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etoilesbienne · 1 year ago

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Forever's Entire Proposal to BadBoyHalo q!BBH Analysis + Transcript below the cut.

Before I start, I want to make clear this is from BBH's perspective + mentality, and I do not speak Portuguese, as well as none of this is intended as character writing criticism. I really like the direction both of these characters are going in, I just want to highlight how much of a horror show this scene is! I'm starting much earlier than what's shown in the clip at the top, unfortunately Tumblr's file limits exist :/ Timestamp for the entire clip I'm using is at here in BBH's vod.

Some preface for everything going on in this scene and context:

For one, Forever's current drugged arc has continued references to the Vargas Era in Brazilian history, which, to heavily oversimplify, is a period when culture was suppressed by Getúlio Vargas, a 1930's Brazilian dictator, and made to look very perfected to the outside world to cover up the many issues from the government at the time. (I really recommend looking more into the Vargas Era on your own, I can say I've found every reading on this topic to be both interesting, as well as gives Forever's current arc a really good layer of historical reference with his presidency. It's a good topic to look into!)

Mostly, it's a representation of how fucked Forever's mental state currently is. Not only is he erratic from the drugs he was put under - He's actively been washed over with nationalistic propaganda. That's fucking horrifying for the President of the island to be under! It gains another layer of horror as well, because to all of the islanders, Forever is the only community member with any perceived sort of power. Him becoming erratic - pulling a gun on Phil, forcing other people to sign up for the drugs and medical procedure he went under - it's something that carries weight in terms of the island being united and working together, and is currently reinforcing the concerns the French group had with seeing him as unfit for power, with BBH included in all of these presidential coup meetings as being a sort of "honorary french" deal.

On Bad's side, however, is the known fact he finds marriage overrated, and meta-wise cc!BBH has mentioned he's playing a "more aromantic approach" because he doesn't want to be another character stuck in the shipping boat. (This isn't a knock against shipping, I just think it's good knowledge to have about q!BBH's character/stance on romance going into this.) And then finally, when the link timestamp starts, but before Forever has truly begun his serious conversation, BBH does this:

He switches out his regular Totem of Undying to specifically a Death totem. It's very quick, but I think it sets up his mentality going into this... I think he expected Forever's final reaction.

Forever: Here, Bad. BadBoyHalo: Hello. F: Hello! F & BBH, simultaneously: So, uh - BBH: Do you know where any of the kids are? F: I know where Richarlyson is, but, oh uh maybe we should go a little bit further there's a translator screen. BBH: Okay. F: Otherwise, I want my chat to know what we're talking about.

[Break for when they move the benches again]

F: Here, nice, nice, nice. F: OH! It's even better! BBH: Yay. F: It's perfect, I would say! BBH: So, you don't - F: Yeah, I don't know where the eggs are, Bad, but I'm really - there's something I know, okay? BBH: Uh-huh. F: I can tell you. BBH: Tell me. F: They are just good and fine, okay? BBH: What do you mean? F: They're fine! They're well! BBH: Look, what do you want, Forever? F: Ah, I want to get married! BBH: No, I mean, like, what do you want? F: Why? BBH: Like, if you know what happened to the - F: Why… don't we just get married! BBH: Do you know what happened to the eggs? Do you know where they are? F: Let's get married. BBH: What's happening, Forever? Etoiles: [mumbling] Fit: Hooray. Tina: Hip Hip Hooray! F: Let's - Let's just get married. Fit: Hooray. Tina: Hip Hip Hooray! Fit: Hooray. Wooooooo. Tina: He saved us. That's crazy! BBH: Okay. Oh, hey Etoiles. You - You're not focused, Forever. Tina: It's probably the most beautiful battle ever! Of all time! In a rose field! F: Yeah, I'm totally focused! I'm happy! Etoiles: Thank you, Tina! Tina: Yes! BBH: No - No, you're focused on the wrong thing - Etoiles: You see, I clicked well! I clicked well! F: Guys, can you give me and Bad a moment, please? - Tina: [Overlapping with Forever] I'm so sorry - F: - We are having a deep conversation, I am asking him to get married! Tina: - I'm so sorry Mr. President, I didn't know. Etoiles: Okay! Okay, Forever, what I, Forever, I - I don't understand, like, there's the code who's attacking us, and you don't give a shit, but you are the president? F: Where - Where is the codes? I want to help you guys! Everything will be perfect! Tell me. Pierre: Congratulations Badboy and Mr. President, congratulations F: If the codes are not here right now, Etoiles, you are just being inconvenient, because I want to get married, and you are just in the way, man - Etoiles: Okay - F: - Go away, please! Etoiles: Okay, okay, I will go away. Okay, okay. F: If the codes show up, you will tell me, okay? BBH: [short confused laugh] F: [cheering as Etoiles walks away] YES! BBH: [looking around at the sky] F: See, Bad? This is how we solve problems. Isn't that perfect? Pierre: Can I be your best man for the wedding? BBH: What? No? There's not gonna be a wedding - F: He asks me for drugs all the time, Bad, he just asks me for drugs. BBH: - okay? F: [laughing] Pierre: Huh? BBH: He's obviously not in his right mind, AyPierre. Pierre: Yes, look at this smile! Must use a lot of uh… BBH: A smile doesn't mean a whole lot. F: Pierre, I will, I will tell Cucurucho, man, I told you already. Pierre: Yes, I want to be happy… F: Cucurucho will come to you and he will put the smile on your face! Pierre: Yes! F: Now go away, I want to get married. Pierre: I want it! F: (Portuguese as Pierre leaves) F: Oh my god, finally some silence. So Bad, BBH: mhm. F: Don't you think this place looks beautiful? BBH: I guess. F: Oh my god, they're still around so the translator is just crazy. Let's change it again please. Sorry, but - F: (Portuguese, I am assuming it is more ooc focused, my apologies. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me!)

[Break for when they move locations, this is where the clip above begins.]

F: So Bad, BBH: Yes? F: What is it going to be? Are you going to get married, or not? BBH: Why do you want to get married? F: Yeah, because everything's perfect, right? A marriage would be perfect, as well! BBH: Why do you think everything's perfect? F: Why don't you think everything's perfect? BBH: Because we don't have our kids, Forever. They're gone. F: No, no they're just fine, man! You are not seeing the world the way you should, Bad, and I'm going to tell you - BBH: How should I be seeing it? F: I'm here for you, buddy. I'm here for you, buddy, okay? BBH: Is anyone here for you? F: And I'm going to tell Cucurucho that he should help you! Like he did to me. BBH: I don't want his help. F: You need his help, Bad. Just - BBH: I don't need his help, Forever. F: - Bad, you are looking bad, Bad, - BBH: I feel fine. F: - you know? BBH: You know what would help me, Forever? F: So let's get married! BBH: Forever. You know what would help me? F: Hm? What? BBH: Tell that white puffball to give me my son back. To bring back all of our kids. F: White puffball? What does that mean? BBH: Cucurucho. F: Okay. BBH: What does he want? What does he want, Forever? Does he want diamonds? F: Why do you think Cucurucho is the one with the eggs? Why do you think Cucurucho is the one with your child? BBH: I know it was him, Forever. F: What are you guys getting from exploding the whole city? Why did I become the president that's trying to help everyone, and you guys are just exploding everything? This is funny man, this is perfect. [laughs] You know? You guys are just too crazy! [laughs] Man, you guys are exploding stuff, and you all are saying that I need help? [laughs] That's funny, man, that's funny! BBH: We need our kids back, Forever. That's why. We'll stop, all Cucurucho has to do is return the eggs. I want Dapper back, I want Pomme back, all the kids back. F: Why do you think Cucurucho is the one with the eggs? BBH: He obviously is the one with the eggs, okay? F: What proof do you have? BBH: Remember - F: Cucurucho's great, Bad. BBH: - I saw - F: Uh huh. BBH: - It was a strange person in the federation building, Mysterioso or whatever his name was? F: [laughs] Yeah, he doesn't like [I cannot figure out what he says here] BBH: I saw him at the federation building. I bet that's the same person who gave Sofia's plans to Maximus. F: [laughing] BBH: That means the Federation was responsible for Sofia. F: Okay, okay. BBH: That means they're behind everything! There's not anything they don't know about. F: Did Maximus tell you that that man is the same one that gave Sofia to him. BBH: He said it was a mysterious hooded figure, and there's only one - F: There's only - Can only be one - BBH: - mysterious hooded figure. F: - It can only be one. BBH: If the federation does not - did not take the kids, they know who did, and they know where they are - F: Ohh. BBH: - I just want them back, that's it. F: Yeah.

BBH: What do they want - What do they want, Forever? Mr. President? You're in contact with them, what do they want? F: Well, Bad, I can tell you something, you know? This is actually quite funny, this is actually quite funny. BBH: What's funny about it? F: So everyone on the island thinks that I, being the president - me, being the president - means that I'm working for the Federation, but do you know what you guys don't see? BBH: What? F: I am the only one working for you guys! A favor(?), you know, the federation does what they want. I'm the only one that tried to represent the people of the island. BBH: So you're trying to get our kids back? F: Oh, they're just fine right now. BBH: Where are they? F: I don't know, sleeping maybe? BBH: How do you they're fine? F: Cucurucho said it's classified! Isn't that funny? BBH: Do you believe it? F: That it's classified? I don't know, is there anything to believe in that? BBH: [sighs] BBH: What happened to you, Forever? F: What? BBH: What happened to you? What did they do to you? F: Uh, I don't know what you're talking about, Bad. I'm just feeling so good, 'cuz everything's so good man. BBH: This isn't like you. You're not acting like yourself. F: Why? Why, I'm happy? I'm not happy? You say I'm not a happy person? BBH: That's just it Forever, you wouldn't be this happy with Richarlyson missing. F: Richarlyson's okay, he's just - BBH: Is he? Is he? F: - sleeping a lot. BBH: Has he gotten up? Has he danced around? Has he put any signs down? Has he said anything to you? Have you built any projects with him recently? Have you done anything with him at all? F: [Deep sigh that turns into a laugh] No, no. BBH: Then how is he fine? F: [long pause] Bad, I have something I would like to show you. Or maybe test on you. BBH: What? F: You know, you guys are just so funny with that clock joke. BBH: Clock joke? F: Yeah, I want to test something. F: Don't you want to get married? BBH: I want my son back. I want Dapper, Pomme, F: [begins launching mines] BBH: [evades, throws health potions] F: STOP THAT FUCKING CLOCK NOISE. BBH: You like your mines, Forever? BBH: It won't bring Richarlyson back.

To start from the beginning, BBH is under no pretenses that this would be a marriage proposal of all things. All he is aware of is that Forever wants to have a serious discussion with him. He's also gone out of his way to put himself on a Death totem, meaning he has every possibility to be downed if Forever were to successfully attack him.

With Forever's current mental state and reinforcing a societal idealism & a desired performance of aggressive happiness and "normalcy" - his character now desiring something like a marriage can be read multiple ways. For one, an imitation of how one of his closest friends, his ex-husband no less, was recently married and is currently considered one of the best federation workers (albeit begrudging on Cellbit's part). For two, a marriage is a pretty huge symbol of a plastique performance of a perfect life. Especially in this context, it's saccharine, it's a status symbol, everyone wants it. With the medication as well, we don't truly know if Forever genuinely feels strongly about BBH to want to marry him, or if he feels he has to be in a marriage for a "perfect" life with BBH being "the best option" as a spouse. (Again, this is not a criticism of Forever's character, this is a very symbolically rich move for him to do, and I, personally, cannot get enough of it.)

