#the passive dialogues I got today???

[he1chouarts]

he was 100% about to say “nothing compared to you,” I cannot be convinced otherwise. this man is slippin

[carn4g3]

hello! do you have any crumbs for eyeless jack x fem!proxy reader that got hurt on a mission? thank u!!

Accident Prone | Eyeless Jack x Fem Proxy Reader

Summary: Getting injured frequently isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes, it lets you get closer to one mysterious medic.

TWs: Mentions of violence, injuries & medical equipment (IVs)

Word Count: 1.5k

A/N: I'm still trying to figure how I want to write Jack dialogue wise (in the Night Shift I tended to make him more reserved in the sort of shy way, but I'm not sure I like that characterization fully) so pls lmk what y'all think :)

General

I tend to follow the idea that Jack was sacrificed by a cult-like group to their demonic deity as a human vessel--leading to his appearance today. His involvement with the group was passive, at first. As a first year med student in a relatively small program, he didn't know many people and found it easy to befriend his surprisingly talkative lab partner. Much of the cult activity probably flew under Jack's radar until a cold, harsh blade was quite literally ripping through him.

That being said, Jack at least managed a bachelor's degree, probably on some sort of pre-med track, before his normal life came to an end. He holds a bit more technical knowledge than the average person, but he's by no means an expert.

Slender hardly sought out Jack for his medical prowess. It's practically a given that a pawn of the creature knows how to stop themself from dying. Proxies in particular are expected to know anything from basic first aid to treating bullet wounds. Admittedly, trying to stop yourself from bleeding out while in the depths of the woods with only the clothes on your back doesn't lead to many sanitary situations. Amongst other things, Jack does wonders in preventing infection, and Slender would be the last to object to that.

As a proxy, you don't get too many opportunities to interact with anyone who isn't also a proxy. The breaks you get between missions are often only a few days long at most, and there's no telling what you'll have to get done during that time as well.

Similarly, Jack doesn't spend much time with others, but that is much more a conscious choice of his. If you're not under his direct care, it's pretty hard to properly pin his schedule or whereabouts. So, there's really only one way to become close to the demon given: get injured.

You had been a proxy for a few years now. Still considered the newest in technical terms, you were far from that initial probationary-training period. Despite that, your almost permanent residency in Jack's infirmary was as strong as ever-- only rivaled by Toby.

An almost sheepish grin had spread over your face as Jack just considered you silently. Like clock-work, you would appear at his door at the beginning of the week with some sort of injury to be patched or checked. This time, you had all but dragged yourself to Jack's cabin, ankle throbbing from inside your hunting boot. "What happened this time?" If you could see his face, you're sure he would be raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Target tried to break my ankle..." You replied. "Really?" He asked, something like worry in his tone. "No," You admitted, "Just fell..." Jack sighed, less than surprised by the reality of your situation, "Alright, come in."

Your first few visits with the demon medic were certainly a bit intimidating. Seeing his inhuman features for the first time was jarring, and it didn't help that Tim would stand disapprovingly at your side. Too focused on disappointing your mentor or Slender itself, you hadn't really thought to talk to Jack more than a brief explanation of your injury.

As your visits became unaccompanied, you took a bit more care in the person treating your frequent injuries. Letting random topics fall from your lips on a whim, it seemed to work-- occasionally eliciting a chuckle or even a brief response. Now, he seemed a bit more talkative during your visits. Checking if he wrapped any bandages too tight or pausing when you hissed in pain, you always saw Jack as quite the skilled medic.

"If it hurts that bad, just go get pain meds from Jack." You huffed in annoyance. No matter how many times you found yourself having to work with Jeff, you managed to be shocked by his sheer skill at being an asshole each and every time. Despite the gauze pad on your cheek, which hardly covered the bruise that spread out underneath it, the other killer had been whining on and on about his own recent injury. You certainly weren't apathetic towards the stab wound that had taken him out for a week, but was it really still that relevant almost a month later? "Go to EJ?" Jeff barked in disbelief, "That dick would just call me a waste of resources." "Not if you were actually in pain, now get back to work." You scoffed at the exaggeration. "Are we talking about the same guy? He acts like we're running on scraps or some shit." He disregarded your words, as was expected. While you were intent to ignore him this time, Jeff clearly had other plans, " No seriously, does he just give you shit whenever you ask for it?" "Well, yeah. "Maybe if you weren't such a bitch he'd do the same for you." You looked at him in confusion. "Watch it," He snapped, "What'd you do to get him do that, suck his dick or--" "If you don't shut the fuck up, I'll give you a real reason to be bitching about pain meds." You threatened, raising your weapon to emphasize it. "Holy shit, no need to get your panties in a twist." Jeff rolled his eyes but quieted down anyway. After a few moments, he piped up once more, "Ask around sometime. You'll see what I mean."

Imagine

Sleep pulled heavy at your eyelids as they begrudgingly drew open. Even in your haze, you realized the room around you was both familiar and unfamiliar all the same; how poetic. You knew Jack's cabin well, at this point. It was pretty bare-- any decorations being whatever the last tenant "left" around. Each room looked essentially the same, and your suspicion was only confirmed when you took note of the nose burning cleaning chemicals in the air.

You weren't left pondering in the silence for very long, though. As soon as you registered your location, the devil himself stepped in. Maneuvering with ease, his boots seemed to strategically miss the parts of the floor that creaked the loudest. He shut the door quietly, one hand on the door handle, and the other holding some sort of item. Your eyes hadn't fully adjusted to the dark enough to discern it.

"You're awake." Jack spoke without you having to say a word.

He'd briefly explained his enhanced senses to you before, something about breathing being especially amplified to his ears, "If I wasn't you would look real stupid right now."

"To who?" He asked, "The dust?"

"Good one." Despite the sarcasm, you appreciated his dry humor.

Moving closer, he practically towered over the short bed frame. From this angle and lighting, you could see how those dark, soulless eyes could strike fear in the average person. Although, you couldn't quite imagine the role of a victim for long given the plate of food grasped in his left and-- as opposed to a scalpel. With his free hand, he swiftly moved to turn on the small table-lamp beside you. The yellow glow was dim compared to a normal light source, but it still stung your unadjusted eyes.

"If you're hungry," He explained as he placed the plate down, "you're fine to eat solids."

"I'd hope so," You muttered, "I don't think I've lost that many teeth."

His outward appearance didn't change, but you could tell he was amused by the comment, "The healthy amount would be zero."

Oh right, you weren't just in here for fun. Shuffling to the other side of the bed, Jack gently inspected the IV solution hanging up just beside you. Seeming satisfied with his gentle prodding, he regarded you once more.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Fine," You shrugged, "You're a miracle worker like always."

Jack scoffed gently, "The medicine is, not me."

You rolled your eyes at his response, but he wasn't keen on letting you get in the final word on that matter, "What happened?"

Hearing the question, you took a pause. Despite the aforementioned pain-meds coursing through your system, you could still feel a dull throb around your calf. It didn't take much for missions to go wrong. Just a split second too long and suddenly you were in the midst of a police chase, K-9 units released along your path like you were some sort of heathen like Jeff.

"Dogs." You answered bitterly.

Averting your gaze to the plate of food beside you, you noted the small wafts of steam still leaving the dish, "Did you just make this?"

"Yes," Jack let you maintain the subject change, "Why?"

"Were you just going to leave it there if I wasn't awake? Seems like a pretty lousy gift" You noted.

"I could tell you were waking up." He attempted to defend himself.

"You can tell through the walls?" You asked skeptically.

"I had to check your vitals." Jack explained once more.

"Why didn't you check the IV then?" A smirk edged its way onto your face as you noticed you had caught him in his lie.

Jack would never admit to that, though, "Eat the food if you want it. I have other things to do."

Stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets, he headed quickly for the door. He never left quicker than when you managed to fluster him, a fact you tended to tease him for whenever the opportunity would arise.

"Sure thing, Jack." You called after him sarcastically.

"Don't let it get to your head," Jack bit back, "Sherlock."

[pallisia]

batch asks

i'm falling behind on all of the nice messages i've received since ch2 released. thank you so much, everyone. here are a bunch of responses on the shorter side (might be vague spoilers)

Anonymous asked:

Just finished ch2, cheering for ysme's woman wrongs and loic's ambiguously passive aggressive subdom my favorite parts are whenever loic closes his eyes and feels like he's summoning the emotion of that one ishowspeed expression

thank you. i don't know what that last bit means but okay

Anonymous asked:

(smiles serenely) absolutely sickening moment at the end. i dont regret signing the contract. great chapter

thank you. the contract remains in effect

Anonymous asked:

I don't think I can put my feelings of appreciation as elegantly as other, nor in pure excitement, but I can at least add to the pile of nice things: thank you for chapter 2 of soulsov! I greatly enjoyed it!

i don't need elegance, just good old-fashioned validation. thank you very much for the kind words.

@galaxywitch9 asked:

I've been looking forward to reading Chapter 2 today since you announced the release date; I finished reading it a little while ago and really enjoyed it. I love Ysme and Loic's new party member with all my heart, as well as the upsetting plot developments surrounding her. I don't know if he'll come up again later, but I loved Samson too; nervous big guys are a personal favorite of  mine 😌 Holding out hope for the possibility of some good things happening for Fel in the future 🥲

thank you very much. i'm glad you like samson. fel got a cool toy so she's probably fine.

Anonymous asked:

Tutu really quickly became an "if anything happens to her I will kill everyone in the room and then myself" character

well. don't do that

Anonymous asked:

Congratulations on the release! I unfortunately can’t read chapter 2 until my computer is repaired, but I’ve already heard so many good things that the wait is even harder. I can’t wait to see Loic and Ysme again.

thank you very much. i hope you enjoy when you get the chance.

@scottytiti asked:

wow you were Not fucking kidding when you made us sign the contract. but i'm a woman of my word. i'm under legal obligation. (defeatedly, voice quivering) i have no choice but to stan.......!!

you literally have to stan even if you cry

Anonymous asked:

does it count as too much of a spoilerish ask to say every soulsov got the transgender allegory

now let's hear your langlais headcanon

@tetrissyndromes asked:

THANK YOU !! 💌💌💌

thank you!!

