#the third one is supposed to be the simple one teehee

[rookmeo]

day 4: simple and maximalist (@sekaitransparents events)

rb + credit if using

[agaypanic]

Is this how you request a fic? I have no idea but I’ll try. I’m craving Regina George content. Can you please write something where reader is apart of the plastics but she’s not mean like the rest of them and that’s why Regina likes her. When Cady shows up and Regina has an interest in cady it’s too make reader jealous but instead cady ends up liking reader who distances herself from the plastics and then Regina gets jealous and admits her feelings so reader doesn’t end up with cady. If that makes sense? Thank you!

Craving Your Attention (Regina George X Plastic!Reader)

Masterlist

Request Something!

Summary: Regina George is the queen of North Shore High and she doesn’t like to share her toys, even if she doesn’t really play with them. 

A/N: kinda toxic!regina even tho thats not really a surprise. slight cady x reader, she likes you instead of aaron (also aaron doesn’t exist teehee). The girls arent homophobic bc cady tells gretchen she likes reader and regina ends up with reader (saying this bc idk if you’re gonna read this with 2004 regina or 2024 regina in mind, and obviously 2004 was a different time lmao) content warning for diet talk but it’s just part of one scene. Heavily relied on the mean girls (2004) script for this fic, so it's almost all written centered around Cady. all in third person which felt a lil weird to write because i usually write in second person lol idk if anyone’s gonna want a part 2 but imma lyk rn that im not planning on writing a part 2, mainly bc this took so painstakingly long

***

Everyone at North Shore High knew about Regina George. They’d be stupid not to. She was practically royalty. 

A queen bee was nothing without her little worker bees. First was Karen Smith. She seemed to give a whole new meaning to the word ‘clueless,’ but she was friendly. In more ways than one.

Then there’s Gretchen Wieners. She was Regina’s eyes and ears, whether it was wanted or not. All she wanted to do was please her leader.

And finally, there was Y/n L/n. If any of the plastics were to be deemed approachable, it was her. She was Regina’s right-hand girl, maybe even a bit more than that. But no one ever brought that up.

But then Cady Heron came to North Shore.

“Is he bothering you?” Regina tilted her head as she looked at the redheaded girl and the familiar boy who was talking to her. Y/n, who was sitting next to Regina, looked up from her food in curiosity. Regina didn’t usually talk to anyone outside of the table during lunch. The girl made a nondescript noise, so Regina turned her attention to the boy. “Jason, why are you such a skeez?”

Jason rolled his eyes, but tried to seem polite.

“I’m just being friendly.”

“You were supposed to call me last night,” Gretchen pouted, looking over her shoulder at Jason.

“Jason.” Attention was brought back to Regina with the simple call of his name. She wore a sweet smile, which meant that Jason was probably about to get a bite taken out of him. “You do not come to a party at my house with Gretchen and then scam on some poor, innocent girl right in front of us three days later. She’s not interested.” Regina then turned to the redheaded girl. “Do you wanna have sex with him?”

She looked shocked, giving an immediate no.

“Good. So it’s settled.”

“You can go shave your back now,” Y/n finished, and the four plastics waved him off. Jason walked away, but not before muttering an insult to the girls.

“Good one,” Regina said quietly to Y/n, who couldn’t help but smile a bit at the small praise. Before she could reply, Regina’s eyes followed after the red-haired girl, who was now starting to walk away. “Wait.” The single word made her stop in her tracks and look back. “Sit down.”

Regina moved her hands, signaling Gretchen and Karen to move to the sides of the lunch bench to make room for this mystery girl. After some more encouragement, she sat down.

“What’s your name?” Y/n asked sweetly, trying to ease the girl’s nerves.

“Cady.”

“Why don’t I know you?” Regina asked, looking at Cady curiously.

“I’m new,” Cady replied. “I just moved here from Africa.”

“What?”

“I used to be home-schooled.”

“Wait. What?”

Cady took a second, wondering why Regina kept saying ‘what.’ She didn’t think it was that confusing.

“My mom taught me at home-”

“No, no.” Regina laughed. “I know what ‘home-school’ is; I’m not stupid. So, you’ve actually never been to a real school before?”