Now back to BBH, this is a guy who is admittedly not looking for romance, not trying to romance anyone, and is currently in the middle of a character arc having to do with how pissed he is at Forever for not running the government in a way he approves, and then getting wrongfully jailed by Forever. I do not think BBH is in any way afraid of Forever as a person, but I do think BBH has concerns about what he may be forced to do in an attempt to get his children back. BBH as a character in general has very, very little regard for his own life, watch a pov of himself in a dungeon and just see how many totems pop, but he does care about his kids more than anything else in the world. The way his character goes about his care for his kids isn't something that often occurs in more masculine-presented characters like him either, frankly I think a lot of more ship oriented readings of him end up hyper-feminizing him* because of this "maternal" archetype.

In a return to Forever's saccharine performance of perfectionism, I find the moments Forever makes the both of them move across the rose field - The rose field, previously quite literally stained by blood as Etoiles had just finished another battle with the code there, tensions are running high and everyone is still distressed from the eggs going missing - I realize it's because cc!Forever ooc wanted to move to not have the chatbox be interrupted by other people speaking, but it's just so good thematically. He keeps moving to have a better view of roses. It's never perfect enough. They have to keep moving. They have to be alone. Nobody else is allowed to be around when he corners BBH with the marriage proposal. Nobody can get in the way.

Speaking of people interrupting, the other members appearing in the middle of the conversation adds to the fridge horror that's been subtly happening all the way through. Nobody pauses and makes sure BBH is okay throughout this scene, everybody is extremely sure that he is fine and can handle himself. The only person to even make a criticism of Forever is Etoiles, over being somewhat irritated that it looks like Forever has been doing little to nothing as President to aid new members or former islanders (despite this technically not being true, Etoiles has seen none of it, and has been giving new players items continuously in an effort to help them, as well as has had little time to do anything except fight code entities).

And then onto the rejection, BBH never agrees to the marriage at all, because why would he? I've seen quite a lot of discussion thus far that he doesn't reject Forever outright, but I disagree, it's a little moment in there, and I couldn't get it in the video posted itself, but he explicitly tells Pierre "there's not gonna be a wedding," and then is cut off by Forever. It's quiet, I don't think many people heard it outright, but BBH is right in his assertion Forever isn't in his right mind to be asking for marriage in the first place.

The other side of that, however, is that BBH is very well aware Forever didn't want to hear an outright rejection either. BBH knows what Forever is capable of, and he knows this version of Forever is not his usual self. It's not an easy situation, especially when he's fully under the impression Forever does have some power with the Federation, and fully believes the Federation has the eggs. Whether or not this is actually true doesn't really matter to Bad's perspective here, he's deadset in this belief. With that belief in mind, how is someone supposed to respond to being cornered about marriage - a concept he has little interest in - but the person cornering him is 1. known to be volatile due to recent events, 2. potentially has some form of contact to the people currently holding the eggs captive, and potentially put his children more at risk than they already are, 3. the literal only person in power on the island.

I don't think BBH ever believed he had the option to outright tell Forever no, he's in a depressed state as is, his kids might be dead for all he knows, and he has the impression Forever could bring harm to them.

Admittedly it is interesting how many outright untrue facts BBH holds onto, but cannot change his belief in them. His opinion and perspective of Forever is one thing, but it's much, much more obvious when he brings up the connection between the new Mysterioso and the previous masked person who gave the plans for Sofia to Maxo, those were two separate unknown figures as we know as the audience, but Bad does not know this, and does make assumptions and connect dots in his own right, tending to his own detriment. This is all intended here, he's wrong about Forever factually, but to his knowledge he's acting in the best way he can. He's under the impression Forever is just not telling the full truth to him about everything with the eggs disappearing, and believes the federation is lying. I think it's made even more obvious he's prioritizing the eggs over everything else here, especially with his final statement about Richarlyson. BBH believes the eggs are the only true way to every player's heart, and blatantly ignores the actual romance aspect of what marriage implies, because romance genuinely does not matter to him at all. He doesn't have time to worry about being in a relationship if his son might be dead.

Mostly, I find this scene to be a great relationship horror set up, because damn if I haven't been on dates like this, where I feel like I can't say no or something might happen. I understand the paranoia and anxiety surrounding q!BBH's mindset in the moment. It isn't a rational response by any means, no, but it is a very aggressively human response to this situation for a demon to have.

Basically, I don't think BBH is a fundamentally romantic character in the first place, nor do I think he'd ever be happy in a cutesy marriage position anyway, he never once responds romantically to any of this, and solely prioritizes the eggs, the final Richarlyson line cements this fact. It's not a dig at how Forever will never have BBH romantically - it's a dig at Forever based on what BBH's priority is, his kids.

*I want to be clear this statement is meant to be a neutral fact, it's just worth mentioning in an analysis like this that BBH as a character is more typically set on the feminine side by the fanbase, and how his character's interpretations are influenced by that reading.

#posts from the aether #qsmp #qsmp analysis #q!bbh #q!badboyhalo #4halo #q!4halo #qsmp clips

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synthient · 2 months ago

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"Dead Boyfriend Imagination Theater:" Is the Rogue Novelization the Doctor's Fanfiction?

Or: Here's How Dungeon Master Can Still Win

...behind the Doctor, leaning against the staircase, was Art. There was nothing magical going on here. This was merely the fantastical joy of dead boyfriend imagination theatre. (56)

6 months ago, Rogue (the episode) dropped, and I thought "huh. I think this Rogue guy is the Master."

4 months ago, the first excerpts from the tie-in Rogue novelization (written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, the screenwriters of the episode) started to hit tumblr, and I thought "huh. This seems like too much lore to drop in a format like this if they're actually planning to bring this character back next season. I wonder if they'd put a fake backstory in the EU to deflect from Rogue being the Master."

A month or so ago, I learned that "Art," the name given for Rogue's dead boyfriend in the novelization, is short for "Artificer." And I thought "huh. That's exactly what the Doctor's dnd class would be. I wonder if this Artificer guy could be a Doctor self-insert."

The present day:

I have the Rogue novelization in hand. I've been taking furious notes. I've got my citations lined up.

And I have at least two theses:

The Doctor is the in-universe author of the Rogue novelization. This is him, coping with the events of the episode by narrativizing it.

Regardless of whether or not I'm right about Thesis 1: I think this novelization's use of subtext, character mirroring, and its intentional divergences from the "canon" episode all point strongly toward Rogue being the (Dungeon) Master, even as the surface text appears to disprove that theory.

Part 1: The Narrator

The basic structure of the Rogue novelization is that it hops between various third-person POVs - Rogue, Ruby, the Doctor, the Chuldurs, their victims - as relayed by an omniscient narrator. This narrator has their own distinct personality and opinions on the proceedings. They like to drop occasional Pratchett-style asterisk asides at the end of a page. I'm just going to go ahead and list off the whole set of them here, and allow you to judge for yourself whose authorial voice this might be:

* Tan France would be shaken. (2)

* To translate, this 19th century party would be to you, our present-day reader, 'quite a good time actually.' You could also say it would be the kind of party that Ezwoob 9002398 would throw (that's a fun reference for our readers in the 30th century; please don't say we haven't considered you). (23)

* Sure, the TARDIS can travel through space and time, but not enough people appreciate its wardrobe options. (31)

* [Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue] is, of course, destined to become Earth's national anthem in 4055. (98)

* By 'we,' we mean those of us who have travelled at least as far as the next solar system and found the nearest corner shop. There's always a corner shop. (151)

* Shadow Proclamation footnote SPZ9-110866701 (154)

Now, this is not, necessarily, a literary device that requires the narrator to "be" any particular in-universe character. It could just as easily be the authorial voice of Herron and Redman themselves.

The narrator's POV hopping also introduces at least one problem with my theory, which I'd like to acknowledge at the outset: The narrator is able to adapt scenes that the Doctor wasn't there for, couldn't have gotten from Ruby afterward, and presumably didn't just invent for this story, because we saw the "objective" version of them in the show (assuming the show is objective. *twilight zone theme*). These are primarily the scenes where the Chuldurs attack their victims.

I have a couple possible answers for this one:

The Doctor's long life experience (plus his hindsight knowledge of what the Chuldurs were up to) allows him to "Sherlock" the Chuldur crime scenes, with close but imperfect accuracy (the book version of events does diverge in a few significant ways from the episode version. We'll get to that).

I'm right about the fanfiction conceit, but wrong about who the author is. For example: if Rogue/the Master was working with the Chuldurs and DM-ing this whole scenario for them, it would make sense for him to have fuller access to the narrative than the Doctor would. However, I have several key reasons to suspect the Doctor over the Master (just one to start us off: this narrator has way too much love and respect for Ruby Sunday for that).

I'm wrong about the fanfiction conceit, but all the Dungeon Master implications I'm about to unpack are still there (and the reality the book presents is unreliable for other reasons...?)

So let's take a look at this book:

Part 2: Imaginary Letters from Dead Boyfriends

Dear Rogue,

It feels silly writing you this letter, but I hope it finds you. So we're clear too, I don't want this to be interpreted as a Please don't mourn for me or some other such nonsense. Honestly, I am quite irritated that it wasn't you that died...

Would I say that? I suppose.

Whatever helps your imagination.

I know you've likely dreamt up and read this letter many times.

I fully understand why; I was a good chat. However, I hope you've made at least one friend since my passing.

Imaginary letters from dead boyfriends can't be your only form of communication. (131)

This letter from Art kicks off the novelization's third act. At risk of sounding too Inception, here's what I'm proposing:

This is an imaginary letter from a dead boyfriend, within an imaginary letter from a dead boyfriend.

I think the letter from Art chapter is the key to unlocking the whole book. The Doctor is trying to move on (that's who he is! That's what he does). He conjures up a vision of Rogue that can encourage him to move on. He puts words in his Rogue-tulpa's mouth. He projects onto this Rogue his own desires and fears, his own biases, his own backstory.

I'm not asking you to just trust me on this one. But I would like to ask you to keep an open mind, and walk with me for a minute.

Come with me, and we'll be, in a world of pure imagination...

Part 3: The Artificer and the Rogue

Where Rogue had charm in spades, Art had a talent for turning a kitchen spoon into a deadly laser ray. He could do anything.

The name Art had also come from Dungeons & Dragons, a shared pastime and passion between them both. Art was short for Artificer; this was a class in the game known for their invention and incredible ability to see the full potential in objects, and it suited Art to a tee.

Rogue could never pin down exactly when the nicknames had started. Like so many things when you've been with someone for a very long time, it had begun as a cute reference, but then the nicknames just became everyday for them until, eventually, the old names just didn't fit any more. They were Rogue and Art to each other. And that suited them both just fine. (111)

You could pretty much just sub "the Master" and "the Doctor" into that last paragraph, right?

We also get these two moments:

Immediately, Rogue panicked. It wasn't his actual name - Rogue was the name that Art had given him - but it would do fine. For now." (41)

It was funny hearing someone else call him that, but his name sounded good being said by the Doctor. Rogue liked it. It fitted. (113)

Which, to me, suggest that "the Doctor" started out as an in-joke with the Master (and vice versa). He introduced himself that way to someone else by accident, then rolled with it for the next several hundred years because "he liked it. It fitted."

This could also be part of why Missy is so insistent that "his real name is Doctor Who!" Every time he uses that name, it's a signal that she still lives rent free in his head (The Master living rent free in the Doctor's head is about to become a pattern here).

It also seems significant to me that "Artificer" contains the word artifice. And his nickname is Art, in a run of Doctor Who that's all about blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

But let's rewind to the start of the book. We first meet Art and and Rogue in a flashback to one of their typical bounty hunter missions.

Rogue is trying to infiltrate Space Coca Cola's evil indentured servitude planet so he can kidnap their CEO.

If the Doctor were trying to imagine the life of a cool, hot, yet moral bounty hunter, I'm pretty sure this would be his wet dream.

There are a couple notable things about how Rogue is characterized in this opening chapter. The first is that he keeps getting described as charming:

The man smiled [...] It was clear that charm came easily to him, even in the early sweaty hours of the morning commute. (3)

The man turned back and flashed a very charming smile (5)

To me, this doesn't really sound like the Rogue we met in the show, who was in full-on grumpy wet blanket Mr. Darcy mode.

