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ruhrohimrorny · 4 years ago

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What Subjects I Think LOK Characters Would Teach:

Lin: PE, obviously. Dating Kya and all the kids are happy cause there’s a noticeable shift in Lin’s mood once they start dating. She no longer forces kids to run a mile every day and instead does it once a week now, so the kids are hoping her and Kya stay together. She also coaches Golf and Lacrosse.

Kya: Waffled between MILF Math teacher, MILF Science teacher, and hippy/chill Music teacher, but decided on MILF Science Teacher. Getting strong Biology vibes. Very fun labs and not strict at all. Her and Zhu-Li are super passionate about leading the Science Bowl team. Seeing these young people be so passionate about STEM and helping their fellow teammates makes her hopeful for this young generation.

Tenzin: He kinda gives math teacher vibes, but a large part of his character in the show is about him keeping his history alive, and teaching others abut learning and respecting history, so I feel like he’s a History teacher. His class is a lot of notetaking but he plays quiet music and does a five minute meditation in the middle of class to encourage kids to relax, so students really like him and actually listen to him. Also, he’s kind of gullible so they make up fake trends to tell him. He once spent a week addressing people as “brony” cause students told him thats what people say now instead of bro. Kids got a good laugh out of that one. Him and Pema are another favorite teacher couple.

Bumi II: Def gives off eccentric/unhinged English teacher vibes. Very interesting and informative conversations in his class, but things get off topic very quickly. Whenever kids ask about Bum-Ju, he gets distracted and will talk the entire rest of the period about what to dress Bum-Ju up as for Halloween. Probably plays a lot of videos. And students don’t worry about if they read the books Bumi II assigns cause they don’t think he’s even read the books he assigns. When having discussions about the books in class, sometimes kids will make up stuff and say it’s in the book and for the most part, Bumi II goes along with it cause he doesn’t know what actually happens in the books.

Varrick: Also gives off eccentric/unhinged English teacher vibes, but because he’s a businessman/war profiteer, I’m gonna have to say he teaches Econ and gives students lots of unsolicited financial advice. Also supervises the Engineering and Robotics Club.

Zhu-Li: Science teacher, probably Chemistry. She’s very good at explaining and getting kids to follow her instructions. Not only is she a co-supervisor for the Science Bowl team, she helps Varrick run Engineering and Robotics Club, cause if it were only Varrick running it, no kids would come. His intensity and eccentricity scares them.

Iroh II: He’s definitely the young Math teacher everyone has a crush on. Very chill and doesn’t give a lot of homework. Kids love when he shows pictures of his dog to the class and eventually he brings in the dog cause admin think the dog is too cute to say no to.

Tonraq: Resident DILF History teacher. Kind of a hardass but also a nice dude so most everyone passes his class. Probably that History teacher that is also a football coach, so during fall he doesn’t give a FUCK about whether anyone actually turns anything in. Him and Senna is the teacher couple that seems like opposites but actually are pretty similar and balance each other out.

Senna: That English teacher that every mentally ill student becomes emotionally attached to. You know what I’m talking about. She’s so sweet, funny, and chill so all the kids love her class. Tries to include memes in her presentations to seem “with it” but they’re like, doge memes from 2014. But the kids appreciate the effort.

Pema: Definitely the sweet English teacher that occasionally has a mental breakdown when the students test her patience. Otherwise very chill. Also teaches the Childhood Education and Development class. Her, Senna, and Bumi II run the school newspaper.

Bataar: Drafting. Pretty chill, very skilled, and def smokes on the weekend. Also, him and Suyin are that teacher couple that everyone likes.

Suyin: Dance. Super nice and always has like to of those smelly plug in things going so her room smells good and has a “good vibe that evokes emotion”. Always plays EDM or weird 80s rock to get the kids moving. She runs the school dance team. When Bataar has prep period, he sometimes drops in to see Su dance, cause she’s mesmerizing to watch. All the kids think that, coupled with the fact that they eat lunch together every day, makes them the cutest couple ever.

Amon: Drama. He loves directing kids on how to totally live a role. If you can imagine, he sometimes gets a little overdramatic about drama, forgetting that these are just highschool kids, not Oscar winners, but his passion makes the class more enjoyable. Runs Drama Club with Tarrlok.

Tarrlok: Probably Physics. A difficult class, but he’s pretty good at explaining so most kids don’t struggle too much. His main focus is running student government, which he takes pretty seriously. Sometimes too seriously.

Unalaq: Teaches Psychology. The most pretentious teacher on campus. It’s literally so bad, that even other teachers avoid him. Amon abandoned his coffee still being brewed in the machine in the staff room cause Unalaq walked in and he didn’t want to be in a room with Unalaq again after he said that Amon’s outfit “looked like something stolen from the lost and found of a funeral home”. Unalaq sees it as “telling it like it is”.

Zaheer: Government and Politics. Tries to teach the class very well but also injects his own opinion into teaching a lot. The students find him scary but some also kinda think he’s hot. Also does Yearbook. Him and Senna run Mock Trial. Replaced the old Government and Politics teacher Hou-Ting after she retired. She was that one old teacher that made it a hobby to harrass students and constantly reminisced about when you could smack students.

P’Li: Math teacher. Much scarier than Zaheer. Plays her trash ass music very loudly while the kids work. Def yells at kids. She’s kind of funny when she’s in a good mood tho, and when she roasts kids it’s really funny cause it’s usually dead on. Her and Zaheer are those teachers that flirt a lot and you know they’re sleeping together.

Ming-Hua: Art. Loves drawing and, you guessed it, watercolor painting. Very chill and plays soft music but lets you listen to your own music. Super sarcastic and all the students eat it up. Literally a universal favorite. She runs Art Club and Fashion Club.

Ghazan: Guitar. Pretty cool teacher that definitely has some weird stories. All the students know he has a crush on Ming-Hua cause they flirt constantly, but he denies it. Runs E-Sports Club. Idk why I think that, it just feels right. Him and Ming-Hua are also the kinds of teachers kids become emotionally attached to.

Kuvira: Government and Politics also. Seems calm and reasonable, but is a total ass. Makes kids give up their phones, allows almost no talking, gives out more detentions a week than most teachers do in one year, and doesn’t allow for much discussion. Everyone wants her class cause she’s hot but most drop within the first week, to the point that counselors have to say no to some kids so they don’t have to get rid of the class altogether.

Bataar Jr.: Computer Lit teacher. None of the students respect him so they’ll play Minecraft the whole time or play inappropriate videos really loud. Doesn’t really put much effort into teaching, which for some kids is a dream, but for others is an annoyance. Him and Kuvira are the teacher couple that makes everyone say “wtf”. Literally no one knows why they’re together.

Izumi: Secretary/Attendance. Pretty much remembers everything and is super organized. She is the glue that holds the school together. Most students don’t know her name though cause she’s super quiet and works mostly behind the scenes. Whenever Zuko sends anyone her way though he reminds them of her name and to say thank you cause he recognizes how hard his daughter works to keep everything running smoothly. Izumi catches on to this and always manages to thank her dad with a nice tea and a hug.

Toph: Vice Principal. Scary as fuck. Doesn’t ever call kids’ parents cause she efficiently scares the shit out of every kid, so they never do whatever bad thing they were doing again. When she has to work dances, Katara always tries to get her to dance with her. She resists every time, but she always gives eventually. She’s happy to though, cause although she’ll never say it out loud, seeing Katara this happy at her old age warms her heart.

Katara: Health Clerk. Very sweet and everybody loves her. Sometimes kids pretend to feel sick just to talk to her. She doesn’t mind though cause a kid that has a tummy ache and a kid that needs to talk are both kids that need help, and she’s happy to offer whatever support she can. She also always offers to supervise dances when the school has them and always manages to bust a move.

Zuko: Counselor. Wants to be to students what his uncle was to him. Aang and Sokka were counselors too, some years ago. And while they could give some good nuggets of advice and offered the kids amazing support, they also would totally fuck up student’s schedules by accident cause those numbskulls were exactly that- numbskulls. So usually Zuko would have to fix that. He misses fixing their messes and, more importantly, he misses them (they aren’t dead, just retired). He hopes to retire soon too, cause he’s getting too old for this, but he secretly doesn’t want to retire just yet cause working at school allows him to see and spend time with Izumi. Since they’re both working, it’s not like they have too much time together, but even just her popping into his office to bring him tea or check in on how he’s doing that day brings a smile to his face that doesn’t leave for the rest of the day.

