#terrified to put this in the main tag so character specific it is

[pumpkaboo-man]

I'm thinking about how Charles saw the Waltens as family. And that he wasn't invited to the funeral because it was family only. The uh...the feeling wasn't mutual ig.

[jsmifty]

ONE MORE NIGHT (FNAF AU/REWRITE TIMELINE)

(This will be updated over time)

This is the general timeline in which my fic that I keep posting art of is in, just so the general idea is out there yknow. At the time of posting this, none of the parts have currently been released at all, this will hopefully change soon, and when it does, this will be updated.

NIGHT ONE (Part 1): (In Progress) POV: Majority Henry Emily & William Afton (Sometimes Micheal/Charlie) GAMES INCLUDED: FNAF 4

NIGHT TWO (Part 2): (Not in Progress) POV: Majority Micheal Afton & Jeremy Fitzgerald GAMES INCLUDED: FNAF 2 & SISTER LOCATION

NIGHT THREE (Part 3): (Not in Progress) POV: Micheal Afton GAMES INCLUDED: FNAF 1

NIGHT FOUR (Part 4): (Not in Progress) POV: ??? GAMES INCLUDED: FNAF 3

NIGHT FIVE (Part 5): (Not in Progress) POV: ??? GAMES INCLUDED: FNAF 6

Notes:

The different 'parts' will not be different chapters, but different fics entirely. There is so much stuff shoved into each individual part that if I put them all into one singular Ao3 fic it would be like 100 chapters. Sorry if thats annoying, I enjoy my organization. Each part for the most part should be able to be enjoyed separately, however they do all connect together like a big bad spiderweb.. or i guess a cork board with a shit load of red string.

Majority generally just means it'll be mainly part of their POV however in certain chapters it may change for story reasons.

"???" for the character POV's just mean I'm not willing to reveal that yet.

This is a rewrite/AU, its not going to be accurate to canon however I try to be. Most if not all main canonical events will likely happen in some capacity within the AU, generally it may be tweaked as some aspects of the story I do not like/I've changed to have a deeper impact.

(Spoiler Free) "What is this AU even about??" Below the cut

What is the AU even about??

Thought I'd properly go into it.

ONE MORE NIGHT is a Five Night's at Freddy's AU/Rewrite, that generally follows the main events and story of the original GAMES franchise, with some very minor inspirations from the books. The story will be written in third-person, and will occasionally swap point of views (in-between chapters) throughout the fic.

The story itself is more character and relationship focused. Themes i wish to explore include, the destruction of the mind/spiralling, (the stages of) grief, revenge , etc. Since generally, i dont really enjoy the fanon characterization of certain characters, I really want to explore them from my point of view, as well as develop the relationships and motivations of all the characters which I feel are sort of lacking in the main FNAF media? I'm aware its there, its never truly properly explored though.

I really like horror, and this is my first proper opportunity to get a crack at it. I highly doubt its going to be shiver me timbers terrifying, I try my best. If you want a reference for the type of horror I'm into and what I am inspired by, its mainly media such as, The Magnus Archives, as well as a few more gothic works such as Frankenstein (currently reading the book).

Content Warnings:

This story will likely include pretty graphic depictions of violence, ESPECIALLY when in referral to Micheal Afton, Jeremy Fitzgerald and William Afton, you'll never guess why. I will tag these chapters, and if needed, will provide a brief summery at the end if a person is to skip past it but doesnt want to miss what happened. Generally, i will try to avoid describing the children too graphically, since theyre, yknow, kids. But uh, yknow, its FNAF, so be warned.

Other general warnings, outside of the warnings I'll give on individual chapters include, Abusive relationships, (mild) suicidal thoughts, and sensitive topics such as grief and loss. I'm sure theres stuff I'm missing, these will be tagged in specific chapters.

Extra content?

If you want content for this AU, itll be on my page under the hashtag (#OneMoreNightFNAFAU) or (#OMN FNAF AU). Generally I have no idea if anyone ever would read this fic, so if you, specifically, the one guy reading this, IS interested, most of the stuff will be on this page. Tumblr only likes my FNAF stuff so its all i post really on here, and I love FNAF so thats fine with me.

If this is the first post you've ever seen of me and like, you dont know what i usually post, I usually post art, specifically of this AU, so if you want to get a general looksie about the vibes of the characters and stuff, its on my page under the hashtag mentioned above.

(Side note: For the record, when i say 'relationships' this mainly refering to platonic relationships within the story. Theres a very minor romance side plot which you can like, easily choose to ignore, but its there, and its horrifically slow slowburn, so its like barely there 90% of the time. If i was to do anything too romance based, it would probably be separate one shots.)

(side note note: if you.. read this far.. once i finally finish this.. my magnum opus... i will probably finally move on to security breach and all that, if youre interested. but to get to that you have to get past my 5 evil fnaf fics first.)

Any support would be deeply appreciated, you have no idea. :) I'd love to know if anyone would be interested.

[askchilchuck]

Hey, how can I help you?

(Please read below before interacting)

Hi! My name is Sophie! This blog has gotten enough traction that I feel the need to lay some ground rules for it.

1) This blog is intended to be PG13 so I don’t have to exclude younger fans from participating. I will not be answering anything that wouldn’t fly in canon, or is adjacent to it. Anything explicitly sexual, or can be construed that way will not be answered. This decision was made a couple months in, so do be advised there is some more suggestive content on the earlier posts on this blog. If you don't want to see that kind of content, stick to the newer posts.

2) Nothing related to suicide please. I tried playing it off the first time but between myself and some people around me, even the “KYS 🥰🥰🥰” jokes really aren’t funny, especially recently. Asks including it will not be answered.

3) No firearms. Related to rule 2.

4) Please no spammy asks. I’m honestly not sure how to answer them, and they clog up both the blog itself and the main tags.

5) No political asks. I understand how terrifying the results of the US election are, but I really need this place to be a break from all that. For my sake and yours. We both need spaces where we can recharge from this. Chilchuck doesn’t know what’s going on anyway, he deserves to live in ignorance from it. I love you.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to bully him, but these things cross a line for me. Thank you for understanding.

If you’re an RP blog, you’re more than welcome to interact! Even if you’re not a Dunmeshi blog! I don’t always have the time to do reblog chains, though, so please don’t feel bad if I miss you there. It’s easiest for me if you submit RP as an ask when the box is open. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. If you’re 18+ and interested, I also do private RP on my Discord, linked on my Dunmeshi side blog.

IN LIGHT OF DUPLICATE CHARACTERS:

I think that’s awesome and also really funny. I encourage it. We’ve already got a loose MCU/multiverse plot line going on so we can totally make it work, too. Hell yeah. Hilarious. Love that. /gen

Blog lore:

This blog takes place loosely post canon. I try to avoid spoilers, but little things here and there are inevitable. Chilchuck has made up with his wife and they’re currently working on their relationship. Chilchuck is also in therapy. This is for a few reasons.

1) I don’t think he’d actually answer any of these if he wasn’t.

2) He doesn’t talk about it a lot, but it was one of his wife’s conditions before giving the relationship another go.

3) He just. Should be in general and I have control of it so it’s happening lol

My Chil is bi, but in the middle-aged “everyone’s had gay thoughts before” kinda way, cause I think it’s funnier that way. He also gets high from time-to-time now that he’s not dungeneering anymore.

Folks kept turning him into different things/animals, so goldstar/⭐️ anon gave him an amulet to put a stop to that. "Marcus" also altered the spell on the amulet to encompass all transformations, since inanimate objects weren't initially included.

Squeaker also used a device to prevent any crab transformations specifically from occurring, as well as ejecting all crabs within a 20 mile radius.

There’s also a cult stalking him for some reason. (This is an ongoing problem. They haven't hurt anyone, and they seem to only be targeting Chilchuck.)

The TVA (Marvel) is loosely involved as well as previously mentioned. Squeak fixed it (or so she thought. There's now a DMCU situation going on.)

Also, Chil’s knowledge of the blog/Tumblr varies depending on what would be funnier, but generally he’s aware of the internet. He only uses his phone to answer your asks, though. He has no idea how to do anything else and has no desire to. This means he doesn’t fact check people or knows anything about the greater internet experience. No one knows how he got the phone, or how it’s holding a charge. Don’t worry about it.

ADDENDUM:

Chilchuck has recently started googling slang, and anything else that might be confusing or annoying to him. However, he hates the search feature and trying to find answers on individual websites, and will take the AI generated answers without question.

I myself don’t talk in the main posts, unless it’s tagged #ooc. Otherwise, I’ll always talk in the tags if I’ve got something to say. Or replies. Or DMs. Main post is the only place I’m in character unless specified otherwise.

Emoji anons:

•⭐️/goldstar anon

•🦉/owl anon

•👻/ghost anon

•♡/heart anon

•🐭/mouse anon

•🍬/candy anon

•🥣/bowl (cereal?) anon

•🐻🏀/bear basket ball anon

•🃏/joker anon

•🟣/Gojo Satoru

•🪻

•🐦‍⬛

No other heart variants have been claimed. Also, heads up to all emoji anons, I’m going to start using just one tag for your asks going forward to make tagging easier! So I’ll just be using the emoji variant from here 💖

If you want to hang out with me in a less censored environment, I also run @chilfucked and @askchilchucknsfw which are 18+ only. I will ban all minors who so much as breathe on those blogs. I’m not joking.

I also reserve the right to update these rules as time goes on, so please check them again before submitting when the ask box is open again. Thank you!

[turbo-tsundere]

i may have sent an ask like this before? i dont remember if i did and i apologize if i did, but i absolutely adore your concept drawings for that gonta survival horror game. i would absolutely love to hear more about it ^^ i hope you’re doing well also!

Ah, no, I haven't gotten anything like that before, unless yours was that invisible ask, that lingers in my inbox as an unremovable number. But either way, please don't apologize - it's really sweet that someone could be interested in reading about stuff like that.

Regarding the game concept: it started as a daydream to process my post-V3 blues. Bunch of ideas that weren't exactly polished with a serious gamedev effort in mind, though maybe I'll introduce it proper via concept sketches, in the undetermined future.

I can summarize it via text, even though I worry if it will be interesting in that form - visuals matter, after all - but I'll try.

Bullet point form, for, um, easier reading. Be warned, it's... it's about 7,2k words. (And apologies for no "read more" - somehow it was hiding post from the tags...)

[GENERAL INTRO] (for context: the ask is about one of those sketches)

The rough title is "Danganronpa Another Universe: Giga Despair Triad", or GDT for short.

First, I'd like to clarify that while I said it's a "survival horror" game, in reality it's the prologue and later random scenes that fall cleanly into the "survival" sub-category.

As a whole I imagine it to be more of an *action* horror game, mixing fight and investigation mechanics, with some light environmental puzzles here and there. We're helpless at the start, and later on the horror is mostly existential and psychological. Though, of course, there are (mono)monsters and general horror aesthetics involved, as the world is going through an apocalyptic event.

It's not all angst and suffering, either. There are silly moments, as a nod to typical DR wackiness + my own morbid sense of humour.

It's meant to be both V3 as well as UDG sequel (very original, I know xD). And it's an indulgent thing, with references to other games or manga that I love (similarly how V3 did it with it's own homages), and my top faves freely put together, specifically Gonta and Tokomaru, so I can go wild with all of the psychological and interpersonal dynamics that could be explored between those three. Really dig into Gonta's brain especially, and dissect the behavioral and emotional bulIshit that plagues him, in a way that may deconstruct and challenge his character. At least... That's my main intention.

It's a result of wondering how to - in a way that's plausible within the lore of the DR universe - bring back Gonta and certain other characters... but at a hefty price.

[HOW IT STARTS]

At the very beginning Gonta startles awake to a flash of light. With his last memory being the stabbing, flames, sounds of buzzing, and a searing agony, he's shocked and disoriented, but soon realizes he's alone in a dimly lit room, lying in a pod of sorts, and he... seems alive and completely uninjured?

Despite the confusion, he stumbles out of this "infirmary" onto a ruined corridor. Water dripping from nearby broken pipes helps to quench his thirst, and to his relief, he finds fireflies there! The place where they concentrate would be your first save point - and with the help of their bioluminescence, Gonta is now able to explore and investigate the dilapidated facility he's stuck in. Judging from a glance into a narrow crack in the ceiling, and seeing the sunlight pouring down from many floors above, it looks to be rather deep underground. And while the place seems long abandoned, Gonta certainly doesn't feel alone, and it's not just because of bugs. He finds some blood-written messages on the walls that seem to guide him and then disappear; his own(?) missing glasses are unexpectedly tossed at him from a dark corner, yet he finds nothing, when he anxiously checks in that direction; and he senses and hears something terrifying and hostile lurking in the half-crumbled dark rooms just beyond the reach of firefly lights. In fact, to his terror, when one of them flew across a large hole in the floor in order to inspect the other end of a hallway, the light disappeared abruptly as if someone - or something - had grabbed... or eaten it. But, in spite of his searching, it looks like his friends aren't here, and this confuses him even more. There's lots of documents or recordings, that partially clue him in as to what has transpired after his death, almost up till 53rd killing game's end, there's even a morgue with what seems to be his own corpse (a discovery that pretty much messes up with his sense of reality and makes him question if he's not in afterlife. It's hard to sum up everything going through his head, but Gonta's sanity certainly takes a hit from seeing this), but no living people whatsoever.

