#that makes literally everything else make sense

[uncannydevotion]

Can you do toby, hoodie, and masky being instructed to kill their s/o by slender? Would they actually go through with it?

a/n: picture me rubbing my hands together evilly upon reading this request okay. this is so so so short but i felt like it would drag on if i made it any longer im sorry </3 but i hope you enjoy it!! thanks for the request, i love angst <3

warnings: major character death in tobys part!! murder, attempted murder, blood, descriptive death, memory loss, overall everyone has a bad time, but hoodie is like... vibing. also not proofread im incapable of rereading things i write.

MASKY

It's certainly not an order he intends on following, but he's well aware that he's susceptible to Slender's influence, so he's not quiet sure how to avoid it.

The only one of the three to actually try and negotiate with Slender. You weren't a threat to anyone, let alone it. He didn't understand why the being was hellbent on getting him to kill you, especially since it knew that he loved you.

And that's just the reason.

He loved you, so you were a distraction. You were a weakness, and Slender doesn't take well to its proxies having weaknesses.

But it was a reasonable being. For Masky, at least. The man was logical, so they saw eye to eye a fair amount of times. He had yet to go against any of his other orders, so Slender was willing to negotiate.

Its terms? Masky would have to cut all contact with you and your memory of him would have to be taken so to ensure you wouldn't try finding him. And in exchange, you would get to keep your life.

Now, obviously, he didn't want that. Masky loved you, so why would he ever want to part ways with you? Almost as if to show him what would happen if he didn't accept its terms, Slender caused the man to black out, and when he came to...

He was in your bedroom, standing over your bed as you slept, a gun pointing at you. His finger was on the trigger, and he quickly dropped the gun before anything could happen.

The thought of you dying, the reality of living in a world without you in it, was enough to make him agree to Slender's terms. Masky disappeared from your life, and your memory of him went with.

Though he remembered you. A sick form of punishment, perhaps, for falling in love. He remembered everything about you.

HOODIE

Hoodie is, out of the three, the one most likely here to blatantly disobey Slender without fear of consequence. Though Slender is technically his boss, he's not the type to blindly follow orders unless they make sense to him.

No amount of punishment has been able to break him, but he's too valuable of a proxy for Slender to rid of him.

When the order first comes to his mind, he almost laughs from the sheer absurdity of it.

He does not care what reason the entity might have for wanting you dead. Hoodie loved you, so he would not kill you. And should Slender try getting one of the other proxies to try and kill you, Hoodie is not against harming them.

His loyalties lie with you, first and foremost.

You are one of the very few things in his life that brings him joy, there's just literally no way in hell he'll let anything take that away from him. Not even his evil eldritch boss can force him away from you.

And unlike Masky, he won't distance himself from you. He's... pretty selfish, to be honest. His very presence puts you in harms way, and you might have people actively trying to murder you from now on but don't worry!!

He'll keep you safe, trust him.

TICCI TOBY

The only one here who will actually kill you. He doesn't want to, believe me. Toby will actively go out of his way to try and defy Slender like Hoodie, even, but he is the entity's most loyal proxy, so it's a short battle.

Toby's loyalty to the faceless being runs deeper than anything else, even his love for you. If Slender wants him to kill someone, then he will.

But he doesn't kill you willingly, if that makes you feel any better. Toby ignores the order for as long as he can, until Slender runs out of patience. And when it does, it will hound Toby with endless static and agonizing pain, punishment for disobeying its orders.

It will break Toby down, and once it's sure that Toby can't disobey it again, Slender will demand he kill you. And this time, in a mindless haze, Toby does it.

Maybe he thinks he's killing someone else, your screams and cries falling upon deaf ears as he slams his hatchets into you over and over again under you could no longer be recognized, your blood staining his clothes and skin.

Toby won't remember you. You were a weakness that had to be purged, so Slender ensured that every memory he had of you was repressed. But even so, there's this aching feeling in his chest. As if he was missing something important, something he can't quite place.

He mourns you, and yet he can't even remember you. He just feels... anguish, for some reason.

[mono-dot-jpeg]

three hot professors - jayce, viktor

summary; a story about the three hot professors who work at piltover university

genre/extra tags; oneshot, comedy, fluff, modern au, piltover zaun kind of exists, but it's more like good side of town and bad side of town kind of, started this idea at 3am, some sexual themes, i say some but i literally write moments of the sex, jayce viktor and reader are in fact the hot professors, everyone wants you three but they cant have yall ‼️, viktor FUCKS and im tired of pretending he leans sub, I SWEAR I LOVE JAYCE BUT IM SO ASS AT WRITING HIM, SORRY JAYCE ENJOYERS </3 HIS PART IS SO SHORT, reader is implied to wear some type of makeup but during sex mostly

[nsfw] [gender neutral! reader]

[warnings and mentions: oral, everyone is a switch, dom leaning! viktor, sub leaning! jayce, vers! reader, sex toy, viktor grabs ass in public /hj, mean viktor (i say mean viktor but im so bad at writing mean), hickeys, lipstick... kink??? marking kink?? idk how to warn this correctly, degradation??? , praise, pet nicknames (puppy, good boy, etc.), somehow no p in v involved or p in ass. can you tell i dont write smut]

word count; 1.01k

a/n; i got a little horny seeing some fine fan art of them as professors. like what else do i have to say. i can't stop minors from reading this, but i cant say i didn't warn them. also this is kind of not my first time writing nsfw, but as a neutral feeling towards sex asexual, it's always a little awkward for me to write for stuff like this. so if it's like kind of odd, im blaming it on that and not my questionable writing skills. HAPPY 2K FOLLOWERS LMAOAOAO this is my celebration post /j

everyone in piltover knows about the staff of their prestigious university. it's kind of common sense as the university is the pinnacle of everything.

but the interest of the professors was usually the highest. whether it was because of how good they were in terms of teaching.. or how hot they were.

some liked mr. talis. jayce talis. a man who had an affinity to connect with his students and guide them forward. he was lovely as a professor or a person. he was definitely the golden man that people looked up to as he was an alumni.

the man of progress, the teacher for the people. that was jayce talis.

he was strong, sweet, compassionate. he was built strong but he was humble. he had so much love in his heart. he was a little gullible at times but he was loved by you and viktor all the same. you both teased him everyday and he never got mad. he was truly a golden retriever at heart.

he was always excited every time either of you entered his office, even if it was to make him so needy and scrambled until the day ended. most students don't exactly know where those new lipstick marks on his neck come from but some can see the leftover lipstick on your face as you wipe it off with a satisfied grin.

"isn't he so pretty like this?" viktor hums, his bad leg rests over the shoulder of the larger male. "he's- ngh.. so eager. so desperate. ah.."

