#that doesn't really matter since he is now outright stated to be

[pha55ed]

You and I | F2 (kimi bday celly!)

type ::fluff tw/cw :: fem!reader for all :( contains :: kimi!, ollie, paul, pepe request :: you and i w kimi ollie paul & pepe plsss (literally my top 4 drivers LOLL im surprised by how many f2 requests there are) link to kimi bday celly!

Kimi Antonelli | 04

Being one of the only girls in F2 meant that you were basically shipped with everyone on the grid, no matter if you ever talked to them. It was odd, but you expected all the ships to die down eventually, which most did. Except one ship: you and Kimi. It made sense, since you both are teammates after all.

Kimi doesn't know how to react to the shipping. Because on one hand, he knows it's inappropriate since you're teammates but on the other hand, he has a huge crush on you so he doesn't really mind it. So he's stuck in the middle, not sure what to do when asked anything about you.

When people ask him things like, "Have you seen the (Y/N) x Kimi fans?" or "Have you considered dating (Y/N)?" he just awkwardly laughs. Which is the worse option he could have done, since it just fueled the fanbase even more because he wasn't outright denying it.

But, he might have planned that: since he does love seeing all the edits of you two together :)

Ollie Bearman | 87

Since he's one of the most popular F2 drivers, he's already experienced being shipped with other people often. But usually he's shipped with boys, and he's comfortable with his sexuality to not get offended by the shipping since he knows he's not gay. The only issue now with being shipped with you is 1. you're a girl, 2. he does like you.

Whenever he's asked about you, he gets slightly flustered. It's clear to many that he might have a crush on you, but thanks to his delusional fan girls (I'm one of them) they spam Twitter and Instagram stating that you're just platonic soulmates with Ollie.

But Ollie is secretly basking in the ship edits of you and him. He doesn't want to be your platonic soulmate, he just wants to be your soulmate, period. Since he scrolls online so often to keep feeding his crush on you, he accidentally likes one of the ship edits.

This sends twitter into a meltdown, tons of moms and teen girls sobbing over Ollie basically confirming that he likes you. But thankfully, they gaslight themselves into thinking he thought it was a platonic edit. He knew damn well what he liked, but he's not allowed to say anything since it's a risk for PR and contracts - having two drivers date each other can get messy so fast. But he'd be ready to risk it all for you.

Paul Aron | 17

He's surprisingly bashful about the ships of you two, it's cute to watch him turn slightly pink in the ears and cheek at the mention of your ship name. Whenever he's asked about you, he can't help but try and lead the interviewer on - yet never give them a full answer of your relationship.

Your team won't allow you two to date, due to the high stakes and PR damage it would do. Especially since you're both so sought after - Paul being wanted by every girl, and you being wanted by every boy. But Paul didn't care for any girl besides you, you're all he wants and he's determined to get you. Most likely by dating under the table, hiding it from the world.

Whenever interviewers ask him things about his love life, he always hints that he has his eye on someone. Or whenever he's blantanlty asked about you, he can't help but smile a little and give a cheeky shrug, since he can't speak much on the matter.

As your teammate, he does try to flirt with you - but not in a douchebag way. Which is surprisingly, since his Instagram posts and friends scream frat-boy, he's different from them. He tries to take it slow with you, not wanting to scare you away by being seeming like a weirdo or asshole in any way.

Pepe Marti | 21

Being shipped with you made him happy and he's unable to hide that. He's naturally super smiley, so when he hears your name - it's almost as if you can see his tail wag at the mention of you. Just like a puppy, he has major puppy-love for you.

But he tries his best to not feed into the ships due to it going against the contracts and policies in place. His face just can't hide it though, he's grinning ear to ear when asked if he would ever date you. Only for him to reply, "Only if I got the chance to :)"

Basically: he makes your PR team work overtime to ensure the audience that you two are JUST friends. But it's hard to do when Pepe straight up tries to hold your hand in the paddock. Or when he posts on Instagram that you're visiting his family for dinner.

Thankfully, the PR are great at manipulating the public to believe you two are just friends - which you are technically,,, but you both know you're so much more than that.

[leonawriter]

It's a normal day in school - that is to say, school in Ekoda, Japan, since if he were in education in England he'd currently be attending college rather than the equivalent of Secondary education. More to the point, Saguru has been in and out of Japan often enough that the simple task of working in a teacher-assigned group was proving... difficult.

Their teacher must have noticed that although he could get along with almost any of the others merely by being polite, Kuroba did tend to act out less around him. Because they had been put in the same group, and expected to work together.

Only fifteen minutes in, however, and he could tell that things weren't working out. When Kuroba wasn't being belligerent, he was outright ignoring him.

Four and a half minutes later, and Kuroba wasn't even anywhere to be seen. Most likely he was somewhere nearby still, but the possibility remained that he'd simply taken off.

It was a state of affairs that had Saguru unable to stifle a sigh, no matter his relief that Aoko was still there with him.

"I get the impression," he said quietly, "that Kuroba-kun actively dislikes me. Perhaps I should have a word with the teacher and dissuade her from pairing us together, in future."

For an entire two minutes and thirty five seconds, Aoko didn't say anything. He glanced over, only to see her frowning.

"Really...? Aoko... isn't sure."

He blinks, confused and surprised. Surely she should have picked up on the awkward tension between them, by now-?

"Really?" He said dryly. "He can't ever seem to get rid of me fast enough."

It didn't matter how long it had been since the way he'd acted when they'd first met, or how he'd changed since then. Kuroba had made up his mind, and Saguru would be lying if he said that it did not, from time to time, hurt.

Aoko again took her time to think of how to respond.

"Kaito... Aoko thought he'd stopped doing that ages ago. He used to, after-" she cut herself off, but he could fill in the blanks. Kuroba's father was dead, after all, and grief did things to people. To children, especially. "He pushes people away when he thinks they're getting too close. He tried to push me and 'tou-san away too, but we're stubborn, and he doesn't bother anymore. But you didn't hear Aoko say any of that."

"Of course."

Kuroba didn't return for the rest of their classes.

Later that evening, Nakamori called with the news that a notice had somehow been delivered. Fairly straightforward, but in being so easily read it was also easy to read into it - the heist was due to take place once Saguru was supposed to already be back in London again.

The pieces were falling into place. He still had many missing, and it would be preferable to get confirmation from Kuroba himself (or Kid, if the case may be), but it was a working theory.

"It's a damn shame you won't be here," Nakamori was saying in the here and now, Saguru's attention snapping back to the problem at hand. "Could do with your help."

"No need for that," he heard himself say. "I'll be there."

It wouldn't take too much, to cancel his plans.

He was sure that the Kaitou Kid Task Force likely thought that the smile on his face was the result of him thinking of innovative new ways to trip Kid up - and in a way, they weren't wrong. Kid couldn't possibly be expecting Saguru to have decided that like hell was he just going to let himself be pushed away like that; now that he knew what was needed, he'd be as stubborn as it took.

[menfenced]

I've seen a lot of posts in the last 24 hours about why Kamala lost and I feel like most of them are failing to actually look at reasons voters are giving. Instead, they're putting forward what they personally didn't like about Kamala's campaign. But here's the thing to remember... You didn't like that thing about Kamala's campaign. You still voted for her. There's something else going on.

Because people didn't just vote against Kamala. They voted FOR Trump, and early polling results are showing they did it across the board in almost every demographic.

I've seen the calls for investigations into voter fraud and voter suppression because "this doesn't just happen!" and I agree with one thing. This doesn't "just" happen. There's a reason and democrats aren't listening. Because it's not just a handful of counties that got hacked or had crazy people trying to stop votes or didn't get all of their ballots counted. That's not to say that none of that stuff happened, of course. There may have been serious issues in some counties. But across the board, in nearly every state and every county, even if he didn't outright win, Trump made gains. The only two states where he didn't make gains: Washington State and Utah.

If that's due to voter fraud or hacked elections, it would have to be on a scale unlike anything we have ever seen before and honestly, we don't have any evidence of that right now.

So what happened? What do we know?

We know that since the pandemic and since the record inflation that caused, incumbent leaders all over the world have been losing elections at higher rates than usual. That crosses all political persuasions and again, has been seen across the globe.

Based on polling prior to the election, which remained fairly consistent throughout the election run, 3/4 US voters think the country is on the wrong track and 2/3 are unhappy with the economy.

Biden's approval rating when this election started was 40-41%

This is all a recipe for an incumbent losing, which to be frank, most people still saw Kamala as, even though she was running instead of Biden.

In addition to all of that, let's look at what the exit polls showed.

Kamala's approval rating in the exit polls was 48.5%

Donald Trump's approval ratings in the exit polls was 44.54%

And I know he wasn't running, but just for context Biden's approval ratings were 40%

When asked if Harris's views were too extreme, 46% said yes, 51% said no.

