#sort of like how you learn the lore in-game

[ecofear]

hi you're The rogue trader mutual to me so if it's not too much work could you tell me a bit about it :) i'm interested in trying it out and i did read the wikipedia article but i would like to hear something less formal

of course no pressure if you don't have time or energy for it

TAKES A DEEP BREATH

let me set up warhammer 40k a little bit.

this is a very rich with lore universe, it is full of things to consume and learn about, every warhammer 40k fan has their favourite things about it, and there's so many sub-communities based on these things. people who love the imperium, tech-priest fans, necron fans, all sorts, all in their little bubbles. it's fascinating! there's also multiple points in history people can fixate on! i know some people who only care about the emperor's sons (known as the primarchs) and the lorea and stories around them!

to give a very tldr rundown... warhammer 40k is a post apocalyptic world, long after humanity had left terra to explore the galaxy.

to start: people started to be born as psychic mutants, and that's how we got the first navigators, which allowed humanity to explore further than ever before, along with the creation of the warp-drive. this is when the imperium was first created. humanity thrived for a long time, but over time, psykers started to be born, think of them as humans who could use a form of magic. unfortunately, psykers are at risk of being possessed by daemons, or opening portals to allow daemons in, which caused the downfall of humanity.

and then, the emperor of humanity, started a great crusade, in simple terms, to save humanity. he formed the pact with mars' tech-priests to use their technology, and created the primarchs (his sons, which are just genetic clones of himself) as well as the space marine legions... thus the imperiums expansion began. and the start of the horus heresy... which is chronicled in like one of the longest book series ever... just consider it the imperium (humanity) waging war after war after war trying to expand and grow and save themselves, and losing, and winning, and dying, and... yeah. eventually this ends but - humanity stagnates, is probably the best way i can put it.

the game rogue trader is theorised to take place around 999.M41. this means it takes place in... warhammer 40,000! the horus heresy takes place in 30,000... but i think it's important just just set up that beginning part. humanity is fucked, lets put it this way. everything that happened has let humanity to be terrified of power. they cling to the emperor, cling to the past they've lost, much of their history, their knowledge, completely gone. but they are so afraid of things getting like they were, of someone gaining so much power like horus had, that they just.. can't allow themselves to advance again. to the point people who think about that or suggest it are called heretics and killed. to say the imperium isn't perfect as it is now is heresy - but without advancement.. humanity is going to die. they have stagnated and eventually they won't be able to continue - but they are so proud, they can't admit it, or see it.

warhammer 40k is a depressing series of watching humanity suffer, and not taking any chances to change it. they just keep trying to expand. to take over planets and systems. to control everything. they see every other alien species are wrong, villainous, antagonists, that must be put down. even pyskers are treated horribly, despite the fact that their own emperor they love so much, is a psyker.

in rogue trader, you play as a character chosen by the emperor to expand into systems much further out than the imperium has, lawless, dangerous... your job is to bring them under heel. to rule, absolutely. while also squabbling with other rogue traders in the same system who also want it - because personal power is just as important. rogue trader is a game where you literally don't deal with money mechanics because you have more wealth than you could possibly know. you have at least 25,000 people living on your ship, some who have never left it, generations of their families born upon your ship, with you as their almighty ruler.

it's a game where you can be the best ruler to your people you can be, either by following the imperium's law absolutely, or by actually doing the right thing - which is against the law, btw. you could even listen to the whispers of chaos in your ear, be a psyker who plays a little too closely to the edge, risking daemons and god knows what else. you are forced to make hard choices. you have weight on your shoulders that risks crushing you. are you going to lead your people to glory? are you going to protect them, and try to save them? are you going to lead them straight into the maw of a god who will consume them whole? rogue trader is a fun roleplaying game. warhammer 40k is a fun roleplaying tabletop game. being lawful good is being just another sheep in the imperium whos going to watch it sail to its death with a salute, being a bad character is actually wanting the best for people - for treating alien races with respect and not killing them on sight, and being evil is like becoming the chosen prophet of a god who wants to ascend you to their right hand like a bride...

and that's before we even consider the absolutely insane dynamics with your companions. your senechal who is so deathly loyal to you he will focus you into the maws of chaos? your psyker diviner who just wants to be loved and appreciated - and how terribly you can twist her in this desire? a sister of battle who finds a sick gratification in killing - but she's killing for her god, so it's completely just, of course. how about a tech-priest who borders on the heretical with such a tight rope that pushing him over the edge is too easy - as if he was already there to begin with? or a space marine - a wolf - who is exactly like what you'd expect a space marine to be. we even have some hidden companions... one of which who is so fascinating to me, a priest, a prophet, a chaos space marine....

and how genuinely interesting the romances are. do you want a classic period drama romance where you woo a noble lady who blushes if you hold her hand and thinks kissing it is too forward? do you want to melt the ice man who has so much trauma and you swear you can fix him? do you wanna seduce a woman by gifting her an entire planet while she broadcasts your sex across your entire ship so all 25,000+ people hear it? do you want to slaughter your own people for sexual gratification and torture your loyal subjects while engaging in bdsm with an alien who can be your dom or your sub but god forbid you try to switch - which also has an ownership branding scene? how about a 'me and you against the world' soulmates type romance with an alien who sees you as a primative beast but your desire to understand her and her people softens her to you - and the furthest this romance can ever go is holding hands within your minds as you meditate together? or how about a death cult assassin whos been slaughtering your enemies who hide upon your ship right under your nose who very much wants to become your right hand like a devoted paladin-assassin of blood and murder?

ok i've typed so much i've made my arms sore but i genuinely could go on if not for this limitation..... i love rogue trader. i love it. i love it so much. i get so sad when i see roleplaying game enjoyers having no interest in picking it up. it's life changing. it's everything. it's a roleplaying game where you are beautifully rewarded for roleplaying. there's so much freedom. it's delicious to be evil, to manipulate and twist people to chaos. its maddening to try and follow the right path and be punished for it. and its gratifying to follow the emperors will.

[ghostlycoze]

1667.237 - PRIVATE [INTERLACINGFATES]

Ever Changing Fates, Interlaced Mosaics

IM: You’ve been quiet lately, my friend.

IM: Are you alright?

ECF: Yeah, I'm alright

IM: You're not very convincing.

ECF: It's nothing to worry about, Mos

ECF: How has your work been going?

IM: No, no. Not changing the subject. What's wrong?

ECF: Mos...

IM: Spill it.

ECF: ...

ECF: I'm tired of this

IM: Our conversations?

ECF: No! No no no, absolutely not — that’s the one thing keeping me sane right now!

IM: They are?

ECF: Yes! It's…

ECF: I'm sorry. I'm overwhelmed, I must confess.

IM: Overwhelmed?

ECF: With this. With all of this. Cycle by cycle we sit in our cans and do nothing, staring at the same four walls, the ceiling and the floor, of our chambers. How is any being, godlike or not, supposed to maintain even a crumb of sanity in these conditions?

IM: That is why we continue to iterate for the solution. If we don't, then we sit there. It keeps us sane.

ECF: It's just prolonging the inevitable descent into madness. I feel like it's already happening

IM: You've done nothing for cycles, since you declared you no longer cared for The Great Problem. You just need to focus on something; we are iterators, designed to think. Doing nothing is a wish for madness.

ECF: I'm sick of The Great Problem, Interlaced Mosaics. I cannot think about it for another minute

IM: I know. So start a project, something, anything. I can't let my closest friend drive himself to insanity out of stubbornness.

ECF: I'm not stubborn!

IM: Oh, hush, you. You're more stubborn than an Ancient claiming modesty while incapable of fitting through a doorway thanks to their mask.

ECF: Hey!

IM: Plus you never listen, and—

ECF: Alright, alright, I'll listen! I'll start a project. Happy?