It also feels a little odd as a descriptor in an otherwise Rogue POV chapter. "It was clear that charm came easily to him" is pretty clearly the narrator's opinion, not Rogue's.

And the Doctor finds Rogue charming.

The second notable detail: Rogue exclusively employs non-lethal means in his bounty hunting mission. He knocks people back with a "small" force blast. He punches out the Coca Cola security guards. He pulls out his blaster, only to shoot at the scaffolding his opponent is standing on instead of at his opponent. Even when his rival bounty hunters start disintegrating each other, he doesn't try to draw in self-defense.

This doesn't sound very in keeping with Show Rogue, who was ready to incinerate the Doctor on suspicion that he might be a Chuldur.

But it does sound a lot like the Doctor incorporating his own brand of pacifism into his daydream.

Meanwhile, Art is the eye in the sky of this mission. We get his first line (re: Rogue posing as a Coca Cola employee):

'Well, well, well. I thought maybe you'd decided to leave me for a nice stable career' (11)

A very characteristic Doctor fear, expressed in characteristic Doctor-y joke form.

Meanwhile, Rogue flings himself off a building:

This was the pattern they tended to stick to: Rogue making slightly reckless death-defying decisions and his poor lovely partner being the actual hero. (17)

Rogue watched the windows of the tower whip past them and wondered when Art would arrive. Art always did. That was why Rogue loved him; he always came through.

This time, however, the ground below was growing increasingly detailed. Rogue noticed that the red umbrellas on the patio outside the tower had little green stripes on.

Okay, this was getting a bit tight. (19)

Sounds a lot like (the Doctor's view on) the Doctor-companion relationship. He thinks people love him for what he can do for them - being the "real hero" who "always comes through," by saving them when they take risks.

I'm particularly reminded of Clara. To me, Clara "haunts the narrative" of this book almost as much as the Master does. And Clara herself was always a Missy mirror, with her friendship with the Doctor implied to be what the Doctor-Master relationship was like when it was good.

Anyway: Art swoops in to the rescue at the last second. The CEO they kidnapped has to sit through their "lover's spat" about Rogue taking risks that Art won't always be able to save him from. And Rogue reflects:

Art might act like he hated him, but Rogue knew he wouldn't stay angry for too long. Art always came through. (21)

Again, Doctor-coded, and specifically masterdoc-coded. The Doctor might act like he hates the Master, but he won't stay angry for too long.

Part 4: The Divergences

Let me take a step back for a moment. The majority of this book is a direct adaptation of the tv episode. So I want to give a quick overview of some of the changes it makes.

A lot of these changes are just sort of inevitable to the format. There are going to be some tweaks to the dialog, some new scenes, etc in a novelization, because it wouldn't really be worth the price of admission if it were identical to the source material.

But I want to focus on the changes that don't just fill in "missing scenes," but actively contradict what we saw in the episode.

Because there's a notable through-line of these "canon divergences:" they almost all seem to justify, or smooth over, things that were odd or suspicious about Rogue's behavior in the show.

For instance:

In this version, when the Doctor thinks Ruby is dead, Rogue actually stops to comfort him.

Rogue slowly opened his arms, and the Doctor fell into them and sobbed. 'I'm sorry' Rogue said over and over. (184)

This is in sharp contrast to - and, I think, draws even more attention to - Rogue's reaction in the show, where he just sort of 😐-faces his way through the interaction.

The Doctor takes Rogue's blaster from him, snaps it in half, and cannibalizes it for parts to upgrade the triform trap.

This added moment seems to exist exclusively to answer a question @rowanthestrange had about the episode's climax: instead of sacrificing himself to save Ruby, why didn't Rogue just ditch the Doctor's pacifist-torture plan and shoot the Chuldurs?

The description of Rogue's ship calls it a "Frankenstein creation" made from "A patchwork of different metal ship parts." (86) What it very pointedly does not say is that the ship looks like a bird.

Rogue already knows what cosplay is, and doesn't describe it as an "ancient Earth art."

Pronoun trouble: "And then a day came along and at the end of that day...I lost them" becomes "and at the end of that day...I lost him."

This one's really intriguing to me. The use of "them" in the show feels so pointed. I could only really read it one of three ways: 1) Rogue is talking about a they/them. 2) Rogue is being strangely evasive about sharing even a single detail about the person he "lost." Or 3), he's talking about the Doctor. The same way that official DW materials, like the "New to Who" youtube videos, now use they/them when talking about the Doctor in general or across regenerations.

So to me, changing the pronoun to "him" really emphasizes how much the addition of Artificer to this story feels, well...artificial. It's like the Doctor took Rogue's vague, evasive "I lost them" statement, and read everything into it that he wanted to hear. Rogue must have a dead boyfriend. He must be grieving a lost love, just like the Doctor is grieving so many lost loves.

Now. We could take these changes to mean that Herron and Redman only realized in hindsight that parts of the episode were a little suspicious, and scrambled to fix them in the novelization.

But I think these changes exist for the opposite reason. They're here to highlight how easy it would have been to make Rogue come off like a completely normal, unsuspicious love interest. It only would have taken a couple of minor tweaks.

So if Herron and Redmond left all these suspicious moments in the episode anyway...then they did it on purpose.

Speaking of the Doctor reading things into Rogue that he wants to see:

Part 5: "Rogue" POV

Here's one of the big features a novelization can offer over a tv episode: insights into the characters' internal monologues. Let's take a tour of Rogue's.

Watching the wealthy gorge themselves, on wine and each other, he found a bitter taste in his mouth, knowing that far from the walls of this estate, most of the population was living in abject poverty. (37)

Just like the CEO kidnapping, we get class consciousness/anti-wealth disparity that the Doctor would eat up. And that Rogue gives no particular indication of in the show, aside from maybe "Not a lord."

It's strange, the shape time takes when you lose someone. One morning they are next to you, on their pillow, and the next morning you realize they haven't been sleeping there for nearly five years.

The five years had gone by slowly and quickly, all at once, Rogue's bounties blending into one another. It wasn't that Rogue hadn't continued to live, or even to love a little bit. But when you felt you'd lived through the main event of your life, everything else - that extra bit of life you found yourself wandering through - was a bit like an epilogue. Rogue would walk the ship, each night, inspecting every weathered part. A fading heartbeat of a life once lived.

He could no longer think about that day. That time. He felt more ghost than man at this point. (37-38)

Such an incredibly Doctor-coded passage that I felt the need to copy it in full here.

Sure, Rogue could be carrying grief that's deeply similar to the Doctor's. Maybe that's why they're such a good match for each other. But this could just straight-up be the Doctor's internal monologue in The Snowmen, or Heaven Sent.

Rogue suddenly felt eyes on him. He searched the room and saw that the man, that handsome man, was staring at him. His gorgeous brown eyes beamed up at Rogue from the middle of the crowd. For the first time in a long time, Rogue felt that jolt of electricity when you met that person.

That next person who might be the one to change your life. (39)

Is this not the Doctor meeting Rose, or Clara, or Bill, or basically any of his companions and/or love interests?

Also, I would not describe the Doctor's expression in this scene as "beamed up at Rogue." "Glared up at Rogue and then smirked," maybe.

(Didn't I say earlier that it felt odd for Rogue to describe himself as charming? Yeah, but the Doctor would 1000% describe himself as gorgeous etc)

Rogue twitched, seeing the Duchess. It wasn't that he had a strong dislike for her but a feeling of caution that, if he accidentally spoke to her, he might find himself accidentally married off and unable to return to his ship or time travel ever again. (39)

A likely thought for Doctor Commitment Issues to have.

Also, I'd just like to point out: zero indication in-episode that Rogue's "asteroid hopper" is a time machine. Rogue never describes himself as a time traveler. I kind of think that, up until he got outed by Kylie, he was trying to pass himself off as a Regency-era steampunk space traveler.

Rogue turned sharply. The man was up there on the balcony with him. Fast worker. (40)

What are the odds that Rogue's internal monologue would almost perfectly match the Doctor's "fast mover" comment?

It was then that Rogue emotionally left his body and started panicking a good 50 feet above the scene playing out below. Was the man handsome? Yes. Was there a bit of chemistry here? Yes. Did the man smell surprisingly nice for someone from 1813? Absolutely. (40-41)

I think this is also Doctor projection. Which is extra funny considering that he just described himself as "confident" like 5 times in the last 2 chapters.

Rogue, though, was on a mission and what he needed to remember was that the alien he was looking for was incredibly good at playing people. Too good at this dashing stranger game. Would another man make his desires so obvious and open above the bustling dancefloor below? Surely not; it was too risky.

Something was off. (41)

This is the point where I started yelling HEY! HEY!! at this book.

"I don't see how us dancing will create a scene"? Rogue doesn't know the 1800s have homophobia!

The Doctor does!

"Something was off" indeed!!!

Interestingly, the balcony scene is followed by one of our novelization-exclusive scenes: instead of "I think you and I should go outside," Rogue says "I need a drink. You coming?" (42)

It's a more explicit proposition (and wouldn't Doctor "Oh! Fast mover" probably remember it that way?). It's also where we get the "dead boyfriend imagination theater" moment that I quoted all the way back at the start of this essay.

Usually, the imaginary conversations Rogue had with him were when he was alone in the ship but in moments of crisis sometimes, he would imagine him, a life raft in a sea of social interaction nightmares.

'Would you let go, for a second. Flirt back. Ask him about his favorite paintings, the wonders of the universe.'

Rogue looked back at Art. 'He's from 1813.'

Art laughed. 'Okay, well ask him about the wonders of lawn bowls then, who cares.' (57)

If the "life raft in a sea of social interaction nightmares" sounds like 12clara, then we also have a precedent for the Doctor having imaginary conversations with dead loved ones. It's Clara's chalkboard messages in Heaven Sent.

Also, it is odd that Art would tell him to ask the guy from 1813 about "the wonders of the universe," isn't it?

[...] Rogue found himself snapped out of his daydream and back into reality.

Rogue apologized. 'Sorry, a ghost.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Oh, I know those.' (57)

Boy does he!

Then, radiating coolness, he took a sip of his drink - and immediately spluttered. (57)

See, this is why I trust the Herron-Redman grasp of Doctor characterization enough for them to pull this off.

Part 6: An Interlude - Lord Barton, Emily, Ruby, and the Hall of Mirrors

If it's been a minute since your last Rogue rewatch:

Emily = Ruby's 1813 buddy. Turns out to be a Chuldur.

Lord Barton = The "rake, cad," and Casanova who gets Chuldured in the opening scene. Emily's love interest who won't commit.

In the novelization, the two of them them get an expanded version of their subplot.

Lord Barton turned to see Lord Galpin. They had known each other since they were boys, and he had been waiting patiently for Lord Galpin to transform into a man worthy of his company. Tragically that day had still not come. Lord Galpin's discontentment was, though, at least something fun for him to play with, until a better alternative arrived. (24-25)

This struck me as intriguingly masterdoc-coded. However, Galpin disappears from the narrative pretty quickly. His Chuldur decides to jump ship - "You really are wonderfully bad, aren't you?" (Something the nerdy, bookish younger Master might have thought about the Doctor?)

And after that point, Emily takes on the role of Master mirror to Barton's Doctor mirror.

Now wait, you might be thinking, doesn't it seem a little harsh to identify Lord Barton as a Doctor mirror?

Yes, Ruby had definitely met people like [Lord Barton] before. The type of person who was used to being fawned over because they have good looks, money or, in the case of Ryan Fletcher, a car. The kind of people who are spoiled by life: they get what they want with minimal effort so they never really learn to try.

Admittedly, Ryan Fletcher wasn't that bad. Ruby had gone out with him for two months until she realized he cared more about the car than actually going places in it. When she had broken up with him, he had looked so surprised, like it would never occur to him that someone wouldn't want to be with him. (89)

The Doctor grew up spoiled. The Doctor's a little too in love with his car, and he's used to being fawned over because he's the only one who has a car. He's been known to flit from love interest to love interest. He didn't see it coming when Martha dumped his ass.