"he's so good for us, vik." your hand gently guides jayce to keep going down on viktor, soon trailing up on viktor's inner thigh with a sensitive touch that has the male shivering at your nails. "he's making you shake, love. you see that, jayce? you're such a good boy." you praise. viktor loved and hated when you both ganged up on him like this.

his pale hand wraps to hold the back of your neck before he dives right to littering your neck with hickeys and wet kisses. his free hand cups your waist, tugging you closer to let him comfortably attack your neck like a hungry vampire. you give viktor your fair share of kisses, your lipstick stains viktor's face and neck. it would definitely take more than a few makeup wipes to take it off of him. or maybe he would leave some stains behind. it must be known that he clearly belongs to you.

jayce pauses when he realizes he's not getting the attention he wants. he whines into viktor's thigh, looking up at the man with pleading puppy eyes. viktor looks down with a mischievous glint in his eye. "our dear puppy wants attention.. perhaps we shall give him what he so desires..?"

you look down at jayce with a much softer look, hand cupping his face so gently as he leans into your touch. his face was wet from taking viktor's cock in his mouth.

"please," he begs as he moves to crowd your lap, tugging at your delicate lingerie. his heated breath hits your thighs as you let out a breathy sigh. "i want you and viktor..."

"look at him, love. how can you deny such a look?"

it was no secret that you, viktor, and jayce were the faces of piltover university. viktor, being sharp faced and sculpted with love, you really could trace over his body for hours and admire every part of him. it totally wasn't the innate artist in you, drooling over how he was just so utterly paintable. he could've been in a renaissance painting and no one would bat an eye.

viktor was a beautiful man. he was intelligent, passionate, caring, mischievous.. oh, he was just something unreal. he never let his body stop him from helping others when he could or teasing you and jayce when he felt like it.

he'd never say it outloud but you and jayce know that he just loves to play around. play doesn't seem like the right word when he subtly brushes his hand to grip at your ass in the middle of a university wide event where all the students and teachers were gathered around.

or when he uses his cane to hook jayce around the waist and nearly tug him to sit onto his good leg and be the sweet lapdog jayce always was for viktor. sometimes he also grabs at jayce's ass because you don't give him the cute yelp that jayce does whenever he gets teased by either of you.

he was as beautiful as he was domineering when it came to you and jayce.

"vik- viktor- please.." your voice is weak and breathless as you squirm against jayce's hold. his body pressed around your back as he gives you the soft affection while viktor ruins your body. his skinny hands tease and trace at your wet body, one hand holds a small vibrator before pressing it against the edges of your hole. he teases your body relentlessly with a sly grin on his face.

"viktor? i don't think we agreed on calling me that this time around, sweetheart. you don't want to be a bad sweetheart, yes?" as he continues to tease you, the vibrator almost slides right into your needy hole with how wet it was. it makes viktor chuckle lowly, "sweetheart.. answer me properly.."

"s-sir.. please let me cum.."

"i don't know.. should we let them?" viktor asked jayce as if pushing him to be a little mean to you as well. "they're all ready to cum without us even entering them." viktor tugs the vibrator wire away, leaving you to whine and crumble in jayce's arms as you beg incoherently.

jayce looks at your tear stained face and he can't help the need to tease you and ruin you the way viktor does. "i think we should teach them how to cum with only our cocks." you can feel a heavy familiar warmth that rests on your lower body and upper thigh. you're about to be taught a real lesson.

[hermanoga]

waiting for that day when the timeline script will go sooo out of hand that lu guang will be like : fuck. this wasn't in the script, why is it happening, nothing makes sense, everything is going haywire, this should not happen, this is so wrong, I CAN'T FIND THE NODE! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!

Yk what else is unacceptable? A person like you going through PTSD behind your cool and composed demeanour only to get trapped in a paranoid futile rewind. You are carrying all the consequences and burdens and sins, walking on the single log bridge when your own future is not your consideration, sacrifice for love is fine but your actions demand a powerful secondary intervention because the timeloop intoxication you have has rendered you senseless to some point. THESE shits are truly NOT acceptable. In case you have forgotten (judging your actions, I diagnose you with 'so what if I hurt myself beyond human comprehension, I am bearing the sin to save that person' syndrome and sir, it's not optimal) you DESERVE to be cuddled up in Cheng Xiaoshi's lap, him ruffling your hair to mess and placing a kiss on your forehead and saying "You are not leaving my side, I am here and you will always be with me. No timeline politics behind my back."

No but as much as I love and adore my lu guang, I am well aware of that destructive character trait he has. It's the tragedy of feeling way too much and him literally being 'the perpetual slave to despodency, regret and grief' (Adela Pinch, I love you)...it increases the risk. He is dreaming of Vein shooting that vase full of forget-me-not flowers. I know this thinking pattern and I know unless a bigger intervention changes the trajectory of his life,he is doomed. It's a myth that he is doomed by the timelines, he is doomed by his own traumatized consciousness, he needs liberation from that mental state first.

your script needs to be shattered into a million pieces because ain't no way that shit is giving you your deserved happy life together with Cheng Xiaoshi and others.

[gotta-winwin]

teleparty celebration 🍊🍕🐯 ~ booseoksoon love languages

as a little something to celebrate bss' comeback !! i present to you... 🥁🥁🥁... booseoksoon and their love languages! specially: things that i do when i'm in love with someone.

playlist ♪: wasteland, baby! and when we are together

"if i am nothing you are the letters that spell it the word that gave it meaning to be nothing to you nothing is everything so when i feel like nothing you look at me and you say my nothing is everything you are everything and i feel just a little bit more okay"

- serena 2023

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Sends you songs that remind him of you

Spotify links are flooded through your chats whenever there’s even a little moment of silence. Seokmin listens to music like it’s a religion and never hesitates to share with you the songs that scream your name. Wasteland Baby! By Hozier and When We Are Together by The 1975 are his go-tos whenever he misses your face. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Names his plushies after you

The first time Seokmin brought you over to his apartment you were greeted with a lineup of stuffed animals - all gathered throughout your courting stages or from his friends. He happily introduces you to them all, pointing at each one and stating their name. Each name is clearly a callback to various reminders of you, like Seokmin’s raising his stuffies to the likeness of you.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Starts secretly planning your future 

Although he won’t ever admit it, it didn’t take long for Seokmin to picture your life together - far, far into the future. He can picture you in your wedding dress, at the end of the aisle, a bright and sappy smile on your face as you wait for him to reach you. He’s secretly named all the kids he’d imagine you guys to have, knows the exact family home he’d love to share with you, and has your retirement planned out as well - only in his head.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Bakes 

Cupcakes, cookies, muffins, cake - literally anything recipe he can get his hands on. It served as an excuse to see you in the earlier stages of your relationship, always sending you a text asking if you wanted a piece of anything he made last night. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Texts you every small thing

It’s not every little thing, but pretty much. Random pieces of his day are littered through your chat history - if anyone ever needed to track Seungkwan’s footsteps, your chat history is the way to go. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Brings you to his favourite spots

Seungkwan calls them his “secret alcoves,” privy to only him and no one else. The first time he brought you to one of them he had talked it up to be a big deal, stating “i’ve never done this before,” “you’re the first person i’ve ever brought here,” “we’re basically married if I bring you here” - and it is a big deal to him.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Stares at the sunset and thinks of you

Sunsets are one of Soonyoung’s favourite things to look at - a close second to you. Although he often sends you pictures of the brightly colored orange and pink sky, sometimes he just stares, keeping the sunset to himself as he basks in the nostalgia and love coursing through him. “The sunset signifies the end of the day.” He explains when you ask him why he loves it so much. “And the end of the day is when I get to see you.”

