#seriously that is ALL I remember from that story

[ithilien-writes]

ficlet prompt: buck having a bad chronic pain day in his leg :)

thanks for the prompt! i had fun with this one 🥰

(to anyone reading: this was written really quickly and without much editing, so please take it in that spirit. i'm past the block that sparked the original call for prompts, but you can still always feel free to send me some more!!)

---

Rotten Work [Buck/Eddie (Buck & Chris), G, ~800 words]

Chris knows instinctively what kind of day it's going to be from almost the moment he wakes up. Or, at least from the moment he walks into the living room and sees Buck sprawled out on the couch.

Just a few months ago, it wouldn't have been an odd sight - Buck used to stay over on their couch all the time. And it's not that he doesn't stay over now; if anything, he stays over way more. He's just... not exactly been sleeping on the couch these days.

"Hey Buck," Chris calls out, keeping his voice soft even though he's pretty sure Buck's awake.

Sure enough, Buck stirs at the greeting, craning his neck up to look over at Chris, but without moving his body at all. So that's definitely sign number two.

"Hey bud," Buck greets him back, just as softly.

"Cuttlefish day?" Chris asks, even though he's almost positive he already knows the answer.

Buck manages a small smile back at him.

"Cuttlefish day," he confirms.

It was something they'd started when Chris was still pretty little. Honestly, Chris isn't sure that he even really remembers the day it started, except that he's heard the story from Dad. Apparently, on one of the first truly bad pain days he'd had after his mom died, Chris had been so overwhelmed by everything that he'd had a full sobbing meltdown, and he'd told his dad in between his little hiccuping cries that he didn't even want to be a person anymore.

"What do you want to be instead?" Dad had asked, holding Chris to his chest and rubbing his legs soothingly.

Which- apparently the question had been enough to distract Chris from his meltdown, finally getting him to stop crying as he thought about it with all the seriousness that an eight year-old could muster for such an important question. And then, on a huge aquarium kick at the time, he'd eventually decided he'd rather be a cuttlefish.

So now, in the years since it had become a kind of shorthand in their house for a bad pain day - initially for Chris, but eventually for Buck too.

So Chris simply nods at Buck's confirmation, before slipping back into the hallway to grab the TENS machine out of the closet, bringing it out to Buck who gives him another grateful smile in return. Then while Buck begins placing the electrodes along his bad leg, Chris heads into the kitchen to grab a coffee for Buck and a bowl of cereal for himself.

When Dad finally wakes up and joins them about an hour later, they've already finished breakfast and are well into a documentary on rubik's cube championships - which are apparently a thing? - and Buck's looking markedly more relaxed than he was at the start of the morning.

Dad ruffles Chris's hair as he walks by - which Chris tries to dodge, unsuccessfully - and then he leans down over the back of the couch to press a kiss into Buck's hairline.

"Cuttlefish day?" he asks, and Buck hums an affirmative, even as he tilts his head back to smile up at Dad with the same goofy, besotted grin he always has for him.

"Chris has been taking such good care of me though, I think I might actually be a person again before dinner," he tells Dad.

Dad looks over at Chris and catches his eye, his expression soft and appreciative.

"Well, I'm glad someone was taking care of you," he says after a moment, looking back down at Buck, "since I was apparently sleeping on the job."

He says it in a teasing tone, but also with a subtle undercurrent of actual annoyance that no one woke him up. Chris rolls his eyes.

Buck seems to pick up on it too.

"Well you can go get me another cup of coffee while you're up," he offers magnanimously, "if it would make you feel better."

Dad huffs out a laugh, but dutifully grabs Buck's mug from the coffee table before heading towards the kitchen.

Buck picks up the remote to unpause the documentary, but then looks over towards Chris instead.

"Hey," he says softly. "I meant that, you know. Thank you for taking care of me this morning. I really am feeling a lot better."

Chris shrugs. It's not like Buck hasn't been on the other side of enough of Chris's own cuttlefish days. It's nice to be able to return the favor, honestly.

He doesn't actually say that out loud though, for some reason. But he thinks maybe Buck understands anyway.

"Even if you're feeling better, maybe we could still order take out tonight?" he suggests instead, and Buck laughs.

"Yeah okay," he agrees easily. "I think I might be able to convince your dad on that one."

And when Dad comes back in a few moments later, tucking himself against Buck's side on the couch and handing him his coffee, it turns out it's not even all that hard of a sell.

[v-eee]

── jungkook x you

scenario: you and Jungkook used to be best friend until new female staff came into his workplace, Jieun. He has introduced you to her. Jungkook starts getting busy with his work and often cancel the usual food hunting night with you because he needs to work overtime with Jieun. You know Jieun doesn't like you because she has come to your cafe a few times and told you to stop texting Jungkook during his work hour. when you told him about that, he didn't believe you. Starting that day your friendship is not like it used to be.