As she spoke, Regina leaned more and more forward towards Cady. And as the conversation continued, Y/n wondered why Regina was taking such an interest in her. Regina never cared about anyone who passed by, too involved in the latest gossip session Gretchen had started or in Y/n’s appearance. Not that Y/n really noticed that; she was busy thinking about Regina to see that Regina was thinking about her. Either way, she didn’t understand why the blonde was suddenly so fascinated by this new girl.

“You’re like, really pretty.”

Oh… That must be why.

Y/n seemed to tune the rest of the conversation out, too wrapped up in Regina’s compliment towards Cady and the bright smile she wore while giving it. She didn’t know why it bothered her. It’s not like Regina belonged to her. If anything, Y/n, along with the rest of the Plastics, belonged to Regina.

Even when Regina brought Gretchen and Karen in close to speak to them and Y/n, leaving Cady awkwardly leaning back to give them more privacy, Y/n didn’t care much to listen. The gist of the conversation was that they wanted Cady to sit with them at lunch for a week, something they had never considered doing with anyone else in this school.

“Okay.” Regina started as Gretchen and Karen relaxed back into their seats, and Cady leaned back in. “You should just know that we don’t do this a lot, so this is, like, a really huge deal. We wanna invite you to have lunch with us every day for the rest of the week.” Regina wore a grin that meant she was up to something, but Cady didn’t seem to decipher that, and the rest of the girls didn’t know what it meant.

“Oh, it’s okay—” Cady’s tone seemed to indicate that she was about to decline, but Regina interrupted her before she could.

“Coolness.” The bell rang, and Regina’s eyes darted over to Y/n before going back to Cady. Her mischievous smile remained present as she, Gretchen, and Karen grabbed their trays. “So we’ll see you tomorrow.”

The three Plastics stood up and left the table, leaving Y/n in a slight daze and Cady confused about what had just happened. Y/n suddenly looked around, realizing that her friends had left without her, but the new girl was still with her. She figured that she should say something before leaving her alone. She didn’t have to be mean or unpleasant just because Regina seemed to like Cady.

“On Wednesdays, we wear pink.” Y/n said it with a timid but sweet smile, trying to get over the revelation that the girl she loved was setting her sights on someone else. Her hand patted Cady’s a few times before she stood up and picked up her tray. “Welcome to North Shore.”

As Cady watched Y/n leave, and as Janis and Damian dragged the redhead away to interrogate her about her interaction with Regina, she couldn’t help but feel warm. Maybe public school wouldn’t be so bad.

***

The next day, Cady was slightly nervous to sit with the Plastics. She felt like a double spy. Janis and Damian were under the impression that Cady was doing it for them, to listen in on Regina’s secrets and relay them back to her friends so they could laugh at the pathetic and superficial nature of it all. And sure, that was the main reason she was sitting with the girls. But Cady also returned to the table so she could bask in a new light, Y/n. 

But living in girl world came with a bunch of rules.

“You can’t wear a tank top two days in a row, and you can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week. So…” Gretchen laughed lightly, seeming a little nervous for no reason as she looked at Cady, who was wearing her hair in a ponytail. “I guess you picked today. Oh! And we only wear jeans or track pants on Fridays.”

“Which totally blows in the winter,” Y/n muttered before sipping her Diet Coke.

“Now,” Gretchen started again, “if you break any of these rules, you can’t sit with us at lunch.” Cady seemed surprised, but Gretchen continued. “Not just you! Like, any of us. Okay, so, like, if I was wearing jeans today, I would be sitting over there with the art freaks.” She said it with a grimace, pointing over to a table a few feet away from the girls before looking back at Cady. “Oh, and we always vote before we ask someone to eat lunch with us, because you have to be considerate of the rest of the group. I mean, you wouldn’t buy a skirt without asking your friends first if it looks good on you.”

Everyone nodded except for Cady, who was processing all of these new rules she had to follow.

“I wouldn’t?”

“Right,” Gretchen said with a definitive nod. “And it’s the same with guys. Like, you may think you like someone, but you could be wrong.”

“One hundred twenty calories and forty-eight calories from fat,” Regina interrupted, reading a food bar that she had grabbed. She looked at her friends inquisitively. What percent is that?”