@rainwvalker asked:

I just finished chapter 2 and... god, it's really good. I'll be chewing on it for a while. The prose and dialogue is delicious, and the layering of themes (that I'm only beginning to grasp) between different characters and their stories is really artfully done. Love, devotion, shame, and control... it's all really so juicy. And the ending..... well, I signed the contract :) Thank you for your work in making soulsov real! I will eagerly await future chapters.

thank you for the thoughtful praise. i hope you enjoy the rest of the story too.

@erismourn asked:

read ch2 last night (immediately after watching severance which was probably inadvisable lol) and it made me feel so Bad but in such a compelling way. it was so wonderful. i'm really loving the world you've created and the magic system and the lore. ysme makes me feel violent (positive). excellent work, so excited to see what comes next!!!

sometimes you just want a story where bad things happen. i hope soulsov makes you smile too, though. thank you for reading.

Anonymous asked:

Want to say I played chapter 2 and I love it! I like seeing another glimpse on how the setting has affected the characters! The more small shards i see about the world leaves me on edge and I can't wait to see what's in store!

thank you! there's a decent amount of background worldbuilding info that wasn't touched on in ch2...

@chefwhatnot asked:

I have finished chapter 2 of soulsov, and i only have one question: what the fuck (Excellent work! Writing and art and text pacing were all fantastic! I feel even more invested in this story than i already was!)

smiling nicely. thank you

Anonymous asked:

(smiling through the tears) chapter 2 was incredible. thank you so much

yeah! this is the stuff. thank you for reading.

Anonymous asked:

sat on the prelude for a year (forgive me) but read it and chapter two today. I am smitten, as I knew I would be. thank u for supporting trans wrongs.

thanks for taking the time.

@podplease asked:

Girlfriend and I are having a wonderful time reading through chapter 2. All the characters are so alive? I dunno if that makes sense I just really like the way you write dialogue

thanks a lot. dialogue is what i feel most confident writing, so i'm always happy to hear that.

Anonymous asked:

hi i'm sure you've gotten dozens of messages like this but i just wanted to say soulsov chapter 2 is really really good!! i don't have anything super insightful to say, i'm just a huge fan of the writing and the characters and the world and everything. chapter 1 already had me very interested but now i am on the edge of my seat! i can't wait to watch the evil woman do more bad things to people who don't deserve it, it's my favorite hobby

thank you very much. who says loic and tutu don't deserve it. maybe they have bad vibes

Anonymous asked:

Loic pranking Ysme knowing full well that he's at her mercy was so good! THANK YOU

one must imagine sisyphus getting a little silly with it in a subdued power struggle sort of way

Anonymous asked:

hey that BIG invocation this chapter made me burst into ugly tears! oh my god. oh my god loic. oh my god spoiler character. i wish i could hug them both!

thank you very much 😊

Anonymous asked:

My god, you actually implemented a fishing minigame.

"fishing minigames" are passe, i know, but the fishing scene was planned for years and years and i couldn't resist having a little giggle. it won't happen again officer

Anonymous asked:

is sammy single

please hold on to this thought

[annoyinglandmagazine]

So I did Classical Studies in secondary school which was a fairly obscure subject, there were only nine of us in the class and we were all super into it.

Just for context here I’m talking about the class I was in from first to third year, between the ages of 13 and 16 for people with different education systems. We read the Iliad as part of course and it was really dense and when I tell you none of us could hear the word simile today without flashbacks to notating pages after pages of Homer comparing the way people walked to lions……

Anyway, it was a nightmare to read but we loved it.

We came out of those three years having forgotten most of the history of the Roman Empire but we all knew that Paris was a little bitch good for nothing but his looks, Achilles and Patroclus were definitely gay, Achilles was also a little bitch but we love him for it, Hector and Andromache deserved better and, most importantly, Agamemnon was a complete and utter douchebag who deserved everything he got and Clytemnestra was absolutely right to stab him to death in a bathtub, seriously fuck that guy.

We were so invested in this subject that we finished the curriculum early two years in a row and each year our teacher decided that we could put on a play related to the subject to fill out the last two months or so.

Naturally we settled on Troy Story 1 and Troy Story 2 detailing the Birth of Paris through to Achilles returning Hector’s body to Priam in two 40 minute instalments.

Absolutely no one of the forty people who wandered in by accident to witness our work of art understood a single second of what was going on or why we were all restrained laughter at what was basically eighty minutes of obscure classics in jokes. It was glorious. I recently found the script and I wanted to share the chaos.

Highlights included:

Jesse’s Girl playing over Helen and Paris’ introduction while she’s married to Menelaus.

So much unnecessary use of the word bro. Just so much.

Zeus and Hera narrating while passive aggressively bickering for every second of it. The gods constantly saying ‘do you want to get involved in some human drama’ to rope each other in

The extreme dramatic build up to the use of the word dog

Agamemnon speaks like a frat boy the whole time, like the biggest douche ever.

Achilles lifting Hectors body and dragging it around in slo mo while we are the champions plays

Achilles watching the war from his blanket burrito while eating popcorn out of his helmet

The shepherd who found Paris on a mountainside holding him up while the Lion King music played over it

Achilles’ trashy blonde wig. I cannot stress enough how trashy and blonde this wig was. Also Achilles was deliberately cast as the shortest girl in the class (5’ 3).

Odysseus and Diomedes night mission had mission impossible music playing over it as we parkoured across the stage and peaked out behind curtains. They also have dialogue in which they constantly want to stab something

Paris never appears in the sequel but is dissed constantly

We couldn’t do any actual Patrochilles cause Catholic school but we settled for prolonged eye contact to My Heart Will Go On and long pauses after dramatic references to My Closest Companion

Achilles: I need my best bro friend! My life soulmate! My favourite cook!

Achilles in the tent with headphones on listening to All By Myself with mascara streaming down his face after Patroclus died

The facts that Agamemnon killed his daughter and Zeus and Hera are siblings is constantly just kind of dropped in with no context

Everyone’s costumes were mostly just lab coats tied over our shoulders with shared armour from the one girl that apparently had a closet full of Ancient Greek style plastic swords, helmets and breastplates.

We spent an entire class making a giant pink tv frame out of cardboard, paper and way too much sellotape for one joke that wasn’t even that funny. We named it Daniel.

Briseis was an American Girl doll.

The gods yelling at each other to try and pick teams and resulting in a slap fight with an announcement that it lasted 3 hours.

Thetis yelling encouragement from the side lines and calling Achilles her little crib lizard for some reason also she’s reading Song of Achilles in one of her scenes

[revalition]

OCT 6 - VISUAL CALCULUS

Reconstruct crime scenes. Make laws of physics work for the Law.

simpler one again today, I'm just doing whatever I feel like for these :)

the pleasure wheel is very important to me. I never got it in my first playthrough (1 INT run, the bubble never came up) and I unfortunately can't do the missing husband quest anymore, so I haven't seen it in game... but I've read the dialogue and seen pictures, and it's incredible.

also! mentioned yesterday, but I'm doing my day off on mondays. so nothing tomorrow.

as always, quotes under the cut. I also put the viscalc part of my wips in there since I didnt hit the 30 image limit today

starting with one from the vault (the vault being a giant word document full of screenshots and ramblings. like these posts, but bigger!)

ty viscalc ily

he's just observing ok?

he likes timetables!!

he offers some dialogue options after this! my lovely quiet guy

hehe

viscalc - infected by mullen-mania :((( composure saying he used to be more polite!!

he's so sassy, I love him a lot

visual calculus making you retry the failed check!! volition would be proud

this is the only time he says 'sorry' haha. he is not apologetic!

it takes a medium visual calculus check to deduce this

ugh I loved this scene... visual calculus confirming it makes no sense made it so much better

viscalc!! who cares, just go look at his window please

poor harry is like ???

if you reject him he gets sooo rude, ily viscalc

he's so proud of it! as he should be <3

that's it for screenshots, viscalc just doesn't talk that much :( he has has the 2nd fewest passive checks of all the skills and only 2 anti-passives... but when he does talk, he has lots to offer!!

since I have extra screenshots this time, here is viscalc in my two WIPs

spring storm:

I've done everyone except the motorics guys, and I think he was the hardest so far. figuring out how to use the negative space to capture all his details was hard

banner:

he's just in the background hehe. this is the first time I drew him! but I like how he came out so I kept a lot of the design for today's.

ok that's it! see you tuesday

[propheticclown]

Kurloz Makara and Meulin Leijon: Till Double Death Do Us Part

Hello! Today I wanted to make a little (long) essay of The Prince of Rage: Kurloz Makara and The Mage of Heart: Meulin Leijon. I feel that these are two characters who the Homestuck community has greatly mischaracterized and as such, I wish to rectify any false claims made against these two characters, as well as give my own personal interpretation of them, as well as their relationship. Let's begin with my utterly favorite of all the dancestors, Meulin. Meulin as a character seems very surface-level to the average reader. She's loud, excitable, and obsessed with romance. However, if you dive deeper into Aranea's expositions, Horuss' moraillegiance, and even her conversations with Meenah and Kurloz, you can see that she harbors a lot of feelings of regret, shame, and self-doubt. Meulin is a character who is VERY interested in romance and craves being in one. However, according to Aranea;

Meulin isn't very lucky when it comes to romance, not just with Kurloz, but with other characters too (Ex. Her moraillegiance with Horuss). This fits her as a Mage, since Mages are known to not fully have their aspect, or rely on others to feel their aspect (Like how Sollux, as a Mage of Doom, repeatedly "half-dies" throughout the series, never FULLY meeting his doom). This clearly causes her lots of shame, as the whole reason she became moirails with Horuss was to mimic the relationship between Nepeta and Equius. She copes with these negative feelings through repression, even telling Horuss to repress his feelings too. The main reason why she does this is to portray an image of sorts. An image that she's fun and lovable and always happy. She wants to portray an image of the perfect, lovable girl because she craves a romantic relationship. She wants to be loved. That is Meulin's main character motivation. To be loved and be deemed attractive by someone (In Naranjo's terms, she's a massive Sx3). She's also known to ship her friends together, like Nepeta, however unlike Nepeta, Meulin does it so she can feel some semblance of warmth and love, "THE F33LS!!!" as she calls them. This is even shown, as she prefers making red ships over black ones.

So how does Kurloz tie into this? Well, it's because her and Kurloz's matespritship was perfect in her eyes, and even considered perfect by the other Dancestors.