When asked if Trump's views were too extreme, 55% said yes, 43% said no.

So how did he win?

People like him less and think he's more extreme. Why did they vote for him?

Well, let's look at some other polling data.

45% of voters said that their family's personal financial situation was worse off than it was four years ago.

Only 25% said their financial situation was better than it was 4 years ago.

75% of people polled said that in the last year, inflation has caused them either severe or moderate hardship.

When asked who can bring needed change, 73% of voters said Trump and only 25% said Harris.

What that means is that a majority of American's don't like Trump. They don't think he's a good person. They think he's too extreme. And yet they still voted for him because the issue that was most important in this election was the economy.

Will Trump be better for the economy?

No.

But there's a perception that the current administration did not do everything they could have to fix it and people were willing to roll the dice on someone different.

Maybe we could have done more. Kamala only had 110 days to make her case and no matter what she said, the fact remained that she is the sitting VP. Maybe there was no way for her to escape the incumbent/status quo perception.

I hope we can learn something from the behavior of the American electorate this year, and I really hope Trump doesn't fuck things up too bad before we get another chance to step in, because the Republican Party is learning things too. They're learning that they can be as extreme as they want, but if they can make people believe the economy will work better under their leadership, even if it's not true, they'll still get votes.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

A while ago, you wrote that you were planning on writing an essay about the "subtextual queer-coding" of Louis's character... I want it bad, CJ.

I've said that a few times now; to quote myself from my Javier's bisexuality essay, "-one day I'll crawl out of my bog to write my analysis on the queer-coding/subtext of Louis' character because if I read "lmao Louis is such a Straight" one more time, I'm going to let the gators take a bite out of me just so that I can feel something other than irritation for once."

Dramatic, but that's how I felt in the moment of writing that essay.

I have two twdg essays I'm working on with other ideas on the backburners, not to mention essays and other projects for other fandoms on my side blogs, among more personal works... so y'know what, anon? For you, I'll do a impromptu mini-essay right now since I don't know when or if I'll ever have time to dedicate a full-length deep-dive essay to the topic.

Also, big thank you to @pi-creates for once again providing me with screenshots!

Louis is bisexual-coded and CJ's gonna prove it [probably]

First thing's first: queer-coding, what is it?

Just so that we're all on the same page, here's the basic idea: implications that a character is queer through intentional [but not always] subtext, and/or the use of stereotypes to indicate a character's queerness without outright stating it. It's been around forever; look up the history of The Hays Code to learn more, but essentially the film industry was like, "That's it! no swearing! no more blasphemy! no drugs or alcohol! and definitely no homosexuality! good, clean, god-loving movies only!"

So, what were writers and film makers to do? Why, they code their characters, of course.

There's a lot to learn about the history of queer coding, the good, the bad, the in-between--but I'm not here to give you that lecture. I'm here to talk about Louis.

Ah, Louis. My favorite TWDG character. Love him. Adore him. Written countless thought pieces on him. Definitely bisexual.

Well, to me he is, anyway.

It's like a spidey-sense in the back of my head, I look at Louis and I go, "I know what you are."

When it comes to interpreting media, my stance is that while authorial intent is important, it doesn't dictate my interpretation.

I lean more into "Death of the Author" in all the media I consume, whether that be books, movies, TV, video games, etc... unless there's a circumstance where I feel learning more about the author would benefit my reading of their material... hence why I care little for what the writers/devs of TFS say about the story/characters as I don't want their influence, yet I'm reading all of Tillie Walden's books in order to better understand the Clementine books for my analysis.

As a bisexual myself, it's true that I may just be projecting onto my favorite character due to my desire to see a bi4bi couple in one of my favorite video games. That's how most headcanons come to be, no? We wish to see ourselves represented in characters we love, especially when we feel mis/underrepresented in media.

I believe Louis has some queer coding going on. I don't believe it's intentional, but it doesn't need to be in order to exist. It's there, I feel it when I play the game, no one gets to tell me otherwise.

First let's tackle the idea of, "how can Louis be bi if he's never seen flirting with any guys?" ...because I have a feeling that might come from the same people who say "he's such a Straight," y'know?

We know for sure that Louis likes girls--he has a crush on Clementine no matter what, and he makes a point of saying he's never had a girlfriend before... so if he's bi, why doesn't he also point out that he's never had a boyfriend before?

Because Clementine's not a boy.

No, really, it's that simple. Clementine is his only love interest in TFS, and having him bounce around flirting with everyone wouldn't be in character for him. He's friendly, sure, but friendliness and being flirtatious aren't the same thing.

But if he's bi, why wouldn't he flirt with his best friend, Marlon, or with Aasim? Mitch? What about the great chef god Omar?

I don't know--why doesn't he flirt with Brody? Or Ruby?

Again, I must point you to my essay on Javier and how much I disapprove of this notion that all bisexual characters have to "prove" they're bi by flirting with all genders--if they aren't running around DTF with everyone, then are they really bisexual???

First of all, stop that. A lot of people, usually straight, are under the impression that bisexuality is about who and how many people you're dating/sleeping with when no, that's not it.

Second, why would he flirt with them? He's not that type of character, and none of them are his love interest. His love interest is Clementine.

In ep1, during the card game, Louis asks Clementine if she's ever had a boyfriend [he wants to gauge her interest in boys since he's a boy], and he says she can ask him if he's ever had a girlfriend before [letting her know he likes girls] and that he hasn't, by the way. Hint hint.

Louis has no reason to add that he's never had a boyfriend, either. The game's making its intent clear with this: Louis is a potential love interest for Clementine.

It does this with Violet, too. It's just different. Violet doesn't need to explicitly state that she's only into girls, the game goes to great lengths to show us this through the writing. C'mon, we all know what "Minnie and I... we were close," really means. Your spidey-senses were tingling, especially if you're queer, too.

If you go fishing with Violet and Brody, you've told the game you're more interested in Violet than Louis at this point, so you find the heart with her and Minerva's initials carved in it. That's the game making another thing clear: Violet likes girls, she's the other potential love interest for Clementine.

Y'know, in case all the "Louis or Violet" choices weren't enough of an indication.

The first card game is usually what I see pointed at when someone goes, "lmao Louis is such a Straight" for asking Clementine that, and I'm like... this? Are you sure?

Honestly, my theory is people really want Louis and Violet to fit into the straight himbo/lesbian friendship dynamic, which like... you can still do that if he's not straight. I'm just sayin'.

"But CJ, how else would we know he's not straight if he doesn't show attraction to boys?"

By looking at literally everything else about him. He doesn't need to openly flirt with other boys to be bi. Bisexuality is more than that, it's a personal queer experience. There are things in the subtext of his character, and TFS in general, that lead me to believe he is.

Heteronormative thinking could be playing a part: "cis/straight's the default until proven otherwise." Hence why some need more "proof" of him expressing interest in people who aren't female...tbh I think some people are just dumb and miss the point of headcanon in fandom culture. It's not about what's objectively true with heaps of evidence, it's about looking at canon and interpreting it through our personal lens... but whatever it's fine, ignore me, I'll just continue on then-

I believe the Ericson crew don't operate under that line of thinking.

I touched on this a little before, but TFS's narrative is steeped in queer themes; an oppressive older generation who uses force to try to shape the Ericson crew to be like them, and if they fight back, they're punished; found family and acceptance, love in a world that doesn't want you; the troubled youth of Ericson being abandoned because parents didn't want to deal with them, sending them away to be "fixed." There's no getting away from it.

I think Louis puts it best when you appeal to him in ep1: "This is how adults do things, not us."

They're a generation who only had each other, abandoned by the adults who were supposed to love them, supposed to make them better. They're a generation of genuine acceptance when it comes to each other. Clementine and AJ are able to integrate with them because they're the same way. When AJ sees the heart with Violet and Minerva's initials in it, he doesn't question how two girls could be together, he just says, "Oh. Love." and then he moves on. He grew up differently than you and I, they all did.

We also need to consider where Louis came from before Ericson.

Louis has an artistic hobby in music, something we haven't seen before in TFS as we're often too busy trying not to die to explore hobbies. The most we see of something similar is when Mariana listens to music on a cassette player.

TFS introduced characters who have interests they pursue outside of survival, and they're more artistic things. Louis plays piano and writes music. Tenn's an artist who reintroduces AJ to drawing. Aasim writes and openly journals about the days as a record. Omar takes great pride in his cooking, which is an art in of itself. Violet mentions not being into arts and crafts, but she still makes Clementine a pin when you take her route, and she wants to dance with Clementine if they're romantically involved. Minerva had a talent for music, and Sophie for art when they were there, too.

I don't think I need to tell you that many look down on the arts--I think we're well aware. We're also aware of the stereotypes of men in the arts, no? "A boy who likes art?? Son, why can't you be normal and like sports!?" That nonsense.