“Uh… forty-eight into one hundred and twenty?” Gretchen suggested, not really sure of herself.

“No, I don’t think so, Gretch,” Y/n said, trying to think of the correct answer.

“I’m only eating foods with less than thirty percent calories from fat.”

“It’s forty percent,” Cady said suddenly, proud that she was able to do the equation in her head. Everyone looked at her, expressions varying from impressed to confused. Cady suddenly felt the need to show her work. “Well, forty-eight over a hundred and twenty equals X over a hundred-”

“So then you cross multiply to get X!” Y/n finished off with a grin, thrilled that she knew what Cady was talking about. Cady smiled back at her with the same excited energy, although looking a little more subdued. Not only was this girl super pretty and friendly, but she also seemed decently smart. Maybe Janis was wrong about these girls.

“Whatever.” Regina looked at the two girls suspiciously. She tossed the food bar onto the table and stood up. “I’m getting cheese fries. Y/n, come with me.”

Taken back by the sudden command, Y/n stumbled out of her seat and followed Regina. Cady’s eyes followed her until she was out of sight, and she sighed quietly when she couldn’t catch a glimpse of the girl anymore. 

“So!” Gretchen startled Cady with her enthusiastic voice and a hand on her shoulder. As she turned to look at her, Cady realized that Karen was also gone from the table. She must’ve gone to the bathroom or somewhere else. “Have you seen anyone you think is cute yet?”

Cady didn’t know how to answer. There was definitely one person that came to mind, but she didn’t know if she should say the name. Gretchen might react badly if Cady told her, which would most likely lead to her getting kicked out of the Plastics.

But at the same time, she didn’t want to lie. 

“Well… there’s this one.. girl.” The last word was quiet and hesitant, but Gretchen picked up on it.

“Oh my gosh, who is it?” She asked excitedly. “Do you think it’s just like, a phase, or is it more serious?”

“I dunno.” Cady shrugged. “I haven’t known her too long to be sure.”

“Who is it?” Gretchen leaned forward in her seat, completely invested in Cady’s answer. It took the redhead a long moment of hesitancy to open her mouth.

“It’s Y/n…”

“No!” Gretchen straightened up, looking absolutely horrified. She looked around, ensuring none of the other girls were back yet. “You can’t like Y/n. Not only is she a part of the group, but… Okay, you didn’t hear this from me, and you’re, like, totally forbidden from ever bringing it up. But Regina is really possessive over Y/n. They’ve been best friends for, like, forever, and Regina chases off anyone who tries to so much as ask her out. And it’s not my place to say whether or not it’s more than friendship, but if I had to say something, there’s definitely something going on between them.” Gretchen took a much-needed breath, shaking her head slightly to clear her jumbled thoughts. “Look, the point is, you shouldn’t date friends. Especially Regina’s friends. But don’t worry, I’ll never tell Regina or Y/n what you said. It’ll be our little secret.”

Gretchen gave Cady a sweet smile, and that seemed to be the end of their little conversation. But for the next few days, Cady kept thinking about it.

She didn’t want to get on Regina’s bad side. That would mean no more things to tell Janis and Damian and no more seeing Y/n. And she also didn’t want to freak Y/n out. But just because Cady wasn’t allowed to like Y/n didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to look at her. Or think about her. Or talk to her.

A few days later, when Cady was with Janis and Damian at the mall, Janis asked when Cady would see Regina next. She said it felt weird to spy on her and that she didn’t want to do it anymore. And sure, it being weird was part of why she wanted to stop. But mainly, it was because Cady had started getting so distracted by Y/n that it was difficult to focus on Regina. Which was strange, because the blonde girl was so alluring. But Janis reassured Cady that Regina would never find out about her double agent status, that it would be their little secret.

So many secrets.

***

“Hello?” Cady held the phone up to her ear, wondering who was calling her at this late hour.

“I know your secret.” Cady stiffened at Regina’s voice coming through the speaker. She internally panicked, trying to figure out what to do. How did Regina figure out about Cady’s spying?

“Secret?” She decided that playing it cool was the better move. “What secret?”