But of course, it all got ruined. One day, as they slept, Kurloz had a horrific nightmare. A nightmare, so utterly terrifying and monstrous that when he awoke he screamed. He screamed so loud that his poor, loving matesprit was permanently deafened, and out of shame and guilt, Kurloz sews his mouth shut and chews his own tongue off, and they slowly drifted apart. That should be the end of the story, right? Wrong. Because I think that, as much as Meulin attempts to deny it, they both still feel red for one another.

In her conversation with Meenah, they both talk about Kurloz, with Meulin poking fun at his silly little rambles about his religion and angels of double death. However, it's when Meenah pushes a bit further about making fun of Kurloz when THIS happens.

Meulin immediately becomes dismissive of Meenah, repressing her emotions so much that all she can offer is a blank expression and a dismissive, passive sentence. Not even giving any it any tags as she does for every other sentence. It should be noted that this is the ONLY time where Meulin's "happy-go-lucky" facade cracks. It's clear that she harbors an intense amount of guilt from Kurloz's self-mutilation, most likely believing it to be indirectly her fault. This single sentence of completely optional dialogue is probably where we get the most understanding of her as a character. She's ashamed of herself, repressing her true emotions and shipping her friends just to possibly get back any semblance of those beautiful red feelings she lost. She doesn't care that she's deaf, she doesn't care when she's insulted, she doesn't care if the relationship she has with Horuss is unhealthy, as long as she's loved she's fine. But the second someone insults her Prince, insults his self-inflicted disability, she immediately retreats, disengages, and stops the facade, not only does the image break but the mage breaks alongside it, until the conversation finally changes subjects.

Even with Kurloz, she portrays repressed red feelings in their mimes, starting with the first mime.

A Tododile with heart eyes, while this is most likely just a reach from my end, I do think it could possibly be interpreted that Meulin still has an unconscious desire to be "hearts" with Kurloz. A desire to rekindle what was once lost and it's not just on her end either, Kurloz clearly feels the same way too. How do we know this? Well by taking this CANON Purpleblood description and applying it to Kurloz. "In love, they tend to be strictly monogamous and fiercely devoted, ready to pledge themselves to a person the same way they do their goals-utterly, and without reservation." Purplebloods are incredibly devoted to their romantic partners, this can even be seen with Gamzee, who only held flushed feelings for one person throughout all of Homestuck. Needless to say, like their religion, Purplebloods take romance VERY seriously, they love once and never again, committed to their partner even after death. They don't just fall OUT of love. It's even implied that Kurloz is one of the few characters who hasn't had flushed feelings for Rufioh. His sights are set on Meulin, and Meulin only. While we're on the topic of The Prince of Rage, let's talk about HIS life now. Kurloz, unlike Meulin, seems to be unanimously disliked throughout his group. At the BARE minimum, it's shown that Meenah, Cronus, and Aranea dislike him. He is constantly insulted and belittled by the others, whether it be his religion, the way he expresses himself, or even just his hair. Heck, even Gamzee dislikes him. It's also implied through the 2014 Homestuck calendar (not even joking) that Kurloz was the last person to enter the medium since no one actually wanted to be his server player. On top of this, in Openbound, every character is seen near their lusus, or at the very least, their lusus is in the same area as them. However, Kurloz's lusus is nowhere to be found, implying that either his lusus is like Gamzee's and abandoned him for long portions of time, or that he never had a lusus to begin with. From the constant belittling from his friends, his lack of love from anyone around him, and the fact that he's incredible at blackrom pairings, it can be implied that Kurloz is a character who is very familiar with hate, frustration, and of course some good ol' unbearable shame. Kurloz as a character is described as secretive, mysterious, and preachy. He's also shown to be incredibly inquisitive and curious, only stopping his insatiable curiosity when he realizes that it's teetering into religious blasphemy.

Kurloz is also incredibly devout to his religion, going so far as to want his friends to experience double death because of it, mocking Meenah for her heretical words and behaviors, saying that she will be "DOUBLE SLAIN BY OUR LORD LIKE ALL THE OTHER MIRTHLESS HERETICS"

Considering this, and him flipping Meenah off, we know that at the very least, he dislikes Meenah. His only other known feelings towards the others are his "friendship" (absolutely repressed red feelings) with Meulin, his moirallegience with Mituna, and his admiration for Gamzee. It should also be noted that I don't personally think his relationship with Mituna is toxic or abusive. I do legitimately think that Kurloz is interested in Mituna's condition, and since the "incident" they both saw most likely had something to do with Lord English, he is probably enthralled by the chance to learn more about his Lord. Also, considering that he's a Prince of Rage, he'd actually be a pretty good moirail to have. But back to his relationship with Meulin. If you clicked on this post, you're probably curious about how I view Kurloz using his chucklevoodoos on Meulin, so let me first explain some of Kurloz's religion. Kurloz believes that once Lord English destroys the world, his spirit will ascend to The Dark Carnival, which is essentially clown heaven, but there's a problem with this. Only those who believe in The Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs pass into The Dark Carnival. Meulin is not actually a follower of the Mirthful Messiahs, and as such, will get destroyed along with everyone else. This is where the internal conflict with Kurloz happens. Since Purplebloods are extremely devout to both their beliefs and their love, Kurloz is faced with a horrifying decision. Does he choose his religion, assisting with Lord English's plans and ascending to The Dark Carnival alone or does he choose the love of his life, the love he so painfully deafened and hurt, and get destroyed alongside her? This is also what I think the nightmare he had was about, he had to choose between two things he loved, and because of that, was so distraught that he screamed himself awake. And this is also when he begins planning. You see, as previously discussed, Kurloz is a Prince of Rage, and as such, destroys doubt and negative emotions, he will never be dissuaded from his beliefs. He's also highly inquisitive, no doubt pouring himself into his religious scripture, looking for some way to save his beloved Meulin, his sweet mage, his darling matesprit. That's when he comes up with an idea. If he manipulates Meulin, if he uses his chucklevoodoos on her to do Lord English's bidding, makes her preach his teachings, then surely that will count, right? Surely the Prince could save his Mage. So that's what he does. I believe that Kurloz's use of chucklevoodoos on Meulin is an attempt to appease Lord English and get his beloved into The Dark Carnival. Kurloz found a way to both save his darling and still stay faithful to his religion. And luckily for The Prince and The Mage, their double death didn't happen, and they never had to part, as shown when Kurloz and Meulin are telepathically communicating as Gamzee complains about Vriska during the retconned timeline.

Thank you for reading this. Meulin and Kurloz are my favorite Homestuck characters and I adore their dynamic. Let me know if you'd like this kind of analysis with any other characters, and let me know if you have any types of criticisms to give! Once again, thank you for reading this and I hope you have a lovely day! €o: <3 :33

[ddwcaph-game]

Update Previews!

Today's update post has three new changes/additions:

New Character Development Variables for F6E

New Difficulty Settings

Trait and EXP Updates

Before I show the previews, I just wanna say that after this update, I'll try to focus more on the story, and less on the gameplay stuff. I've actually gotten a bunch of breakthroughs with the story recently, so look forward to the introduction posts of the other two crush options soon!

New Character Development Variables for F6E

I'm thinking of adding a second set of character development variables for F6E! While the primary purpose of the first set of variables is to determine how major story branches will play out, the second set is intended to be less impactful, and only affect flavor text and dialogue.

New Difficulty Settings

Instead of the starting twin relationship traits secretly modifying your NP cost and NP recovery stats, I decided to add new difficulty settings to the last choice in the prologue.

Here are the difficulty modifiers:

🟢 Slice-of-Life Difficulty: +10% Overall EXP, +25 Max NP, +12% NP Recovery, -20% NP Costs when retconning stat checks, Stat Penalties from 🤯 [HEADACHE!!!] are capped at 25% 🟡 Adventure Difficulty: Normal EXP, NP Cost, and NP Recovery modifiers 🔴 Superhero Difficulty: -10% Overall EXP, -25 Max NP, -12% NP Recovery, +50% NP Costs when retconning stat checks 🔥 Apocalyptic Difficulty: -33% Overall EXP, -50 Max NP, -12% NP Recovery, +100% NP Costs when retconning stat checks, Stat Penalties from 🤯 [HEADACHE!!!] are 25% Worse

It's important to note that the difficulty settings DO NOT change the stat check requirements, so this wouldn't really affect you much if you don't use NP very often. Your Max NP is now also tied to your Total EXP gained (you gain 1 Max NP for every 2,500 EXP gained instead of gaining Max NP every chapter), so that's why the settings give EXP Bonuses/Penalties. Of course, these are all subject to changes later.

Trait and EXP Updates

As I've said before, I'm reworking the "bucket list" idea to be much simpler. Some traits/passives will now give a small amount of EXP when you pick certain choices.

I'm adding these bonuses to make picking traits more impactful, make gaining EXP more meaningful, and to add a sense of progression/character development for your MC. For example, Troublemaker MCs will now gain a small amount of EXP when picking Sensible/Disciplined choices.

Here's the full list of additions:

The EXP bonuses are minor enough (most choices will only give around 10-30 EXP), so you won't really miss out on much if your Troublemaker MC wants to keep causing chaos anyway. The bonuses do stack however, so we'll see if the numbers need adjusting in the future.

The EXP Notification won't appear if you gain EXP this way, so don't worry about extra clutter! Speaking of, I actually found a bunch of bugs that made certain Traits give more/less EXP all the time while coding, so whoops! 😅 It's not really game-breaking so I'll just include the fix with the next update.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Let me know what you think of the new changes!

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Every writer seems to have their own words to go seek out and destroy during line edits. A lot of them are pretty common: "just", "was", present progressive tense, "now", "suddenly", etc.

One of mine is "there was/there were/there is/there are"

You almost never need it. Virtually the only times I keep it are in dialogue, because that's when it sounds most reasonable. But mostly? It's dead weight of words that aren't doing anything and could be doing....well, anything.

Example from today:

Same amount of words, in this case, but instead of the records simply...existing...someone was keeping them. Pretty small, simple change. And yet slightly more info. Slightly better read.

A bigger change! This change focuses more attention on "the he" and his experience. It actually describes the situation, instead of the situation simply. Happening.

This cut more than just "there were" this time, but the overall effect is more concise, more to the point, more urgency. Less meandering. Good.

Hey, look at that. I took out the tunnel simply existing and added why the tunnel existing was even relevant.

More specific, more relevant.

Shorter, more concise.

You can see in these last couple examples that a lot of what "there were" is doing in sentences is not quite passive--technically, the "there" is doing the acting of. Um. Existing. And yet it's just as meaningless and just as weaselly and just as worthless to keep most of the time.