(v)

You and Jungkook finally met up at a quiet café you both used to frequent. The moment you walked in and saw him waiting at a table, he stood up, giving you that same warm smile you hadn’t seen in weeks.

"Y/N," he greeted, "It’s so good to see you."

"Hey...," you said casually as you slid into the seat across from him.

"How was the trip?" he asked.

"It was good," you said, keeping your tone light.

Jungkook smiled then glancing down at the table as if he had more to say but wasn’t sure how to say it.

You noticed his hesitation, but instead of addressing it, you decided to lighten the mood. Pulling out a neatly wrapped package from your bag, you placed it in front of him with a grin.

"Happy belated birthday," you said with a smile.

Jungkook stared at the box, wide-eyed. "Wait, you got me something?"

"Of course I did. Just because I wasn't there doesn’t mean I forgot," you teased lightly. "Go ahead, open it."

When he opened the box, his eyes widened in shock. Inside was the camera lens he had been talking about for months.

"Y/N… this is—this is the lens I wanted," he stammered, lifting it out of the box like it was made of gold. "How did you even—"

"Of course I remembered," you said proudly, crossing your arms with a playful smirk. "I’m the best of the best friends, after all."

Jungkook looked at you, still stunned. "I can’t believe you got this for me. I didn’t even think you were paying attention when I mentioned it."

"Please..." you said, rolling your eyes. You've been ranting about this lens forever. I figured it was about time you had it." You waved it off like it was no big deal.

Jungkook laughed, but his expression softened as he set the lens down and looked at you. "Y/N… I've got to say, I'm sorry. For everything. The group chat, the way I didn't believe you about Jieun...I screwed up. And the fact that you still went out of your way to do something like this for me…"

You held up a hand, cutting him off. "Jungkook, seriously...it's fine. I’m not mad about it, okay? I didn’t take it to heart."

"But I feel like I—"

"Jungkook," you said firmly but with a small smile, "I mean it. Let’s not dwell on the past. What’s done is done. We're good, okay?"

He looks at you as if trying to read your mind.

"Don't look at me like that," you glare at him. "Now, come on. Show me what that fancy lens can do!"

The rest of the afternoon felt easy, like a weight had been lifted. You laughed, shared stories, and teased him like old times. As you left the café that evening, you felt proud of yourself. You’d faced Jungkook, given him his gift, and managed to keep things light and casual.

— — —

Your friendship with Jungkook back to like the old times.

You received an invitation to a formal dance ball hosted by your old college friends. You need to bring a plus one.

You used to go with Jungkook, so he assumed you’d take him. He hates ballroom dance, but it's fun to dance with you.\

"So, what time are we going?�� Jungkook asked casually, leaning against the counter at your café.

You blinked at him. “What?”

"The ball," he said with a grin. "Obviously, I'm stuck with you."

You laughed. "Uh… actually, I'm going with Joon."

Jungkook's smile faltered. "Joon? Our Joon?"

"Yep," you said, nodding with a chuckle. "He’s never been to one before, so I thought it'd be fun."

“Oh… cool,” Jungkook said, forcing a smirk. "Yeah, he must be excited."

But it didn't excite him. Since when did you take someone else to events like this?

[taruruchi]

𝐃𝐚𝐲 2: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 3

Post-overblot Azul

I got a sudden vision of an unseen scene that happened in the main story, and in this essay, I will entertain the question:

What happened after Azul's overblot?

This is mainly reliant on the fact that the overblot students have to recover after their overblot. Because it took a lot out of them, right? So they're stuck in the infirmary for a few days and can't go about their regular duties (If they didn't and I'm remembering wrong, idc they have to stay in the infirmary now bc I say so)

I imagine that after each overblot, the prefect has to bring homework and stuff to whoever just overblotted, like Riddle in Chapter 1, Leona in Chapter 2, etc. because they're the resident Errand Runner

Azul has a bigger workload since he's running Mostro Lounge too. Now, Jade and Floyd and the other Octavinelle students can take over, sure, but it's not like he can just put it aside while he's recovering in the infirmary. He gets restless and bothered that he's not there to look after his business. So the prefect has to bring both his schoolwork and those Mostro Lounge documents he looks over

And this is where I start talking about this in terms of the version in my head, aka the version with Taruchi

The first day after The Incident, Taruchi heads to the infirmary after class to give Azul all his stuff. She's already done this for the previous overblot students

"Hii... How are you doing? Are you doing okay?"