If Barton isn't a mirror of the current Doctor, then he could definitely pass for the younger Doctor.

As for Emily being a Master mirror - she's a "bookish" nerd, check. She works so hard at performing upper class British femininity that:

In short, Emily was a model member of early 19th century society. But that did nothing to help her marriage prospects. (75)

Which implies an interesting parallel where the Master's whole persona - supremacy, "mastery" - is his effort to be a model time lord. But it's not helping his marriage prospects (with the Doctor).

Emily has spent years fixated on Lord Barton, "a risk-taker who got a thrill out of living on the edge of what was or wasn't allowed when out in society." (76) But here's her big red flag of Rogue/Master mirroring:

When a party was due, she took her preparation incredibly seriously. Sitting for hours in front of her mother's mirror, she would practice the right things to say or do. She longed to be perfect. When she met Lord Barton, she longed to be perfect for him. (76)

"You'll think I'm silly, but I'll spend hours before a party practising what to say. I have to be perfect." (120)

What do we call Missy or Spymaster's big performances for the Doctor, if not practicing their lines in the mirror for hours before the party, trying to to impress their crush?

"Brooding. Good look. Do you practice in a mirror?"

When Emily and Barton met, they spent the whole night talking, but

At the next party, however, Lord Barton had acted like he did not know Emily at all, and it had crushed her. How could their evening together have mattered so much to her and not at all to him? (77)

Missy having to literally stick the Doctor's hand on her hearts to get him to notice she's a time lord, much less recognize who she is.

(And the Doctor not recognizing Rogue at this party...?)

When Lord Barton was with her, he made her feel like she was his world, but when they were apart it was as if he forgot she existed; his focus was on his family duties or on making his own fun. (77)

Just swap "family" out for Earth or companion.

Emily's approach to life is contrasted with Ruby's:

Ruby had a habit of saying exactly what was on her mind. Never mean, but always ready to argue for what was right and listen for when she was wrong.

'I'm always me; people either like that or they don't,' Ruby concluded. 'And that way, I find friends that like me for who I really am.' (121)

And:

'You don't understand. I know him. The real him,' [Emily] insisted. 'He likes to play the rake but deep down he's a romantic, searching for his perfect match. If only he knew, it's always been me!'

[...] 'You can't make someone love you,' [Ruby] said. 'You need to find someone who likes you, for you. Someone who doesn't make you chase them all over a house.' (161)

The Doctor is the charming spoiled rake who dreams of true love, but is afraid to commit. The Master is the nerd who's been chasing the Doctor around the galaxy, practicing their lines in the mirror, trying to put on the perfect show and prove that they're meant to be together.

The Master has been roleplaying The Bad Guy, the Doctor, and the model time lord, all at once. Not to mention: Claims To Be The Master, Subs Anyway. But if they want a chance at real love, they need to be themself - be Rogue, the weirdo wallflower roleplay nerd - and let the Doctor like or dislike that.

If any of this feels like a stretch because it's too sympathetic to the Master...we have to remember that we're dealing with the person who directed and pitched the Loki show. A known supervillain sympathizer.

Part 7: Can't Get You Out of My Head (Where the Master Lives, Rent Free)

Okay, enough of the Master being pathetic! Back to the Doctor being a freak who's puppeteering his dead boyfriend. And that dead boyfriend is secretly his first boyfriend, who won't stop bleeding into the narrative.

Okay, we have an ego here and apparently an inventor, thought the Doctor. That's--

'Cute,' he said, which only spurred on Rogue. (84)

The Masterrr

Rogue's ship gets namedropped in this book as the Yossarian. I won't pretend to have read Catch-22, but via wikipedia: "Yossarian's motivation is to 'live forever or die in the attempt.'" A la Crispy Master. Yossarian ultimately manages to escape the war, leaving his fellow soldiers behind, and rationalizing "I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life."

In another novelization-exclusive scene, Rogue tries to pull a Han Solo (or a Professor Yana) and run away from the Chuldurs.

'If it's not our problem, whose is it?' The Doctor's voice was cold, angry. 'Who do you think will help these people if we don't? You're here. You've seen what they're doing. You are choosing not to care.'

[...] Rogue knew that if he chose to walk away now, he would be walking away alone. (173)

According to 12, choosing not to care is Missy's whole problem. This scene mirrors the "Stand with me. It's all I've ever wanted" scene in The Doctor Falls.

Interestingly, the combo of the Doctor breaking Rogue's blaster and shaming him out of self-preservation makes the Doctor even more culpable in Rogue's sacrifice. Which could be his guilt complex talking.

Rogue looked pleadingly at the Doctor. If he gave himself enough time and distance, he could learn to forget his troubles and bury his guilt. He could stop himself from caring. Rogue had done it before. He could do it again.

He could show the Doctor how.

'We could go anywhere,' he said. (174)

And that's what Missy wanted for 12. Why she gave him that birthday present.

Rogue looked into the Doctor's eyes and knew that he would never stop caring. Could never stop wanting to help, to fight, to go on. That was who he was.

The Doctor let go of Rogue's hand and climbed in through the window, and Rogue did what he knew he would do for ever.

Follow him. (175)

Who's been following the Doctor around for longer than anyone else?

Meanwhile! Emily has been following Barton around the house, trying to warn him about the Chuldurs, when suddenly:

'But you...'Emily continued. 'You live a life of adventure, danger, traveling through time, helping your friends.'

[...] The final image of [Ruby's] life would be watching her friend morph into the creature that would kill her.

'So why stay this bookish wallflower,' Emily said...'when I could be you?' (170)

Hey Spymaster, how's it going?

As our Emily and Rogue mirrors converge on the "following him forever" theme (and the "watching your friend morph into the creature that will kill you" theme?), the Doctor finds himself facing a mirror of his own:

'Fascinating,' [the Duchess Chuldur] said, looking the Doctor up and down admiringly. 'A traveller like us.'

'Yeah, but no thanks, not like you.' The Doctor pulled an exaggerated, disgusted face. 'Never like you. I travel to see life, in all its amazing variation. The people, the places. You? You leave a trail of pain and destruction everywhere you go. Selfishly taking lives instead of getting one of your own. And all for a bit of fun. If you can call this fun.' (195)

This is still the Doctor talking to the Master (girl, get a life!). And also, perhaps, an expression of his worst fears about himself ("I traveled to all those worlds. I thought it was fun.")

We're now into the section where he thinks that Ruby has been Chuldured. Like I said earlier, we get an extended scene here of Rogue comforting him, vs Show Rogue just sort of studying the Doctor with calm interest as he breaks down.

He had wanted to end this without seeing her like this. He wanted to remember her how she was, his amazing, brilliant friend who brought out the best in everyone. Brought out the best in him. (198)

"So brilliant" is how the Doctor describes Missy/the younger Master to Bill. "Stone cold brilliant" is what the Doctor says to Saxon Master.

The Doctor took a sharp intake of breath. These weren't the fake tears of a Chuldur playing with feelings or the angry tears of a thwarted enemy. These were the real, scared tears of his best friend, telling him she was still there. (198)

And this is the execution scene in Extremis. "I am your friend. It's the truth."

I'd like to highlight one more "canon divergence:" the business with the triform trap works a bit differently here.

In the book, Emily Chuldur "foolishly" runs straight into the trap after everyone else is already in there. In the show, Rogue hoists her into his arms and dumps her in.

The book also adds a new detail to the stakes: if they don't hit send right as the countdown finishes, the trap will shut off and free the Chuldurs. In the episode, "Triform charged. Press send" comes a good 2-3 minutes before Rogue actually hits send and sacrifices himself.

Again, this smooths over holes in the show, while drawing our attention to why they weren't smoothed over in canon. Why does Rogue seem to have so much casual control over who enters and exits the trap? Why would a Chuldur allow him to hoist her? Why did Rogue pressure the Doctor so hard to make a split-second decision?

If this is the Doctor's narrative, he's not interested in questioning any of that. Even if he has to rewrite reality to justify Rogue's behavior.

Part 8: "Please Don't Mourn Me"?

Of all the timelines they could both have inhabited, Rogue was grateful that their eyes had met on this one. What a great surprise that had been from the universe. Yes, right now, he was lonely, but time wasn't linear, and that was his favorite thing about it.

Rogue was sitting in this cave, but he was also walking with the Doctor in the garden, he was laughing with Art in the Yossarian, he was falling from a building, he was running from one memory of his life to another. All at once.

Rogue was in the Doctor's arms, spinning around and around, for ever. (215)

Okay. Does this sound like the zen reflection Rogue would be having, as he eats bats in a cave?

Or does it sound like the Doctor trying to justify leaving Rogue for dead? After all, from a certain point of view, Rogue is in his arms forever.

Memory is a time machine, right?

Watching the Doctor just abandon Rogue to his fate like that is uncomfortable. And I think Herron and Redman are fully aware of, and leaning into, that discomfort. All of their creative choices seem very intentional, and the novelization serves as an opportunity for them to highlight that intentionality.

So. Let's pretend for a sec that I'm right about everything. Rogue is the Master, and this book is a fanfiction.

If Dungeon Master is real, then it will obviously be revealed in one of Rogue's upcoming appearances. But if the novelization really is a fanfiction, how would that ever pay off?

A few possibilities:

1. Once it becomes clear that the novelization is non-canonical, Redman and/or Herron could reveal the fanfic conceit on social media. It would be just as easy to say "They're separate continuities, but either can be canon if you want it to be :)," though

2. If the Dungeon Master reveal episode ends up getting its own novelization, then Herron and Redman could open the sequel by revealing that the Doctor wrote the last one.

3. The Doctor's fanfiction could come up in the show. I think this one's a legitimate possibility. 15's run is all about the fictions we invest with meaning until they seem real. It wouldn't be hard to toss in a line like "This whole time, I've been imagining the kind of person he is. Inventing him a backstory..."

And again: even if I'm 100% wrong about the fanfiction thing, this book still dedicates a lot of its word count to drawing juicy parallels between Rogue, Emily, and the Master, and between Artificer, Barton, and the Doctor. I leave the Rogue novelization feeling more confident than ever that Dungeon Master Real.

And if we take the Emily subplot as any indication, then I'm also more confident than ever that Dungeon Master won't ultimately be a villain arc, but a romantic/redemption arc. Or at least, an arc toward becoming a more chaotic-neutral, "roguish" figure.

All right. If anyone actually made it to the end of this [checks word count] 6000 word essay, then thank you, so much.

And because I couldn't quite fit it in anywhere else, one last Art Is The Doctor for the road:

'You know, I could go undercover next time,' Art said [...]

'Last time we tried that, you gave someone our actual contact details.'

'We got on! An alias shouldn't prevent an actual friendship.' (111)

Safe travels in season 2 ✌️

#doctor who #rogue #timerogue #masterdoc #the master #fifteenth doctor #rogue is the master #dungeon master

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oneknightstand-if · 1 year ago

Text

FAQ

(That I just made up because there's no time for questions yet)

600,000+ words for the first chapter?!?

(Damn, Tumblr insists on blowing up even small gifs into full size, huh)

I know, I know... that's not going to be sustainable unless we're aiming for the first 6 million word release in history. I'll be streamlining things more from this point onwards.

Is this a standalone or the first book of a series?

It's a series of 4-5 books. The first book One Knight Stand will keep going until we finally complete that Lesser Circle of Seven (or die trying) but the apocalypse won't be over yet.

What is with all these wikipedia links in the game?

So I was going to have tooltips that popped up and explained things such as 'greaves' and whatnot like Twine games do… but oops, Choicescript doesn't have that capability. The closest I could do is include a link to a website that explained it.