“Gretchen told me that you like Y/n.” Cady relaxed at the fact that Regina had learned about her other secret, before freezing again. Right now, she wondered if it would be better if Regina knew about the spying. “I mean, I don’t care, do whatever you want.” Regina didn’t sound like she didn’t care, but Cady didn’t bring it up. “But let me just tell you something about Y/n: She’s, like, never gone on a date before. It’s not that she’s not pretty or anything, but no one’s ever really been good enough for her.”

“Oh?” What did this mean? Did Regina deem Cady good enough for Y/n after so many others tried and failed? Or was this a set-up?

Honestly, Cady was so happy for Regina’s blessing that she didn’t really care.

“I could talk to her for you, if you want.”

“Really? You would do that?”

“We’ve been friends since like, pretty much birth. I know exactly how to play it.” There was a moment of silence, and Cady could picture Regina picking at her nails. “But wait. Aren’t you mad at Gretchen for telling me? Because if you are, you can tell me. It was a really bitchy thing for her to do.”

“Yeah, it was pretty bitchy, but I’m not mad.” Cady was a little mad, but she didn’t feel like saying that. “I mean, it’s better she told you instead of Y/n. I dunno, I guess she just likes the attention.” Cady didn’t know why she said that last part, but it had just spilled out of her mouth.

“See, Gretch? I told you she’s not mad at you.” Cady was a bit confused, but then another voice spoke.

“I can’t believe you think I like attention!” There was a click, and Cady assumed the Gretchen had hung up. She had no idea she was even listening.

“Okay, love you. See you tomorrow!” Cady could hear Regina’s smile, and then there was another click followed by a dial tone, showing that Cady was now the only one on the line. She then hung up herself, processing the three-way call she had just survived.

And then after that, Cady realized that she had gotten Regina’s blessing to try to pursue Y/n.

***

“What day is it?” Y/n asked, looking down at her worksheet. She didn’t usually do homework at lunch, but lately, some of her classes had been kicking her ass. 

“It’s October third,” Cady answered almost immediately, catching the suspicious eyes of Regina and Gretchen.

“Thanks, Cady,” Y/n said, looking up at the girl and giving her a sweet smile before returning to her paper.

“I dunno why you don’t just ask one of the Mathlete dorks to do it for you,” Regina said, looking over Y/n’s shoulder. “They’d probably even do it for free.”

“We’ve talked about this, Regina. If my teacher didn’t catch on, it would still totally bite me in the ass when I’d have to do a test all by myself.”

“You need help with math?” Cady asked, subtly leaning closer to Y/n. The girl looked at Cady, now completely distracted from her work.

“Yeah! I used to get it, but trig is crazy hard.” Y/n sighed, delicately rubbing at her tired eyes so she didn’t mess up her makeup. “I feel like I’m never gonna get it.”

“I can help you!” Cady said, excited over this opportunity. She had always excelled in mathematics, and now Y/n needs help with that exact subject? It seemed like fate.

“Really?” Both Y/n and Cady missed the slight glare that Regina was giving them. 

“Oh right, Cady’s like, a total nerd.” They also chose to ignore Regina’s snide comment before sipping her Diet Coke.

“That would be amazing, Cady! Maybe I could come over after school today or something?”

Cady was about to say yes, a million times yes, but Regina butted in.

“Y/n, you’re coming over to my house today.” It didn’t really feel like Regina was reminding her of forgotten plans. Instead, it sounded like Regina was coming up with a reason for Y/n to be unavailable. Cady’s suspicions were confirmed by the confused look Y/n gave the blonde.

“I am?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh… Well, how about tomorrow?”

“Perfect!” Cady spoke quickly and enthusiastically before Regina could say another word.

***

Over the next month or so, Cady tutored Y/n a few days every week. It quickly became their favorite part of their days. After helping with a few problems Y/n was stuck on, the two girls would get distracted by conversations about whatever they wanted to talk about. Neither of them felt the need to filter themselves in fear of being made fun of by one of the other Plastics, mainly Regina. Topics ranged from the latest gossip to future plans to their favorite things in media. If Cady had never heard of something Y/n brought up, which was the case nine times out of ten, the tutoring session would turn into a movie night or music party.