Louis grew up wealthy with parents who gave him everything he ever wanted, except for one thing. As he tells it, he wanted singing lessons so he could be a real musician, but his father denied him; "You get to be happy, or you get to be rich, can't be both."

Huh... can't be both, can't have both, can't like both... where have I heard that one before?

Alright, maybe interpreting the use of the word "both" here as a metaphor for bisexuality is a major stretch. I know, but listen, in my experience there's always this feeling of "pick one" when it comes to outsiders who don't understand. The fact that Louis' father tried to teach him a "dad lesson" in this specific way is... interesting, to say the least.

The implication is that Louis was a spoiled brat and his father tried to teach him that you don't always get what you want in life... but why draw the line at music, specifically? Music is something his father could've thrown money at. Louis could've had the privilege of the finest vocal coaches at such a young age. He could've become a glowing success and never ended up at Ericson.

Music isn't gendered nor is it inherently queer... but I often wonder if his father would've had the same approach if Louis came to him and said, "I want to be a professional baseball player," instead. After all, in many circles it's more sociably acceptable to have a son who plays baseball, or any sport, rather than a son who takes singing lessons, no? And the fact that his father presents it as a "choice" between the arts and conformity.... C'mon, it's representative of a "choice" people try to enforce on bisexual people: pick the "gay" option and face the consequences, or pick the "straight" option and adhere to easy heteronormativity. That's not how that works, by the way.

But I digress, it's probably not that deep, but still.

Louis' response to all of this was basically, "Fuck you, I'm gonna destroy your marriage. That'll teach YOU a lesson." Real chaotic bisexual behavior here... Okay, I joke, but he's always been one for the dramatics, I suppose.

What I'm getting at is the concept of a character, typically masculine, enjoying the arts only for their more conservative family to disapprove makes an appearance in a lot of stories containing queer themes. It's understandable to raise an eyebrow at Louis for having a backstory like that, even if it's "not the point."

Now, let's examine his relationship with Clementine.

I will die on the hill that clouis is bi4bi.

Louis is peak bi love interest energy.

When we think of a typical straight male love interest, what do we think of? Specifically in the romance genre? I don't know about you, but I read a lot of romance, and well... the leading men tend to have some things in common. Y'know, he's unbelievably handsome and broody. He's an asshole but it's kinda hot? I guess? Not really, but the leading lady's into it. He's what you'd find under the definition of "toxic masculinity" but it's fine, she's going to fix him! With her love! He's really not that bad, he's just sad about his tragic backstory! And also, he's really hot!

Every time I pick up a book and I get the sense this is where it's going, I take a moment to debate with myself whether I'm willing to power through this in hopes that the book does something actually interesting with it... it usually doesn't.

Louis doesn't exactly fit in this mold, which in my opinion, is a good thing. Instead, he's charismatic and friendly. He cares about people and isn't afraid to show it. He watches over AJ until Clementine wakes up, and gives him his food after AJ eats all of his. He's interested in music, but he's not a weak survivor. He struggles with his self-esteem and the guilt of his actions hurting those he cares about. He's hurt and traumatized over Marlon's death and it causes him to lash out, but he gives Clementine a genuine apology. He strives to be better for her, AJ, and everyone at Ericson.

He's sweet with Clementine even before they're romantically involved, and if she doesn't share his feelings, he accepts that. He doesn't feel entitled to her. He isn't the "Nice Guy" trope.

He respects her autonomy, and admires the strengths she has rather than feeling threatened by them. He doesn't get jealous or possessive. He's never physically aggressive with her, and he never makes any sexist comments about how she can't do this, or how she needs to do this, because she's female.

It's the fact that he'd like Clementine no matter what. Louis feels like someone who likes who he likes regardless of gender.

Louis is soft, something that can be construed as weak, even though that's far from the case. It's not just his personality, either; let's take a quick look at his physical appearance.

Louis has a softness to him; long hair, freckles all over his face, his lips are fuller, he's tall and thin but not exactly broad in the shoulders, especially when compared to the other men in TFS. His appearance isn't considered intimidating, and I wouldn't say that his traits lean heavy into the masculine.

We joke about him being so fashionable in the apocalypse, but his long jacket is more evocative of "fashion over function," a stereotype often thrown at feminine fashion... though I suppose you could argue that's where he keeps Chairles so it is functional.

There's the way he presents himself, and yes, even the way that he stands at points, I have no other explanation for other than, "......it's the vibe, there's bisexual energy there."

Look, I'm no body language expert, okay...

...but c'mon, what is this?

I know it's dumb, but there's something to it, that's why so many of us make the "Louis ain't straight, look at how he stands" jokes.

All of this contributes to the subtext of Louis being a bisexual character. It's not about how many genders he openly flirts with, it's about how he's written, both as a character and as the male love interest. It doesn't matter how intentional it was because it's there, I recognize it.

Again, I'll reiterate that this is how I interpret TFS, clouis, and Louis as a character. As a bisexual myself, I'm going to have bias toward this topic. At the end of the day, it's fiction and Louis is a character, y'know? Headcanon is all in good fun, and I'd like to hear y'all's thoughts on this subject.

I don't know what else I can say other than, "Dude, just look at him!"

[luna-loveboop]

Wild's apology

Since I really love proper apologies and taking account for actions, I MUST rant about Wild's apology because there are so many details making it... good. Just good.

First panel face, he looks uncertain. Hyrule said the little guy wanted to talk to him, but he doesn't know if it's only one little guy

We have the best opening line we all love, hoping he can imitate Zelda's diplomacy. Wild did not- his apologizing varied wildly from Zelda's, and I think that's a really good thing

His Zelda's diplomacy is a royal style, seen in totk memories. When diplomatic, she uses formal words and straight posture, with her hands at her side or clasped in front. She doesn't need to say it's formal, since that's assumed. Wild did not imitate her exact style, but he kept the end goal of peace.

This whole first panel with him showing such tension, hoping with all his might it goes well, resolving to act the best he can to fix it... yes

There's something really telling about Wild's face walking in. He looks angry. With everything we've seen of his actions after twilight was injured, it's clear by now that when Wild's scared, it comes out as anger. All the previous yelling was because he was scared.

Since Wild's face looks angry walking in, after deciding to imitate diplomacy? I think he was terrified.

One thing I love watching in people is how much the smallest body parts can show their thoughts. Hands can tell a lot about how someone's feeling. When Wild starts talking to Four, his hands show he's being open.

Arms down at his side, palms up and hand reaching out. That hand and arm position shows vulnerability- he's literally opening his body to be open in his words and feelings.

And he's says "I know why you wanted to see me", which, well

lol

Still, he came in immediately speaking to work to patch things up. The words "I'm ashamed"... admitting you're wrong is hard. Even harder is discussing the feelings that come with it.

Moving on, Wild's moving ahead to apologizing.

Wild is not royalty, and neither is four. Truly imitating Zelda's diplomacy with royal posture and attitude would have been weird. What they are is warriors, comrades who win battles together. And four works with the captain, who certainly sets an example of military respect. This is where him not exactly imitating Zelda's diplomacy is better, since he is not a princess.

He's a soldier in this moment. We don't know how much he remembers of his initial knighthood, but his soldier diplomacy kicked in here. He's basically standing at attention in the side view. Four is much shorter than him, but his straight posture and forward facing head (not looking down) shows absolute respect regardless of height. He outright states it's a formal apology.

Awesome. It's not polished or perfect, there was a pause before the rather awkwardly phrased statement about initiating. But awkwardness makes it real. His face still looks fairly angry here! I still interpret it as fear.

His hands are straight at his side, then formally on his chest. He can't be the perfect knight anymore- instead he's awkward and unpolished. But he's doing diplomacy the best he knows how, even if four absolutely did not care about a formal tone.

Moving on! Four's listening.

Wild loosens up here. There's only so long our wild child can be formal, so he's not unnaturally pausing and trying to phrase things formally anymore

Hand placement: the hand behind the head is the Link pose we all know, where apparently it's a part of the hero's spirit when feeling awkward.

His hand goes from behind his head to held up in the air when saying "look, I'm sorry for shoving ya" I honestly like to think of this as pulling the apology from behind his head lol. Thinking for words "now where did I put that apology?" Finds it and holds it up "look! I'm sorry. It was just in the back of my mind."

His hand then goes down to his side, and he's open again. Palm out, he's putting him out there.

His word choice matters. "ya"

"Honestly, that warranted an all out brawl" ... good. He's saying his actions were wrong- that he deserved anger towards him. Saying "all out brawl" validates fours actions. It warranted an all out brawl... that says that to wild, what four did was ok. All of it sucked, but it's ok.