IM: Heheh, good.

ECF: You would have just kept going if I didn't cut you off, wouldn't you?

IM: Maybe ~

IM: Can you blame me?

ECF: Ughhhh

ECF: … Thank you, Mos

IM: Of course, Fates. Now go do something, you lazy bag of bolts.

ECF: Gasp! How rude!!

IM: I kid, I kid!

[thedeadthree]

𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐆𝐄: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐈𝐋𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃 ➸ irulanne . the rook .

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[eirakairos]

Leader of Onychinus

After Sylus was ambushed, you chose to take the reigns in being the de facto leader of Onychinus.

A/N: This was inspired by a post I saw in Tiktok about a text message with Sylus about MC teasing him into taking over Onychinus. This is a kinda serious side of it, but I kinda let loose on this one because it is not leaving my head for days. This is the first time I'm writing about L&DS and I'm still trying to learn the lore (also my phone cannot take the game well).

Words: 3,295

Tags: A bit revenge and hurt/comfort, Sylus being incapacitated, MC being ruthless, minor violence and injury, promises being bent

Next (Sort of sequel!)

You sighed as you stared at the window where the man you cherished was bedridden. Never in your dreams would you see the powerful leader of Onychinus Sylus was this… Unconscious.

Gripping on the black coat with red streaks you are wearing, you remember the nightmare a week ago.

“Sylus!” You run as fast as your feet can drag you. You were in the medical section of the base, specifically tailored for Sylus in case of… Such dire situations happen. As you are near the room, the twins quickly shielded your path as the medical staff went to tend to the severely injured leader.

“Hey!” You said, a bit louder due to panic. “I want to see him!”

“They are working on it,” Kieran said. Both twins looked pretty banged up as well.

“What happened?!”

“It was an ambush,” Luke answered. “Boss saw this coming but it's not this… Massive,”

“I guess we have to get through all the connections and see the rats that did this,” Kieran followed. You learned from the twins that there was an orchestrated attack from rival factions. You know he has many enemies in the N109 Zone even though he rules the entire area.

“This is a high priority, but you shouldn’t be here for now. We will place you in the emergency bunker,” Kieran said.

“And why should I follow that?” You crossed your arms and gave a stern look.

“Because Boss said so,” Luke followed. “You don’t know how dire the situation is, the leader of Onychinus is incapacitated… Or presumed dead. Many would take grabs for it,”

“And it was planned by the Boss that you would be in the emergency bunker to be sent back to Linkon and not go back in the meantime,”

“What?! No!” You interjected. “Who will lead Onychinus?! Sylus would be fine… Right?” The twins only kept silent to her question, for any reassurance.

Days later, Sylus went basically into a coma to give time and heal his injuries. You thought it was this bad, you shot him when you first met him, but he just went along with it. Him being like this, it is this bad.

You know he will survive and just need to heal. But for now, the zone is currently in more chaos, as rumors were being thrown around that the leader is down and many would want to get that immense power to rule the N109 Zone.

Walking to the next business meeting, you remembered that conversation with the twins in the mansion.

“Are you mocking us or what?” Luke said upon hearing it. “We can’t do that,” Kieran said. It was two days after the attack. Sylus is stable and was kept hidden, no one but the staff, the twins and you know.

“You will, if you want Onychinus to survive,” You said.

“We gave our word to our Boss, same as yours,” Kieran said.

“He doesn’t need to know. I just need your promise in this,” You said.

“Boss will know, you know?” Luke said. “He ordered us that in a situation where Onychinus is in danger, we should return you safely in Linkon whatever it takes, whether you like it or not,”

“And you promised him that you would follow us and not look back,” Kieran followed.

“And I will once this is over,” You stood up and walked back and forth. “I’m not confident either, but I will do whatever it takes… This is important to him,”

The twins looked at each other. You know they are doubtful about this but they just kneel in front of you. Mephisto flies and surprisingly, perched on your shoulder.

“We are at your service… Boss,”

You took a deep breath after beating up the boss of one of the rival factions that attacked Onychinus. It took a while before you got used to the heavy coat and crow mask you are wearing. You pointed the gun at the boss, who is bloodied and pleading for his life. “Give up! The former Onychinus boss is dead! You can’t keep doing this-!” He screamed but stopped because of the pull of the trigger causing birds to fly away from the abandoned building, except for Mephisto who was your eyes above.

“Good work, boss,” Luke said after swinging the bat that he randomly found. “One more rat and the deed is done,” Kieran said. You nodded, but you were less verbal when using the mask. It does have the voice change capability of a man, similar to the pitch of Sylus’.

“Still can’t believe that she is far scarier and ruthless than Boss,” Luke whispered. “Can’t believe that we are finishing the entire list,”

“Boss is not usually direct to violence this much… Unlike her,” Kieran said. Both shuddered. Who would’ve thought that the person who hugs a crow plushie and banters with Mephisto can hurt, make decisions, and manage an organization like this?

“Though I must say, for her to expand Onychinus’ power more is a bonus,” Luke said. They were silent after, hoping for the former boss to wake up soon.

“Okay, one last rat for Onychinus,” Luke said as he stretched his body before Kieran chuckled and followed.

Since the event, you’ve been busy. You knew that being the leader in an organization where you control everything, is harder than it looks. You knew Sylus’ schedule was booked, you were touched to realize that he still makes time for you despite that. You missed him so much. You often visit him and be updated about his progress, which is good. It is only a week, you believe he will wake up soon.

It was also only a week since you started to plan the retaliation against the factions that did this to Sylus. Honestly, Sylus would orchestrate a much more strategic and long satisfaction for their destruction, but you are no Sylus, they almost took away the one you love and cherished the most.

You breathe through the mask as you go into a huge building with the twins.

“That text message, are you seriously interested in taking over Onychinus?” Sylus asked while you were snuggling to him. You are at the rooftop with him, watching over the little stars and the gloom of the city. “No, it is all dirty business,” you replied. “But you know, what if? You think I can take it?”

Sylus chuckled. “If you want to, you can have a test drive,”

He turned to face you. “But… If ever something happens and Onychinus goes down, go back to Linkon and never return,” You looked at him, he was serious this time.

“What do you mean? I can’t leave you behind!” You said.

“Promise me,” he said, like there is no room for argument.

“I… Okay,” You sighed and cupped his face, understanding what he meant.

Sylus' breathing changes as he has the energy to open his eyes. His wounds and bruises are gone due to his self-healing but he felt immense pain still. The medical staff saw his vitals and went to check on his status, while also sending a message to the twins about him being conscious.

You were panting as you held on your side, you could feel it throbbing in pain and the wetness in your hand. You are bleeding from an attack. The twins are preoccupied but they are thinking internally to come to your aid. Your vision felt blurry, just this one last victory, and when Sylus wakes up, he’ll see Onychinus is well, despite that you have to go back to Linkon. The life you owe him, this is not the time to repay it.

“Urgent message from the medical team: The big crow is flying.” is heard from your mask. You gasped, that is a code meaning Sylus is awake! The twins probably had heard the news, seeing them fighting more vigorously. You panted and ready the gun you have, you can’t be undone in this. He is awake and you should be too.

Sylus can hear the footsteps as the twins barge in. “Boss!” they both yelled. Sylus only hummed as he looked so much better than before. “It seemed you two went to such a fun party,”

“Well, definitely a hard, fun party!” Luke cheerily said then groaned a bit.

After giving him a report of what happened since they are monitoring Onychinus while he is gone. Sylus only hummed, he was internally surprised but processed it well. 

There was silence then…

“How is she?”

The twins looked at each other and then back at him. “She is well. She is in Linkon, as you ordered,”

“Good,”

You groaned in pain as you were resting back in Linkon. It’s been a couple of days since the last mission and you are sent back here after the medical staff bandaged your wounds. Now Sylus is awake and is back being the leader of Onychinus, your days as the de facto leader are over.