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Write his name with your last name

Soonyoung hates to admit it because it makes him sound like a lovesick teenager (which he really is) but sometimes, when he’s extremely bored, he’ll find himself scrawling his name with yours on a scrap piece of paper - just to see how it’d look. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Your enemies are his enemies 

He loves to yap with you whenever you need a release of anger. He’ll side-eye your enemies without a second's hesitation. Soonyoung’s always operated with the belief that loyalty comes before all, not just in relationships, but in general. He’s loyal to you in the sense that - your friends are his friends and your enemies are his as well. It’s just another way to show you that he’s got your back.

[moutainrusing]

hate

549 words, no warnings, @dorlenemicroficprompts

Marlene hated sex. It was a fact, forever and always, she would hate sex.

Because it was disgusting. It was also weird, and gross, and Marlene would never try it, even if for some reason people claimed it was the most mind-blowing experience of their lifetime.

No, Marlene had decided. They were liars, the whole lot of them. She was missing out on nothing, because she actually did know everything about it, even if she’d never tried it. She’d been in all the sex-ed lessons and biology lessons where they learnt about reproduction in way too much depth and now Marlene was traumatised. It was traumatising! She hated it, and she hated people telling her that eventually she’d change her mind, because forever and always, she would find sex repulsive.

That wasn’t to say she didn’t find people sexually attractive though. Apparently to hate sex meant she couldn’t be attracted to people’s bodies, so somewhere in there she was telling a lie, except she wasn’t?

Didn’t it make sense, the fact that she hated the physical action of bodies engaging in… coitus… but she could also appreciate the fact that people’s bodies looked pretty? She wasn’t going to do anything with their body, because it was the action that grossed her out, but their body itself? People were naturally attractive to her, she couldn’t deny that. Obviously, she would never have sex with them, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate them from an aesthetic point of view.

No one seemed to get that though. Whenever Marlene tried to explain herself, it was always this or that, not this and that. If she hated sex, then she must hate bodies entirely or if she liked bodies, then she must also like sex. People were so weird.

Marlene herself thought that she was perfectly normal, because it made sense to her, so she couldn’t be bothered trying to explain anymore. Now she just said whatever that came to mind.

For example, Dorcas Meadowes was created by the Gods above. She was an angel on Earth. Glowing. Her skin literally shone. It glistened. And it was so smooth too. Marlene wanted to lick it. From chin to cheek, because Dorcas’s jawline looked soft, but Marlene could clearly see the line. It wasn’t too sharp like a knife Marlene was scared to cut herself on; it was curved a bit like an apple, and it looked like it had the texture of an apple too, and obviously, Marlene would lick that.

She was normal, even if everyone else told her otherwise. She was sexually attracted to Dorcas, and she hated sex. She could do both. Like a multitasking superhuman. Her abilities went beyond typical human understanding. She was just better.

Staring at Dorcas from across the Great Hall, Marlene blurted to no one in particular, “I would get on my knees for Dorcas Meadowes, and that’s saying something, because I am sex-repulsed.”

“I mean, I’d only get on my knees to lick her thighs. I wouldn’t go anywhere near the sexy bits. Those are gross. Not just Dorcas’s; everyone’s bits are gross.”

“What?” Peter spluttered, as if he’d just heard something he’d rather not have. Which made no sense. Everyone wanted to hear about Dorcas’s beauty. That had to be normal, surely.

[themindcastlesystem]

Another crackpot "Project: Eden's Garden" theory

(Sunny, they/she) hi again it's your girl I'm going insane again so I'm back with another theory

NOTE: Unlike my chapter 2 theory, which is more cohesive and at least has some Biblical parallels and narrative themes to back it up, this theory is COMPLETE speculation based off of only a few observations - so keep that in mind while reading.

THE THEORY

So uh. Cassidy sus. *points at her* amogus! amogus!

For real, though. Does anyone else get the feeling that she's a bit... out of touch, emotionally? Or that she's the most fourth-wall-breaky of the group, like she keeps feeding her jokes and references to some sort of viewer (whether the player or the literal broadcast viewers in-universe)?

This could most definitely be just a comic relief thing. Or maybe a "streamer" thing, since that's what she's known for - and streamers are notorious for not being totally authentic, especially when they're in front of an audience. It's not like half of their audience really cares about how they feel, or if they're having a bad day - they want entertainment. I could see a character arc where Cassidy becomes a bit more expressive and authentic with her emotions across the rest of the game, learning to let her actual feelings show instead of masking her fear/sadness with smiles and jokes. I would love an arc like this in a DR fangame.

But, personally, I have other suspicions. There's a few pieces of "evidence" that make me suspect her of being the mastermind (quote marks because it's not conclusive and could be interpreted in other ways). I know there might not be a traditional "mastermind" in P:EG, especially since the creators said not to expect canon DR tropes, but just take "mastermind" to mean someone in the main cast that's working with Tozu/Mara/any other killing game organizers, whether willingly or under duress.

THE "EVIDENCE"

She's a streamer. As I said, this could explain why she seems so inauthentic and that's that - but that is ignoring the tangible benefit that her platform would have for the masterminds if they decided to use it. She easily has the biggest live following of the group - while there are other individuals with mass followings, like Wenona (who runs a huge business) and Kai (who has a ton of social media followers), Cassidy's thing is livestreaming. This killing game is being livestreamed. And if the killing game organizers are broadcasting it, it would make total sense for them to take advantage of the Ultimate Pro Gamer's live audience - and this would be easier to do if she was in on it, rather than if they had to hack her account to get a stream going or something.