Raiko: Principal. After Toph stepped down cause she’s “too old for this shit” (her words), Raiko stepped in. The students aren’t a fan of him but he’s not terrible. And since Toph is still Vice Principal, she keeps him in check.

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theonlygamergost · 4 years ago

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A tattoo for a lost best - Fd!au - 3/3

This fanfiction is based on the Family Dynamic au made by @antarctic-bay if you would like to know more, go check them out!!!

Also please bear in mind that the things written in this might not be canon!

This fic was corrected by the lovely @im-default

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Techno and Skeppy bet on stupid things, and sometimes their bets can have very severe consequence if lost.

If you want to, look at what Minetra’s desing of Techno tattoo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tw! Betting, swearing. Btw, this is very long

<—Previous part

Enjoy~

To avoid any more drama, he went straight home. The house was empty though, so he connected his phone to Wilbur’s small Bluetooth speaker to his phone and played a random playlist he had made to motivate him to do chores, took out the mop and started cleaning the floors, humming the songs and sometimes bopping his head to the beat.

While the pavement was drying, he logged on Minecraft and started playing on Hypixel.

Tommy arrived home just as the pavement dried out, grabbing a glass of chocolate milk and another glass full of cookies. Bringing them to his room and closing the door. A few minutes later he logged into Hypixel and sent Techno a party invite, they started playing various minigames, winning most of them.

Until, while playing BedWars, Tommy whispered to Techno.

TommyInnit whispers to you: I’m sorry

Techno finished destroying a bed and sat at the generator while quickly responding.

You whisper: About what?

TommyInnit whispers to you: About telling Will about your tattoo, I sneaked into your room this morning and I saw it

TommyInnit whispers to you: I’m really sorry, but if Phil found out later it would have been worse

Tommy’s and Techno’s bed was gone, they were just flying around as ghosts at this point. But if they wanted to keep talking, they couldn’t have gone into another game so Techno typed /hub and teleported both of them into the main hub of the server.

You whisper: It’s fine Tommy, I’m not angry

TommyInnit whispers to you: Then can I come and hug you?

Techno wasn’t expecting that. But he smiled and closed Minecraft after sending the last message:

You whisper: The door is unlocked

Techno lied down on his bed closing his eyes as he listened to Tommy’s steps growing louder.

The door gently creaked as the young Pandel stood by the door, looking at his older brother laying down with his eyes closed.

Climbing onto the bed, he plopped down next to Techno, scooting closer to him and hugging him, Techno exchanged the hug, embracing the blonde boy tightly.

They stayed like that in silence, the world around them looked like it froze. When Wilbur got home and went to check Techno’s room to see if he was there, he found the two brothers peacefully sleeping. Wilbur smiled at the cute sight, he made sure to cover them with a blanket and close the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Phil arrived home, the brothers were silent, they couldn’t get themselves to talk or make jokes, the older brother acted as usual, solar and positive, but he had noticed how Wilbur and Tommy were silent. Something was wrong, and after dinner, he was going to figure out what.

To his surprise, when he got out of the bathroom, the brothers were back at the kitchen counter, all of them had serious and sad faces, “Phil, we need to talk to you”

He sat on one of the stools, “Sure… what is it?” The two brothers both looked at Techno who’s shoulder tensed, he looked like he wanted to disappear.

“I… have made a serious decision without asking and… It’s something you have explicitly said to not take before... “ What was going on? Techno never made dumb decisions, and if he did, he alone came to talk to him, then why were all of the brothers there? Phil was now very worried.

Without saying another word, Techno took off his hoodie, revealing a sleeveless shirt, and the tattoo.

Wilbur looked away, Tommy looked sadly at Techno, Phil looked unimpressed.

So you really did it too huh…

“Wait, you guys didn’t know he had gotten it?” Everyone froze.

“It was pretty obvious, the bandage, the moisturizing cream, the antimicrobial soap, they all gave it away. Plus, we all know Techno hates carrying his backpack on one shoulder, there had to be a good reason for him to carry it like that” The brothers were impressed, Phil could notice the most subtle changes in behaviours, it wasn’t surprising he had picked it up quickly, but still…

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m okay with your decision”

Phil brought a hand on his forehead, thinking about what to say, choosing his words to get his point across, he hated scolding his brothers, but they were teenagers, sometimes he had to be strict and direct with them.

“The only thing I can say, Techno, is that I’m disappointed in you, very disappointed” The pink-haired boy fidgeted with the hoodie in his lap.

“I thought I had made it clear that tattoos were prohibited until you're old enough, just because I have one doesn’t mean you could get it too” Phil sighed, “You’re grounded Technoblade” All of them looked at the older brother in disbelief, Phil almost never grounded anyone, both Tommy and Wilbur now felt guilty for getting Techno in this situation. Techno just accepted his fate, all of this for a goddam bet.

“No going out after school and no video games for fifteen days, let this be a lesson for you two too, ok?” Wilbur and Tommy looked at each other, only fifteen days? That was nothing! Techno had gotten a permanent tattoo without permission and he got away with fifteen days?!

“Now, Techno, prepare for bedtime and go to your room, I need to talk to you more in private. Wilbur, Tommy, you’re free to go” They nodded and got up the stools, both of them flopping on the couch. Techno instead whispered a soft “I’m sorry” and headed for the bathroom, leaving Phil the only one at the counter. He took his head in his hands and leaned over the counter, using his elbows to support himself.

I hope your reason was better than mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A knock on the door interrupted Techno’s train of thought, he quickly sat at the edge of his messy bed and waited for the crack of light coming to illuminate his dark room. Phil peeked from the door, surrounded by a halo of yellow light, smiling brightly as he always did, “May I come in?” Techno gently nodded.

Phil sat next down and hugged Techno for a bit, “Let me guess” He started, bringing a hand to scratch his short beard,” You didn’t tell the others why you got it” Techno nodded again. The older brother looked at the younger one, waiting for him to start talking.

“I’m warning you, you won’t like it” the blonde man shrugged, so he took a deep breath.

“You remember when Skeppy had to get his ear pierced last year?” It was Phil’s turn to nod, “That was because we had made a bet. He didn’t believe I was going to get max votes for every subject, so we made it that if I did have max votes, he would get his ear pierced, if I didn’t, I was going to get my ear pierced. You know who won the bet” Techno chuckled when the memory of Skeppy getting super mad at him for getting max votes arose, he had gotten one of his ears pierced, and even if he will never admit it, he loves wearing e-boy earrings.

Techno had actually bought him his first pair of earrings, he kept a mental note to look at Skeppy when passing near jewelry in case he started staring at a pair of them, he was bad with gifts so this was a good way to get ideas.

“This was… the same… We made a bet and… “ He had lost, Phil knew that Techno and Skeppy made these “bets” and he knew that they sometimes could have a strong penalty if lost… but they were childhood friends, if something was “too much” they could always call it off. So Techno did make the decision to get the tattoo, he just didn’t want to admit it.

“Okay then, I understand… You’re still grounded though” Techno smiled, “Goodnight Techno” Phil patted his brother on the shoulder and left his room, leaving him back in the dark of his room.

He just climbed further into the bed and fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“There is something going on here, there HAS to be!” Wilbur was pacing back and forth in front of the coffee table, he sounded pretty stressed about his thoughts, not that Tommy would care. He was just sitting upside down on the couch, legs slumped over the back and head dangling off the seat, of course, switch in hands playing the Octo expansion for Splatoon two. Techno bought it for him as his quote on quote “reward” for cleaning his room for him.

“You’re getting too agitated big dubs” The blonde boy shot a look at the legs walking around on the other side of the table, they stopped, facing his direction, “Shut the fuck up Tommyinnit I’m trying to think!” the legs continued pacing left and right. “Well, now that you said I need to shut up I’m interested!” He sat back up properly on the couch, pausing the game and placing the switch down. “What we thinking, big dubs?” He said before rubbing his hands together.

With a roll of his eyes, the older brother started explaining: “You remember when I took Phil’s scooter and drove Techno around town a year before I got my license?” Tommy giggled, Wilbur dead stared at him. “OKAY Okay jeez! Go on!” Will shook his head, “Well, Phil that time grounded us both, understandably, Techno got away with no video games for a week, I was the one driving after all…” He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, “But I had to go through A MONTH without video games and phone! And look at Technoblade! Fifteen days! Only fifteen days for getting a big ass tattoo without permission!”

