#so a simple boothill drawing for now

[sokumeii]

[trappolia]

OLD COWBOY’S REPRIEVE — pre-canon!boothill x gn!reader, 543

the light from your shared room casts boothill’s figure in shadows and angles as it streams through the curtains and spills across the covers — in the silence of the bed, you hear the distant bleating of sheep and mooing of cattle somewhere far in the fields. the sound reminds you of a childhood trip to the countryside that you had long forgotten, lost and muddled somewhere in the back burner of your mind, but with this moment and these sounds it comes rushing back to you.

“oh, for fuck’s sake,” beside you, your lover’s foul mouth indicates that he is less than pleased to have forgotten to draw the curtains close last night, again. boothill grunts beside you, stirring in bed and burrowing his head underneath the pillow in effort to hide from the sun.

“mhm,” your own bleary eyes blink in the light that filters in through the gaps between the curtains. deciding that yes, it is indeed much too early for it to be so bright, you turn over and away from the window, burying your face in the broad expanse of boothill’s back.

boothill grumbles tiredly, and you — sweet you, darling you, the love of his life and the fire of his loins — just hum. the tension coiled around his wide shoulders eases when he feels your lips press against an old scar on his back, your softer, uncalloused fingers curling along his pec, where the unshaven scruff of chest hair continues to grow.

“c’mere, ya,” boothill rolls over with a shift of the mattress beneath your bodies as you press against him.

your sweet affection towards him in the morning light never ceases to make him weak, and his heart aches from the tenderness of your touch as you press against him, running your hands over his chest while he grunts softly and pushes himself against your hand. he wants to shift closer, push himself against you till he can make a home in the soft warmth of your skin, and the two of you can forever be one entity so he would never have to part from you.

eh, an old cowboy can have his dreams.

you raise your head so boothill can slip his arm underneath, letting his bicep act as a pillow for your soft head. when you do not open your eyes, he nudges you lightly.

“y’ gon’ wake up, toots?” he rasps, voice still groggy from sleep.

“five more minutes,” you groan, which roughly means it’ll be an hour or two before boothill can properly get you out of bed.

boothill sighs as he lets his arms pull you to him completely, your head laying on his bicep now while you remains with your eyes closed. his own head falls back heavily against the pillows, hair cast over the simple linen in a mess of black and white.

he buries his face in the crook of your neck and inhales deeply — it is your perfume now that is an irresistible bouquet, the scent of sunshine and something sweet, and boothill relaxes into the embrace he holds you in, closing his eyes as he too lets sleep overcome him.

his chores out in the ranch can wait a lil’ longer.

[akutasoda]

Hiii :)

Please can i request Boothill with a Reader who is insecure about their personality so they always act emotionless/stoic around others.

true personalities

synopsis - what happens when boothill meets someone who is insecure of their personality

includes - boothill

warnings - gn!reader, fluff, slight angst, wc - 479

a/n: hi hi ^^

↪at first, boothill thought you were just the type of person who wasn't expressive and preferred to keep to yourself. something he could understand, some folks could definitely get too much and sometimes solidarity was much cozier.

↪it definitely made you an easy person to be around. in boothill's opinion, he had spent many a day traveling on his own and so he found that certain eccentrics or more expressive people could be harder to be around on some days - not that it was a bad thing or anything.

↪it would only be until he was closer with you that he'd start noticing. he could note how occasionally your facade started cracking, how small bursts of personality or emotion in general seeped through. and that made him curious.

↪quite naturally, he started assuming that you were the kind of person who only showed proper emotion to those who you trusted - something boothill would've taken in honor. but something was clearly different. it wasn't as simple as that.

↪because if that was the case, then surely by now he would've seen more of your “true” side per say. that clearly wasn't the case. and boothill wasn't particularly one to pry, but there was something about you that made him want to, as if he knew it was because of a less “pleasant” reason.