I decided that wikipedia had the best chance of still being available years from now and have handy explanations to most things I was referencing (so I wouldn't have to chase after broken links when sites go down forevermore).

And then I just started running amok and linking to anything that the player might not know offhand. If you already understand the reference or have no further interest in it, please feel free to just ignore them.

How can I see the code for the game?

You can view the game code on my site the same way you do on Dashingdon just add /scenes to the end of the URL.

The sound effects aren't working in the game?

Are you playing on iOS (iPhone etc) or macOS? If not, please report this as a bug. Otherwise, if you're playing on an Apple platform unfortunately there's a known bug with OGG sound files not working (even though they're supposedly supported by all browsers by now).

Unfortunately, despite an extensions search, I haven't found a solution for this.

If by the time One Knight Stand is completed, Apple still isn't properly supporting OGG, then I might have to convert all the hundreds of sound files over to MP3 for the iOS version of the game. ( ⚆﹏⚆ ) The conversion will double the size of the sound files however and with hundreds of sound files that's definitely less than optimal there.

Do I need to know anything about King Arthur, Camelot, or random arthurian lore to play this game?

No, you don't need to know anything about it.

You can spend the whole game going "Who is Arthur? What's a Camels-a-lot? What am I even doing here?" as a legit strategy. (You can even play that way if you actually do know stuff about arthuriana.)

If you choose to be an in-game lore expert, it just means your MC is as likely to give an explanation as one of the other characters. However, anything important that the player needs to know will come up in the game itself.

You can also ask the other characters for info dumps on Camelot... and boy, will some of them give you (completely skippable) lore dumps all right.

Hey, this stuff that Merlin's saying about Camelot doesn't jive with what I know!

Maybe that's the difference between what canonically happened in One Knight Stand's backstory. Or maybe Merlin is just gaslighting you.

What's going on with Merlin's pronouns?

If Merlin's pronouns don't fit with the gender that you've chosen for them within the MC's speech or internal narrative, then that's a coding error (please report it).

If another character (say a little girl who's convinced that Merlin is Elsa) is using different pronouns for Merlin than what's expected, then that's simply how that other character is currently perceiving Merlin.

But what pronouns does Merlin prefer?

Merlin doesn't care what human pronouns you use for them. Out-of-universe I'll be using they/them for simplicity's sake (same reason I'll be using 'incubus' instead of typing incubus/succubus the entire time).

What's up with all of Merlin's kaomoji in their text messages and e-mails?

They're a fifth-century mage who's been sealed away for 1500 years... they're *trying*.

m(✿￣ｰ￣)m plz understand

Why are there so many Merlin questions in this FAQ?

I don't know, it just ended up that way. Probably because they show up in Chapter 1 and have a rather... complex... situation that needs warnings attached to it.

(✿≖ᴗ≖ )ゞ "Naturally, I'm simply the most intriguing member of this party."

Are all RO's available to all MC's?

Your MC won't be blocked from a romance due to gender or sexuality. At most you'll get a passing mention if you're not the gender that the RO usually dates.

There are certain *other* mitigating factors, however... for example not all RO's are going to be kosher with the Serial Killer MC (especially if said MC won't knock off with all the killings).

Also there is one modern day RO that is incompatible with a certain Camelot MC background.

Is there a lock-in point for romances?

No, there will be several points where you can initiate and break-off relationships with the various RO's (and know that the RO's can take take those on and off-ramps just the same as the MC).

You can also romance another character after breaking up with your current RO... but that's going to get tougher and tougher the more you do that.

Can we start a romance in Book 1?

Romances will proceed at a different pace depending on who your MC is romancing (and also on your MC themselves). For example Adrian will be friendzoning you through most of Book 1 for... reasons. Meanwhile, potential sex scene with Merlin in Chapter 3 if you're feeling particularly horny.

Do I need to romance someone to take part in their personal subplot?

No, you just need to be "close" to someone, either platonically, romantically, or otherwise to take part in their subplot. You'll also need to actually be physically present (which will not always be possible for everyone at the same time).

Is there any poly?

In the series, yes, but not in the first book One Knight Stand, as forming the triad will require developing a certain level of trust and loyalty between all three members. And right now everyone is too busy side-eying each other in suspicion at this point.

Thus, since the poly options won't appear until Book 2, saying who is involved would be a *spoiler* since it indicates who'll actually still be available for romance later in the series.

In general, there are three triads that will be available... one is male/male/MC, one is female/female/MC, and one is male/female/MC. Note that there is some overlap in the characters potentially involved in various triads since only a couple of the ROs are interested in this sort of thing.

What about options for flings and friends with benefits--

*points to Merlin*

So... Merlin the incubus as an RO. Can they be romanced monogamously? Can they be romanced asexually?

You can indeed romance Merlin and have them be emotionally monogamous to you as the partner they will always return to while everyone else is a (literal) snack.

But they can't be physically monogamous with the MC. They need to eat and being Merlin's sole food source would literally kill the MC in two weeks or less.

In fact, romanced Merlin is even more likely to seek out other food sources just to make certain that the MC is safe with them and that they won't get too hungry and accidentally eat your soul.

Merlin's nature as an incubus means their sexuality is highly integral to them, and while they will reflect back what their partner wants/needs from them, they are not naturally romantic. Basically if you're not having sex with them, then a high affinity MC is defaulting back to platonic friends.

These are things that are definitely going to be brought up in-game if you try to initiate a long-term romance with Merlin.

Will any other RO have problems with an asexual romance?

Nope, sex can be entirely avoided with all the other RO's, just choose the snuggle options instead of the sex options.

How explicit are we talking here regarding sex scenes?

You'll have the choice between fade to black and something rather more explicit but not full-blown porn. If anything rated higher than that gets included as a DLC option (not part of the base game) will depend upon how much (if any) interest there is in that sort of thing.

Can I romance the saboteur?

You can certainly *think* you are! (Note: This is not recommended for your MC's longevity)

Can I romance the 404 Error?

You can certainly *try*. (You actually have a better chance here than with the actual saboteur.)

Can I romance the dude in the elevator, that random paramedic, or some stranger walking down the street?

( ⓪ ᴗ ⓪ )

So there's only one traitor, right?

There may actually potentially be more than one depending on the MC's actions. But there's always that one particular saboteur present despite whatever else the MC may do.

Will the gender of my past Camelot reincarnation be the same as the one I've chosen in game?

No, there's no connection between your MC's current and past gender (or really their current and past *anything* since they're basically an entirely different person now).

There are four different backgrounds available for the Camelot reincarnation, 2 male and 2 female, so if you end up with a past incarnation you don't like at the end of the game, you can replay for one more suitable to your tastes.

How is the MC's past Camelot Incarnation determined?

Mostly through your choices during the Camelot flashback sequences. Mostly.

Who are the potential past incarnations of the MC?

That's for you to find out! (No really, this is one of the major subplots of the game).

What is with all these grayed-out options?

Options will be grayed out if they conflict with a previous choice the player made if you haven't fulfilled the prerequisites for unlocking them.

An example would be the "I'm lying about my amnesia" option not being selectable if you didn't chose to have amnesia in the first place.

If nearly *all* the options have been grayed out, then usually that's triggered by your fear or vice kicking in or because your MC is literally possessed (Congratulations!). You may want to work on that.

I'm here for the story and not for the trauma… what background choices are least likely to spectacularly blow up in my face later?

In that case, I'd suggest the Lab Technician job, the Imposter secret, Abandoned or Abused as your childhood, Lust as your vice if you're not planning to pursue a long-term relationship with a RO (Sloth if you are), either Heights, Snakes, Spiders, or Closed Spaces as your phobia, avoiding Luck as your talent & avoiding the Internet as your addiction, and finally having Adrian as your close friend.

Not saying that you can't make other choices during the game that'll set you on the path to Hard Mode, but these background choices have the mildest potential repercussions.

I want the full spectacular clusterf*ck experience here! What background should I choose?

The Wrath (Vice), Accident (Childhood), and Serial Killer (Secret) combo is always f̴u̸n̷. The "Lying about my amnesia" secret is also it's own brand of mindtrip as well.

Also, some other options include starting off as a Security Guard as your career, with Fear Itself as your phobia (blood or death are also 'good' options), Luck as your talent, the Internet as your addiction, and of course Adrian as your stalker because obviously we don't need any good relationships to fall back on when playing Among Us.

What is going on with the "lying about your amnesia" option?

What indeed.

If you don't like meta fourth wall breaks or otherwise heavily self insert, you might not want to choose that as your secret.

Update: Also, there will be no further out-of-universe hints, spoilers, confirmations, or anything such about the Lying about your amnesia secret.

My MC's skin is pretty dark, is that demonic-bruise thing actually going to be seeable?

Since the bruise being perceivable is an important plot point, then no matter how dark your MC's skin is, that bruise is darker still even if has to become the abiding abyss of a black hole to do so. (I even described it as a black hole in some routes to cover my posterior.)

My MC is intrigued by this agenda of demonic conquest & people-eating and would like to subscribe to their newsletter. Can I join the other side?

Well... there's certainly some Dead Ends where you can do that!

Screw all these people and this forced quest! My MC wants to leave the group and this plot behind.

You can certainly do that. You'll die (since your MC is currently on the top of several different 'Kill on sight' lists), but you can do it.

At some point the MC will be strong enough that they can split from the group and frolic off into their own nonstandard ending adventures in the apocalyptic world while everyone else deals with the whole apocalypse plot thing. But you're nowhere near that point yet.

So the MC can die prematurely here, huh.

Yep, this game is horror-adjacent and you're being given a hundred save slots for a reason. I'll be inputting checkpoints as well once we come to that part. Hopefully Choice of Games will start allowing normal save points in the near future.

Also, please note that all the Dead Ends include clues towards the truth of what's going on here that may otherwise not be knowable, so they're not complete wastes of time. Also, they all give Achievements.

What is a Cloudcuckoolander etc?

Please see this post for all your cloudcuckoolander needs.

What is going on with the Changeling MC?

Please see this post for all your changeling needs.

OMG, what the hell is this monstrosity that is Merlin's Guide to Arthurian Lore?

We're playing Among Us/Werewolf/Mafia/etc here. You aren't getting any word-of-god lore directly from me. That'd be too easy.

All info about the One Knight Stand world will be filtered through the natural biases (and lies) of the characters involved in the game. Hence, Merlin's Guide to Arthurian Lore.

Feel free to read or ignore, as you like. (Also feel free to text Merlin back and tell them exactly what you think of that doorstop.)

So Why 'Among Us' in the description?

Obviously, it can't be officially marketed like that, but I thought that would be the most popularly recognized description for this type of situation.

I also considered using the OG Mafia or Werewolf instead, but I thought that might've confused people into thinking that there are actual gangsters and werewolves present in the game.

About those werewolves...

No comment.

Are there any guides available?

Here's a link to various guides & info posts available on the Choice of Games thread.

Escaping the Monster Under the Bed

Getting Excalibur Shards

Gaining/Avoiding Corruption

Gaining/Avoiding Fear

Gaining/Losing Purity

Gaining Magic Points | Ver. 2

Gaining Charisma Points

Mini Guide to Gaining Will Points

Full Guide to Gaining Will Points

Gaining Cloudcuckoolander Points

Getting Possessed Late... for reasons

Saving & Getting Pippa Killed | Version 2

Saving Zain

Potential Past Incarnations

Potential Camelot Incarnations (Google Spreadsheet)

Camelot Family Trees

Quick Guide to Sparring with Lancelot

Percy Soulmate at First Sight Guide

My save slots keep getting stuck in the Status Menu! (or any of the submenus associated with it such as Messages/Inventory/etc)

Unfortunately, that's a common problem with Dashingdon games or any games that use the smPlugin.js save system (like One Knight Stand). You can't save the game directly after checking the stats menu (or any of the submenus associated with the stats menu such as Messages, Inventory, menu). If you do, that save will be permanently stuck in the stats menu for good.