Now that Tommy thought about it, Will did have a point, plus, not going out after school didn’t really affect Techno, he never went out anyway. “I know this going to sound bad but…” Will looked at Tommy, noticing the serious look he had on his face, “Do you think… Phil has… favourites?” Will’s eyes widened, a shiver shot down his spine. “Wha-what are you talking about Tommy? Phil loves us equally, he quit college to take care of us, there is no way he has… “ He couldn’t even finish the sentence, the words got stuck in his throat, he refused to believe that his older brother had a favourite among them. He just couldn’t.

“But what if he-”

“No Tommy, there has to be a reason why he gave him less time than he did with me, and he will tell us, I know he will. I’m going to sleep now” He passed by the kitchen and closed himself in his room, Tommy whispered “Goodnight Wil” and headed for his own room, grabbing his switch along with him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From there on, it was a monotone style of life for Techno.

Wake up, go to school, go back home, read, clean, and go to sleep.

He and Skeppy had to hang out at lunches since they couldn’t meet up after school, and if for some reason they couldn’t, they would either discord call or facetime each other and just talk about the most random things for hours, as good friends do of course.

The house felt a little bit empty for some reason: Tommy would stay outside later than usual and Wilbur didn’t try to create any type of chaos or loud noise, the melancholic sound of a soft guitar would fill the house more than it used to and Phil was constantly spaced out, it was like the cheerful Pandel apartment had lost it colours.

All of them had noticed this phenomenon. They all knew that they couldn’t last long like this, they needed the chaos, they needed the cheerfulness and the happiness of each brother equally. Their house was like an echo-system: If something was off, it made an impact on everything else.

So on the fifteen-day, the last day, while everyone was sat around the kitchen counter sharing dinner, Wilbur spoke up.

“Taking turns, let’s say what’s on our mind, anyone wants to start?” Techno nodded in approval of Will’s proposal, after setting his spoon down, Tommy started talking.

“I feel like we are hiding something from each other” Phil froze, Techno’s mouth curved slightly downwards “I don’t know why Techno didn’t tell us about the tattoo, I-I honestly felt betrayed when I saw it, but someone else is keeping a secret now, and I don’t want this to become a normal thing!” Tommy looked away, clinging his fists. “You’re right, Tommy” The attention moved to Wilbur, “ We have always been honest with each other, please let’s keep it this way” Techno nodded again “ I am so sorry for not telling anyone about… you know… “ silence fell briefly while he recollected his thought, “ It felt wrong doing so, but I had no choice-”

“You did Technoblade!�� Wilbur interrupted him,” You know we would have supported you in any decision you would have made! You were always the one to encourage us every time we were insecure about anything, no matter how stupid it was!” Techno took his glasses off, letting what Wilbur had just said sink in.

“I know… But-” He rubbed his eyes, “But what?! Don’t you trust us-”

“Alright, calm down boys” Phil interrupted them, making them realize what tone of voice they were using against each other.

“I am the one who should fix this since I was the one who started it” He sighed, allowing his head to rest in his hands.

“I gave Techno a pretty light consequence for what he did, I am aware of that and I’m sorry if that looked like I was playing favourites” Tommy looked at the plate in front of him, how could he have doubted Phil?

“There is a better… or worse, reason for that, let me explain” he looked up at the other brothers waiting for a response. They looked at each other in confusion and nodded, at that sign Phil started.

“You all are aware that I also have a tattoo, a pretty big pair of wings on my back, I’ve never hidden it from you guys because there was no need too… what I didn’t say was why and when I got the tattoo… and there is a good reason for that, I promise” the brothers felt a bit dumb, why did no one ever think of asking him why he had gotten his tattoo? No matter how long back they recalled Phil always had that tattoo, that pair of angel-like wings who occupied most of the upper part of their older brothers back felt to them like something that always had belonged to Phil. They couldn’t imagine him without it, but it was still shocking how no one had asked him why he had gotten it.

“The reason why I never told you about why I got it was because I was afraid you would try to imitate me… which was the last thing I wanted to happen” Techno tried to lighten the mood a little bit, “Jeez Phil, you’re making it sound like you got it to enter a gang” Tommy and Will smiled, “That’s at least is a reason to get a tattoo” the smile faded away, “Mine wasn’t even a reason, I got my tattoo because the thought of getting a tattoo made me feel free, made me feel independent… me and a good friend of mine were “good boys”, we always did what our parents wanted and had the highest grades, getting a tattoo was the most rebellious thing two sixteen years old kids could do, so that’s why we did it” They all looked down, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts, “So that’s why the wings… “ Wilbur whispered, “To symbolize freedom… “ Techno finished the thought.