Her actions during chapter 1. The two most important things she does are: a) kick down everyone's doors so they're forced to leave their dorms, and b) organize the game tournament during which a murder happens. The reason she says she did this was to get people to be more active and do something fun with each other, to boost their spirits. But it is possible that she wanted to force people to be out and about so that there would be more chances for people to kill each other - and/or to keep things more entertaining for the viewers (similar to how she feeds jokes/references to the camera). There is also potentially an argument that she might want to get people to trust each other in a less overt way than someone like Wolfgang or Diana - by getting them to let their guards down. With people's guards down, it becomes easier for a wolf in sheep's clothing to strike. (Hahaha get it because-- *gets shot*) You could even say that everyone's caught in her spider's web and they don't even realize it. (Hahaha get it because-- *double gunshot*)

This fucking picture. (Everything before this was already speculation, but this is EVEN MORE SPECULATIVE!) I have no idea what it means, and I know it was Diana that Wolfgang hallucinated as being his mother when he was in the boiler room, but Cassidy looks even more like her. Like, other than her eye color, she has the facial proportions of Wolfgang's dad and the eyes/hair of his mom. (Haha your mom.) Maybe they're siblings/half-siblings, I don't know. But it does strike me that Wolfgang's last words were "I won't stop until the world knows me as--!" before he died. Which... could mean he knows who the mastermind is, or has some involvement with the killing game, or maybe his parents did and he knows about it ("like father, like son..."). I have no clue, this is just me guessing based off of a facial similarity and two lines of dialogue lmfao.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

I don't know. Try again later.

Uh, but if I had to come up with some sort of potential motive for her to be involved - assuming she's a willing participant and has some sort of ideological or personal motive - then... here goes.

The first thing that comes to mind is something Damon says multiple times in the prologue: "Ultimates are charged with the betterment of society." And, well, he thinks everyone's doing a shit job - except for maybe Wenona, because she's a billionaire and runs a big business that feeds people. Basically everyone else, he thinks is totally useless.

Well... I can see a way that Cassidy might feel similarly, but in sort of a reverse way. She's a streamer and a pro gamer with a huge audience - and so far, she actually seems like the least harmful popular figure in the group. Compare her to Kai Monteago - who's a total dunce and who seems to really only care about his own fame when it comes to his talent. Or Wenona - who's a billionaire, a wealth hoarder whose profile literally says she owns over 90% of the agriculture industry and she dislikes unions.

We don't really know anything about Cassidy's platform (that I can immediately remember) other than "she's a gamer" and "they're called Cassidy's Comrades" - but even in just that, there's already communist theming with the "comrade" joke. Though that could just be a "haha Soviet Russia" joke and nothing deeper, I will also point out that one thing streamers are known for doing is charity streams - oftentimes long ones that become widely talked about because someone decided to stay on stream for 24 hours straight to raise money for a charitable cause. Also, because of the live nature of streamers' relationships with their fandoms, it's much more common than other industries for streamers to be publicly put on blast for things like microaggressions or giving money to bad people - something that could easily influence someone like Cassidy. What is a killing game broadcast, but a livestream where all these Ultimates are put on blast - with their first murder motive being cryptic blackmail about some of the worst things they've done?

In my "Cassidy = mastermind" hypothetical, where Damon's hatred of the Ultimate title and the people who have it comes largely from his ego and distrust of others in general, Cassidy could hate the Ultimate title and the people who have it because she thinks they're not doing enough to help others. Ultimates have been charged with the betterment of society, and they're failing. In this hypothetical, Cassidy also puts herself above others and distrusts others - but expresses it very differently from Damon. Surprisingly, much more pessimistically, given the whole murder game and all.

Well - that's if I'm right. I'm probably not. But it's a fun thought, right?

[lyss-sketchbox]

With Natlan's AQ coming to a close and I had time to really think about it and see other's perspective of it. I have some thoughts. And its gonna discuss the entire AQ as a whole and not just Act 5.

In short

More consistent action and flare than Fontaine

Way too much 'waiting for the right moment' and no other preparations are shown because of it.

The blind trust to said moment. Noone vetoed this, noone was worried about this, noone doubted this. So everything felt weightless.

Mavuika is a mary sue. Her hardheaded and blind trust to an event that may or may not happen just so happens to go right. She's so confident it'll work out she spent the days leading up to the final battle painting. So everything she does has no weight to it when it's blatantly obvious they're gonna win and ruined anything hoyo tried to do to create any tension.

Capitano is the goat and it's a shame he had a fraction of the screen time but alot more impact.

I have to say the level of action and flare they used in the entire AQ is alot more consistent than Fontaine.

We all should admit that we came into an AQ expecting interaction and action from playable characters and not NPCs unless they built them up enough to care for. Fontaine's evidence searching and crime solving part is understandably slow for some people and it can really hinder the pace, especially Meropide's part where it fully focuses on NPC's instead of actually figuring out Wrio's and Lyney's plans (which is sidelined until the very end)

The action scenes and AQ specific domains are great. I like that they aren't making us watch still images or summaries of events and actually let's us play through certain scenes, especially the Act 4 war and Act 5 making our way to the eye of the Abyss part. I love that it gives us choices and consequences based on our choices and ACTUALLY shows that consequence instead of telling us. Makes it feel like they're putting effort into the story telling.

The actual weight of the plot...? Not so much. I think it is very cliche with not alot of active impact from playable characters. The ending falls flat compared to what was set up.

In Act 1-2, it felt cliché for Paimon to point out 'oh look it's time for us to solve this nation's crisis', pointing it out doesn't make it any better but this is just a pet peeve and pretty neglegible.

I was sceptical about Natlan from the start, I admit that, but I like how the characters had an active choice and struggle during these acts. Kachina chose to stay in the tourney and train, Mualani chose to switch teams, they didn't wait for a thing to happen to do thing, they initiated it first.

Mavuika and Capitano fight still doesn't make sense to me. It's alot of needless flare with no substance to me. It feels like Capitano just waltzed in there with no other plan than to fight Mavuika for the gnosis. Like he didn't even plan his escape, he just so happened to be saved by Ororon.

Act 3-4 while had character interaction, feels tonally wrong. Like are Mavuika and co. NOT doing anything else but to wait for the 6 heroes to show up? Mavuika FOUGHT against Capitano's methods because she believes her way is better but it feels so... shallow? She just trusts that the 6 heroes will show up on time without any doubts or Plan B's at all...? Also in the beginning Mavuika told us to be careful when sharing the news that a war might break out but the first thing we do is... tell people...? Out right...? Sure.

The war was done well, I like that we have choices and consequences. The end sequence literally is a My Little Pony clone but it does fit with the consistent theme of solidarity in war and nationalism. Still felt cheesy to me.

Act 5. ACT 5 is the worst tonal shift of all time to me. So we spent the first half celebrating when we know something else is there, no preparation or doubts. Even Mavuika is like 'ah yes let me paint to pass the time :)', it feels... arrogant, it feels as if it's absolutely undisputed that we are gonna win. So there's no tension at all even when they finally try to make the final battle feels important. Even the stadium bit feels off, there's literally NO signs that we are losing but for some reason the Sacred Flame goes out...?

