in Eddsworld that hasn’t been seen in many years, and to stretch the invitation to all who can create.

Eddtober calls not only the artists who have a talent for drawing, painting and so forth, but also: the authors (fanfics, journalists, essayists, diarists, poets, ramblers), the cosplayers, the video-makers (animators, video essays, memers, youtubers) and all those who want to be inspired with unconventional creativity.

Eddtober’s motto for the fandom it came from is this: To come forth, be inspired and break from the old and the mold!

With that out the way, buckle up. This post is gonna be a long one under the cut.

RULES 

Base Rules need to be set so everyone can participate in Eddtober safely and in a fun way. Please read them carefully!

Always tag it with #eddtober. Gore and related NSFW is allowed in the challenge, but please tag it as #Eddtober gore, etc. Also, no shortenings or reimaginings of those tags, so the minors on this site don’t find it on accident. Though many of us may be over 18, please keep these things in mind.  

Be Sensitive and Respectful to Others. I know many of us here in this fandom can take easy offence to certain types of art, so please consider and think on your creative piece before you post.

Credit Where Due. This should be blatantly obvious right now, but please, please don’t steal other’s creative fanwork or post it without credit. Always have permission from the creator to post something of their’s, and always have their username when you post it, not just ‘credit to the artist’. If you do not follow this, actions will be taken for your consequences.

Keep yourself chill. You can do one prompt for Eddtober, some of the prompts or all of them - up to you! It’s understandable if life gets in the way. The goal of Eddtober is not to do every prompt, but to be inspired to create fan-content in a way you usually wouldn’t have.

Spread the word. This is less of a rule and more of a personal request from Admin Panda, but since she doesn’t have many social media accounts you’d expect, spreading word of Eddtober would mean a LOT, so they can join in the fun too!

Sharing is caring. Reblogging and sharing from your fellow creators doing Eddtober would be great to give them a motivation and confidence boost!

Go Beyond the Boundries of Your Imagination. The whole purpose of Eddtober is to promote new, fresh things to come up in the Eddsworld fandom and break a cycle of the same old that’s been there for a while. Take a leap, spread your wings, do your best, and go have fun.

BOUNDRIES

Most of this list will be related to Rule Two of Eddtober:

Be Sensitive and Respectful to Others.

Quote:

‘I know many of us here in this fandom can take easy offence to certain types of art, so please consider and think on your creative piece before you post.‘

Whilst Eddtober is a fun, neutral place to spread our creative wings, there are boundries that need to be taken in order to keep everyone safe. Which means certain parts that are usually seen as ‘common’ within the Eddsworld Fandom will not be acceptable in the challenge.

Edd Gould’s death. Admin Panda wishes to make it clear that creative pieces that draws clear lines to Edd’s passing IS NOT okay. This includes Edd in hospital for cancer, Angel Edd or any AU that depicts him as a divine being of any sort (including Blessworld) unless Tom, Matt and/or Tord are also similar divine beings in the AU. Here at Eddtober, Edd's life is something to be celebrated, not his death. While Admin Panda isn’t 100% offended by this, many others are and it should be more recognised as such.

Sinsworld. Believe it or not, the sinsworld tag was specifically made back in the day to keep the porn out of the main. But due to a certain in-fandom event, this intended action has been long-lost. Because of all of these events, any sinsworld (porn, lewds and related NSFW) that’s Sinspired by the Eddtober prompts WILL NOT be accepted into the event by any means. This is because many in this fandom are minors/underage and more who are 18+ are repulsed to porn and such (Admin Panda is part of the latter group). So please, it is fine to be sexually inspired by the prompts, PLEASE keep your Sinsworld content away from the Eddtober tag - don’t put both tags into that post, essentially.

Abusive/Self-Harm Creative Content. No. Just. No. Death or pain like this isn’t allowed to be depicted in the challenge and should never be romanticised or supported. Eddtober aims to be a safe and uplifting space for all creative people, no matter what their space is at the moment.

More sensitivities and boundries will be added onto this list as Admin Panda recieves questions and requests for this area through the askbox here.

PROMPT LIST

Quick reminder: when this list says ‘create something for’, it’s not just referring to fanart - it refers to any medium, digital, traditional or unconventional, that can be used. The challenge here is to be creative as possible, not to stay conventional.