Azul looks up from the papers he's holding—the financial losses of the other day—and finds the prefect peeking from behind the curtains separating the beds

"Prefect? I wasn't expecting you here. I'm doing fine, thank you."

"Just dropping off your stuff. ...Are you working???"

She spots the papers scattered on his bed.

"Ah— Yes, I was calculating the amount of losses Mostro Lounge experienced yesterday."

Taruchi gets closer and looks at all the papers. "...Need any help?"

"I couldn't possibly ask you to do that. It's all right," he declines.

"No, you're not feeling well. You should rest. And I'm decent at math, I'm sure it won't be too hard."

"No, seriously, it's fine."

Taruchi frowns at his insistence to keep working despite needing to recover. "...Fine. Just... don't overwork yourself, okay? You haven't completely recovered yet."

"Sure. Thank you, prefect."

"No problem. I'll, uh, I'll go back to my dorm now. Hope you get well soon."

She comes back the next day on her second round of "errands."

"Helloo, I'm back." This time she has a small smile on her face as she greets him.

"Ah, hello, prefect." Azul naturally smiles in return.

"What are you doing today?" He's got papers around him again.

"It's for Mostro Lounge again." He rubs his temple as he looks at the papers. "I need to think of a way to make up for our losses."

"Ohh... How are you gonna do that?" she asks curiously, and half as a way to make it less awkward.

He ends up talking about Mostro Lounge for a while and his plans, so she just listens and asks questions. Her mind wanders a bit to the realization that he's very dedicated to and passionate about his business. She tries not to smile.

Then he stops for a bit and inquires of her, "I meant to ask, why are you here? For longer than yesterday, I mean. You dropped off my things already, so did you need my assistance with something?" Was he trying to fish for a deal right now? Even after his lesson about taking advantage of people's problems and luring them into contracts?

"Oh, n-no. I didn't need any help. I was just visiting." No chance to rope her into a deal.

"...I see."

"I'm sorry, do the visits disturb you? I know you should be recovering and resting up..." She's never felt this nervous about her post-overblot infirmary visits before. (Well... Maybe. Leona was pretty intimidating to bring homework to... He kept trying to get her to keep it.)

"Not at all. I don't mind." He gives his charming smile. In his mind, he's just trying to get her to like him and lower her guard so she doesn't hold these errands and visits against him or something. As if he was the one who forced her to do this. (It was Crowley. And partially Grim because he left her alone for the reason of wanting to go back to the dorm early to "do homework.")

"Oh, okay." She checks the time on her phone. "Ahh, I need to go back to my dorm now. Grim's waiting for me and I've actually got homework to do..."

A light bulb lights up in Azul's head. This would be his way of making it up to her. (Making what up to her? His reasoning is the trouble of helping during his overblot and sending over his schoolwork and Mostro Lounge work.)

"I could help you, if you'd like."

She smiles and tries to decline. She just wants to go to her dorm. "Oh, no, it's all right, I can do it by myself—"

"I insist. I offer my services all the time. See this as my way of repaying you for all the trouble I put you through."

Now she felt guilty and couldn't say no. "Really...?" she asks hesitantly. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, then..." She sits back down on his bed and takes out her homework.

After an hour or somewhere around that, she packs up. "Huh, I actually got a lot done today." She smiles. "Thank you so much, Azul."

And he smiles back. Only to be polite, of course. "It was no problem. Feel free to see me tomorrow as well."

"All right. Thank you." She keeps smiling and finishes packing up her things. "So I'll go now. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

See you tomorrow... Azul found himself smiling at that one phrase, but stopped as soon as he realized it. Why was he smiling anyway?

Taglist: @solxima @angelwishess @scint1llat3 @distant-velleity @twtysevapr @cynthinesia @h0neybane @viperbunnies @linabirb @thehollowwriter @wafflethewitchboy @siphoklansan @jewelulu @skibidibabygirl @jadelover69 (ask me if you wanna be added/removed!)

Divider credits: @/cafekitsune and @/roseraris

[all-pacas]

not sure where this came from but did you want a story from the fifteenth annual oncology benefit? of course you did!

featuring chase md in his element (lying to strangers), park/adams, and violence!

-

The benefit has a vague eighties theme, and Chase watches with interest as Dr. Thurmel, the new head of Oncology, makes a joke about it in his welcome speech. He listens as long as he figures is minimally polite and then slides towards the bar to beat the post-speech line: “Vodka tonic,” he says to the man at the nurse’s station-turned-bar, and then, joking to Park, who is lingering with her elbows on the counter already: “Planning on getting wasted?”