“Oh my gosh, so…” Y/n and Cady were in the middle of watching a chick flick that Cady had never seen when Y/n suddenly spoke. “I’m having a Halloween party at my place. We usually do it at Regina’s, but for some reason, she didn’t feel like doing it this year. Are you gonna come?” 

“Yeah, sure.” Cady’s response made Y/n smile brightly, a sight that Cady could never get sick of.

“Awesome!” Y/n sat up from her slouched position, her excitement waking her up from her slightly tired state. “It’s a costume party, which’ll be a lot of fun. I can give you a flier with all the info tomorrow. Even though I know you’re invited, you need the flier to get in. It only admits one person, so don’t bring anyone else with you.”

“Grool.” Y/n blinked in slight confusion, and Cady realized what she had said. “I… I meant to say ‘cool,’ and then I started to say ‘great.’”

Y/n giggled, which made Cady’s cheeks heat up.

“Right. Well, grool.” The two laughed, and then Y/n looked down at her watch. “Oh my gosh, it’s so late. I should probably get going.” With the help of Cady, Y/n gathered her things. “See you tomorrow!” In a flash, Y/n kissed Cady’s cheek before walking out of the room and leaving Cady’s house. Cady’s cheeks felt like they were on fire, and she lightly touched the cheek Y/n had kissed.

***

One thing that no one told Cady was that on Halloween, many girls opted for very revealing costumes rather than actual costumes. So when she arrived at Y/n’s house, she stuck out like a sore thumb in her dead bride attire while her friends wore tight clothes and animal ears.

“Why are you so scary?” Gretchen asked with concern, looking at Cady’s appearance with wide eyes.

“It’s Halloween,” Cady said with a shrug, not knowing what the problem was.

Suddenly, a hand touched Cady’s arm, making her jump. But she quickly relaxed when she saw who was touching her.

“You came!” Y/n squealed, bringing Cady in for a hug. The redhead felt a bit flustered by the contact, plus seeing Y/n in her slightly revealing outfit. When they broke the embrace, Y/n held Cady by the shoulders, surveying her outfit. “And you’re a… zombie bride…?”

“An ‘ex-wife.’” Cady replied, using her fingers to air quote.

“Well, I love it.” Y/n finally let go of Cady, although she wouldn’t have been opposed if she kept holding onto her. “You want something to drink?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll be right back.” 

Y/n squeezed Cady’s arm for a quick moment before turning around. She weaved her way through the crowd to get to the kitchen, where a shit load of different drinks were scattered on the counters. She started mixing a drink for Cady when she felt a presence behind her.

“What the hell is Cady wearing?” Regina asked, squinting to see Cady from across the room.

“She’s a zombie bride!”

“She looks like a freak.”

“Regina!” Y/n set down the bottle she was pouring and looked at the blonde. “Be nice.”

“Whatever.” Regina rolled her eyes, pushing her hair off her shoulder before leaning on the kitchen counter. “You know, you should probably be careful around her. She has a giant crush on you.”

“What?” Y/n’s eyes snapped to Regina, immediately curious. “How do you know?”

“She told me. She tells everybody. It’s kinda cute, to be honest. She’s like a little girl.” Regina laughed, and Y/n tilted her head and raised her brows, silently asking for more details. “Like, she writes ‘Y/n plus Cady’ and stuff like that all over her notebook. And she made this shirt that says ‘I heart Y/n’ and she wears it under all of her clothes.

“Oh, come on.” Y/n sighed and rolled her eyes, figuring Regina had been joking. “That’s not funny, Regina.”

“I’m serious! She’s, like, obsessed with you. And who can blame her?” Regina’s hand reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair away from Y/n’s face. When Y/n looked at her friend, she was suddenly closer than before. “I mean, you’re gorgeous.”

“Regina.”

“If I’m being honest… I hate the way she looks at you.” Regina grabbed Y/n’s chin before she could look away, forcing them to maintain eye contact. “It makes me sick. She should know better than to think she has a chance with you.”

“What are you saying, Regina?” Y/n’s voice was barely a whisper, but the blonde heard her loud and clear despite being in a crowded room with blasting music and semi-drunk teenagers.

“I’m saying you’re mine, Y/n.” With every word, Regina inched closer and closer. “I don’t want you to be with Cady. Or with anyone else.” 

