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ladyazurith · 6 months ago

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Cater Diamond Analysis

Honestly, my first impressions of Cater were…not good. When I very first started playing Twist, I picked Idia as my starting character because I love Hades (not the Disney version but the classical Greek mythology version, though the Disney version is great he’s a terrible representation of Hades but I think everyone knows that) After playing the game Azul quickly became my favorite (That’s why my first Broken Mirrors story was about him) and just Octavinelle in general.

When I first picked up Twist I kind of sped through books 1 and 2. At the time I was still knee deep in the MHA fandom and was playing the game because a friend recommended it (they’d followed the JP release) And didn’t really absorb much. Books 3 and 4’s release is when I really started to pay attention. My Ao3 page definitely reflects this given stories started appearing in April of 22.

The first thing I really remembered about Cater was Beans Day and I was overall just annoyed with him because I wanted to spend more time with Jade. And Cater it seemed was the reason he kept leaving.

Another thing is I have Cater’s Birthday SSR from the first year (it was the very first Birthday Card we got in the EN version) I do not remember pulling for it, let alone actually getting his card but it’s there so…*shrugs*

It wasn’t until I saw a music video on YouTube set to Kill the Lights, that I even took a second glance at Cater as a character. The video made me compare him to Twice from MHA (I was again still attached to the fandom at the time) and I loved Twice, so I started digging more. Twice has an incredibly tragic backstory and it made me curious about Cater’s.

After that I dug through all the information I could about Cater, both in EN and JP releases, I watched translations of all his available vignettes or others he was in, and events he was a part of. I’ve always loved picking characters apart and I found that Cater was far more complex than I first gave him credit for. There are a few key cards/events that I believe are essential for understanding who Cater is.

First is of course is Heartslabyul’s chapter of the game. I know a lot of people will point to this and say it’s why they don’t trust him or take him seriously, but context is key. Yes, he does “manipulate” the group into doing some of his chores. But in the wider context of the story, Cater is often left doing a lot of extra work around the dorm. Picking up the slack, because of his clones and making up for the mistakes of others. (Trey’s CR Card is a good window into this, along with Trey’s Star Sending Card) And honestly, this is about the worst thing he does throughout the entire game.

What is also shown is that Cater is very forgiving. He’s never actually upset with Riddle for the way he behaves. It’s not that he condones his actions, but he knows why Riddle behaves the way he does and tries his best to be understanding while also helping the 1st years navigate the situation and in a way protect them. (He even asks Trey if he’s okay with what’s going on when Ace and Deuce get kicked out) Even at the end when Ace gets on Riddle for his apology Cater chastises him. In the end, Cater is very conflict averse, he doesn’t really want to fight with people, and would rather everyone just get along (this is part of why he Kalim and Lilia all get along so well in the LMC) I think some people see his reaction in the manga, and take his reason for not wanting to step in wrong. Personally, I don’t think it had completely clicked with him that this wasn’t an altercation that could be ended peacefully. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.

There are a lot of hints that Cater is fairly depressed under his happy come-what-may attitude. His Labcoat personal story is less than subtle about it, (Vil and Lilia straight-up talk about what the Mandrake Cater tried to hide meant), And even his CR card shows that he’s not really a fan of all the socializing he does, and finds it exhausting. He also isn't afraid of death, at least as his clones, in the Heartslabyul Manga he takes a spear to the chest to save Deuce, and in Chapter 2 he creates replicas of the Diasomnia Spelldive team and allows himself to be trampled. The level he's nonchalant about it is a bit disturbing, especially because he can remember what happens as his clones (he makes a comment about not being able to use them to study because the information can get jumbled up) and they have been stated to *be* him. (this is part of why I HC that Cater's clones can confuse Rook's UM because he can't tell a clone from the real Cater)

Another really important one is Cater’s Halloween SSR (and really the first two Halloween events), His SSR is one of the few times we get to see his thoughts so clearly. He’s excellent at hiding his true thoughts and feelings. The conversation he has with Lilia and Kalim about not being really close to anyone, and preferring to keep people at arm's length is heartbreaking because it comes from a place of moving around, being forgotten, and being hurt. Everything Cater does is an effort to get people to remember him, from his guitar to his magicam account.

At the end of his SSR is a very touching moment between Diasomnia as Lilia comforts Malleus, Cater’s left to the side feeling completely bitter about all of it. Angry Lilia thought he could ever understand him when he had connections like Malleus, Silver, and Sebek in his life. Connections Cater doesn’t feel he can ever make. The follow up to this is when he’s still standing there and gets the call from Trey who yells at him because he’s not in Heartslabyul to help solve a problem there, and gets called a liar when he explains what he was doing. (People sometimes ask me why I don’t like Trey and this scene right here is part of that reason.)

As for the rest of the first Halloween, the only time we really see him relaxed is in Lilia’s card. Every other time he’s working, solving problems, or helping other people. Even at the very end when everyone else was relaxing at the after party, he was off comforting the Ghosts who felt guilty about causing all the problems with their picture in the beginning, helping them feel better and bringing the subject up to others.

In the second Halloween event, he was one of the possessed missing students. I don’t think everyone realizes this but all the ghosts made the ones they’d possessed act in the exact opposite of their true nature. (Vil who he was stuck with is a great example, he was crying acting like someone who had no self-esteem, but the things he was saying were in complete contrast to his behavior, which in reality Vil acts like a very self assured person on the surface but deep down he’s a doubt ridden insecure mess. Kalim is another he was angry and violent)

Cater was forced to be cruel and malicious, which lines up with being the opposite of who he really is from the little bits we’ve seen. He often tends to go out of his way to help people. When they needed help in the final act of Endless Halloween when the other students appeared he was the first one to step up to help take care of it. In Silver’s card, he took the time to console him and give him advice but even his advice to live in the moment and don’t care about what happens in the future tells us a lot about him.

Even Beans Day and the fact he stuck with Yuu (something that first annoyed me) is an example of this. A lot of people saw “us” as a liability and ditched the MC in the very competitive game, but Cater didn’t he stayed, and in the end, they almost won.

Other notes along the way are he never really talks positively about his family. He’s always complaining about how overbearing his sisters are. How they treated him like a doll. Bought presents for him that were meant for them, not him, etc. And I know what he says about his dislike of sugar and how it came from one incident as a child BUT that’s not very likely. I have a feeling it was more than *one* incident and a repeated dismissal of his own autonomy in his family BUT that is just a theory. Personally, I think he downplayed the event like he seems to do a lot of these things. It’s very clear he generally conceals how he truly feels about an incident.

He even comments about how he doesn’t want to go home over winter break because he knows his sisters will just put him to work. In his second year birthday jacket card he talks about how his sisters take him shopping and force him to carry everything. Every time his family comes up it's never in a positive context.

In his Silks card, it’s shown he has a problem buying things for himself. Jamil pokes him about it, while he’s buying souvenirs for other people, and in the end, makes Jamil pick something for him. We get hints that Jamil can see past the facade he puts up and that makes Cater nervous BUT we also know Jamil absolutely trusts Cater. He left Kalim in Cater’s care in Silk City, and even though Kalim doesn’t generally eat anything but Jamil’s cooking (not even his own) Kalim is the one that judges Cater’s culinary crucible meal. And the way Jamil conducts himself in Cater’s birthday interview.

Cater also tends to treat people as people. He’s never really been intimidated by Malleus, not the same way other people are (outside Yuu/MC), and will talk to him freely. When realistically he has more reason than most to be afraid of Malleus. It takes a bit of stringing of different card stories and events together, but Malleus has knocked Cater unconscious with his magic before. Because in Malleus’s first Birthday card, he talks about the incident, where Lilia invited him to the LMC, to play music, but he accidentally knocked the members unconscious. We know that Kalim arrived late in his 2nd year and that during Cater and Lilia’s first year, they were very quickly the only members of the LMC until Kalim joined. Meaning when the incident took place the only available victim was Cater.

I also know Cater talks about not having a lot of money/not coming from a wealthy family, BUT I know this isn’t true. While it's not likely his family is as rich as I’ve made them in my stories, they are NOT poor. First off they move AT least every two years, and that is NOT cheap to do. We know his dad works for a bank, but there aren’t many positions at a Bank on any level that would require the person to move so much. Bankers are some of the wealthiest people period (not the tellers or general employees but those wouldn’t require moving) Looking into it, his dad is most likely an investment banker which make $$$. This is also backed up by the fact that he does chase trends that take an incredible amount of money, and he’s talked about doing things like going “Glamping” which costs upwards of 1-1.5k/night Then again maybe his perception is warped by Kalim lol.

As far as his relationships go. I do think his perception is a bit skewed from past experiences. Riddle seems to care an awful lot about him/considers him a friend. I think this is very much a case of Riddle taking Cater at face value, not having the social awareness to realize Cater is faking most of what he’s doing. While Cater is still stuck on the idea that Riddle is just another shallow friendship for him.

I also think Kalim thinks more of their friendship than Cater does. I also always wonder how Vil can insist the only thing Cater wants out of him is fame when *Kalim’s standing right there* While Kalim isn’t famous in the same sense Vil is, he’s INCREDIBLY wealthy and it wouldn’t take much for him to leverage that for his own fame, but we don’t really see him doing that, yes he does make posts with Kalim but it all seems to be in line with his friendship with him and things they do with the club, and the time Kalim invited him to Silk City. There is no hint Cater takes advantage of him at all (which I think plays into why Jamil trusts him)

Speaking of Vil, the reason I ship Cater and Vil is very detailed and delves into the nuance of their interactions and relationship otherwise. I know it’s easy to point at Vil’s “What it means to be a Brand” R card Vin, where Cater talks about how attractive he is and talks about dating him. (I’m still mad they took that out of the English version) as a reason, and while it is part of it Vil doesn’t tell him he won't date him, he tells Cater he can’t afford them. (Which to me sounds like a shallow comment?!?! When he calls Cater Shallow, gets a bit on my nerves but that's another rant)

But what really sells me that Cater’s feelings for Vil are real and not part of his fake facade is his Birthday Jacket interview. He picks Vil as his choice of sibling and then goes on to talk about why he looks up to and respects Vil. It’s not about his physical features, but other traits he likes and appreciates. He seems to understand Vil. And this is my take on it but I think part of why he likes Vil (either romantically or otherwise) is he sees a kindred spirit, someone who puts on a mask to face an uncaring world that expects impossible standards, and the need to always be ‘on’ and performing. Remember it's clear that Cater doesn’t enjoy what he does social media-wise and the like, but it's something he feels like he has to do.

Trey is otherwise not someone he’s super close to. To me, their relationship comes across more like coworkers at a stressful job, than actual friends. Cater himself has said more than once that he’s not close to *anyone* and Trey in the star sending even talks about how even after all the time they’ve spent together Cater still doesn’t seem to trust him with his true self. Trey tends to be very dismissive of Cater’s complaints and Cater in general. And straight up TO HIS FACE told him he’d always be closer to Riddle. (As someone who didn’t have childhood friends themselves, and even now struggles with friends that line right there hurt a lot. That the idea that if you didn’t make a friend when you were a child then you could never be close to someone more than they are to someone else hurt and made me angry. And did not help my opinion of Trey AT ALL Length of time is not the only qualifier to a strong friendship) But yet tends to also be dismissive of Riddle in some cases?!?! And is willing to manipulate him so there's that.