Once his first objective to search for others is fulfilled, his next one is to escape the facility, by climbing the broken elevator shaft... He ends up using his own execution chain as a makeshift rope.

Oh and... While down there, he stumbles upon a futuristic server/computer room, where he finds his own Alter Ego. After a conversation, we'd get the first narrative choice as to whether you want the Alter Ego's memory to fuse with Gonta's consciousness via Flashback Light... or not. Tbh I'd imagine the game to be mostly linear, but choices like that would mostly impact some of his dialogues, his mental state (there would be a mechanic for that, actually!), as well as count to making some alternative/bad/early endings either available or not. He'd have the same information from 3rd party sources either way, the question is whether he wants to remember the events from Ch4 VR from "his own" POV or not.

"The world is okay" image is actually the end of this whole section aka the Prologue. Gonta climbs out of the dilapidated facility, and stews in all of the information he managed to gather while being trapped down there, including one that implies the world is supposedly perfectly okay. He catches some darker, defeated part of himself faintly hoping that the world is actually destroyed, because if it isn't, then what did he end Miu's life for? At least it would make his action not as senseless... He promptly pushes that thought away, internally bashing himself for ever thinking that, finally crawls out to the surface, and then sees a clear sky, unobstructed by the dome of the End Wall, which makes him notice he's outside of the Academy - cue crushing shame and layers upon layers of disappointment and painful realizations. About the 4th trial, about himself... about that intrusive thought he just had. "The world is okay, and you're still stupid", is how the whole line actually goes. But beyond that, there's relief and hope as well. Because if he's alive, despite his brutal death, then perhaps others are as well, no matter how... unreal it sounds? He now knows that Himiko, Shuichi and Maki survived, too, and he desperately wants to see them again. After Gonta gathers himself from his breakdown and rests, he tries to figure out just where he is - he uses his entomological and star knowledge to do so - and embarks on a journey, trying to find any nearest city, to then continue searching for his other friends.

Incidentally, as Gonta starts walking... he hears some cries of frustration (or perhaps cries for help?) and upon rushing to the spot he's heard them from, finds a particularly energetic and chatty bug, who reallyreallyreallyreallyreally wants to find her friend. Human friend, actually! Gonta decides to help her as well, seeing that they might head in the same direction anyway. And wow, that person the bug is talking about must be such a kind, sweet and good-hearted individual! They *both* even used to be friendless losers who befriended bugs as kids! Gonta sure would love to meet this kindred spirit, if possible!

[SETTING, PLOT BITS & CONCEPTS, yadda yadda]

The memories of V3 cast are false, but Hope's Peak is very much real. The killing game(s) organized by Tsumugi/Team Danganronpa were the copycat crimes Tsumugi alluded to at the end of V3. Personally, I feel that this combo offers most concepts and ideas to explore, so that's what I'm going for. Once V3 survivors escape the Academy for Gifted Juveniles, they manage to find Future Foundation, and while under its protection/employment, begin investigating their real pasts and Team Danganronpa as a whole, while dealing with other missions, if ordered to do so. When GDT begins, it's about 2-3 years since the 53th killing game has concluded.

After the Prologue, Gonta eventually finds Toko and Komaru, who are out on a field mission that day (he quite heroically saves them in sheer panic picks up a random manhole cover and yeets it at the monobeast that was facing them, interrupting and ending their fight). Thanks to Kameko's tearful reunion with Toko, and Gonta introducing himself and explaining his predicament in a gentlemanly fashion frantically BOMBARDING Tokomarus with info about him, Shuichi, Himiko and Maki, and whatever Kameko has told Gonta about Toko and her own ties to the killing games, all to convince her to pleasebelievehimandhelphimfindhisfriendsaaaahhhhhh, they hesitantly allow him to join them. They're not sure if this is a good idea, and this big-ass scary looking dude is still wearing some hospital-looking gown, so who knows where he's escaped from, but... it's worth checking out with FF. And Gonta translating Kameko's words to Toko, 100000% validating her feelings about Kameko indeed being a very special "friendsect" might've helped to buy into her good graces, just a liiiiiittle bit. She denies it though when Komaru calls her out on this :).

The three (four, if you will!) musketeers head back to one of the FF outposts, but since the road back is rather long and dangerous, at one point they get separated by horde of mono-monsters, and amids that chaos, Gonta has a surprise run-in with Miu who... isn't just very unfriendly, hostile even, but doesn't even feel fully herself either, and apparently for more reasons than mere anger over Gonta choking her. There's a goddamn Monokuma with her, too?! Suffice to say... Gonta doesn't exactly escape this situation unscathed and unshaken.

Some other things happen along the way, but luckily, as the night approaches, he's able to find Toko and Komaru again, and together with them reach the Future Foundation, finally reuniting with the V3 survivor Trio. And this closes Chapter 1 - while Prologue served as tutorial for stealth and investigation and puzzle mechanics, this one would teach fight mechanics and introduce core premise and plot elements, which is pretty much investigating the secret behind Gonta's revival, Miu situation, what it might mean about other deceased killing game participants... as well as Gonta trying to find his own place and purpose in FF.

The ones that are confirmed to be revived are Gonta, Miu, and eventually also Kokichi, in that exact order. Yes, the whole Holy Trinity gets their second chance, how nice!

It ain't no VR, actually. I'm saying this, bc I remember someone leaving tags "Oh, it makes me think of post V3 VR digital limbo", and I know this is a popular fanon, but that's not the case here. As a reader, even if I don't gravitate towards the trope, I like it when it's done well - Kodaka did do some cool stuff VR motives in his games, and so did the fandom - but as creator I can't think of anything inspired (plus at the time I had no clue it was such widespread interpretation). And I suppose my brain naturally prefers stories to happen within more material settings, even if they're warped and influenced by a mind, or reality-breaking phenomena? So, my point... everything in GDT is very much real. The killing game happened for real. People died for real… And some got to live for "real" again.

I'm making it all work by playing with and building upon certain elements and technology already established within canon. And this is mostly where I draw the horror element from.

I considered one of the first hints towards what's truly happening - aside from the body in the morgue - that every time you'd die as Gonta within the game, he'd find his previous body lying in that spot. Players would need to pick his things back up, such as glasses and items. Kinda like in Automata or the "bloodstain-retrieval" system in soulsborne? There of course would be a limit to how many would appear, as the oldest one would start to naturally disintegrate. There'd be some more of those hints in Prologue, but I'd make discovering them all except for the morgue optional and missable. Like, if Gonta didn't die in that segment, the player would never know they could stumble upon his old body, until that happened later in the game. Or if he didn't return to a specific place after something specific happens, then he wouldn't witness something curious. I just... like elements like that, that aren't vital but fuel the conspiracy and reward wall-licking XD. Of course there'd be an option for no-death runs, aside from those imposed by the plot.

Gonta fights with a manhole cover attached to the very chains he was tied with during his execution XD. I wanted to give him a wacky weapon that would fit what Toko and Komaru use.

[DRAMATIS PERSONAE, CHARACTER ARCS/DYNAMIC, ETC.?]

Things I'd like to explore the most are Gonta's compulsions, and whether he can grow to accept being seen in the wrong or negative way, without his self-worth falling apart. Whether he's capable of letting Miu heal on her own, without him in the picture, without insisting on desperately fixing things, or showing how regretful and sorry he is; how he can handle someone challenging his near-obsessive and self-destructive need for being seen by others as a good person, while ironically having zero self-preservation and harbouring so much self-hatred. Whether he can realise how insisting on helping everyone the way he does can paradoxically come off as self-centered, in spite of his inherent selflessness, earnestness, and genuine love for others. How there are some things that just can't be fixed... and you still gotta live and still deserve, no, have a duty to care for yourself. Just... ya know. A few examples out of an endless list of his personal issues that imo need addressing one way or another. Nothing is really easy for him, not even his integration into FF ranks, as no one here, not even Gonta, is exactly sure what is up with him coming back to life. He's given a chance to prove himself, though he's not automatically granted the freedom to do what he pleases. But he understands.

Truth is, the nature of his revival aside, Gonta in general trusts himself less. He seems to act like his old self alright, but there's an air of resignation and subtle hopelessness to the way he seems to perceive himself now. He's in a worse state, even if he keeps moving forward for other people's sake. The 4th trial, after all, felt like a thorough breakdown and "confirmation" of his worst fears and criticism he had about himself, or how others used to misjudge him. It's not something that wouldn't leave a trace on his already shitty self-perception. Thankfully, there are some compassionate souls looking out for him, like Himiko, for example. But it's not just her.

I didn't think I'd reveal it this way, I actually hoped to compile my old sketches of this in future… but it involves my very first Gonta ship ever.

Namely Gonta x Toko (or as I like to call it, gontoko). At the time, I didn't have it in me to delve into ougoku (wounds still too fresh to feel worth it yet, despite some morbid fascination) nor saigoku (somehow didn't click for me for over 3-4 months after finishing V3 despite the massive in-game fuel being present in there). In my eyes ship with Toko provided that perfect balance of cozy/healthy but still flawed dynamic, while still having some "tooth" to it (aka psychological f-ckupery and dysfunctionality between two people trying to make sense of each other and their inner demons, contrasts and parallels etc.) without me feeling like I'm tossing Gonta in a heartbreakingly and irreparably harmful to him situation.

With that in mind though, we're NOT interfering with Tokomaru in any way whatsoever. Tokomaru is *sacred*. Nothing will break it apart. It's a 100% "Toko has two hands" situation. That's her life now, and you bet she gets constant migraines over it. She now has to deal with two "but I'm too normal/dumb for this wahh wahh shitty self-esteem!" green-haired messes. Plus the thought that she's kiiiinda like her dad now, with tho partners, drives Toko up the walls. Thing is, this girl is doing this right, even if she doesn't currently see it this way. Meanwhile Gonta can fry her brain with kindness and deep respect she's so not wired to handle.

That being said, my goal with them isn't exactly touchy-feely stuff, but exploring their dynamic as two deeply self-loathing but sensitive and hard-working towards self-betterment people, who know how it's like to discover they're murderers, while having zero memory of the act - and how crushing it is towards any crumbs of positive self-perception and hope for being deserving of affection/validation they might've held onto until this point in their life. Different circumstances, motivations, and the ways it all transpired, but still, there are grounds for mutual understanding here. At the same time Toko seems like a perfect character to call Gonta out on his bs in a way no one else could: both in good faith with genuine, constructive support in mind, as well as due to her own flaws and current hangups causing her to lash out. Both options can create potentially compelling conflict. But frankly, it goes both ways. After all, Gonta does tend to make simple but startingly on-point observations, sometimes. They'd just be dishing reality-checks at each other, whether knowingly or not :D

Perhaps I could also touch upon Gonta's and Toko's (either conscious or not) tendency to gravitate towards individuals who are "evil-coded" (regardless of whether they're really evil or not, either personality or aesthetic-wise), or those who either talk down, insult, mistreat if not outright harm/use them. It's something that sadly many victims of abuse in the real world do - habitually ending up in toxic circles, since it's something familiar, while not reacting to, not "computing", feeling lost, confused or even stressed out in more healthy dynamics. And from what I see, both Toko and Gonta are different flavours of that in their own right...

I'd like to explore the parallels between Gonta and Komaru as well, from a friendship perspective. I do see certain similarities between them, how they were both set up to end up making drastic choices via someone else orchestrating everything with that exact outcome in mind, before Gonta/Komaru would ever know they'd be making such a choice... I truly think the only difference between Gonta and Komaru is that, at her lowest, after her spirits were broken upon seeing that video, there was someone by her side, who *actually* cared for her and prioritized her wellbeing; someone who would fight to stop her from making a decision driven by despair, as opposed to actively feeding into and enabling it. Then, there's of course the issue of low self-esteem, and downplaying one's achievements. Komaru in this story has of course mostly grown past this and in a much better place, but to an extent, she certainly could see some of her past self in Gonta.

Plus, on a lighter note, with Komaru wanting to be a manga artist, and Gonta thinking comic artists and book illustrators are "good people" (because it makes understanding complex concepts easy for him), I feel like they could become good buddies via that passion of hers. Also in DR:S both Gonta and Komaru asked Angie for art advice... they're both aspiring artists in a way!

Also I find it really damn funny that Komaru is very similar to "komar", which is the polish word for mosquito xD. That certainly would appeal to Mr Ultimate Entomologist!

Shuichi and Komaru are petrolhead friends, and they wish oh so badly to have a car vs motorbike race with each other. It'd be a waste of FF resources, but they can't help to get excited about the idea. And maybe they'd get a sequence dedicated to just that… with an extra bonus of escaping from a horde of monobeasts.

