#some thoughts post chapter 2

[v5hadow]

So Master Detectives Archive: Rain Code. Like the mysteries generally. There keep being a few alternative things I'd almost prefer were the solutions and would mostly work based in the framework already existing. but it is at least being mostly fair. Certain parts I wish were a little less qte but generally fair fine we got plenty of ability to make mistakes based on how the mechanics work. They are normally also telegraphing the intended answer pretty well.

But...

I'm not done, I just finished chapter 2 but man do I hate portions of this chapter from the culprit answer to statements about the truth. There is also Desuhiko regularly dressing a woman but neither having some kind of nuanced take on harassment or just seeming to get it at all? Even though he probably has had to deal with it as dressed as a woman. But we shall see if that develops but back on things before. There being one truth specifically irks me. God I hate that. I want more complex on that specific subject. Objective vs subjective and all that. A thing with two parties has at least 3 versions of the truth, you know not dumbing things down. It still might go that route because I'm assuming I still have somewhere between 2 and 4 chapters left and this company tends to put more interesting things in their ultimate (and penultimate) chapters. But between Desuhiko, shinigami, and kurumi I very much am not thrilled right now.

More spoilery bits for chapter 2: why isn't kurumi part of the labyrinth herself besides role in the larger story? I honestly wanted her to be the mastermind of the case. She brings the trainee detective; intentionally? With the stalking/potential to be working with Amaterasu/Peacekeepers, she should be targeting either Yuma or Yokou. Gets nervous that Yuma brings desuhiko(a real Master Detective, beyond his prevy nature), has Yuma be a form of albi by "why would I bring a Master Detective to my crime I'm about to commit/orchestrate?" "Oh no, I need to go help my club! I'll be potentially difficult to pin where I will be for the entire time the play is going on!" Since when you weren't part of rehearsals before a dress rehearsal (generally one of the last before opening the show), it's either you being told what to do when or not having anyone know where you are supposed to be at any time since they have their own things to do. I mean yeah keep each of the girls doing their part but then not entirely be sure how much each other know about what the others are doing besides Kurumi. Isn't Aiko supposed to be, like, Kurumi's best friend? Why isn't she in the killer pact in some manner besides not having done theater until recently? In school, I was definitely aware of most of my friends non-mutual friends, especially close ones. I knew which ones, while not being on great terms together, you could convince to do their part in a crime if they cared that much if I had so desire. Give each plausible deniability by not telling who all is involved and how. Just it felt like we were missing something here, a little spark of some sort. Chapter 0 and 1 had some interesting takes and mutations on their formula mysteries (0 being a good cross of several Agatha Christie's works, 1 having some okay locked room vibes and murderer shenanigans). This was almost too simple honestly. Only reason I was having problems in the game play part was trying to piece together how the game wanted me to answer. I kinda knew immediately how the murder was committed and why.

[beaulesbian]

I was once again thinking about this goofy Luffy moment after his Lucci punch™ and i had to see it frame by frame.

first the force of it throws them both away, and while Lucci is seen on screen tumbling for a long moment, Luffy is just away in a blink of an eye.

and then his funny scene - his legs are like jelly that he tries to get under control,

he stumbles, falls, rolls into a mix of all his limbs and eyes,

and then only the cloud behind him cushions his fall

- which would be interesting if he can subconsciously control that while he tries to regain the control over his movements - that the environment around him still adapts to his awakened Devil Fruit abilities and morphs to help him. Where others would probably fall through that cloud, for Luffy that cloud backs him up like a trampoline.

It's just fascinating!

[captainkirkk]

When I started writing 'lessons in tea making', I set out to make it a longfic that following ATLA Book 2 and 3 in its entirety but now its been almost 5 years and I'm realising that I'm probably never going to get around to finishing this monster of a wip

HOWEVER, I do have around 15k of chapter 2 collecting dust in my google drive so.... what's everyone's opinion on authors uploading (signposted) unfinished chapters....