When the silence was about to become awkward, Phil got off the stool and grabbed his jacket that he’d left on the couch,” Get your shoes on, were going out” They looked at each other in confusion, “Wh-why? Where are we going?” Tommy stuttered while asking. “You’ll see”

~~~~~~~~~~~

The night’s breeze blew lightly through the Pandel’s hair, Phil was walking ahead of everyone with his hands in his pocket, Wilbur was behind him, trying to figure out where he was taking them meanwhile Techno and Tommy were playing rock paper scissor, mouthing each other insults and quietly cheering.

The walk went on for five minutes until Phil entered an ice cream shop, “C’mon, order what you want” the brothers looked at each other after ordering their flavours.

They sat down on a bench, each of them focused on their ice cream, Wilbur was leaned against a light pole since they all couldn’t fit comfortably on the bench.

“So…what was this for?” Tommy asked before licking his chocolate and strawberry ice cream, Phil looked up at the moon in the starry sky, “An apology, for hiding this part of me from all of you until now… “ Techno finished his ice cream and wiped his mouth with a napkin, “ I hope you guys can forgive me and we can all go back to when we never lied to each other-” All of the brothers threw themselves on him, “Whoa-! Guys careful I’m still holding my ice cream!” But the brothers didn’t care.

“We forgive you Phil, in fact, we were never angry at you, we understand that you didn’t tell us to protect us” Wilbur broke from the hug, “Thank you Phil for being the best brother in the world!” Tommy said with a huge smile, the other two nodded and he couldn’t help himself from crying with joy. If he had to decide again between taking care of his brothers and continuing collage, his answer would have never changed.

#wilbur soot #ph1lza #tommyinnit #technoblade #fanfiction #mcyt fanfiction #mcyt #fd!au #fd! au #fd au #my fanfiction #my writing #writing

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thiefking · 5 years ago

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major ddlc spoilers ahead, also i don’t know if all of this has been said/theorized before since i’m extremely late to the party here but i have a lot of Thoughts having finally played the game

firstly: i need to explain that every theory i’m about to present relies on the hypothetical game that would have existed if monika wasn’t self-aware

basically, irl the game was always meant to be what it is, but within the canon of the story, the ORIGINAL (fictional/hypothetical) ddlc was a regular dating sim visual novel. in canon, it was monika who changed it into the game we actually end up playing. we get only a glimpse of what the game would have been without her interference after you delete her and restart the game-- the mc no longer calls sayori “annoying” and yuri no longer mentions being into “surreal horror,” etc etc. that hypothetical unaltered version as a full game (henceforth referred to as “original ddlc”) is where most of my “what if”s have been clustering around to the point where i’ve genuinely considered making a fangame or something but instead i’m just gonna chat about it here

topic 1: monika’s route

monika claims she didn’t have a route in the first place. by all means, it seems that way-- you can’t appeal to her with your poems, can’t pick her for anything, etc etc. however, as much as monika is aware that she’s in a game, that doesn’t mean she’s genre-savvy.

i’d actually say she probably isn’t too much of a video game person in general, and i’m not referring to her 4th wall shattering, i’m saying she probably just likes to play acnl, minecraft and other casual, lighthearted games that don’t have an ending to them and can be played indefinitely, and maybe mario party if her friends come over, yknow? that’s just kinda what she seems like to me

now i ain’t dunking on anyone who only plays that kind of game, mind you, but if monika isn’t herself someone who plays a lot of video games, and you add that together with the fact that she was not immediately sentient (we don’t see her BEFORE she became aware, because the original ddlc is already gone by the time we start playing), the fact that while she’s aware what genre the game is she clearly has minimal idea of how they work or what makes them appealing, and that she has little coding experience and despite being able to alter files/lines she also couldn’t prevent basic game mechanics or predict said mechanics getting in the way, then i think it’s not only possible but very very very likely that she missed something. she missed something big.

monika was supposed to be an unlockable route.

so, y’all remember mysmes? i haven’t played it since it first came out, so mind you my memories are fuzzy here but mysmes also isn’t the focus of this post in the first place, so excuse any technical inaccuracies here but i’m certain that the IMPORTANT parts here, the italicised ones, are correct:

there was an unlockable "deep story” which served as the true end.

you had to play every route in the game before you could read the deep story (i think you also had to play the three other character routes before you could play 707′s route, but that might be wrong). also, each of the main story routes ended after the uh... the ball thing. the big event they throw? whatever it was, that’s where the story stops for those routes, whereas the deep story continues on past that.

you had to be on 707′s route for the deep story (i’m pretty sure you had to play his entire route and have it be your most recent playthrough to get at it, even if that isn’t the case, the deep story is specifically a continuation of 707′s route)

to be honest i was never a fan of the deep story for several reasons and i never really saw what the appeal of dating 707 was but that’s not important the point is that out of your four dating options, only one of them was considered the “true end”, but you had to do every single route before you could get that ending.

i’m sure you see what i’m getting at here, yeah?

there are a couple of other things, too:

monika tells you which character your poem appeals to most, she’s the one who introduces the game on the steam page (which is also proof she was sentient, at least to a degree, before you played the game), her name means “advisor/counselor”... iunno how many people reading this are savvy to the usual conventions of “games in which dating characters is a thing” but i’ve played a LOT of harvest moon. monika is a prime example of a Special Bachelorette. in harvest moon, Special Marriage Candidates are generally one or more of the following: a character from another game (like, literally-- you have to have a gba gamepak in while playing a ds game to see them), a shopkeeper or tutorial-fairy, characters with extremely elaborate unlocking and/or courting rituals, and characters who don’t even seem to be romanceable (in harvest moon games, romance candidates tend to have hearts next to their sprites that change colour depending on how close you are. generally that’s how you know who you can marry and who you can’t, but some marriage characters actually don’t have visible heart meters!). ... once again you see what i’m getting at right? put her in harvest moon and you bet your ass she’d have an invisible heart meter and an intricate courting ritual

she’s an important character. she’s club prez, she’s your tutorial fairy, she tells you who you’re appealing to. the tropes don’t lie, man, sayori would probably be the most realistic ending but i don’t think i know of a single game where the childhood friend character is the “true end” route-- they’re so easy to romance, they tend to be the route people do their first run and then never end up coming back to. i’m not trying to say anything in particular about this setup/logic, i just know that it exists and it exists a whole lot. if there’s a true end route in the original ddlc, it’s without question monika

by the way, in the corrupted ddlc, you still have to play every character’s route for the true ending. the true end requires you to have obtained all of the character cgs, which you can only do by playing all of the other characters’ routes, or at the very least, courting sayori, resetting and courting natsuki, and then letting monika warp the game, since you’ll end up on yuri’s route during the second act of the game no matter what you do. and what happens when you’ve had a chance to date sayori, natsuki and yuri? you end up on monika’s route. even when monika corrupted the game, there was still inherent logic to it-- all the characters inevitably become interested in mc, and you still can’t reach the true end without doing everyone’s routes.

as much as it would be painful for monika to watch you romance everyone else before you finally got around to her, she could have at least taken solace knowing she was the real ending, had she just been a little better at coding, just a little more genre-savvy...

of course, there are these lines she gives us, so clearly a sentient monika is still a monika that wouldn’t just sit there and wait regardless of if she knew she was the true end:

she says it herself: she’d still force her route, because she’s terrified, and the only one who seems to be aware that she’s in a game, but the really, really sad part is that as hard as she tries to convince you and herself that she doesn’t regret any of what she did, doesn’t feel guilty, doesn’t miss her friends...

she does. she knows she did something terrible, and she didn’t even actually have to do it.

... well, maybe “she didn’t HAVE to do it” is obvious enough for everything she did, but let’s keep in mind here that monika was scared out of her fucking mind, and reasonably so. if you were in her place, if you found out nothing was real, your friends weren’t real, nothing but code... and someone real came along, but no matter what you did, you couldn’t get them to talk to you long enough for you to ask for help... wouldn’t you get desperate too? monika was scared, and panicking, and remember: she knew she was in a game.

uninstalling a game does not a murderer make, right? the npcs, and the player character, they aren’t dead. they’re just code. if you back up your save, they’ll all be there if you download it again-- if you didn’t, they’ll still exist, they’ll just be reset. it doesn’t mean you’ve actively given someone amnesia.

but you still feel guilty over it, huh? even if you need disk space, even if you make a backup, it still kinda feels bad to delete the fictional friends you made.

you feel bad for doing that, and they were fake to you in the first place. monika was part of the game.

this is why it’s so sad to me. she was scared, and she thought she’d never even have a chance to ask for help, because she thought she didn’t have a route. her situation was, from her perspective, utterly hopeless. she felt terrible doing what she did, she misses her friends, but it was the only way to save herself, and being that she knew she was in a game, of course she’d try to rationalize her actions by telling herself her friends weren’t real and it was no different than overriding a save file. if she didn’t tell that to both you and herself, she’d be a murderer. she isn’t a murderer, either-- it really is just code, the problem is the overwhelming guilt that she has to suppress for the sake of her own sanity that she wouldn’t have had to bear in the first place had she been a normal route, or known that she had a route somewhere in the game.