As you may have gathered already, Kameko is an actual character in there, she helps with espionage and exploration, and she indeed is the bug Gonta meets at the end of Prologue, that helps him find the (Towa?) city. She rightfully serves as the catalyst for the whole gontoko deal starting :).

The twist tho is… this actually ain't original Kameko, but one of her descendants, who took it upon itself to keep her name and live as "Kameko" and Toko's friend. Life of a stink bug isn't that long, after all, ranging between 6-8 months once it exits the nymph stage. Yes, it has thematic relevance to the overall story. :D

Maki finds herself busy with taking care of Monokuma Children (the helmet wearing kids from UDG), using her knowledge of living and working in orphanage... frankly, she's seeing a bit on herself in those kids, who had their hands stained, going as far as to orphan themselves due to brainwashing. Sure, her memories might not be real... but to her it feels real, and the empathy for their circumstances is still there in her heart. She's also a close friend with Nagisa.

Miu's out there, as we already know, dealing with her own problems, and seemingly in a way worse situation than Kokichi and Gonta are. Seems like Monokuma is keeping her captive, and wants to form her into the next Junko - and with Miu being completely alone here, she pretty much forces herself to comply out of fear. She's also developed trauma response to hearing apologies - as this was the very last thing she kept hearing while dying. Still, she's not exactly proud of what she did to Gonta in retaliation during their accidental "reunion". She feels like she's crossed a moral line she can't exactly come back from. And this, as well as the current state of the world she wished to make better with her inventions, would accumulate and make her want to fight against her cowardice.

Kokichi... is quite tricky to describe, not gonna lie, because a lot of his arc relies on mystery and working while in hiding. He's seemingly found everywhere, defying logical explanation, as to how he could even move between those locations. He's no doubt planning something though. Trying to defeat the evils... in his own way. Which is naturally making life harder for everyone around, both "allies" and enemies. He's seemingly alone, but extremely busy executing a certain plan of his.

There's one version of Kokichi though, that starts sort of hanging around the Gonta+Tokomaru team. I affectionately call him Fukushima Flower Kokichi due to the odd deformities of his body (there will be a concept sketch below). He seems more frail and quieter and even... sweeter? Than his normal self. Because of that, Gonta, in his compulsive empathy, finds it difficult to completely dismiss the little guy and not feel bad towards him, despite the anxiety he feels after the Ch4 events. He's cautious and tense, but can't help not to at least keep an eye on him. This particular Kokichi also assures that he's... Disconnected from the "main one", and therefore "safe". Whatever that means.

[MAJOR SPOILER/DEEP LORE TERRITORY + EXPERIMENTAL IDEAS?] (beware if you care for those, there's 0,0000000000001% change this might be made within next 30 years lmao)

Nanokumas, son. They mutate in response to despair! You can't get rid of them, Gonta.

After the end of the 53rd killing game, and the survivor trio escaping the Academy, with no Motherkuma to oversee and control their numbers, they eventually began to go rogue and self-replicate while executing their hidden self-preservation protocol and now bugged programming indiscriminately. And then they went on without anyone's supervision or knowledge for a very long while.

One of the by-products of their activity is Mono-beasts we know from UDG mutating into Eldritch Abominations, and certain individuals coming back wrong, but it's actually so much more than that, and the situation is pretty dire. The world is at the risk of grey goo apocalypse, and what's going around is pretty much the Mist meets End of Evangelion bs. And they might go "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" pretty soon, considering that for some death isn't an escape any more. Despair and the concept of killing games has taken a new form, pretty much, and the horrible discoveries don't end here.

Knowing this, Gonta, Kokichi and Miu... it's not surprising to find that they're all literally infested with nanomachines holding their cells like glue, and of course their newfound existence comes with a catch.

The stability of their form is influenced by their mental state, self-perception, and to a limited extent, their own will, the last one allowing for introducing unique fighting or puzzle-solving mechanics later on. But, as a scary side-effect, they're at risk of physically manifesting their emotional distress... including exhibiting the symptoms of their deaths. Their bodies may lose integrity and simply fall apart on a cellular level if things go unchecked for too long.

For now the assumption is that Kokichi was the first one to revive (with Miu second, and Gonta last). Because of this, his form is the most flawed and unstable one out of all of them. There might be more than one of him, too.

Kokichi's revival was an accident, Miu's seems to have happened by Monokuma's design, but how did Gonta even came back to life? By whose will and design? Was it an accident, just like in Kokichi's case, or...? It's true, that when he woke up, it seemed like some things were specifically prepared just for him to find. Either way Gonta's in the middle when it comes to stability, but it can go either way, depending on how much he relies on special fighting mechanics, and on his arc/choices made.

Miu's arguably in best condition, since her body wasn't destroyed like the guys' were. She wasn't as much revived via complete rebuilding, but her original body was "simply repaired". However, at first, she's unaware that she truly died - being instead convinced by Monokuma, that she miraculously survived and ended up in a coma instead.

Even if they're technically immortal, it doesn't mean the process of dying or reviving wouldn't be traumatic, as they'd then wake up and remember all of the pain they've gone through, or remain conscious in states any other human being would perish from. There are also things suggesting their super-healing abilities might come with certain dangers attached to them, so... perhaps the "survival" aspect of the game doesn't ever disappear entirely, it's just that the repercussions for dying are recontextualised.

Either way, speaking of existential issues...

So, if you're a "clone" of yourself with your memories "reinstalled" via Flashback Light, are you still that person? Are you really different, if molecularly, functionally and psychologically you're the perfect recreation of the "original"? Or perhaps the body at the morgue was the fake one? Who knows? And does it even matter, considering that previously, your memories and backstory were a fabrication anyway? You're pretty much just an Alter Ego installed onto "flesh hardware", just like you were before. The only difference is that your previous body might've used a real human being - with their own life and history - as a base, and currently you're using a "blank slate" aka a clone. Or perhaps that old body was a clone, too, and the original is out there, somewhere? And if so... did he have a say in your/his participation in the 53rd killing game?

Was this how the Ch3 resurrection ritual was supposed to actually work? (In my mind, yes. With nanotech, imo cloning is also within the realm of possibility for this universe, but even without it Team DR could've just kidnapped an unwilling body double and slap fake memories onto him and call it a day)

Maki, out of all three V3 survivors, is the most sceptical of the idea of bringing others back the same way Gonta was. She worries about Shuichi and Himiko getting false hopes of saving Kaede, Kaito, Tenko and Angie, and getting themselves into danger by obsessing over this. She also doesn't exactly trust Gonta… Well, she pretty much doesn't view Gonta as Gonta, but an imposter, and perhaps a spy or something akin to a living Troyan Horse, even if unwilling/unwitting. Basically, she thinks there has to be a reason for him to come back to life to conveniently end up with Future Foundation, and all of this might be one big trap. It's only thanks to Himiko's and surprisingly Toko's insistence that she doesn't do as much about it as she normally would have. Plus, when it goes to Kaito... the idea of a """living""" "puppet" that emulates his behaviour feels like an affront to both his memory and her feelings for him. Gonta will certainly remember all that.

There's also a problem of how Gonta, Miu and Kokichi deal with the news that their past life wasn't real to begin with...

For Gonta... most of the things he was doing in his life were for others, out of genuine need to see them happy, but also because Gonta wanted to both be and be seen as a good and helpful person. So, if it's all fake, if all those people - who've shaped or inspired his goals and motivations, who were the source of abuse, neglect, of his insecurities - have never existed to begin with, then what did he work for so hard, what did he felt so stupid and worthless for? In his FTEs, Shuichi helped Gonta focus on himself a bit more, but it seems like a wasted effort now. Just what set of values should he even pursue now? He can't help but mourn the forest family, specific bug friends, and many other people in his life, that turns out he never truly had. What Maki said about him being just a copy that's convinced they're the original doesn't help either. He feels horrible about "stealing" the life of that original person. Like a parasite that got his host's life snuffed out, only to continue living in their body undeservingly. Something akin to Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the zombie-ant fungus. Suffice to say... this whole thing is a source of a lot of anguish for him, and to no one's surprise, he feels personally responsible. He's even begging FF to help him find the real family of that individual, so that he can "atone" by living with them while pretending to be the"original" person before they had "Gonta mod" installed. That idea is very firmly and promptly shot down by Toko.

Kokichi, I imagine, could be pushed further down the unhinged territory... For all the lies he's ever told and the masks he's put on, he, at the very least, assumed he could depend on knowing the truth about himself, no matter how deeply it was hidden. But now it turns out to be a lie he's never signed up for, and he gets that extra layer of detachment from everything. Or perhaps it's the total opposite - he's glad to be "rid off" his "true" self, if it was something he wanted to bury or avoid - and the sense of losing touch with it is "no biggie", or so he insists. Still, it annoys him to no end, that it's a result of someone else's will, instead of his own. "Invasive" doesn't even begin to describe it. Underneath it all though, there's that persistent nihilistic thought of "I can do anything, create anything, I have no attachments to anyone and anything. I can shape myself into who I want over and over and over and over, and no one will stop me now." - and this revelation is both freeing and depressing for him. All he knows for sure is that Monokuma is still pissing him off, and he wants that bitch down. And he's going to make that everyone's problem.

Miu actually takes the news quite well. See, if I had to sum up her own arc... it's definitely the most shoneny one out of them all XD. The whole thing with Miu becoming Junko is basically her going from complying with Monokuma's plans out of fear, to deliberately pretending to do so, so that she can have an in depth access to his tech, come up with proper plans against him etc. etc.. She causes a ton of problems to the other characters, yes, because she has to put on a believable act, but I wanted Miu's endgame to be this wholesome twist with her dramatically undoing her pig-tails, as she announces she's *not* and *never* would be some Junk! She's the one and only golden girl genius Miu Iruma, and she's here to save the world with her inventions, not fuck it over. Monokuma retorts to this by reminding her that she's a fake, but her response is basically: "Oh, that "us being fiction" thing? So? I LOVE being me. It's fuckin' awesome to be Miu Iruma!". It probably helps that, in her made up backstory, she became an inventor after waking up from a coma episode, so the unreality and randomness of her identity was pretty much always part of the package. Plus, falsely acquired or not, her knowledge is still applicable and Miu *can* come up with and build things that work, and make tangible difference through them. If that doesn't make it real, then what does? So, what's the point of the angst, again? She concludes her old self would LOVE to be her. Tldr, I just want this girl to keep winning, okay?

At one point Gonta faces another temptation - if his personality, backstory, traumas, self-hatred, if they're all fake, and coming from nothing "real", no tangible experience, then what's even the point of sticking to his hangups, of... dealing with this mess? Of tormenting himself and failing because of who he is? Why not ditch it all and take a shortcut by rewriting himself completely, into someone better, smarter, more useful, someone... just perfect. What's the point of being the person he intuitively hates, if all of that can seemingly be changed at a whim and snap of a finger? The moment he's able to notice and verbalize those feelings, the mere possibility eats at him from the inside, especially since the technology IS there. He could spare everyone so much trouble, so much time spent on coaching him, on teaching him, on explaining the obvious, spare them from getting frustrated with his naivete or lack of knowledge... Sure, it might mean he will ultimately become a different person, effectively ending his current self, but isn't that a fair price for providing benefit to the world and his friends? It doesn't even dawn on him that some people might've already gotten attached to who he currently is, and the outcome of his actions might depend on several gameplay factors.

I'm thinking about the structure where there would be hidden counters for Affection (with Toko), Doom (based on narrative personal choices, character development and monitoring emotional state, the amount of deaths etc.) and Performance (based again on amount of deaths, reliance on special abilities in fights, objective completion rate, and damage healing), that could determine different endings for different combinations of those (like Low/High/Poor status respectively could result in a Bad End at one point), even if generally those would be interconnected anyways. The game would be, again, linear, but because of those counters there, a small branching in narrative leading to an earlier ending could occur along that path.

I did say I'm not really inspired by VR AU, but after stewing on it while writing this post, maybe there could be some slight elements of it. It could help introduce some trippier and more surreal segments into the mix, that I wouldn't know how to incorporate otherwise, aside from literally breaking their fabric of reality as we know it XD (not that it isn't broken already, but...). It would serve as no more than plot/scene enhancer, rather than a major component of it.

Nyeh. I wish we could play a segment as Himiko. Do some MAGIC. Or to put it simply, use stuff like sleight of hand and tricks to distract people in order to solve stealth puzzles or something like that.

Jfc I just found a scribble that Gonta gets shitface drunk on purpose at one point, I dunno anymore what his plan was, he wanted to poison nanokumas or something? XDDD Or maybe he was just so done with everything up to this point? dasjgdsaj I forgot about that bit but it's hilarious and it so stays if I ever make this game dajhgsajhgjsadgj I don't care what I will have to do to make it in-character, it's gonna happen xDDDD

Komaeda's here too????? Just... Happy to be there? Talking esoteric stuff? Enjoying the show not even from a front row, but putting his chair right on the damn stage? Taking in the view of the "great tide of human enterprise, coming to naught"? XD Rooting for Hope??? XD

[RANDOM TRIVIA etc.]