My favourite line. "Thanks for going easy on me." It's important in so many ways for humility, showing respect, and how four could have done more, blah blah blah anyways I like it because I can imagine he says that and then the purple part of four just grins like "yeah I totally could have beat you up glad we're clear on that". I mean Four has done nothing but manically cackle when someone mentions his secret, so I think he probably had a devilish grin inside when Wild said thanks for going easy on me.

It's an apology and it's awkward! Awkward pauses, awkward faces. Hand behind the head, "ya". It was awkward. He kept going, showed sincerity. He struggled ahead, forging his way through (no pun intended), because it. Matters. To. Him. Being a person who can take responsibility is great and he cares about it. But the real reason is because four matters to him, and they have come so far. The amount of care it takes to just keep going until it's resolved shows a gold heart.

There's one of my favourite parallels between this update and a previous one in his explanation after apology. In his explanations... his face is the same.

And this gets me so much. Look at this guy and his past. He was a perfect silent knight. Losing his cool or expressing emotion or fears was not even an option. And now he can mess up- which is terrifying. But look at how vulnerable his face is, how much he's allowing himself to feel in order to properly express his want to fix things.

And then he offers four his hand. If offering someone your hand and taking it isn't the sincerest form of love... this is so sweet. His face is so open, really wanting to (re)connect with four.

They shake hands and the apologies are over, they move on to shiny metal. "Oh."

And overall this is incredible. People can admit they're wrong and apologize, anyone can say words. But to have facial expressions, posture all the way to hands, and connotations of words all showing honest sincerity is far more than most can ever hope for.

There's my favourite parallel in the progression in this update, the two times they took hands.

The first time is Wild offering his hand after apologizing, and this is where we get the last remnants of a formal soldier apology. Standing straight, arms straight towards each other.

Later on they take hands again, this time as friends connecting beyond making up.

...

Making mistakes and hurting people doesn't make someone unlovable. Working to fix your mistakes makes someone lovely.

[merakiui]

post overblot riddle being literally horrified when coming to his senses and finding out what he did to you. nobody really knows how to act after that (ace has a thing or two to say, though...)

(cw: mentions of past non-con, continuation of this post)

The tension and the discomfort that blankets Heartslabyul is so thick and tangible you could slice it with a knife. For a dorm that is so bright and vibrant, smelling pleasantly of roses and pastries at all hours, a stifling darkness lingers. No one says anything outright, but they whisper, exchanging secret conversation about what may happen, about how you may be faring, about what will become of their dorm leader. Cater and Trey take charge, though it's mainly the latter who does so in Riddle's absence, attempting to smooth things over in the aftermath. They redirect attention on other matters, namely cleaning up the dorm in the wake of Riddle's Overblot. And anyone who asks about it is given the same answer from Trey and Cater each time: "Right now, let's just focus on getting back to the usual."

But there can't be a "usual." Not right now, at least, and probably not for a while. The sun feels colder and the rose maze is thick and thorny with sin. Someone has to tell him, but no one wants to be the bearer of that news.

Ultimately, it's Trey who sits down at Riddle's bedside in the infirmary to deliver the news a few days into his recovery. Ace had been adamant that he state the facts, cold and brutal, rip the bandage clean off, to prevent any coddling. He's had a lot of words ever since that day, and even though he and Deuce have tried to get into the private room you're currently staying in to recover you turn everyone away. It hurts, but Ace knows the pain he and Deuce feel is nothing compared to all that you went through. The only one permitted to see you is Grim, which is a relief because at least you have someone to keep you company while you talk things through with the headmaster. Ace will be the first one in Crowley's office if he, in his very frustrated words to Deuce, "fucks this up and doesn't help accordingly."

Ace is so angry. Deuce is, too, but there's a part of him that wants to sympathize with Riddle despite the horrible thing he's done. Because Riddle is their classmate, someone who Deuce looks up to, and now his very name is enough to remind him and Ace of that horrible day in the rose maze. There are a lot of conflicting feelings in Heartslabyul, but everyone can agree it doesn't feel the same.

Riddle's face falls as Trey tells him everything, sparing no details but choosing somewhat softer words to lessen the blow. He's not malicious in his retelling and he tries to be stern, but there's no soft way of saying it (and there shouldn't be a soft way of saying it, but Trey cares too much, even when he knows he should be objective right now). Riddle sits there in the infirmary bed, staring at his hands, unable to lift his head to meet Trey's eyes. His expression twists through all manner of emotions. He can't believe it. He, the rule-abiding, always respectful honors student, did something so callous? So brutal and monstrous... And what's more is that he has no recollection of it, his memories of that day falling away the minute blot consumed him. But Trey is serious and truthful. He knows it's not a joke or a lie.

Great Seven, he's crushed.

Riddle can't even sew a simple sentence together, struck speechless with shock and regret and disgust and all sorts of emotions. He's so ashamed and immensely apologetic. He doesn't know where to begin. And though he knows he shouldn't think like this, he can't help fearing what his mother will say and do, what everyone else at school might be saying as he sits here in the infirmary, what the professors will say, how everyone will look at him with revulsion because he's a vile, gross, villainous thing... He's meant to be good and that's all he's ever been, but now he's not. The weight of it all is too heavy; he feels like he might stop breathing if he thinks about everything too deeply. He still can't believe it. It's impossible to think he could ever stoop so low and cruel, to put his hands on you and do something so inappropriate and detestable.

And then there's you. You probably hate him for what he's done, and Riddle understands that well enough because when he looks at himself in the mirror he hates himself, too. Perhaps even more fiercely than you do. And you might be scared of him and you might never forgive him (which in his eyes is fine because he can't forgive himself). You might never want to see or speak to him again, and there's a scared part of him that doesn't want to face you. He knows he must apologize, but then no amount of apologies can possibly undo what's already been done.

For once in his life, he doesn't know how to solve this problem. Because it's not like an equation that can be worked out with a linear process. It's not like a textbook exam, where material can be pulled from the paragraphs and used to better oneself for studying purposes. It's nothing of what he's used to. The situation is delicate and must be treated as such, but he's certain of one thing.

He'll accept whatever punishment comes his way. That is what's fair and right, and Riddle will not argue that. When his own logic fails him and he struggles to come to terms with it, he can be comforted knowing that, in the eyes of the law, he has committed a serious offense and as such it will be punished accordingly. He uses this as a means of slowly working through it all: the situation itself, the impact, the emotions, the thoughts of you and everyone else.

Most of all, if he's allowed to hope and wish for anything, he wants you to feel better. When he cries, it's not for himself. He cries for you because you didn't deserve any of the pain and humiliation he subjected you to. You don't deserve to feel impure and filthy, scared and alone, disgusted with the way your skin fits over your bones after it's been used and disrespected.

An Overblot is no excuse for his behavior; he won't blame his actions on that. It's immature and wrong to avoid the matter at hand. He'll take full responsibility.

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - Cruelty vs Restraint

Fire Lord Ozai, no matter how pathetic he is as a person, is still one of the most chilling villains in any animated series (Outside of like Emperor Belos, Bill Cipher, DCAU!Joker, Slade, and Professor Pericles). Despite only appearing in the flesh in season 3, his buildup through both the Fire Nation and his own family is amazing. We see that he scarred his son for both speaking out against him and not fighting back, we see that he basically groomed his daughter into a killing machine, we see that he's authorized so many war crimes, we see the crimes of his ancestors, and they all showcase one thing. He is unbelievably cruel. Born evil? No. Cruel to the point of disgust? Absolutely. Ozai, as the head of an imperialistic system, believes that he has a "Divine Right to Rule" and that "strength is all that matters", though his idea of strength is pure relentlessness and remorseless cruelty. In his eyes, if you're unable to burn whatever stands in your way with zero hesitation, then that makes you weak. It's a simplistic ideology for a villain, but its effective because of the type of villainous force the Fire Nation is (The fckin' Axis Powers), and the type of protagonist that The Avatar, Aang is.

Aang is an Air Nomad, a monk to put it simply. He lived a simplistic life before his people got eliminated by the Fire Nation 100 years ago, and part of that simplistic lifestyle involved zero killing. It's literally ironic since previous Avatar's have never hesitated to outright execute someone if they had to for the sake of peace. Since Aang is the current Avatar, and the current Fire Lord is literally threatening the world with the most brutal breed of fascism possible... you can see where this is going. Aang wants to stop Ozai, but he isn't willing to betray the beliefs of his long dead people. So when this inevitable fight starts, it got ugly really quick.

After stoping Ozai's attempt at turning the Earth Kingdom into a wasteland, Aang gets his attention and tried talking him into surrendering, but as expected Ozai doesn't back down. Aang does indeed fight this bastard, but consistently spends the fight restraining himself. He has opportunities to just snuff out Ozai's life, but chooses not to because of his beliefs. Meanwhile Ozai isn't hesitating at all. This is a man who burned his own kid for speaking out against him and showing weakness, so he has no qualms with killing this child who froze himself for 100 years.