Regina closed the small gap between her and Y/n’s lips, wrapping her arms around Y/n’s body to keep her close. After the wave of shock washed over her, Y/n reciprocated the kiss. Neither of them cared about any of the people around them watching. Including Cady, who watched from across the room with watery eyes and a breaking heart. 

Cady had lost Y/n to a competition she didn’t even know she had. Y/n had finally gotten the girl she had been wanting for years after being kept at arm’s length away. And Regina had once again ruined someone else’s happiness for her own.

***

Regina George Taglist: @wedfan2 @pyro-les @natashamaximoff-69

[otakween]

8-Man vs. Cyborg 009

Who's this schmuck? Just kidding, I did some background research and apparently 8-Man is one of the OG cyborg heroes to come out of Japan, predating Cyborg 009 by a year. He's called 8-Man because the scientist who turned him into a cyborg failed this experiment 7 times before getting to him. Yikes.

Crappy name aside (apparently the mangaka also had a manga called "Wolf Guy," which I find hilarious), it's a neat idea to put two OGs against each other. I'm sure the boomers are excited lol. (Come to think of it, Japan's population skews older, so it would make sense that this sort of thing would be published now).

Ch. 1

Coming from the BGOO Parts manga, the art feels a little clunkier and dated here. Backgrounds are very simple and there's less detail in how the characters are drawn. It's still faithful to the original series though and that's good enough for me.

Just like with BGOO Parts, they're rehashing Black Ghost stuff again, with some retconning along the way. Series that resurrect the same villain over and over are so dull. Please do something else writers!! :(

Why did the skull-masked guy (Cyborg #22) look kinda kawaii tho? They drew his eyes all shiny and cutesy.

They flashback to the end of volume 10 AGAIN. I guess that really is the most iconic moment of the franchise, but with every flashback it's losing its charm.

There was a diagram explaining 8-Man in the front of the manga and I guess he uses cigarettes as a power source? First of all...huh? Second, that's the most 1960s thing I've ever heard.

Also in the front of the manga is an image of Joe carrying a beat up looking 8-Man. Way to spoil it! I wonder what the vs. in the title is implying? Are they going to be rivals and then team up or are they straight up pitted against each other?

Did they pair these two together because they were like "8? 9? You get it? Eh? Eh?" What if it was 8-Man vs. 008 lol. It would have to be underwater randomly I suppose.

Ch. 2

Okay I stand corrected, I guess 8-Man isn't a cyborg...he's closer to an android, but he has a human consciousness so...he's not really an android either.

This was like, the exposition chapter. They wrote this assuming the reader was new to 8-Man and maybe Cyborg 009 too so they gotta hastily give little wikipedia summaries of what the reader missed lol. Not enough exposition for me to know who the robot bossing 8-Man around is supposed to be though! Maybe that'll come later.

I see the obvious parallels with the stories here, both cyborgs/androids/whatever were created as weapons but their creators wanted more for them. 8-Man has a little more of a film noir vibe tho with the detective aspect.

How the heck is a cigarette a "cooling" tool? My brain does not compute.

So 8-Man is being ordered to attack Joe, I guess. I wonder if he's been misled about Joe's background? He kinda helped him out back there with the cigarette, so I guess he's showing hesitation.

Ch. 3

So I guess Black Ghost's motive is to "resurrect/summon the God of war Ares by sacrificing one of the heroes..." Not Greek mythology again...please. I can't take it anymore!

8-Man's hands kinda look like Mickey Mouse gloves teehee

Dr. Tani and Dr. Daemon look so identical to me that I had to swipe back a few pages and compare them. I finally excepted they weren't the same person when Dr. Daemon referred to Dr. Tani in the third person lol.

We get more revelations about how 8-Man's machine brain works. He retains every memory (either OP or awful) and Ivan can't read his mind. I forgot Ivan could read minds in the first place? I feel like he doesn't do that much.

This manga has a lot of two page spreads, which I appreciate. They make the reading experience more cinematic, it moves things along quicker in general (no dialogue), and it looks great on my giant tablet :D

Ch. 4

The villains from the respective series place their bets on which hero will come out victorious. It gave me Squid Game vibes (but obviously less gruesome).