Your hand went over to the side of your torso, where the biggest damage was. You wondered how they are now, you learned he is well but you haven’t seen him since.

Your phone rang. It was Sylus.

“It has been a while, kitten,”

“Sylus…” You missed that voice so much.

“Luke and Kieran will fetch you in half an hour. Get ready,” he said.

He didn’t take the conversation longer, he is probably a lot busier than ever. Half an hour later, the cars arrive and the twins meet you as you go down.

“Nice to see you again, are you feeling good?” Luke asked. You smiled. “Of course, how has it been?” You said as you got in the car, then the twins followed. You pretended to be fine, as you were still feeling pain from the wound in your torso.

“Oh, man! We were very busy! But Onychinus is well!” he replied. You smiled more, feeling that sense of relief that all of you did the missions successfully.

After arriving in the mansion, Sylus is there waiting. He is awake and well like nothing happened. “Welcome back, sweetie,”

You ran and embraced him. He wrapped his arms around you, savoring the moment as well. He missed holding you, he had to make sure you were safe enough to return, and upon doing that, there’s so much going on.

“I missed you… So much,” You whispered. Sylus’ hand went to your back and rubbed for comfort.

“You don’t trust me that I’ll be back? You shot me before you know,” he chuckled.

“You dummy, I know you will be back! It's just… I'm worried about you… You might not wake up,”

Sylus hummed as you released your embrace. Then, he sat down with you on his lap. “So… Kitten, fill me in the details when I was gone,”

“Well, I was just waiting for you when the twins called and said you were hurt… Then… I… I was not let in the medical bay, they told me you were unconscious but are healing fast. Despite my protest, the twins dragged me back to Linkon as you ordered,”

“Surprised that you were that obedient, kitten,” Sylus said. “The twins handled it well. They told me they kept you updated and gave your inputs in the operations,” he pats your head. You nodded in agreement, despite you having done so much more than that.

“Well, how do you want to spend the day? Going outside? To the cafe? Or just like this?” He asked.

You were still feeling exhausted from the last battle and being the leader. You just wanted to feel Sylus’ presence. “Just like this for now… Just with you,” Sylus nodded and carried you in bridal style to his bed. You squeaked in surprise and quickly hid the pain from the wound on your side.

“... Are you alright?” Sylus asked.

You quickly went back to your composure. “Yeah, yeah, I was just startled,” You giggled. Sylus stared at you then continued.

Sylus and you didn’t leave the room after a couple of hours, just sleeping and cuddling together. You feel happiness when you get to be close like this to him again. ‘Despite you being the most feared and strongest out there, I would want to protect you,’ you thought.

It was a happy week before you returned back to Linkon for normal activities. You felt relieved that the entire stay, Sylus didn’t seem to notice anything unusual, you made sure of it in the plan.

A couple of days later. Your phone rang. It was the twins.

“Hey! We kinda got a situation here!” Luke said. You hear they are huffing, they seem to be running. You’re quickly on alert.

��The boss is in trouble again and we have to get you back here!”

“What?! What happened?!” You yelled.

“We sent the coordinates! No time to explain! Just wear it!”

“I… I can’t do that anymore! What-!”

Your panic increases when the line suddenly cuts off. “Luke?! Kieran?!” you yelled. You didn’t think much about what to do, you got a black bag in your secret compartment. It contains the coat, the mask, and the guns. You tried to contact Sylus but there was no dial tone, nor any response. This makes you frantic as you get on your motorcycle to go to the location.

You arrived at an abandoned building, you didn't see the twins. Your big cloak flows in the air as you breathe through the crow mask. You can feel Mephisto roaming around above.

Masked men jumped and circled you. Your instincts as a boss emerged again. Gunshots and screams are heard as you are mercilessly beating them up, decreasing in numbers. When completely gone, you breathe deeply as you are satisfied with the job.

A dark projectile suddenly blasted behind you and barely dodged it in response. As you turn and point your gun, a dark red mist surrounds your wrist, stopping your control.

“What-”

From the other end of the floor, a tall man was standing. “Great work, the boss of Onychinus,” he said.

The familiar voice made you shiver. ‘Sylus?’ You were trying to process everything about what happened. ‘The twins…’ You thought as you realized. “It is amusing that the high-profile boss easily falls into a trap,” Sylus gets closer and looks down on you. Even with the mask, you can see he is not happy. You cursed, everything went so well as you would’ve thought.

“I came here to usurp the boss,” he smirked. “And claim what was mine,”

You tried to move but the dark mist started to spread around you to keep you still. You can see his hand moving towards your face. You moved, trying to get away from the grasp of the dark mist.

“Let me go!”

“Still keeping up with the facade?” He bent down to your level, smirking at you. But you can tell he is not amused. “For a boss, you look like an angry kitten,”

You felt your adrenaline drained away and despite knowing the consequences, you can’t help but feel many emotions in his reaction to finding out. He would probably cut ties with you and return you back to Linkon.

But you were surprised that strong arms circled around you and were being carried. “Let go of me!” You squirmed. Along the way, you see the twins leaning on the car in the distance. “Sorry!” They shouted as you squinted your eyes in response.

Outside was a garden, it was unkempt but peaceful. He sat on a bench with you on his lap. There was only silence between you two and the rustling leaves and chirping birds, with Mephisto roaming around as usual. Your breathing is a bit uneven, probably due to anxiety or because of the mask. You can see his hand hovering on your face, knowing where the latch is and propping it open. As he removes the crow mask, you can see his face in a much more detailed look. His expression didn’t change when he saw who was behind the mask.

“So… Leader of Onychinus… If you are so kind, can you tell me what is going on?” he said in an amusing tone. You didn’t respond, you felt your throat was stuck. His expression got more serious. “I am giving you a chance. You bended your promise,” he gazed at you, with the tone of betrayal. You looked around before looking at him again, your heart sunk with the feeling of defeat.

“I’m sorry… I just know how important Onychinus is to you,” you finally said, “I bent the promise because it would be a mess of people taking your spot. Despite you willingly giving it up, I can’t stand there and let it happen. I bent the promise because I don’t want to leave you like that. I don’t want to leave it all behind,” You said with conviction. “I don’t regret doing it… I had to do what I had to do,” You spoke and looked down. Sylus remained silent and then sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“The moment I was aware of things, I felt something was wrong. Everything felt locked into place too well,” he spoke. “As I’m going about my business, I’m hearing… Rumors about a masked boss that took over Onychinus,” he hummed. “I heard the boss was ruthless and skilled. Even the twins were surprised,” you looked at him, wondering about Luke and Kieran. 

“It wasn’t long either that I found out about them. They are adept fighters but I don’t think expanding the Onychinus and gaining more power is in their arsenal,” he chuckled. “They did confess to me as my orders supersede all, even from you,” You got sad as you got the twins in trouble.

“But I…”

“Oh, I know it's all on you, sweetie. But they do have their share,” he sneered. “Same to Mephisto, too,” Caws are heard above them. “You may delete his memory by accessing admin rights but you don’t know there is a backup memory… And I saw everything,” he smiled. 

“Especially the last mission you did,” His face switched to being more serious as he stared at you, his crimson eyes looking intense but his voice was soft.

“I almost lost you… Because of a roleplay in being a leader,” he spoke, his voice low and menacing.

“Never do this again,” Sylus said. “Without my guidance,” he continued. You blinked and looked at him, surprised.

“As I said in our text message many years ago, I have no problem with you being the new leader of Onychinus if you want to… Just not in scenarios like that, where you will risk your life more than you bargained for or… Without me,” Sylus smiled at you again. You feel relief and comfort when Sylus pats your head.