[lancerious]

thank you for being #1 lancer fan the world needs more lancer fans

Ho ho ho, of course!! Lancer is CRIMINALLY underrated I tell you, kid deserves WAY more attention than he currently gets

Glad to see another Lancer fan pop in <3!

[potatobugz]

do you think the mess in oshiros hotel is meant to signify that hes been letting his problems pile up until its become too overwhelming to handle.

im thinking about the fact that he's definitely the one who's been making the mess but he doesn't even realize it. he ignores the clutter until it becomes too hard to ignore you know? like when it starts actively blocking the way to the presidential suite. he insists that he and his staff will handle it and that madeline shouldn't clean up his own mess, but he still doesn't do anything about it. does he know that the staff is gone? that it's just him there?

mr oshiro is so hell bent on impressing madeline so that she'll stay in his hotel. he's so in denial of everything. he doesn't even realize he's dead, he still thinks his hotel never got shut down. I think his insistence on her staying is bc he really wants to believe that the hotel is open, and a costumer would affirm that belief. it could also maybe be a mixture of loneliness too. (also, him treating her as a costumer even after she says no is absolutely him being in denial. that man is very unhealthily attached to this hotel,)

and even though it was nice of madeline to clean it up, there's still parts of the hotel she can't fix. the plumbing. the windows. the, hole in the ceiling (oops.) she's not qualified to help him, and that's why I think the chapter ends on a bit of a sour note. madeline is of course not a bad person for wanting to help, the point is that she can't. it is unfortunate but true

anyways mr oshiro is a very good character i like him a regular amount. im normal about that old man

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Imagine reading a new manga and joking about it being homoerotic and then it gets explicitly stated that one of the protags is gay

If I don't see any weird romance blossom between those two istg-

[crystaleevee4]

wip :) very very rough draft for now but i'm workin' on... a thing

(no this is not ao3. this is google docs with the ao3 font)

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

me after editing the aau prologue for the bajillionth time

[perexcri]

happy one year to her and one of my better opening lines for a fic <3

now, because i'm curious:

[cascigarette]

title: kiss with a fist is better than none

rating: mature

fandom: supernatural

pairing: castiel/dean winchester

summary: Dean and Cas have been together for close to a decade, ever since their little stint in Purgatory. With Chuck taking control of their lives and Mary and Jack dead, they fight and break up. Nothing seems to be able to fix it for them until it's too late.

An alternate season 15 where Dean and Cas were in an established relationship and they get the ending they deserve.

[meownotgood]

under the influence: epilogue will be posted tonight! aha... it's finally over.....

[ct-multifandom]

Forever lamenting that YTTD chapter 1 dropped during the Trump presidency because this meme wasn’t invented yet

Spent the entire Sara minisode going “it’s joever” over and over again in my head

[sushisocks]

Hey there! I believe you said in another post that the final confrontation would be unlikely to happen if lenny and sean were alive, so i'd like to ask if you could expand on that pls(if u havent already and i just didnt see it lol)

Btw on a side note im actually super invested in your sean content😭😭the fandom seems to only talk ab him to label as an idiot, so as a fellow sean lover the way you characterize him has me so in love❤️❤️❤️❤️

Oh Anon you are SO LOVELY!!! Thank you not only in giving me the opportunity to rant more about Sean and Lenny (which I am always so willing to do), but also for your super kind words!! Sean is very dear to me, and I'm glad my reading into him as much as I do strikes a chord with other people ;;u;;

The way the general fandom often characterizes him isn't very surprising to me, given his personality & the surface level impressions he gives, but maybe for now I'll save THAT rant for another time, else we stay here forever lmaoo

So, to start answering your question, I believe you're talking about my post from a few months ago, where I talk about how I believe Sean & Lenny would've sided with Arthur & John if they'd lived to see the final confrontation. In it I mention how I find that final confrontation a lot more unlikely were Lenny & Sean to survive that far and stick around for the entire thing.