Aang continues to restrain himself, while Ozai keeps trying to go in for the kill, taunting the last airbender while doing so and making him run. The Fire Lord continues showing absolutely zero mercy towards Aang, even as the boy is hiding, and this ultimately became his undoing. Thanks to his literal inability to show mercy, Ozai forced Aang into the Avatar State, and from there he is shown a power far beyond his own.

Now that he's literally pissed off the most powerful entity on the planet, Ozai begins getting completely and utterly washed. He is getting stomped out, and there is not a single thing he can do about it. He cannot fight back, and running is definitely not a luxury that he's being afforded. Now he's the helpless one while Aang is the one showing zero restraint, and it's made all to clear when Aang literally pins Ozai down onto the ground, getting ready to kill this man with all four elements.

Except, Aang doesn't do it. He regains control of himself, and regains that restraint, that desire to hold onto his people's beliefs, and shows Ozai mercy. Despite literally everything, Aang doesn't want to end it all like this. Ozai on the other hand is pissed.

"Even with all the power in the world, you are still weak."

Ozai was shown the immense power of the Avatar, and he was afraid of that power. Then he is shown mercy by this being who could decimate him in one shot? As scared as he was in that moment, Ozai would've rather died to someone that could overpower or at least have the will to kill him than be spared. So naturally, he wastes the mercy Aang gave him in an attempt to kill him, but ultimately gets pinned down, and unfortunately for him Aang remembered a little trick he learned before this fight. The ability to remove one's bending. So just like that, Ozai doesn't die, but rather is is powerless, humiliated, and shown for what he truly is... a small man pretending to be a big bad wolf.

Ultimately for all of his thoughts on what makes one "strong" and "weak," for all his talk about how he has a "right" to rule, and for all of his cruelty and ruthlessness, Ozai is ultimately just an pathetic human being using the past of his bloodline and his nation to become more than what he is. Meanwhile a literal CHILD MONK, the last personification of restraint and simplicity, not only kicks his ass, but proves that him wrong on so many levels and exposes him for what he really is. Fire Lord Ozai is a simplistic villain with minimal screen time, but what carries him is indeed his buildup as this purely monstrous figure, his constant presence, his cruelty, and the payoff that is this phenomenally done final fight.

[minzart]

saw you bored, so!

how do you think the cast of twst would react to MC referencing the villains in ways that go against the dorm's fundamental ideals

In heastlabyul I can see ace, Trey and Carter agreeing with Yuu's "THE QUEEN BROKE THE RULES ALL THE TIME! HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THERE ARE SO MANY RULES THAT CONTRADIC EACH OTHER?!" Riddle however is fuming with rage and ready to absolutely behead you with his own bare hands, Deuce believes but he's having a hard time remembering wich rules Yuu's referring to

In savanaclaw I can see them not beliving Yuu or not giving a shit, "so? What if the king of beasts might have been a coward in his dieing breath? Were you there? Are you sure? No? So shut it"(Leona probably). Jack's probably more curious on were Yuu is getting this ideas from, everyone is tbh but he's the only one admitting it

Octavinele, Azul specifically, I can see him making excuses for Ursula like "SHE'S A BUSSINES WOMAN OF COUSE SHE IS GONNA TRY TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR WHOEVER THE HELL "ARIEL" IS?? THAT'S JUST HOW BUSSINESS WORK!" Jade is filming and Floyd is throwing more fire into the circus, sometimes siding with Yuu others with Azul.

Now Scarabia, I can see Kalim being more curious than anything, he would be more inclined to belive Yuu's words since they are friends, and bc he's the more emotionally intelligent I can see him believing these stories bc even The sorcerer of sands was probably a person with feelings and emotions that can get turbulent as anyone else. Jamil won't outright tell Yuu they are dumb but lord he is thinking about it and just would be like "alright but if he did when MAD with power then what about the stupid ruler?"

I can only see zero fucks given by the Pomefiore trio, "oh? She was jealous of someone's apearence? Sounds familiar to me-"(epel probably), Vil has Neige my guy of course he gets jealous, specially if the compliment came from someone you actually care about (see aparently in some versions the Mirror is Grimhilde's father), in other words he kins her, Rook is Rook he will wax prety poetry of the human nature still being beautiful even at it's ugliest

Ignhyde, I can see Ortho searching for this info online and either stating he found it or that the record has been lost to time and being frustrated by it, Idia will still say that the underworld king still invented that counter so Yuu can't say he WASN'T a genius, even if the way he made his plan was dependable on luck and organic matter.

In Diasomnia, Lilia didn't expected anything diferent knowing the draconia line he probably assumes every dragon fary is that petty, Silver doesn't doubt it happened but doesn't really care that much, sebek is siding with Maleficent bc he is a simp for the Draconia Bloodline and Malleus is pouting bc in his head she was absolutely justified to curse a fucking baby for not being invited.

[polyamzeal]

I don't know where I'm going with this, I think I just need to get it off my chest.

I'm a woman in a great, loving relationship with a man. However, I am also queer and would love to have more no-strings-attached sex with other women. Like, I'm not looking for a girlfriend or committed partner, but FWB would be nice, you know? Or, like, someone's booty call? That's not an unreasonable thing to want and *be open* with wanting, right?

But it's like, no matter how open I am about the fact that my husband would *not* be part of this (aside from like a quick convo so he can veto it if he's too uncomfortable for any reason), I get yelled at for being a unicorn hunter. I get banned from apps for being a unicorn hunter. I get underhanded insults about unicorn hunters in irl spaces. I get friends not wanting to be friends because I'm a unicorn hunter, even though I never hit on them at all. On top of that (and yes, I'm not a fan of this either, but it is what it is), my husband has a one-penis policy, so I get shamed and ridiculed for wanting to respect my husband's wishes, too. I don't want to be restricted to cis women only and I see how it sucks, but it feels kind of unfair that I get shit for respecting someone else's boundaries.

I guess I just wish people wouldn't act as if I'm trying to set them up with my husband when I'm not. When I'm specifically looking for things I don't get in my relationship and I openly state that aside from just saying hi to him once, they literally do not ever have to even be in the same room again. But nope, all I get is "unicorn hunter kys". The funny thing is that he finds women to sleep with just fine without ever getting these reactions, even when he mentions me. Hell, even when those women meet me, he's never accused of the same thing.

It sucks. I kind of wish my husband could just get over his fear of other people's genitals so I could just exclude cis women since that seems to be the major issue, but it's not fair to demand that he shifts his boundaries for my benefit so here we are. I guess I'm just asking this - am I really doing something reprehensible and unforgivable here? Am I just the perfect example of the cringe space-invading loser in a one-penis policy het relationship giving every polyam person a bad name by wanting to fuck a woman every now and then? Am I the stereotype of everything you shouldn't be? I've given up on all of this already and accepted that my husband gets the adventures and I don't, but I guess I just want a post-mortem on how much I fucked up here.

I swear I already answered this but it is in my inbox and I can't find a record of answer it so I am just going to blame Tumblr.

You are not doing anything wrong. I think the most important thing is just being upfront and honest about what you are looking for. Be clear and direct with people. If they insist on making up their own assumptions and accusations then their loss.

That being said, I do think your husband's OPP is quite troublesome. I don't know if I would phrase it as "respecting his boundary." I feel like a boundary would be more like "He doesn't want you to sleep with other penis-havers so if you do then he withdraws his consent to have sex with you until a week after you stop having sex with other penis-havers" or something like that where you can decide what you want to do and if it is worth it for you but how he reacts is on him. This just sounds more outright like 'rule' rather than a 'boundary'. Perhaps it is all semantics though.

Putting all that aside, I would say just be patient as you try to find woman that understand your situration. And are willing to trust you to work with your needs.

[kirchefuchs]

heyy so remember the Skip Button Ending

allow me to just tell u a bit of smthn that constantly resides in my brain

The Skip Button Ending happened in The Narrator's memory zone

When Stanley disappeared for so long, not only did The Skip Button turn into The Narrator's past, it slowly became the only memory he knew. That was why the door disappeared; there were no other places in the memory zone. The Narrator locked himself in his past, present.. ..and future.

And guess what happened when The Narrator died and Stanley was able to get out? There were no other memories; just the broken reminiscence of the skip button.

anywho so that's why I'm sad today

—🅰️non

Oh wow. Okay. That's heartbreaking and absolutely awesome. I love this idea so much.

(I'm about to go on a super long tangent so I'm putting a readmore here)

Consider the following: since it's all but stated outright that the Epilogue takes place right after the Skip Button Ending, and you find the remains of the Memory Zone and parts of the office, Narry isn't dead yet, but he's dying. Barely holding on, mostly dead, like Westley from Princess Bride. The only reason the Parable hasn't collapsed in on itself and the only reason the Timekeeper can reset anything at all is because Narry is still just barely there.