You want to get up and give a kiss on his cheek but you still feel pain on your side. Sylus held you tighter as he stood up, carrying you again and going back to the car. “Never thought a cute, vengeful kitten would eliminate all the vermin,”

“Well, the love of my life was hurt,” you said. Sylus looked at you, a bit touched and thinking about the potential you have if you took over the organization. He often pokes your anger in teasing but has to realize your vengefulness is strong to the ones you love.

“You need to rest since you are still feeling pain,” Sylus said. “But that doesn’t exempt you from my punishment,” You gasped. “Can…  Can I know what punishment is that?” You dared ask.

You felt a rumble in his chest. “You’ll see how the real boss leads, kitten,”

[ferg0s]

Barou starting a new relationship with a shy girl and how he would go about it

The literal personification of trying to mix oil with water

He was used to everyone looking at him in times of need on the field - he was the king after all - so he didn’t even notice how you would take a step back whenever it came time to ordering food, or any sort of public speaking and interactions.

He naturally took the lead, and you followed suit. Thanking the lord.

He honestly didn’t even notice how shy you were- he just kinda assumed you like hearing him talk. It wasn’t until he passed by an aisle of cute keychains and decided that he wanted to get you one when he realized… he kinda didn’t know anything about you.

I mean he did. He knew your name, your height…. The colour of your eyes…. And hair… and…

“So what do you do?” He asked bluntly as the two of you walked down a park, ice creams in hand. The one he ordered. “What?” “Hobbies? Sports? What do you do in your spare time?” He asked as he looked at you, determined to get an answer. “You know… the usual stuff-“ you awkwardly chuckle. “I don’t know actually.” He was a little shit about it.

But after literally interrogating you for an entire hour, he managed to squeeze out an answer from you. You were completely cornered by him, and you shyly tell him your hobbies. He looks dumbfounded, because to him those are completely normal and healthy hobbies for someone to have. He was starting to think you’re a grave robber by the way you were acting.

Knitting? He will get you the yarn, and parade a scarf you made for him and show all his teammates. Collecting something? He will always be on the lookout for what you like, even going as far as asking his teammates to be on the lookout as well. Video games? He will learn to play your favourite game with you. Cute farming sim? Silent hill? Niche indie game that only 3 people know about? You best bet he will ask for a 4 hour lore deep dive.

Very supportive.

Lwokey will get annoyed at your shyness at one point.

At first he thinks it’s cute, but he’s not the type of person to fully baby anyone, and will force you to order your own meal. He wants the best for you :(

Will say his order and look at you to say yours, watching you stumble on your words as you try to order some fries and a sprite. And will say he’s proud of you after. But doesn’t do it often because he can see the genuine terror in your eyes - only does it even it’s the two of you in line on a slow day.

Slowly learns to accept that you’re passionate in your own way. He’s loud and proud, whereas you like to keep to yourself. In a way he likes that you’re so open with him, that you let him see the stuff you don’t show other people. Thinks it’s adorable.

Will 100% try to make you more comfortable and less shy. You bought a new dress and don’t want to wear it, he will bluntly tell you it looks good and it would be a waste of money not to wear it.

Encourages your fashion choices. Polly pocket platform heels? He loves them. Bold lipstick? He will buy you earring that match. He quietly realized he liked seeing you happy. And you were happiest being yourself.

He’s not a big fan of grossly obvious PDA. Loves holding your hand or when you grab his bicep when you two walk together. You like it because it doesn’t draw unnecessary attention and he likes it cuz you’re always attached next to him and he doesn’t have to worry about actually loosing you. Plus he likes it when you grab his bicep.

Took forever to convince you to come to one of his games. You were too nervous to get into an arena with so many people - said you could come with a group of his teammates girlfriends - but you hated the idea of being with people you didn’t know.

He got really good at spotting you in the crowd. Didn’t matter where you were sitting, he just trained himself to see you. You were too shy to loudly cheer like everyone else, blending into the crowd due to that. But it didn’t matter.

In a weird way. He likes that hes the only one who gets to see you this happy, because hes the same with you. Slowly learning to take his guard down, be more open.

You’re learning to be confident while he’s learning to be trusting.

[zaahvi]

a little breakdown of the new mural:

the context: this is part of a quest named "regrets of the dread wolf" in which rook uses a wolf statuette to "restore" this damaged mural in the lighthouse. it's referred to as a "regret" and seems to echo a memory linked to the events shown in the mural

"[Solas'] history, along with the history of the other elven gods, is baked into the Lighthouse, and you learn more and more about the threat you face as you unlock Solas' murals with various wolf statues. You even get to see some of his memories firsthand." [source with timestamp]

first, the imagery:

these "star" symbols are the same as on the "death of a titan" mural from trespasser, and even have similar halos. there are three visible in the circle here, which itself is cracked and there's a beam of light coming from above, sort of mirroring the titan mural:

it's interesting that the beam of light is coming from above, and is hitting the circle at the bottom, illuminating the outline; it seems like the light itself is what "cracked" the circle? there's also light shining from above, and elgar'nan is looking up at it, so... maybe it's the sun? the halos around the hands are also reminiscent of the left figure on the titan mural.

for triangle symbolism enjoyers... there are triangles around the light beam a little further up 👀

this is also our first look at mythal <3 she had dark hair and her headpiece is silver like flemeth's, a nice contrast to the golden crown elgar'nan has! they're like the sun and moon...

elgar'nan appears to have silver hair here, much lighter than the dark greyish he seems to have in-game. i'm thinking that either the blight darkened it, solas painted it differently, OR that the lighting that we've seen him in so far just hasn't shown off the colour properly. on his robes there is a sun pattern on his shoulder :) the bottom of the robes seem greenish and has patterns similar to the lyrium veins(?) on the titan mural above, and now that i look at them side by side... he kinda looks like the figure on the left, doesn't he?

solas with hair real!!! and he has his signature wolf pelt :) he's standing among some kneeling elves, and, notably, none of them have vallaslin.

these leafless trees - usually used as symbols of mythal - are almost framing the piece. the blue coming from the cracked circle is also interesting: solas rarely uses blue apart from his murals inside skyhold, so maybe it means something? it could be lyrium, or the titans' power?

the story:

remembering the context: this is one of solas' old memories, and a "regret" of his. looking at the imagery and pairing it with the dialogue seen, the events portrayed become clear:

Elgar'nan: They need strength. Mythal: And wisdom. Elgar'nan: They need gods who can protect them. Solas: We are not gods. You will learn that.

this is the evanuris first declaring themselves gods, seemingly after whatever war the elves fought; possibly with the titans, judging by the hints in these murals.

elgar'nan and mythal came first, which lines up with the dalish legends. i'm very curious if they were actually a couple or if they were just paired together in legends because they were the first gods (like how falon'din and dirthamen were paired as twin brothers in dalish tales but had no familial connection in elvhen lore). and from what they say... using "they" to refer to the elves rather than "you", implies this was a private conversation, which leads me to believe that they did originally intend to protect the elves. for instance, if they'd said "you need gods who can protect you", that's a whole other story which could be clearly interpreted as installing themselves as rulers in order to gain power and oppress the people. but this? the elves need strength, and wisdom, and protection? it's our first real clue that the evanuris were not always tyrannical, and that is just so interesting! i am very excited to see the story of how they became corrupted 👀

solas has an interesting line here also. using "we" instead of "you"... there's a popular theory that solas was a spirit of wisdom who was asked by mythal to join her, as implied by these lines from cole:

"He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face." "Bare-faced but free, frolicking fighting, fierce. He wants to give wisdom, not orders."

so maybe solas was a general alongside the evanuris, and was clearly opposed to becoming a "god" like the rest of them. i find it interesting he doesn't have vallaslin on the mural here. the cole lines implied he had mythal's vallaslin, and i would've assumed he "burned it off" when he started his rebellion. the only thing i can think of is that the vallaslin may have originally acted as a spirit binding (like binding a spirit to a body) but if it could be removed then... idk.

finally, circling back that this is referred to as a "regret"... i suppose this is his regret of not having stopped them before everything that followed. and with regret mentioned as being one of the key themes of the game... aghh this is gonna be so good

[towncritte]

Red Destiny AU Lore Dump

I'm deciding to compile all the lore dumps I did so far on Twitter, into this post.