So you either have to...

Save the game before checking the stats menu

After checking the stats menu move the game forward by at least one screen before saving. That means picking an option, hitting the 'Next' button or whatever is currently available in that particular game.

I keep getting an error in the game.

Before reporting any errors, please clear your browser's cache (just the cache, not the cookies, localStorage, or any other browser data) and refresh the page.

Then, if you're loading an old save slot, check the Status Menu to make certain that your stats haven't been reset back to default (which can be caused by the data in the save slot corruption). If the Status Menu variables have reset back to their original values, you'll have to load another Save or restart from the beginning of the game).

If you're still getting an error message after trying these steps, please feel free to send in a bug report.

When will the Book Club Route be done?

When it's done. There's no set date at this point and considering the time investment (3-4 months for 150,000-175,000 words) and how burnt out I currently am with Chapter 1, it won't be anytime soon.

I will also no longer be responding to any update requests regarding the book club.

What the hell is going on with Gawain in Merlin's Guide to Arthurian Lore?

So, while I was plotting out One Knight Stand and deciding which version of Arthurian lore would be taken as the "truth" of the OKS world, I looked at Gawain and his five million wives and lovers (because if you were going to create a female OC back then, high probability she's shacking up with Gawain) and then I decided, yes, I'm going to make all of them canon.

The yandere. The other yandere. The one who dosed him with aphrodisiacs. That one who died of heartbreak because he couldn't figure out how to get back to her castle. The cursed baba yaga.

Merlin's cursed ex-lover. [insert Merlin screeching in the background about not having done any such thing] The fairy daughter of Morgana... and that other fairy... and this fairy too.

All of them.

Good luck, Gawain.

#oneknightstand #oks-info #faq

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the-blorbo-project · 1 year ago

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Blorbos at Conference!

Long time, no update, but this project is moving forward! This weekend, we're at a conference hosted by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, or SCMS, presenting as part of a panel devoted to fan studies.

Why do panels matter?

First and foremost, it's a way to get research before a bunch of other researchers while it's still in progress. This helps catch poorly formed ideas, surface new good ideas, and share what's coming up with the fan studies research communities. It's also good for our humble PhD student CVs!

The Findings

Of course, the most interesting part is what, actually, we're presenting, AKA the findings! They're a work in progress, and the hardest part is the coding (talked about here). Therefore, I'm focusing on what I could do deep analysis on relatively quickly. (note: these images don't have image IDs because I summarize them below, but they're graphic representations of what I talk about in the text).

The majority of survey respondents were young: about 39% were 18-22 and 32% were 23-27. A further 17% were 28-32, about 8% were 33-37, and then it got progressively smaller from there. Shoutout to all 3 respondents who were 63 and over! So glad you're here.

In terms of social media usage, most people used tumblr - unsurprising, since that's where we got our most traction for the survey. Discord was the second most likely. Part of a later analysis will be seeing if these terms are more likely to be used by different age groups or on different platforms, which is cool.

Almost everyone surveyed had heard of these terms. Blorbo was the most-used and meow meow was least used, but very, very few respondents had not heard of these terms at all. This may be in part due to how we used them in our survey recruitment, since we did want to find people who knew what these terms were so that they could define them for us.

These numbers slope slightly down because something broke when we imported them into NVivo (a coding software) and frankly I don't understand it well even when it actually works, let alone when it breaks.

Here's a little visual of the terms you suggested for characters. Unfortunately, NVivo crashes every time I try to exclude words from this word bubble (like "term"), so it's not as clear as I'd like it to be, but there are some interesting ones. Particularly interesting are the cluster of gendered terms; husbando and waifu, malewife, sexyman, boy, girl, etc. I want to do some analysis of this because it parallels some preliminary coding results. Y'all also really find your blorbos scrunkly/skrunkly/scrungly, huh?

I also want to figure out how to tell the visualizer that "glup" and "shitto" go together, because "shitto" all by its lonesome over there is cracking me up.

Qualitative Findings

Like I said, the coding is...so far from done. That's mostly due to some Ao3-author levels of life disruption from both of us. BUT! I can tentatively say a couple of things:

There are notably clear definitions about these terms. We weren't sure if there even really was a definition of "blorbo", but it clearly refers to a very specific kind of one-true-character. By contrast, comfort characters are associated with experiencing positive emotions, and meow meows are more likely to be evil or morally grey (but you love them though).

Unsurprisingly, your characters make you happy. We're distinguishing between general positive emotions, attachment, relatability, and one-true-character belovedness. Also sexiness, but that (surprisingly) hasn't come up that much.

There are a couple of ways in which darker themes come up. Villains remain beloved, but a recurring theme is also using tragedy or trauma in fiction as catharsis.

Finally, there's a lot of playful and tactile language. "Rotating him in my mind" really is that common.

Additionally, I'm really interested in the role of gender. Many of you referred to your blorbos/meow meows as your guys, with some of you clarifying that it was "my little guy (gender neutral)". Others noted that most characters you'd seen people describe as blorbos or meow meows were men/masc. This did not come up for comfort characters. Analysis of the characters you consider exemplars of each definition will help flesh out this analysis.

Still to Come

SO much. Who are these characters? Is a specific character exclusively a meow meow, or are they also a common comfort character? What types of positive emotion are associated with each type? Are these character types or do they speak to a fan's individual (or a fandom's communal) relationship with a character?

Additionally - we didn't ask about neurodivergence, but many of y'all referenced it. I'm looking forward to exploring that as well.

That's all for now! I present this live in about two hours. If you're somehow following this account AND at SCMS, please come by!

#mod sarah #blorbos #blorbo from my shows #research on tumblr

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perpetuallypottytraining · 1 year ago

Note

(im the anon that said regression is not nsfw)

oh okay i get it kind of :thumbs_up:

do u talk abt potty training stuff on ur main age regression acc too or is it just this one? cuz if u do i might follow idk hehe

okay, I thiiiink these are the same person? Probably? Unclear. I'll answer both here, for clarity.

1 - No, I don't talk about potty training stuff on my main, not anymore. I moved those posts here a couple of years ago. The only content that's there are maybe some reblogs from other regressors.

2 - Okay, first of all, age regressors did NOT come up with those terms, nor do they have exclusive rights to use them. Those terms have been used by people for, like, ever. Parents calling their kids "little ones", family members calling out "littles, come over here!" to refer to any younger members, the obvious origins of "mom" and "dad" and their variants, and "caregivers" being tied to both people who care for babies, children, the elderly, and those with disabilities.

If anything, age players have more rights to the terms "littles" and "caregiver" in the context that we're using on this site. They're the ones who originated/popularized them. I know this because I was here, on this site, in 2016, when age regressors decided to split off from the sfw age play community, and there was legitimately tons of discourse about who had the "right" to those terms.

(who here remembers the chire and the other handful of communities that attempted to exclude anyone who liked the parental nicknames and the usage of the word "little" in their regression? I do. god, do I remember. this is the main reason that a lot of old regression blogs specify that they're "community free regression")

Second, I... don't? Tag anything here as ageplay? Everything here is just tagged with omo tags, then with assorted organizational tags - there is nothing here tagged with agere or ageplay - just posts that use the very vague term of "little" and the other term of "caregiver" within the post itself.

(which, I just feel the need to repeat, is a word that even normies use!! my own parents, aunts, and uncles call me and my cousins littles!!! Outside of that, "Littles" is a shared community term!! Littles and Caregivers, as we use them, originated from Dominant Daddy/Mommy and Little Boy/Little Girl - it's the gender neutral version!! Cg/L! Regressors are the ones who decided to keep it!! Because it's vague!! That's intentional!!)

But, yeah, you're allowed to feel your feelings, and, honestly, the fact that you're uncomfortable with the "playing grown-up" tag is something that I anticipated when I made that tag - that it might make people uncomfortable! But, I've been working on making my own boundaries and enforcing them, while not immediately catering to make other people comfortable at the detriment of my own comfort/space.

This is my blog. People didn't like when I put non-sexual omo on my agere blog because it helped me regress. That's okay, and even I became uncomfortable with it after a while, so! I made this blog! It's not my agere blog. It's my soft omo blog. It's nsfw and for adults only. And, only just recently, I decided to take advantage of those two facts and put some other nsfw posts here. I do not want to make yet another sideblog for the handful of "icky" posts I'd like to reblog, especially when this blog is already here.

A nice thing about Tumblr is that tags are now blockable, so if, for some reason, you wanted to follow me still, you'd still be able too view all my other posts while excluding that specific tag. Or you can block me, if you wanted to - you curate your own online experience, and I'll hold no ill will towards you for making sure that you're comfortable and safe.

As for saying thats someone can't be both an age regressor and an age player? Literally what are you talking out????? Huh???? Do you think that adults can't age regress and slip into the mindset of a child while also being capable of, while in adult headspace, in a consensual relationship, roleplay as a child for sexual gratification??? Those are two different things!!! Ageplay is roleplay, and as such, one is capable of adult things! Agere is someone slipping into the headspace of a child!! Healthy communication with one's partner makes it clear what's okay in one headspace and what's okay in the other!!!

I'm not even an ageplayer and even I know that it's possible to do both 😭😭😭 and I just read fanfiction and people's actual blogs!!

As for your sign off, um. Okay? I don't even interact with a.geredips posts and blogs.... even if they're very relevant to me and my regression! Not even with my main!! (I'm also very shy and timid and a bit scared to interact) And, on my main, if people who follow me start breaking people's DNI, I literally softblock or block them - if they can't follow people's boundaries, then they can't interact! I'm just one blog, and I doubt that if anyone wanted to demonize age regressors, they need any help from me - people who deliberately mistag are probably more than enough tbh.

Ageplay and age regression, like it or not, was cut from the same cloth - a cloth made out of a gradient from black to white, with shades of grey all in between. Like a baby blanket! Black/ageplay and ABDL on one side, white/agere on the other, with you and me and my friends and mutuals somewhere in the middle, all spread out across!

Plenty of adults don't think anyone should return to the comfort of childhood things, and look at the whole blanket with scorn and disgust. Cutting off more and more of the blanket, because you think that my grey isn't as palatable as your grey, is not going to change these people's minds. Both of us live in the grey zone, and I personally think that by accepting more of the grey, our baby blanket will be strong enough to handle anything - even and especially people who think our blanket should be torn to shreds.

#im not even an ageplayer.........#i just thought that those posts were Really well written!#ah well.#asks #long post

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everyl1ttleth1ng · 10 months ago

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For reasons I will blame on a tweet that said “I just saw someone refer to TS and TK as ‘The English teacher and PE teacher getting it on’ AND I LOST MY MIND” and one of Taylor’s many amazing new songs on TTPD, “So High School,” it appears that I have joined the ranks of the psychos writing fanfiction about real people. We do AUs pretty well here on tumblr so, in this alternative universe of mine, the names, appearances and some elements of what is publicly known about these real people have been borrowed from actual reality and used to populate an entirely fictional story about teachers in a cross-discipline romance. Obvs I do not know any of my “actors” in real life and obvs this is not meant, in any way, to speculate about any of the named people’s actual lives. Also, some of my “actors” are just identified by their first names here but they are all played by real people in my head and you’ll probably pick ‘em if you’re even vaguely aware of actors, musicians and prominent figures across and around the NFL. And it’s set in the high school that Devi Vishwakumar goes to because, why not?

…

“She’s back,” announced Dalton, slumping into his chair and dropping his head dramatically onto his desk amid a tangle of whistles.

Pat chuckled. “Sorry dude, I was going to warn you but I never thought she’d agree to sub so soon after getting back into the country. Tammy must be desperate to cover classes. The poor girl’s probably still jet-lagged.”

“She doesn’t look jet-lagged,” muttered Dalton without lifting his head. “She looks like her perfect Disney Princess self, just more tanned from a year under the Spanish sun.”