I'd like to expand on the references to the other media thing. Before V3 I used to be one of those assholes who would see fanarts as a waste of time and effort as opposed to just focusing on one's own original content. You know, the "why would you spend time on something someone else made, instead of making your own thing?". Turns out I haven't loved a fictional story strong enough to understand the drive until it finally hit. There IS merit and certain selfless dedication to pursuing fanarts and expressing love for something that isn't about you or your concepts. It is an unique and wonderful feeling with a different flavor of satisfaction, just like doing personal artwork vs commission work are activities that feel rewarding in a completely distinct way (happiness of self-actualization to see your inner world come to life vs pride of a professional who likes making happy clients. With fanarts I'd say it's... Sense of celebration and paying homage. And rotating the blorbo).

Either way, this was a considerable shift in mentality for me, and ngl, it felt huge. So now that I had my anime redemption arc, my change of heart, my heel turn, I wanted to go out of my way to actively make GDT a love letter to other games or manga that I liked. Just like V3 sort of did, with its characters and story being their own thing, while simultaneously being PACKED with references to other media.

For example, I listened a ton to this "Time and Tide" by Alan Price song from Plague Dogs while thinking of this story. A song about the ocean/waves and going home, just like "At the Bottom of the Sea", but whose message is a completely opposite one. I wanted it to be the theme for the Good/True Ending, and kind of symbolic for the character arc Gonta would go through.

One of the manga I want to reference a lot is Gunnm (or Battle Angel Alita). It's one of my all time faves and fundamentals of my art style, and I think it has a ton of motives than could mesh well, because of the motives it itself tackles: cyborgs, and their total opposite, humans with flesh body but chip instead of a brain; humans who sold off their biological tissue and rights to DNA and someone else ended up constructing literal monsters and mutants out of those; scientists who achieved near-immortality thanks to cloud of nanomachines; 3D bioprinters; people whose DNA was designed from scratch, and people who wanted to mass produce them for "bloody, killing sports"; quantum supercomputers forecasting future and dictating humanity's fate; an "Incubator", where biological brains dream of a fake world, while their energy is used as a power and processing units for said quantum computers; the concept of freedom, instinct and definitions of *True* free will and individuality in a world like that. I wouldn't go as extra on those motives in GDT, but I'd love to incorporate some of that into the overarching themes and plot elements as far as constraints of original universe could plausibly allow (and with nanomachines, full-immersion VR, big mechas, robots, and personality/memory rewriting machines I think there's quite a lot of that wiggle room for those elements to fit like glove). An artificial personality installed onto biological "hardware", and the whole Theseus ship dilemma as to whether they're still an individual is something that would fit perfectly alongside such homages.

I wanted to pay homage to Gentleman Dress Up, too, by making some collectible clothes for Gonta, but... I dunno, at this point this thing already turns into such an overambitious project XD... still I thought it'd be neat.

[SOME EXTRA DOODLES TO MAKE UP FOR THAT WALL TEXT] (at least those more legible ones)

(The three main sillies. And Kameko!)

(Poster sketches, Nuclear Flower Kokichi, Gonta hairstyle concepts - I was thinking maybe some choices could result in him having either long or short hair- etc.,etc... Oh, and about that Gonta & Kokichi sketch in the upper right corner... Remember that one wip compilation I posted a long, long time ago? This one? Well, I kinda sorta deliberately showed an edited out version back then. Now you can see how it's really suppossed to look like. Hopefully certain details are noticeable :) It's from a True Ending. Make of it what you will :D)

I wish I could post more drawings in the same style as the previous concepts for this game, especially moody environments/scenes (I specifically practiced a style that'd be quick, but give a vibe of a finished piece), but in reality the majority of those are either too messy to be legible, some I'd like to work more on (like Miu's new attire, more mono-nano-monster designs, etc.) and some are still in my head... I do hope to do so one day though.

[TO SUM THIS UP]

There are a lot of things I haven't ultimately talked about, and frankly, if I were to do this project for real, I'm not sure how many of those ideas would be left unchanged, or even make it to the final product... Reading my old notes, there are definitely concepts I'd do differently now, or ones that felt a bit embarrassing to talk about here... But that's pretty much the gist of it at its current form!

It's been a while, too... I haven't thought about GDT as much ever since I've got similar emotional catharsis by making Gonta in Code Vein and playing it while projecting his post-V3 arc onto it. But I had fun with it, and getting your ask... kinda rekindled those brain worms, haha. I dunno if actually making it into a game would be ever feasible for me, who has zero gamedev/coding knowledge aside from designing 2d assets for my friends/other people's indie games. Even if I had to make it much simpler and sacrifice most of the play mechanics... But concept artbook though... that would be lovely. And within the realm of possibility. But not this year. And very unlikely a year after that. There are other priorities, and more pressing artistic matters now xD.

Thank you for sending that ask and giving me an opportunity to talk about it. I hope at least some of it was interesting!

[r0semultiverse]

Mr. 6 made you do a good show to be released?? 👀 um....

This is already giving serious eye vibes.

A whole show dedicated to public humiliation?

The Mr. Bonzo suit started moving??? 👀 Serious stranger vibes. 🤡

"It actually became a sort of ritual"

I've seen people being like "don't cross tag" but buddy... the writing cross tags itself here I mean c'mon! 😂 Something something ritual of the stranger- okay, I'll keep listening!

Hey, what's with the music?? Hey, who is Terrance Menki???👀

"The police said there were eleven bodies in total and his wardrobe was full of all sorts of homemade costumes." BRO IS ACTUALLY MAGNUSPOD WILLIAM AFTON-

"It certainly had a profound effect on the Mr. Bonzo brand." Oh I'm sure it did, holy fucking shit. 👀

Oh, me using this image is rather ironic now.

"In a lot of ways I’m more his prisoner now than I ever was on my show." WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? 👀

"The witness statements from three murders over the last five years that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat?" Has the fear of clowns manifested as an actual clown-guything?

"Don’t contact us again." "Us?" "Why am I still trapped dealing with all this this- Why won’t he let me go?! Why-" So Mr. Bonzo is absolutely a clown cryptid of sorts with some sort of hold over Nigel.

Oh no, Gwen's about to fuck around & find out, isn't she? 👀

Hey, is Colin still himself & is he supposed to be back?

Hmm, okay, I guess that's him (hopefully).

"Maybe don’t tell them I’ve been on their terminals. They’ll only get the wrong idea." "If Lena asks, I wasn’t here." Seems like everyone's got their own little secret investigations going on, fun! This can only go well! 🙃

One of the episodes absolutely no one shows up to work except Lena is there & is like "where the fuck did everyone go?"

"Time to get some new hires again I guess."

Let's go!! Ruin exploration gang!!

"Like, it’s Saturday night and I’m choosing to hang out in a hole with you. A wet hole. And not the good kind either."

Alice with the absolute best quotes. lmao

That sounds like something with giant wings like a bat or some sort of cloth flapping in the wind. Let's hope it's the latter!

Oh a rusty old filing cabinet! Wait tetanus- 😭

"That carved floor in the big atrium – I don’t know what’s going on with that." Ah so we're just gonna breeze past that then. 😶

These are probably the remnants of old avatar creation test areas like mentioned in the Gerry & Gertrude episode. I'm just assuming here.

A key? Big find! Let's go!

AS I WAS SAYING-

Gwen, it was nice knowing you. 🫡

"Now get out of his house."

Archivist! 👁👄👁

"symbols of ancient otherworldly power"

Wait could this be a timeline where this universe's Jane Prentiss actually did manage to invade the building & succeed? I'm thinking out loud.

21:10 that sounds like critters, insects specifically 👀

"I have memories of weird stuff I saw here, but no context. I want to know what was happening, why they chose us… why they didn’t choose me. Maybe find the bit where everything started to go wrong." I am so captivated & intrigued please recount said memories to us- I mean Alice so we can learn more. Please. 👀

EXCUSE ME, WHO THE FUCK WAS THAT?!? WHO IS "[ERROR]?"

WHY DO THEY SOUND DISTORTED AS FUCK?? ARE THEY FROM THE PRIME TIMELINE OR IS THIS A NEW THING?

ARE WE GAZING OUR EYES UPON A WRETCHED THING FROM THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES?!

edit:

Is Lucia Wright an avatar of The Flesh now (in this universe or from the original timeline somehow)? Because it sure fucking sounds like it! 👀 Well, at least that key was put to good use! 😂

Also, supposedly Mr. Bonzo is a reference to Mr. Blobby.

Gwen, I'd be quaking in my boots too. That thing is terrifying!

Late observation but this universe & story seems to focus a lot on the cryptids & I like the direction it's going in! Loving this plot of cryptid hunters, childhood avatar experiments, a strange institute where our main character has past trauma, & just all of it is so good! 💜

Amazing episode, 10/10, I was at the edge of my seat the entire time! 💜 That Bonzo scene & the sound design were absolutely horrifying, thank you! The ending too! 🔥

[thirdtidemouse]

pretend i havent been inactive for 100 years. i've been watching renegade nell and its giving me a new sketchbook au idea/accompanying doodles. essentially: fae highwaywoman johanna is on the run, kaisa is Out To Get Her with dark magic

you have to cut me some slack with how silly i sound. its the hyperfixation. im ill

i'm casting these freaks like actors. Johanna is Nell:

it is 1705, and barkeep Johanna has found herself a highwaywoman on the run for a murder she didn't do, accompanied by her daughters and aided by a little spirit named Alfur. she has found fae-like abilities, and despite her good intentions, she is now feared across half the country as an invincible murderess.

Kaisa is Sofia:

hunting her down is Kaisa, a lady whose family owns Johanna's pub, whose father Johanna is falsely accused of killing, and who is obsessed with catching her. she uses dark magic to fuck with Johanna's life remotely, summoning things to attack her etc - she may be untouchable when it comes to human enemies, but not magic. Kaisa herself is lonely, surprisingly empathetic, and is desperate to prove her worth and have control over her life.

other character notes:

give Johanna a gun

she is a painter and illustrator still. she is struggling to find time for her hobbies

she would rather not be robbing people but has no problem if she needs to. the rich ones have more money than they know what to do with anyway, and if she has to take a horse from some poor guy, she leaves him with stolen valuables in exchange. she's a little robinhood about it.

i think it would be so fun to keep the mythical creatures around. watch out for Devilwoman Johanna who is strong enough to kill a troll!! (she would never)

yes Lauren (belonging to @blaithnne) is included. Nell is accompanied by her two little sisters, brave & helpful older sister Roxy, and funny & inquisitive little sister George. Lauren & Hilda take their place, and maybe Frida and David tag along hehe.

Lauren & Hilda keep getting taken hostage in attempts to get Jo to turn herself in, but they always get out of it. until they do, Hilda probably talks their ears off about dragons and Lauren makes terrifying threats.

no one else REALLY specifically fits character slots like Amadin, Thomas, and Charles (there aren't a lot of men in hilda lol) so i'm going to wing it and the other characters can fill their roles when needed maybe

Thomas is Sofia's brother who killed both their father and Nell's father, and is generally reckless, careless, and easily badly influenced. i'm actually thinking of putting 18yo Dylan (oc of mine who is Kaisa's younger sister) in his place. she is a lot sweeter in regular hilda universe but i think the plot & i could fuck with her character enough that she gains these insecure, irresponsibly cruel tendencies. sorry Dylan

both Johanna and Kaisa were witnesses when her father died. Kaisa knows she's innocent, but goes along with the accusation to save Dylan from being arrested and keep the family (and their place in society) from falling apart. I'm thinking of making Dylan a boy in this, to keep the dynamic of the land going to him when papa dies > he would be a terrible landlord > Kaisa gets to take the reigns and keep everything in working order because she actually cares and enjoys having things to watch over and work on

in general Kaisa is very lonely, has to work twice as hard for the power and respect men are given automatically, and yearns for the kind of freedom and support that Johanna has despite being an outlaw from a poor family.

i think David and Frida could fill Amadin's role as friends they pick up along the way. David's loyalty and voice of reason, and Frida's fierce protectiveness and determination to prove herself both remind me of his character.

i'm inclined to draw a blank for Poynton, the main villain, a Jacobite amongst the royal guard, the siblings' traitorous mentor in black magic, and the indirect reason their dad died in the first place. Tildy is Kaisa's mentor, but not an evil one. the closest Hilda has to real villains is Erik, and the head witches maybe, but none of them really hit the nail on the head for this guy. an au oc may be in order!!!

the Bellkeeper can be Charles maybe lol. he is an established highwayman leading a double life as both a wanted criminal and a aristocrat. he is suave, a little campy, and a firm believer that with confidence, you can sweet-talk anyone into believing you are anyone. he annoys Johanna into letting him tag along and help with disguises and plans just because he finds it fun.

Lady Eularia Moggerhanger runs the newspapers, and i'm splitting that between two characters for a couple reasons. Erik is the owner of the presses (not putting him in the royal guard because it wouldn't make sense for him to be a Jacobite rebel) who generally enjoys fearmongering and controlling the public.