↪whether or not he found out on his own or if you ended up telling him, he'd find out eventually. upon learning that your stoicism around pretty much everyone you knew was attributed down to an insecurity of your own personality, boothill felt two things.

↪one, confusion. how could somebody hate their own personality? now he was very far from being any kind of philosopher, but your personality was what made you, you. hating your own self seemed dumb to him.

↪two, empathy. now he couldn't exactly see it from your perspective so it wasn't really empathy but boothill couldn't even begin to fathom how you ended up hating your own personality, but it was a sad thought for him.

↪in a way, when boothill adapted his new life, that could be seen as some form of hatred towards his past self. going to the very lengths of destroying his body to have it rebuilt anew.

↪but now, boothill was determined to draw that side of you back out. subtly but consistently he would try and break out small parts of your actual personality. encouraging you to actually be yourself.

↪boothill wanted to know the real you. the one that didn't wish to become robotic in a way by hiding their own personality. hiding away one of the main points that made you, you.

↪and he was determined to break you out of that shell.

taglist - @little-miss-chaoss, @frankiesteinn

[toptophat]

YOU HAD ME AT BOOTHILL!!!!!!

Pls pls pls pls pls tell me we actually get to fight him, that'd be so [forking] epic!!!!!

It's been a lifelong dream of mine to have my Boothill vs Boothill!!!!!

Ooooh imagine when I use his ultimate and he has his own face on the wanted poster 🤣🤣

I'm a simple person , I just want to fight the hot cyborg cowboy!!!

Heck, even if I lose the fight, I won't complain because I'm gonna thank him for domina-AHH!!!-Uhhh I mean, being so cool 😅

I can just hear it now:

"Bring it on [forker]!"

" Is that all you got [shirtbag]?"

"Draw!!"

"Urghh, you got lucky!" (gets hit)

"When it's time to shoot, quit yappin'!!" (Defeat)

"Next time, aim for the heart!!" (Victory)

And some other stuff I can't really think of now!

[garmgeyr]

WHAT IS GALLAGHER? Theory # ?/?

This is a question that has been plaguing the HSR fandom for nearly a year, and nothing that has been released so far has come close to giving a definitive answer. Part of me hopes that we never get an answer, because this ambiguous writing fits the nature of Enigmata, but the other part of me would love if one of my 5384955 theories winds up being validated ha

I've talked about of handful of my theories here and there, and what they all seem to have in common is how contradictory they are to one another. Most of them can't be true if another theory winds up being true instead, which is why I haven't committed to any of them in my writing within this group. For now, they're just fun ideas to think about.

With that said though, I wanted to dive into one of them that I've never seen brought up within the fandom before. Granted, I don't dive very deep into fandom spaces, but it's certainly not one of the common ones.

Read below only if you're fine with major story spoilers that WILL spoil Penacony's mystery.

THEORY: GALLAGHER IS THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF MIKHAIL'S DENIAL OVER HANUNUE'S DEATH

I'll break my thought process down for this one:

1. The entity that created "Gallagher" is a History Fictionologist

Okay, we're starting off simple. This is common knowledge and outright stated in the game. "Gallagher" is a persona, but when he's speaking to the Trailblazer, he calls himself the History Fictionologist. For the sake of this argument, I'll continue to call him Gallagher instead of "the entity known as Gallagher," but do note that for the rest of this post, Gallagher = the creator, not the persona. Even though we're led to believe that everything out of Gallagher's mouth is a lie, Himeko and others do insist that this part, at least, is true. Gallagher is a History Fictionologist. So why does that matter here?

2. History Fictionologists can be both creator and creation

We don't know a whole lot about History Fictionologists yet. From in-game documents and descriptions, we know that they're dedicated to altering and rewriting history. The Otherworldly Delights readable, which I've written about already (last three paragraphs of this meta), as well as the Jade Feather, suggest that a History Fictionologist can actually be the muse or medium of creation for an artist. These creations work together with someone who does not call themselves a History Fictionologist.