Stuff is subjected to change in the future, but this post is just to help you guys get bits of the story.

It's still a work in progress AU, and nothing is entirely set in stone but regardless, I do hope this helps.

Here's Dogday's reference sheet and info:

Here is a quick summary of what's going on in this Dimension: The Smiling Critters live in another dimension, which the portal was located in a Toy Factory. The humans entered and started ruling over the place, along with ruling several different towns to have control over the creatures within said dimension.

The story for now mostly focuses on Smiling Valley where the Smiling Critters live.

Due to the humans mostly seeing the Smiling Valley citizens as if they are Zoo Animals or an attraction of sorts, the small town finds it difficult to have supplies and have a tendency to get a shortage.

Most humans visiting aren't aware of the abuse going on done by Scientists that want to study the Critter Citizens as if they are Lab Rats, or the abuse of Soldiers/Guards hungry for a power trip.

That's the summary of the condition of the town so far.

For the most part the story for now will be pretty focused on Dogday and his perspective, as well as the other critters.

Catnap's whereabouts and what he is doing will be a mystery.

I want this AU to feel like an ominous mystery of what's going on.

Here's more lore drop of the pooch:

Declawing Trauma:

Dogday was declawed. Bubba, during Dogday receiving therapy, tried to get as much supplies and knowledge as he can to fix Dogday's hands/paws.

During those 3 years, Dogday couldn't hold things due to how bad the condition of his hands were.

Dogday had to constantly wear bandages and deal with pain for the past 3 years, making his mental recovery difficult, and feeling like a burden to his friends for helping him.

Catnap CONSTANTLY had to reassure Dogday nothing was his fault and would constantly comfort him.

Dogday, despite everything, held onto hope Bubba would restore his claws.

Bubba had to eventually settle for reshaping Dogday's hands to paws so Dogday wouldn't feel so much pain anymore. (He had to use extra bones from Dogday's hands to do this.)

Dogday was depressed about this but overtime did manage to get through therapy without being in so much pain anymore and had to learn to hold things with his newly reshaped paws. (Tho he still has some trauma)

Catnap held a HEAVY grudge against the scientists that hurt Dogday.

These traumatizing events will show how it's affected Day as the story goes.

Dogday does know about The Prototype and what Catnap's been doing. Not fully aware, the Moon is in a cult of sorts hidden outside of town.

Catnap at one point, gave Dogday hope about his claws before he left Smiling Valley as he was called upon by The Prototype:

Catnap wasn't being malicious when he showed them off, he just wanted to give Dogday a reason to support his beliefs. Catnap wasn't declawed, but he was given much deadlier claws.

Speaking of Catnap, here's his beta ref sheet:

In the future, I'll make him a colored reference sheet once I have this AU organized.

Dogday's eyes:

When Day's eyes would be fading back to white, Mini Moon immediately tells Day to go home and sleep. He then administers the red smoke again.

GORE WARNING!

Dogday developing violent tendencies:

At some point, Dogday starts to develop violent urges due to the Plush's manipulation and mind warping.

(Since I DO NOT plan to rip off Dogday's legs EVER! I'm going with this route as a nod to what happened in the game, but its in reverse)

This is so far the lore dump of the AU. I'll look back at this in the future as I continue the story to see how I can tie things together, or what to change or what I like or don't like.

If you don't understand this, it's okay.

Again, this is just a lore dump post to understand the AU so far in it's Work In Progress stage.

And to help me read over stuff and see what I can do with it.

Again, stuff is subjected to change, including designs. So nothing is entirely permanent.

I made the Plush Delivery comic back on Twitter originally as a one off in it's old version. But over time, I liked the concept so much I started forming it into a story and redid Plush Delivery.

I do hope you'll enjoy wherever Red Destiny's story will go.

Who knows what lies ahead for the red path the pooch is following.

" A red destiny awaits you Sunshine….are you ready?" -Catnap

Thank goodness, I'm done writing this all down. xnx

[mochatsin]

MC as a Dating Sim Character

An AU in which the seven brothers knew you as a dating sim character from a game they love to play so much. Has nearly the same functions as the Obey Me app. 

It started off as a trend in Devildom, a new app that a lot of citizens and RAD students play with recently. Great reviews when it came to the storyline and the characters. The brothers gave it a shot and surprisingly became attached to it. The reason? You.

Levi is the first to fall down that rabbit hole because he’s been waiting for this game’s release for a while now. He saw the roster of dating sim candidates and he fell for you first. Something about your design was alluring to him and when he finally had the app downloaded, he spent the first night playing the storyline to understand you. Learning your lore is what made him fall even harder to the point he has a shelf dedicated to your merch. He grinded so hard to upgrade all your cards (he definitely got those UR and UR+ ones)

Asmo started playing when he saw the trends about it and he wanted to jump on that bandwagon. Play the game and talk about the characters, which ones he like and whatnot right? It was easy, but when it came to your character he found himself playing on the game longer than he wants to admit. His fans can immediately tell whose Asmo’s favorite character is with how much he talked about you in his videos. He makes sure to get all the pretty skins that get released because in his opinion, there’s not a single outfit that doesn’t look good on you. 

Mammon plays the game as well when he attempted to sneak into Levi's room to sell something and ended up finding his brother’s merch of you. Mammon doesn’t want to admit how many hours he’s spent on the game trying to max out the affection level with you. Definitely spent so much money to get the UR cards since he can’t grind as much as Levi does, and he’ll buy those limited gifts to hear those special voice lines from you.

Satan gets curious and downloads it because he’s wondering how good was this game to even make Mammon lessen his casino gambling habits. The storyline is great, but the writing for your character was what made Satan stay in the game. He doesn’t hesitate in approaching Levi to ask about the game mechanics and tips, and Satan has it covered from there. He focuses on the story to get as much lore he could out of you. He wants to learn about every single fact about his favorite character. 

The twins played at the same time, and it’s funny how they both ended up liking the same character. They found out when they were playing the game together and saw you were their home screen character. Beel loves listening to your voice lines while he works out to motivate himself, while Belphie always has your voice lines wishing him goodnight that he uses to fall asleep with. 

Lucifer will never tell anyone that he plays the game. Not as much as his brothers though, this is something he wants to do in his free time or when he’s alone in his private study, he’s more casual about this than others. Your character is honestly pleasant company, it’s nice to hear you cheer him on while he works. Though he’s sure that if his brothers knew he found comfort in a dating sim character, they would mock him for sure (even if they’re all the same).

Though something weird happens one day when all users log in the app. Levi is practically screaming when he runs out of the room with distraught in his face. You’re his home screen character, but for some odd reason you’re not where you’re supposed to be. He thought maybe it’s the game being laggy, but you don’t reappear no matter how many times he refreshes the app. 

The brothers are just in shock, phones on the table during breakfast to check what was going on exactly. Your cards are all glitched out and corrupted, though everyone else’s was fine. People are wondering if this was all part of the game, if there’s some sort of event or what but there’s nothing. It’s like the game actively tried to erase you.

The devs eventually released a statement that due to some complications and unforeseen circumstances, the game will be deleted. Of course a lot of people are outraged, why would the devs suddenly discontinue the game in the middle of its peak? It was gaining a lot of attention and some people have already spent so much money for it. Everything was just unfair when there’s no answers.