I did an entire write up of Lilia and Cater’s relationship, but a summary is that I find it one of the most unique and complex in the game. Often times Lilia tends to treat the other students like he’s a mentor figure. Not just Diasomnia, but all of them in general when he interacts. Cater however isn’t treated that way and seems to view him more as an equal, and has been shown to listen to and take advice from him when he’s otherwise shown to be very stubborn and determined. And it's possible he intended to stay in contact with Cater when he attempted to leave in ch 7. Cater tells him that he can hit him up on Magicam at any time which means Lilia hasn’t deactivated his account (Cater would likely know that) and Lilia doesn’t tell him he can’t like he had with other attempts to stay in contact, but he doesn’t say he will either so it's more up in the air.

Idia…also seems to listen to him!?! Honestly Idia and Cater’s relationship also probably deserves their own post. I don’t ship them, mostly because I think they’d end up in a self destructive spiral. BUT I do think they could be friends, like really good friends if they could both get past some of their issues. They have a lot in common, especially when it comes to being lonely and detached certain everyone will just forget about them someday.

Over all Cater is an extremely complex person, and really about the only character who we don’t know a lot about. Most of what we have on him is how other characters view him, (which is why I think there is a lot of misconception and distrust of his character for people because they buy into what they see on the surface and move on) and a few scraps here and there into who he actually is under the surface which completely contradicts the persona he presents.

I have a lot of headcanons for him, and while I noted a few here in this, I tried to keep this to most extrapolation from what we see directly in canon. I love Cater, and I hope this helps some people have a better understanding of who he is.

#twisted wonderland #twst #cater diamond #heartslabyul #twst thoughts #twst headcanons

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teatraps · 6 months ago

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Gotta rant about Edgar Valden rq

Cause seriously, his character is so cool to me. Like, you have the basic rundown. Rich kid ran away from home because he was dissatisfied with his life there. But then, all of that ends up just being a red herring. The “dissatisfaction” which always came off as him just being in his own head and looking down on others because he thinks he’s better than them gets flipped on its head with his 3rd letter. All of his trash talk makes so much more sense. He wasn’t just saying he didn’t care about other people’s opinions or money or fame because he was super self absorbed. He was saying that because he knew first hand the damage chasing money, fame, and power can cause. Really thinking about it, his father basically killed his entire family for status. And then, with the slight implication that Edgar’s dad knew what Sarai was doing to Edgar the whole time, he let his son get groomed by a man for over a decade and kept him on a payroll. Now, it’s vague about what Sarai did to Edgar, but it was obviously bad enough to deteriorate his mental health to the point of having hallucinations. All that, and his dad never got rid of Sarai. Never fired him. Nothing. Which makes sense, because having a super talented artist in the family looks good for their status. Probably covered up all the controversy their family had too. Why would his dad care? He couldn’t care enough to let his wife rest to get better from her illness, or to actually look for his youngest child when she went missing.

For the little we do know about Sarai, we know he taught Edgar that praise is the highest form of love. Again, playing into the idea that Edgar was brought up to try and appease others and try to get status and fame. This is even kinda hinted at in his very first letter when he tells Ella that he’s going to become a famous artist, a goal he ends up feeling disillusioned to. The fact he still kept painting even after no longer wanting fame and recognition shows his love for painting was rooted in something much deeper than that. Then, referencing back to his deductions where he says that life is beautiful and the brush can preserve that beauty, it shows exactly what it was that keeps him going with art. He thinks life is beautiful. A simple reason, but a lovely one nonetheless. He cherishes the beautiful moments like the time he had with his mother or Ella.

This also could change what he even meant by looking for inspiration when going to the manor. When he talks about how he finds no inspiration in his home, it’s not something as simple as everything is just boring. He talks about how the culture of the aristocracy is just straight up draining for him. The greed. The constant push for more money and status, even at the cost of loved ones. The shallowness. There’s no beauty in it, he can’t find inspiration in it. Even as he signs off his farewell letter, he implies he would never go back home. He’s not just running off on some little trip to find inspiration and go home right after. He was straight up cutting off the life he once knew because it wasn’t really a life at all. As he puts it, he was just another decoration for his dad. For most of his life, he was kind of treated as less than human. More like a party trick for his dad to show off and gain their family more status.

And while we don’t know much about his role in game 5, the context of the game makes him stand out a lot. Outside of the fact that Edgar wasn’t in a faction at the start and the only character truly confirmed dead, his goals are also completely different from the rest of the group and he thematically differs from the others. Every other character is in some way trying to fix some “issue” with themself to try to assimilate into a group they were ostracized from (I say issue in quotes because it’s usually something out of their control that they honestly shouldn’t have been blamed for). Chloe trying to become Vera to be accepted, Jose trying to get his first officer title back and rejoin the aristocracy (or his alcoholism in order to maintain his station as a first officer in the first place), Kevin trying to prove to himself that he’s reached a point where he could’ve protected Angelina so he can face her tribe, and Patricia trying to rid herself of her curse in order to be accepted into her mother’s village. Meanwhile, there’s Edgar who was wanted by his community, but not taken care of by them. All five of them have a similar goal, to get some form of community and support, but Edgar is in a much different position from the rest of his team since he is more confident in himself and who he is. It’s never been called into question, and I don’t think that’s a negative trait either since every time someone in game 5 tries to correct their “flaw” it causes more harm than good. From Chloe killing her sister who was innocent, to Jose accidentally poisoning Kevin who was innocent, Patricia killing Edgar even though he didn’t do anything to her, and even Kevin being self destructive in drinking the poison. Not to mention three out of four of them feel regret and unfulfilled after they do it (and the one I’m not counting is Patricia because it’s not fully confirmed, but tbh there are things that foreshadow her not feeling fulfilled either so you could make it four out of four). Edgar, at least on the surface, didn’t internalize that there was something wrong with him that made the people around him treat him like trash, mainly because he was always desired by the people around him. These people still weren’t good for him though, leading to the lack of inspiration they give him. As he says, he’s looking for “fresh colors” and Edgar only refers to colors when he’s talking about someone he cared for (his mom = green, Ella = white, Sarai = red). Edgar looking for fresh colors could probably roughly translate to looking for new companionship with people that actually care about him.

If I really wanted to get into the internalizing thing tho, I’d probably say his willingness to sacrifice himself probably comes from…

1. Being so used to getting treated like a tool his entire life he thinks it’s the standard to a degree (hence why he’ll complain about having to play hero roles but still gets them regularly anyway)

2. Being unable to truly repent to Patricia because he can’t bring himself to apologize for killing Sarai (and he shouldn’t tbh, especially considering that was like his first act of true autonomy)

3. And lastly, just not really having anywhere to go after the manor. His goalpost ended at the manor while the other four saw it more as a stepping stone to get to other places.

And that’s not even getting into his overall lore relevance because let’s not act like he didn’t imply the Deross family are family friends of the Valden family in his 3rd letter. PLUS he has ties to Barriere.

He’s always got this slightly hopeful air to him, like he still believes there’s something out there that can bring him the happiness and love he once had. It’s honestly just a really nice breather from the usual doom and gloom of idv’s storyline (granted his story is still depressing asf, but for idv standards it’s pretty happy. Like his 3rd letter where he just goes no contact with his dad is probably one of the healthiest things I’ve ever seen an idv character do). Even in the end, he gets the ending he wanted. He finds the inspiration he was looking for, but tbh I don’t think it was death that he was trying to achieve. His deaths are always portrayed as sacrifices specifically. It’s usually not something he really wants to do. Runaway didn’t want to risk his life and put himself in danger with mir, but he does it because he doesn’t want to abandon the followers to a cult. Censer didn’t want to die, he still really wanted to see his creator’s wish come true, but he accepts death if it will bring it closer to coming true. Even in his experiment file, Orpheus says Edgar accepted it at the end, so he decides to accept it at the end of the game. Most likely for some greater goal that hasn’t been revealed yet since Orpheus was hella vague in his experiment file.

I could honestly go on and on about how well executed his whole character is too. With how well they played into double entendres with his words and used a lot of art metaphors to hide his actual character so on the surface you wouldn’t clock it immediately. Or the carefully picked art references they used in his trailer that all tie into his character really well (I still think he has one of the best trailers to date). To even the way his birthday letters are released. Keeping his perspective on game 5 hidden despite probably having the most reliable account, instead having other characters describe him to play into the misdirection.

I could literally talk for hours about Edgar Valden, he is the idv character of all time and I love him sm

#idv #edgar valden #identity v #painter idv #edgar idv #idv edgar #idv painter #idv lore #chloe nair #jose baden #patricia dorval #kevin ayuso #edgar valden hates the one piece (not clickbait)

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blackstarchanx3new · 25 days ago

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My pokegirl refs are finally done!!!

Currently not going to bother with SM USUM because...I don't feel like it lmfao.

There's a few more girl protagonists I could take a crack at but my love/nostalgia for the protagonists mainly spans 1-6 generation wise since customization got so heavily featured overtime and this "AU" I guess is mostly centered on "OC" versions of the protagonists from Pokémon.

This is what childhood joy is made out of.

For more context: These gals are based on my personal playthroughs of Pokémon games and the redesigns match what I'd personally think is comfy to wear/what would be cute on them ^w^

I wanna draw them with the teams I end up/have already done for them!

I'm very excited about that.

Going down the list I'll give some fun details about each gal (Yes I'll draw the boys/companion versions down the line too! They won't be left out for long.)

Gold -

I've decided for simplicity's sake "lore wise" my take on Gold is the same character from the GBC game to the remakes haha. So we get both outfits here.

Crystal-

The weird glitches I've done in Crystal virtual console are cannon to her adventure so she got caught in a time loop at the start of her journey resulting in her getting all three starters. (Because it's funny to me Dialga is messing with her)

Sapphire-

She is also the same between OG Sapphire and AS. I binge played both games and mained Sapphire both times soooo. It fits.

Her mega stone is on her cute lil bow because I despise jewelry even when it's drawn. (...yes that's why all these ladies have none)

I also am very jealous all the important characters with keystones get to have CUSTOM STUFF. It's truly not fair.

Pearl-

Haven't actually PLAYED her game yet so not much to say about her other than I adore this redesign and I love her so much. 😭

Hilda White and Rosa-

I wasn't just gonna name her "White" because that'd be silly as hell so she gets that as a last name I guess lmfao.

Her and Rosa don't have too much design changes because uhhh I happen to have a LOT of nostalgia for gen 5's protags and you can't add much to perfection. Her and Rosa have similar changes though since they deal with the cold (Especially Rosa because of kyurem's role in the story) I gave them jackets. ^w^ Girls need to be comfy.

Random detail that Pearl similarly got more coverage because that walk to snow point SUCKS.

Lady Y-

Lady Y is the reason I began this project.

When replaying Pokémon Y I decided to have my character be a cute girl who's obsessed with fashion be my vision for her character and it stuck the entire time I played.

She's a model. And Shauna is her GF.

Her full name is "Yveltal"...Because it's hilarious to me she just so happens to be named after the Pokémon known for sucking the life out of things. But her friends call her "Lady Y" because it makes her sound fancy.

She loves fighting trainers in that stupid battle chaetae which is how she funds her shopping sprees for clothes.

Her other interests are pokedex completion but ALL the pokegirls shown are deep into that so that's not a particularly special thing for her to do.

Her Ace is an Aegislash named "Sword".

She deeply apposes Lysandre because she thinks he's a pussy who can't except "The beauty of decay".

Her starter was Chespin who she basically immediately boxed lmfao. Idk what that says about her but it's what I did in my playthrough X'DDDD

Aegislash basically BECAME her starter and she had a Charizard.