I look at the original piece of the dialogue compared to what I changed it to and want to punch the first version in the face for taking forever to say something.

"No other place" is just much more evocative to me than "there wasn't another." Because. Fuck the phrase "there were."

"There was a time" oh shut the fuck up, Character, why are you speaking like a pretentious asshole from an old movie.

Fuck off, Marr, why did you even write that first sentence like that.

Anyway, perhaps you, like I, got fed up with the way these sentences read the more of them you were forced to see.

Perhaps you, like I, will consider consigning this phrase to hell.

[munsonhoneybaby]

my love!!! That final part 🥹 you are a STAR! so good. the way you write dialogue, your Eddie especially... he's so so so lovely to read. somehow you keep his edge but all the while he's the nicest fucking guy to ever walk the earth!!!

if one day you're feeling a blurb about them or something, I'd love to read the first meeting with Wayne - I think it could be so funny and sweet. and honestly I just need an endless stream of that version of Eddie and his sweet nothings and his fondness 🥺 obsessed with everything u do WOW

you’re so sweet !! i'm so happy you enjoyed, thank you so much for reading and sending in this ask !!

series masterlist

“Are you sure about this? I feel terrible taking up his day off with this, he should be enjoying his free time.” Frowning nervously, you picked at a string on your jeans. Though you’d been to their trailer three more times since the first, you’d yet to run into his uncle Wayne. It wasn’t necessarily intentional, but you didn’t particularly want to meet him the morning after sleeping at his home unannounced. So, after making a few passive comments to Eddie about wanting to meet him, you were pleased when Eddie told you Wayne wanted to have lunch with both of you. But now, the nerves were starting to settle in.

“He will enjoy this. He’s been dyin’ to meet you, baby, believe me. I already told you, he’s gonna love you.” Taking your hand over the console, he pressed a kiss to your knuckles. “Besides, we’re just goin’ to lunch at the diner. It’s not a big deal.” Pulling into the open spot next to Wayne’s truck, he put the van in park and looked over at you. “Ready?”

You blew out a breath, “Yeah, I think so.”

As he always did, Eddie got out first and opened your door for you. When you went inside, he instantly spotted Wayne, standing from the booth to greet the two of you. “Hey, Wayne.”

“Hey, kid,” He replied, pulling him into a solid hug. With a subtle yet warm smile, Wayne said your name. You held out a hand to shake but instead were given a fatherly embrace much more careful than the one he’d given his nephew. “I’m glad I could finally meet the young lady makin’ this troublemaker so happy.”

“It’s great to meet you, too. I hope you didn’t have to cancel any big plans to make time for me today,” You jested politely.

He gave a quiet laugh in response and said, “Of course not. Sleepin’ on the couch in the living room ain’t more important than this.” The waitress came to take orders, service coming quick due to the few customers in the diner. “I hear you listen to the same kind’a music as Eddie,” Wayne chimed amiably. “You like his music, too?”

“Of course,” You smile, “I think he’s incredibly talented. I love seeing him perform.” The rockstar in question was embarrassedly hiding his flushed face in his hands.

“I’d come to his shows if I could, but I’m always at work,” Wayne expressed regretfully. “I hear him in his room all the time, but I’ve only seen ‘im on stage once or twice since that middle school talent show. I’m glad he’s got someone he cares about there to support him all the time now.”

The food came, saving Eddie from any further spotlight, and you did your best to continue making conversation between bites. “So, did Eddie get any of his music taste from you?”

“Oh, he’d never admit it, but he tolerates some old country music thanks to me. All that metal and rock stuff is good ‘n I like that he likes it, but it’s not really my speed.”

“I’ve gotta say, it’s a little hard picturing Eds listening to country music,” You chuckle.

“Just when I’m with him,” Eddie specified.

“I’m keeping him open-minded.” The waitress placed a single check on the table and Wayne was quick to open his wallet.

“No, please– let me,” You tried to stop him.

“I would never let a lady pay for a meal. This is my treat, darlin’.” It was becoming clearer and clearer how much of an influence your boyfriend’s uncle had had on his upbringing. Handing the cash and the bill to Eddie, he nodded toward the register. “Go take care’a this.” Eddie looked over at you, but you just smiled reassuringly, so he headed for the counter. Before you could start into another line of polite conversation, Wayne spoke. His voice was gruff, quiet. There was sentiment in his tone, though he tried to hide it. “I really am glad you and Eddie found each other. I’m sure you know by now that not many people in this town give ‘im a chance. I would never wanna embarrass the boy, but he hasn’t exactly introduced me to many girls in his life. I’m glad he’s found one that’s a little more like him– that understands him.”

After glancing back at Eddie, handing over the money for your meal with a kind smile, you gave Wayne a fond look. “He cares a lot about you too, you know. It means the world to him that you took over when his Dad went to jail. And I don’t know if it means anything coming from me, but I think you did an amazing job with him.”

You could’ve sworn you saw a tear well in his eye, but he looked away briefly before you could see for sure. It didn’t seem like people acknowledged his parenting effort often.“You’re a sweet young woman. You’re real good for him.”

“I appreciate that,” You responded honestly.

You both started to box up the leftover food and– just before Eddie came back to the table– Wayne added, “I’ll have to show you the few baby pictures I’ve still got around of ‘im,” making you chuckle.

Eyes narrowing slightly as he gave Wayne his change, Eddie asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” You answered playfully as you stood from the booth. His uncle did the same after leaving a generous tip for the kind pregnant woman who’d waited on you. The three of you headed for the parking lot, stopping briefly to say your goodbyes before you split up. “You’ll have to let me cook for you sometime,” You insisted. 

With another one of those barely-there smiles, Wayne clasped a hand over Eddie’s shoulder paternally. “You’ve got a good one here, boy, you’d better take good care’a her.”

Before he could respond, you assured him, “He does, Mr. Munson.”

“Oh, please, never call me that. It’s Wayne. It was nice meeting you. Don’t be a stranger, alright?”

“Of course, I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

Once you were back in the van with Eddie, he put the key in the ignition before pausing and looking over at you. “So, what did you two talk about while I was gone?”

“None of your business, nosy.”

Dramatically starting the van, he backed out of the parking spot as he replied, “Y’know what? Fine. Now I’m not gonna tell you about Jeff’s date with that chick from his calc class.”

“Hey, wait, c’mon–”

<3

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[ultraviolet-cello]

Gooooood morning Trigun fandom, I'm up bright and early, ready to sink my teeth into today's analysis/detailed watchthrough episode - 11. To A New World.

I can't believe we're almost done with @tristampparty. These 12 days have been a blast and I'm very glad that I got to chat abt them!! I've been in a bout of artblock recently too, so I'm glad that I can just ramble instead!

Spoilers for Trigun Stampede and Trigun Maximum, and CWs for. okay this one is a Lot, but discussion of violation of bodily autonomy, sexual assault and trauma, pregnancy, transphobia, harm coming to children, Millions Knives in general, Vash's passive suicidal tendencies. If I think of any more I'll pop them up here but this episode is a heavy one!

If you wanna skip those first few CWs (Totally understandable <3), you can skip the paragraphs labelled with a [CW] at the front.

[CW] Okay so we're gonna tail off the end of Episode 10 for a second, but uh. Knives in this scene is using extremely Loaded Language to outright tell Vash that there is something wrong with him that needs to be fixed.

Just to be clear I do think Vash is very trans-coded (intentionally or not), and that very strongly influences how I interpret this scene - I myself am a trans man as well.

Cool, moving on! That's all really for the end of ep 10, I just needed to point out that Knives is using language that is commonly used to justify corrective sexual assault; which is pretty much what my reading of this scene is analogous to.

what in the fresh hell i got jumpscared by dub again. returning to subs hold on a moment. Like i've been checking dub occasionally to match up some dialogue and make sure I'm not being misled by Subtitle Jank but I'm one of those guys who can't listen to anything without subtitles lmao

But i also think i do get the funniest possible translation of this line - actually wait no i hate the double meaning (with Vash's body being used to kickstart the pregnancy imagery). was that intentional. who did this.

Anyway Meryl kicking Wolfwood is really funny but also like. Yeah. justified. She's having a no good awful time but like. She's so willing to believe in Vash, to chase after him even into Extremely Dangerous conditions (There's those hints of Trimax Meryl again....) and Wolfwood is being an ass here. (An understandable ass. But an ass nonetheless). Which is to say YEAHHH MERYL GET HIS ASS!!!

Knives' gay little like. bodysuit here. He and Vash have the same build but their respective clothes make them stand out very differently. Also that Knives' stuff seems to have more muscle definition (HYDRATE. You shouldn't have that Knives you need water :pensive:) which could be building towards his more intimidating appearance.

Also I'd be a fool to not show everyone my initial reaction to this

I've talked a little bit about how Vash uses his gun as a tonfa (thwacky baton) most of the time in melee combat, and I think that's a great way to show him utilizing something Knives gave him to Kill as a nonlethal weapon - in this, however, he doesn't have it and his normally very fluid very good form martial arts is flailing and panicked. Vash is pretty good at keeping his cool in most combat situations, and is a very skilled fighter. Seeing him lose that cool and just start struggling when Knives tries to grab him is :(

Once again the metal/organic dichotomy is coming into play - the creation of inorganic but the destruction that comes from the organic. Typically plant (as in flora) powers in media lend themselves to being creation powers, life, and healing. But Vash here has that plant (flora) theme but those are very much a force for destruction.

Also Knives with the angelic white, and Vash with the black.

I hate Conrad So Much (he's such a good character). Like we Know to some extent that dependent plants are self-aware enough to feel pain, to hold onto memories, to hatred, to love. They don't have consciousness the same way humans or Independents do, but they feel, they live, they understand what Vash tells them. Maybe it is a shallow form of themselves. But I think something a lot of people fail to realize is that (some, not all, because they are individuals even throughout a hivemind) plants appear to enjoy their purpose.

Once again the memory that is shared with Knives in Trimax of a woman and her child thanking the plant for her service and she smiles? After being fused, that plant held onto that memory. I've been given no reason to believe that plants in Tristamp are different, so Conrad is just,,, ignoring the subtleties of plants and taking away their agency to choose for themselves. Doubly so for Knives, who can communicate efficiently with them.