the other characters do seem to have more sentience/free will than monika thought/noticed, but none of them are as Aware as monika-- natsuki shows the most amount of awareness (without being the club prez), having not only noticed that yuri and monika were acting strangely but even writing a note, one that clearly wouldn’t exist in the original ddlc, asking the mc for help. yuri also has several moments of lucidity, both with her own actions/behaviour and that of her clubmates (and by clubmates i mean pretty much just natsuki). like i said before, though, they aren’t as aware as monika, and while sayori (in the first run), yuri and natsuki all seem to realize something is wrong, they also don’t know that they’re in a game.

monika was very, very alone, even when she was surrounded by her friends. friends that she legitimately cared about and enjoyed spending time with. i wonder whether it would have been better that she were more self-aware, or never was in the first place

topic 2: the true end

so i already talked a lot about how i think monika woulda been the true route, but not about what i think would happen in the true end. i have less to say on this topic both just in general and because i already spent so much fucking time on the first topic, but of course i have Thoughts, i wouldn’t be claiming monika would be the true route if i didn’t have an idea of how said route would work

i’ll take this character-by-character for the sake of clarity and organization

sayori:

so here’s the thing:

monika exaggerated sayori’s depression, yes.

sayori is, understandably, probably the character most people would rather the mc end up with, sure.

... but sayori never told mc she was suffering, not until he happened to catch her in a moment of weakness

not in the original ddlc either-- the mc has a very lukewarm response when she tells him she’s woken up on time for a few days in a row, which he wouldn’t/shouldn’t have had if he had known. it was always part of the game plot for mc to learn about sayori’s depression onscreen

it makes sense sayori would have feelings for him, but it also seems like she doesn’t trust him very much-- in her “bottles of happiness” poem, towards the end she seems to talk about her friends being concerned for her, but she’s shutting it all out because she doesn’t want them to worry. the mc at this point doesn’t know she’s suffering. it seems like she’s had other friends who have actually noticed she was hurting-- whether those friends are the club members or not, iunno-- and that even though she does try to conceal it, she’s aware that they’re aware, y’know? mc had no idea, and seemed incredibly unequipped and unqualified to help sayori

while that sort of thing would be remedied in sayori’s route, he wouldn’t be spending as much time with her on the other girls’ routes... not to mention that dating someone can’t cure your mental illness, but mc seems exactly like the kind of person to think that it can. that’s just my Own Ape Canyon though

what i’m thinking is true end sayori doesn’t end up with anyone, and she’s okay with that. true end sayori is prioritizing herself and learning to deal with things healthily. she’s letting her friends help her, and she’s holding off on romance, because she acknowledges that if she isn’t careful, she might sacrifice her own well-being for her partner’s happiness.

natsuki:

fun fact: i didn’t know if the buffsuki edit was actually in the game or not for... up until a few days ago. i had no idea if it was from some kind of joke ending, or if it was fanmade. i was pretty disappointed to learn it was the latter i wanted to watch her physically break out of the game with her giant rippling muscles

now while the main topic is the true end, i’d actually first like to discuss what a full natsuki route would be like

i think that natsuki’s route would be furthest from a good end without being a bad end, tbh

i don’t think her route would be a total disaster, mind you, but i don’t think it’d be a happy end. i think you’d end up dating her, which would make it an unhappy end

see the thing about natsuki is: she’s only got a small handful of friends, she’s used to being made fun of, she immediately gets prickly when sayori brings mc in, specifically saying that the mc being male is killing the vibe-- meaning, she probably doesn’t have any male friends... leaving her dad as probably the only man she interacts with

in other words, she avoids men because of her dad

so when mc shows up, is friendly, doesn’t make fun of her, and he’s the only male figure in her life that she feels remotely safe around, it’s no question she’d probably... maybe... develop feelings for him...?

of course! yes, of course, because natsuki is VERY HETEROSEXUAL, and she likes BOYS! this is proof! most boys, she can’t stand em, but this one was nice to her, so of course she’s got a crush on him right?

in case you’re missing my heavy sarcasm, i’m saying natsuki is a lesbian with compulsory heterosexuality issues and due to said issues convinces herself that she’s romantically interested in mc, because he’s the first boy she’s met who hasn’t treated her like shit

hence making the natsuki route a pretty unfortunate one, since like i said i think you really would end up dating her, at least for most of it. maybe the end would be something like her moving away or something leaving the relationship sort of Over without actually having a breakup, i dunno

oh by the way: do you want some evidence for natsuki lesbian? oh there’s plenty but i’m gonna wait a moment for that one. i’m also not gonna go into natsuki’s true route for now, you’ll see why soon

yuri

and by soon

i mean now

i don’t have any thoughts on what yuri’s route would be so we’re gonna go right into discussing the true end

so, here’s a little something:

monika also exaggerated the turbulence in natsuki and yuri’s relationship

once again, in the original ddlc-- the part you can actually see, after you delete monika, the two are actually pretty close! they do butt heads occasionally but in the one instance you get to see in the original ddlc, they made up very quickly

monika also modified a lot of their lines in the Big Argument they have in act 2, which has both of them saying a lot of shit they wouldn’t have even thought, much less say aloud

the reality is, though, that natsuki is actually very fond of yuri

the amy in this poem is two people, depending on how it’s read: natsuki or yuri

when amy is natsuki, it’s a poem about how her own harmless interest in manga causes her to be made fun of or insulted

when amy is yuri, it’s a poem about... well, her self-harm, but a lot of yuri’s traits/interests could apply as well

and when amy is yuri, you can see a lot of information about natsuki and yuri’s relationship in this poem. natsuki doesn’t hate yuri, of course-- remember that this poem is meant to point out how dumb it is to hate someone for one tiny trait when all of their other traits are that of an all-around nice person

first 3 lines of the second verse. just take a real long look at those

here’s another poem!

this is the poem natsuki writes if 2 or less of the poems mc writes in act 1 don’t appeal to her. this makes it fairly clear the “you” in the poem isn’t mc

the “you” is someone, though

yuri.

it’s yuri. the poem is about yuri.

by the way, if all 3 of your poems did appeal to natsuki, the poem she writes is nowhere near as BLATANTLY ROMANTIC as this one is. it most certainly doesn’t say anything about kissing

btw hey did you know that “yuri” also refers to lesbians

once again i think it’s probably obvious what i’m getting at here: the true end for natsuki and yuri is the two of them dating. hell, i’m pretty sure part of the route would involve mc and monika trying to play cupid-- monika is the one who tells you who your poem appeals to, after all, so why wouldn’t she try some matchmaking for her pals?

i imagine they do still have little spats every now and then, sure, but they’d learn to respect each other’s opinions long before they’d start dating, and the fact that they’re both passionate is what makes them work. while their writing styles are almost polar opposites, that just means they have a lot to learn from each other and could balance the other out when they take their style to an extreme that makes it hard to understand what they’re trying to get across, and i’m certain they could make a kickass story together

anyways, that’s all i’ve got to say for now, partly because i spent four fucking hours writing this post and partly because i gotta get back to staring into monika’s eyes. i added the monika after story mod because i cycled through all of her available dialogue in the vanilla game. i just want to be friends with her so bad

#doki doki literature club #ddlc #ddlc monika #monika ddlc #ddlc spoilers #i'm just tagging monika because most of this post is about her specifically #i do talk about the other girls too though #long post. like super fucking long. i went apeshit

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solar-drag0n · 5 years ago

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I just barely missed national coming out day on here (it’s 3am for me) but I’m gonna come out here like I did on instagram.

I’m an asexual trans man who doesn’t label their romantic orientation. I’m polyamorous and have two wonderful partners and I’m so much happier now than I was before I figured myself out.

Figuring myself out wasn’t easy at all. When I was maybe 12 or 13 I got my first boyfriend. I wasn’t actually romantically attracted to him, I was confused. My friends kept teasing me that I liked him because I wanted to talk to him and spend time with him so much and got jealous that my best friend (who I was staying with for the summer) was able to play Minecraft with him.

When school started again he and I barely got to talk. I was only allowed to text him after 3 until 8 on weekdays. I should probably note that this was long distance. I probably dropped the “I love you” bomb way too early in the relationship as well. Maybe two months before the end of the school year I started looking up lgbt terms I read about in fanfic.

I dressed more masculine than I did feminine, which prompted me asking him one night “would you still like me if I dressed like a boy?”

He said yes but that his parents probably wouldn’t like it. I didn’t talk about it again. Fast forward to the start of high school. He and I had broken up not long after 8th grade started and I had briefly dated one of my friends, lost my entire friend group, and was more miserable than anything.

Not long after school started I was reunited with a friend from 7th grade. She was an upperclassman who I’d met in my middle school’s anime club. She and some friends wanted to start a GSA club and she invited me.

I was curious and said yes. I found some new friends (not in the club) who were lgbt and started questioning myself again. I was scared, I felt like I didn’t know who I was.