#pokegirls #pokemon #pokemon au #pokemon crystal #pokemon y #pokemon pearl #pokemon sapphire #pokemon oras #pokemon white #pokemon bw #pokemon dppt #pokemon redesign #trainer oc

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inkdemonapologist · 8 months ago

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[BatIM Cthulhu] MORE CTHULHU SCRIBBLES, this time from session 4!! Here we have, uh,

The yellow fog that's taking over New York seems to be able to hijack people and make them think they're one of the characters from the King in Yellow play. Susie DID get brainwashed but we're unclear on whether the knife-twirling skills were there already. IT JUST WOULDNT SURPRISE ME, U KNOW?

AVEDONS HERE??????? If you don't remember Avedon i dont blame you, he last showed up back in seASON 2, in NOLA, where he lost his mind and locked Sammy and Jack in his closet at gunpoint and then started shooting the host at the masquerade party. He seems a little more sane this go round but everyone decided Sammy and Jack should not be in the welcoming party. Anyway sorry NYC is like this for your visit Avedon, I promise there's usually less dread carcosa

Sammy brought Prophet out to see if he could tell whether or not Peter is THE ONE THE PHANTOM SEEKS and Prophet decided to make sure he was getting an accurate reading by smooshing his hands all over Peter's face. Don't worry about it, Peter!! It's fine. Normal Sammy Behaviour.

And if you'd like some Out of Context quotes from our session, those are under the cut!

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Sammy] *recapping* Joey tried to do some bullshit, and it, uh, made things worse! [GM] It got some attention, it seems! [Joey] EHhhhhhhhh, [Sammy] Yeah, he was doing his nonsense, and then the Phantom showed up because he was doing his nonsense -- [Joey] ehhhhhhhhhhh [Sammy] And then we hit the Phantom with Jack's car! A rational and reasonable response to the unknowable. [Jack] Joey MADE Jack hit the Phantom with his car. [Joey] EHHHHHHHHH, [Jack] Because Jack wouldn't do this on purpose. He likes his car! [Sammy] I think that's entirely reasonable. No reasonable person would have done this course of events.

[Sammy] What happens if you drive a car in Carcosa [Sammy] It's in the name, it should be a good place for cars... [Jack] It actually cancels out because there's two of them, so you just get "Cosa."

[Joey] One of the times, the Mercedes is going to be missing and it's not because of Yellow Sign stuff, it's just that someone finally stole it. [Sammy] Car gets its tires slashed, "THIS IS THE WORK OF THE YELLOW KING!!!"

[Jack] Even if it's safety glass, I feel like Jack doesn't want to sit in a bunch of glass! [Henry] Exfoliation. [Jack] ON HIS BUTT????

[Joey] Just venting about everything that has been happening, but it's clearly all this other guy's fault? [Sammy] I love Joey having no particular distinction between "annoying person who's getting in the way of me making cartoons" and "eldritch entity" - WHICH IS THE SAME THING, it's just an annoying person who's getting in the way of making cartoons! [Joey] YEAH!!

[Sammy] Jack struck me as someone who'd be a cautious driver. [GM] And he let Sammy drive his car?!

[Joey] It's taking Joey a little longer to finish his ritual, because he keeps getting angry and ranting more, [Sammy] "*draws one line* AND ANOTHER THING--!"

[GM] Avedon says you need to watch out for each other, because something's already messing with Norman -- [Joey] what, wAIT-- WHAT? [GM] --and he needs you guys to come find him, he's at this hotel, and he thinks he knows how to destroy the Phantom. [Joey] Have you called Norman? [GM] He says, "Where do you think I got this number?" And then he hangs up. [Joey] .................................................................. [Sammy/Jack/Henry] *IMMEDIATELY LOSING IT* [Jack] *still cracking up* H-how, how mad is Joey right now, [Joey] ...........................I need to look something up.

[Joey] I know way too much about, the history of phone technologies now, [Sammy] This game is educational. Nobody tells you that.

[Joey] What is up with your crazy friend?! [Norman] You're going to have to be more specific.

[Joey] Wait, DID you get a call from Avedon? [GM] Norman says that he got word from The Advisor earlier. [Jack].... Hm. [Sammy] Norman??????? [Joey] ...iS SUSIE STILL THERE, [GM] Uh, yeah! He hands over the phone. [Joey] IS SHE NORMAL????????????????? [GM] She likes to think so!

[Joey] Nobody's going to let Peter choose his own methods of communication, he just gets to RECEIVE [Sammy] Look! He was warned!!

[GM] Peter's glancing at Jack like, is this concerning? [Jack] Well Jack looks CONCERNED, but he's not concerned about this, specifically. This is refreshingly normal.

[Sammy] And the Traitor mercifully absent! [Jack] I know you said "traitor", but I heard "trader," like no that's a different AU, [Joey] Oh good. No Wandering Traders. [everyone makes villager "Hrrrm" noises] [Sammy] Prophet's ALSO murdering llamas for leads, [Jack] I mean, we could do with a lead about now! I don't know if we have any other than Avedon. [Joey] *uncontrollably giggling at this joke for the next 15 seconds* [Sammy] Oh boy, [Joey] *still giggling* iT WAS A REALLY gOOD ONE,,,

[Joey] Does Jack's car look any different to Henry? [Jack] Well there's a weird splat mark in the shape of a guy,

[Sammy] Be vigilant! His will can overtake your own. [Henry] Hm,,, you too,

[GM] Does anyone want to do a summary of where we were at? [Jack] I have an extremely short summary: [Jack] Shit's Fucked.

[Sammy] Avedon told us to meet him because THE WORLD IS IN PERIL [Sammy] which, I think it's really important to remember that Avedon is French, when you imagine him saying the word "peril." That's all.

[Sammy] It's not TOO late to visit people, but it is maybe an awkward time to-- [Jack] When has awkward timing EVER stopped this-- [Sammy] NEVER. It's never stopped us. [Henry] I think it would be weirder if we arrived at an opportune time, at this point! [Joey] It IS a great time for a snake to show up, I feel like. [Sammy] That's true. It's never a wrong time for a snake to show up, honestly.

[Joey] Enough time has passed that Joey will come out to the parking lot. [Sammy] I really thought you were gonna say "come out to the party" [Jack] Joey's coming out? [GM] *laughing* I think they already know!

[Joey] Also, Norman has started acting very weird. [Henry] How? [Joey] You know how, sometimes people start saying things, in situations like this, where they think... [Joey]...yOU KNOW HOW PROPHET DESCRIBES PEOPLE?

[Jack] I can't believe you're splitting up the boyfriends! [Jack] ...as compared to the other boyfriends, [Sammy] I feel like it's really hard to split this party without splitting up some boyfriends somewhere.

[GM] Jack doesn't want to drive and Sammy doesn't know where he's going - ✨TEAMWORK!✨ :D

[Jack] You go through all of Henry's coats and none of them are familiar, and they're all extremely stylish [Henry] That's not Carcosa, that's Joey.

[Jack] Oh no, his accent's Italian now! [Sammy] That's just what happens when you come to New York.

[GM] Make a sanity check. [Henry] For looking at a clarinet???

[Henry] Henry is... maybe taking a closer look out the window. [Sammy] I support him. I'm not there, but I support him-- [Henry] Then, yeah, I'm gonna say he's doing that! [Sammy] --from afar, where I suffer no consequences.

[Henry] Henry has his hand on his gun. [Henry] ...he knows that he can't, like, SHOOT CARCOSA, but, [Jack] Carcosa's haunted.

[Joey] I actually succeeded the luck check! [Sammy] Congratulations, that's a feat for Joey! [Jack] It's his natural talent.

[Henry] I wish I had the words to describe the face Henry is making. [Henry] If Scared and Defeated had a baby.

[GM] Avedon turns around, looking wild-eyed behind his glasses, and says, because he is the master of smart things, "We need to get out of here!" [Joey] NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!

[GM] In fact, you think you hear conspiratorial whispering in the distance! [Henry] But our conspiratorial whisperer is accounted for...

[Joey] Joey's just going to march up behind them and ask what's going on. [GM] They are both going to jump to their feet, and bow, actually, [Sammy] Um. [Jack] Hmmmm. [Sammy] UM. [GM] and say, "we were just dealing with matters of State, Your Highness." [Joey] [Joey] *quiet giggling* [Jack] Oh no. [Sammy] Joey doesn't need this. Joey doesn't need this. [Jack] His ego's already so big!!

[Sammy] You're going to open the door and the Phantom's gonna be standing there. [Henry] "Want some weed?"

[Joey] Avedon can stay with Norman. They're friends. [Sammy] I don't-- we'll see how Norman is. [Joey] I mean, I don't think, no matter what, that Norman can be weirder than Avedon?

[GM] You can make a psychology roll, if you want! [Sammy] OKAY, we'll see, I'm not holding out a lot of hope on Sammy getting this-- [Sammy] *rolls* ....WELL. That is... an extreme success. I rolled a TWO. [Jack] Are we sure SAMMY hasn't been replaced? [Joey] Has Shazz been replaced? [Jack] Have Shazz's dice been replaced????

[Jack] Jack is probably trying to get... any.... information out of Norman, [Sammy] Sorry, I left you the hard mode one. [Joey] Kiss him!!

#call of cthulhu: haunted hijinx #sammy lawrence #susie campbell #jack fain #peter sunstram #when in doubt just keep drawing #quote post #sammy just has a big dumb crush on susie at all times #'arent they dating now' that has not changed his crush status

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fadetouchedsilk · 2 months ago

Text

im not sure how to parse this exactly (probably since the thought hasn't marianted fully yet) but i wonder if the tone of veilguard's writing is less about appealing to a younger audience and more of a response to falling media literacy rates

kind of thinking out loud here but like.

i'm recalling the girl on booktok who proudly annouced that she only reads the spoken dialogue in her books, not the narration & the people in her comments laughing and agreeing (no wonder they can 'read' so many books per year, they're only reading 25% of the words). or 'starting to think some of you don't like media or characters, just fanfiction tropes.' you can hand someone like that a complex narrative, but what are they going to do with it aside from completely & happily misunderstand things that are very obvious context clues & themes? we can joke about the fandom mischaracterizing our blorbos & trying to be cool about just scrolling past but idk, personally i feel like i've seen an uptick in completely off-base takes in the last few years (probably some fandom bias there but this isn't my first time playing dragon age or narrative driven games in general so i don't think i'm entirely wrong)

it doesn't help that this group also loves to be loud online & the bioware devs (to their ongoing detriment) seem to be unable to distance themselves from fandom. we saw larian's response to this type of outcry, i wonder if bioware is just trying to get ahead of the curve. they make some questionable decisions, but they aren't stupid & i don't think people like that are especially hard to market to from their standpoint.

i don't think that older titles like dao are perfect or anything but i sincerely doubt that large swaths of current audiences would 'get' it. like, there IS a lot of narrative hand-holding in this game & i'm not talking about things like the map markers or accessibility features. 'do the companion quests!' you get told multiple times, more or less outright, & i'm still seeing people confused about getting 'bad' endings despite ignoring this incredibly obvious series of hints. there's a fair amount of information to be found in the codexes, but are people going to read them? we don't know, so we're going to repeat the relevant item name several times over on the off chance you might end up remembering it. like yes this is some people's first foray into rpgs, but you would think that progressing the story would be intuitive (especially given the structure & the journal itself).

the 'the curtains were blue!!!' crowd is unfortunately a very large audience these days, ea is a corporation who wants to make money & they do need that if they intend to keep making games. it might not even be intentional, it truly could just be the result of following market trends.

don't take this as me making excuses for bioware or anything, but there's definitely some sort of reason we ended up the way we did. i see the scaffolding of something interesting here with a lot of potential to be better than what the final product was, a lot of hooks we could have spent more time chasing & that leads to me wondering just what the hell happened.