The Illusory Automaton curio also poses the idea that History Fictionologists are themselves works of fiction.

And Firefly's voice line about Gallagher reflects this idea too:

For this theory, I'm choosing to accept the idea that Gallagher the History Fictionologist is also a fabrication.

3. Gallagher is some kind of memetic entity

Memetic entities are physical manifestations of abstract concepts like thoughts and memories. They can be born from subconscious matter in a Memory Zone, or a living person can give up their physical body to become memetic, as is the case with most Memokeepers. This topic is a whole essay in itself, so I just want to focus on a couple of key points that I think provide the strongest evidence to support this idea.

First, Welt, Siobhan, and Acheron suggest that there's something mysterious about Gallagher's comings and goings.

Welt: It's that man again, always in the right place at the right time... though that does save us the trouble of looking for him. Siobhan: I'm not sure. I haven't seen him since our last meeting at the lounge. Come to think of it, he always did come and go quietly. Acheron: Looks like you've also noticed that history fictionologist is nowhere to be found in Penacony, disappearing just as quietly as when he first showed up.

According to Boothill, appearing and reappearing out of nowhere is a memetic trait:

Boothill: [Black Swan's] the same as all memetic organisms — appearing one moment, and gone the next.

Second, Sunday draws a direct connection between Gallagher and Dormancy, which is clearly a memetic entity.

Gallagher: Admirable. But so what? Can this prove that I murdered your sister and that stowaway? Sunday: This proves that you and the Memory Zone Meme "Death" are cut from the same cloth — and that's enough.

The italicized portion above is not the English localization, but a translation of the JP one. This phrase, unlike in English, implies that they're characteristically similar, not simply connected because Gallagher commanded Dormancy to "kill" Robin.

For the sake of this theory, I'm taking this as sufficient evidence that Gallagher is a memetic entity. Now the question is: what kind of meme is he?

Going to pivot topics first though.

4. Hanunue died during the War of Independence

This is established pretty clearly in the Hanu's Adventure book series. While it's unclear what exactly Mikhail was doing during this final expedition, it does, at the very least, imply that Mikhail was rendered helpless and Hanunue was grievously injured while trying to fight back against the IPC when Penacony was still a prison under the IPC's rule. Hanunue wound up behind enemy lines and, with no other way out, decided to sacrifice himself to blow up the IPC's fleet.

5. In Penacony's history, Hanunue is merely sleeping

In the Hanu's Adventure book series linked above, Clockie can't bring himself to admit that Hanu has died, which reflects Mikhail's own grief about his friend's passing. Clockie lies to the townsfolk about his death:

Clockie: "Tick-tock, don't worry! Brother Hanu has just kicked Boss Stone's derriere and is now resting! It won't be long before you see his cool figure in the town once more!"

And then there's this exchange between Mikhail and Hanunue at the end:

In his dreams, Clockie finds himself standing in a vast desert, with Brother Hanu positioned at the far end, gazing up at the sky. Clockie: "Tick-tock! Where have you been, Brother Hanu?" Clockie: "Come back to us, Brother Hanu! Dreamville simply can't exist without you!" In silence, Brother Hanu only watches as Clockie runs towards him, then gently removes his hat. Hanunue: "Hmph, it's beautiful here, don't you think?"Mikhail: "Yeah, is that why you don't want to wake up?"Hanunue: "No, the reason I don't want to wake up... is because all of you are sleeping so deeply."Mikhail: "I..."Hanunue: "Then come here and rest, 'Watchmaker.' If you lack the courage to face the nightmares, then seek refuge in sweet dreams for now..." Hanunue: "But remember, as long as this is a dream, you'll have to wake up from it sooner or later."

The Dreamscape Nursery Rhyme, which abstractly describes the events of the War of Independence, the establishment and fall of the Seven Families, and introduction of the Order and the sweet dream, also refers to Hanunue as a sleeping hound.