“Dude,” said Pat, shaking his head. “Sometimes I wonder if PE is the right spot for you. You’re still young, it’s probably not too late to switch to something more dramatic.”

Travis looked from one colleague to the other. “What am I missing here?”

“Dalton has a crush,” said Pat. “It’s kind of endearing. She’s only a full decade older than he is and completely out of his league.”

“Shut up,” groaned Dalton.

“Knock, knock!” called a voice from the staff room doorway. “Paging Mr Travis Kelce.”

“English teachers?” said Travis, getting to his feet, his tone incredulous. “Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is that a pair of lost English teachers at our door? What are you two doing slumming it over on our side of the school?”

Dalton looked up in wide-eyed horror which quickly turned to relief when he saw which of the English teachers it was, or rather, wasn’t.

“Hey, Trav,” said Jack, accepting the embrace the bigger man offered with a grin and thumping him warmly on the back. “Em and I are worried we might have developed some kind of Stockholm Syndrome since our shared week on Grade Seven Camp. We really miss you, buddy.”

“Jack and all his pretentious poet friends are used to looking down on jocks. Now that he’s embroiled in a bromance with one, he’s finding it all very confusing.” Emma waited until Travis had released her from her hug before she added, “And we’re here to use you for your access to sports equipment.”

“Hurtful,” said Travis. “But it’s nice to have you guys visiting me in my staff room for a change. I kind of stick out like a sore thumb in yours.”

Jack snorted. “You know those old ladies love you.”

“They’ve started bringing in packets of those chocolate cookies you like just in case you pop by,” said Emma. “Better not leave them hanging, Trav.”

“Cookies, huh? Ok, I’ll be round tomorrow recess.”

“Nah, that won’t work,” said Emma. “Taylor swans in for thirty seconds this morning in a sleep-deprived haze-”

In the background Dalton surreptitiously lifted his head off the desk, the faint imprint of a whistle on his cheek.

“- mentions she watched Dead Poets Society on the plane ride home from Spain and suddenly they're all selecting extracts of poetry, dusting off an old gramophone and sending us over here to you lot to borrow some soccer balls.”

Travis looked from Jack to Emma with a bemused expression on his face. “Am I the idiot here if I have absolutely no idea what you two are talking about?”

“I know!” piped up Dalton. “Are you guys gonna recreate that scene with Robin Williams on the oval?” He nodded knowingly. “Iconic. I should tell Taylor I’m a fan too.”

Pat laughed. “Yeah, Dalton, you should. And maybe Taylor could come over while you watch the movie with your girlfriend. Remember her?”

Dalton glared at him then resignedly dropped his head back to the surface of his desk.

“Who’s Taylor?” asked Travis. “Is she another one of the old ladies with the cookies?”

Dalton scoffed dramatically, muffled though it was.

Pat cackled. “You okay there, Kinkaid?”

Emma pushed on Travis’ arm to get him moving. “C’mon, we’ve all gotta get to our homerooms eventually. We’ll explain while you take us to the soccer balls.”

…

“You are a lifesaver, my girl,” said Tammy, patting Taylor fondly on the arm. “I cannot thank you enough for coming in today.”

Taylor pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and blinked sleepily. “What if I fall asleep on them? You don’t understand. I think it’s a real danger!”

Tammy laughed. “Hard to fall asleep in PE. Besides, you’re just there for the supervision ratio given that this is all of Grade 8 combined. Travis will have it all under control.”

“Travis?” asked Taylor. “Am I so tired that I’ve forgotten the name of a guy I’ve worked with for six years or is this someone new?”

Tammy looked up from her laptop in surprise. “Oooh, no, you wouldn’t have met Travis yet. He’s an old friend of Pat’s from college. Apparently they used to play football together. When Bill retired at the end of last year, Pat put in a call to his buddy and this place has not been the same since.”

Taylor nodded. “Ok, yes, this is sounding familiar. Britt did mention that some old friend of Pat’s had started at Sherman Oaks and that he was always at their place. I’m a bit worried he might have muscled into my spot at Friday Night Wine.”

Tammy considered her a moment. “So did you meet anyone in Spain? On your big single girl adventure?”

“I mean, I did.” Taylor shrugged. “He was nice, I guess, but nothing really came of it. We went our separate ways after a month or so. If I’d found the one, I might not have come home.” Taylor narrowed her eyes. “Hang on, why do you ask? What does this have to do with PE?”

Tammy patted her hand and handed her the class attendance papers. “You’ll see. Let’s go introduce you to Travis.”

“Okaaay,” said Taylor warily, as she followed Tammy dutifully out of her office. “You’re the boss, Mrs Reid. I’ll just grab a coffee and meet you there.”

…

The local school district’s baseball competition had half the PE staff out at a neighbouring school for most of the school day and long into the afternoon but Travis wasn’t worried, even in the face of all the Grade 8 PE classes combined. Tammy would find him a spare adult or two to stand around the edge of the gym and take care of supervision and he would get to teach more of his favourite unit - Grade 8 Dance. Last combined lesson they’d learned the Electric Slide and totally nailed it. Today he was gonna make the kids partner up and learn the Cha Cha.

He plugged his phone into the sound system and cued up his playlist of Latin beats, cranking the volume as high as it would go, then headed over to unlock the gym doors and usher in the waiting students.

“Mr Kelce?” a familiar voice called from the gym entrance once the students had all shuffled in.

Travis turned to see the wife of his former football coach, now one of the Sherman Oaks deputy principals, waving to him. “Mrs Reid!” he boomed back, dancing his way over to her. “Come and cha cha with me. Let’s show these kids how it’s done.”

The older woman laughed and said, “Why not?” momentarily placing her ever-present sheaf of paperwork on a table near the door and giving him her hand.

The kids whooped and cheered as they watched Travis demonstrate how to be the perfect dance partner. He had particularly high hopes for these Grade 8 boys. They sorely needed a good example of how to treat other people, especially girls, and he hoped he could fill that role for them. The song playing came to an end and he spun Tammy out into the middle of the floor so they could both bow extravagantly, hamming it up for the student reaction.

“Let’s thank my extraordinary partner one more time,” Travis called. “Give it up for Mrs Reid!”

Tammy waved and curtsied then grinned at Travis and made her way toward her pile of papers and the door.

“Ok, get yourself into the grid we learnt last week,” Travis instructed as he walked over to the sound system to cue up Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel Like a Woman. “We’re gonna warm up with a few rounds of the Electric Slide and I know that you guys are awesome at this so make sure to give it your own flair!”

He cued up a few songs to follow, mainly chosen to give the students a laugh. He chuckled to himself as he selected Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby and Kool and the Gang’s Get Down On It.

Raising his eyes from his phone and looking over the heads of the line dancing students, he saw a statuesque blonde woman walk through the gym doors, a huge smile on her face as she took in their enthusiastic movement.

“Ms Swift?” cried out one of the girls. “You’re back!”

“Hi, Sophie!” she replied, waving as she made her way around the outside of the grid towards Travis. “Keep dancing! We’ll catch up later!”

Travis suddenly didn’t know what to do with his hands. He barely stopped himself from shoving his phone into the pocket of his shorts and disconnecting the cable to the sound system.

“Hi,” she said as she drew near, smiling broadly and holding out a hand to him. “I’m Taylor.”

“Travis,” he replied, taking her slender hand in his. “Nice to meet you.”

…

“Hey Trav,” said Jack, wearily looking up from the pile of papers he was grading. “Em’s around here somewhere if you’ve come to get the soccer balls back. Thanks for that by the way.”

Travis waved a hand. “No rush. Was it a success? Should I be worried I’m gonna lose half my football team to poetry or whatever?”

Emma’s head appeared over the top of the partition dividing their desks. “Not if their essays are anything to go by,” she said dryly, yanking off her massive headphones.

“Oh, hey, Em. Didn’t see you there.”

She gestured with the headphones. “That was kind of the idea. I was laying low. But then I remembered how much I hate marking and how much more fun it is talking to you.”

Travis grinned. “So, it seems you two left out a crucial piece of information when you were talking up your pal, Taylor, this morning.”

Both sets of tired eyes lit up.

“You’ve met her already?” asked Jack excitedly. “What did we leave out?”

Travis rubbed at the back of his neck, smiling shyly. “Neither of you told me she was gorgeous.”

Emma whooped. “I’m gonna get some of those cookies.”

Jack grinned, shoving his pile of papers aside and leaning back in his desk chair. “Tell us everything,” he said.

#tayvis #travis kelce #taylor swift #travis kelce taylor swift #fanfiction

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kob131 · 10 months ago

Note

The Jaune hate is so unreasonable I just saw someone proclaiming that because they gave Jaune a episode focused on him in rwby beyond they don’t deserve another volume it’s in the reply to this post if you don’t believe me tumblr . com/invincibleweasel/748231224518131712/seriously-this-is-just-an-example-of-how?source=share

Fuck it, I'm biting-

It absolutely is.

First off, the idea that ANYONE would want to be Jaune is ridculous. Read a Jaune-centric harem fanfic or one with Jaune as the main focus. Because 99 times out of 100- Jaune is a different character altogether. There's a reason why Coeur Al Aran basically has to rewrite Jaune everytime he uses him- Cuz Jaune FUNDAMENTALLY is not a character anyone would want to be.

He spends Volumes 1-3 being an absolute joke, being the target of 99% of the slapstick humor and a running joke about how much Jaune sucks. He spends Volumes 4-6 basically being as sidelined as possible, to the point he may have been partially REPLACED. And Volume 7-8: Oh lordy, Jaune can basically be shoved into the background until it's time to stab Penny and lose NOTHING.

Does THIS sound like a self insert to you?

And before you try bringing up Jaune's relevancy in Volumes 1-3: Let's talk about Jaune's relevancy POST Volume 3. You know, when Miles would have more influence on the writing staff?

Volume 4- Decent amount of focus, exploring his feelings about Pyrrha's passing, gets focus with his armor being replaced-Aaaand he just made it all about Ruby. Yeah, that scene of Jaune talking about losing Pyrrha to Ruby in Kuroyuri? How it references Jaune's loss and then makes it about how awesome and inspiring Ruby is?

Doesn't seem like a self insert thing huh?

Between Volumes 5 and 6, Jaune has a grand total of 5 noteworthy moments (Jaune attacking Cinder, Cinder humilating Jaune, Jaune healing Weiss, Jaune being aggressive with Oscar and Jaune's scene with Pyrrha's statue). Reminder that this is about the same amount of focus that Yang got in Volume 4. A character everyone screeched and gnashed their teeth about for being 'sidelined'...and Jaune gets roughly the same amount spread across TWO Volumes and somehow he's stealing spotlight?

Same shit with Volume 7 and 8. Here's a problem- What is Jaune's view on the Ironwood situation? We know Ruby, Weis, Blake, Yang, Nora, Ren, Oscar, Qrow, James, Winter, Penny and even fucking MAY MARIGOLD'S stances on the question, either through repeated moments, conflict or big dialogues.

Jaune, the character who started as a foil to RUBY who is the other big player in that conversation?

Jaune: Well, if it wasn't for the embargo making everybody so mad, people probably wouldn't be so quick to blame you for everything else.

This is the closest we get. This is all Jaune gets to say about the whole situation, which is BARELY about this. Reminder that Jaune started as a foil to Ruby in Volume 1. He is up there with Yang and Oscar in 'characters connected to Ruby' and they're also characters who act as major foils to Ruby's actions and stances. Jaune meanwhile is treated like a background character. Once again- could shove in the background until he stabs Penny and it wouldn't change a damn thing. In a very Ruby-centric part of the story.

People love to say that Jaune is given these big moments and thus it means he MUST be a self insert! Well, let's compare shall we? Let's go ahead and take a character we KNOW the creators love and kind of project onto and compare to Jaune-

Randy Marsh from latter seasons of South Park.

Does Randy do nothing for the whole season before getting one big moment or having a few moments spread out over multiple seasons?