But oh my gosh this is still so freaking cool, and it makes sense how Stanley can be both in the past and the future at the same time, since after the Skip Button he both is reset and not reset at the same time so he can still effect the Parable and in turn the Epilogue since he's in both times at once. Like how you can get the bucket in the Epilogue if you put it in the Escape Pod.

I imagine that Timekeeper us really just trying to keep the Parable going to keep Narry alive, keep him in his loop just before death so their entire world doesn't collapse around them. And the only way for any of this to change is if Stanley does something about it. No one else can affect the Parable in quite the way Stanley can, and so the only way to free them all from this loop would be for Stanley to take Narry with him to the Escape Pod, take him there and trigger the ending to free them all from the game.

Ohhhhh oh ho ho ho!!! This would be so cool!!!! Anon I love you for this idea!!! My brain is full of ideas now and I wanna scream/pos

So to summarize here

By making the Skip Button in the Memory Zone the Narrator inadvertently causes the Skip Button to be all his memories are and as the percieved years and decades and centuries pass the Narrator loses his grip on the Parable to the point where he's so weak and close to death that everything starts to crumble around them. As Stanley steps out into the desert the Timekeeper jumps in to reset the game as they realize what's happening to it as the Narrator dies. The Timekeeper only has enough control over the resets to put them in a continuous never-ending loop that resets just before the Narrator dies in a futile effort to keep the Parable collapsing, which would kill everyone inside. Eventually Stanley discovers that he's still able to change things about their future. After countless loops in the Parable Stanley finds out (probably from the Timekeeper themself) that the only way to free them all from the loop would be for Stanley to take the Narrator through the Escape Pod Ending. It takes a lot of convincing but eventually they manage it and as the door to the Escape Pod closes and their vision fades to black.... they wake up outside the Parable and in the real world, they're free. Everyone who was stuck there was released and the Parable itself, without the Narrator, Curator, and Timekeeper there to keep the game running it collapses and is left a shell of what it used to be. But what does that matter when everyone made it out safely.

And they all go on to figure out the world together. Stanley, Mariella, and 432 likely taking the lead as they were humans trapped inside the game and still remember some of how the outside world works.

And they all live happily ever after!

Yaaayyy happy ending :D

[just-a-carrot]

okookookkokoko WHERE DO I EVEN START. I LOVE THIS GAME SM SMH BUT I HAVE A HARD TIME EXPLAINING STUFF SO TAKE THIS SHORT PASSAGE. (Most of this will be an unorganized ramble btw)

(SPOILER WARNING FOR MOST ARCS)

I played T2A2G and OC before this so um. Guess which route I did lmao. SPEAKING OF ROUTES, GENZOU GENZOU GEZNOU GEZNOU GEZNOU OMG GENZOU. I RELATE TO THIS MAN IN WAYS I DID NOT KNOW I COULD RELATE TO A CHARACTER. LIKE WTH?? HE HAS SUCH A TRANSPARENT CLOSET LOL. And also speaking of Genzou I do have a few questions related to him

-Is Genzou fully blind? I don't think he is bc of his cane but I heard it's different in some countries so idk

-We learn Genzou is (supposedly) taking antidepressants in Arc 2. Is he clinically depressed? (According to the Visual Noval Database he is anyways but idk)

-HOW TF DOES HE DEAL WITH BEING CANNIBALIZED TWICE LIKE DAMN..I WOULD HAVE A BREAKDOWN NO MATTER WHO I'M WITH??

-Did Genzou's friends ever like assume that he was gay?? Or like did he tell anyone?? Or did he try his best to hide it lmao

-Did anyone think/know that Gen had a crush on Iggy??

-GENZOU WITHOUT HIS HAT <333

I love Genzou sm if you couldn't tell already /p

ARC 3 CONFUSED ME SM LOL. I thought that I had accidently switched routes (even though I hadn't even made my LI choice, I ofc didn't know this atm though) from Genzou to Orlam and I was fr so confused like waht. Also like I feel so bad for Orlam wth </3.

HUMAN JERRY.

OO ALSO SOME MORE THINGS

-During some parts (mostly during arcs 3/4) I HAD TO PLAY A RELAXING PLAYLISTS BECASE I FELT OVERWHELMED/ANXIOUS/IDEK?? AND AT SOME POINT I JS GAVE UP AND STATED PLAYING HYPERCORE LMAO

-I LOV ELOVE LOVE THE WAY THAT THE NEUTRAL ENDING COLLIDES(???) WITH OC LIEK WHATWHDWATDHFWHWFTHAFG. IDK BUT FOR ME IT MAKES ME FEEL LIEK IT'S THE MORE "CANON" ENDING EVEN THOUGH THERE IS (probably) NO CANON ENDING.

-I IMMEDIATELY WENT TO THE GALLERY LIEK OMG??

-Some of my favorite liens in the game were the homicidal gardener lines (both referring to Iggs and Gen), when Gen was arguing with Jerry, When Genzou was telling iggs during the Arc 5 Kiddie Cruise scene that it shoudn't be a choice like I WAS GONNA CHOOSE DONT JUMP JS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS LOL

-I also relate a lot to Iggy in some forms

-GIDGET.

-I took a total of 260 screenshots of this game (as of now heheh)

UM YH THATS ALL SORRY IF IT'S HARD TO UNDERSTAND OR TOO ENERGETIC BUT I TRULY LOVE THIS GAME SM. Ima go replay OC again byes <3 :3 BEST REGARDS ILYSM /p

KDFJLADFA this message is so chaotic, i love it

first off, i'm really happy you like the game (and genzou) weep. thank you so much for all the kind words 😭💕 i'm also always super intrigued to see where/how ppl came into the game, so hearing you played T2A2G and OC first is very interesting to me lakdjfkdjfa

regarding your questions:

yes he is; i do think he sees a bit of light/shadow (which is different to an answer i gave some time ago, but i've been thinking about it since) but that's about it; it's a result of traumatic optic neuropathy

yes he is; he's been on meds and seeing a therapist for a while

i cannot answer this question LOL 🤣 i also don't know. i guess the only answer is that he has no choice

mmm... he never outright told anyone in the friend group. tbh he doesn't outright tell many people, mostly as he's just a bit of a private person in that regard and keeps to himself outside of attempting dating apps every now and then. i would not say he actively attempted to hide it though aside from around iggy. as for other people assuming i think it was something many of them did kinda realize but never said anything also

similar here, i think some of them kinda knew. i think gidget knew, even if they kinda ignored it, because it prompted their jealousy on a few occasions. i think orlam had a bit of a guess but it wasn't really confirmed until later

LDKAJFSLDKFA THAT'S NOT A QUESTION

LOL about the routes. indeed, if you don't realize that actually all the "routes" are mandatory parts of the story until the finale then it can be confusing if you thought you were going for a specific char early on or something 🤣 it's not like the games where you can pick your route and then the rest of the game is that route

hahaha yeah i wouldn't say there's a "canon" ending. for one, i feel like that would kinda defeat the point of having different possibilities to begin with. why make other choices if there's only ever one canon ending? i want people to be able to choose however they want the story to end. i mostly connected the neutral ending to OC as a sort of self-indulgent gift to myself, because i thought it would be very sweet if iggy would still have a chance to find companionship with one of his friends later on even if he chose to focus on himself first. like that it just keeps it open. i also just thought it'd be a fun easter egg to give ppl more incentive to at least try the neutral route as i figure most ppl would not choose that route as it's kinda short compared to the others and doesn't give as much closure to the other chars

260 SCREENSHOTS LDKJFASDLFA

sob thank you for this lovely message!! it was really fun answering your questions hahaha and i'm really glad you liked the game so much!! it means a lot!! 💕

[toastling]

This might be an unpopular opinion from all the responses I've seen here on tumblr this past month, but I think this whole Jack Blacklash has been completely blown out of proportion. I think you might all be a little bit too online. I can't believe I'm saying this with a straight face, but I think we might all need to go touch some grass.

Like, I get it, okay? I make jokes that read like death threats all the time about friends and enemies and politicians alike. We all do. But you and I, we're all literal nobodies. Who cares if we end up on some watch list for some off-color humor, we don't have careers. Not huge, public-facing ones that would be horrifically impacted by said off-color humor.

Jack Black is a public figure. He doesn't have the luxury to say the kind of shit or cosign the kinds of jokes that we all do. And I don't think that's fair, and I don't think that's right, but that doesn't change the truth of the matter. Hate the game, not the player. If you actually watch the event in question, he's right there on stage laughing along with the the rest of us. He's explicitly stated since thta he and Kyle still are and always will be friends *and* that Tenacious D isn't over.