The anime club friend talked to me one day and asked if I was lgbt. I said I wasn’t sure. I’d never really had a crush on a girl before but I wasn’t going to say I’d be opposed to dating a girl. Near the end of the year I was laughing with some friends during class change. I’d decided I was bi and came out to my bi friend.

She and I kissed once after she asked if it was okay for her to kiss me. I don’t count this as my first kiss, it didn’t mean anything.

I cut all my hair off and unintentionally started the trend of girls getting short haircuts. The year ended and I was home for the summer. With nothing to do I did what I always did, I read fanfiction.

I kept looking up lgbt things and talking to my lgbt friends, they were bummed I was going to be homeschooled for 10th grade because of bullying but I assured them it didn’t mean we couldn’t hang out.

I stumbled across asexuality. I did extensive research, over and over until I was basically an Encyclopedia for sexualities. It felt right. I came out to my mom as asexual and got the typical aphobic responses:

“How do you know if you’ve never had sex”

“You’ll meet a boy and change your mind”

Sruff like that. I ignored it, she didn’t understand but for once I felt like something was finally right.

I kept reading fanfic and came across the term binders more frequently than before. I’d only read it once before in 7th grade and thought it meant the character took a literal binder and stuffed it under their shirt.

I looked it up and found it makes the chest flat. I desperately wanted a flat chest but heavily denied wanting to be a boy. So I did research.

“How to get a flatter chest naturally”

“How to get a flat chest without a binder”

I didn’t like any of the answers and just decided I was stuck with something I didn’t want.

I don’t remember how I stumbled across being transgender other than the binders. I looked into it, watched a lot of YouTube. I decided I was nonbinary and told my mom. She was okay with it so I felt like I could be me.

I had trouble coming to terms with pronouns. At first I wanted people to refer to me as “it” but my anime club friend didn’t want to call me that. So I stuck with she/her until it became too uncomfortable with my friend who lived in the spare room of my house at the time.

I confronted them about it and they refused to call me it, instead saying they when referring to me. It felt wrong at first but it ended up growing on me.

Then I realised I was a boy and asked to use he/him pronouns. Again, it felt wrong at first but it eventually settled and felt right.

I got my first serious partner not long after that. I realised I was poly maybe three months into the relationship when I was watching Face Off (y’know, the Make-up challenge show) and a contestant mentioned it which prompted me looking it up.

I fell ill because of an eating disorder and went to a special hospital for it. While I was there I was hardly able to contact my partner and ended up saying another patient was cute. They broke up with me the next day.

I didn’t get my next serious partner until I was back home and healthy and was seeing an lgbt friendly therapist who suggested me going to an lgbt event.

This partner was rather hard for me. They seemed perfect. They were poly too, they were trans like me, and I loved them deeply. I gave them the kiss I count as my first kiss. I wish I’d never kissed them.

I have abandonment issues and was struggling with jealousy problems and possessiveness. I wanted this partner to be mine and mine alone. They had told me that if I asked them to be monogamous they’d do it for me. I asked. They decided to dump me.

During the time we were together I dated a mutual partner who I ended up dumping because I realised I wasn’t romantically into them, got told bullshit by one of their partner’s friends, decided I didn’t like that partner very much. Dated the friend who made me not like that partner even more.

I eventually got dumped by the friend and realised that they lied. Like, a lot. So I stared talking to the partner I didn’t like much (who wasn’t a partner anymore because the bullshit got them dumped). This dumping was a little before my second serious partner dumped me.

So I stayed single. Then, age 18, I started talking to a girl on Instagram, just casual chatting and memes and stuff. I started falling and I was absolutely terrified. I’d been torn apart by the two people I’d fallen in love with and was so scared that I had a panic attack when I realised I liked her.

Not knowing what to do I confessed to her, hoping she’d turn me down. She confessed back and I freaked out. I told her I wasn’t ready to date and she respected that. So we were friends who talked regularly.

Then I decided I was comfortable enough with her to try and date. My second serious partner was my only partner who wasn’t long distance so I felt a bit safer with her knowing she couldn’t traumatise me like he had.

Dating her also meant I’d officially seriously dated a person from the three main pronouns, a they, a he, and a she.

At this point I was completely open and raw with her which was so fucking terrifying but I felt it was necessary in hopes of not getting hurt again. I told her I was poly and she was cool with it.

A little bit passes and I realise I’m also in love with the ex partner of my second serious ex, the one who I didn’t like because their friend (who was extremely manipulative and emotionally abusive) told bullshit about him.

Scared, I tell my girlfriend. She supports me and says that me being poly is 100% okay and after I confessed to him she told me it was okay if I wanted to date him too.

So far they’re my now. They’ve both stuck with me through a lot of shit. I love them both so much.

My coming outs have been hard, figuring myself out was harder. But I’m happy now.

#long post #sketchy speaks #national coming out day

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placesthatchangedpeople · 6 years ago

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Titus’s Diamond Ranch Academy testimony

I attended Diamond Ranch Academy (DRA) for 10 months from 2017-2018. My parents were lured and manipulated into sending and keeping there. I was well-liked for the majority of my stay but still would've rather been shot on the spot than attend this 'Treatment Center'.

My Experience [Simplified]:

Why was I there?

My family and I butted heads before DRA, and more so after.

Pros:

Got work experience in the kitchen.

Comically easy school-work boosted my GPA (The curriculum makes common core look amazing), (My GPA was a 3.6 before DRA).

Cons:

Harrassed almost daily (To be fair, this is the standard).

Constant fear of Physical harm, Rape, Harassment via human bi-product (Urine, Feces, and Semen are the main issues).

Contacted a disease at least once a month.

Physical harm or power abuse via staff (Staff are constantly being fired and are leaving because of how often this happens).

A constant sense of hopelessness as my parents were caught in these snakes trap.

Most of the food (They provide laxatives in medical because of this).

No contact with the opposite gender whatsoever.

Constant theft and damaging of personal items.

No access to music (Unless your child has been attending DRA for over 10months or has mental issues. Side note: If your child has mental issues they will for certain be harassed).

No access to [real] technology. (More on this later)

Many more...

[Simplified End]

Things to know before reading:

The Watches:

Note: All the watches are just detention in special clothing (Bumble Bee attire). This is not a joke, they put your kid in the same room where they put the kids who have been misbehaving and make them sit there for weeks at a time.

Suicide Watch: Suicide Watch is exactly what it sounds like, kids are watched more closely (not actually) so they do not kill themselves. The fact that kids try and kill themselves while they're here should raise some flags to you as a parent.

Run Watch: Run Watch is also exactly what it sounds like, if a kid of suspected of or has tried to run and been caught, they will be put on this watch. Many kids have been caught running, they have what they call bounty hunters to go and track down kids who have ran. The locals often help out when a kid tries to run, but not in defense of the kid. Every kid who ran while I was there was caught, brought back, and punished.

Gay Watch: Gay Watch is when your kid is caught having, or doing, sex/sexual things with/to another kid. I personally never saw it, but it was said you'd get a rainbow shirt.

My Experience:

The beginning of my DRA experience started with being kidnapped and driven to Utah. Luckily I got through this unscathed (I mention this because it's not uncommon for new kids to show up beaten or bruised). As soon as I got there, I was given a tour of my prison and assigned a therapist. My therapist immediately put me on Suicide Watch (SW) and Run Watch (RW) telling me it was because "I'm new" (Spoiler: this rarely happens and while I'm not 100% sure why I think it was just because he was having a bad day). They made me wear a yellow t-shirt, black shorts with no pockets, and flip-flops. We nicknamed this outfit "The Bumble-Bee". While I was a Bumble-Bee I got the joy of sitting in a classroom with all the 'bad kids' doing almost nothing for about a week. I say ALMOST nothing because they managed to get my scholarly agenda setup. I completed almost an entire quarter of most of my classes during that week (Remember what I said about the school-work being comically easy?).

After I was taken off the watches, I got to participate in regular DRA kid things. It only took me a day to be targeted and harassed by other DRA kids. I later learned this was a regular thing and didn't think much of it until after I left the place. This continued throughout my stay but wasn't really a problem as I was easily able to harass back, as most of the staff don't really care.

The regular weekday schedule is, wake up at 6:00-6:30 am, take morning medication if needed, eat breakfast, go to school until 3:00 pm (lunch is in the middle of the day), participate in clubs, sit and do nothing in dorms until dinner (this was supposed to be used for studying, but as I said, the school-work is comically easy), eat dinner, go upstairs and clean dorms and occasionally do non-dorm chores, Netflix and showers (if everyone had been behaving correctly, the staff love blanket punishment and if a kid in your dorm or a group of 8+ kids had been misbehaving would take your tv cord), then lights out at 9:00pm.

The weekend schedule is, wake up at 7:00, take medications if needed, eat breakfast, back to dorms for deep clean (an hour of dorm cleaning), after that, if we everyone was good, we could watch Netflix or do an activity until lunch. Activities included going to the weight room, basketball gym, and sometimes the field. Back to the schedule, from lunch, we would have nap time (people rarely napped), after naptime is benefit if you made it (more on that later) or if you didn't, detention until the end of the day or more Netflix until dinner, after dinner its Netflix and showers until bed at 10:00 (I think).