Victoria is the head editor with a taste for dramatics but seeks the truth above all else, and happens to be the Bellkeeper's 'friend in high places' who begrudgingly bails him out of trouble.

Gerda replaces Polly, a good-hearted writer and believer of justice who falls head over heels for Jo when she gets highway-robbed by her and mistakes her for a man. is later appointed assistant editor of the newspaper.

this happens i guess

this isn't meant to stick to the plot of renegade nell, there's a lot going on and it would be easier (and more interesting) to figure out an original plot with this different cast of characters. i just thought it would be fun to put sketchbook into an 18th century highwayman period fantasy drama with dark magic and pixies. and enemies to lovers. okay thanks

i might add onto this at some point if anyone has any questions or additions LET ME KNOW!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU

[paingoes]

I've been snowboarding a lot lately so here are my unasked for headcanons on what the destroyer characters would be like on the mountain.

Paris- was supposed to be a skier but switched to snowboarding as soon as he could. Probably drinks fireball on the lifts. Does single blacks and not much higher. Wants to try jumps at some point.

Lorelai- skier all the way. Double black diamonds and powder snob. Loves finding powder in the trees. Faster then Paris.

Delta- probably has never been skiing or snowboarding but if he tags along then I think he'd love sledding and making snow angels. Probably terrified of snowball fights but if convinced to participate he would DOMINATE.

Johanna- snowboarder, slays in the terrain park. Aggressive carver. Has hit a child before and will do so again.

YESSSSSSS

this is so accurate i dont even have any notes. snowboarder paris is actually a really cute image i want to put him in a ski jacket and goggles ^_^ in my mind this is a very pleasing visual. lorelai is from the SOUTH but shes most likely of the main cast to actually ski and im specifically imaging her doing it in california in earth AUs because i think she’d hang out on the west coast a lot anyway. she does like a million sports growing up and always dominates. would absolutely do double black diamond :D

delta has not only never been skiing or snowboarding but is pretty adamant that he is “not fucking doing that”. the whole ride over he is in the backseat reading different skiing deaths and mountaineering disasters aloud off his phone just to fuck with them. keeps resending this meme

they do get him up the mountain though and he has a good time sledding :) takes the snowball fight so seriously its not even funny. paris gets a black eye.

yeah johanna is a demon and plays really aggressively in every sport. annoying kicking up frost on people while skating. headbutts while boxing. terrain park johanna is so cool i love her ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

[siren-serotonin]

SLIGHT PJSK (main story) AND PJO/HOO SPOILERS(?)

So!! As some of you may be aware.. I love pjsk. In case you didn't know, I love pjsk. I also love pjo and hoo. And last night I when I should've been sleep, I was fucking PUNCHED by both hyperfixations at the same time and then I started wondering what it'd be like if pjsk characters were demigods and/or Hunters of Artemis. This is that post. Feel free to ignore, I just need to infodump lmao

Mafuyu is a daughter of Jupiter. Jupiter's children are often set unrealistically high expectations, which causes them to be terrified of failure and slowly crumble under the stress. This can be seen with Jason during his time as praetor, on the Argo II, etc. In Mafuyu's case, her mother and the majority of her peers all expect her to excel in everything she does. Do you see where I'm going with this. Yeah okay. Anyway she's specifically a child of Jupiter and not Zeus because the gods are stricter in their Roman aspects and Mafuyu was raised by a strict parent. Also I think she'd either be a praetor or join the Hunters of Artemis.

Airi and Mizuki could both very much be children of Aphrodite. Airi because her whole "the most important thing in an idol is the heart" thing breaks so many Aphrodite kid stereotypes and I love it. She would so teach others that there's more to Aphrodite than being a toxic person (cough cough Drew cough Cheerful*Days) and I love her for that. Mizuki is here because they have trouble expressing themself freely and finding out that Aphrodite is their mother could help them figure stuff out?? Maybe?? Idk man. Also TRANS APHRODITE KID LETS GO!!! I think that they can both charmspeak but choose not to unless like their fucking lives depend on it.

Shiho is a child of Hades. Hades' kids are shunned and often misunderstood, which reminds me of how Shiho is mischaracterized in the fandom a lot. Also the way she acts reminds me of Nico. "I'm fine on my own" NO YOU'RE NOT!!!

Tsukasa, Saki, Toya and Kanade are all children of Apollo. Do I even have to explain for Tsukasa? He is the most theatre kid to ever exist, literally who else would be his godly parent???? Toya would be the most unconventional son of Apollo ever. Imagine him being like "no dad fuck you and your instruments im gonna be a street musician" and Apollo's just like "yeah go piss girl idc music is music" it's so funny to me omg. Kanade's whole self-sacrifice complex + composer thing?? She is THE daughter of Apollo (sorry Kayla). I feel like Toya would be a praetor if Roman Apollo was his dad but idk just a hunch. Toya could also be a child of Jupiter for similar reasons as Mafuyu. Kanade is literally Will Solace if he was musically gifted (Will I'm joking ily). Saki is here because I didn't know where else to put her and I'd feel bad if I separated the Tenma siblings.

Ena is a daughter of Ares. I can't quite explain this one, but Ena wanting her dad's approval of her being an artist reminds me of Clarisse a lot for some reason?? She could also be a child of Apollo but I already put four characters there sooooooo yeah

Rui the most son of Hephaestus EVER. "I'm not good with organic life forms" is such a Rui line oml. The automatons?? The mechanic shit?? ROBO-NENE. Do you see my vision. I want Rui and Leo to be friends so bad augh.

Nene could be a daughter of Poseidon because she has mermaid imagery, aside from that idk.

I think Minori could be a daughter of Iris since she's underrated (similar to how Iris is underappreciated/a minor goddess) and Minori + Iris both strongly believe in hope.

Besides Mafuyu, I think Honami and Shizuku could be Hunters of Artemis. As I'm typing this, I just realised that the april fools Meru trio are all Hunters asdfghgfdghj

A lot of characters were left out because I didn't know who their parents could be but if anyone has headcanons pls put them in the replies or tags!! Thank you for coming to my ted talk, goodbye.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Somehow, Through the Storm

Summary:

Living in the slums of the Warehouse District, Kaz and Inej are struggling to cling on to life through a seemingly unending winter. Wrapped up in a stranger's overcomplicated marriage contract that he is convinced is key to solving the merciless weather, Kaz remains busy and distracted for days on end, putting everything else at risk. So when a storm ravages the city and sweeps Inej into danger, the offer of safety, food, and a place to stay is an overwhelming one - no matter the cost. Terrified of mounting threats, Inej signs a contract - not knowing she would land herself trapped at the Menagerie. Kaz signs a contract that states if he can walk all the way through the city and back to the Warehouse District with Inej behind him, never looking back at her, they will both go free. But this is the Barrel, the darkest part of the city where the rules of physics can change with the stroke of a pen; the journey back will not be the same as journey there…

This is a Hadestown-inspired reimagining of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, casting Kaz and Inej as our main characters and heavily featuring our beloved Crows, set in an alternate version of the Grishaverse with a different magic system based entirely on contracts.

Tags: @lunarthecorvus @marielaure @multi-fandom-bi @iggy-gotthisaccountunderduress @thelibraryofalexandriastillburns @devoted-people-hater @spraypaintstainonawhitewall

If anyone else would like to be added to the tag list let me know <3

Warnings for this chapter: ptsd references, a bit of anatomy discussion (no descriptions of blood), implied slavery references (similar to Kerch indenture contracts), death references, loss of a sibling

Note: In case anyone doesn't know and since this character's name is going to crop up in future chapters as well, "Aisling" is pronounced "Ash-ling" :)

AO3 link

Chapter 21 - Kaz

“He could make you see the way the world could be, in spite of the way that it is,” 

- All I’ve Ever Known, Hadestown

“You look like a mess,”

Far be it from Kaz to be cautious of a subject; he would speak of the world as bluntly as he saw it and, despite the impatient grimace on her face as she flopped into the chair opposite him, he knew it was a trait of his that Nina appreciated. Besides, his statement was accurate. Nina’s entire being was frazzled; her hair appeared to have been twisted back to keep it off her neck in the heat, but it was falling out so badly that the pin was almost touching her shoulder, the thin straps of her top were askew, and he was pretty sure she had slept in the slightly smudged makeup she was wearing. 

“I feel like a mess,” she huffed. 

Kaz didn’t ask questions, as was his general rule for when he saw Nina on bad days; he knew that if she needed to she’d volunteer information, but that if she didn’t then she didn’t want him to ask - and he probably didn’t want to know the answer. Now she was digging in her bag, and Kaz glanced up from his papers to vaguely register the thickness of the dark circles beneath her eyes, even under her ruined cosmetics. 

“I can’t stay for long,” she said, as she pulled a slender roll of paper free and set it on the desk, “So let me talk you through these quickly,” 

Kaz nodded. Nina lay the contracts out on the desk between them, one facing Kaz so he could read it, and the other facing herself so she could refer to the right areas as she began to point to specific lines and explain what she had written. In essence, the contracts were going to dull pain without completely diminishing it, and though she was a little anxious about it she’d complied with his request for a clause that would close surface level wounds. Anything that would have been classed by a medik as a deep cut, which Nina reported as being more than an inch long or more than a quarter of an inch deep, was too much for her to trust that just closing the skin would safe; in that case, the contract would stimulate a partial decrease in pain and lightly aid the blood clotting. 

“What about bones?” asked Kaz, turning the contract facing him to the second sheet as he slid his eyes through it as quickly as he could. 

Nina tapped a paragraph near the end of the document, her hand tilted away from where Kaz’s own gloved fingers had come to rest. 

“Bones are more complicated than people give them credit for,” she said, after a moment, “The skeleton isn’t some kind of permanent scaffolding; it’s a dynamic matrix of different types of cells, with its own growth processes, blood supply, all of it - a tissue as much as every type of muscle is. And on top of that, on top of all the different classifications, you still always have to consider the the different structures of compact bone and-”

“What’s your point, Zenik?” Kaz interrupted, cutting the lecture short. 

Nina’s gaze snapped directly to Kaz’s eyes for the briefest moment, before finding itself very distinctly focusing on the corner of the papers in front of her as she pretended to pay close attention to them. 

“Bone injuries are complicated,” she said, and her voice had quietened slightly, “Potentially more complicated than bleeders, in some cases - and especially when you’re dealing with them blind. I can think of nine types of fracture just off the top of my head, and all of them have to be treated differently, if you-” 

Kaz bit back an impatient sigh as Nina hesitated. 

“Yes, if you try to heal it blind or let it be without proper attention, it will heal wrong and in most cases become too complex for any contract to undo it. I am, in fact, aware of that, Nina dear. I really meant: what’s the relevance to this?” 

He tapped the contract again, the sound of his gloved hand against the desk slightly muffled by its pages. 

“It’s a short clause,” Nina nodded towards the paragraph she’d highlighted before; indeed much smaller than its counterparts, with only a few lines of her neat writing dedicated to it.

Kaz knew for a fact that her natural handwriting, though just as neat and organised, was one of far more swirls and flourishes and tilted lines that had been taught to her at the Little Palace in Ravka, where Grisha soldiers were raised. He could barely read it - in fact he’d originally wondered if her skills in written Kerch were far lacking compared to that of the spoken, for how long it had taken him to puzzle out the notes she sent him, before he was able to acknowledge it as some kind of cursive script. Neither of them had ever mentioned it, but during the course of their partnership anything she wrote for Kaz had gradually contorted itself into stricter shapes and upright lines. It was still far easier on the eyes than Kaz’s own hand, or that of anyone else in the Barrel. His mind wandered briefly as he studied the shape of the characters instead of the actual words they were making up, wondering if it would be possible to arrange for Nina to teach Inej written Kerch instead. Neither he nor Inej had mentioned tackling the task of writing since their disastrous evening before summer began, but he thought it might be better for her to learn from someone other than him. 

“Pain at the epicentre will be reduced,” Nina continued, and Kaz tuned back into reality as quickly as possible with the vague hope that he hadn’t missed anything important in his brief distraction, “And very marginal increases in limb mobility. I’m hesitant to do much more than that, but there is an appendix - here,” she turned over to the final page of the contract facing her and showed it to Kaz so he could find it in his own copy, “Only to be used in an absolute emergency. It will give someone with a mobility-limiting break, or enough pain to knock them out, enough strength to walk a mile. If you use this - and that is if, Brekker - that walk had better end with me, or a Healer. Clear?” 

Kaz nodded, slowly, as he let his eyes run through the appendix. He traced the little dotted line beneath it, a heavy ache in his wrist seeming to appear from nowhere as he tilted his hand to brush his gloved thumb against the paper. 

The pen had felt heavy, to a nine year old who’d barely ever used one. The paper was smooth but Kaz’s shaky hold and the expensive fountain pen, a precious tool that demanded practiced precision, had always been sure to produce a bitty, unsteady scrawl of a line with each uneven stroke he sketched. Jordie’s hand closed over Kaz’s wrist, just lightly, and lifted his hand so the pen would not accidentally scratch the pages as he turned them over. 