A very quick blink and you'll miss it detail is that Vash says "It was our fault humans crashed here!". The shifting blame and guilt between the two is something that is fighting the narrative allll the time, but Vash attributing to both of them as an appeal to Knives is interesting to relay how he feels.

I also don't think Vash is right, though, when he says the only reason humans abuse plants is because they crashed. Tesla was before, Chronica in Trimax has apparently seen independent fusions before (For what reason?). Like yeah to this extent it's a result of the big fall, but there'd still be problems without it. Nobody is right in this argument lmao

(except me. I'm always correct about everything ever)

[CW] Once again - violating Vash's consent and autonomy because he does not agree with or differs from Knives. Corrective violation, in this case. It's also important that it's Meryl who calls this out - she has to really really struggle for her autonomy to be important. She's small, carry-able, inexperienced, doesn't have any special powers or genetic modification. She's carrying a tiny gun from a man who can never back her up anymore. In fact, nobody is backing her up! She's out here alone! But she's sticking up for Vash. She cares about him,,,, so much

SURPRISE ROBERTO ATTACK [sobs]

Meryl pulled the nail out of him and placed his hands gently over the wound, as one might do in a casket. A memorial of cigarettes and his flask. All this will be destroyed soon, but Meryl did give him a funeral to the best of her ability.

Knives using Roberto's image is cruel as hell. Not to Vash but to ME. He's already dead you can't do this to meeee. "How do you think they'll react when they learn you caused the big fall" He will never learn it!! he never got the chance!!!

So fun fact you can actually eat geraniums. It's just that if Rem had said yes Vash probably would have eaten it right there and then. I've made that mistake before (told one of my class that nasturtiums were edible and he just ate one. right from the plant)

So; the Tesla scene. Something I do want to point out is that Rem finds them almost immediately, and Knives doesn't immediately pass out - Is he still catatonic enough to miss Rem's speech, or did he hear it? Because the reason that Vash turned out like he did is because he was awake to go through that with Rem - Knives was unconscious the entire time and didn't get to start that trauma recovery.

It's also important to recognize that these memories could be unreliable, especially as Knives tampers with them later.

I do want to know which version of the Bible Knives was reading. Because depending on translation/version, you can get Very different ideas out of that.

Anyway Knives is kind of beginning his spiral in that memory - "Humanity never learns" kinda shit, which seems to take place after Tesla. Who knows how long. But baby Vash calls that out and goes "yeah lets have faith"! Baby Knives looks a tad shocked and then Present Knives just. Cuts off the memory. What was the ensuing conversation!!! Hello???

Like he's clearly Having Thoughts (The Horror), we just don't get to know what those were.

So remember when I said it was interesting that Vash said it was "our" fault that the ships crashed, sharing the blame?

Yeah that gave Knives some ammo that just. Broke him. Shifts it allllll to Vash. Update Vash's description to running on 18 guilt complexes, CPTSD, and bisexuality.

[CW] There's so many different forms of assault, metaphorical and. Not. That is happening in this scene from mind violation to Knives literally using Vash's (specifically Vash's) body as a vessel to impregnate other plants which. Hey did you know that pregnancy is a massive fear of a lot of trans men. So many transphobes reduce trans men to their capability to have children, as if that's all they're good for (even if it would kill them.), and that often leads to corrective rape in order to "remind them of biological reality". In this case, Vash is a plant, he's meant to create, and yet he doesn't. But he's still being used to create anyway.

Again, Meryl also directly calls out Vash's lack of consent and gets shot down by Conrad. The whole scene is just. Hgnrhgnhrhnrnrn. It's So,,, everything to me, because it's a really good scene and shows you how far gone Knives is in Tristamp.

There are panels in Trimax that are,,, the imagery is there, but it's very overt in Tristamp.

Also hey yeah. Why is Conrad still alive?? Did he have access to cold sleep? or it's probably the robotics but did he not think of enhancing humans that way? It might just be a temporary solution, I guess, given that he is. Actively coughing up blood.

Alright! I have finished this part of the analysis that I always Feel Strongly about lmao - I have fun doing it but that's such an emotionally heavy episode.

[antonymphdraws]

My first Dandy's World OC! Stitch the Ragdoll!

Bio/Details below the Read More!

“Stitch is quite the scaredy cat. But when push comes to shove, they’ll brave through anything to help their friends. They inspire children to face and overcome their fears.” 

Full Name: Stitch the Ragdoll

Species: Ragdoll

Gender: Nonbinary (She/They)

Dandy Store Quote

“Hey that’s Stitch! Ain’t she a doll? Tee hee!”

Requirements

1250 Ichor

25% research on either Twisted Goob or Twisted Scraps

Appearance

Stitch is a Toon with fair skin (fabric). Their right eye is a black button, while their left eye is a black “X”, implying they’re missing the other button. They have strawberry blonde “hair” (yarn) tied into pigtails, She wears a blue dress with white apron, and white and light blue striped socks that completely cover her legs. They also have light-peachish blush with blue freckles on their cheeks and a small blue bow in their hair.

Their mouth, wrists, and forearms have visible stitches on it. Indicating where their parts have been sewn. 

Personality

Stitch is, to put it simply, a nervous wreck. They’re a usually soft spoken, easily frightened and stressed toon that tends to worry a lot, and can be quite jumpy. She tends to avoid confrontation or frightening situations whenever they can, which sometimes allows others to walk all over them.

That being said, Stitch will muster up the courage to stand up for themselves, for others, and for what’s right should the need arise. They’ll stop at nothing to help a friend in need, even when she’s scared. Stitch is generally kind, helpful, and caring to almost all toons and has a passion for sewing and fashion making.

Stats

Rank: Uncommon

Health: 3 Hearts

Skill Check: 2 Stars (Size 100/Value 1.5)

Movement Speed: 3 Stars (Walk 15/Sprint 25)

Stamina: 3 Stars (150)

Stealth: 4 Star (15)

Extraction Speed: 3 Stars (1.00)

Ability

Adrenaline

Passive

When spotted by a Twisted, this Toon gains a 15% boost to Movement Speed. Their speed is reduced back to normal when they’re no longer spotted. Does not stack with multiple Twisteds.

Dialogue 

Finishing extraction

“Phew…finished with that.” 

“Oh thank goodness, it worked!”

“The things I do for friends…”

Descending to the next floor

“Whew…safe, for now…”

“Please tell me we’re done…”

“I should have stayed home today…”

Interacting with Toons

Astro: “Are you alright, Stitch?” Stitch: “Hm?” Astro: “You look worried…” Stitch: “Well…I am, I’m worried about Dandy… Astro: “Me too, Stitch…”

Connie: “Hey, Stit-” Stitch: “AHHH! A GHOST!” Connie: “Uh…yeah. Thanks captain obvious.”

Stitch: “I could really use a hug right now…” Goob: “One hug! Coming right up!”  Stitch: “...Thanks Goob…” Goob: “Hey, what are cousins for!

Stitch: “Please don’t chew on me…” Pebble: “Bworf.” Stitch: “Hmmm…I could make you a chew toy, if you want…” Pebble: “Arf! Arf!”

Poppy: “Heya Stitch! Have you ever thought about trying on a different dress?” Stitch: “O-oh! I actually have a lot of dresses…I made them myself.” Poppy: “REALLY?! You’ve got to show me sometime!”  Stitch: Gah! But-but of course!” 

Rodger: “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Stitch…what happened to your other eye?” Stitch: “Oh…My other button? I..I can’t find it…” Rodger: “Perhaps you remember when you last had it?” Stitch: “I…I can’t recall. I think it might’ve fell off and I’ve been unable to find it since…” Rodger: “It’s possible someone might have found it, I’ll ask the others as soon as I can.”

Scraps: Stitch! Cousin! How are things holding up? Stitch: Oh, Scraps! Things are…fine, for the most part… Scraps: …Sure doesn’t sound like it…” Stitch: “...Can I stick close to you on this floor?” Scraps: “Of course!”

Stitch: “If I don’t say anything, he won’t-” Shrimpo: “STOP MUTTERING YOU BIG BABY!!!” Stitch: “Ahhh! Don’t shout at me like that!” Shrimpo: “YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!” Shrimpo: “STITCH, YOU’RE A WIMP! I HATE WIMPS!”

Stitch: “Well…Well you’re a loser! All you do is yell, insult people, and contribute NOTHING to society!”  Shrimpo: “WHATEVER! I HATE SOCIETY!!!” 

Teagan: “What’s gotten you on edge, Stitch?” Stitch: “I..I feel like I’m being watched…By who, I don’t know…” Teagan: “Would you like some peppermint tea after this?” Stitch: “Yes please…”

Toodles: “Awww, my doggy’’s arm came off…” Stitch: “You know…maybe I could fix it for you.” Toodles: “Really?!” Stitch: “Y-yeah! I could even teach you how to do it!” Toodles: “Yay!!”

Twisted Stitch

"Be wary of this Twisted. Overcome by paranoia, they're scared enough to run away at the sight of Toons, but not scared enough to stop herself from attacking anyone that gets in her way."

Rank: Uncommon

Speed: Average (18)

Attention Span: Above Average (3)

Detection Range: Above Average

Twisted Stitch is a roaming twisted who wanders the halls aimlessly. Reflecting their toon counterpart’s cowardly nature, this Twisted will run away upon spotting a player. Which is beneficial for solo runs and when working on machines, but anyone who happens to get in Stitch’s path while they're running away will lose a heart. Be warned, their attention span is above average, meaning they’ll be running for quite a bit.

Twisted Stitch limps both arms lazily drooping, dragging across the floor, much like an actual ragdoll.

Twisted Research Trinket: Missing Button

Trinket Category: Other

Highlights items within close proximity of your Toon. 

Trivia

She is the cousin of Scraps and Goob, as like them, they’re technically a kind of craft, being made of fabric, stuffing, and stitches.

Originally, Stitch was going to be a needle named “Trypin” (after Trypanophobia, the fear of needles) but was changed to a ragdoll. The needle toon idea would then be reworked into Shotsen.

Personality wise, Stitch is based on Courage the Cowardly Dog, Arnold from The Magic School Bus, Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, and Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus. 

Design wise, Stitch is based on Lost Doll from Gregory Horror Show, STAT from Regretevator, Jinx from Jinx and Minx (with the X for an eye), and Pickles B.L.T from Lalaloopsy.