While I like that they brought out memorable NPCs from world quests, the part about the 6 heroes feels so extremely tacked on. Like wow the 6 first heroes gave us blessings randomly in the middle of the sequence even though the actual power up sequence to get pyro traveller is still... way after that so it felt... useless? The entire boss battle even feels so weightless because yeah, you're gonna win, what is there to root for lmao.

Don't get me started on the celebration afterwards, the long awkward section where you allegedly spend a while giving out autographs and taking pictures. It feels like Hoyo is popping a party popper in our face and going CONGRATS YOU DID IT! CELEBRATE NOW! THIS IS A CELEBRATION. If they were trying to divert our attention from Mavuika's death then it's a shit attempt. Because the final battle didn't feel like it had weight, so it feels not worth celebrating.

Capitano is the only saving grace of this AQ and even then he's been sidelined for the entire act so while the logic for his sacrifice to Ronova was great (hell even more hyped about this than the entire final battle), it didn't have the impact it probably should've had. It felt like he had an entire side quest that we didn't get to see or hint at unless you count the very first dream opening Act 5.

Now my biggest issue with this nation is WHY IS THERE SO MUCH WAITING FOR THE RIGHT MOMENT????

Kachina deserved to be one of the 6 heroes instead of Xilonen. We literally don't know what Xilonen and Iansan even do to earn that title but they just... are??? We atleast see Kachina fighting for a spot in the Night Wars and we hear about Mualani and Kinich's wins but Xilonen and Iansan???

Mavuika vetoed Capitano's plans that actually had substance and logic behind it because she just.... trusts that it'll happen. Does she not worry they won't show up?? Does she not have Plan B's?? She had absolutely 0 worries at all so she just... feels so flat. Then in the final battle she just... doesn't worry at all, like I understand as an archon and a leader it's best that you act like it, but there's like... absolutely zero signs that she's worried. Even when she's talking to her LONG LOST SISTER SHE'S JUST... FINE??? MOVES ON??? ARE YOU NOT GONNA TELL YOUR WORRIES TO YOUR SISTER??? OR DO YOU JUST NOT HAVE WORRIES AT ALL????

Man idk, the ending flops for me. Rip capitano one of the only good thing about this nation and he isnt even from it. But we SEE HIS STRUGGLE, HIS DOUBTS, HIS FAILURES, AND HIS SACRIFICE AND SUCCESS WHILE WE GET SHIT ALL FROM MAVUIKA SO LIKE????? WHAT WE'RE THEY DOING???????

[dollopheadedmerlin]

MERLIN HOT TAKE: Merlin is NOT magic itself. Not more than anyone or anything else is. Magic is a part of everything in the world and Merlin just has a stronger connection to it

Mmmmmm

I dislike this, BUT I can see how the show definitely underutilized Merlin's role as "magic itself" making it not seem as literal. The show was pretty inconsistent with what Merlin could and couldn't do and, whilst I have my own headcanons to explain why his abilities fluctuate like that, it definitely muddies the whole "most powerful sorcerer" role that he plays.

I like Merlin being magic itself, or at least for magic itself to be possessed by Merlin, if that makes sense. I feel like he really has that Chosen One's burden and just having him be more connected to magic than everyone else kinda makes that not make as much sense.

I like to think that stopping time and seeing Avalon are some of the abilities that Merlin is only able to do because he is magic itself. He is privy to these things. And I like to think that him being taught as though he were just any other sorcerer, actually hindered him in some ways. There was no spell for stopping time. He always just Did It. But once Gaius started his teachings and he got good at spells . . . He stopped stopping time. I feel like that kind of magic required a deeper connection than just understanding an incantation. Filing his magic into neat little spells constrained it in some way. Or at least that's what I like to think to explain why he isn't seemingly as powerful as they claim him to be.

[horrorknife]

i keep seeing people unsure of how to interpret polle and the polle-anya relationship and it’s really pretty simple!

polle is the face to pony express. he’s a capitalistic figure—jimmy makes the comment about being “sexually excited at the sight of cartoon horses” because a) it’s technically workplace harassment and foreshadowing of him raping anya, b) it’s something he says because he knows the psych evals never get looked at, and c) polle’s face is mocking him at literally every corner on the tulpar. it’s pretty clear that working for pony express in any position is a shit job.

anya and the fetus are represented by a pony or by polle/polle amalgams. this has less to do with the widespread idea that jimmy doesn’t see anya as a person and more to do with the fact that he’s hiding behind his guilt and shame because it’s something he can’t make up an excuse for, as well as the fact that the entire situation is born of capitalism. the baby itself is a product of capitalism. if jimmy were not aboard the tulpar and curly hadn’t broken the news about them being fired so early, the assault and pregnancy could have been avoided.

jimmy wholly blames the rape on the loss of his job—anya is the only time in his hallucinations that a character is not represented with their own face. he feels EXTREMELY guilty about daisuke, and this is apparent when jim starts hallucinating the tombstones and the flowers and even daisuke himself. he’s open with himself about this because he believes daisuke’s death can be pinned on swansea instead of himself (even though he is the one truly responsible for it). with anya, jimmy can’t redirect blame. so it’s easier to overwrite her face and presence as the thing he thinks he can blame All Of This On. and to a point, that’s true—capitalism is the antagonist of mouthwashing—but not to the point jimmy wants to believe. he has to take responsibility for the things he did, trapped like a wild animal or no, and he can’t do it even up to the end.

anya is markedly NOT represented by polle in his birthday party hallucination—she’s cheering him on and calling him “our captain”. it’s clear that he valued her (and everyone else’s!) opinion of him and he’s so ashamed to have skewed that. it’s also him living his dream of having what curly has. the reason they’re all kind to him in that scene is because he really does, in the moment, think that what he’s doing/about to do is right.

it also makes sense that he’d break the polle statue; it’s motion activated and it talks, and it’s basically like having a big, speaking, motion activated statue of ronald mcdonald in the mcdonald’s break room. polle is inescapable, he’s everywhere, and jimmy fucking hates what he stands for. he blames everything on everyone else, but most of all, he’s content to put every ounce of blame onto pony express. (this also impacts the way he treats anya—pony express is cutting corners by hiring an unqualified nurse. i don’t agree w how he talks to her, obviously, but i can understand the frustration of not wanting to be treated by someone with no actual certification.) it’s why mouthwashing is so good, it’s why jimmy’s character is so good. mouthwashing is a game about how capitalism affects your humanity!!!! how you can be driven to do crazy things in crazy situations!!!

[hypertechnica]

i’m not saying that what Odo did in s6 while the dominion occupied the station WASNT fucked up beyond imagination, but am i the only one who thinks it completely makes sense why it happened (and why Kira forgave him?)

to be clear, i absolutely think the show forgave him too fast - it should have been a full arc on screen, not in a single off screen discussion in a closet. that was a massive writing failure. but! i don’t think that the arc is usalvageable at all.