#some of the writing was always going to be a bit goofy & cheesy thats just the nature of dragon age lmao #its the glimpses that make me the most curious though #& while i had fun and ultimately enjoyed the game more than not i think that examining outside factors is weirdly more rewarding to me rn #than the game itself fdghjkk #good writing DOES still exist there are very much projects that arent concerned with the 'how are you say we piss on the poor' consumer #but at the end of the day money talks and i dont think alienating that customer base via expecting more than a 9th grade level of #critical thought is the approach the average AAA company wants to take #i think that the writers honestly did on at least SOME level care abt this project but we'll never get to see the drafts and the cut parts #someone break their nda im going insane over here #anyway im just assuming things fgfhj pondering #oh uh i should probably tag #veilguard spoilers #to be polite yk #i know the blue curtains werent malicious at the time & op was probably just frustrated in their hs english class but i really wish that #it didnt catch on Like That. because man. Man.

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thecatundertheladder · 3 months ago

Note

So fsm really likes Kai, how does he feel about the other ninja, especially since Cole and Zane are a like Wu(especially Zane), also I’m curious does fsm have a favorite of the ninja(besides Lloyd of course)

The FSM: Of course I don't have a favourite, I love all Lloyds and non-Lloyds equally

Context: FSM only really starts to observe the Ninja when they show up to the Monastery, prior to that he just checks in every few years to make sure they're all still healthy. They meet properly in between seasons 5-6

He/they/she pronouns for FSM

Nyad has her memories

First of all it goes without saying that the FSM likes all the Ninja, he hand-picked them all for a reason. But I'll go into the specifics.

Jay: When Jay first showed up to the Monastery, he didn't have a lot of self confidence, and would try to hide it through jokes and just generally being loud. This wasn't a bad thing, FSM had had many times over the years where their self-confidence was pretty low, their main concern was that it would affect his training (and it did for a time) so they made sure to mention it to Wu so he could start working on it.

FSM really enjoys Jay's varying interests and liked that despite his lack of self esteem, he still tried everything he could. When Jay and FSM finally met in person they started having long (and I mean long) conversations about almost everything under the sun.

Overall all she finds Jay a very interesting person, and is proud to see how far he's come both as a ninja and a person in general.

Cole: He was the first person to arrive at the Monastery, and quite frankly, FSM was glad it was him. He was calm but lively and it was great to have him to be the one to introduce ninja training to the other's rather than just Morro (who was temporarily kicked out by FSM when Cole arrived).

It wasn't until Cole and Wu got closer that FSM started to see similarities. Both were generally disapproving impulsiveness but still impulsive themselves, caring and mostly calm people. Cole, at times, acts like a mini Wu, and she finds that very adorable.

Nya: The FSM wasn't entirely sure about Nya when she first arrived at the Monastery, mostly because he hadn't chosen her like he did the others. Don't get me wrong she still plays a vital role but it was less a part of the prophecy and more that Nyad saw that Kai was going to have a sister and took the opportunity to get a water elemental in the game as well. This meant that while FSM was mostly sure Nya was going to be a good match he didn't know a lot about her.

But he was pleasantly surprised by her. She was caring, confident, and determined, and reminded FSM of her namesake. When she became a ninja she fit well into the team. Of course he's aware that she has her flaws, they all do. But she learns to overcome them (eventually)

Lloyd: The favourite, the precious grandson. FSM absolutely adores Lloyd and would defend him at all costs. Lloyd, particularly when he was younger, reminded FSM a lot of herself, you know, causing problems and chaos while really just wanting a family.

FSM is very proud of how Lloyd stepped into his position as green ninja despite how difficult it was. Later when they actually met, FSM realises just how little Lloyd thinks of himself, and sets about to change that.

Kai: Unlike with Cole, it was immediately after seeing Kai and Garmadon next to each other that FSM realises how similar they are, and it amuses them to no end. Both are brash and argumentative, but when it comes down to it, they will always stick to their morals and do what is best for Ninjago. So yeah, FSM quite likes Kai, even if they think he needs some more character development when he first starts to train as a ninja.

Zane: Now this is very interesting, because when he was first writing the prophecy and foresaw Zane, he was very confused. Zane was the first of his kind after all, and while FSM had seen some stuff, he hadn't seen this. Nevertheless he still picked him as the EM of ice.

FSM actually relates to Zane a lot, not fitting in or understanding how other people work (autistic spinjitzu fam for the W) only to discover just how different you are (well, it's pretty obvious from the get go for FSM but same thing) and then learning to accept that.

And, as you mentioned he is also quite similar to Wu, both eccentric, calm and with a strong moral compass. So, if FSM had to pick one

Pixal: She was completely unexpected. FSM hadn't seen into the future past the Final Battle which meant they were completely blindsided when they first actually met by Zane having two souls in his body. After learning about Pixal they offer to create a new body for her but she declines, saying she would rather do it herself, which gained her the instant respect of FSM.

They only really start talking once she gains a new body but they hit it off immediately. FSM loves her attitude and ability to learn and accept new things.

Thank you so much for the ask! This one made me think a lot and was an opportunity to work out some more in-depth stuff for this au! If you have anymore questions don’t hesitate to ask!

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playedcrowd5610 · 1 month ago

Text

Catching Up With The Autobots - Danny Phantom x Transformers

Summary: After the events of "Additional Medical Assistance Required," June returns from her kidnapping shaken, and the Autobots are deeply concerned.

---

Notes

Set in a series where Danny finds Starscream one day and decides to start haunting the Decepticons. That's basically all the context you need but if you want more here is the rest of the series:

Haunting the Nemesis

Part 1: Chasing Stars

Part 2: Burning Rubber

Part 3: Adventures of the Decepticons' Pet Ghost Or Tumblr Master List

---

The Autobot base was nothing but quiet on days like this. And by days like this, it means. Days where all the Autobots and kids were under the same roof -Mountain?- Jack and Miko sat on the Autobot base’s only couch, elbowing each other, trying to distract one another from winning the game they were currency playing on the TV.

Bumblebee and Raf watched the game over the teen's shoulders with interest, Bulkhead and Arcee were having a conversation in the back, and Ratchet stood working on a few of his tools, threatening anyone who would try and distract him with a thrown wrench. Optimus stayed a safe enough distance away as he started up a conversation with his old friend.

Miko let out a whoop as her character got the upper hand, and Jack groaned.

"Come on, Miko! That was pure luck," he said, mashing buttons in an attempt to recover before slumping down in defeat on the couch.

Miko smirked. "Luck? Or skill , Darby?" She stood from the couch to do a victory dance.

Before Jack could retort, the door to the base slid open. Agent Fowler, this was normal. The agent would come storming in, about to yell about something or other and get mad at Optimus. Everyone was tired of it. Jack glanced up anyway to see what was going to happen when he froze. Agent Fowler was supporting a person, not just any person—Jack's mom!

“MOM!” Jack shouted, dropping the controller and rushing to her side. “What happened? Are you okay?” He put his hands on her shoulders trying to get a closer look at her.

June offered a weak smile and held out one hand in a slow-down motion toward her son. “I’m fine, honey,” she said softly, leaning into Fowler for support.

“She was kidnapped by Cons,” Fowler answered for her.

“What?!” Jack's eyes widened, and he looked back and forth between his mom and Fowler in horror. The Autobots quickly gathered around. Bumblebee beeped with concern, placing Raf on the catwalk while Ratchet immediately began scanning June.

Fowler led her to the couch and sat her down before grabbing a blanket to place around her shoulders. “We had some strange reports from the hospital, and when we went to investigate, we discovered June in the lot. She was pretty shaken up.” He explained.

“How did you get away?” Raf asked, his voice small.

“They… they let me go,” June said in disbelief.

Everyone in the room stared at her, eyes wide in shock. “That’s entirely unlike the Decepticons,” Ratchet said, looking back at the scan he took of June's vitals, seeming happy with them before closing it. “They wouldn’t just release you without a reason. Why would they risk exposure to take you in the first place?”

“What did they want with you?” Arcee asked, her tone sharp. “They don’t know your connection to us, do they? Because if they do, that puts you—and the kids—in even more danger.”

June shook her head. “No, it wasn’t that. They didn’t take me because of my connection to the Autobots. At least… I don’t think so. They didn't even know who I was.”

“Then what did they want?” Jack asked, sitting down next to her on the couch and putting a supportive hand on her knee.

“They wanted me for my medical expertise,” June explained. “At least, that’s what the jet… uh, Starscream said.”

“Wait.” Miko held her hands up. “Starscream kidnapped you because you’re a nurse ? What would that ugly gray stiletto-heeled Con want with a nurse?”

June looked at her hands and then back up at the others, taking a steading breath. It's been a long day for her. “He wanted me to patch up someone who was very injured.”

“Who?” Optimus asked, his deep voice resonating through the room.

June hesitated, her face pale as she glanced at Jack. “It was… a boy. A human boy, about Jack’s age”

“WHAT?!” the Autobots chorused, their disbelief echoing through the base.

“There is a human in Decepticon possession?” Optimus’s voice was heavy with concern.

June nodded. “He looked like he’d been through a lot. He was unconscious when I got there, but when he woke up, he didn’t seem… surprised. It was like he knew them.” Her voice cracked slightly, and she pressed a hand to her face. “Oh god. He reminded me of Jack. I can’t imagine Jack in the hands of the Decepticons.”

Jack’s stomach twisted, his mind racing. “Mom…” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Hey, what if it's the kid that Jack ran into at the race with Bumblebee?” Miko suggested, voice seeming too chipper for the situation.

Raf tilted his head and readjusted his glasses. “But wasn’t that six months ago?”

Arcee crossed her arms. “I put him somewhere safe after the race. Knockout never left my sight until he escaped. There’s no way they could’ve gotten him again.”

Fowler frowned, rubbing his chin. “I tried looking into it after your report. We couldn’t find a trace of the kid after that incident. No cameras, no witnesses. It’s like he was a ghost.”

“You think they kidnapped him again because he knew too much?” Arcee suggested. “Tracked him down again?"

“It’s a possibility,” Optimus said gravely. “If this human is being held by the Decepticons, it is cause for concern. We must determine his connection to them and ensure his safety.”

June started to speak again but hesitated when she looked over at the kids. Their eyes settled on Jack for a long moment before turning away. “I… I need to speak with Ratchet and Optimus in private… Fowler too.”

“Oh, come on! How come we don’t get in on the hot goss.” Miko cried out.

“It's not ‘Hot Goss’ Miko, this is serious!” Jack snapped, standing up from the couch. “My mom was kidnapped by Decepticons! This isn’t just another one of your fun adventures.” He threw his hand to the side in outrage.

Optimus tilted his head to the side in judgment. “Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee. Please accompany the human children elsewhere while we discuss this.”

Miko crossed her arms in a pout. “So unfair!”

Bulkhead sighed and used his hand to usher the teens out of the room. “Come on, Miko.”

Jack gave one last worried glance back to his mom before leaving with Arcee. He wanted to stay more than anything, make sure she was okay. But something must have happened that she really doesn’t want him to hear.