Now, WHY do I believe this? I touch on it briefly in that original post, but let's really get into it here!!

Okay to start off, there's a LOT of ways I see things going, in regards to Sean and Lenny, were they both to survive, because it adds SO MANY variables, but let's start at the very top.

At a meta level, it is important to recognize that RDR2 is a prequel to RDR1. This meant from the get that RDR2, as it is canonically, was bound to a certain outcome, to set up for RDR1. This ALSO means, that every step from the start of RDR2 was very much there not only to lay the groundwork for the end of RDR2 but also add another emotional layer to RDR1. This is all certainly things we are aware of already, but I think it's important to have that context in mind while we talk about alternative outcomes.

Because, see, Sean and Lenny HAD to die for the outcome in RDR2 to be the one it is. Not only them, but Hosea, Kieran, Molly, and Susan's deaths are ALL integral and important to the story, they ALL make a difference and contribute in pushing the story a certain way, and in reinforcing the steadily increasing hopelessness which infest the gang from Sean's death and out.

So if we're like "what if none of them died?" there are suddenly a LOT of new variables for every mission and every scenario we know from the game, which need to be considered. This is true EVEN if the change in survival count is only reduced to Lenny & Sean.

How different do you not think Shady Belle would have felt, initially, without Sean's death hanging over it? What about the bank job -- would Lenny & Sean end up on the boat to Guarma? What would've happened to them there, then? Would either of them be caught by the Pinkertons instead, with John or in his stead maybe? What other options would there have been, where would they end up at the end of that?

And already here we have to consider how those experiences might've impacted them psychologically, because of who they are.

In the post I mentioned earlier, I talk about how Lenny is new to the gang and probably isn't as stuck in it mentally as Arthur and John, nor do Sean and Lenny have the same emotional attachment/baggage in regards to Dutch. They're loyal of course, because they feel a sense of obligation to the gang, because it provides them with safety, friends, and allies, in an otherwise unkind world.

But what then happens when that changes?

How do you expect Sean and Lenny to respond when the gang starts turning on itself? When Dutch visibly starts losing it? When people start snapping at each other and threatening one another in the middle of camp?

(I have a half-formed thought here about how people would ABSOLUTELY be snapping and talking down to Sean in a way more cruel way towards the end of the game, for trying to keep things light and easy, yknow, fulfilling his role in the gang. I can only imagine what that'd end up doing to him, tbh.)

And, I'll be repeating myself from other posts here, but how do you think Lenny, a young black man painfully aware of the social structure as it exists in America at that point in time, would react to realizing what Dutch's plan with the Wapiti is? Same goes for Sean, who has SEVERAL instances through the game showing him just as politically aware as Lenny - certainly moreso than Arthur.

Would the outcome for the Wapiti tribe be the same, do you think, if Charles had more people than a very sick and tired Arthur to lean on, willing to help? Would Lenny in particular want to stick around to see Dutch attempt to drive the tribe into the ground for his own gain?

Also, I'm sorry but like, Lenny has a camp interaction with Dutch where he disagrees with him (about Miller, Dutch's favorite author) and explains why in a very well-articulated manner. In one instance, Dutch gets straight up offended by it, bcz Lenny can argue very well (and is RIGHT mind you lol).

I do absolutely believe that Lenny would not just sit around quietly in Beaver Hollow. I'd expect him to be among the most vocal in their discontent with the situation, and probably the best at arguing against Dutch.

That is, up until a certain point. Lenny is a young black boy, and Dutch is a white authority figure. Watch Dutch snap and yell at him, like he does John in Ch6 for example, and see how much longer Lenny sticks around fr. The trade is loyalty for safety and the same in kind. Why do you think members start leaving when things start looking their worst? And don't you think Lenny would be among the first to see the writing on the wall?