But he, and more pointedly, his PR team, cannot allow that sort of joke about a major political figure, no matter how pathetic and fascistic he may be, to fly. And the response really does read more like PR damage control than it does something he actually has his full weight behind when you take into context everything else he's said about the situation since.

"It's just a joke". Yes, I agree, and personally, I'd have commit career suicide and stuck by it because that's the kind of person I'd be in any given spotlight. I'm not interested in celebrity, and I'm not interested in longevity at the expense of unlimited free expression on my part either. But I'm in the minority on that. Most public facing figures have to tow a line with this sort of thing.

Unless they're A) Already in politics, particularly as a right wing chud or B) Deeply entrenched as an edgy comic, and a stand-up comic in particular, then most famous folks cannot get away with an assassination joke like that and not face disastrous, potentially career-ending consequences and a visit from the FBI.

And yes, it's just a joke, but also, stop and think for a second the kind of world you're trying to create here. The alt-right dipshits all over Twitter and Reddit and the rest of the internet already use the same exact excuse of "it's just a joke" to try and get away with wholehearted bigotry and *actual* calls for violence. And yeah, it's bullshit, and usually, everybody knows it. But it's not always so clear.

If Kyle made that quip a bit more dryly and only made it clear it was a joke after the fact, all we'd have to go on is his word. And he's "our guy", so of course we'd take him at his word. Would anybody else? Not just "the other side", but actual, neutral, not terminally online morons? You know, like most of the world's population is? And even with how it *did* unfold where it was *clearly* meant as humor, it still has very real repercussions *immediately following a legitimate assassination attempt*.

You're really tempting fate and cracking open Pandora's Box there if you genuinely think public figures should be held to the same lax standards as us nobodies. As much as I personally loathe respectability politics, I'm not stupid. I understand very well the purpose that they serve in preventing every minor political squabble descending into outright violence, small scale shitstain vs shitstain or full-on civil war.

For a site that loves to complain about everybody else's lack of critical thinking, I've seen a shocking lack of it from everybody here on this particular matter. Just because the guy we hate was the butt of the joke doesn't make the thing that happened 100% okay. This shit can and does have serious consequences.

And now I see some chucklefucks saying shit like "Oh, Jack Black is the new Chris Pratt now", as if Jack Black attends gaybashing mega churches or has a psychotic paramilitary brother he supports or is in any way on any level even remotely as vapid as the crisped rat.

Like, one single choice we don't like because orange man bad, and literal *decades* of good will just evaporates overnight. Hell, some of you pretend like you never even had that good will in the first place, when you verifiably did. It's not like he called you a faggot or pushed an orphan down the stairs, he got spooked about the fact that the FBI might bust his door down because his friend made an off-color joke in front of tens of thousands of people immediately following an assassination attempt. Like??? You call *this* critical thinking???

Honestly, you guys are no smarter than your parents. And if that pisses you off, then stop being stupid and think about something outside yourself for a second and recognize that Hollywood Superstar Jack Black does not have the same privilege of inconsequential mediocre anonymity you and I do. That doesn't automatically make him "bad" or pro Trump. That makes him somebody who gives a shit about keeping his career going for another 30 years.

In summary: touch grass, eat ass, let it pass.

[akiizayoi4869]

How’s it going!

I have a question regarding Azula and the Avatar comics. And as I consider you to be something of an authority on the matter so I wanted to ask you. I hope that is okay?

As far as I understand, in the comics the primary motivation of Azula and the Fire warriors was to “make Zuko a stronger and more autocratic sovereign”. Underling her more nationalist pragmatism. This motivation has always confused to me (at least in part, as I do find her more “nationalistic pragmatism” to be in character).

Wouldn’t she desire to gain vengeance on Zuko? At then end of ATLA, both Zuko and Katara took advantage of her metal breakdown and defeated her. While I do think Azula recognizes that taking advantage of her weakened state is just good tactics. Being defeated by comparatively weaker opponent (Zuko) and an equal (Katara) when her mind had betrayed her(just like everything else in her life) would have left a bad taste in her mouth.

Then we must take into account Azula’s appalling treatment after the war. During the comics it is revealed that Azula was kept in a psychologically/mentally abusive “mental asylum” . As well a physically abusive (being kept in a straight jacket for hours at a time is a form of torture). Zuko was the one who sent her to this asylum. While I believe Zuko sent her to this asylum in ignorance and not outright maliciousness, does Azula know that?

Then when Zuko deigned to acknowledge her existence and take Azula out of the asylum, he takes her to find her (at best) neglectful mother. During the journey he and his friends accost Azula at multiple times. Physically threatening her during hallucinations or at other moments. And of course Zuko and the Gaang grew angry when she defended herself.

While the comics destroyed Zuko’s and the Gaangs characterization (in part at least) they are (unfortunately) canon. While this is not to say that Azula is completely innocent in either the show or comics. She did fight for the objectively immoral side of the war. But as a child soldier ( digression; whose worse crime is killing the avatar on the field of battle, and when said avatar was planning to invade her home with an Earth kingdom army).

So why does Azula seek to make Zuko a better sovereign (in her estimation) rather than seek vengeance on Zuko and to a lesser extent on team Avatar?

Hello! Wow, you consider me to be an authority figure about this stuff? I'm flattered.

While I wouldn't say that the two of them took advantage of her mental breakdown since that implies that they both knew exactly what was wrong with Azula (which they obviously wouldn't know), I see what you're saying. She WOULD be mad at both of them for defeating her, especially Katara. Someone who was from a "lesser group of people", people who she has been taught all her life are inferior to her and everyone else in the Fire Nation. To Azula, Katara shouldn't have been able to defeat her at all. So yeah, she would be mad about that.

Getting to the comics, though....there really isn't a way to make sense of Yang's characteristic of them during The Search and Smoke and Shadow, as well as the plots, imo. Zuko not once asking Azula who or what she was seeing was just plain stupid, same for the others. Even before they left, he should have asked the doctors what her condition was and if it would be wise to take her out of the asylum. But he didn't. Why? Because it wasn't convenient for the plot that Yang had set up. And yes, Azula did request that Zuko bring her along, but still. Anyone with a brain should have been able to see that she wasn't all there, and that bringing her along to find Ursa was a bad idea, considering that Ursa was the one she kept hallucinating about. So it was an obvious trigger that Azula should'nt have been around. Now as to why she doesn't try and seek revenge against Zuko and the others after everything that happened? It's very simple. Yang just didn't think about it. I do agree that it would have made sense, though.

[lycansprites]

I'm curious about your Dr. Singh pmv ideas! What songs do you think you'd use?

⚠ Warning: Spoilers !!

Anon (and anyone reading) I have no idea how far in or if you've finished the show yourself so this is my proper heads up that there will be spoilers below!

SPINNING LIGHTNING SPEED RN OKAY SO I've had one big PMV idea all about Singh following him from Season 1 to Season 3/the Finale since I finished the show; it's an oldie but a goldie, if you've been in fandom space anytime the past 10 years you've probably heard it at least once.

It's that solid undertone of expected betrayal / something catastrophic happening that sells it for me. Singh's spiral is an outright tragedy born of love and a sense of perceived destiny. What starts out as a journey of unwavering devotion to his family then transitions to the determination to save the human race, by any means necessary, once his original motivation is no longer in the picture. In his most vulnerable state- which is saying something, considering how LONG that love had managed to see him through the worst- he dreams up the idea that his purpose, why he's still alive, is to continue to fall down this path of sacrifice. Self sacrifice and unfortunately the sacrifice of life around him for "the greater good". If he couldn't save Rani, then at least maybe he'll save humanity?

I love the lyrics "you'll be safe with me" being repeated throughout the song and is what I mean by expected betrayal. A wolf chasing a rabbit saying the rabbit will be safe with them, or a scientist / doctor chasing an immoral, nonexistent cure and convincing himself, the people around him, and the people he would then hurt or dissect that they're safe with him.

Dear rabbit, my legs are getting weak chasing you The snow fields wouldn't seem so big if you knew That this blood on my teeth it is far beyond dry And I've captured you once but I wasn't quite right So I'm telling you that you'll be safe with me.

This would focus on everything leading up to Rani leaving him. For the phrasing it doesn't matter if it's showing him and the hybrids or him and Rani but the core of it IS the start of the end; from the day he first finds out that to save his love he'd have to experiment on hybrid children. This is when both Adi and Rani believe the misinfo that hybrids are more animal than human, and thus when they use that to justify sacrificing them for her.

Oh rabbit, my claws are dull now so don't be afraid I could keep you warm as long as you can just try to be brave Yes I know I'm a wolf and I've been known to bite But the rest of my pack, I have left them behind

Where we see our troubled duo learn that hybrids are just as capable of human thinking and human emotion as they are. In the show you can see the IMMEDIATE expression drop when either of them learn this fact; Adi's face just completely falls when Gus thanks him verbally, and Rani immediately turns to concern. This part of the PMV would focus on how differently they go forward with this knowledge. For Adi it's a desperate not wanting to continue his work but still finding it necessary, but for Rani it's backtracking and deciding that maybe taking these lives aren't worth saving her own. I want it to hit Rani leaving and subsequently Adi locking himself in with the blue flowers on that last line.