(CW for discussions of grooming)

from what i knew of the dominion collaborator arc before i watched it, i assumed Odo had taken an active role in betraying the federation basically because he was lonely and horny and prioritized his own feelings over his values. i didn’t see that at all.

Odo’s betrayal lied within his inaction - his refusal to help kira and the resistance when she needed him most, ruining their plans and in the end costing thousands of lives. Kira (and everyone else) had every right to never speak to him again - so why did she?

Odo, to me, seemed completely dissociated the entire time his betrayal took place. where just before he had been talking of wanting to rip out his strong feelings for Kira, he then takes on an eerie apathy towards everything, stating things “used to” matter and that he felt nothing. he doesn’t even know how much time is passing. the crux of this, of course, is the link - Odo stresses that it’s an experience that can’t be compared to anything solids can do. Kira just “doesn’t understand.” that she can’t understand. what is so life changing about linking that makes him do a full 180 on everything he’s ever stood for? it’s basically just goo sex, right? right?

the Voice of the Link (the female changeling but i refuse to call her that because it’s a stupid fucking name) is manipulating him with his desire to link and to experience his culture. but linking is more than a metaphor for sex, it’s quite literally the emotional fusion between beings. the show compares it to sex, yes, but the emotional intimacy of the act transcends humanoid notions of sexuality in a way Odo had never experienced at this level before. the Voice already had power over him. she’d been building his trust and teasing him with hints at their culture for seasons at this point, it wasn’t a huge step to fully let her enter his mind. the Voice wanted Odo to join the Great Link - but she also wanted that minefield to be destroyed. Odo says she didn’t find out about their plans, but was he correct? what are the Voice’s true motives? she says she doesn’t care about the details of the war, that she just wants to be with Odo for companionship - i don’t buy it. she has to know about the resistance. she’s too smart to not have figured it out. it’s two birds with one stone - fully sway Odo to the side of the dominion, and ensure that the minefield is destroyed.

they’d linked before, but never in totality or for that length. she knew he’d be vulnerable to it. that he would lose himself to the overwhelming emotional intensity and melding of their minds. Odo was an extremely young changeling with little to no experience linking, and was thrust into an out of body extremely emotional and sexual experience literally transcending the boundaries of self with a thousand+ year old founder who knows exactly what buttons to press. of course he would lose his sense of self and detach from reality! she’s literally both attacking and assuaging every vulnerability Odo has in an extremely precise manner!

Odo wanted nothing more than to be able to link with another changeling but the power imbalance was too great. he was putty in her hands. it was really uncomfortable to watch and i dare say it was an act of predation rather than “Odo was horny and folded immediately” or “Odo was lonely and prioritized that over his friends.” yes, he was both of those things, but in the context of his relationship with the Voice… good lord. i wouldn’t even be surprised if Odo genuinely didn’t know the extent of the damage he caused until after things were over - he was completely and utterly gone.

it makes no sense for Odo to suddenly abandon his entire moral and value system just because The Link Is Cool and Awesome and i’m Learning About my Culture and then change his mind once more once shit starts hitting the fan. he’s not that gullible. he can’t rip out his feelings! but he can be coaxed into a state of derealized semi consciousness by continuous linking and isolation from others.

by linking with the Voice he lost track of where he ended and she began. his ego had been destroyed. he was nothing, and nothing mattered but the link. the totality of it. his loneliness was amplified by a thousand degrees every time they separated, she knew how to make him feel just right, she knew how to make him lose his independence completely.

but the spark within him, his love that he’d tried to get rid of, the kind that didn’t require becoming nothing but a drop in an ocean, saved him from her. Kira helped him remember himself and what he believed in right before it was too late.

Odo is far from a defendable character in many cases. he’s a very very flawed person. but i would argue this isn’t his worst moment. his extremely authoritarian tendencies and the amoral decisions he’s made while in complete sound mind are honestly more culpable to me than what happened to him in s6. the scale of the disastrous consequences resulting from his betrayal make it way worse obviously, but he was literally getting groomed and NOT in his right mind. he seemed almost drugged to me at points.

so he SHOULD have gotten another arc afterwards explaining all of that in detail instead of “well, he talked it out offscreen with Kira. he’s forgiven now!” BRO HE INDIRECTLY KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE dissociated or not he SHOULD face consequences for that!! make him grapple with it!! make him realize the extent of what happened not only the consequences but the the way he was taken advantage of! its literally existentially terrifying in every way! and of COURSE in that context Kira would forgive him. trust would have to be rebuilt, of course, but it’s one thing to actively put the entire alpha quadrant at risk for some strange, it’s another thing to have your vulnerability taken advantage of and be put into a dissociative state.

tldr: the Voice is a great villain and Odo has never done anything wrong ever in his life

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

Starting a Yellowjackets tag!

I want to get my mind off of things so: If you want, answer any or all of the questions below and tag 10 people (or however many you want) who also might want to share! I would love to see what you guys have to say!

1. Are you team Rational or Supernatural?

2. Who is your favorite teen timeline character? Favorite adult timeline character?

3. What is your favorite needledrop?

4. What is your favorite ship?

5. What is your favorite episode?

6. Who do you want the Antler Queen to be?

7. What is your favorite scene in the entire series?

8. A theory or prediction you have about Season 3?

9. Which character do you relate to the most, and why?

10. What is the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of Yellowjackets?

Bonus:

11. What’s your most controversial Yellowjackets take?

—

Here’s mine!

1. I am mostly Team Rational because I love the way this show depicts trauma but I also love seeing the supernatural side of things through the survivors’ eyes if that makes sense.

2. Natalie in the teen timeline because I love her compassion and softness underneath the front she puts on. Lottie in the adult timeline because I love her internal battle with herself and how afraid she is of her own mind. Misty is a close second in the adult timeline!

3. “Cornflake Girl” playing while Nat sees the mossy tree for the first time, Callie seeing the Adam Martin driver’s license in the barbecue, and Shauna eating Jackie’s ear. It just goes so perfectly with everything that’s going on (especially the elevated piano while Nat and Travis are scaling the mountain and the lyrics while Shauna takes the bite!)

4. LottieNat is my favorite ship I can’t help it Nat and Lottie are my favorite characters so having them together is a dream (TaiVan, JackieShauna, and TravNat are up there, too).

5. 1x09 “Doomcoming” is just amazing and captures everything I love about Yellowjackets. I love when they let the girls go batshit crazy, hoping we get more Doomcoming vibes in S3.

6. I want the Antler Queen to be Natalie because that would show a true descent for her in the Wilderness from being the most morally grounded one to the leader of the group at their most unhinged and primal. But honestly I think that Shauna might be the AQ after all…

7. I think the Jackie-eating scene is the best in the entire show. The “Climbing Up the Walls” song choice, the bacchanal feast flashes as a way of coping with the horror of what they’re doing, seeing them go fully feral for the first time, it’s such a well crafted scene.