Altogether, this paints a picture of Mikhail's grief and denial. Hanunue's not dead, he's sleeping, which means Mikhail can still visit him in his dreams any time he wants. How long Mikhail held onto that denial and what it did to him is beyond my purview, however, so I'll leave it at that.

6. Gallagher is Hanunue's Memory

Specifically, a memory born from Mikhail. He is NOT Hanunue himself, but a memetic entity that represents Mikhail's lies about Hanunue's death. We don't know exactly what Gallagher looked like in Mikhail's eyes, and we don't know exactly what Hanunue looked like either (various NPCs and readables repeat that no one really "knows" Hanunue, and that he could have been anything from a rabid wolf to an average man - the trading card illustration is merely an artistic rendition), but we DO know that Gallagher in Mikhail's memory looked different than Gallagher the 4-star Abundance character, because of this illustration from the Watchmaker's memory sequence:

He has a different outfit, hair color, and his hair is parted on the opposite side from the Gallagher we know.

The low hanging fruit evidence is, of course, all the wolf imagery in Gallagher's design, but let's dig a little deeper.

For this point, I want to focus on two NPCs that establish this theory's foundation: Quinn and Lesley Dean.

In their Clockwork quests, both of these NPCs are revealed to be "dead," but continue to live on within the Dreamscape. Quinn was killed by her sister, Alley, and Alley, presumably out of guilt, brought her memory back to life in the dreamscape. This doesn't seem to be a perfect copy of her sister, since Quinn is insistent that it's all "fake." She's full of anger and hatred for her sister, who won't even come see her now, but she's also trapped forever in the dreamscape because Alley won't let the guilt go. The important parts of the conversation below is that Quinn's existence is a "lie" tethered to the dreamscape because Alley can't move on.

Lesley Dean's Clockwork quest is a similar but more optimistic story. He was a movie star killed in a car crash. His fans banded together to pour their memories of him into the dreamscape, recreating their version of Lesley Dean. When he found out that he was just a fake, he decided to help his fans resolve their feelings about the real Lesley Dean. This allowed their creation to be put to rest and disappear.

Following this train of thought, we can say that Gallagher may have been created by Mikhail's strong feelings about Hanunue's death, which continued to live on within the dreamscape. Perhaps he had at first been a perfect replica of Hanunue, but all memetic entities within the dreamscape are subject to Remembrance's forgetting or Enigmata's corrosion, and over time he may have been corroded by Enigmata until he became a new character entirely. Still a close friend of Mikhail's, but no longer Hanunue. Nevertheless, we can say that Gallagher is inextricably connected to Mikhail, and this line seems to support that:

March 7th: But didn't you say the Watchmaker betrayed The Family? And you said you were his companion, so that means you... Gallagher: No, I'm not his "companion," but rather one of his many "children."

Clockie and Misha are also both "children" of the Watchmaker, and are both memetic entities born from parts of his subconscious. Other than the members of the Astral Express, Gallagher is the only other person who can see them. Not even Micah, who has also become a memetic entity by now, although one who was once human, can see Misha.

Born from a lie about history, it seems natural that Gallagher would continue to live on as a History Fictionologist helping Mikhail obscure his own history and that of Penacony. Mikhail and Clockie both are also called liars throughout the game text, and even in the final credits roll, so Gallagher could also just be a manifestation of Mikhail's lies in general - the "muse" for an artist who ultimately fictionologizes their work. However, in March 7th's toast to Gallagher at the end of 2.3, she explicitly calls him the "Slumbering Hound," and all the wolf imagery certainly makes the direct connection to Hanunue hard to shake.

Also it just makes sense that the guy who represents denial of death would command the manifestation of the fear of death.

Gallagher helped rewrite Mikhail's history as the public knows it to create the mysterious and alluring Watchmaker, but at the very end, it seemed like he knew that Mikhail would want to cast off the Watchmaker persona to set things straight for his Nameless successors. Although born from a lie, his final mission was to pass on his friend's truth.