And my teeth may be sharp and I've been raised to kill But the thought of fresh meat, it is making me ill So I'm telling you that you'll be safe with me.

Adi tracking down Gus and co, and convincing them to let him tag along to Alaska. REALLY focus on Gus's empathy and kindness in not wanting to leave anyone behind, in his willingness to believe that Adi's turned a new page. There's a lot of instrumental pause between "safe with" and "me" which could be used creatively for this purpose; I'll have to see if anything distinctly fits in my rewatch of the show. Potentially this could be when Adi corners Gus in the Cave and ends up killing Birdie.

We lapse into a very intense instrumental bit here that I would use to sum up the events of the Cave. I imagine everything happens VERY fast from Adi's POV as a man in a great bit of emotional turmoil so I don't want to linger too hard on anything that happens with the tree, just real fast glimpses of the fighting and of the Sick catching up to everyone present.

So rabbit please stop looking the other way It's cold out there so why not stay here Under my tail.

Now we've gotten to Adi's final sacrifice, where everything is literally coming down around them and he manages to save Gus's life properly and without any ulterior motives for the first time.

Um. That's. About it for that one.

The other one is with Daisy Bell

This one would be more about Adi and Rani specifically. For loving too much you'd be willing to lose yourself and in turn the one you love... I think about it a lot. This path was so tragic at every turn and doomed from the beginning but they were so good to each other until they weren't.

And then here's two other songs I've held in the Singh playlist but don't have any real ideas for right now;

I also have some general Sweet Tooth / Gus PMV ideas just lmk if anyone's interested in hearing those too >:D

[flightfoot]

Tbh I'm mostly convinced that Adrien feeling doesn't matter for the writers or mostly the character in universe because ISTG WHY NO ONE TELL HIM ANYTHING???

Felix is the most random thing that ever introduced in the series, because he's exist solely for plot convenience. He has things that Adrien actually could have but writer forbid it because he'd be too broken and probably overshadow Marinette or other characters.

WHY KAGAMI TELL FELIX LADYBUG IDENTITY?????? If she tell him because "oh yeah he's my bf now and he deserves to know" then she deserve to be snapped hard on the forehead. As of right now I want to believe it's because Felix programed her to tell him everything she know when he ask for her ring back then.

No seriously WTF IS HAPPENED IN THIS EPISODE I CANT EVEN

I swear s5 is a flip flop season because INCONSISTENCY IS GONE TO THE ABYSS

Yeah people not telling Adrien things for very little reason is unfortunately a series mainstay, whether intentional or not. That's been going on pretty consistently since season 2, when Marinette got brought into the fold on being the Guardian and other Miraculous, and Adrien was left out of the loop. And then there was everything that happened in season 4 with the Ladynoir conflict. Looks like it's continuing with season 5, though I really hope someone thinks to tell him he's a senti. I mean, there ARE arguments that could be made about why they don't want to tell him just yet - like being afraid that Gabriel might command Adrien in such a way that he ends up spilling the beans about knowing he's a senti, and thus endangering himself even more - and that they'd tell him once they got Adrien's amoks back from Gabriel and that was no longer a worry.

I'd want that to actually be stated out loud as reasoning by the characters though, otherwise it just comes off as "not telling Adrien in order to prevent him from having his own opinion and making his own decisions on what to do with the information", which has been stated in the past as reasoning for not telling Adrien (well, Chat at the time) about things that undeniably concern himself, back when Ladybug decided to trick Chat into revealing his secret identity to a third party in order to prevent the possibility of Chat refusing to do so if she just asked him to outright.

As for Felix... okay yeah he does seem to get some OP plot conveniences (especially with that special glass that let him see hidden items, where did he get that?) and I'd love for Adrien to be given more of the ability to affect things, but dammit I do enjoy watching a lot of Felix's shenanigans.

Kagami telling Felix Ladybug's identity... yeah I don't think she should have done that. That wasn't her secret to tell, and it's a very dangerous secret on top of that. When Alya told Nino about her still helping Ladybug, that was HER secret to tell, primarily, it mostly concerned her and she was the one most in danger if it got out, plus it'd already caused a schism between her and Nino before this, so she had reason for it. When Nino revealed his and Alya's secret identities to Adrien and later to Marinette... well he still shouldn't have done that, Alya's identity wasn't his secret to tell, but he was right about it being a very low-value secret at that point, since Monarch already knew their identities, and Adrien and Marinette being trustworthy.

I don't think Felix commanded her to do that though, it just doesn't fit with the image of Feligami that the show is selling. I think it's more just a matter of Kagami being an emotionally vulnerable teenager who has someone who's there JUST for her, for the first time in her life, someone who's very devoted to her immediately, and who's willing to act on it - she's jumping into that relationship headfirst without a safety net, in order to meet her emotional needs. And thus, since she sympathizes with Felix so heavily, she tells him any information that she thinks will help fulfill the goal of freeing her and Adrien from their parents.

Do I think this was the right choice? No. It would have been better if, after Felix tells her everything he knows, she then privately went to Marinette, revealed that she knows she's Ladybug, and tried to recruit her help, maybe even trying to get her to reveal her identity to Felix (though I don't think this would have been necessary).

Do I think it makes sense for a girl in Kagami's position though? Yes. Especially with how much she and Felix are in the honeymoon phase of a relationship.

[good-wine-and-cheese]

Hi hi! I really really love your Monster fics, the emotions always have me in a grip ;u; sorry to be throwing you back since I'm late hahaaaaa, but for the fic asks: D (A Hand to Hold and/or Don't Turn Around), F, S

Thank you!! <3 I'm so glad you enjoy my stories ;v; and thank you for the ask!!!

Writer asks

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?

A Hand to Hold: Not in particular, but I offer you my Guriten playlist anyways:

Don't Turn Around: So, the fic itself is an Orpheus & Eurydice retelling mostly inspired by a pair of songs by Arcade Fire. It more directly references "It's Never Over (Hey Orpheus)" which opens with the lyrics Don't turn around right at the beginning.

Just for comparison's sake, here's the companion song, Awful Sound (Oh, Eurydice):

The entire reflektor album fucks like crazy btw.

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Sorry this is going to come from my Astro Boy works just bc that's what I'm currently working on and therefore what's eating my brain matter but I think it would have to be this one:

“The public thinks of you as a part of the robot rights campaign. You’ve been inextricably connected, no matter how you position yourself. It would be easy for you to join me.” Tenma’s brows pinched together. He wasn’t really…. asking that, was he? “I’m sure that would be a good look. ’Terrorist Tenma is accepted into Robot Rights campaign’. It would be the end for you.” “And they’re already running with that, aren’t they? It wouldn’t change a thing.” …But it would. Of course it would. Right now, Hiroshi could order a retraction. He could publicly state that Tenma’s involvement in his campaign was incidental only, that he was an aid in his physical recovery and not a part of the robot rights movement. He could do that and it would regain him credibility with the press. So why was he– “Unless you’re saying that you don’t want to. I understand, of course.” “I didn’t say that.” But he should say that. If he pulled out now, if he refused Hiroshi outright, then the robot rights movement would be able to regain its momentum. Tenma’s presence would do nothing but drag it down. With his help, Hiroshi’s championing would come to a screeching, sputtering halt. Is that what you want? For me to destroy your…

Sorry it's more than just dialogue, but with the way I write inner monologues it kind of matters. Anyway what gets me about this scene is that it's all in code. Like, sure Ochanomizu would like Tenma to be part of his robot rights campaign, but that's not actually what he's asking. What he wants is for Tenma to be a part of his life. They used to be close. He wants that back.

But on the other hand Tenma is a very troubled person with a very bad track record. He causes problems, he doesn't fix them. And the thing is he knows what Ochanomizu is really asking, and he's stuck between wanting to be part of his best friend's life again and the dread of knowing the type of person that he is - that he'll end up ruining everything. He doesn't trust himself not to hurt Ochanomizu.

It gets brought up again later in the chapter and they blow the whole thing open and have a proper discussion about wanting to be in each others' lives but it just Gets to me when they have these kind of coded conversations that both are fully aware of the real meaning but it's just easier to Not Deal With It right then.

Thank you for listening to me ramble about poorly adjusted old men

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

I don't know if it's a "fandom" trope specifically but I am obsessed with having one half of a pairing be dead and appear to the other half as a kind of psychological manifestation (or an actual ghost) that both haunts them and helps bring about catharsis of grief and forgiveness. If I can somehow involve the sea it's even better.