8. I know this probably won’t happen but I’m just going to throw it out there that Cabin Daughter is alive and she will be revealed to have been Javi’s “friend”!

9. I relate to Shauna the most because I also admittedly have a bit of an obsessive/intense personality and I, too, internalize my emotions to a very unhealthy degree sometimes. I also grew up being in love with my childhood best friend who is very, very much like Jackie (and now we have been dating for 7 years!)

10. Mine is a mix of going to a Yellowjackets panel and sitting like 5 feet from the showrunners, doing everything in my power to score early screening tickets to Heretic and Companion, and pretending I was sick so I could go home early from work the day that the S3 trailer came out.

11. The male characters on this show get too much hate🫢 I like Travis, Jeff, Kevyn, and Walter (even though his introduction and storyline are rushed and forced). I don’t like them more than the female characters, but I like them nevertheless and appreciate their contributions to the plot.

No pressure tags! (I’m tagging 15 bc I feel like it) @before-it-felt-like-a-sin @baked-potatoes-rule @jackiesnats @deerest-deer @whodoesnataliehave @stilllsage @fairytwles @glitterfairy-21225 @lesbianforlottie @tr4vnat @lauraleetaylor @cassioo @natsboygirlfriend @soapyjackets @pinkkkkat @natgf123 +literally anyone else who wants to!

[ozmatippetarius]

it really does surprise me that Arcane doesn’t get more criticism for how much of it feels like right-wing propoganda. Y’all, I enjoyed the animation too,but you’ve got to consume media critically, too, you know? I mean, we’ve got:

Cops are good. If a cop is corrupt and bigoted, he’s a single bad egg and probably being paid off by somebody from the oppressed group anyway, which means ultimately the oppressed class is responsible for everything that happens to them. If a “good cop” does something reprehensible like use biochemical weapons on civilians, it was necessary and the oppressed group probably deserved it. If a cop gets killed on duty, they were probably trying to save a baby at the time.

Technology capable of creating weapons of mass destruction belongs in the hands of the ruling class. If a member of the oppressed class gets their hands on it, it’s a crisis and needs to be returned immediately. Of course the ruling class can be trusted not to make weapons with it themselves; that’s not even a point of discussion.

If poor children are killed by the ruling class, it’s no big deal. They probably would have gotten killed by somebody else in their shithole city anyway, you know? There’s no need to take any responsibility whatsoever. If the kid’s mother seeks vengeance, literally the only way of seeking accountability that she has, that’s justification to… make weapons with the aforementioned technology.

Communes are inherently evil and destroy your sense of self.

Violent revolution is always wrong. Oh, you have no legal representation or any other way to advocate for your rights? Wrong, surely if you sit quietly for long enough the ruling class will take benevolent action eventually. Here’s an alternate timeline to prove it.

And this is just off the top of my head… I guess I’m surprised to see all of this being eaten up so voraciously in this time, among people that I don’t think would say any of this aligns with their personal values?

[twooowars]

HI omg i live for this kind of stuff. hypothesis incoming. Lengthy text under the cut (sorry).

to summarize before i even start, i have no definitive answers whatsoever- and i am literally a professional researcher and fact-checker. i've spent legitimately a few hours of my night looking into this and the conlcusion i'm coming to is that this is not a plush from a known company. i could be totally wrong! and i sort of hope i am, tbh. but if this is a known toy brand then the internet has not archived it very well.

like OP i was not able to find an exact match, and i sort of figured that would be the case as my personal theory is that the plushie in question is a knockoff from a relatively unknown brand that combines the features of more popular toys from the early-00s. (i assume it's more contemporary to the time of filming than actually accurate to the canon of being something dennis owned as a kid, especially because it seems to be made of that synthetic fur that was so popular back then, though i'm visually impaired so i could absolutely be wrong on that). to me one good option based on looks is Tuk Elephant from Aurora's Precious Memories, though it's certainly not one-to-one, and it makes sense to me that either a knockoff or a version altered for TV would lack the ultra-recognisable eyes. there are some obvious differences- Tuk's trunk is less curly, his feet are not pink, sometimes (not always) he wears a giant bow like in the image below, and his fur is a bit darker. also again, he has eyes. but, here is Tuk for your consideration regardless. (yes, this company also made Dumbo toys).

they made a few different versions of this plush as far as i'm aware (the above image is a slightly more recent design) so its design has changed slightly over time. Aurora has also made a lot of elephant plushies over the years; Tuk, Flopsie, the unnamed elephants they made for the Tubbie Wubbies and Eco Nation lines... the list goes on. i've spent way too long looking into this though, and I really don't think Tibbs actually looks that much like Tuk, so of course i have more than one theory.

back to what OP said about Gund toy company, the brand does also have some plushies with pretty distinctive eyes (though this seems pretty exclusive to their toys from the 80s); so to me, it's another pretty good contender for "toys they may have to take the eyes off of to avoid legal trouble". like Aurora they also seem to have produced about 10 million elephant plushies over the years, including a line of Babar toys which has nothing to do with this but is something i personally find funny. overall i think they could be a strong candidate for a knockoff brand to try and replicate seeing as they were so prolific.

last and honestly probably least, being from Canada my immediate first thought whenever I see a nondescript plushie like this is Ganz. to my memory, pre-Webkinz and post-Wrinkles they were pretty infamous for popping up absolutely everywhere with all kinds of random stuff. crane machine/UFO catcher toy? Ganz. vending machine toy? Ganz. everything in the thrift store? Ganz all day. Philadelphia is surprisingly close to Canada geographically and especially to Ontario where the company is based. they also tend to have tiny little plastic eyes. so I would consider them a possible suspect for this mystery, or at least a possible inspiration for a knock-off brand.

anyway, my general opinion is that they probably found this thing at a thrift store on the cheap, and it's probably not something any of the cast already owned considering the fact they rip his head off. i don't think season 1 sunny would have had a prop like this made for the show, though i do think it was altered slightly for its purposes. (head removed and put back on with velcro, eyes and tags removed, nothing else I can really see). thank you so much, OP, this will haunt me until the day i die. for anyone who read this far here is my fav elephant i found in my search.

Has anyone ever actually tracked down Mr. Tibbs? Like do we know what stuffed animal they used for him, or was he too vague for us to find out what brand he was? I've tried looking around and I can't find anything that seems to match exactly (But to be fair, I'm not an internet detective, I barely know how to google correctly...)

who is this guy? I have no idea, but I do have a headcanon/half-baked and tiredly researched idea...

Meet Gund's "Blue Elephant" plush with silver satin inner ears and paws! Is he exact? Not really, no, but he was made back in 1980, I believe. It's a little hard to tell honestly... but the logo on his tag was used as early as 1980, also right when Gund was getting really popular in the US! Dennis would've been about 4 years old, making him just the right age to meet his beloved Mr. Tibbs and to start making his strong connection with the plush.