We did get some holidays off. Just not the whole week or anything close to that, just the day of the holiday. To give you an idea of what holidays are like; For Christmas, we got the day off, two boxes of cosmic brownies or oatmeal cream pies and assorted treats (total value of about 10$), played dodgeball and got to watch a movie in the commons area.

Notice how I haven't mentioned the barn/ranch yet. Even though the name of the place is called Diamond RANCH Academy and you are paying a minimum of 66,000$ [Maximum I believe is around 120,000$] for your kid to attend, they ask I think another 10,000$ per month for your kid to have access to the main gimmick of the place. On the topic of money let me go into what you'd be paying for.

The administration would have you think are paying for whatever problem with your teen you told them about to be solved. What you are actually paying for is very likely to be a huge waste of your teens time, detriment to your teens health, and massive detriment to your relationship with your teen. Why do I say this? Well, I have kept up with fellow DRA survivors and observed their lives as well as my own.

I keep up with about 87 of the about 130 people I attended DRA with via Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook. Out of the 87 I know, only 2 have stopped their drug usage (but both continue to use Marijuana) and are better versions of themselves (I must note when I asked them about it they told me it's not because of DRA, but because they decided themselves that they were going to stop). Of the 87, 59 of them said their relationships with their family had worsened and the other 28 (I could not get ahold of all 28 of them, probably not a good sign) had said their relationship was the same as when they left. The 85, in my opinion, have become worse versions of themselves then when I knew them at DRA. My own personal relationship with my family has worsened since my return from DRA.

Out of space so here are some important notes:

DRA kid testimonials on their website:

We are forced to smile in all pictures.

All of the kids giving video testimonials are bribed with treats and candies (highly valuable to us because we'd rarely get any), I know because I knew (and know) them and asked about it.

DRA testimonials on this website:

Not sure about all of them, but I find it highly suspicious that most of them are from California. Not going to name the one but there is one that says 'Trust the staff and program' which seems VERY suspicious to me. I'd say, if you do decide to send your kid here, trust your kid and read through the lines of what the admin will be telling you at the same time. Remember they are running a businesses and make money off of you sending and keeping your child there.

Administration Lies:

Note: Most aren't direct lies, just not full truths. Note: They will tailor what they tell you to you specifically

Example: There was a regular kid they tricked into coming, they told him DRA had school dances, access to phones, girls, and regular hikes.

DRA has a seasonal dance club, for girls campus only.

The Staff alone have access to smartphones and kids can rarely talk on wired phones, and only to family or people the family has cleared (Not an easy process, also they will usually hang you up if you try to tell them about how terrible DRA really is).

There are girls there. But they are on a whole separate campus, and you will be heavily punished if you get caught trying to or making contact with any of them and vice versa.

There are hikes, sometimes, for benefits (I never went on a single one).

They have an Ice-Cream Machine - They do, but it has been broken for years.

They have dogs, cats, horses, and more. - They do, but you have to pay the extra 10,000$ per month to access them.

They have Xbox - They do, but you have to progress pretty far into the program to get access, and the only games are Minecraft, StarWars Battlefront 2, Skyrim, Mirrors Edge, and Batman Arkham Night. All which you are not guaranteed to play and are likely to have to share with someone else.

I'm out of space, to sum this all up, if you have to send your kid anywhere, please consider somewhere else.

#diamond ranch academy #Utah

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pricryo · 6 years ago

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tw: abuse shit, manipulation shit, transphobia ment, death ment, christianity ment, probably more. hi i’m tim wright and today i remembered one of my abusers so naturally, while instilled with fiery rage, i thought i should make a post abt it here for reference as to why i have “don’t follow if you kin ticci-toby (creepypasta) or yato (noragami)” as one of my don’t follow criteria. there will probably be another post on this in the future because there’s really a lot to unravel about her abuse and how it’s affected myself and my friends. this is just one of the main and most notable incidents, roughly around the time our friendship truly started its decline.

putting this shit under a cut so it doesn’t clutter things up on anyone’s dash

her name is grace. i initially met her in the fourth grade (when i was around nine or ten), but i wasn’t really close friends with her until late middle school to early high school. she was always sort of uncomfortable to be around, but she was one of the few people who would talk to me, so i considered her a friend. when i was a freshman in high school, i had just been introduced to the otherkin and fictionkin communities by a friend (named cas) at the time, along with grace and another friend (her name was destiny).

i kinfirmed being wolfkin first and foremost (i know, i know, how generic) after a lot of reflection and questioning on the subject, and cas, who was also wolfkin, suggested we make a wolfkin pack (a.k.a, mistake number one) under the presumption that all four of us were wolfkin. (hint: only half of us were)

grace agreed, claiming she was also wolfkin, and a pack was formed. now, this wasn’t the healthiest pack, realistically. we were young and honestly? a little dumb. we had this big ~pack mentality~ that was horrid and cringy to look back on, and i’m very ashamed of myself. we were overly protective of each other, saw cas as our boss, and overall were just... toxic in mindset, if i remember correctly. unfortunately, this made us super easy to manipulate.

it started in either january or february (i can’t remember which anymore), when grace told us that her long-time boyfriend (joe) had broken up with her during our high school’s winter formal dance. supposedly, it was during their first slow dance, to be specific. she claimed that he’d been abusive to her before, including hitting her, insulting her, etc., and destiny even backed this claim up by saying she’d seen it. (note: joe was openly known to be autistic in our school, keep this in mind.) we, of course, didn’t take this well. after confronting joe on the matter, he seemed confused and had genuinely no idea what was happening, even saying he hadn’t broken up with her at all.

we further confront him (this time on deviantArt) and he continues to say he has no idea, and he’s very confused over who we are. we... honestly treated him like trash. not because he was autistic, but because he was supposedly abusive. it was terrible. and while we’re doing this, grace is just feeding us more and more lies about the guy. she went as far as to make fake texts between himself and her, where he was saying shit like how we were demons, and that we needed to go to church and we needed jesus, calling grace fat and ugly, saying that he’d won her and she was just his trophy, and even being openly transphobic regarding leelah alcorn’s death, among other things. we would be like “give us his number/account, let us talk to him” and she’d always tell us “oh he deleted it right after” or some similar shit. that was red flag number one, but i trusted her (mistake number two) because she was my friend.

by this time, we're literally enraged. we told the dean of our school about it and everything. we were shit talking joe all over deviantArt and threatening him (which was so immature, and looking back on it, i hate how i handled that situation at 14) and everything. i deadass made what was supposed to be his in minecraft just to pour lava over it and burn it down. terrible shit. but the bottom line: we were very angry.

around this time, i start noticing that the way he types on deviantArt and the way he types in the “texts” don’t match up. it’s super suspicious. red flag number two. he types perfectly on deviantArt, but types exactly how grace types in the texts. i bring it up subtly and i’m all like “haha that’s pretty weird, why does he do that?” grace agrees that it’s weird and then starts saying that she recreated some of them because they were deleted too fast. the typing difference happened on all of them. again, that’s super suspicious, but i really trusted her as my friend.

things escalated. i can’t really remember most of it, but here’s some details i do remember:

there’s a fake instagram made (something along the lines of ‘weirdguy101′ or some similar shit) where art that cas and destiny had made was uploaded, supposedly owned by joe, who was claiming to have drawn it himself. none of my art was stolen. grace was the only person to have taken pictures of that art. red flag number three.

an “undercover” deviantArt account made by grace where she pretended to be a different person to interact with joe as if she was on our side.

a lot of skype calls on the subject - during one, grace calls joe on her home phone and cas and destiny make weird noises in an effort to freak him out - which was succesful.

we make both a deviantArt group and instagram to combat the fake instagram and make vague, threatening posts to him (which i’m very certain is deleted by this point).

the dean told us he spoke with joe, and that joe had zero idea what was happening at all.

we were going to go to the principal over the matter because we thought the dean didn’t take us seriously. i was absent that day because i was sick if i remember correctly, and cas and destiny didn’t go talk to the her because grace didn’t show up, either. red flag number four.

grace would intentionally rile us up if we weren’t having a conversation specifically about the conflict. like, this happened for weeks, and when we tried to have other, normal conversations, she’d butt in baout how much she hated joe and about how we should all burn down his house and shit. i’m fairly certain that some of the fake texts were just to draw our attention back on that topic. red flag number five.

and honestly? a hell of a lot more that i don’t really remember.

cas mentions that he thinks things are getting a little fishy after a while, and i tell him about what i’ve been thinking. we end up calling her on skype and he calls her out because he’s 100% certain that she had been playing us. she’s dead silent for most of the time and doesn’t even defend herself or say he’s wrong. he hangs up on her and i’m there listening to her crying alone (and it’s such an ugly noise, mind you) and i’m filled with disgust and anger and hurt. i’m there for two to three minutes listening before i hang up, too.