“Isn’t it disrespectful?” she asks. Chase has no idea what she means: Park has the bad habit of starting conversations mid-sentence, but she nods towards Thrumel.

Chase wracks his brain and comes up with nothing. “I wouldn’t say the comb-over is a good look, but not sure how it's disrespectful.”

“This is the first oncology benefit since Dr. Wilson… you know,” Park says. “Why is it eighties themed?”

“We’re here to earn money for the hospital, not memorialize,” Chase points out: he very much doubts Wilson would have minded the purple streamers and Duran Duran soundtrack. He takes his drink from the bartender and takes a sip: watery, not much actual alcohol. Foreman had sent him an e-mail reminder this morning: As a department head, you are expected to attend the benefit; annoying, because Chase actually had been planning on it without the reminder, thanks.

Looking around, he’s not entirely sure why. Coworkers in fancy dress, rich donors from the university or schlepped down from Manhattan, lackluster decor, watery drinks. He’s struck by an embarrassing impulse for nostalgia: to tell Park about the time House dragged them all from the party to chase some white whale.

Chase drains his glass too quickly, wincing at the burn. “I didn’t think parties were your thing,” he teases lightly; Park is still, well, parked where she is, elbows on the counter.

“It’s important to have good relationships with your colleagues,” Park says, and something about the way she says it, pointed, makes him frown —

“You avoiding neurology?” Chase guesses, scanning the crowd for her former colleagues. He catches a glimpse of Adams, dressed nicely, complete with pearl earrings, talking to some rich looking older men, then finds Park’s old boss schmoozing it up with Foreman.

“No need,” Park says glumly. “I haven’t existed to them for twenty months.”

“Huh.” A relief, honestly. Chase isn’t sure enough of his new-ish job as department head to know if he’s supposed to defend his employee’s honor — or something — in the case of conflict. House probably would have declared all-out war, but. “We could do something about that,” he offers gamely, but he’s relieved when Park’s mouth thins and she shakes her head no.

He orders another drink.

“What about you?” Park asks. “I thought parties were your thing.”

“This isn’t a party,” he smirks: in truth he’s been going to hospital benefits as long as he can remember, paraded around in support of his father; this sort of thing is boring but it’s an environment in which Chase knows he thrives.

“There’s girls,” Park says pointedly, probably trying to tease him: she waves her hand, accidentally gesturing at Adams as she laughs coyly at a donor’s joke. Chase wonders: rich girl, were her parents the rich donor type? He doesn’t know. He probably won’t bother to ask.

“You’re a girl,” he says.

“Sorry, but I no longer have any sexual interest in you,” Park says, very seriously.

He blinks, puffs himself up with mock outrage. “What? But, Park, after all this time, I…“ Chase laughs at her expression, unable to keep up the act any longer. Park scrunches up her face in annoyance, her gaze darting away —

A-hah. “Dr. Adams looks good, doesn’t she?” he muses. She is, there’s no doubting that, and her dress is tight-fitting and he very much enjoys looking at her in it.

“From our boss, that’s inappropriate,” Park reminds him.

“True,” he says, remembering dimly Cameron, years and years and years ago, fuming that House had compared her to lobby art. He tries not to smile. “It’s fine from you, though.”

Park glowers. Chase pretends to be busy with his drink and watches her glower, take a loud breath through her nose… and glance back over at Adams.

“You should ask her out,” he says, partially in the spirit of friendship and partially because it would be very funny to watch.

“Didn’t you once tell me it was inappropriate to go out with a colleague?”

“And as you so prudently reminded me, I also once was married to a colleague, so who’d take my advice?”

“She’ll say no,” Park says, annoyed. “And if she doesn’t say no, it’ll be a pity date, or a friend date, or a bad date. Or it will be a good date, and we’ll break up because we are very different people who want different things in life, and then you, as our boss, will have to deal with the repercussions of our bitter falling out. Every day.”

“Well, your contracts only last another six months,” Chase jokes, although actually he hadn’t considered that at all and feels a shudder of horror at the idea of Park and Adams, both very obnoxious when in a bad mood, heartbroken and punchy about it.

“I’ve never gone out with a girl before,” Park adds, deflating.

“It’s not that difficult,” Chase tells her, although part of him is still worrying if he’s made a bad call and should stop this train before it goes any further. “You talk to them like you’d talk to anyone else.”

“I think, since I am actually a girl, and you’re not, that I probably know more about talking to girls than you do,” Park snaps, clearly flustered.

“But I’ve dated way more of them,” he points out wryly, and Park glares up at him: from her expression — more petulant than angry — he doesn’t think he’s in immediate threat of being punched.