It's kind of funny how the villains are low key rooting their corresponding hero on, wanting to show off their nemesis to their new friend.

Kinda awkward how the other numbers cyborgs are just tagging along waiting for 8-Man and 009 to be done. I guess there's not much they can contribute, which is probably why BGOO Parts gave everyone accelerator mode...

Obvious fake out death is obvious

I enjoyed the shot of Joe and 8-Man outrunning the shinkansen. That was fun.

Ch. 5

After the battle between 009 and 8-Man, Black Ghost and Dr. Daemon attack and kidnap Joe, Francoise and Azuma. Black Ghost reveals their master plan to harvest memories from the cyborg so that they can resurrect the 3 brains that make up the "true" Black Ghost and put them in a giant robot body.

I'm not fully clear on what Dr. Daemon gets out of all this? I guess he gets to help rule the world or something?

The way they depict Francoise's ability makes her seem hilariously useless. She's supposed to be able to detect things from very far distances but every time she senses something it's like 2 feet away from everyone lol. Like she'll be like "something's coming...from the ocean!" and the gang turns around and it's right next to them. Thanks for nothing lol.

The demon God statue (taken from the original manga) looks kinda silly. It's bird beak makes it look like it's from Darkwing Duck or something haha.

Ch. 6

Okay 8-Man and Francoise getting all flustered once Francoise implied that her and Joe are in love was really cute. I wanna see more scenes of them getting to know each other and becoming friends :D (not likely)

The concept of world domination via a giant space satellite/demon God statue is pretty badass, not gonna lie. Very classic evil guy plan.

Seems we can now drop the pretenses that this is going to be a "versus" situation and everyone will just team up in volume 2. Pretty predictable.

[sycamorality]

DEAR VOIDS SLUGCAT DESIGNS HERE WE GO.

also this nightcat is seperate from my invterator askblog nightcat. for clarification

id honestly consider the cut arena scug 4 an oc at this point. it deviates so much from the One sprite we get. oops

seperates + Not So Line Lineup under cut AS WELL AS DESIGN NOTES woooh boy. MIND YOU its really long

the Not So Line Lineup

survivor! scar on snout is based on one of the cut arena sprites for player 1, it has a little.. scar? notch? line? there. survivor passage symbol on head as well and freckles :) some brown to match monk sorta. spikey fur!

^ what the scar is based on

overall more rounded than survivor, to reference the monk passage symbol which is also on their head. a little dewlap to reference gourmand - i think gourmand and survivor and monk are related. lighter yellows to reference survivor!

third sibling!!! the little orange line on their head is actually karma 7 (i realized survivor is karma 5 and monk is karma 6- so why not go with the theme?) and a sorta partial saint symbol on their head, missing the middle line. yellow/red accenting color to reference monk and survivor sorta. blu :)

sorta pinker. based on one of my old draft designs, just made a little better. green accent color to match sig. a little fluffy and sharp. ear tufts cause theyre fun and a tufted tail. hunter passage symbol is also on tail teehee. sig's head symbol is also on hunter. the scar is also green

nightcat is some sorta weird echo thing. to me. little wings for the fun of it. i dont have much on this design honestly other than i used dodge A Lot. the accenting pink on the dark purple parts was originally an accident but like? it vibes.

wanderer! cause actually why not. the white symbol on their chest is a half of sig's symbol, i'd like to think sig helped suns make wanderer. if you put its head symbol together with nightcat it makes the scholar :) blue accenting color is close to the negative/opposite colors of nightcat.

i dont have many notes for this biggol guy. sorta looks alike survivor and monk i suppose. feathers! theyre sorta rose colored i think. idk. it looks nice. simple patterns cause gourmand is a symbol guy

artiiii. i wanted to put an accent color on arti but it was so Hard because i was Stubborn and Needed That Damn Cyan on it. markings based on a siamese cat except for the ones on the arm and legs, theyre sort of tabby based?

green pup is tabby based in markings, pink sorta looks like flower petals. blue pup is siamese cat based in markings and the yellow? idk it looked nice

RIVULETTT. i love rivulet. i made the bright sunset gradient contrast by adding some darker but still vibrant blues and purples to the design, as well as a cream. there's also actual gills udner the display frills (which also got a color update to match instead of being an offbrand bi flag). also webbed fingers!!!