Stitch’s line “The things I do for friends” is a reference to Courage the Cowardly Dog, who sometimes says “The things I do for love…”

The line “I should have stayed home today…” is a reference to The Magic School Bus, as it’s a slightly shortened version of Arnold’s line “I knew I should have stayed home today..”.

Stitch is incapable of producing tears due to not having actual “eyes”

They’re pretty easy to carry, as they don’t weigh much.

Stitch is currently the only Toon without the usual white and black eyes, instead having a black button for an eye, and a black x where the other should be.

Stitch is the one of only two Toons to have mismatched eyes, the other being Astro. Rodger, Ginger and Goob could technically also count, as the former two have only one eye, while the latter is cross-eyed.

Stitch is the third Toon to have a second set of pronouns. The first being Teagan, the second being Looey, and the fourth being Shotsen.

Stitch is currently one of only two toons to go by She/They pronouns, the other being Teagan

[atiredsalmon]

So I’ve played about 8 hours on and off today and I have to say, I’m really enjoying the game so far. I’m amazed at how different the style is from inquisition because inquisition was…not good in that department. My jaw literally dropped when you could watch the sweat bead on Rook’s face. I know there’s never going to be an Origins type intro again but I was pleasantly surprised to see a codex entry and have Varric bring up Rook’s intro to the party and it wasn’t just a short ‘you’re interested in events’ like inquisition as well.

I feel like some the pacing between areas is a little rushed but then again it was in inquisition too it’s just this time Harding is with us and not giving us a 2 minute spiel lol but I’ve loved every area I’ve gotten to. I’ve heard some people think the dialogue is kind of shoddy but honestly I got to call Solas an asshole so it’s a 10/10 for me. Plus half the purple commentary options had me cracking up so well. Don’t like the skill tree organization as much as I thought I would but it’s mostly because I’m used to specializing in one or two elemental types and not having to really stick with just ice for most of it and then 80% passives.

Definitely like the new codex organization but man putting the lyrium idol stuffed in there? Weird move but made me gasp. Love finding Felassan’s notes throughout the Lighthouse and the housekeeper spirit thing in the Crossroads is my son I don’t care he’s adopted now

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice: Mash 2, the Sequel to Mash

 today on Grailfinders, we’re finally heading back to where it all began, and rebuilding Mash Kyrielight one last time. in the three years since we started this thing, we learned a lot about building characters in D&D- and the biggest lesson was that shields suuuuuck. “but Mash is a shielder!” you say, “she needs a shield!” to that, I scoff. Mash needs no shield. she needs to shield. to shield without a shield, this Mash will train her body like never before, and become a Kensei Monk. we also need some extra magic for the ultimate in shields, and for that we need to make a pact and become a Genie Warlock. her dad’s girlfriend has like, three, I’m sure she can give us one.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

good news, sports fans! since the days of the original build wotc has in fact added Eternal Ray of Sunshine as a race! if you’re very generous with how you interpret Custom Lineage, at least. because of that, this Mash gets +2 Dexterity to start, as well as Survival proficiency for camping and the Fighting Initiate feat for Interception. now you can react to an incoming attack on an ally and reduce the damage they take, as long as you’re wielding a weapon. that’s right- shielding. without shields.

Mash is still a Cloistered Scholar though. you don’t have to worry, your History and Arcana proficiencies aren’t going anywhere.

Ability Scores

Mash’s highest ability this time around will be Wisdom. I’m sure most of her foresight comes from scanners or magical whatnots, but when half your dialogue in a singularity is “hey, there’s enemies coming” your passive perception is pretty damn high. second, Charisma. I dare you to look me in the eye and say you wouldn’t give Mash a kidney if she asked. third, Dexterity. that’s how you don’t get hit, and Mash’s giant freakin’ shield tells me she doesn’t get hit often. third is Constitution. I’d love for this to be higher, but everything else on the list is need for multiclassing first and foremost. it’s not ideal, but we’ll make it work. that’s also true for Intelligence, though in that case at least we’d only want it for skill checks. finally, we’re dumping Strength. yes Mash can lift cars, but in terms of servants she’s not offensively powerful. also, we don’t really need this for anything in-build, and we can cover everything strength can do through other means pretty easily.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: since we got that fighting feat, we need to start off as a monk to qualify. on the plus side, that gets us Unarmored Defense right away, adding our wisdom to our AC as long as we’re not wearing armor or holding a shield. so no problems there. mechanically, our “shield” for this build will be any simple melee weapon (or shortsword) as those all qualify as “monk weapons”, so our Martial Arts work on them. this means they deal a minimum of 1d4 damage, which grows as we level, and you can use your dexterity instead of strength to wield them. also, attacking with your action with either a monk weapon or your fists lets you make another fisting as a bonus action. again, as long as you’re unarmored.

(I know Mash is one of the few servants with actual armor, but tbf it’s missing some pretty key components. also, you can be summer Mash!)

also monks get proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as Athletics and Religion checks. now you have all the skills needed to ID servants, and your piddly strength score won’t be too much of a hinderance.

2. Monk 2: second level monks learn to harness Ki, and you get a pool of it equal to your monk level every short rest. you can spend one ki point per turn to dash, dodge, disengage, or attack twice as a bonus action, with dashing and disengaging also doubling your jump distance, again covering for your strength. Mash too is a fighting game character, and is not unaccustomed to sick combos.

she also gets Unarmored Movement, so as long as you don’t put on plate mail you’ll be faster than the average player.

3. Monk 3: at third level you set down the Way of the Kensei and learn the Path of the Kensei. the kensei are good at weapons, not naming things. now you can pick two kensei weapons, a ranged and a melee one. these will become the bedrock of later features, so hopefully you’ve picked out a “shield” by now. while holding a kensei weapon, you can attack with your bare hand to perform an Agile Parry, adding two to your AC for a round. almost like. your weapon is… shielding you, or something.

(you can also use Kensei’s Shot to add more damage to ranged kensei attacks but who cares about that)

finally, you can Deflect Missiles. if you’re being attacked by ranged enemies, you can use a reaction to block their damage- if this prevents the damage entirely, you can then spend a ki point to throw the arrow back. let’s see lancelot bring down a plane on you now.

4. Warlock 1: now that we have the basic functionality of a shield, let’s get ourselves an NP. since you’re kind of family with the Queen of Sheba, you can probably pull some strings and get a Genie to come help you power the Ortinax. right now, that gives you a Genie’s Vessel, a funky lil trinket you can swooce right into as an action. you can stick around inside it for a couple hours, but we’re using it as your invincibility- when you think a big attack’s coming, hold your reaction to bait it out, then let your vessel eat the damage. when it’s destroyed, you pop out like nothing happened. you can enter once a day, and you can make a new one by spending an hour to do so.

while it’s around though, you can use it once a turn to add the Genie’s Wrath to your attacks, adding your proficiency bonus in bludgeoning damage to one of your attacks.

you also learn Pact Magic, spells that use your Charisma to cast and recharge on short rests. Blade Ward is another kind of shield that gives you resistance to physical attacks for a round, and Minor Illusion is an easy way to play a hologram from Chaldea. for your leveled spells, Protection from Good and Evil will protect guda from being possessed, something that’s been happening with disturbing regularity. you can also shield someone with a Sanctuary, forcing a wisdom save on anything that tries to attack them as long as they don’t attack first. it’s a weird shield, but it’s still a shield. I mean Mash’s defense boosts still work if you put her in the backline, so ranged shielding is canon.

5. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, ways to customize your pseudoservant hell year and come away with a nice goodybag of stuff. you get two this level, but we’ve done this song and dance before- pick whatever you want for #2, it’s getting swapped out next level. still, do make sure you pick up Eldritch Mind now for advantage on concentration saves. tanks need to take hits, and your spells are about damage mitigation so it would be really bad if they went down from the first punch.

you can also Detect Evil and Good now, so you can find any gods or demon god pillars within 30 feet of you. Guda fights a lot of gods, and they’re typically the kind of enemy you don’t want to be ambushed by.

6. Warlock 3: third level warlocks gain a pack boon, and if we want Ortinax running at full capacity we need the Pact of the Blade. now you can summon just about any weapon you want out of the ether as an action, or you can store a specific weapon away for when you need it. speaking of, you can make your shield an Improved Pact Weapon now, an invocation that adds +1 to all your shield’s attack and damage rolls, plus you can use your shield to cast your spells. if you’re going to carry around a giant freakin’ shield, it had better be good for something, y’know?

speaking of shielding, you can now cast second level spells like Ray of Enfeeblement, halving damage from a specific enemy’s strength-based attacks, and making your interceptions and deflections all the more useful. it’s also a cool laser from your shield, so I guess this is the prototype black barrel?

7. Warlock 4: use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Dexterity and Wisdom for a much stronger AC and better attacks to boot. you can also Create Bonfire as a cantrip for camping, and you have Warp Sense, letting you detect nearby distortions in reality. this is only supposed to work on portals, but if your campaign revolved around finding seven macguffins from outside of time that were warping the fabric of history to the breaking point I’d say it should work on those too.

8. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells, and now we can shield against even the strongest of spells with Counterspell. if you use a spell slot equal to or greater than the spell you’re blocking, it automatically shuts down whatever nonsense they were planning. otherwise, you’ll need to make a check.

you also learn how to use your bunker bolt, or Eldritch Smite, as the game’s so insistent on calling it. spend a spell slot while hitting something with your shield, and you can send them flying with 4d8 extra force damage, that bonus only growing bigger as you level up.

9. Warlock 6: at sixth level Mash can finally summon supplies from Chaldea, letting her Create Food and Drink. it’s a spell, it creates food and drink, what do you want from me.

less self-explanatorily, your Elemental Gift gives you resistance to all bludgeoning damage to improve your tankiness, and you can spend a bonus action to fly for up to ten minutes. obviously Mash can’t fly, but she can jump good, so it’s practically the same thing.

10. Warlock 7: seventh level warlocks get fourth level spells, and you can finally start killing gods with Banishment sending them back to their home planes. if it’s good enough for Arjuna Alter, it’s good enough for Mash.

you also get a weird shield thanks to the invocation Sign of Ill Omen letting you cast Bestow Curse once a day with a warlock spell slot. that sounds out of character, but the spell does give you the option to enforce disadvantage on attacks against a certain target, so it’s just barely a shield in my book. it also uses a different save than ray of enfeeblement, so it’s a type coverage thing.