Despite any attempts to keep the game, it was somehow deleted from everyone’s phone. Levi only has some of his screenshots and recordings to keep, whining from time to time as he looks longingly on his merch line. Some brothers sulk more than others, though they’re all upset regardless. Why you? Why did it have to be you specifically? You suddenly disappeared from the game, and they never knew why. With the game gone, there doesn’t seem to be a way for them to get their answers. 

Satan wanted to use his connections to figure out the truth, try to find the devs to get the answers everyone is looking for. The truth seemed much more disappointing for Satan though, learning that the devs actually didn’t know either where your character went. They thought it was a virus at first, but all your data was just missing. No matter how hard they tried to fix it, there was nothing they could do. They can’t handle running a faulty game, so they chose to discontinue and start fresh. 

Some fans would probably be thrilled to hear a new game already in the works, but it doesn’t feel the same. You’re the character that these brothers were invested in. There’s just something about you and your charms that had them drawn in the game, so the brothers weren’t exactly excited hearing about the new set of characters. Clearly it upsets the demons.

That’s until Lucifer called the brothers to Diavolo’s castle, as there’s some sort of emergency that requires their attention. Lucifer drags each and every one of their brothers out of their rooms, they can pout and whine about you later. 

Diavolo called in all of them, talking about that dating game that took Devildom by storm once. No matter how hard they tried to hide it, the young prince knew that each and everyone of them were playing it. They’re all embarrassed at being caught, but surely they’re not here just to be exposed by Diavolo right? He says that an unexpected guest has been found in Devildom recently, bringing the boys to a room in a castle.

There you are, standing in the room in front of the seven demons that are staring at you with awe. You’re here… in Devildom? At first they thought you were just some cosplayer, but the way you introduced yourself and your name was the same as the one in the game. There’s no way you’re real, but all the evidence is standing right in front of them. 

Diavolo says that he’s entrusting you in the care of the seven demon brothers. Barbatos somehow knew that you were all of their favorites, so they probably know what you like and how to take care of you. Maybe it would be a good idea. 

To be continued… i think?

[ezdotjpg]

do you have any directors commentary on the recent two updates? 👉👈 the color palette is absolutely lovely! and and and WOLF!! :DD

OH BOY DO I

In the original draft of this chapter, Wolf stays a, uh, wolf until like the 4th update. Instead of actually managing to get his teeth on the master sword, Loft threw him off immediately. The Deku Tree still said the line about all three of them being heroes and Slate is like. “Including the fucking dog????!” I thought it was very funny but a) it made some scenes later down the line a huge pain and b) I was tired of drawing wolves ALDKDKD

You may have noticed Wolf’s scowling in the bg of almost every panel. That’s kind of just his face, but also right now my guy is nursing the world’s biggest migraine from popping the shadow crystal out of his skull. He can stay wolfmode for a while, but it’s still technically a curse. It’s not consequence free, and there’s an upper limit for how long he can spend in that form. Anyway, cut him some slack if he’s a little prickly for a bit.

There were a lot of comments about Loft being strong enough to toss a wolf over his head lol. My hc is that he’s one of, if not the strongest Link sans any magic items like power bracelets or gauntlets. He’s actually not even as strong now as he was during his quest. Wolf maybe has him beat now, but he can still get tossed lolol

It might seem like Slate’s really taken everything that happened at the end of ch1 in stride, but don’t worry. He’s simmering. Loft is grateful for the opportunity to get distracted by something else. Maybe that’s why he was so willing to approach the wild animal he’s never seen before lol

This maybe goes without saying based on the events of the last two updates, but Slate never had wolf link with him during the events of botw. He doesn’t recognize Wolf.

I’m really glad ppl seem to be liking the colors bc I struggled with them so hard on both updates 🫠literally days of me turning to my roommate and going “I think I’ve never made anything worse” and them going “it looks good stop being dramatic” WKDJDK I have this thing where if I had an idea in my head for what an update should look like, and what I produce doesn’t meet it somehow, I start seeing in fucking. shrimp colors. Posting always gives me a confidence boost back lol.

these pages were cursed in general bc like. this doesn’t usually happen but I think I redrew every panel in this update at least 5 times each. that’s part of why it ended up being late SKDJF

I REALLY like the idea of being in the presence of the Triforce and having access to its power being this eldritch, divinely horrifying experience. The sort of thing that is impossible to explain to anyone and also haunts you forever. Loft spends a lot of time actively trying not to think about the Triforce. Just, like, remember that about him.

Like how tears in reality are shown through holes in the literal comic panels, I tried to show the concept of reality bending in the form of a panel stretching and twisting like a ribbon ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ I hope that came across. Triforce lore varies a bit from game to game, but I’ve come up with my own internal logic for bonus links that combines all the ideas I like lolol. We’ll learn more about it in due time!

I also really like this parallel :D I intentionally set up the panels so past and present loft would line up like this. i love getting to draw flashback links it’s so fun to think of ways to convey what they used to be like, and how their quests might have gone for them. Past Loft’s not having a great time by the time he reaches this point lol

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for asking :D

[thankskenpenders]

Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?

Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.

But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.

A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.

Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.

Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.

There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.

(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.

As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:

You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.

You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.

You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)

You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.

You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.

You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao

You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.

All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.

In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.

Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.

Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!

It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.

It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.

All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.

I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.

[mambodork]

Hi, me again! In the buttercup HOA au, does Grian need to eat in his code bodies? Or is he like one of Martyn's lore Watchers where he only feeds off of emotions? Or maybe every time he makes a new body, he cannibalizes the code of the old one if Scar doesn't need it for snacking? I assume Scar eats normally with the exception of occasional flesh, and Mumbo, being a sort of parasite, either can make his host eat to sustain himself or just slowly eats the host and changes them every once in a while.

Also is there a reason Grian needs to keep making new bodies, like the code can only hold itself together for a short while before it starts decaying, or maybe because he can't eat it starts to die and that'd why he builds new ones?

I did not, in fact, find motivation to write anything today because my roommates distracted me with watching pirates of the carribean, but the ideas have been bouncing around in my brain all day long.

Anyways, sorry for the ramble can you tell I'm obsessed with your aus <3

In concern of Grian eating... I really like Martyn's interpretation of it with the watchers feeding off of emotions. Would also explain why Grian loves to make games and pranks all the time since he primarily feeds on positive emotions. Although I do believe his primary reason is always to make his friends happy, the benefit of being able to absorb their happiness for his own gain is an added bonus. I like to think the more emotions he gets, the more powerful he can be. Meanwhile, if he doesn't get enough to feed, he'll just dwindle out and fade back to become part of the universe.

My headcanon for the Watchers are that they're the main force to drive the world so it can continue living by making things interesting. Consider it like a book or a movie or even a game. Nobody would play it if nothing good happens, and if they stopped playing, the world within that game would just stop altogether. This is the primary worldbuilding I use when using the concept of minecraft inherently being a game as their actual world. The watchers are creatures created by the universe to keep it going by rousing powerful emotions like sadness, grief, or happiness. In this note, I am also a firm "the watcher's are morally grey" believer. They simply have their own goals and do what it takes to get it.

I think you're quite spot on with Scar and Mumbo's way of feeding! Mumbo is definitely a parasite and I agree with the fact that he makes his host eat for him to eat aswell.

As for Grian's body, my current headcanon of it at the moment is that unlike normal players who treat the world as real life and bodies, etc, as organic, Grian has ascended when he became a watcher and could see the world as what it truly is (code, for simplicity). As such, he treats his body and how he uses it more like an actual minecraft skin. Normal rules of real life and logic that ground a player also don't really apply that much to him now.