She glances over at Adams again, realizes what she’s doing, and crosses her arms in a huff, turning her back to Adams and the bar counter entirely. “My bisexual crisis is not the same as you sleeping with half the nursing staff.”

He tries not to pull a face. “It’s not a crisis. You like her. She’s into you —“ Park glances up: Aha, he thinks again—

“How do you know?” Park asks, suspicious of Chase lying.

He is lying, actually, so he shrugs. “From how she acts, I suppose.” When he thinks about it, Chase decides it could be true. Adams complains about Park frequently, but goes out of her way to keep talking to her: they enjoy bickering way more than Chase ever could. “I asked her a while ago,” he admits, a little reluctant. “After the Russo case. If you two weren’t… getting along, yeah?” It had been intensely uncomfortable: Chase was, is, determined to be a more hands-on boss than House was, to actually try to manage his employees, but actually having a talk about interpersonal affairs? He’d put it off for months, but Park and Adams had a shouting match in Russo’s room and Foreman had more or less ordered him to sort them out. Chase had said something like if you have a problem with Park, and Adams had blinked up at him: I don’t, she’d said, honestly surprised. “She said she liked you,” he says, which isn’t true, but was his general impression all the same.

“You’re lying,” Park says.

“I am not,” Chase lies.

“You’re a shitty liar,” Park says.

“Want me to ask her out for you?” Chase grins. “I will. It would be very funny.”

Park whacks his arm. Lightly, for her, so it still stings. “No!”

“I think I’m going to,” Chase decides, draining his glass —

“No!” She hisses, slapping at him again. “Chase!”

Chase shrugs her off — Park is violent but small — and strides with purpose in Adams’s directly, walking slow enough that Park can overtake him or rush ahead if she chooses. Disappointingly, she does neither, and he reluctantly lets her call his bluff: he does still have to work with them both another six months, after all.

He finds himself in the middle of the party, surrounded by small groups of threes and fours, the DJ now playing John Mellencamp. Alone, undistracted, Chase feels the stirrings of nostalgia — fourteen, fifteen, sneaking into the bedroom of his first girlfriend and her stacks of Madonna and Kylie Minogue tapes… sneaking out of the oncology benefit with Cameron one year, when things were good between them… avoiding her and at the same time desperately wanting to find her another year, which looking back on it seemed like premonition…

He regrets his conversation with Park. Dimly, distantly. He should have stayed near the bar, but he can’t go back now; that would be giving up in some way. That would be admitting he feels…

“Dr. Chase,” Adams suddenly calls, as he’s standing around like an idiot: he blinks and she’s waving him over to her, twenty feet away, still with her donor couple. “This is my boss. The head of Diagnostics,” she says, warm and formal and very fake:

“Fantastic to meet you,” Chase says brightly, approaching and shaking hands with her donors, who introduce themselves as Mr and Mrs. Morse.

“Head of Diagnostics? Are your age?” Mrs. Morse clucks.

Chase accounts for her husband and age as he grins over at her. “I’m good at what I do,” he jokes, correctly: they both laugh.

“I was just telling them about the sort of work we do,” Adams says primly, her expression letting him know she doesn’t find him all that charming.

“Diagnostics sounds simply fascinating. Like you’re medical detectives or something!” Mr. Morse enthuses. “And you hardly see any patients?”

“We do a lot of consulting for other departments, but our patient load is necessarily low,” Chase explains smoothly: his smile feels plastered on, and Adams chimes in to elaborate on his point. Her parents were definitely rich donor types, he decides: she’s good at this.

So is he. He answers the couple’s questions, wondering how much of this Adams has already told them, that Mr and Mrs Morse simply needed reiterated by a man, joking and smiling indulgently whenever Adams talks — she’s mad, getting madder, great, she’s going to tell him off later, probably, but in the meanwhile Chase just keeps talking. He tells the couple about the time House treated the Black Death — it’s always popular with these types — and hopes Adams doesn’t stomp on his feet anytime soon, because she’s wearing at least three inch heels: “On it like, well, fleas on a dog,” he’s saying, and then sucks in a breath as his prediction comes true.

“Oops,” she says, pretending to have been jostled by some invisible passerby.

Chase thinks about it for half a second, and decides what the hell. “No problem. Hey, would you mind getting me a drink?” Her eyebrows go into her hairline, and oh, he’s so dead, but he can’t help but smirk at her outrage. “Thanks,” he adds, turning back to the Morses: “The mad thing is, the black death isn’t even the oddest disease we’re run into over the years.”