11. Warlock 8: now that we’re halfway through the build I can finally nitpick the series a bit. I love FGO, but why does everyone speak the same language? it’s not like Mash could cast Tongues and understand everyone… oh, I guess it is. never mind.

also use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger spells.

12. Warlock 9: ninth level warlock equals fourth level spells. Wall of Stone is a wall… of stone. this is the closest to the classic Lord/Mold Camelot we’re getting, but it’s still a great way to block damage, enemies, or even cross gaps.

if you’d rather leave the gap after you’re done, you can use the invocation Otherworldly Leap to cast Jump on yourself whenever you want- by combining jump and monk’s step of the wind, your 8-strength ass can jump better than a 20-strength barbarian could. sometimes you want to fly, but this way’s practically free.

13. Warlock 10: I’m sorry for sticking extra attack this late into the build, but I thought it was vital that we get Mash to the tenth level of warlock as fast as we could- this is the level you learn Sanctuary Vessel as a genielock, allowing you to pull up to five willing creatures into the vessel with you when you enter it. this means that now you can save the entire party from a noble phantasm by yoinking them all out of existence in a move that would make Teferi proud.

also if they stay in the vessel for ten minutes they get a short rest, which, given how much you rely on those, is a godsend.

I also want Mash to use her sword at least once, so your last cantrip of the build is Sword Burst. why have a sword if you won’t use it.

14. Monk 4: now that we’re finally back in Monk, you can bump up your Constitution with this ASI. you also learn to Slow Fall, reducing fall damage as a reaction, but you can fly, so… yeah, sorry we took such a big detour.

15. Monk 5: with your Extra Attack in hand, you can attack twice in a turn, allowing you to make an unarmed attack to set up your shield, then switch to your shield for big dps. you can also turn any attack into a Stunning Strike, forcing a constitution save on your target or they’re stunned for a round. this both prevents them from making actions, and makes them easier for everyone else to hit. this isn’t in Mash’s usual kit, but if you got hit by a piece of cast iron the size of Rhode Island you’d be stunned too.

16. Monk 6: sixth level monks have Ki-Empowered Strikes, making your fists magical and avoiding a lot of resistances. you also become One with the Blade, making your shield magical as well (it already was), and you can make a Deft Strike once a turn, adding your martial arts die to the damage it does.

17. Monk 7: with your final level of Monk, you learn Evasion, which makes your failed dexterity saves block as much as most people’s successes (half of the damage) and your successes block twice that much (all of it). you carry a giant goddamn shield with you, everywhere you go. it blocks things.

you also get Stillness of Mind, rendering you pretty much immune to charming and frightening effects. you need to keep your wits about you to snap Guda out of them, after all.

18. Warlock 11: warlocks don’t get spell slots past six; instead, you get Mystic Arcanum, which work like regular spell slots from other casting classes, only working once per day. for your sixth level spell, Investiture of Stone grants you resistance to physical damage, and you can ignore difficult terrain made of rock, and also walls made of rock. servants are stupid strong, so walking straight through stone is completely on the table. if you really want to mess stuff up, you can spend an action to stamp on the ground (jump, jump, jump, jump) and move it all around, forcing a dex save on everything around you or knocking them prone. have you seen the FGO movies? it’s easier to list the stuff that servant fights don’t break.

19. Warlock 12: use your last ASI to improve your Dexterity for better attacks and a better AC. you’re a shielder, so those are naturally related. you also get one last invocation, and by now you’ve been using a cutting edge superweapon like a hammer long enough for it to start leaking bad shit everywhere- at least, that’s my explanation as to why it’s a Lifedrinker now. whenever you hit something with Ortinax, it deals extra necrotic damage to boost.

20. Warlock 13: our final level of the build will let us get rayshifting in the first place thanks to Plane Shift, letting us travel to other planes with allies. alternatively, you can weaponize this and try to send someone else to another plane. now even gods from the material world can get black barrel’d!

Pros and Cons

Pros

compared to the OG Mash build, this one has so much more offensive power than before, primarily thanks to the Ortinax coming with more damage bonuses and types to give us some flexibility in combat and a chance for burst damage when the opportunity presents itself.

you also play around short rests a lot, which means you’re never far from full power no matter how late in the day it gets.

the sanctuary vessel is hands down the most powerful defense we’ve ever given a build. when used properly, it can shut down practically any attack you throw its way. not only will it take all the damage from whatever is about to hit you, but it’s an extradimensional space, so arguably effects that only miss through planar shenanigans can be avoided this way. I think this could shut down almost everything I’ve called a noble phantasm in a build up to this point. almost.

Cons

that’s a big almost though- the cost of this extra power is less defense than the original, which admittedly does fit the character. while Ortinax is just as good, if not better, at fighting big singular attacks. however, it fails in two categories- your defense isn’t nearly as good at dealing with multiple smaller attacks, and your HP is so much lower than the original’s.

this is partially caused by the new classes not being full martials with d10s for HP, but it’s also because of how Multi-Ability Dependent this build is. even if we weren’t trying to be a tank, the multiclassing minimums for the build alone are pulling us in three different directions at once. this means that your spell saves are also pretty weak, so your magical blocking isn’t up to par.

when I said you were never far from full power earlier, that was true. buuuut it’s also true about being close to empty too. warlocks and monks are both famously bad at resource management, and if you go into two or more fights between short rests you’re liable to run out of resources no matter how carefully you play.

[revalition]

OCT 16 - PAIN THRESHOLD Shrug off the pain. They’ll have to hurt you more.

I love this guy a lot! even if he has some really questionable advice. I ended up dumping a lot of points into him in my first playthrough!

really simple drawings today, I've had a pretty bad headache all day. which you'd think would allow me to channel the pain threshold vibe better! but it really didn't. sadly the amount of love I hold for a skill doesn't necessarily correlate with how much effort I can put into drawing them (with a few exceptions lol). the one on the right was an old sketch I coloured... it was a relief I already had a halfway decent design for him haha

lots of quotes under the cut as usual!

pain threshold!!

fun fact - he does not refer to you as harry once. however he does call you: - pal - baby - son - buddy - man and none of these more than once. weirdo

PT also has the most anti-passives (passive failures) out of the skills, by a large margin. He has 31, second place has 19. He also has 3rd least passive checks.

quotes:

these two idiots!! causing mental and physical damage with their screaming... H/E coordination trying to reel it back in

<3 (this heals endurance!)

actual idiot skill

dudeee

he's so funny. he's fucking got this.

dying here

nooo

sigh

super normal.

he's a sad, sad guy

if you haven't been told yet that he has depression PT can figure it out for you!!! <3

sad PT in the final dream :(

this one too

he knows! he recognizes *fake pain*

dialogue after failing to save ruby... urgh

I really like this. 'A race to beat your own heart's pulse to some dark finish line.'

as always this is amazing.

:((( this is re: pawnshop roy

hehe

this one is always delightful. he has a sense of humour sometimes!

this whole scene was a mess, but this line in particular... I don't know, it just stuck with me. It's very vivid.

honestly, true

lol

sometimes these skills say some unhinged stuff, sheesh

poor guy, he's so sad

:(((

this one is brutal.

this guy has *issues*

ending it on this very important one!!! please look! during the last dream pain threshold tells you to pick the dialogue option that will cause her to leave and the dream to end... and volition tells you to keep dragging it on. hghh guys...

pain threshold is quite something. there are lots of instances of him telling you something painful feels good, or encourages you to do something that will hurt (both physically and emotionally). he also leads the finger on the eject button thought dialogue. My first playthrough I had FYS of 4 and I ended up dumping a ton of points in to PT cause I was fascinated by him. But I also had mega high volition cause I adored him too. they definitely did not have the same goals...

the first time I remember hearing from my personal PT, we were bowling and my wrist was really starting to hurt. and he was like, you should keep playing. thanks bro :/

anyway that's all. for tomorrow, physical instrument's design isnt super exciting to me, but I do have a bunch of good quotes picked. I can make a coach calling people a binoclard compilation...

[quarktrinity]

quark watches star trek season 2 episode 15

i wanna burn kirks green shirt. i hate it. show me the tummy NOW!!

"i was making a little joke, sir" "extremely little, ensign" spock ily

hate to see kirk leave but love to watch him go

was so focused on the banter i forgot that this show has a plot

kirk is so passive aggressive sometimes. i want him carnally

kirks ass = amazing

weird ringing in the background, hard to focus on the dialogue its so distracting

"storagecompartmentsstoragecompartments?" "whatwhat?" kirk ily

spock is a know-it-all

Plot Grain

kirk is so sassy in this episode

uhura almost walks directly into kirks tummy. i wouldnt have stopped if i were her

weird space salesmen is giving rogueport vibes

lil fuzzball...

tribble...........

these are evil arent they

i thought currency didnt exist in star trek? theyre clearly exchanging currency here

uhura ily

This Grain Is Very Important

kirks fussy. baby needs a nap

the klingons are up to somethin

did the klingons send the tribble

"let me ASSURE you that my INTENTIONS ARE PEACEFUL." ok buddy

"kling-ins"

"my dear ~captain koloth~" kirk stop flirting with everyone who wants to kill you

hm i wonder which political event the writers were thinking about. perhaps. the cold war? no way

there are more tribbles now

spock is not immune to tribble calming powers

i want more side shots of kirk im obsessed with his tum tum

"pipeitdownheremisterchekov"

tribble mitosis

william shatners been getting pretty mumbly lately

return of space rogueport salesman

ok it appears the klingons dont know or care about the tribbles

nevermind they actively dislike them

the tribble economy is in shambles

"earthers"

klingon is passive aggressively praising/criticizing kirk in the most homoerotic way

klingon sounds drunk

"klingonese"

scotty can handle klingon dude dissing kirk but dissing the enterprise is too far. kirk was right, the enterprise really is a beautiful lady and we love her

Were Fighting Now

weirdly long fight scene

"i wanna know who started it" vice principle isnt a good look on you kirk

thought kirk was gonna smack scottys ass for a sec there. woulda been in character

scotty recalls the kirk criticisms verbatim

kirks fussy again

this is too many tribbles

mccoy likes tribbles more than spock

spock likes tribbles more than mccoy

make out already

kirk sits his ass on a tribble

Far Too Many Tribbles

"theyre born pregnant" what

tribbles are canonically bisexual

kirk is too cranky for tribbles

tribbles are an invasive species

This Too Is About The Cold War

yeah this is just way too many tribbles. its just too much

the tribbles are Problematic

kirk gets a tidal wave of tribbles dumped on him. i love this show

someone help kirk hes drowning in tribbles

dont yell at kirk hes drowning in tribbles

kirk is drowning in dead tribbles

i envy the prop person who got to drop tribbles on william shatners head

everyones pissed at kirk today

tribbles are klingonphobic

oh no! a sovie- i mean klingon spy!