The List features Admin Panda’s Commentary. Some useless, some useful.

Create something for Edd. (Not his real-life counterpart, but the character. That needed some clearing up based on 2017’s results.)

Create something for Tom.

Create something for Matt

Create something for any pre-legacy season episode, except WTFuture. (You can do WTFuture if you want, but seeing that much of this fandom is currently made of people who came in after The End… It’d be worth having a crack at pre-legacy episodes.)

Create something for the crew’s symbols.

Create something for Superhero Alter Egos! (It doesn’t have to stop at PowerEdd’s canon either! Go nuts! Give Edd and his friends new superhero alibis and outfits!)

Create something for Supervillain Alter Egos! (Reminder that it doesn’t have to stop at the ‘Green/Blue/Purple/Red Leader scenario! Again, go nuts! Get wacky if you must!)

Create something for Minor characters of the show. (Except the Neighbours - they already have their own prompt.)

Create something for descendants of the main four guys. (Sure, you can make it about the love children of your favourite ships, but the point of this prompt specifically is to not be ship-related. See if you can come up with descendant characters from the bloodlines of the main four.)

Create something for Tord. (He’s late in this list for a reason. Trust me.)

Create something for the neighbours of 29 Dirdum Lane. Are Kim and Katya still there, or are there newbies in the street?

Create something for the neighbours of 25 Dirdum Lane.

Create something for unlucky things happening to the guys, or one of them. Feel free to go as dark or as humourous as you like!

Create something for genderbends of the guys, maybe as if the Ellsworld we know never existed. Or you can stick to canon, up to you.

This prompt is a wild card. Do with it as you wish. (In 2017 everyone was told to quote: ‘go whole hog on this’. The next thing we all knew, everybody literally drew pigs with the guys. That wasn’t supposed to be literally taken, but by god it was hilarious.)

Create something for your crew. Whether you’re the main character with your friends or have OCs taking that place or a mix of both is up to you.

Create something for an AU of Eddsworld. You can make one up on the spot, or even fan content for an AU that already exists is cool too. (As of rule number two of Eddtober, the Blessworld AU will not be accepted for this prompt. I know it is a popular AU, but if you have any issues with this, please contact me in the blog asks myself.)

Create something for Eddsworld as a video game. Whether it’s concepts and covers for your own ideas or fanart for games in the making such as Eddsworld Armageddon, up to you.

Create something for Todd, or whoever the ‘Tord’ figure is of 25 Dirdum Lane.

Create something for a Saloonatics-WTFuture Crossover. (What? Shenanigans could be made here, guys. Just take it!)

Create something for the future selves of the guys. Or if you want to take it up a notch, make your own versions of them! Have them all be hobos (#HoBrosforlife), or have cola not be banned in the future… up to you!

The End who? Create and elaborate on how you would finish off the Eddsworld Legacy season. (For the purposes of this prompt, I can accept an angsty end for this, but I personally do not recommend it. The Eddsworld fandom has had enough unnecessary angst already.)

Create something for Zanta. (I guess you could call him a Nightmare Before Christmas, then.)

Create something for an Eddsworld movie. Whether it’s stuff for the Eddsworld Fan Movie or your own ideas, up to you!

Create something for the deal with Tom’s eyes. If you want to call them that.

Pick a song, any song, and put that on repeat. Use it as inspiration to create something in relation to Eddsworld.

Create something for Edd Gould himself. Not his character in Eddsworld, the real-life person.

An obligatory prompt without Eddtober in the beginning: create something for Edd’s birthday. (This was made into a prompt and will permanently remain as one as Edd’s birthday shouldn’t be taken away from today.)

Create something for someone/multiple someones in the fandom who inspire you - even the small artists and writers and such who are just starting out!

Are you afraid of the dark? Are you getting goosebumps? Create scary/monstrous/terrifying things happening to the guys. Interpretation and how far you go with it is up to you.

Happy Halloween! Create something about the guys on this special spooky day. Interpretation is up to you.

If you have any questions, concerns or queries as to all of this, don’t be hesitant to come shoot an ask through this blog. Have fun and a safe Eddtober!