Adams turns and goes, radiating outrage from her pores: he’s so dead, but it really was very funny. Mrs. Morse asks Chase if he’s ever worried about catching one of these deadly illnesses, a question so common he has a standard answer prepared: he assures her of the low risks, the safety precautions they adhere to, his spine twinging with remembered pain. As he talks, Chase keeps an eye on Adams’s walk to the bar, the way she drapes herself angrily over the counter, turning to Park to complain and commiserate.

Park looks unsubtly in Chase’s direction, glaring. “It’s really a fantastic job,” Chase says insincerely, his best smile plastered on as he gives Park a subtle thumb’s up. Worth it. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

[icelynia]

YES!

That is the perfect way to put it. Mob had so many ideas for this chapter that instead of saving them for either other chapters or games, they decided to shove them in Chapter 4. Honestly if they still wanted to go this route then some simple restructuring could help the chapter a lot:

When we meet Pianosaurus we end up in a chase/stealth section with him that ends in a scripted loss. Doey then comes in and the story proceeds as usual. Doing this allows Pianosaurus to have his big shining moment and get eaten by Doey. Which speak of that, don’t the toys in the Safe Haven not eat other toys? I might be wrong about that, but if I’m remembering right, then Doey eating Pianosaurus is even weirder.

Yarnaby doesn’t die by random combustion on a hook, but rather dies trying to protect the Dr. in a combined boss battle. Some parts of this original section were just too similar to CatNap for me. The Doctor also shows up over the monitors some more, as there are large periods of time without him.

Doey gets introduced the same way, but it’s framed more as him rescuing you and he maybe doesn’t eat Pianosaurus, just kills him? Most of his story progresses the same way, with the last thing I’d like to change being his boss battle. The room it happens in is just weird, so why not have it in a kitchen area? They had to have somewhere to prepare food, so if it was somewhere that had both freezing temperatures (freezers) and stuff to cut him with, then the area should suffice. I’d also change his final boss form, as it looked too much like a Banban character for me to take seriously.

There’s so much room in the 10 years between the Hour of Joy and our Player’s arrival to tell some of these stories. We have never fully learned the total amount of Bigger Bodies toys that got made, so what happened to the rest of them?! How did CatNap and the Prototype kill the rest of the Smiling Critters by the time the game happens?

This chapter should’ve belonged to Harley Sawyer who has been having hype built around him since the launch of Project: Playtime! He’s one of the major forces that caused all of this to happen. He’s the one that started turning kids into toys! He’s an actual monster, not the kids whose hands have been forced by circumstance. He didn’t need to torture children, turn them into something else, and even take delight in the process and the children’s screams for help.

Everyone (including Doey) has a lot of missed potential. They focused on telling the big picture story (all the VHS tapes, notes, lore drops from characters) that they forgot to look at the here and now. What is the story of this chapter? Who are the important characters in it and how can we get the fans excited about them? They misfocused the answers to these questions in the ARG and marketing, which led to the player base getting somewhat disappointed by what we got, as it wasn’t similar to what was advertised.

I’m hoping that at least Pianosaurus gets to come back in the future, since that didn’t look like a Bigger Bodies version. Maybe if they do a game set in the decade we haven’t seen, we can get another (a better) look at these characters and they can all meet their full potentials.

As for Huggy Wuggy, I wasn’t as shocked by him reappearing as there were quite a few clues that he survived, but I am curious as to their plans with him. In a room in Chapter 2 (The Bunzo Box room I think?) there is blood and blue fur leading up into a vent. Huggy is also the only major boss to have a cutout that is still working and not all static; though noticing that is complete hindsight.

Overall, some restructuring of the chapter was needed. They definitely needed to advertise it better to be more in line with the final product aka advertising Doey more!!).

Okay, it was less than sixty seconds but still. WTF Mob!!!!

[imaginita-est-omnibus]

LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY SPOILERS!

So Sutekh is back? The guy from the Pyramid of Mars? The episode with the funniest five seconds in all of Doctor Who?

[gingermintpepper]

hi I love your tags so so much! they were so sweet and so interesting and creative and the whole Aphrodite type of beauty thing sounds really interesting do you have any articles and recommendations to read further into it??

-hogoflight

Hello my fine feathered (I am assuming possession of feathers if you are, indeed, capable of flight) @hogoflight! I'm always always happy to hear that people appreciate my frenzied rambling in the tags :D! I have a lot of articles and recommendations :D!! Ancient Greek notions of beauty and representations of it in their art and sculptures is a pretty well studied topic! There isn't any way for us now to know definitively what the beauty standard was (it varied widely from region to region and culture to culture after all) but here are a couple of my favourite reads about Aphrodite and what her representations tell us about idealised beauty!