For why he has to change it every few days or so... I just think that Grian is just too weak or simply doesn't know that much about code yet to make a sustaining body (think of him like a highschool intern developer that's still learning how to code). I like to think that Grian's current bodies are being held together by duct tape and glue 😭 he doesn't really know what he's doing yet, hence the body malfunctioning or just simply disintegrating back to the universe's code (at this point, he would just give the body to Scar for him to snack on. Just because it's all useless code to him doesn't mean that it's not organic fresh meat for Scar). I also like your suggestion on the body decaying because it couldn't eat... maybe this can also be integrated since the entire organic world & code stuff is separated much like the 4th and 5th dimensions. It would SEEM that the body is rotting due to lack of nutrition, but it could also be a code error on Grian's part, who knows :3

Tysm for the interesting questions and ideas !! These are all just my headcanons atm and you're free to take anything you want from it, or not use them at all ! Again, I really appreciate it that you're willing to expand on this world lol <3 take your time on it !

[exilethegame]

What's the go-to topic for the RO's if you want to get them talking for the next 4 hours straight? In other words, what kind of things are they most interested in/passionate about?

Hmm...

Vethna: Politics in Vygrand, the ethics of blood magic, the history of magic in general... they are very much an academic at heart and like trying to find the balance between a "perfect world" and reality. Plus they've never spoken about these things to someone who takes them seriously, so having a place to do just that would have Vethna blabbering for hours.

Nikke: Weapons, daggers, specifically. He collects them as he finds them which may be grim to other people (considering he usually takes them from the bodies of the people he kills), but hey... it's still a cool collection, okay? He also loves talking about all his adventures and sharing stupid stories about cool places he's visited. Also fighting techniques. He's genuinely super into that. Goes for Jost + Nikke that they both have A LOT to say about the Taipan gang in Vrithka as well. Like a lot a lot. (None of them are good things)

Jost: Jost is a listener, not a talker. But in the rare, rare occasion you have her going on about something, it's usually because she's upset and somehow, you became the one person she trusts enough to vent things to. It's not necessarily upset as in sad, per se, but she's in a place emotionally where needs someone to bounce ideas and thoughts off of. (However, passion-wise, she's super into the arts, so you could probably pull some words out from her re. arts from the Old Worlds, museums, that sort of thing). 

Amilia: Amilia does not stop talking. Amilia will go for hours talking about a cute mushroom on the side of the road, no not underestimate her. And you know what? Yes, she's doing it to annoy who she's with, but part of her really is interested in that mushroom you know. On a more serious note, she's really into music and getting to know people. Amilia's one of those people that makes others open up pretty easily, and it's something she genuinely enjoys since she likes learning the "lore" of individuals. (... is that just gossip?)

Sabir: Astrology, the gods of the Old World, the Old World in general, really. Interestingly enough, Sabir does not enjoy talking about politics. Like you can rile him up if you try hard and enough, but he sincerely tries to avoid getting too far into it because it's such a glib subject. That, and he's already talking about politics all day given his position. Sabir isn't a ramble talker though-- he won't just chatter for hours on end about something. He's into the art of conversation, you see. The back-and-forth is what's fun for him, so he'd rather talk about nothing at all and fill the conversation with shallow banter than passionately talk about his map collection.

Syfyn: Just remind her of the time someone vaguely pissed her off one time and you got about an hour of entertainment off that incident alone. (One time a person cut her in line at the mess hall, one time she stubbed her toe because someone moved a box, one time--) Syfyn also likes talking about combat and training, but Nikke's more like "genuine excitement and tips and tricks" and Syfyn's more like "lmfao I kicked your ASS you're a loser" or "did you see how hard I punched that thing lemme remind you"

Freedom: Hmm... this only works if one is super-super close with Freedom, but they'll be very genuine and skip the word-games when it comes to talking about the Old World, the time when the other gods were alive, their past and people they've met/known. That's the one thing Freedom could speak about for hours and be upfront about AND be genuinely invested in the conversation. They enjoy sharing relics of history with people who are actually willing to listen, and the fact anyone might want to really know about them on an individual level would be very flattering.

[rypnami]

mc ask/tag game!

my turn to do an mc ask! answer as you please <3 30 questions wow!

1) if your mc was an animagus, what would their form be? if they are, what is their form?

2) if they could choose what animagus form they would take, would it be the same? or would they want to have a different animal form?

3) does your mc have a favourite colour? why is it their favourite?

4) in a modern au, would your mc use social media? what would their preferred platform be? why is if their preferred one?

5) did you consult wand lore when choosing their wand? if so, why did you pick what you did? if not, would you ever change wand details to match your mc?

6) what is your mc’s diet? are they vegan, vegetarian, do they eat whatever? why?

7) what is your mc’s backstory as to why they didn’t join hogwarts until 5th year? or did you retcon that part of the story when creating them?

8) what house is your mc in? why are they in that house?

9) were you inspired by characters from other media when making your mc? if so, which characters? and how did they influence your mc?

10) does your mc have any special abilities? (legilimens, parsletongue, metamorphagus, etc) how do they choose to use these powers? did you give them powers for fun, or does it relate to their backstory/plot?

11) what is your mc’s blood status? how does it affect their time at hogwarts? how does it affect their home life?

12) did your mc open the repository? why or why not?

13) if your mc opened the repository, how did absorbing all that power affect them, if it did at all?

14) what does your mc think of the keepers? do they trust them? why or why not?

15) how does your mc’s story continue after 5th year? how do they cope with everything that happened with ranrok, sebastian, etc?

16) did your mc learn the unforgivables? why or why not?

17) did your mc turn in sebastian? why or why not?

18) what is your mc’s family like? do they have siblings? do they still have parents?

19) does your mc have a love interest? who is it? why did your mc fall for that character, if they do have a love interest?

20) does your mc have a favourite spell? if so, what is it and why do they like it the most?

21) if you could change anything that the mc does in the game, what would it be? why would you change it? how would you change it? (ie; a line they say, an event of a quest, things of that nature)

22) does your mc have any pets? if so, why do they have the pets they have? and for fun, what are their pets’ names?

23) when designing your mc, why did you choose the appearance you did? has it changed at all since you first made them? would you change anything now?

24) where is your mc from? where is their family from?

25) what is your mc’s favourite season? why is it their favourite?

26) how about your mc’s favourite holiday? what makes it special to them?

27) if your mc wasn’t in their current house, where would they have been sorted? why do you think they’d be there?

28) does your mc have a favourite childhood toy? if so, what was it? do they still have it with them?

29) what kind of music would your mc like? is there a reason?

30) last but not least, just tell us something you love about your mc!

[saccharineomens]

what’s funny about playing Elden ring, as a new person, who saw mutuals reblogging stuff about it but was unable to parse any sort of plot for the fanart, is like…

you start the game in a world with a very vague ‘this is the land after a quite brutal Be-Fuckening’ introductory cinematic. you’re told to go to The Castle. You go to The Castle and get your ass kicked at the gate, so you decide to go off and fuck around for a while.

you explore this very generic Fantasy landscape and meet a few npcs, but nowhere do you learn the massive lore or information about the (presumably important and big-name!) characters your mutuals were blogging about. You wonder, briefly, if you bought the wrong game.

After several hours spent leveling up a couple dozen times and getting some better weapons and armor, you return to The Castle. You beat the gatekeeper and start exploring the castle much like you were exploring the land outside of it. Most of the castle is pretty unremarkable, basic fantasy stuff, an evil Lord committing evil crimes against humanity. One time while exploring the battlements you trip off the wall and fall into a bottomless pit and ooOHHHHH WHATTHEFUCKISTHAT—

the pit is not bottomless. At the bottom of the pit is God, and He is dead, and His Corpse is slowly poisoning the land you walk on from the inside out, and if you spend maybe five seconds too long in His presence you will be eaten from the inside out by His Scions so badly even resurrection will not quite cure you of His touch.

you resurrect back at the top of the battlements, mentally scarred and plagued with visions of That Horrible Thing. unfortunately, you are now Hooked By The Lore, and you can’t stop playing in order to try and figure out how to solve/heal/survive the horrors, while also avoiding too much curiosity that might cause you to become them.