“Almost done,” he’d promised, leaning over Kaz’s shoulder and showing him where to next once again draw out his name, a signature that looked like a spider had died on the page, “Just a few more,” 

Kaz had been getting impatient. It felt like he’d been doing this forever - how many times did he have to write his name? They knew his name. His wrist hurt and there was ink on his hand and he was so hungry - and tired. He wanted to lean against Jordie’s side until he fell asleep, and wake up warm and fed and happy. At first he’d been moving the pen as slowly and delicately as he could manage, but now he was bored and frustrated and tired and he just wanted this to be over. He scribbled as quickly as he could, the shape barely even resembling his name anymore, and tried to lean his head against Jordie’s arm - but Jordie pushed him upright again, still promising they were nearly done, and turned the page to yet another dotted line. 

“Kaz? Kaz,” 

Kaz flinched to attention as the world crashed back into him; he was in his office at Lexi’s, staring at Nina Zenik. He was safe. His hands were gloved. He was at his desk. His brother was dead. 

Maybe Nina’s eyes lingered on Kaz’s face for a moment, with that pensive expression of hers, that quiet intrigue, but maybe they didn’t - if they had, they’d been trained back into submission, her expression schooled to neutrality, as quickly as they’d strayed. Kaz pushed a thumb against his gloved palm beneath the table, pressing it hard into the flesh as he moved it in tight, repetitive circles. The pressure was welcoming, pinning him in place; as the world continued to move too quickly around him, he could stay still within the current for at least this moment. 

A knock sounded briefly against the door. Nina glanced at Kaz with a brief flash of nerves crossing her eyes, but he only lightly waved her off as he called Inej into the little makeshift office. She’d stripped herself of layers for the sake of the heat, as they all had; loose trousers, a new pair of shoes he’d given her to replace the heavy boots she’d still been dragging her surely sweltering feet about in, and a faded, fitted vest that had the marginally distracting effect of making her angular arms and muscular shoulders look like they’d been carved from bronze. Her hair had been slicked ruthlessly back into two tight braids that she had somehow wrapped around each other into some kind of updo that might as well have been a sailor’s most complicated knot for all that Kaz could figure out the pattern. 

“Did you get it?” asked Kaz, the undeniable anticipation seeping into his voice. 

“Did you doubt me?” 

Inej returned Kaz’s smile as she pulled a small velvet pouch from the pocket of her trousers and tossed it across the desk for him to catch. He could feel Nina’s eyes on him, hot with intrigue, as he loosened the drawstring and slipped its contents into his hand. Her gasp was audible the very second that the gems fell into his palm. 

“Wh- are those emeralds?” she breathed, incredulous. 

“Not yet they’re not,” Kaz glanced up at her slowly, unable to control the devious smile twisting his lips, “But they will be, when we pull this job off,” 

“If,” Inej corrected, “If we pull this job off,” 

“Now who’s doubting whom?” 

“Am I the only person who doesn’t know what’s going on here?” asked Nina impatiently, planting her hands over the contracts on the table. 

The message was clear enough: no information, no trade. 

“You’ve heard, I assume, of the Cahills?”

Nina shook her head. 

“Kaelish diplomat, is Cormac Cahill; visiting the Zelvar District this week. The man himself is rather inconsequential to me, except that his being here meant that his wife is here as well - and Aisling Cahill? Aisling Cahill has a passion for emeralds,” 

Nina stared at him.

“You can’t be serious,” 

“As the grave. There’s a shop across the water where the staff are quite convinced that the couple commissioned them to prepare a set of replicas, replicas they were told would replace the gems themselves in dear Aisling’s jewellery so that on their next journey the real emeralds could remain safe and sound in the Wandering Isle. Replicas that were never intended to be collected by the Cahills, but instead that were always set up to be prey for the Spider,” 

Inej grimaced. 

“Spider?” she shook her head as Kaz glanced up at her, “That’s even worse than the last one,” 

“People are afraid of spiders,” 

“People can squash spiders with the toe of their boot,” 

Kaz weighed the assertion up in his mind - she wasn’t wrong. But what would be better?

 “We’ll keep thinking, then,” 

She nodded. There was a moment of silence that Kaz welcomed, slipping into like a comfortable chair, before Nina broke it with: 

“The emeralds?” 

“The shop in the Financial District will report the theft of the replicas in warning that there may be a thief looking to exchange them for the real ones to a very confused Mrs Cahill, who will insist she never ordered them in the first place. Thanks to a few well placed suggestions to their none-the-wiser staff, and the knowledge of a very popular locksmith with whom I’m on rather good terms, the Cahills will move all of the emeralds into one pretty little safe exactly where the finest lockpick in Ketterdam directed them,” 

Nina raised an eyebrow. 

“And where might that safe be?” 

Kaz grinned. This was it, he knew it. With the complete jewellery set - two necklaces, a ring, a headdress, and a pair of extravagant earrings - then even after the team had got their cash, Kaz’s share of the haul would be enough to reach his goal. He’d have enough money to buy the abandoned gambling den, and with a bit of luck enough renown to stake The Dregs as a real gang, instead of a dilapidated house full of desperate kids running shitty little jobs on Per Haskell’s random, drunken whims. He’d even be able to start fixing the building up - just a little, at first; a new sign, a new coat of paint. Then he’d bring in stakeholders, once he had something to show them, and use the money to build a real parlour, a real business. These streets would be his. He would finally be able to put real motion into all of his plans. Vengeance, even though he knew it would be years yet, felt close enough to taste it. 

“The back wing of the house they’re renting,” he smiled, “One of the biggest houses in all the Zelvar District, with the second wing almost entirely sealed off from the rest of the house,” 

Nina frowned. 

“Surely they wouldn’t be stupid enough to-”

“Oh there’s plenty of security,” Kaz agreed, “But much nicer to have all that security out their way whilst they’re sleeping, isn’t it? Besides, guards aren’t a problem from the Phantom,” 

“Nope,” said Inej, immediately. 

“Oh, you didn’t even consider it,” 

 ***

It ought to be a simple enough job, once they were in it, but the prep had felt endless. The Cahills were in Ketterdam for three months, two of which had already gone by - Kaz didn't want to run the risk of them discovering the swap had been made before they were out of the country. The plan had been forming all the time they’d been here, researching the jewels, sending Inej to scope out the house, planting subtle seeds in discussion with the locksmith he knew, but three weeks ago things had actually begun to move. Three weeks ago, Kaz had secured a very unimpressed Anika a short-term position on the Cahill’s house staff after the lady’s maid who had followed Aisling here from the Wandering Isle mysteriously took her leave and vanished without a trace. 

“I hate all of this and you,” Anika had snarled, snatching the more respectable-looking clothes that Kaz had procured for her from his hand. 

“You’ll feel different when we’re rich, Anika, now get moving. She’s expecting you at three bells,” 

“She can be disappointed,” the girl huffed, turning on her heel, but halted dead when Kaz’s cane hooked through the crook of her arm. 

“Do not mess this up,” he warned her, “If she fires you, the entire job is blown,” 

“Get someone more suitable to the task then,” 

“I would,” said Kaz coolly, dropping his cane back to the ground and adjusting his weight against it, “If you weren’t the only fool who’s signed up,” 

Anika huffed a light laugh. 

“Yeah, well: if we’re gonna die, might as well do it in the pursuit of getting rich,” 

“Oh, I doubt you’ll die during this job,” 

“No?” 

“No,” Kaz had turned away, “If we die, it’ll be on the gallows afterwards,” 

Anika had been bringing him information on the house and its occupants for the past week - the routines, the habits, how the couple felt about going off schedule; all of it was important for Kaz to paint a picture of the plan in his mind. He sent her back armed with new questions - where was the jewellery usually kept? What time did the couple retire? What did they do in the evenings? Were they likely to wake and traverse the house in the night? - and she returned with the answers as best as she could gather them. In truth, no matter what he’d said to her, Inej and her talents for gathering secrets would probably have been better for this job. But Kaz wanted to keep her available for other tasks, like the gang surveillance she’d been keeping up, and he needed her for the other side of this; to steal the emerald replicas from the jewellery shop, and to get them into the grounds despite the roving guards on the night of the expedition itself. And, if he was really honest with himself, he didn’t like the thought of her absence for that time. He didn’t want the attic to be empty in the evenings, or not to talk with her throughout the day. He didn’t, if he was really, really honest with himself, want to be stuck alone and wondering what was happening to her, wondering if she was safe. Maybe he should’ve put her on this one just to force himself to get over it, to show himself that he could get over it and wasn’t completely losing his mind, but it was too late to entertain that now. It didn’t really matter. 

Aisling Cahill kept her necklaces and earrings in fine, velvet lined cases overnight, safely tucked into the top drawer of her vanity. Her headdress, which she wore very rarely, was displayed, in what Kaz could only call a wonderful display of overconfidence, on a mannequin bust next to her mirror. She slept with the ring still on.

“Even if, by some miracle, you manage to get in there to make the swap,” Nina had said, when he and Inej were telling her of the plan, “How are you going to do it? Or do you have fakes of the chain on their way too?” 

“We aren’t faking the chains,” Kaz replied, “The gold is too difficult to convincingly replicate at a low enough price for it to be worth it in this instance, and the designs are detailed; they’d be noticed instantly. Besides, we don’t need the gold; the emeralds are worth more than enough on their own, and they’re less recognisable without the chains,” 

“So you intend to just stand in their house and prize the emeralds from their settings?” she asked incredulously, “You can’t just slap a bit of glue on the glass ones and shove them in place,” 

“I’ve got that covered. Or rather, my Fabrikator has that covered,” 

Nina stared at him. 

Materialniks were the hardest Grisha to come by in Kerch, and potentially further afield Kaz had no real idea, which made them very valuable to those who could get hold of them. Any Materialnik in Ketterdam was either living under lock and key or on the run from them, and there was no chance they’d be willing to risk their necks for a stranger no matter how much money the job might be worth. Wasn’t it lucky for Kaz, then, that he was not a stranger? 

“You have a Fabrikator?” Nina almost spat, something almost accusatory moving briefly through her expression - clearly her suspicion had sparked, and perhaps understandably so given the tattoo on her arm, and she was calming it again with more logical thoughts as quickly as she could manage. 

“I’ve befriended a Fabrikator,” he corrected, “Who, I’m sure you can imagine, requested to remain anonymous, and will have that wish respected,” 

“But they’re - I mean, they aren’t-” 

The only Materialniks Nina knew of in the city, she’d told Kaz before, were under the control of the Red Laurel Enterprise. 

“No,” 

Nina had leaned back a little in her chair. 

“Well,” she sighed, hand drifting to touch her tattoos, “Props to them, I suppose,” 

Kaz had nodded, and tried to tear his eyes away from the black lion curling on her skin. 

They made their move as soon as possible; the night after Anika had reported the removal of the jewellery from its habitual positions into the safe, the plan was in motion. 

The house stood sentinel over the rest of its street, the largest property and situated at the very end of the close so that the whole street was visible from its front windows. Its garden was large for the area, as well; an L-shaped plot that snaked from the back of the house around the right-hand corner - the right, that was, if you were standing in the garden looking at the building, so at the left if you were looking at the house face on - and it was through the farthest back section of the garden that they should be able to enter. It backed out towards the canal, but was not prosperous enough to have its own dock. The wall that ran along its border would be easy to scale, and even if they’d been uncertain of that fact Inej had confirmed it from her initial scoping out of the house and its grounds. 

Anika had reported that the Cahills usually retired between ten and eleven bells, but would occasionally be seen later. It was thus that they arrived - Kaz, Jesper, and Inej - at twelve bells quarter chime. The heat had made it slightly harder to organise their belongings; their preferred daily outfits had far more pockets and hiding places, but it would be insensible to overdress even this deep into the night. The warm air traced the back of Kaz’s neck and he rolled his shoulders, feeling the slight crinkle of paper as he moved; he carried one of the Healing contracts from Nina, the other stowed somewhere on Inej’s person, and the papers drawn up by the Fabrikator. They would mostly operate in pairs, he and Jesper would be together and once she’d got inside Inej would be alongside Anika, but even with a contract in each group it tugged at him that there weren’t enough Healer contracts to cover all four of them. He ran over the plan in his mind for the thousandth time, trying to remind himself how unlikely it was that they would need them. 

There were two guards in the gardens and three in the back wing of the house; thanks to Anika, they knew their schedules and Kaz had memorised them easily. Inej could hop over the wall at almost any given moment, Kaz’s trust that she would go unnoticed was unwavering, and she’d slip round to the side of the house, where the other limb of the L-shaped garden stretched, to set off one of Wylan’s flash bombs. With the guards’ attention drawn away and towards the side door, Kaz and Jesper would follow her up to the house and be let in through the back door by Anika. Kaz could’ve picked the lock, of course, but they didn’t want to take the risk of a longer entry time if one of the guards got the bright idea of checking the rest of the perimeter whilst their partner stayed on the side door. Once inside, they would separate: Kaz and Jesper downstairs to find the safe, Inej and Anika up to dismantle the alarm system. 