Probably the most empirically extensive one I can list is Krönström's thesis which compares statues of Aphrodite and literary text referring to both the goddess and mortal women to determine physical ideals for women in five specific eras of Grecian antiquity. Including measurements of the statues there are many descriptions of Aphrodite as 'curvy' with a 'voluptuous figure' and with 'ample buttocks and bosom'.

"When the beauty traits are described in the texts, they are never extreme or anything that could not be found in normal people just that they are more beautiful in every aspect. Furthermore, the sculptures’ physical forms look healthy, they are tall and have distinct curves. Great examples of this are the Knida sculpture and de Milo (the Melian) sculpture."

Of course, these images are still idealised, and there was still a concept such as 'too fat' or 'too skinny' found in written records (and this thesis even includes analysis of pornographic writings and descriptions of the fashion and stylings of pubic hair of women from different regions!!) but from an interpretational standpoint? There is absolutely no reason why these can't refer to a fuller figure. Height was also a very important factor after all and over the course of many eras, it seems like being well proportioned in addition to the length and appearance of one's hair were the most important factors (and, like Apollo, greater beauty was given to those with curlier hair)

Mireille M. Lee's 'Other Ways of Seeing' essay which talks about the forgotten female viewers of Knidian Aphrodite which is also extremely illuminating on how Aphroditic sexuality and sensuality was perceived totally differently from the well documented male voyeuristic gaze (which was overly preoccupied with the statue's nakedness and therefore over-sensationalised the statue's physical appearance) vs women's perspective on the statue which is more centered on the beauty of simplicity in Aphrodite's garment and decoration and in her power and ability to captivate both in her finery and without it. I think it's especially useful in exploring the importance of finery, jewellry and adornment in representations of Aphroditic beauty.

"Some of the small-scale copies are heavily jeweled, especially those from the eastern Mediterranean, for example the Hellenistic gilded terracotta statuette in the Çanakkale Museum (Fig. 5) in which the goddess wears, in addition to the armband on her (right) arm, the following: a necklace with multiple pendants; cross-bands extending over both shoulders and hips, with a cascading pendant in the center; a coiled snake armband on the left arm and another snake on her left thigh, and a twisted anklet on her right leg. (The left leg has been restored, and might also have featured an anklet.)"

"Jewelry is especially associated with Aphrodite in Greek literature. As seen above, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess adorns herself with gold jewelry, dress-pins, and earrings in the shape of flowers (162–3)..."

Finally, and to me, the most important one in the argument for an interpretation of Hyacinthus as fat, beautiful and fundamentally Aphroditic comes from Brilmayer's brilliant brilliant thesis done on Aphrodite's work and influence in Archaic Greek Poetry which does away with all of that masculine preoccupation with physical proportion, measurement and bodily ideals for a focus on a Sapphic Aphroditic ideal centered in clothing, ornamentation and, most importantly cunning as symbols of Aphrodite and ultimately a feminine idealised form of beauty. This paper also discusses Pandora and Helen in these terms and it is just kind of a wonderful read tbh.

"Combining Homeric and Hesiodic elements with her own ideas, she [Sappho] alters the way female beauty is viewed. For example, the Homeric war chariot – a symbol of male, military prowess - comes to symbolise the totality of Aphrodite’s power uniting in itself male and female qualities. Having addressed the concept of beauty directly, Sappho then concludes that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. With the help of Helen of Troy and her beloved Anaktoria, Sappho sets out to reinvent the concept of female beauty as a godlike, subjective quality that may be expressed in many ways, yet remains inspired by Aphrodite."

The conclusion to all of this of course is that Aphroditic ideal beauty is much more fluid compared to its stricter Apolline masculine standard. The nuances and understandings of both are of course, constantly being studied, analysed and scrutinised but really, if Dionysus who was both bearded and clean shorn, effeminate, birthed and rebirthed (and twice gestated!) and strongly associated with vegetation can be popularly portrayed as fat and handsome, why can't Hyacinthus?!

[palaceoftears]

Magnificent Century Rewatch: One Picspam per Episode

Episode 17: The Double Joy

-My dear mother used to say "walk barefoot on earth and it shall take away all your troubles and sorrows, earth shall give you happiness and joy"

-Your mother spoke well, one can only find peace in earth. But I'm not sure if it is on earth or in it.

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

I've been thinkin' too many thoughts about the clones recently...anyways...