"its been impregnated with a vahrus"

i think kirk just forced this dude into slave labor

does teleporting tribbles into a klingon ship count as biological warfare

[its-all-papaya]

hands on your keyboard cowboy i want to hear about the rest of your directors commentary pls !!! i LOVE the last landoscar convo in AN i absolutely need to hear more about it

likely place for you to be !!

(me, frothing at the mouth waiting for someone to ask me about this convo after I told you I was staying off tumblr for the rest of today)

ask me anything about my writing and read anybody, nowhere

OKAY. so. the LAST last scene of AN (fan stage) was like one of the very first things I wrote for that fic. I think the paragraph that starts "Lando's not online much these days" was first, followed by the Silverstone podium thing I used in the blurb, then it was fan stage. (Not to keep russian doll nesting asks, but the fan stage scene is a WHOLE other topic I could ramble about, I won't get into it too much here.) Anyway, other than those little anchors, I essentially just typed everything in chronological order and included what felt right when. So it was building in Lando's brain and building with Oscar and I KNEW I wanted it to end with the fan stage, so I KNEW I had to give some mental and emotional like... break? payoff? for Lando before then so that the fan stage would read like I wanted it to.

(break bc this got disguuuuusting long)

The other thing though is that I originally fucked up the Austria sprint finish order? So like 2/3 of the way through I realized I had to switch Lando and Oscar and that obviously like REALLY changed the entire tone of that passage and the bits right after, because the whole thing NOW is Lando getting beat by his teammate, but that super didn't exist until after I'd written all of Austria and started Silverstone. So I added the stuff about Lando battling Oscar and losing, and I loved it bc I think it gives the whole thing more depth, but then I was like... I need to write Lando out of this. I can't finish the fic without resolving the "Lando resents Oscar for beating him" plot-line. And I hadn't actually drafted anything for the last scene, but I had vague ideas of how it was gonna go that changed drastically when I started thinking about how to include some resolution for the on-track stuff.

SO. I'm done with the whole fic minus the conversation scene. We've had the Lewis Silverstone podium (probably my favorite part of the whole fic, and again, one of the original theses of it) and we're trying to get to the fan stage (probably my other favorite part) and I just like... sent Oscar to Lando's room with him? I didn't plan on all of their relationship development being in that one room, but I liked that it ended up that way because it felt really safe and contained for Lando, so I wanted them to get their payoff there, too. I don't really have anything to tell you about the first bit because it REALLY wrote itself. Like I was IN Lando's brain while writing this fic, all of his stuff was kind of me blind reacting to my own lead-up and then polishing it. Oscar was a bit harder to write, and this scene is the first time I felt like I had to actually make him like... do anything. Other than passively react to what Lando was doing. But even his dialogue just sat really right with me, and once I started the conversation it just felt really true to how they'd been all fic.

PAUSE for me to say I was so paranoid all fic too that I wasn't letting Oscar be enough of a real person with real emotions? I was like... some of these races sucked for Oscar too... ESPECIALLY silverstone... am I just going to make him Fix Lando anyway and not address his race? But THAT felt kind of true to Oscar too. Like he's not burdened the way Lando is and he at least seems to let things roll off easier, so I don't think it's OOC for him to not bring it up or be especially affected by it when Lando was a more pressing issue for him at the time.

Okay anyway. I really really loved the weird fight/not fight energy where Lando was fighting Oscar but Oscar just was not fighting back at all, like the one-sided argument was exactly what I wanted. I got through the part where Lando's like "I'm just not winning because I'm not" and then I got. So motherfucking stuck. Because at this point I'm like... okay. Lando has to give something back. We have to address Oscar's races. And I wrote the end of the convo no less than five times and it took probably three hours. I actually have a draft that I liked (I'll include it at the end) where they did address the Lando-hates-Oscar-beating-him thing, but then I had NO IDEA how to get them out of that. Like Lando admits that he hates losing to Oscar, but then wtf is Oscar supposed to say to that? Like... okay? Yeah? And I tried a bunch of stuff and hated it all, so I literally started a new word doc, dumped everything after "I'm just not winning because I'm not" in there, and started completely over from there in my actual WIP doc.

And from THERE I was like. You know what? We actually don't have to fix this for them? Like LANDO thinks this is a huge deal and makes him a horrible person, but does Oscar give a shit? Obviously they all hate losing to each other, that's like... the whole thing. Their whole goal is to beat everyone. So I was like "I'll indulge myself and just let them not deal with it right away" and I'd already written the "oscar's hand is out, palm up" paragraph for that original draft I liked, so I slotted her back in instead. And again, I am IN LANDO'S BRAIN, and I was like if EYE am thinking too much about how this conversation "should" go in a perfect world, Lando is DEFINITELY thinking about it. And I was like oh I need to stop thinking? Lando needs to stop thinking. And it sounds insane now because when I re-read the fic now, the through-line of Oscar calming Lando's thoughts is so so so obvious, but I promise that until writing "I need to stop thinking" it had never ever occurred to me that that's what Lando and Oscar's building relationship was doing for Lando the whole time.

Oh ALSO, in my original concept, they were never going to kiss because I felt like it would be forced bc I hadn't built to it enough. But once I hit on "I need to stop thinking" I was like OBVIOUSLY Oscar will kiss him to shut his silly brain up. Which, fun fact, is where "Lando isn’t even surprised. At any of it, really. It was always going to end up here" came from. It was just me, Soph, being like... oh. OBVIOUSLY THEY WERE ALWAYS GOING TO KISS.

So then I finished the kissing part and I was like... how will we get to fan stage for REAL. And I was still kind of worried about not resolving the on-track tension thing, so I was like... Lando is probably worried about that too! And the last "No, babe. That's your job." came to me straight from heaven or something, idk, but it was so perfect for ending the scene. Like I had spent HOURS AND HOURS worried about how to make them authentically address this and still stay soft and warm with each other and Lando's been panicking about it for eight straight days and we finally get the nerve to bring it up and Oscar is like "you silly silly goose, of course you hate losing to me!"

hahahahaha okay final notes then scene draft: as I said in the answered ask after I first decided to write AN2, I feel like I ended up with a version of this scene that was.... SO accidentally foreshadow-y of Hungary?? I was watching the team orders situation play out during that race and I felt like that dodgeball "the gift of prophecy" meme because I was like... holy fuck, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that AN Lando was afraid of. The other note is that the line "we don't have to fix it right now, Lando" in the hollow hereafter is a direct result of my fight with this scene in AN and the topics of it. AN2 was destined, it's literally the only thing I can think of with the amount of weird pre-work I'd already done for a situation I didn't know was going to exist ever when I published AN????

oKAY THANKS FOR ASKING CLEARLY I HAD THOUGHTS!! Here are your demos/deleted drafts !!

this is how the austria sprint scene finished when I thought it was Lando P2, Oscar P3:

As he clasps Oscar’s gloved hand in parc fermé, he wishes for a blind second that it was a grand prix so he could remember how Oscar’s eyes looked squeezed against champagne spray up close. Then he remembers that place in the back of his mind and the ugly, twisted relief he felt passing his teammate for the final time, and he shoves the idea away. He doesn’t deserve that, either.

And this is how the final convo went when I was trying to make them discuss things (picks up after "It’s just me. I’m just not winning because I’m not.” and the rest of that paragraph didn't exist yet):

“We drive the same car,” Oscar says and Lando already knows he’s not going to like the rest, “and I’ve been qualifying like shit the whole month, too. It’s not just us out there. You know that. You’re being really hard on yourself.”

Lando remembers then that Oscar’d had his race ruined too. Worse, probably. Without a choice in the matter. And instead of wallowing he’s here comforting Lando, who should know better by now. Who should be better by now.

“I’ve been here three times as long as you,” he’s teetering on that precipice, deciding between anger and the other thing. “And I’m still making stupid mistakes. It’s worse because I should be better by now, and-” he stops. Considers.

“And?” Oscar prompts and Lando still can’t look at him.

“And you beat me. In Austria.” He says, quieter than anything since they’ve entered his room.

Oscar takes a breath so deep Lando can hear it. When he finally glances up, Oscar is already looking at him. His eyes still have that stupid warm, fond look in them and Lando’s afraid he’s going to do something dumb, like apologize, but instead what he says is “I beat you in Monaco.”

Lando scoffs, eyes back on his feet. “That wasn’t the same.”

“Why?” and he’s still asking like he doesn’t know the answers.

“Because it wasn’t, Oscar, people weren’t saying things in Monaco.” He’s losing the thread of the conversation a little bit, brain wrung dry from hours of thinking these things over, and it feels ten times harder to do it all out loud.

“Is this about what people are saying?” Oscar asks, then, and maybe they’ve both talked themselves in a bit of a knot.

“It’s not about anything.

“Lando,” Oscar says. “C’mere.”

His hand is out, palm up, and he’s taken his cap off at some point so his hair is messy and ruffled and he looks soft even though he’s got his damn polo neatly tucked in like always. He should be mad. Lando’s selfish, he’s so… he’s always taking what he shouldn’t from Oscar, but he goes anyway, puts his hand in Oscar’s and lets his teammate pull him down next to him on the bed.

“Are you upset about Austria?” he asks gently. He’d let go of Lando’s hand as soon as he was sitting, so his arm is free to curl around Lando’s waist, drag his palm up. Hip to ribs.

Lando sucks on the side of his thumb where it’s started to bleed. When he brings his hand to his face, it’s shaking a little. “Not…” he pauses, concedes, “Kind of. But not at you, I don’t think. I like when you do well.”

Oscar laughs a little and Lando’s eyebrows pull together, but it doesn’t feel mean. Lando’s not sure Oscar has a mean bone in his body when it comes to him, and that should be an issue, probably.

Oscar’s palm slides back down, ribs to hip.

“At what, then?”

And that’s the question, isn’t it.

And then I couldn't get them out of it so all that went to the graveyard! But I like the way it ended up, so I'm really really not mad about it.

KAY THX CHARLIE love u <3 if anybody else made it this far, ask about other scenes, I dare you >:)