Optimus tilted his head toward June, patiently nodding. “What is it that you wish to speak with us about?”

June looked away, her expression troubled. “The kid’s injuries… Do you think the Decepticons might have caused them, or someone else? I don’t know…If it was the Decepticons, could this end up happening to the kids? I don't want them being in danger like this.” She put her head in her hands, taking a steadying breath. Agent Fowler placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Optimus hummed thoughtfully. “It is a possibility, though an unlikely one.”

“So, is a human getting medical attention on a Decepticon warship,” Ratchet countered. "Perhaps the human has intelligence or knowledge the Decepticons require him to stay alive for.” He placed a servo on his chin.

“That could be,” Fowler agreed. “We’ve seen a few Cons work with humans to get what they want in the past. Like Airachnid and M.E.C.H.” June shivered at the name.

Optimus nodded, his tone thoughtful. “Perhaps the origin of the injuries could shed some light on the situation.” He turned to June.

June pressed a hand to her temple as she tried to think. “There were deep scratches across his side. I wasn’t allowed to remove any clothing to fully assess the injuries. I wasn’t allowed to. I only saw what was exposed. The medic—or whatever Knockout is—wouldn’t let me.”

“Scratches?” Ratchet prompted, optics narrowing.

June nodded. “And burns. Bad ones — they were the worst of it, I think, and what worries me most. I… haven’t seen anything like this before.” She looked up at Optimus, hesitance and fear plain in her eyes. “The burns had seared into his abdomen, semi-cauterizing the flesh on the sides of the injuries. The closest I could tell, they came from some sort of laser.

The only thing that I could see doing something like this are the blasters that you and the Decepticons use. They did seem incredibly unprepared for this, too. There was blood everywhere. The two Decepticons in the room had their hands covered in it, as well as the table he was on… I don’t know how the kid survived that long before I got there.”

The Autobots waited patiently for her to continue.

“Knockout had tried to do some research before I arrived,” she explained. “He was looking up things online—human anatomy, medical procedures. At first, I thought they were going to experiment on me. But no, Knockout had tried using a welder to stop the bleeding. Some… attempt to cauterize the wounds.”

Agent Fowler grimaced. “A welder?”

June nodded. “It worked—at least until I got there. But it made the injuries worse in some areas. Still, it was clear they were trying to keep him alive.”

Ratchet tilted his head, surprise evident in his tone. “Knockout? Trying to save a human’s life with medical care? Never thought I’d see the day.”

June gave a weak smile. “Even though they were short-tempered and upset, Knockout listened to what I said and even wrote down notes. And Starscream—he was pacing the entire time. He wouldn’t leave the room.”

Fowler crossed his arms. “If Starscream was there, then this kid is definitely important. The second-in-command wouldn’t show up for just anyone.”

“Indeed,” Optimus agreed.

Fowler placed his hands on his hips. “Sounds like those blaster wounds are pretty damning evidence that the Cons are our culprits.”

“It is not out of character for the Decepticons to lash out with violence, even toward those they are allied with,” Optimus said gravely. “Even if they later regret the action.”

June bit her lip. “The kid said they didn’t hurt him. I asked. I needed to be sure, and he said it wasn’t them… Do you think he could be lying?”

“Why would a kid lie to protect the Cons?” Fowler asked, his expression skeptical.

“I don’t know,” June admitted. “But he didn’t trust me either.”

Ratchet scoffed. “You’re telling me that while trapped on a Decepticon warship, the only other human around, he didn’t trust you?”

June nodded. “He flinched when he saw me.” She glanced at the children to ensure they weren’t listening before continuing. “Then, Starscream tried to kill me in response.”

The Autobots stiffened, worry flickering across Optimus’s usually calm field.

June raised her hands quickly. “The kid stopped him. He told Starscream to take me back. And Starscream listened. I wanted the kid to come with me so he could be safe, but he wouldn’t. He promised I’d be okay, though.” She looked up at Optimus, her eyes pleading. “I just want that kid out of there. If the Cons did that to him… we have to make sure he’s all right.”

Optimus nodded, his voice steady. “We will do everything in our power to retrieve him. But we have not been able to locate the Nemesis for months now.”

Ratchet stepped forward. “Was there anything you saw on the Nemesis that might help us track it? Anything at all?”

June shook her head. “No. I was trapped in Starscream’s chest compartment the whole time. I didn’t see anything except the medbay.”

Optimus nodded to her. “You’ve been through enough, June. Take a moment to rest. We will handle this from here.”

Agent Fowler helped carry June away, and Optimus turned to his long-time friend and medic. “This situation is deeply troubling,” Optimus rumbled.

Ratchet folded his arms, a frown pulling at his features. “A human in Decepticon possession—injured, yet receiving medical care? It defies all logic.”

Optimus tilted his helm. “The Decepticons have never prioritized human life before. Starscream’s involvement only deepens the mystery. If the child’s injuries resulted from internal Decepticon conflict, Starscream would have little reason to keep him alive, let alone seek medical attention for him.”

Ratchet paced, his servos clenching briefly before releasing. “Unless it was Starscream himself that injured him, and he was attempting to rectify the mistake before he got in trouble. Fear of punishment from Megatron? The child must be valuable to them in some way—information, perhaps, or leverage. Whatever it is, it must be significant.”

Optimus’s optics narrowed in thought. “That is a possibility. But in the instance that the Decepticons were not responsible for the injuries, the question remains: who was?”

Ratchet exhaled, a sharp hiss escaping his vents. “Whoever it was didn’t hold back. Blaster burns, deep lacerations. From the sounds of it, it’s a miracle the kid survived long enough for June to step in. And yet…” His frown deepened. “The boy claimed the Decepticons didn’t hurt him but flinched when June approached. For him to react that way to a human, of all things… It suggests something deeper we’re not seeing yet.”

Optimus straightened. “Whatever the circumstances, we cannot leave a child in Decepticon custody. His safety—and the potential implications of his presence aboard the Nemesis—demand our attention.”

Ratchet nodded grimly. “Agreed. But without any way to locate the Nemesis...”

“We will find it,” Optimus said firmly. “Whatever it takes.”

---

Find more here: Tumblr Master List

#danny phantom #crossover #transformers #Transformers prime #Haunting The Nemesis #june darby #optimus prime #ratchet #starscream #agent fowler #ao3 #kidnapping #injury

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dumblucksers · 5 months ago

Text

II 15 SPOILERS

here is my taco recap + analysis that I wrote after someone mischaracterized her in front of me:

just a disclaimer I have no idea what I'm talking about half of the time so sorry if some bits don't rlly make sense :P

ok so starting with her in season 1, literally all we see her as is this insane little cray say thing who has an iq of 7, apparently speaks French, spits lemons, screams randomly and says things that make no sense LMAO

she gets close to pickle and they stick together for basically the entire season

obviously we know now that her motivation this time was to become the fan favorite and get to the end so she can win the million (for reasons we don't know honestly, maybe find out in 16)

there are also moments in s1 where she'll slip up the act (but they play off as comedic effect) example when she calculated her fall in ep 12 or in 11 where she revealed her arms and was speaking full sentences to pickle for a second and a half

but anyway right at the end when she loses is where she reveals her true self and tried to steal the million after losing (and also severing her relationship with pickle)

one thing to point out before moving on is that taco is an analyzer, her act of being dumb gave her time to observe all of the contestants and pick the right allies and whatevs

n e way moving on to s2

taco has been stalking the entirety of s2 up until she reveals herself in 9, where she still wants the million (or rather half of it, and for reasons we still don't know) and she takes interest in the grand slams team, particularly microphone, who ironically doesn't exactly have a strong voice in the game and is, in tacos eyes, an easy target. So she reveals herself to mic and offers to help her advance in the game in exchange for 50/50 of the million

at this point taco only rlly sees mic as a pawn, and easily controlled. mic is unsure as all she's hearing is how useless and sad she is from a tiny British taco KSJSJSK

however mic is lowkey desperate herself bc she feels as though she isn't pulling her weight on her team, doesn't have much of a voice in the competition, she just lost soap aswell. so she accepts tacos help in the maze challenge using her gain setting.

now in 11 we see more of tacos strategies play out, as she further analyzes the grand slams, as it's categorized as: the alliance (baseball, nickel, suitcase) the friendship (suitcase and balloon) and the other ppl (knife and mic). Taco is more focused on the alliance and their relation to balloon, and she urges mic to get more involved in the pushing away of balloon to get him eliminated (and to further progress mic in the game) but rather than using the approach of attempting to make allies with baseball and nickel, we learn of tacos more violent tendencies. she wants to use a temporary paralyzer (courtesy of test tubes lab) to decapitate balloon. this is where mic draws the line, and also the episode where she proves herself to taco by instead of using violence, she substitutes subtle verbal and emotional manipulation instead. Taco is greatly impressed by this, and it's at this point where taco realizes that mic may not be as helpless as she originally thought.

now taco and mic are starting to reach equal ground, as in 12 they are more casual with each other and just chilling. it's also where the TIME TRAVEL STUFFF HAPPENS WHWOAOOAOAOAOOWOWOWOWOWOW

basically when they're down in test tubes lab and lightbulb activates the Time Machine portal thing, mic sees taco reach towards the portal, before it closes. this is (I think) the first time mic and the audience has seen taco look built a k o my god how tf do you spell vulnerable. ok there we go anyway this is the first time we see taco look vulnerable, and *possibly* regret towards her past actions. she reaches while saying "another chance, perhaps." and while at the time it could have been taken as another chance at stealing the million, ii 15 adds more context that she wants another chance with her relationships in the past, particularly with pickle, and she clearly regrets what she did.

now after this point mic is now a bit sus of what just happened, seeing taco reach for the portal. we also get to see another silly side of taco (not the cray say silly, just normal silly) as she tries to distract mic from the portal And from the fact that test tube and lightbulb are now in the time stuff.

oh yeah also at the end the episode knife finds out about mic and taco oh nooooo well go into that in a second

in 13 yknow they're trying to get knife to join them cuz now he knows and yeah yeah whatever. also taco and mic are getting closer as equals and as friends too so yeah

mic also brings up the portal and taco ignores, as per usual.

now let's get to the interesting stuff. Taco and mic are following knife around in the minecarts, and taco says smth like "is this you holding a grudge over my true self? For why? Everyone knows who I am now!" And mic says "doooo we thooooo????" this is like. 99% attached to the whole portal thing, bc mic saw that vulnerability and now she knows there's a teeeeeny bit more to the evil lil British Mexican food than what meets the eye

also there's another instance of taco and mics violence is bad bit, where knife is about to fall off, and while taco is like YIPPEEEE mic is like erm. No. And then saves knife

now here's where it gets even MORE interesting, where knife calls out tacos first alliance with pickle. Taco obviously gets mad at this, but mic doesn't rlly have a huge reaction except to tell knife that "she's(tacos) changing", which shows that she prolly put two and two together about the portal thing (prolly isss bc she stops pestering about it at this point)

now at this moment in 14 it's clear that taco and mic are partners in crime (well crime might be stretching it. Or not considering what happens), taco goes to shut down mepad so she and mic can teleport freely (and, to the prime shimmer spaceship) where the last violence is bad instance comes up. mic says PROMISE NO VIOLENCE and taco teeechnically doesn't promise, but yaknoww

now cut to when taco uses violence, she kills test tube and paralyzes fan to mics horror. she won immunity but at the expense of others , and that wasn't smth she was comfortable with, and that was her breaking point. she drops taco AND the entire show and eliminates herself

this is also tacos breaking point, in a way. where she realizes how much the game has shaped her into doing heinous acts, and for what, a chance at a cash prize? And now that she's completely out of luck for that prize, her work was for nothing. and it was at the expense of her two closest friends.

she pinpoints where she screwed up, and it was at the finale of season 1, where she broke her ties completely with her best friend just for a chance to steal the prize money. It was the game that fucked up her mentality, that every horrible thing that is done is for the greater good, and to use the rules of the game and the people you meet to advance for a extremely low chance of winning it all. Realizing all of this, taco doesn't want a repeat of this cycle, since the competition is so close to completion. She requests the challenge information from Mepad, and uses him as an incentive to Mephone.