If it had never been acknowledged in universe…I think I might’ve been able to ignore how unbelievably fucked up the whole clone army concept is

I might’ve been able to accept it as just a convenient plot point for the republic to have an army to use

That’s what most stories do…they use a faceless army of “disposable” soldiers so that viewers don’t get too upset when so many die in battles

It’s what keeps those stories from feeling too dark

Hell, the stormtroopers from the OT are one of the most famous examples of that

But the thing is…it is acknowledged in universe

Multiple characters on multiple occasions have pointed the fucked-up-ness of it all

Even Obi-Wan in the AOTC novel is kinda horrified at the concept when he sees the clones for the first time

And it’s soooo hard to look past that

Especially with the jedi…I find it so hard to accept that the jedi are able to just ignore and accept it once the army proves to be useful

And like, yeah, when I look at star wars as a whole I understand that a lot of inconsistencies like this are just an inevitability with massive franchises

But it gets super frustrating to hold onto my suspension of disbelief capabilities when these problems are literally mentioned to and acknowledged by the jedi

Especially because I mostly love the jedi

[torchickentacos]

Very rarely I'll (accidentally) find someone who's blocked me on pokemon tumblr, and realistically I know that they probably saw one of my posts too many times and just got sick of seeing it or I simply annoy them or whatever. But part of me really wants to believe that my pokemon anime opinions were just too much for someone. I want to believe that someone saw me say 'The absol scene needed better build-up to justify Drew talking to one of his pokemon like that, it goes against everything we've seen of him imo' or whatever and they just put a hand over their heart, wounded, and clicked the block button while cursing my family for several generations, past and future. I really want to think that I had a lukewarm enough drew opinion that someone blocked me about it

[eldritch-araneae]

Bumblebee Week Day 4 - Secret

I've been here waiting for the longest time I can't believe it's real You lose the battles that you never fight Can't hide from what you feel (Come on!) No more compromise This is do or die And now you've crossed the line You'll wake the beast inside No more compromise This is do or die I'll warn you one last time You'll wake the beast inside!

Song: Sonic Frontiers OST - Break Through It All

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

You know, I'm glad that some of us take the step to embrace things that we like even if they're "cringe" or "objectively bad"

But perhaps we could take the next step forward and embrace the idea of reading into books/shows/movies/etc even if they don't seem deep. Perhaps we could understand that the two kinds of media aren't either "shallow and meaningless so you're weird and brainrotted to read into it" or "incredibly and profoundly deep in every way so if you don't analyze every single angle of the thing then you're brainrotted". Some media is deeper than others, but all I propose is that no matter how deep it seems it's acceptable to dig into the thing and take the media seriously instead of just assuming that because of ____ thing (such as target audience or how cringe it is) the media not deep and will never be deep and everything good about it happened on accident.

[sskk-manifesto]

:/

[froggyhopscotch]

I've been seeing people talk about their wishlists for Pokémon Legends Z-A, and a mixed reaction to the idea it'll take place entirely in the city. I'm actually really on board with the idea

I don't know how many people played/remember the post-game quest in Lumiose City for XY, where the player helps Looker with a case, but I remember really enjoying it and thinking it was the best post-game story I'd seen in a Pokémon game up to that point.

Looking back now, it was mostly fetch quest battles. Go find this out of the way place in the city, Battle The Mystery Person, rinse repeat until you get to the end of it.

But if they expand on that idea, perhaps in particular the idea of being the sidekick of a detective and helping people around the city, I'd be so excited for that game concept??

Like, not Detective Pikachu style exactly, but Legends Arceus fused with Detective Noir X)

[fortycds]

the leftist sphere online and its insistence that nuance is critical while it completely waives it and transforms major issues into black-and-white is so….

[goldentigerfestival]

Using this as an audio reference for the posts I'm making, but to summarize:

Yuri starts out mad.

Yuri tries to calm himself down with a deep breath to ask for details instead of going through it angry.

Flynn doesn't say "like a good knight" in the sense of putting himself down. He simply says "as a knight" (the tl here doesn't use that, but with that included it's basically along the lines of "even though I had doubts, as a knight, I was determined to follow my orders").

Once Yuri has answers he calms down significantly.

Yuri uses " 'ttaku", which is a shortened down version of "mattaku" (Yuri often shortens words and speaks very casually), which in this particular situation basically would mean "geez", or "good grief". In this manner, it's expressive of exasperation/frustration/etc.

Yuri never mentions that "Flynn told him what to do" like the dub does (because in fact Flynn did not ever tell Yuri what to do. He only gave Sodia and his other knights orders. He expressed his own desire to take responsibility, but never told Yuri and his friends what to do).

At this point you can tell the anger has gone out of him and that he's calmed down, now that Flynn is approaching this with admission and responsibility.

Sodia is asking that Flynn returns as soon as possible (I believe this was a general translation error).

Flynn's thank you to Yuri is tonally much more heartfelt.

Yuri's response and gratefulness at Flynn coming back to himself is tonally much more heartfelt, relieved and sincere.