It was a simplistic enough system, by the sounds of things, but Kaz was strongly suspicious that if he’d told Anika to dismantle something alone she would be far more likely to destroy. Inej was armed with a small vial of potent acid that Wylan had assured them would shut the machinery down without a loud fuss, and make it look like it had simply ground to a halt due to not being oiled well enough. As soon as the alarm system was non-operational, Anika would make her way to the door that marked the passageway between the back wing and the rest of the house in case anyone came looking, whilst Inej slipped downstairs to give Kaz and Jesper the all-clear. Meanwhile, Jesper would have prepared the papers. 

Fabrikator contracts, unlike those of other Grisha, had the unfortunate complication of sell-by dates. Kaz didn’t really know why - he’d asked Nina once and gotten a long answer that ultimately culminated in her not knowing either - but if a Fabrikator contract wasn’t prepared almost immediately before use it was barely worth the paper it was written on. No-one else in the crew - no-one else in Ketterdam, as far as Kaz knew - was aware that Jesper was a Materialnik, and Kaz hadn’t needed prompting to mould the plan around no-one else learning that fact tonight. He knew Jesper was on edge to be here doing this anyway, he very rarely used his power. Kaz just hoped that it wasn’t like an unexercised muscle that was about to spasm on them. 

Once they had the signal from Inej, Kaz and Jesper would go in; Kaz would pick the lock, Jesper would sign his papers, and it would all be smooth sailing. With Anika on the door and Inej to move amongst the guards unseen and plot them a safe route back to the garden, they’d be out of there in no time. 

Hopefully. 

Now all they had to do was start. The three of them stood with their backs to the wall, looking out at the canal. In the black water a distorted yellow flower bloomed, the reflection of a lamp post looming above it, and the distant, impassive white moon bounced between the ripples that tossed it to and fro.

Kaz took a deep, slow breath. He’d forgone his cane, considering it too conspicuous for the evening’s task, and now adjusted his weight against the bricks behind him to regulate his balance. Without taking his eyes off the water of the canal, he said to Inej: 

“Ready?” 

He didn’t have to look at her to feel the presence of her little smile. Her hand raised and from the corner of his eye he watched her touch two fingers to where her knives were safely stowed across her person. A brief whisper in what he assumed must be Suli escaped her lips - a prayer? - before she lifted herself slowly away from the shadow. 

“Ready,” 

[grumpy-gurgles]

I did a drabble with a fandom I'm in, that being Twisted Wonderland. I have never written for this fandom before, I'm scared shitless that someone might recognize my OC's name and call my ass out, and I'm slightly less terrified of this being horrendously out of character.

You can ask more about my OC but like. I probably won't be fully name dropping him for the sake of exposure, and I'll keep this out of the main tags as much as possible. Safety precautions. If my legitimate main gets exposed outside of this tummy stuff, I will end it all /hj

Drabble under the cut

OC x Az.ul As.hengrotto, made this in like a half hour so it's bad fyi I just Had A Thought it's 1am I already regret this-

Valentin is notorious for overworking. Whether it be his schoolwork, his alchemy work, inventing things.. he's always difficult to get settled down. He only seems to legitimately take a break at the times he has to, which is when he's sleeping, or when he's in too much pain to do so.

This, however, doesn't apply with hunger whatsoever.

His stomach doesn't have a clock anymore. He eats when he thinks it's a good time to, which doesn't end up often. And it's usually quick things that he can get through the next assignment or gadget for, and then leave his belly grumbling for more. And due to the quiet, almost shadow-esque nature he has among peers, nobody would really notice. Even if his stomach was loud, it'd probably be ignored or put onto someone else.

However, there's an exception to this. Usually one exception, sometimes three. Valentin's fellow dorm members in Octavinelle, specifically(on most occasions,) Azul.

Azul seemed to have a similar issue with overworking. That's how the two ended up bonding, though initially begrudgingly on Valentin's end of things. And Azul had very quickly caught onto the fact that Valentin doesn't have the healthiest habits with eating, because of how often his stomach kept betraying him whenever there was food around.

As a food sensitive person himself, Azul found himself having an issue with that. He initially thought of some contract that would rope Valentin into a proper eating schedule, instead of forcing him to work at the Monstro Lounge on top of everything else. But that wouldn't happen; Valentin wouldn't touch a contract, barely even the Lounge or the VIP room, with a 10 foot pole. He was smart enough to keep his grades up, and he was guarded enough to where Valentin seemingly had no problems! He definitely had problems, but exploiting those for the sake of getting the guy to have a solid meal in his belly also sounded bad. Because that wasn't a good move at all, especially since Valentin would probably try and punch him if he did that. Sevens, he's hard to handle. No wonder he's like a shadow in comparison to many other students. Dealing with this was a difficult task.

But then Azul had his lightbulb moment; ask him out to a little cafe thing! Not on a date or anything, just something to take his mind off it all. Maybe a contract would come later, if Valentin had more trust. He just had to ease the boy into it!

Azul had to drag Valentin to the first time they did this. Shockingly, Valentin let him, instead he chose to keep insulting him. But nothing that was really a sore spot for Azul, like his weaknesses, insecurities, or weight.

"You're an asshole," was one of the frequent phrases that Valentin muttered as his stomach snarled at him from the smell of various food places. But that day was the first day that Azul had heard Valentin's stomach being content and full, instead of upset and practically starved. Valentin was quite embarrassed about how loud his belly was as it digested the coffee and pastry he put in there, but only let that show when they were away from people.

It was the first time, that Azul was aware of, that Valentin had let someone in his brain for a bit. And it felt good, knowing that it was him.

This continued for a few more times, before the Leech twins were intrigued by their boss suddenly putting a solid chunk of attention into this guy. They joined in a couple of times, but usually they left it all alone.

So whenever Valentin starts with his horrendous schedule again, of only eating to get by with a grumbly stomach on too many occasions, Azul is there. It was initially going to be some manipulation tactic, maybe. But maybe it was more of a flirtation tactic the longer it continued for the both of them.

[oddlittlestories]

So I just saw a Dexter gifset about him “not having a next level” and the reminder of how his empathy was handled vs. empathy & ethics in Woe.Begone slingshotted me into ✨Meta Brain Space✨ come into my Meta Danger Circle ⭕️

Disclaimer that I haven’t watched Dexter in a WHILE and I don’t remember a lot of specifics. Also I get a bit critical of Dexter here, so if it’s your fave ever, you might just skip this meta post and go listen to Woe.Begone instead bc I think you’ll like it.

Spoilers ahead.

I’ve tagged it too so you can go blacklist it if you don’t want Woe.Begone spoilers from s1e1-4.

Okay okay so Woe.Begone handles empathy in such such such a cool way. The main character, Mike Walters, tells everything in retrospect in a detached manner, describing how he was terrified / sobbing / etc. *at the moment*. It’s actually impossible for me to tell whether this character has low empathy or atypical expression of empathy.

Like when the challenge is to kill a pig:

goddamnit! I don’t wanna kill a pig! I mean, I know, I eat meat, specifically pork, and so I’ve just been outsourcing this exact labor for my whole life. I’m a hypocrite if I’m willing to let suffering happen as long as it’s just outside my eyeline, but f-fuck it! I can be a hypocrite. I’m worse shit than that all the time. I’m a liar, I’m a bad friend, I’m a shitty podcaster. Just throw “hypocrite” on the heap, it’ll fit right in.

This isn’t a perfect example but you can see how he has a detached approach to his own flaws that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in a character.

In episode 2, he talks about himself. How he is with people.

[Mike:] I’m not always the best guy. I remember on my freshman floor in college, a new friend was on the phone with her parents, and she was talking about everyone she had just met. When she got to me she said,

MIKE [electronic voice effect]: “There’s the dude, Mike. He’s pretty cool. He’s not nice, but…”

MIKE [normal voice]: Woof. I’d like to think that I’ve done some self-reflection since then but have I really? I tend to bulldoze over other people and their needs and problems more than I should. And more than I would like, I would add. I don’t always like myself and I definitely don’t like when I figure out that I’ve done this. So, this could just be my reputation finally catching up with me… Or it could be WOE.BEGONE.

This feels so incredibly ND to me, especially paired with the flat tone he uses in the show (it’s not monotone, in fact it’s quite engaging, but it IS flat, you should listen to it if you haven’t)

And the show REFERENCES DEXTER. When Mike cuts off his own arm, he puts up plastic sheeting, because his main real reference for the brutal gory IS Dexter.

He decides to do horrible things for the sake of the game bc he decides he wants to win. He reminds himself that a person’s life is more important than feeling embarrassed.

And he goes on a (gentle) rant about how Dexter is a ridiculous show and the only reason he doesn’t get caught is because the PD in the show is ridiculously incompetent.

But having a show make deliberate parallels between Dexter and the MC by making the MC reference the show (even if not referring to the character). And it’s a show ABOUT a clearly ND person, possibly low empathy, deliberately making both ethical and unethical decisions (by his own framework). HOLY MOLY IT’S GIVING ME THE BRAINROT

Mike unpacks the ethics around half the things he chooses to do. He cares about other people but sometimes verbally logics himself into empathy (in a way that’s often unclear to me—is he speaking that way because he doesn’t know how else to express what he feels? Or because he doesn’t feel it and has to logic himself to the moral decision?)

In some ways you could almost read Woe.Begone as a counter to Dexter. Because Dexter, too, does terrible things with (usually) an ethical framework. He explicitly lacks empathy. He’s handed the moral framework and the narrative pretty much uncritically says “he was always going to be a serial killer. so what was he going to do with that?”

And in Woe.Begone, Mike’s motives are complex. Messy. A little bit of empathy here. Curiosity there. Desire for power in the corner. Fear of consequences looming over him. He wasn’t always going to do Woe.Begone. He makes a deliberate decision. Both for every challenge he completes (as far as I know, I only just finished episode 4). And for the game as a whole. And it’s not about being good, and he claims he’s actually a kind of shitty person. And yet to me he feels like a better person than Dexter so far. Or, at least, less hollow. Filled to the brim with his own internal world.

I’d have to rewatch some Dexter to do a full cross-comparison meta, and I might. But I’m absolutely fascinated by what feels like deliberate narrative comparisons here as Dylan Griggs writes more or less a death game about what I read as a low/atypical empathy character.

[starleska]

I'm not gonna lie, you're really convincing me to start writing/drawing/animating Y/N x Wally Darling stuff...

You have great concepts and the simp in me is being fed and I love it AHEGAJAGAJA I just worry that there's a chance that Clown had advised against it and I've yet to see that in a post somewhere in the past. But seeing as you're enjoying writing all the Reader x Wally Darling stuff with no worries (good on you btw!), it's all okay right?

/nm /gen

hey there Laurs!! aww, thank you very much 🥰💖 i love getting messages from people inspired by my fanworks, it makes my heart all fuzzy!! just a little endless cycle of good vibes and creativity :3c now, the bulk of your ask is a tough one to answer!! i know i've posted a lot of fanworks for Welcome Home, but at the end of the day, i'm just a fan like anyone else, trying to do my best to respect Clown's wishes. honestly, given the chance i would love to talk to them and ask these specific questions that a lot of fans have been firing in my direction. i have reached out, but understand those messages have likely been drowned under thousands of others!!

so @partycoffin, on the off-chance you're reading this: i hope you're doing well, and taking care of yourself in this terrifying, exciting time!! thank you for sharing your lovely world with us - we're all just so in love with your characters and universe 🥰💖 if you'd like to talk, please feel free to reach out. it would be great to know that you're okay, and i'd be happy to field any questions you have about your bustling new fandom (who have been destroying my own notifications for the past two weeks!!). it may be presumptuous of me, but perhaps having an inside look on what questions fans have might help make this explosive growth seem a little less scary. however, there's no obligation to reply - we're thankful all the same :3c

as far as i am aware at the time of writing this post, i don't think Clown has any problems with Wally x Anon/Reader/Y/N fanworks...or at least, i haven't come across any sources stating so.

the big thing that (if i'm understanding the guidelines correctly) is that Clown doesn't want us to be putting any NSFW Welcome Home material into the main tags. we have to remember that Welcome Home has blown up very quickly, and Clown deserves a chance to breathe and adjust to all this success before laying out those boundaries (if he wishes!). that's why, although i do write NSFW for other fandoms i'm refraining from doing so for Welcome Home until stated otherwise. i can't imagine how stressful it must be dealing with so many notifications, people impersonating, trying to sell their work, exhibiting invasive and creepy behaviour...on top of the overwhelming demand for new Welcome Home stuff. i think as fans we should just vibe and play in our own little bubbles without stressing them out too much, and adjust when we receive new information. for instance, i didn't know when i made my Wally Darling edit that they were uncomfortable with non-canon art being associated with the main game. i've since reached out to see if i should take the video down with no reply, and went with the consensus of a group of fans i asked for the opinions of - to leave it up until asked otherwise. pretty much - i don't think Wally Darling x Anon fanworks contravene the guidelines that Clown has given us so far. they aren't inherently NSFW, and i'd hope that anyone who is making NSFW fanworks is tagging appropriately, as is the courteous thing to do. i'm of the opinion that fans are going to do fandom things, and there's always going to be folks making adult-oriented works, and that's okay!! but i'm also always happy to respect the wishes of the creator in terms of how they'd like that work to be tagged and presented. i think Toby Fox did it best when he first suggested the 'Undertail' tag for NSFW works - a real stroke of genius that i see lots of fandoms still using today. again, do take this with a grain of salt! i don't know Clown, and very few of us do - we're just all interpreting his words in vastly different ways, and that must be terrifying to deal with; thousands of people getting very angry or very sad because they think they can or cannot do a specific thing they never actually said. it's not anyone's fault that Welcome Home blew up so suddenly and there wasn't time for precautions to be taken, but it is the fault of those fans who are overstepping boundaries and need to re-examine their relationship to this art. it sounds like you're good to go on making those animations, and i would personally love to see them 🥰 thanks again for being so sweet about my silly headcanons!! it's honestly been quite scary adjusting to the amount of attention, but please know i'm grateful and appreciative of every ask, reply and message that comes my way 💖

[aluckiicoin]

budget mobile rules/about

Aventurine belongs to the Honkai Star Rail universe. More specifically:

A senior manager in the IPC Strategic Investment Department and one of the Ten Stonehearts.