even after that, we’re all like, “we forgive you. just don’t do this shit again,” because we still saw her as a friend despite her 100% being trash to us, and we were still willing to move past that. and grace has the audacity to ask if we’ll go to the dean with her in the morning and explain the situation. like.... she manipulates us into harassing and threatening a kid, pretends to be him and insults us + is transphobic as all hell, literally steals art from cas and destiny under the guise that it’s him, plays us like a game of chess for her own sick amusement.... and then expects us to help her explain to the dean that she was lying the entire time and nothing was wrong. ofc, we said no. things simmer down.

for like a day or two.

and then we’re in a group chat with a classmate named britney who says we need to stop bullying her friend. get this - grace has been showing off the screenshots of what we’ve said to her (which was in no way bullying, btw) and claiming we were bullying her. greaaaattt. grace didn’t bother to tell her the full story (a common theme with her) and now britney has taken it upon herself ot be a good samaritan. she yells at us, removes cas from the chat after one of his alters front, i add him back, and britney refuses to tell us who it was. (spoiler alert: we already know). i agree that we’ll stop “bullying” grace so she’ll leave us alone and the conversation is done.

so naturally we’re all like, “what the fuck dude, it was over? and we didn’t do anything to you? you were just bad to us?” and ofc this sets her off to continually tell us ”it’s in the past, i made mistakes, you should forgive me” even though all the shit she did was entirely intentional. initially i don’t want the reason why she did it, but i get progressively more frustrated and then start demanding to know why. she legitimately didn’t say anything other than “...” on the subject. considering how i was young and had a short fuse, i kinda go off on her abt it. because that’s such a fucking dick move. and she says “well idk what to say except sorry” as if she isn’t aware she can tell us why she did it.

i end up having a breakdown because i realize that i’m a total fucking monster who harrassed a kid and was manipulated into doing s and i don’t even get to know why. cas removes her from the group and we’re left to pick up the pieces.

i end up giving a handwritten note containing a formal apology to destiny and she agreed to give it to joe for me. all was well for a while with grace out of my life.

unfortunately, this was not the last incident i had with grace. i’ll post more on it some other time but like... dm me for her tumblr if you want to block her or some shit. she’s still out there and active on tumblr as far as i know.

bonus: a screenshot where i totally should’ve realized she was playing us, ft. me talking to joe

#tim.txt #dont reblog ////#that was back when i typed properly lmao #abuse tw ///#abuse ment ///#manipulation tw ///#manipulation ///#transphobia ment ///#transphobia tw ///#christianity ment ///#christianity ///#notes to talk about for next time include #her faking being otherkin and fictionkin #while she was anti-kin #and her faking she was trans #and her literally adopting everyone's identities #not to mention her dating a thirteen year old when she was nearly eighteen #and cheating on them with multiple other people #and her abusing joe #and her literally bringing my boyfriend's ptsd out of remission! :^)#gracie sweetie if you're reading this? i hope you choke #oh and a little more on this situation can be talked abt!#this is almost a tl;dr version honestly #ask if you want my venting blog that's specifically anti-grace!#it's co-owned with john!!#abuse discussion #grace is an abusive fuck #abt in tags #ig?#long post ///

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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Five of the Best: Caves • Eurogamer.net

Each week, Five of the Best gives love to the overlooked parts of games. The things you don’t notice when you’re playing because you’re too busy doing more important things. But you remember them. They’re there in your memory all the same. So much so that when someone says something like, “Which are the best caves in games?” Some immediately spring to mind.

So: which are the best caves in games? Let’s give it a try, shall we?

I’ve been caving – spelunking – before, back when I was a teenager, and I’m not sure I could do it now. I remember having to swim in icy cold water under a stalactite and shimmy along tunnel-like passages. I don’t know how I did it – it gives me the shivers just thinking about it now.

But I have been in a cave since, in Thailand, and I was totally unprepared. I found myself on a makeshift tour, on my hands and knees, army-shuffling through what was basically a tunnel with the dimensions of an air duct. I remember seeing a cave spider on the wall – it was bloody dark in there – and thinking, ‘Oh god, are they all over the wall?’

Don’t worry, our guide said, it’s nothing compared to when he slept there overnight with nothing but a candle, which went out, and when he woke up to relight it, he found himself completely surrounded by cave spiders.

I was very reassured.

Still, there was an amazing moment where the guide pointed into the blackness of another chamber and it became slowly apparent he was pointing out a colony of bats. God knows how many were in there. Hundreds? Thousands?

I was quite relieved to get out.

Grow Home’s most elusive cave

There are great caves in Grow Home. They feel really, really cavey. Outside it’s a beautiful balmy day, but in here it’s dark and still and you can almost feel the cool air.

Brilliantly, I think there’s an Achievement for finding all the game’s caves. I remember this because for an age I had found all but one. I’d found the cave with the weird little glowing critters, the one with the bull, the one that you can drop down into by pulling the boulders aside…

Finally I had to go back to the very start. The really big sandy island at the very bottom of the game’s world was the first place I felt I had exhausted. But I had forgotten to look around the back of the main mountain. There, almost hidden by perspective, was the cave I was after. I went inside and, yes, wonderfully still and chilly. A perfect cave. So cavey!

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Skip to 2.12!

The Batcave

The game’s getting on a bit now, but still: spoilers for Arkham Asylum

How many times have we been in the Batcave by this point? It’s been a hub, an upgrade menu, even a raiding area. There’s something really special about it each time, though, because it’s the Batcave. And there’s something especially special about it in Arkham Asylum.

Mid-way through Arkham Asylum there’s a huge reveal. It’s not the solution to the mystery or a sudden character death. It’s that Batman has a back-up Batcave on Arkham Island. There’s a lovely bit of theatre to the discovery, to the way he’s scanned in and allowed to enter. But more than that, there’s a real force of wonder to it, because…I had no idea!

A Batcave on Arkham Island was news to me, anyway. It felt brilliant: like Batman had been keeping a secret from us, the player, and he was finally letting us in a bit. And it’s a reminder that in Batman’s world, pretty much nobody knows about the Batcave anyway. What a lovely moment. And what a lovely cave.

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The secret tomb in Knights of the Old Republic 2

I’m cheating a bit because it’s a tomb rather than cave, although you need to go through a cave to get to it. It’s on Korriban and it’s literally called the Secret Tomb. It’s optional, you don’t have to go there, but do. Go there because it’s a magical cave filled with Dark Side energy, like everything else on Korriban.

The tomb shows you visions and tests you. It shows you famous KOTOR characters Malak and Revan during the Mandalorian Wars, before they turned to the Dark Side. It’s a war you fought for them in but you don’t know much about it. Why did they disobey the Jedi Order? What did you do? It’s a theme running through the game, and there, in the tomb, you learn more while wrestling with what you think about it all.

I remember it still, nearly 15 years later. I think it stuck in my head because it made me think. It was more than another cave to kill-through and loot (although there is loot to be had – this is an RPG after all).

Honorable mention to The Witcher 3’s Cave of Dreams, which has a big blue floating whale and has similar magical visions to the Korriban tomb. It’s actually the cave which inspired this whole topic.

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I mean, the graphics aren’t great now but…

Destiny’s loot cave

The infamous loot cave in Destiny represented the state of Bungie’s shared world shooter when it first launched – a place with so much potential, but which was also an incredible grind.

And so the loot cave itself – a spot you could sit and endlessly farm wave after wave of enemies as they spawned – gained notoriety as an exploit. It was a shortcut to some of Destiny’s rarest item drops. And while farming the loot cave wasn’t fun, it was efficient. It was the fastest way to get through Destiny’s grind.

When it was patched out, it was a relief. I no longer feel like I had to try this thing to keep up with everyone else doing the same. Bungie, correctly, realised it needed to provide better, faster ways of getting players to the game’s level cap. And in its place, one of the few examples where Bungie acknowledged the impact its players had – an Easter egg showing a pile of bones from all the enemies slain along the way.

Tom Phillips

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Cheats!

Minecraft

Minecraft is a game of two worlds, really: the above and below. Every time a new world is generated, mountains spike up to the sky, and forests and grasslands spread further than the eye can see. For a blocky game it can create some gorgeous vistas. But what you can’t see, though, and what’s equally awe inspiring, is what lurks below.

Down there, huge black chambers await. Down there, abandoned mine shafts await. Down there, coal, iron, gold, gems, diamonds, all the things you need. But in the darkness, monsters await, too. And lava. And falls into fathomless black depths. Down there: danger.

But you are inextricably drawn towards them, drawn underground. And every time you see a cave opening or a chasm scarring the earth, or you begin a stepped tunnel down underground, you hope to hit upon the chamber of riches you see. But you never know. You break the block to reveal blackness and for a brief moment you are helpless to what lies beyond. It’s a cycle of excitement I will never tire of.

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This is ridiculous! I’ve never seen a cave like this.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/five-of-the-best-caves-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-of-the-best-caves-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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