I can (And probably will) make a post comparing the two later, seeing how they match and differ seems fun. Anyways, I spent too long looking into this. I hope this is cool enough to justify that.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️

I’m freaking out, I need to know!! Them cuddling in the motel?!?!? The car crash?!?! EDDIE GET YOUR MAN!!!!

Hopefully you've been enjoying the answers!

144 or 1k for ⚖️:

---

Buck shifts over on the bed, mindful of Eddie’s leg. Eddie sits up, wincing a little, to try and meet him halfway. 

“Just stay still,” Buck commands. 

“Bossy,” Eddie grumbles. 

Awkwardly, Buck leans over, and kisses him. Gentle, as the occasion calls for. Eddie’s lips are softer than Buck would have expected. He feels warm all over. Like he’s the one on pain medication. It’s quick, and soft, and when Buck pulls away, he can hear Eddie take a sharp little breath.

“Wow,” Eddie mumbles.

“Satisfied?” Buck asks. 

“I love you, too,” Eddie whispers.

“Jeez, that good?”

“I already did… I’ve just… Only girls before, you know?”

“Yeah, it’s a mindfuck, huh?” Buck muses.

“Definitely.”

Buck carefully lays down next to him, closer than before. 

“I’ll kiss you more tomorrow if you take your pain meds and go to sleep?” Buck bribes him.

Eddie chuckles. “Yeah, okay. Deal.”

Buck reaches for his hand and squeezes it. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Buck.”

ii. 

They spend the next two days before Buck has to go back to work - while Eddie has to take time off - as a sort of family. Maybe not a sort of anything. Maybe just as a family. Buck likes the feel of it.

They take it easy. Eddie can’t do much. Plus, Chris just wants to be home. They order in and play games and just spend time with each other. Buck and Eddie are a little shy. Shyer than they need to be. They don’t want to be too open in front of Chris. Not yet at least. And also, it’s just… Well, it’s strange. To go from best friends to people who are allowed to kiss now. It’s not a simple switch. 

But, god. Buck is happy about it. 

He’s so happy about it. This is right. This makes sense. This is why nothing else was ever going to work out for him. There’s a fate, right? A somewhat determined future? He’s seen proof of that. Well, it’s Eddie. For him, it’s Eddie. It has to have been. It has to be, even now. He belongs here. Exactly here. 

“I can’t believe Tommy poached you,” Eddie grumbles one night in bed, after a decent amount of kissing. Awkwardly positioned kissing, to avoid hurting Eddie’s leg. But still, pretty great, in Buck’s opinion.

“Okay, not to defend him, but you did have a girlfriend and never did literally anything about those feelings, so… Poached isn’t accurate,” Buck says. 

Eddie huffs. “Still.”

“If only I could’ve seen the future then,” Buck says wistfully. 

“About that…” Eddie starts nervously.

“What about it?” Buck asks. 

“I don’t think I want you to look into mine at all,” Eddie says.

Buck stiffens a little. He’s told Eddie about everything he saw in Christopher’s future. The endlessness of the choices. The incomplete future, because of his age. How Eddie’s accident had been obscured to him. The only thing he hasn’t told him was about his little chat with Nemesis. How could he? If Eddie heard about that, he might never let him help again. 

“Uh, you don’t?” Buck says.

“No,” Eddie shakes his head. “I get it’s a risk, but… Well, you can still do Chris. Make sure he’s good. But don’t you want some things in life to be a surprise?”

Buck sighs. “For me? Sure. But I want… I want to know the people I love are okay.”

“I know you do,” Eddie says. “So do I. But… I think I’m firm on this, okay? Especially if we’re going to be together, Buck. I want all that to unfold naturally.”

Buck smiles at that thought. He can see what Eddie’s saying. Honestly, he can.

“We’re gonna be together, huh?” He says. “For the future?”

“Well, aren’t we?” Eddie asks. 

Buck grins. “Yeah. Yeah, we are. And, uh, that’s not said with future confirmation.”

“So, then?” Eddie prompts. 

“I get what you’re saying,” Buck assures him. “You don’t have to worry about it.”

Besides, he thinks. If what Nemesis said was true, this will be better for him anyway.

iii. 

Buck returns to work resolved to only help or punish strangers. No friends. No loved ones. He’s going to look out for himself. Even if anything could be happening at any point and he wouldn’t know about it. He wouldn’t be able to prepare for it. Change it. It’s fine. Totally fine. Nemesis warned him, right?

For the first few shifts it’s fine. He helps some call victims. Punishes another. It’s mostly not an issue at all. If he just lets himself live in the moment, most days, he finds he can sort of ignore that it’s a thing. He’s working, or he’s home with Eddie and Chris, and he feels fine. Good even. He’s not thinking about the doom he could be preventing if only he risked himself a little at all. Not at all.

When Eddie gets back to work, he’s on light duty for a while. Man-behind for a number of shifts. Relegated to the ambulance after that. Bobby’s taking it seriously, in typical Bobby fashion. Buck is glad. Even if when he’s the one injured it irks him. 

They disclose to Bobby that they’re seeing each other. They’ve told Chris, and his enthusiastic response kind of gave them the fuel to amp things up. Buck has hardly been back to his apartment for anything more than more changes of clothing. Bobby doesn’t have a problem with it. Nor does he seem all that surprised. Is he seeing the future now, too? Damn. 

[puhpandas]

Why do people like ggy? I don't like what it does to Gregory's characterization, how it makes Vanny pointless, and how it contradicts the game.

I think you just answered your own question. you dont like what it does to his character but some other people do!

vanny being pointless isnt GGYs fault, it's just unfortunate that GGY takes away from her. which like I said isnt his fault because Vannys lack of screentime/character is just a fundamental problem with her. if she'd gotten the screentime she needed, it wouldnt be nearly as bad.

and it doesn't really contradict the game if you think about it. theres nothing in the game about Gregory to contradict lol. he has a lot of mystery surrounding him that GGY can explain if you apply it to him.

Gregory's lack of a record, his skill with robots, freddy 'remembering' him somehow in cut security breach lines, sleeping in the box, a lot of these can be explained if you assume Gregory had memory loss during sb after getting freed like vanessa somehow. it makes a whole lot more sense.

and it's also just an interesting dynamic for Gregory and the other characters in his life! gregory and vanessa being in the same boat changes things, and it makes a narritave they're pushing in ruin make a whole lot more sense (the idea that Gregory and vanessa worked on mxes together, and collabed as a 'we were ur victims now we're going to lock you away' type deal)

[gingerswagfreckles]

I think maybe we should all start internalizing a rule that if we are going to reblog 672792 memes about an event we should also be required to read at least one (1) news article about it.