But before we go there time to talk about her BANGER MUSICAL NUMBER YESSSS MY LIL THEATRE KID

anyway in the song id like to point out the banger lines "and we choose, to feel this pain, and we lose, more than we gain" which is basically everything I mentioned before about using the rules of the game and pushing away friends and whatever, and then eventually losing more than you get

next part "if I can't win the prize, I'll play my last reprisal, just to bring their lies all to an end" and then mepad is all like welll you gotta regenerate and tacos like, yeah that's prolly not gonna happen. And mepad points out how she believes she can't start on a clean slate. taco is like bro. with my track record? dawg there's no slate to begin with LMAO

but seriously with everything tacos done she believes it's too late to restart and that everything she did is irreparable (which ngl, kinda true maybe? but also not cuz she hasn't even apologized just yet) and mepad tries to convince her that yes you can change!!! youuu can make a difference...you can make it right... but taco doesn't rlllly listen

ok long story short she takes over the next part of the challenge which is truth or flare, where platforms rise if the contestants tell the truth and falls if they lie, and their fire has to reach the top and burn their rope. Taco, using her extended stalker knowledge of s2, quizzes the contestants on their interpersonal relationships and ngl as Mephone put it it's just a twisted group therapy session lmao

fast forward to nearing the end and the last question taco asks is to suitcase about what she thought she saw when she was being a floating bow tie. suitcase brings up her hallucinations, to which everyone, including taco, is horrified by. Taco sees how the game has affected suitcase, by making her so anxious that she literally HALLUCINATES, and that is yet another breaking point for her. She urges the remaining 4 to leave the competition before they go in too deep. She admits to her not caring about the cash prize anymore, as she "saw the desire took her to extremes" (the violence thing between her and mic) and how the game changes people based on how deep they get into it. She calls out Mephone for getting too deep aswell, as she brings up his challenges that clean up his messes, using tactics such as surprise double eliminations to add drama that mentally fucks with everyone involved in it. Her lil spiel is interrupted by a bush shake, since lightbulbs lil pen she's been clicking actually calls out a signal, and that anyone nearby could answer the call. Taco starts cracking out of fear? nervousness? Pressure idk anxiety any of those, because as knife points out, anyone could meannnn pickleeeee orrrr miccccc oh nooooo. knife says that she has to face her truths too, And then taco cracks completely and dies. annnnd everyone is horrified and sad, except for Mephone obviously, who is now threatened by taco since everything she said was true ngl jdhdjs

but also goes to show how mentally fucked taco is aswell, which while yes it is her fault that her relationships ended the way they did, the common denominator AND motivator is and was always the game.

anyway mepad and the other contestants force Mephone into reviving taco, and mepad formally resigns from the show convinced by tacos speech about leaving the game before it fucks them up. Mepad teleports away and stays with taco, urging her to stop hiding away from her truths and face pickle and mic, if for the last time. Aaand taco agrees

OK THATS IT WOW so tldr taco did some no no things But her unhealthy obsession with Winning a constantly (and unrightfully) changing game was the main factor, and her realization of this is leading her to a redemption arc that she and the people she hurt will (hopefully) heal from

weeee

#inanimate insanity spoilers #ii spoilers #i rlly hope this makes some sort of sense #i wrote this in sheer spite and rage after one of my twt mutual mischaracterized her #i didn't say anything to them so I did this instead LMAO #my favorite girlfailure no one understands you like I do #inanimate insanity #inanimate insanity taco #ii s2 ep15 #inanimate insanity season 2 episode 15 #ii taco

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yourlocalgrass · 10 months ago

Text

Listen. Listen. Hear me out ok.

I LOVEEE Thirteen, Mephisto and Raphael ok, I would die to date any of them.

But the thought of them becoming dateable, as much as I want to date them… not so much, honestly… gives me constant anxiety, like… big time.

I mean the devs couldn’t even handle the SEVEN main love interests in S1 or S2. I mean cmon who doesn’t know how Asmo and Beel were the devs obvious least favourite. There are times where all the brothers get a kiss except Beel or Asmo.

And then when 4 more characters entered the intimacy system, they handled them really good actually, amazing even. S3 was great imo, for the new dateables that was. But again, half of the brothers were forgotten to be love interests. But, they did do the new dateables good.

But then, by S4 they all literally reverted back to being side characters again and not dateables from what I could see.

Diavolo seemed the exact same as he was in S1 and S2 except maybe in one romantic scene with him. Solomon was only playing the role of a teacher and almost nothing more. If you played S4 without S3 context, you wouldn’t have even guessed that they were a dateable. Same goes for Simeon (even though almost the entirety of S4 was centred around him) Barbatos just became a more romantic dateable so, we did get one kiss by the end but… felt really rushed.

And don’t forget before we had the spotlight events how bad, cliche and repetitive the events were? Because we had to make sure we kissed all of them (except luke ofc) so an entire event chapter was dedicated to making sure we spend time and kiss all of them. And then even then there were characters who weren’t kissed or got fair time and treatment.

Finally, in Nightbringer, during S1 Solomon had a lot of spotlight for once and some Diavolo, while Simeon didn’t even exist. When it came to S2, we got Simeon spotlight but Solomon and Diavolo just went -poof- and vanished just like that.

Don’t forget that every near to end of a season, we kiss all the dateables right? And for some very weird reason, we kissed every character, but you know who we didn’t? Diavolo. And what’s even more weird is that, there was no reason not to because we’ve already kissed him previously, and the scene was in perfect timing for an MC option to kiss him, we talked to him, but just didn’t… kiss him? It’s just so… confusing.

Oh right, don’t forget how the brothers went through their special arc or whatever you’d like to name it, with MC who’s helped the brothers through and through of course, so we get to kiss them each at the end, except you know which brothers didn’t? Asmo and Beel. That’s right. Even in Nightbringer the devs never changed. Well, actually, they got even worse. You know who else didn’t get a kiss? Belphie, who we know isn’t the fandoms favourite brother, so of course… no kiss either… that’s now another brother who the devs are starting leaving to the side.

So, the entire game is a current mess and if Solmare couldn’t handle 7 love interests properly, and added 4 to the mix, which upturned everything into chaos, adding another 3 into the dateables section… is it reeaaalllllyyy a good idea? I mean to let the devs handle them…

Again it’s not like I don’t want them to be dateable but just like… how are they going to handle it? You know… considering they actually can’t handle it?

There will have to be more romance in the story, or people would complain, they’d have to fit 15 characters in, and they can’t make the lessons short, which they already do, there’s a chance we’ll get to kiss some while others won’t even get screen time, Thirteen, Raphael, and Mephisto can’t be set to the side during events either otherwise there would be complaints, and there’s no way writers won’t get tired of writing Devilgrams for 15 characters so other characters will be bad, while others who always get the top will have a decent Devilgram story. I bet the writing for almost everything will go into mess…

And that’s my only problem cus I love them and I do want them to become dateable but I also want the game content to be good even though it’s… not… really. Ok ngl it’s already a mess. And that’s just something I feel very anxious about when thinking what’s gonna happen when there are more dateables…

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wisyhana · 5 months ago

Text

Saya and Kaiba date Commission by timopeticro

I'm so happy with the result; they look gorgeous and adorable! Here's some context to this scene:

It's Kaiba's birthday, and Saya asks him to spend the day together. At this point, Kaiba has already accepted his feelings for Saya, and the girl finally has feelings for him (it took her a year and a half, wow). She's eager to spend more time with him, and it's clear how quickly she makes the first move once she starts liking someone. She invites him to her favorite place, a Harajuku-type street, and takes him to try different street foods. Saya is talking a lot, which catches Kaiba's attention immediately. She talks about the food and the place and asks him many casual questions. It's their first time being so casual and open for silly conversations, and Kaiba is enjoying it. However, he's also very conscious about everything and can't avoid being slightly anxious, especially noticing how pretty Saya looks in her goth dresses and how lovely she smells. Since discovering her secret, he has been eager to see her more often in her outfits and even caught her singing again. He's learning to like them and is anxious to know more. They also stop at card shops, where Kaiba enjoys seeing people dueling, especially the younger ones. He doesn't bother to go unnoticed; once he steps into a card store, he catches everybody's attention and is pleased to join. The duels help him to relax a bit more around Saya. She's very curious to see him that way, as he's always the boss around her, and seeing him as another player is refreshing in her eyes. They stay at the card shop for a few hours and even try to play tag games. Saya shows how she's more confident playing with other people and aims to win, making Kaiba proud. However, he also hates it because Saya's whole tag duel strategy involves using his precious monsters to kick other people's butts -since her deck focuses on using others' monsters as fusion material. Saya needs to learn how to play in teams, but with time, she'll know.

Eventually, they both feel comfortable, especially Kaiba, but he keeps yearning for something during the entire date. Though he isn't sure what he wants from Saya, Kaiba knows he wants to touch her. However, he was hesitant and didn't like feeling that way. At some point, Kaiba stops being so demanding around her, but as a consequence, he is troubled about asking Saya for something. He would have been happy just holding her hands, or at least that's what he told himself. Not knowing how to ask, he shyly begs Saya to hold his hands. He is embarrassed by how he asked it, but as Shakira said, "Lo hecho está hecho." Saya is glad to fulfill his request; it seems like the first time he has asked for something so kindly, and she is unaware of the valid reason for why he's asking. She quickly grabs his hands, surprising him, and they share a pleasant moment in silence. Kaiba notices how big Saya's hands are, and Saya realizes how cold his hands are. They talk about them, and Saya comments on how she thought Kaiba's hands would feel more robust, but they felt gentle to the touch, while Kaiba points out how fitting Saya's hands would be for piano to what Saya confirms she knows how to play it. Saya gently caressed his hands, trying to warm them up. Kaiba feels so comfortable that he thought he could die at that moment. It's such a simple yet meaningful moment for them. Eventually, they have to part ways; Saya quickly leaves on her own and goes home without giving Kaiba a chance to offer to drive her home, but he is used to her being like that. In the car, Kaiba notices that Saya's scent is still with him, and he doesn't know how until he smells his hands, and it hits him. Saya usually uses perfumed hand cream, and Kaiba always knew. For the first time, he notices how idiot he's acting for smelling the scent on his hands, thinking about Saya, and holding to the memory of this birthday.

Gaaaaaaaaaaah, I love them so much, and this commission only makes me even more in love with them.

#yugioh #yugioh oc #seto kaiba #itou saya #messeshipping

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misc-obeyme · 2 years ago

Note

Hello there! I hope you’re doing well, I was wondering if you could do a few head cannons or a ficlet (whichever you prefer) where the brothers (and/or dateables) find out that MC is multilingual.

I’m mostly thinking in the context that they didn’t know before and suddenly hear MC speaking said language, but you can change that if you prefer of course! Or not do the request entirely if this idea doesn’t strike your fancy.

Have a nice day/night!