[ about | guideline (also under readmore) | verses ( also under readmore ) ]

As far as personality goes:

He is not a nice person. While he seems rather laid back and as if nothing could ever bother him, he will talk down on you, use you for his own advantage, sell you out if he thinks the offer is good enough. He will manipulate and use you to his whims. His constant smile and ability to wrap words around makes it almost impossible to discern his true feeling. Truthfully, he might not be able to ID them himself. He can be nice and he will be if he thinks it will help him win you over.

But if you want more about how he is, you will have to look up the Information tag (and the one on the old blog).

A very short breakdown on rules:

he won't know who you are unless you are (for now) Topaz. If you want him to, you can mention it before (that does exclude OCs that are a integral part of the IPC, obviously he should've heard of those before). He might have heard of you if you're known to the IPC however.

I can decide what he does by myself, thank you

I'm not big on ships, mostly because I don't wanna hurt myself or others; and he's likely never gonna be what you want him to become

I'm terrified of people and therefore hate dms with a passion, mostly because I can only get myself to concentrate on talking to two people at a time

there might be some nsfw-related things, nothing explicit that would be over there

if you have a problem with trans folks you can fucking leave and get hit by a car for all I care

general tumblr rp lingo:

I am not mutuals exclusive

I will have favourites, it's a human thing to do

I'm a fan of OCs, so come at me

you can always bother him via askbox

If you wanna follow up on an ask, please put it into a separate thread and link to the ask (cannot believe I forgot to mention my biggest pet peeve on here)

it would be awesome if you could cut your posts. You don't have to but if you don't it's unlikely I will follow back because I only have so much space on my dashboard and if I come back from work I'd rather not scroll through 98 posts on the same thread.

I don't mind duplicates - really I wanna see him mess with other versions of himself

in the spirit of favourites I'll probably find mains, those will be the people meant if any muse is ever mentioned in a thread. That's not first come, first served.

I'm very low activity. I will likely reblog one or two memes every day but answers will likely have to wait until the weekend.

The writer:

I'm not a good person even though people that know me will disagree

I agonize over everything I say and then it still comes out wrong

for someone usually rping muses with people skills I am AWFUL at it

I'm overthinking everything, I get anxious about anything and I wish any of my muses would just share a tiny bit of their fucking ego bc I sure could use it

You can call my Skully (Skullbert)

I'm 30+ years, from europe and a guy.

and verses!

encased in amber light ( main verse I; pre Penacony ) which is everything pre-penacony (as in everything up until 2.0 and actually checking into the hotel)

wip (mainverse II, actual Penacony)

the higher I get; the lower I sink. I can't drown my demons; they know how to swim ( post Penacony main verse ) which is everything everything after the stoneheart's oath video

swarm disaster; muse edition (star rail but the characters keep multiplying) ; anything from 'the characters found tumblr and use it' to general meeting multiple versions of the same character goes here

the emergency plan; depending on how the penacony storyline goes on, Ven fakes his death and hides out in Belobog from then on (though with Boothill's description I might have hopes that my suspicions are wrong)

everything else

[tadpolesonalgae]

helloooo, i hope this isnt weird at all.

u really inspired me to start writing one of the wips ive had cooking in my head for 10,000 years with CBMTHY (i love your interpretations of all the characters across everything youve written, even dark! versions of everyone).

but how do you get the thoughts in your head onto the page :( its a little demotivating to not be as good of a writer as I'd like. so im terrified constantly that the story isn't coming off correctly. it certainly doesn't help that I've been stewing on this fanfic concept since i initially read acotar and tog, (crossover shit woo!) but the scenes are so vivid in my imagination that everything i can actually type out seems to fall flat or seems jumbled with the amount i try to include.

like, i posted a part last night after having it ready to go for months (there are several more im hiding 😭) and have reread it 3 times and have to remind myself its fine and i dont need to delete it. but idk if im just being crazy tbh. Im also very much the same type of person who needs feedback in order to continue with creative projects. however the idea of even asking about it here is intimidating, especially after your stories helped push this lil amateur to write. But any help would be so greatly appreciated, especially becsuse theres no one ik personally who enjoys the series who would be willing to chat about it 😅

again, i hope its not weird that im not sending anything in directly related to ur work and asking for advice 😅😅 but i hope you have a good rest of ur day/ night !!

haha, don't worry about it! I'm not sure I'm the best person to offer advice on this since I'm just kind of writing what I want to write though, but I'll try and help.

What you mentioned about struggling to get thoughts down on the page - I think an element of it is probably feeling comfortable enough to put them down there in the first place? That and also having the words to know what you mean? Read around, listen to music, chat with people if you can and see if you can find stuff you resonate with and then pay attention to what it is and try to figure out why. And it can take a while to find the right words, so let yourself breathe.

Suddenly jumping into a project you've been hyping up in your mind won't come out pristine immediately, it might be a case of writing paragraphs once, then writing them out again beneath that but trying to improve on what you've already written with a thesaurus in hand. It might also be a case of listening to music that simulates the emotions you want to write out and then trying to articulate them in the moment. Also writing without thinking can help. Or writing exactly how you're thinking, I guess? It doesn't always work though, so I'd sincerely suggest trying to write some smaller things to start with or have on the side to help practice.

In terms of trying to find people to give feedback, I think interacting with other writers can help. I'm not the best person for this since I like being away from my computer/phone as much as possible, but chatting to writers off anon, or if your writing blog isn't your main one then switching to your writing blog to leave a comment or reblog and leaving notes in the tags is a really great way to show other people you're interested in acotar/tog and writing. If the idea of coming off anon to interact with writers is (like I find it) absolutely terrifying, you can always keep anon on but sign off using a specific pseudonym or emoji that will be recognisable! That way you can get used to chatting without entirely compromising your anonymity and hopefully become comfortable. Asking other people what they do to help them get their thoughts down too can help since you'll be more likely to find someone similar.

I'd also recommend that if your story is long to try planning it out roughly as chapters or bulletpoints so you don't have to store it all in your brain. Have playlists on hand or boards on Pinterest to look over.

I think it's great that you've posted a chapter though - if you have a project you want to do well it's so easy to get caught up in wanting it to be a good as possible that you never actually get around to posting it, so I think what you've done is a great start. If you're unhappy with it after a few months or so you can always edit, nothing's written in stone.

And if you want to write in again please feel free to! I promise it doesn't have to be about my writing and I would think other writers would feel the same. If you want to turn off anon that's fine, and if you want to use an emoji as a sign off that's cool too, you can work your way up to chatting more openly about the stuff you enjoy :)

Also, if anyone else thinks they have some good tips for writing, getting thoughts down, keeping up interest/motivation with a project please add them!

And anon if you want to send in a link to the first part of your story feel free to, or if you want to chat with me directly I'd be interested to have a peek at what you're writing? I love acotar but tog still has a special place in my heart so I'd love to read more content around it too. I know how scary it can be sharing stuff you've worked hard on :)

[bobthedragon2]

tagged by @1ore and i think i have to list 5 songs I am currently rotating (mentally)

I rarely listen to music but what I do listen to I describe as "bad" so here you go

rebel yell (billy idol) - bc of metal gear solid

porn star dancing (my darkest days) - OKAY HEAR ME OUT. sometimes a song is actually not about the subject, but is about the singer's character who is such a fucking loser and you think "oh my god this asshole needs to be stepped on please tell me more" and you end up obsessing over a song because of the offscreen main character: the unreliable horny narrator

I got a feeling (shock stars) - I actually love every song this band put out bless u shock stars

several other songs that are in mgs5 tbh :,,)

tagging other ppl in case they want to flay themselves too: @projectray12, @spinescent (specifically to torture you), @anti-king, @casketjones, @shinkei-shinto, @arborix also maybe @f-r-o-o-g, @lupusdraconis, @pixel-cherry-pie if yall want ?? deni I'd tag you, I love you, but your music terrifies me (you should do it anyway)

(obvi if you do not want to do not do it but i figured you'd all enjoy the thrill of being tagged anyway uwu/ )

[moefling]

ok i’m gonna talk about the RWRB Movie...

SPOILER: i’m gonna be negative and i’m not planning on watching the movie (i guess that means ppl are gonna block me??? idk why ppl are just mass blocking because of this but whatever) (edit: per a suggestion I swapped the tag on this post so it isn't tagged under "rwrb movie")

so i’m gonna start by saying that i’ve watched the trailer a few times and honestly i love the vibes, it makes me smile ever time.

-the kiss is great

-the butt slap is everything

-Henry’s facial expressions *chefs kiss*

-the visible chain around Alex neck. yes

i’m also gonna say that its great that people ARE going to see the movie, we need more queer movies and the only way for that to happen is if ppl watch the ones that are being made now.

so the bad.

honestly i could deal with a lot of the little things.  like they make my eye twitch a little but i do actually understand that you can’t 100% remake a book into a movie.

 BUT

it’s June that i can’t forgive.

if i’m wrong and she is in the movie than amazing and i redact everything but it doesn’t seem to be that way.

removing June makes me SO angry.  its like removing Alice from Twilight or Sam from Lord of the Rings.  if Main Characters are just the romantic leads (Alex and Henry) than June defiantly falls into secondary tier - all the Super Six kinda do (Bea would be the most removable for me but is is also necessary for Henry’s development as much as June is for Alex.

June balances Alex out.  the book even specifically states WHY all of the White House Trio are needed (page 28: “Alex pushes them. June steadies them. Nora keeps them honest.”) She keeps him sane and she put her life on hold to watch out for Alex, and Alex knows this!

the idea of Alex being an only child is terrifying.  he is already kinda selfish (i say that lovingly) and “a little shit” without growing up with an older sibling to shut him up he would be a monster (and Nora doesn’t count because first they don’t actually meet until Ellen is running with Mike as VP and second Nora’s personality is to “go with the flow” to really steady Alex)

June also has some important moments that happen in the book! like it doesn’t really work to have Nora be fake dating Henry for the like 2 days that that happens and no June means no Magazine moment (i know that isn’t really directly in the book but its a fav for everyone).  no June also really changes the tone of the Lake House....

ANWAY, moving away from June here is some other things that i don’t like (because its my rant and i want to, feel free to change my mind)

- the height difference (i did love the lifts comment in the trailer but idk if they’ll be able to keep that up in a way that makes since - that means that if they are every barefoot Alex would have to be shorter *cough* like swimming)

-the actor for Alex is to old.  i know ppl are really split about this but the actor feels put together and like an adult to me (vs. book Alex feels very young - or he honestly acts his age of 21/22).  i think the polo match scene says a lot for me in the postures of the 2 actors, Henry is ok (tho honestly i think he wouldn’t have the loose posture once he rejoined ppl but its cute so pass) but Alex is to stiff, he should be almost bouncing as he walks.

-WFT is Ellen’s accent in the trailer???

-i heard a rumor that Raf and Liam are merged and redone.  Gross and big no.

-King instead of Queen.  i understand why this was done but the tone changes a lot in my head of abusive Grandpa vs. Grandma

-Zahra.  don’t like, the vibe is off with the actress... can’t explain why except the smile in the photos and the bow in the trailer

 -i feel like some of the scenes feel still (this is 100% my opinion and i could be reading this VERY wrong so ignore this if you interpret it differently)

i really wanted to like the movie but realistically i probably wouldn’t watch the movie anyway because i have issues with that so..... i guess it doesn’t matter.

i hope ppl who watch it enjoy it and please separate tags of movie vs book, thanks