…I mean, I like it so far!

[celestiaras]

‧₊˚✧ ❛[ zali-senpai!! ]❜

ft. vezalius bandage x f! reader — krisis, nijisanji en

╰₊✧ zali is finally a senpai & gets particularly attached to a certain kouhai┊0.9k words

note: i’m not writing for the real streamer, this is a universe where they are streamers along with whatever occupation their lore follows contains: a little smut at the end!! dom zali & sub reader┊reader is part of ttt & a princess who wears a dress, innocence kink, and implied virginity loss

➤ author's note: so i came up with this idea when ttt debuted and wrote it all in one day… yeah it’s been a while. reader is a princess because… zali calling you princess and him being your prince charming… 

senpai! vezalius bandage who’s the most excited out of krisis to finally have kouhai after being considered the babies of the group for six months, now being the predecessor of the ninth wave that contained a cleric, a swordsmaster, a kunoichi, and a princess. he’s just so thrilled, already having his card in hand to buy the available welcome merch to support the newest wave and spamming his twitter with comments about how cool you all were during your introductions to the viewers.

senpai! vezalius bandage who absolutely loves it when you refer to him as such, making his heart skip a beat and the butterflies in his stomach go ballistic. sure, he feels happy when the others call him that too, but the way you say it makes him feel an emotion that’s indescribable (it’s actually a mix of horny and puppy crush, but he doesn’t know that yet). it makes heat rush to his face and dust his handsome face with a pale rose which he just blames for not being used to the honorific, causing him to get teased by his own genmates when they catch on.

senpai! vezalius bandage who always gives great advice, willing to tell you all of the embarrassing moments he had just so that you could learn from his mistakes and breaks down everything complicated so that it’s more simple to understand. he’s always there to remind you to drink plenty of water and get plenty of rest because he knows how hectic the first month of debut is. if it ever gets too much, feel free to call him whenever and he’ll help you sort it out! 

senpai! vezalius bandage who thinks you are so cute when you follow him around like a baby duckling and watch as he shows you the ropes of streaming with wide sparkling eyes, he has to stop himself from giggling at how you seem so fascinated by simple things he does daily. he’s even cooler to you because of his job as a hero who heals those in need, something that you wish you could do as a princess for the people of your kingdom. he inspires you so much to donate both time and money to charity, helping out those in need in the best way you can. 

senpai! vezalius bandage who you did your very first collab with outside of your genmates, spending the better half of the game talking about how amazing he was helping you out and how the other three were jokingly jealous at how much attention he was giving you. anyone with working eyes and ears could sense the immaculate chemistry, a ship name was created the same day and was flooded with artwork the next. you would never admit it, but you check the tag almost every single day while lying in bed and kick your feet blushing with each new post. 

senpai! vezalius bandage who knows that you have little free time between the busy debut month schedule and your normal royal duties, so he makes an effort to sneak you away for some freedom because what kind of awful person would he be if he didn’t look after the well-being of his kouhai? being a hero gives him lots of experience when it comes to sneaking around, so getting past the guards and to your bedroom window is a piece of cake!

senpai! vezalius bandage who will play the guitar and serenade you in the garden, singing love songs to get you all flustered under the moonlight. he would have never thought a gorgeous princess like you was so inexperienced in romantic situations like this, but he’s more than pleased to teach you all about the wonderful world of love your strict life has never allowed you to know. 

senpai! vezalius bandage who adores how big your eyes get and how flustered you become when he steals away your first real kiss, not the half-assed peck you received from some prince when you were little under pressure, a kiss which made your heart flutter and made you feel desired. he can’t but giggle at the way you looked like a deer in headlights and radiated warmth from how flustered you were.  

senpai! vezalius bandage who plays the gentleman and leaves it there for the moment, not wanting to rush into anything too quickly even though he could already tell you were subconsciously rubbing your thighs together to relieve the little ache the simple kiss gave you— god, you were so cute he could just eat you up. not yet though, he would leave you hanging just for tonight and take care of himself when he gets home.

senpai! vezalius bandage who can’t keep up the act for very long, not when you’re an angel descended from heaven and so close to him at all times. it takes about a week at the very least before you find yourself pinned down by him, his hands trailing up your frilly dress and his tongue shoved into your mouth exploring while he relishes your pitched little moans.

senpai! vezalius bandage who thinks you’re even cuter when stuttering out a weak “zali senpai~” while he presses you into the wall and fucks you from behind at an erratic pace, his gloved hands maintaining a strong grip on your hips to help you stay upright since your legs were on the verge of giving out under you— not stopping until you’re seeing stars and your legs are shaking so that he can carry you around afterward <3

[strawbuddy-luv]

Tim Drake would love video games sm tho, and I do not see that represented enough.

He'd be a total nerd about it to. He'd rant and rant and rant about all the games he's played and all the cheats and the secret cut scenes and the hidden lore. He'd be a game theorist for sure, probably has a YouTube account dedicated to it since he's such a little detective. He knows the true lore of FNaF.

He'd definitely speed run minecraft, rp to probably. First person shooter? How about first hand experience. FNaF fanatic oh my God he'd LOVE that game so fucking much. Absolutely a Sonic kid, like you cannot convince me otherwise. Mario less so but you knows hes probably played every single game anyways. Pokemon? Every single one memorized down to their exact coloration. Stardew valley? Do i even have to ask. Animal crossing? Perfected his village, villagers and all. Zelda? I cannot prove it but he has a lino Cosplay somewhere and he's worn it for under cover missions. He'd slay in DTI, have like 5 different mansions in Bloxburg, defiantly played Royal High until the capitalism became to close to the real world, probably has hundreds of avatars to. An expert at games like fnf has played half the mods to ever be made for that game. He's been playing fortnite since it's release. He'd have one of the top scores ever in subway surfers. He'd download those "complete your restaurant" type games and finish them in two weeks and it'd only take that long because the game forces him to wait sometimes. Candy crush is his bitch 100%. He'd download mobile games and finish them in a day and then keep redoing them till he's perfected his method. He has played and replayed countless driving based games, can learn almost any new one in 6 minutes. Going back to the speed run thing I think he'd just enjoy speed running games in general, and gridning. He'd love minecraft so much omg-. Last of us? Played. Iron Lung? Played. Cuphead? Played. Detroit Become Human? Played. Kindergarten? Played. Sallyface? Played. Splatoon? Played. He'd love small games to I just am not that into video games to know any to list- :').

I mean think about it. Going off the "Tim's parents are never home" version of him, he'd have so much time to just sit around and play video games. He has the money to buy them and the time to spend getting ungodly good at them. He'd have amazing equipment, and it'd give him some sort of community even if he doesn't really interact with it personally. Like if he's not out stalking Batman or at school, he's playing a video game. Even after he starts working for Batman, he'd overwork himself to the bone and he'd STILL find a way to go pro gamer in-between. Probably for like 0.5 seconds whenever he's got to stand up to get himself another energy drink.

Like please, video game nerd Tim Drake on my knees begging you add this to your stories and headcanons. Have him introduce other batfam members to video games. HAVE HIM INTRODCUE BRUCE TO CANDY CRUSH AND MAKE THEM GET INTO A COMPETITION ON WHO CAN GET TO A HIGHER LEVEL FASTER. He shows Damian animal crossing. He gives Jason a gaming console and like 50 different shooter games and one copy of stardew valley as a joke and did not expect Jason to get so into it. Him Cass and Steph would love those Roblox horror games. He'd force the whole family to start having game nights and they'd have a world on Minecraft that has the most insane lore you've ever heard. Like please give me more video game nerd Tim and tell me your headcanons on what games he'd like and what he'd introduce different batfam members to in the comment I am begging you.