Nope, Randy completely takes over the show, often acting as the protagonist of the episodes or even seasons to the point of dominating the fucking opening for a time. Because that's what a self-insert/Mary Sue/creator's favorite actually does in a show. Not THIS bullshit.

Jaune is not favored by the writers. In fact, by Volume 8, he seemed more like he was hated by the writers (well, probably one writer in particular...). Even in this case given- Jaune was given the second episode. Not the launch episode, not the penultimate episode. Not the fucking finale which could be what RWBY goes out on. No, he's given the episode that would be the easiest to forget.

At this point, people who bitch about Jaune give him more time and focus than the writers do. Because even in Volume 9, Jaune was still secondary to Ruby. And yet they huffed paint thinner until they deluded themselves into thinking Jaune was the focus.

They don't WANT Jaune to be forgotten or pushed aside. They want Jaune front and center so they can excuse acting like dipshits towards Miles because he's the weak link on the writing staff.

P.S. Gotta love the 'white boy' part. Implying that Jaune would be better if he was a different skin color. ... Also implying OP and everyone agreeing with them is fucking RACIST.

Imma go ahead and assume your words for black people who don't agree with you starts with an 'N' or a 'P/M'. Surely you have no objections!

Since this is about the same thing you pull.

11 notes · View notes

afterdarkprincess · 10 months ago

Note

Hi lovely 💕

For the sleepover questions:

- Tell us your Solo/Sami headcanons.

- Tell us your CM Punk/Drew headcanons.

- And for good measure please add your Sami/Jey & your Ambreigns headcanons as well while you’re at it.

FMK: Roman, Seth, Mox

FMK: Solo, Sami, Jey

FMK: Punk, Drew, Cody

FMK: Jade, Naomi, Bianca

FMK: Rhea, Liv, Becky

Questions, questions, questions:

- What’s an accomplishment/ thing in your life you’re very proud of?

- Name three things you love about yourself?

- What makes you furious in fandom spaces (your fandom pet peeves so to say)?

- Who was your first celebrity crush? Who’s your latest?

- Who do you adore on this website (aka tumblr crushes)?

- What do you find attractive in a person (physically and personality wise)?

- Favorite story you ever wrote?

- Favorite story someone else wrote?

- Your current favorite song?

- One ingredient/ dish you love and one you despise?

This or that:

- Cats and/or dogs?

- Coffee and/or tea?

- Hiking, cycling or swimming?

- Pizza or pasta?

- Mexican, Chinese or Indian takeout? Or something else?

- Cooking, baking or ordering in?

- Quiet night in or a night out socializing with friends?

- Cold weather or hot weather?

- Pants, skirts or dresses?

This got a little out of hand oops 😂

Feel free to answer whatever you wanna answer and skip whatever you don’t. Or answer everything. Up to you. Happy sleepover!

Hugs and kisses 💖

AHHH Thank you!!!!! I've been so excited all day to get home and hae time to answer these!!

Gonna answer under the cut because I'm sure this will be long lol 💖💖💖

💕Solo/Sami headcanons

I feel like a LOT of my headcanons on Solo and Sami come from one specific fic on AO3- The Solo Man

I love Solo as being selectively mute and/or very shy. I haven't really gotten to explore this with Solo in my fics very much, but I'm really looking forward to doing so.

I do feel like Solo has such a soft spot for Sami (I mean I have eyes) Sami was a real source of kindness for him when he really didn't have that from anyone.

💕CM Punk/Drew McIntyre headcanons

oh noooo my brainrot lol

They're TOXIC as fuck, they bring out the worst in each other. I can't find anything sweet or soft in them, it's obsession, it's raw, it's violent. Possessive and Obsessive.

And they fuck nasty obviously. I tend to prefer Bottom Drew, something so fun about subverting their size difference but I'll eat up anything.

💕Samijey headcanons

Ahhhh I just love them- I feel like a lot of my headcanons POP out in my fics. I feel like Jey Uso is an acts of service guy. I think he does anything and everything to make sure that Sami feels taken care of. This shows up really early on in Devil in the Details and uhhh fun fact I wrote the first part of that fic before I knew that Sami was vegan, hence why there are SO many references to Jey cooking chicken for Sami. It was too integral to how I was having Jey show his affection to take it out, so for that one fic Sami is just no pork not vegan lol

Sami talks ALL the time, and Jey pretends to be annoyed but the constant stream of consciousness is actually so comforting to him. He very rarely has to worry about what Sami is thinking or feeling because he will just tell him.

Jey cut those crop tops so Sami would look at him.

From You're My Keeper (Pull Me Deeper):

“You really like my waist, huh?” he murmured.

As if to prove his point, Sami sank his teeth into the soft flesh under his bellybutton. “Can’t stop looking at it,” Sami whispered into his skin. “So fucking perfect. Those stupid crop tops are fucking killing me, dude.”

“Really? Hm, I thought so.”

Sami’s head shot up. “You knew?”

Jey blushed. “I guess, I kinda knew you were like… Looking. I guess I thought… Nevermind, this is fucking embarrassing.” He clapped his hands over his face.

“You thought what?” He felt Sami tugging at his fingers, and Jey reluctantly let his hands get pulled away. Sami had the worst look on his face, smug and bemused. Didn’t he know this was absolute torture?

“I don’t know, I thought maybe if I cut the shirts shorter, then like… You know… You’d look at me more,” Jey pushed out through clenched teeth. Scratch that, this was the worst look. Sami positively beamed, fondness radiating out from him in shameless sunshine rays. If he was a dog, he’d surely be wagging his tail like a maniac. Jey tried not to linger on that thought too long.

“Jesus you are so fucking cute,” Sami wheezed, burying his face into Jey’s chest.

Literally one of my favorite fics ever- I reread it all the damn time. (If the author of this fic is on here?? let me know pls & I'll tag you💖)

And I do think that Sami/Jey switch up who tops and bottoms, but I'm always here for bottom!Jey, sweet pillow princess.

💕Ambreigns headcanons

OO this is a good one- I typically go for Ambrolleigns (bc they all have two hands) or Ambrollins because of my donut sister @elementaldoughnut12 I feel like where Dean and Seth have that very turbulent high passion love, Dean and Roman have a level of like rock solid devotion?? Someone that they can always rely on, coming even closer together after everything fell apart with Seth.

Even more than Seth's betrayal, Dean leaving spurred on the creation of the Tribal Chief. Roman, alone and brokenhearted, left by the man who he thought would never leave him, turns himself into something cold and cruel. Makes himself monstrous, surrounds himself by a cheap copy of what they had.

He wants Dean back, wants it more than anything, but some part of him is terrified that Dean will reject him, will detest what he has become.

💕Fuck, Marry, Kill

FMK: Roman, Seth, Mox

Fuck: Roman (I'm gonna need that tongue baby good lord)

Marry: Mox 100%, I'm gonna need to hit that multiple times, and also I feel like our personalities are really complimentary

Kill: RIP I'm so sorry Seth, please keep serving even in Death

FMK: Solo, Sami, Jey

Fuck: Solo- and he needs to bring the gloves okay? 🥵

Marry: Jey 🩵

Kill: Sami :( I hate to kill my hubby's hubby though

FMK: Punk, Drew, Cody

Fuck: Cody (he's hot, IDK that I'd wanna deal with him all the time)

Marry: CM Punk.... listenn

Kill: Drew- would need to take him out to marry Punk anyway

FMK: Jade, Naomi, Bianca

Fuck: JADE- HELLO?? PLEASE???

Marry: Naomi- Jimmy can come too

Kill: Bianca

FMK: Rhea, Liv, Becky

Fuck: Liv

Marry: Please, please Mami, I'm-PLEASE?

Kill: Becky, RIP girlie

💕Questions, questions, questions:

- What’s an accomplishment/ thing in your life you’re very proud of?

90k words posted on AO3 as of today has me feeling really good. I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to get to 100k by the end of 2024, but even where I'm at now... a year ago I would have laughed at you if you told me that. I've been writing in spits and spurts my whole life, but I really lacked confidence to do anything with my fanworks. I usually didn't even finish them. Before this last year, the most I had written was 2 NaNoWriMo attempts, both sat at around 25-30k and were never completed. And now with the all the support I've gotten here and on AO3, I've had the most creative period in my life. It makes me tear up thinking about it honestly.

- Name three things you love about yourself?

My passion, my sense of humor, and my tits lol

- What makes you furious in fandom spaces (your fandom pet peeves so to say)?

The only pet peeve I really have is like being rude and giving people shit for what they like and don't like?? Like I've been around since the days of Don't Like, Don't Read. If you don't like something, it's not for you, it costs zero dollars to shut the fuck up.

- Who was your first celebrity crush? Who’s your latest?

Oh gosh, so many. I mean the first would definitely be Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon 💖💖 Daniel Radcliffe when I got a little older and realized I wasn't going to be able to marry a cartoon. Right now? I mean all of those hot Samoans first of all. Rhea Ripley, obv. Moxley.

- Who do you adore on this website (aka tumblr crushes)?

EVERYONE lol this list is gonna be so long @feelschicken who has been my IRL bestie for like 20+ years at this point, who allowed me to drag her into Wrestling via several hour long conversations in the car where I would literally yell about the Bloodline

@elementaldoughnut12 my donut sister who has inspired so many of my fics and cheered me on through so much of this last year. Love you so much punkin 🥰

@harmshake my beloved tumblr gf, a constant source of positivity in my life 💖 Not to mention she writes the HOTTEST fics omg

@southerngirl41 who's been on the tag squad since the BEGINNING and I appreciate her comments so much

@jeysbvck Shan 💙 because we're both unhinged and feral for Jey- she just gets me

@imabillyami of course you too obviously- you are so sweet and not to mention your fics are amazing

@rollinsland who keeps my dash FULL of content of all my faves, and is so so sweet

@shanie-the-komania-toyaddict my Zowens connection, and another amazing sweet person

@motherknuckers I think we share a braincell for real

@samijey because like... A Way With Words is THE Sami/Jey fic, not to mention her amazing gif skills 😍

@thlayli-ra who definitely gave me the Punkintyre brainrot

@who-do-you-want-to-be MY SWEET KOALA FRIEND

@jeyuwuso WHOSE FIC I LINKED EARLIER, literally love all their work!!!

@taydaq her ART, especially Samijey 🥹

I know I'm missing people, I could be at this all night: @crxssjae @hypno-bear-tini @rosiel77 @mzv11 @theninthwonder @dontletme--cavein @codyswhitebelt @jobikinn if I missed others I'm so sorry 😭 and if tumblr messes up these tags I'll scream

- What do you find attractive in a person (physically and personality wise)?

Humor, they gotta be funny. They gotta make me laugh or we're not gonna work. We gotta be silly goosing.

- Favorite story you ever wrote?

Ours is still my favorite

- Favorite story someone else wrote?

oooo yay it's rec time!!! Already called out a few but here's some more:

Green - my favorite Candy fic

Losers and Loss - a Zowens fic that melted my brain into absolute goo I said The Solo Man already but also Pretty which spurred on my love of bottom!jey and Jey in pretty lingerie

Sticks & Stones and also Green-Eyed Monster - both by the Zesty Bean, all of their works are great but those are my favorites

Silver Knight and Little Clover - my donut sister knows how to make a rarepair that I'll go nuts for

And I could not forget I've got you to lose ... of COURSE 💕 maybe gimme a heads up before you post that last chapter so I can get all my favorite snacks and be prepared.

- Your current favorite song?

Guilty as Sin? - Taylor Swift

- One ingredient/ dish you love and one you despise?

Oo good question- I'm a big fries and ranch girlie (the midwest in me popping out) and for despise??? mmm it's gonna be pickles, they're gross to me.

💕This or that:

- Cats and/or dogs?

Cats 🐈

- Coffee and/or tea?

Coffee ☕️

- Hiking, cycling or swimming?

Swimming 🌊

- Pizza or pasta?