Though that is hinging on that very specific vibe in Beaver Hollow, where they're all scattered and losing their ties to one another. Add then in Sean, who is VITAL as social glue, and for making conversations easier. If he, and Lenny, and Mary-Beth, Tilly, Arthur, Charles, etc etc, insert your favorites here, managed to retain some of that community feeling, despite it all, then I absolutely see Lenny sticking around for them.

Same goes for Sean, tbh. I can see him leaving earlier, bcz the trade stops being equal and bcz he's not being taken seriously, and I can see him staying, for his friends.

There IS also a version of things where things are similar and I do see Sean siding with Dutch; but that is a very sad and lonely Sean, who is VERY different from where he's at in Clemens Point, and I think that's an unfair perspective to take for him in general.

Okay so, now we're back to that final confrontation, after I said I found it unlikely, why is that? Because, with every question I've posed thus far, about what Lenny & Sean's reactions might've been to canon events after their deaths, I have essentially presented a variable that comes with their survival to those points. Them being there for it, HAS to mean a change, has to mean something different happens, because their deaths are direct contributors to the path we already know the story takes WITHOUT their presences.

Now, what are those differences and changes? I honestly can't answer; something being different earlier or later can butterfly-effect into something completely new or remarkably similar to what we already know. I could sit here all day and wax poetic about all the different options and possibilities for where things could go, were ANY character to survive past their death point, BUT thankfully, that is what fanfiction is for, lol.

I hope this satisfied some of your curiosity, dear anon!! It was a lot of fun for me to write and think about, so thank you very much for asking!!!

[spacejammie-eimmajecaps]

I'm about two days away from finishing the third draft of chapter 27

[wr0ngwarp]

um. uh. hi every body. something evil and malevolent happened in my brain this month.

this is. um. a Jet Set Radio/Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Death joke AU, spawned out of a in-joke that started in a pokepasta discord. my apologies to both the pokepasta and jsr fandoms

the entire basis is the idea that Corn in Future retconned og JSR Beat as leader/founder of the GGs (is beat being leader in the og even CANON?) so Corn and Beat are the Myras. no it's not a joke funny enough to justify how many hours i sunk into drawing these. no attempt was made to change the setting, assign most of the other cast, or otherwise make this au hold up to ANY amount of scrutiny. if i tried to make this actually work somehow then i'd REALLY end up too far gone. also i keep calling myrtle!beat "Meat".

MEANWHILE, IN A BETTER UNIVERSE:,

[overdueforarevival]

Wrecker is scared of heights, everyone who knows him knows this. What they don't know is that his fears don't end there. Wrecker is endlessly terrified of the dark.

It feels like there's a hundred pairs of eyes on him, waiting to pounce when his guard is down, yet at the same time it makes him sure that he's the only person left in the universe. Like all his brothers are dead and it's just him, just him in this unending darkness and sometimes, when it all gets to be too much he finds himself curled up in the dark, rocking back and forth as sobs wrack his body.

Tech knows this. Tech knows everything, so of course he knows this and since he knows, he never turns the lights all the way off on the ship. Even when Hunter complains about how 'bright' it is, Tech will never turn the lights out on his brother. It gets worse after Bracca. The darkness reminds him of his own mind being taken away from him, of his eyesight failing and his limbs working on autopilot and then it all comes back to him and he's sure that he did it again. Wrecker is so sure he's killed them all, the brothers who have been there through it all and the little sister he swore to always protect.

Hunter doesn't know this. Hunter hates lights, especially during the night cycle and Wrecker can't bring himself to tell Hunter the truth, to beg for the lights to stay on, to beg for Hunter to not let him slip away. So instead, Wrecker makes sure to lie down with his deaf ear facing down so his good one can strain until it hurts just to hear the quiet breathing coming from the bunk opposite him.

Wrecker hates the dark because it makes him sure that everyone is dead and with Tech gone, Crosshair with the Empire, Echo running away with Rex and Omega in the hands of a mad scientist... How can he possibly know for sure?