[ccaptain]

@aguilareye: There's a jingle of ... not spurs, but a jingle of bells on the cowboy's hat. Boothill's tried his hand at baking cookies for Kaeya as a surprise and they came out a bit ... overcooked, but still consumable. ❝ I ain't as good as you, Sugar.  ❞ Boothill shrugs at his attempt, he doesn't mind the extra crunch of the gingersnaps. The two laugh warmly in the shared kitchen and Boothill leans down, taking Kaeya's lips in a kiss. ❝ You been good? Should I give ya yer gift now? ❞ He kisses Kaeya again and again, melting against those lips.

   The vision of jingling bells mounted over the brim of his cowboy hat is so endearing that the grin Enigma produces can't be hidden by the discretion of palm of his hand. When offered something, eye widens as he peers over the edge of metal tray to take a cookie for himself, the scent of ginger teasing him to take a bite. And it's good! It's tasty, and instead of tasting burnt it has an interesting crunch to it. All that he needs is novelty- the fact that the cookies were made for him is all that he needs, too. Just two simple things. ' It tastes nice! You know, It's better to overbake than to underbake, ' he recalls after they share a laugh, nuzzling his cheek against Boothill's one and leaving some crumbs on his face. ' Raw cookie dough looks so inviting and edible, but the eggs and flour that go in it are just as raw, and it could give food poisoning if contaminated. Overdoing it is always better, ' Boothill is reassured and taught something new, Enigma pulling him closer. ' You made these for me; I love them, and the crunchiness feels nice. '

   The gunslinger may melt against him first, and miss the way Kaeya does the same into the kiss, lashes fluttering shut; their bodies press closer, the gentle mockery in husky voice almost escaping him in the bliss of starving and being given a kiss to sate an everpresent need. There's a little purr falling from soft lips when they part, flushed in the face and with a warmth spreading in Kaeya's chest. Boothill's present is delivered against the corner of his mouth: ' I love you, ' he murmurs, unabashedly tender, fingers curling against metal in a quiet plea to keep close, stay here for a moment. He's more than a little flushed in the face when he finally understands the teasing tone, unable to muster the same sort in return: raw and vulnerable in the happiness blooming in his chest, he cannot draw his verbal weapon to banter. Pale diamond looks up at him, a sincerity in it that's almost disarming, cold palm cupping warm cheek.

   ' I don't know about being good, but I think I'm lucky... All I ever want is you, and you're here. '

   Being bold and honest further emboldens, makes finger draw over the shape of jawline before moving closer. His smile is a little thing to entice, draw the other man in.

   ' Unless you are my present... then, as long as you want me all the same, I'll have you- and I'll keep wanting you, and only you. ' Over logic. Over reason, seems to be the implied thing sealed by another kiss.

[kayawagner]

No OSR for me!

I have never really paid much attention to the OSR movement. Firstly, I didn’t really understand if it was Old School Revival or Old School Renaissance. Then I didn’t know what counted as old school. I mistakenly thought that it was a move back to the style of gaming that we all discovered in the 70s and early 80s. It then appeared that that isn’t the case and OSR is a just limited to D&D retro clones.

I think within 12 months of owning the D&D basic set, red box, I was writing house rules even if I didn’t know that the phrase ‘house rule’ meant or even existed. We were modding our games on a monthly basis. We absorbed every new spell, character class, monster, magic item and rule suggestion when ever we saw them. Initially there was loads of D&D material in White Dwarf magazine and that was easier to buy than Dragon magazine.

As soon as you saw how other people were modifying the game then we all started doing it. I can remember the first time my character got hold of a musket. I quickly went from D&D to Boothill to Traveller and then Runequest. Boothill was a brief liaison and I can put Gamma World in that group as well.

As soon as I discovered RuleQuest and Traveller with its on target combat system I had to have hit locations in D&D. Once you have hit locations then armour by the piece is a natural extension.