Hi, anon!

Okay I wasn't sure if multilingual meant MC speaks two languages or if it's like more than two, so I kinda did a little bit of both. And really I think everything could apply to either option, so hopefully that all still makes sense!

Thank you for the request!

brothers react to hearing GN!MC speaking in a different language

Warnings: none!

Lucifer

When he first hears it, he’s sure he’s just tired. He’s never heard you speak any other language before. Surely his mind is playing tricks on him. Starts thinking he must really need to take a break like everyone is always saying.

If you do it again, then he’ll ask. MC, are you multilingual? Demonstrate all the languages you speak. However many it is, he's impressed. He wants to know the details of how you learned this language. Tell him more about it.

He will ask you to teach him the language so he can speak it with you. Really loves it when he gets fluent and can carry on conversations with you that other people don’t understand. He will say all kinds of things with the sole purpose of making you blush.

Lucifer will find records of music that’s sung in languages you know. Might ask you for a translation of the lyrics, but mostly just wants to share the experience with you. Sit with him in the music room to listen and he won’t be able to stop himself from holding you close, whispering sweet sayings that you've taught him in your ear.

Mammon

Woah! MC! Since when could ya speak more than one language? You’re always surprising him with the things you can do!

He will ask you to teach him all the swear words. Says them to Lucifer under his breath more because it makes you laugh than because he really means it.

Wants to know the circumstances in which you learned this language. Is it your native tongue? Or did you just learn a whole new language for some reason? Either way you had to learn a second language at some point and that sounds like a lot of work. Wouldn’t do it himself but he’s impressed that you could.

Actually picks up parts of the language pretty easily. Depending on how often you use it around him, Mammon will be able to imitate your most used phrases. He’ll say stuff without knowing what it actually means, he’s just repeating you. If you tell him what it means and how to use it, it will just become part of his own speech from that point on. Only says lovey things when the two of you are alone.

Leviathan

The first time he hears you speaking it, he’s confused. What was that? Did you just speak in a different language? Quick, MC! Tell him all the different languages you know!

Instantly wants to hire you to translate any media that’s in a language he can’t speak. Video games, manga, shows, movies, even songs! If you insist on teaching him so he can do it himself, he’ll actually be excited to learn. Teach him everything!

Absolutely will watch movies and shows in any languages you speak with you. He’s gonna need subtitles. He’ll ask you about how accurate the subs are. Makes you go through every single line and complains about any inaccuracies you guys find. Posts your translations in online forums.

Talk to him in your language and he’ll be flustered even if he has no idea what you’re saying. You could be telling him to clean his room, but it sounds so romantic? Now he’s blushing like crazy. Levi actually really likes to hear you speak to him in a different language. If he's learning it for himself, he won't get as flustered if he knows what you're actually saying. Either way, he's going to hesitantly ask you to say it again.

Satan

You’re sitting near each other somewhere when you ask a question out loud in a different language. Without looking up or missing a beat, Satan answers your question in the same language. Several moments pass before the two of you look at each other in surprise. Then you both launch into a conversation in that language about how surprised you are that the other person knows it.

This guy has spent many years learning all kinds of languages and that includes human world ones. His main goal was to be able to read books in their native languages rather than translations. But it turns out he’s just good at it so he speaks pretty fluently too.

Now that he knows this about you, he’s almost always talking to you in a language the others doesn’t understand. Finds it especially entertaining to discuss his prank ideas with you while Lucifer is sitting right there.

Do not think for one second that he’s not going to take this opportunity to recite poetry in that language to you. Blushes the whole time, but does it anyway. Please indulge him, MC. You are the only one who can truly appreciate these romantic lines.

Asmodeus

Did he just hear you speaking in a different language? Oh, MC, you’re so full of surprises! He has no idea what you just said, but he is swooning! Please flirt with him in your language, he’s really going to fall even harder for you now. You could say anything but if you do it in the right tone of voice you will get a dramatic reaction from him.

Teach him how to say “I love you” and things like “hug me” and “kiss me.” Know that once you do, he’ll be saying them to you all the time. Asmo might ask you to teach him some insults, too, just so he can use them on unsuspecting demons who have no idea what he's saying.

Designs some clothes with sayings in your language on them. Won’t tell anyone what they mean - he only knows because you told him. But everybody else is just going to have to wonder about it! This is a secret between the two of you! (Well, and everybody else who speaks that language… but that is not the point.)

Might start learning the rest of the language without you knowing. Gets Satan to help him. Then when you’re alone with him he starts saying a whole speech about how much he loves you. Giggles happily at the look on your face before kissing you.

Beelzebub

The first time he hears you, he thinks he must have heard wrong. Blinks in confusion. What was that you said, MC? He’s not sure he heard you right. Explain to him that you were actually speaking a different language and he’ll be even more surprised.

He wants to know more about it. Where did you learn it and why? Beel asks you about the names of food. He doesn’t want to learn them necessarily he just wants to hear you say them.

If you tend to refer to a specific food in the other language, he will start calling it that too. Just straight up replaces that word in his vocabulary. Might do this for non food related things as well. Pretty much just does that thing where he picks up little words and phrases from you simply because he's absorbed it from being around you so much.

He likes to listen to you speak in a different language, even if he can't understand anything you're saying. Might ask you to say anything just so he can listen to the sound of your voice. You could read a dictionary to him and he would be all about it. Content to just sit quietly and listen.

Belphegor

The only one who doesn't even notice at first. It's not that he doesn't care, it's just that it doesn't even register. For some reason, it seems perfectly normal to him that you speak multiple languages. He considers you to be a smart person, someone on Satan's level, and Satan knows several languages, so why wouldn't you?

After he hears you using that language a few times, he gets curious. He doesn't know what you're saying, but he does realize if you're using the same language, especially in the same context. Always letting out a string of it when you hurt yourself? Maybe you rant in that language when you're frustrated? He recognizes the sound of it.

Now he's going to ask you about it. What language is this, MC? Tell him about it, please. He'll ask you to teach him how to say things like "take a nap with me" and "Lucifer sucks." The first time he says that last one, Satan does a spit take.

Belphie will ask you to sing in your language. He wants to hear some songs that were originally written in it. He's especially interested in lullabies. If you sing him one, he'll fall asleep on your lap pretty quickly. Might get needy and ask you to sing to him every night.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me nightbringer #obey me headcanons #obey me fanfiction #obey me fanfic #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #request #anon request #misc writes

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imagineitdearies · 10 months ago

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not a Perfect Slaughter question but Astarion one. you remember that scene in goblin camp where a Loviatar priest and PC can do an impromptu bdsm session? Astarion's reaction always confused me. he seems to be strangely into it for a person who experienced a lot of non consensual sex with physical violence sprinkled on top. like yes, he could be faking it (it's act 1 after all) but he gives a lot of approval points for it.

is it just a case of him being his usual gremlin self? or is he more amenable to the show now when he isn't the one on the receiving end of a whip? also at this point in a game i doubt he cares too much for PC (reminds me abt his remark "i don't like seeing you hurt" or smth along the line).

and more generally, what do you think is his stance on pain play and d/s stuff in the bedroom? anyway would like to hear your musings on this, ciao <3

Hey anon!

I'm no Astarion expert compared to some in this fandom, but this is a scene I've thought a lot about the implications of myself so I'll offer my two (very long-winded) cents. I'd love to hear others' thoughts as well!

I agree that Astarion's big approvals should be isolated to the context of when in the game he's giving them. Based on his smaller approval points in Act I, when Astarion starts out this journey he seems to like watching people get treated how he once was. Just a few really early examples:

Tav* making Lae'zel say please (Astarion begging Cazador)

Tav making Zorru bow (Astarion having to bow in Cazador's presence)

Tav prodding Nettie's injured bird till it dies (Godey flashbacks)

Tav telling Mayrina's brothers they won't help (no one ever helping Astarion)

Tav terrorizing Lorin/entertaining his delusions (☹)

So we could argue Astarion is just leaning into this sadistic trauma response in the Loviatar scene as well. He finds satisfaction, however temporary, in seeing others endure what he once had to, and reassuring himself that he's on the winning/powerful/in control side this time. AKA not the weak pathetic person he feels like he was before. The self-loathing is subtle, but not far under the surface.

Considering he often disapproves of Tav being self-sacrificing and weak in other instances, however (usually when it's on behalf of others), why does he highly approve in this certain instance of Tav submitting to pain and injury for seemingly no good reason?

I think the timing of this scene in Act I makes a big difference, considering it's deep in the goblin camp where the party is usually at least a couple levels into their adventure. So in that case, Tav is the established leader, Astarion's vampiric nature is revealed, and they've survived quite a few encounters together already. Some trust has been built. Astarion is more assured of Tav's strength, competency, and willingness to keep him in the group....but that assurance of Tav's strength could be crossing over to feeling unsafe again.

There's plenty of other chaotic, less-sadistic things that he likes (BAAAA!), but almost** all of his big +5 or +10 approvals come from Tav agreeing to something that makes Astarion feel safe and/or powerful. So perhaps Astarion wants Tav to say yes to the Loviatar pain ritual because he views it as a show of strength. He might feel safer knowing that his leader can not only handle pain, but is so entirely unafraid as to welcome it even in the midst of a dangerous goblin camp--something Astarion's 'weak' past self never would have done (cue the self-loathing again).

Based on how eager he sounds when encouraging Tav, though ("don't you dare say no!"), I like to think that he's playing it off as sexual but in reality wants to assure himself he's not with another Cazador. While Astarion is likely to follow Tav regardless, I think he's more interested in being intimate with Tav--if he hasn't already--after seeing that Tav is okay with not always being in charge and assertive, in control. I think, especially at the start, Astarion craves control after not having it for so long, and this kinky display tells him Tav wouldn't mind him taking over for a little while.

Which, at last, gets us to your question about Astarion's views on "pain play and d/s stuff in the bedroom." I think it's telling that Astarion has a +5 approval during the first sex scene if Tav rolls over and lets him bite, and no matter which final romance scene you end up with in Act III, he's depicted as the top. If he ascends, he quickly jumps into what I'd call a permanent d/s dynamic with spawn!Tav where's he's the one in control, made all the more evident with the new kissing animations for patch 6. Plenty of implications to be had, about his preferences.

Now (and these are entirely my headcanons/opinions from here on out), Astarion just isn't in a place for what I'd consider actual healthy d/s dynamics in the bedroom during or immediately after the game timeline, as his mindset is too rooted in fear, self-loathing, and desperate grabs for control. It's been days, weeks at most since he was tortured and controlled on the regular--a lot of this stuff could be triggers and provoke flashbacks, or at the least reinforce the idea in his head that sex is a tool of manipulation and control. Truly safe, sane and consensual d/s acts just don't seem on the table--he goes through a period of not wanting sex at all, much less intimacy where so much trust is required.

But post-game, with enough time? I could see spawn!Astarion*** eventually enjoying some light bdsm in either role, maybe pain play beyond bites if he was the one giving, not receiving the pain. Which all could be a healing experience for him, with trust and aftercare involved. He wouldn't make it on my list of 'top three kinkiest companions' though 😂

Anyways, this is all very much my personal opinion!! Astarion is a fascinating character with so much nuance, there's endless ways to interpret him. And maybe he was just feeling extra chaotic and kinky that day 🤷‍♀️ "Ah, drink it in - that sweet, sweet chaos. Not that I approve of goblins, of course - filthy little beasts - but I do like a good den of debauchery."

Thanks for the question anon. If nothing else, I hope these ramblings entertained! 💙

*Tav represents Tav, Dark Urge, and origin characters in this post

**The one exception that I can think of is the +5 approval for letting him interrupt during the bugbear/ogre scene. Chaos gremlin indeed.

***Ascended!Astarion's characterization and lore is just a bit too inconsistent and vague (in my opinion, of course) for me to analyze a future for. Press (x) to doubt that he can eventually practice safe, healthy bdsm on the side with spawn!Tav while he does his evil stuff and tries to take over the world, but maybe??? Lol he doesn't make sense to me.

#ask me anything #me blabbing #astarion #bg3 astarion #astarion lore #astarion x tav #bg3 headcanons #bg3 meta #bg3 analysis #baldur's gate 3

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clavissionary-position · 9 months ago

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What Emma Would Do

Ignore me. This is just me working through my own thoughts and feelings on this. Also I'm an idiot.

***BIG EDIT: I misread and misinterpreted. Azel was nearly drugged and SA'd, so his reaction, however cruel, makes complete sense to me. If he was real I couldn't apologize to him enough.

Moving @/caffedrine's billion-dollar comments up here.

My original, misguided post is below the cut if you're interested.

I have to ask myself what Emma would do. Within reason. And only within the scope of this fictional game, because I'm not about to touch this topic as it exists in the real world. That's for people much smarter than me.

But for the game, my dismissing of Azel as a cruel misogynist without seeing his circumstances and worldview shuts down the conversation the same way it does when Azel dismisses a woman as a slut without seeing her circumstances and worldview.

(Did he actually use the word 'slut' or did google just translate 痴女 like that for me... I should double-check... edit: oh my bad, he calls her a "female molester", which... I can't say he's wrong considering she tried to give him an aphrodisiac...? The word also means "stupid woman", so he could very well have meant it that way too, especially for some reasons I get into later in the post.)

Soooo, he didn't actually call her a slut. I'm an idiot 😌 I'm sorry, Azel. Dunno if any of my points below mean anything, but I'll leave it here anyway:

The running theme in Ikepri is to look beyond the beast and see the human inside. To meet them halfway. To see their heart. And that heart is always so very terribly scarred. All these guys have gone through their own traumas and come out the other end behaving in ways designed to be armor, to protect themselves from any further pain.

I can only speculate about Azel this early in his story arc, but being showered with the same adoration and reverence that people only show a god, day in and day out, probably fucks with your mentality a bit if you are still only human at the end of the day. Having women try to seduce you only because you're The Living God, well, we saw what that kind of shallow treatment did to Silvio. Women see you as an object and so women become objects to you. You want to be loved, but you don't want to be hurt.

That might only be scratching the surface with Azel, though. He's also clearly jaded from listening to the same old interpersonal problems people have when in relationships. Love is actual trash to him, not even worth a single penny. It's trash because the very people who follow him prove it to him on a daily basis, I imagine.

Yet that's still not the full picture. I mean, we obviously won't have the full picture until his main route drops, but there's another key factor to consider with Azel.

He quotes Pascal in Licht's sequel. "Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed." The full quote goes onto say:

"All our dignity consists, then, in thought. This is the basis on which we must raise ourselves, and not space and time, which we would not know how to fill. Let us make it our task, then, to think well: here is the principle of morality.”

(Did I read the entire context of the quote? HA! What do you take me for? A scholar or something?)

Free will and independent thought is arguably the most important thing to Azel. He has no respect for the sheep who flock to him for direction (though he'll happily take their money and tributes). Even with the dancer who tried to seduce him in the prologue, when he tells her to lick up the food she dropped after he tripped her, he presents it as a choice. Nevermind that the staggeringly unequal power dynamics at play made it so this was nothing short of coercion in the end; there was no way the dancer was in a position to stand up for herself and say no, even if that's exactly what Azel wanted. But from his perspective, defiance would have been welcome. That's why he phrased it as a choice. That she started licking up the food only solidified in Azel's mind that this woman is an unthinking reed without dignity. If you're going to act like trash, he'll treat you like trash... maybe that was part of his thinking.

On a slightly different note, I think another reason he hates the idea of love so much is because love makes people lose their ability to reason, to think. I believe he outright says as much, iirc.

In the end, I don't know from where exactly Azel's fury and cruelty comes from. It could be all of these things, it might be something else entirely. All I can think is, you can't be 'God' everyday and not be scarred by humans.

In conclusion, I can't excuse Azel's behavior. I don't excuse it. But I think Emma would try to understand the why of it, like she does in any other route. The other running theme in Ikepri is that, as a certain someone would put it, the essence of all people is love. It's their environment that twists them. Somewhere in Azel is the purest kind of love. A kind that would make any god look away in shame. That's what I want to believe in, anyhow.

Also, I need stress that I was SO wrong about whether he actually called the dancer a slut or not. Google fucked me over by translating it that way! Ah, Azel, I'm so sorry!

#ikepri jp spoilers #ikepri azel #ikemen prince

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moonfromearth · 7 months ago

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On Repeat - an oc tag by @elderwisp

"rules are pretty simple, pick as many (or as little) oc's as you'd like and find a song that you relate to them the most! feel free to mention why too! o and tag some more ppl too! that would be cool!"

I may have gone a little overboard 😅 To be honest this tag came around at just the right time! I'd just gotten a new song association and have been working on schoolwork so much that I really needed to do something creative 😆

Originally these were all going to be in similar editing styles (more like Corey's) but somewhere along the way that stopped because I had different ideas that I really wanted to do. Also I cheated a little and a few got more than one song... 🤫

I'm really proud with all of these in the end, and if you want to read more about the stories behind them you can check below the cut! ❤️

I know I'm pretty late to the party now buuut I'll tag: @igglemouse @swiftviolets @stargazer-sims @auspexsims and @seniorpollinationtechnician. Feel free to ignore though if you've already done it/don't want to! 😁

[deep dive under cut!]

COREY ALTMAN

"Holiday" - Green Day:

This song being here is random song association at its finest. The trail pretty much goes "Holiday" by Green Day > Surf's Up > Beach Vibes > Sulani > Globetrotter Challenge > Corey Song. If that makes sense... 😂 Pretty much, you can blame the Sulani round of the Globetrotter Challenge for it, plus the fact that I feel like it's the type of song/genre Corey would use in his own music.

"Catch Me If You Can" - Set It Off:

Now, it would be a crime to talk about songs and Corey without a song by Set It Off. Corey was created when I was listening to their songs a lot, and it definitely rubbed off on him. From his aesthetic to the songs I imagine him playing, a lot of it came from Set It Off. Even his name was derived from the band's lead singer (although changed from Cody to Corey because that's the route my mind took with it idk). So, this song in particular specifically reminds me of Corey for... Honestly probably obvious reasons 😆 "Catch Me If You Can" was pretty much the theme of his Globetrotter Challenge, where he was constantly moving on the run from the law. A line I really like though for him is the part that says, "I only feel at home when I'm on the run," because I feel like that leads into the deeper aspects of Corey. He really isn't at home anywhere, he's always on the move, even when he's not evading capture anymore. There's a certain non-permanence to everything he does. Something funny about the image itself is that it originally wasn't going to be edited to look like the back cover of a CD. When I took the picture of Corey with the guitar I kind of thought "this looks like the back cover of a CD" and when editing I just needed a way to fill the space at the bottom and it turned into a CD back cover edit 🤣 It actually kind of fits though since both of these songs are the sound I associate with Corey's own music so it worked out in the end.

LIZZY ALTMAN

"Unopened Windows" - Set It Off:

So this one is the context behind this post lol. It's been like two years since I started working on this plotline I have to finish it eventually 😆 Anyway, Lizzy's been teased in many tag games so far, but without a name or much information (note: and this name's not final I'm not sure yet). Here you can probably guess based on the song choice how her story goes 😅 Going back to the epilogue of the Globetrotter Challenge, we see that something is going on, and it leads to Lizzy and her dad being separated. So, the entire song lyrically I really felt spoke to them and their situation (more in a future gameplay 😉). Bonus points for it being a Set It Off song, who I associate with Corey, and thought music could have been something that they bonded over and enjoyed together. I have a few things to say about the image itself because it was a struggle but I looooove how it turned out! It turned out essentially how I imagined it with Lizzy playing guitar in the foreground with a sort of memory of her time with her dad in the background. I probably had about five or six different poses that I put in the background because I couldn't decide which one I liked the best 😆 This was the last image I had to work on out of the four, and I was having trouble with how I wanted the song title to look. While I was browsing for overlays and stuff I came across a lot of cutout style poems and ended up adding in some of the lyrics because I thought it would help explain the concept behind the image. In the end this one is one of my favorites which is unbelievable considering how much I thought it was not going to turn out like I imagined 🥰

*UNNAMED*

(Sorry I don't have a name for her yet and don't want to commit to a temporary one 😭)

"Little Chaos" - Orla Gartland:

In a wonderfully serendipitous coincidence, this was the song association I was very into when getting tagged, and was already planning what became this edit! I rarely have song associations for sims/sims stories (despite how many ended up coming together here) so that's why I'll never get over how well timed this all was (thanks again elderwisp!!) On to the song, it has to do with my upcoming gameplay story centered around the For Rent game pack, and starring the pictured sim (who doesn't have a name yet sorry! 😅). She's going through a bit of a tough time where she's very lost and I thought the lines, "And it's a good day for a meltdown. All my thoughts getting too loud," fit really where she's at, especially at the start. Plus, the vibes are perfect. The image itself was inspired by the song's MV and one part in particular, but it looks a lot different now (I was limited by the poses I could find because I refuse to sit down and learn to make my own yet). I liked this idea of the torn pages framing the image, especially because it plays into the plot, which sees the main character do a lot of journaling throughout the story. So, the lined paper had to do with that, and it doubled as being good for making the letters stand out, which I wanted to be big and misaligned to be more "chaotic," though I think that could have been done more/better. Aaaaand the background is a picture of Tomarang, where the story takes place. To be honest this will probably be the cover image once I finalize a name and get started on playing it 😉

GHOST COWBOY

(no he also doesn't have a name yet same as above 😆)

"Ferryman" - Schafer James and Will Wood:

I've actually been having a lot of fun with this character since initially creating him back before the Horse Ranch pack came out (more on him coming out in a few days for the outlaw challenge 😉). So this song.... The entire concept of our ghost cowboy is that he, being somewhat half dead and half alive, winds up being a good source of convincing "unwilling souls" to cross over, and works with the character Death to do so in exchange for finding out why he's not entirely dead. I'll explain it better another time, but I also really love this song and just thought that the concept of the ferryman and the ghost cowboy as ferriers of the dead.

"Toss A Coin To Your Witcher (Epic Version)" - Samuel Kim and Black Gryph0n:

Liiiiisten... My family made me watch three seasons of The Witcher I had to get something out of it 😆 I joke a lot that this character gives off Geralt vibes but honestly they are definitely super similar just based on their overall aesthetic and horse companions. I wanted to be special though and chose this epic cover instead of the original... Just for fun 😁 There were some cool piano covers too that almost made the cut. This is probably a good place to talk about the actual image (yay!). I hope the visibility on it isn't too bad because it ended up waaaay more cluttered than I originally intended, plus the mist effect definitely makes it harder to see the characters. I made his (also unnamed) horse a little more transparent to try and give off this ghostly see through effect so I hope that comes through. The font isn't the kind of "wild west wanted sign" font that I wanted, but I think it's close enough lol.

Credits:

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

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