Once we had Gamma World we basically had D&D compatible high tech equipment. I think it was 1979 or maybe 1980 that I discovered Gamma World and I only ran one adventure and that had mutant chickens called Gallus Gallus513. That name has stuck in my memory ever since. One day I will manage to slot a mutant chicken into a game with that name.

It must have been 1981 that I discovered Rolemaster. This is back in the day or the rules being sold as drop in house rules for D&D and we could drop lots of our own house rules and use these awesome books instead.

Once I had all of rolemaster I house ruled that to make it a bit more like RuneQuest, which I think came out first, possibly 1979?

The point of that little jog down memory lane is that is RuneQuest old school? Is rolemaster old school? Rolemaster Classic is a basic rerelease of Rolemaster 2nd Edition and the 2nd edition was pretty much just a tidying up of those piecemeal D&D house rules. There is still a huge amount of Dungeons and Dragons DNA in Rolemaster Classic right down to magic users not wearing armour for absolutely no good reason at all and everyone taking Sleep as their most useful 1st level spell.

I suspect that if I published a Rolemaster adventure and stuck the OSR labels all over it there would be howls of protest.

Even given that OSR really means the resurrection of old D&D rules in infinite variety I don’t really understand the appeal. I understand that no one is forced to play OSR or D&D the reason we stopped playing it surely is because it really wasn’t very good.

Other games flourished and we had the proliferation of so many different games because those games could do what they did better.

I cannot even see it as a desire for simpler games. D&D was never simple. The DMG was basically 300 pages of exceptions to the basic mechanics. Rolemaster was labelled chartmaster because of the visual onslaught of and entire book of charts, Arms Law, but D&D had more charts and tables but scattered far and wide.

I am sure it is a case of if you ‘get’ the whole OSR thing then it makes perfect sense. What started me thinking about this today was that I was asked to do a review for an OSR game. As is my habit I looked up any other games that the publisher had produced and as this was an indie developer I ended up looking at his MeWe profile as well.

One of the things about OSR seems to be that it has attracted a lot of what I would consider unpleasant people, that is what the reaction to the logo was all about in Michael’s recent post. Well this game was written by one of those people. There was no way on earth I was even going to read the game based upon the personal posts by the author.

I have had some tense discussions with people on forums especially in rolemaster circles where I strive for ever greater simplicity in my play and they revel in the micromanaging of every detail. In the Rolemaster community we are discussing the idea of a competition to create spin off mini RPGs ‘powered by’ a core of the Rolemaster rules. I am all in favour of this sort of thing and bringing Rolemaster to genres and audiences it has never appealed to before. Those with opposing views are saying that you cannot go outside of fantasy or sci fi as any realistic simulation of wounds would mean that the PCs would die from infections if there were no magical or high tech healing. I don’t agree with them but I can understand their point of view, this would be a fun competition and not compulsory homework, their gaming table, their rules.

That is nothing like sort of argument I am seeing in even my brief encounter with the OSR, I cringe to use the word, community. I can now understand why the logo’s owner would not want it associated with some of these games. I honestly had no idea. It is obviously not D&D’s fault, nor the OSR concept that breeds hate speech and intolerance. I don’t really understand why it has coalesced around OSR. If OSR went away they would not all suddenly become liberal pluralists. They would hold the same views if they were playing any game or not gaming at all.

Where did all this come from?

I was doing a bit of digging and I came across this. It is from White Dwarf magazine issue 2, August 1977.

Look at the italic text. It looks like the dark side of role players had been there right from the start. I guess I was just too young at the time to see it. Maybe, the OSR community in moving back into old style D&D gaming has stepping into an area of gaming that has already been there quite happily for decades without drawing attention to itself.

I don’t know and I don’t really care. All I know is that any ideas I had of trying to suggest that Rolemaster was a perfectly valid OSR system is now firmly in the ‘bad idea’ pile. I won’t be doing that any time soon.

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No OSR for me! published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com