vibrant fuckin purple because it looks nice actually. made it have some cream-pink-purple thing as underbelly instead to make it look nicer. head markings are based directly on suns :) biggol Orb Eyes to Stare In Your Soul. accenting colors sorta match rivulet? idk? they just look nice without contrasting too much. also whiskers. and tall. and thin with long ass grabbers

i kept getting "portal colors" and "aroace flag" and like YEA YALL ARE RIGHT ACTUALLY i just wanted to fit blue and orange on it though lmao. anyway pretty simple body markings to make up for the Six Fucking Accent Colors. three forehead dots are yellow while there's an x on its back and head thats blue... to imitate the rot :) why? figure it out yourself

inv!! not much has changed since honestly i just saturated the colors a bit more i think. idk. i like the yellow on inv though so i make it more prominent sorta? just a guy. still an iterator that turned itself into a slugcat. to me.

originally based on this cut arena slugcat

then i uh. accent color and scales and um. um. im so normal about this slugcat holyshit curveberry my beloved.... anyway the scales were originally a dark teal? then i hueshifted them and Oh Fuck Dusk Colors Holy Shit. its so good i genuinely love this design so much i doodled it lmao. the scales are based on a pangolin. i actually have ideas for this if it were to be a slugcat campaign...

another cut arena slug! this time this one. i tried to keep it more in line rather than go a bit silly ehe. i still like how this came out- i think the accent color is nice. it looks like bingus to me actually. bingus slugcat

iggy projection slug. weird thing with lines under its eyes

to me this is another of nsh's purposed messengers. the lil guy that sent the distateful message. whatever it was icr the exacts but. him. boy. the darker pink is like armor like a centipede. looks like ham to me

iggy projection slug that had silly little small ears so i thought i'd include them

i was having so much trouble with this design but @pinkavtomation actually helped me out because i was. Struggling so hard and i was streaming doing these designs in vc (for 9 hours straight... voids) 'n it sent this and honestly. yeah. funky vitiligo cat to me.

colors r sorta based on vanilla and chocolate icecream???? thats what i was thinkin when i was lookin at it honestly. just a lil guy to me

[rametarin]

I just remembered, ‘The Wishbone.’

I’ve mentioned ad nauseum about how when I was a kid, those child soldier type cultural guerillas were running around, “twying to stawt convuhsayshuns,” prompted by their parents to do so. Because it was a way to use their kids to disguise important social issues and topics while making it seem like the kids themselves just did that. Then they’d be there as social support to reinforce what the kid says, when they inevitably go to adults to intervene and arbitrate arguments they didn’t know and couldn’t prove one way or another. Because, kids.

But as I sit here remembering the misc. times this happened over the course of my childhood (yeah, my memories go back that far,) I remembered a commonality that happened curiously often.

The Wishbone Maneuver. And I call it a maneuver because when something just coincidentally happens handfuls of times, it’s not coincidence. Always right on a schedule, always conveniently during a discussion.

So it works like this. Lets say it starts with a random field trip. And a conversation occurs between students/peers. Inevitably, someone will segue the conversation a little. Maybe with a jokey joke. You know, to set the tone for the new ‘convuhsayshun.’

They may make a crass joke about Washington killing Native Americans, or Columbus doing it. “Teehee! Yeah! [Fictional Hero] really squashed them! Deader than all those natives Washington killed!”

Any learned child of the 80s to early 90s at the time would get PTSD, because now you’re at... The Juncture. It could begin and end with that little “jokey joke” that tries to reinforce, “the founding fathers were bad (white) people, WEEREN’T THEEEEY?” in the culture.

You know. Kind of the way German/Nazi sympathizers would go around the US making casually antisemitic jokes? Because these are psychological methods used to strong arm people into going along with and playing off the bigotry of other people. Not even necessarily racial, sexual or ethnic bigotry; it’s also how they try to strongarm and steer people into Odd Man Outing individuals and communicating indirectly that they’re untouchable pariahs, and defending them is so indefensible that you’ll be brought down with them unless you chuckle and nod in agreement.

Only they directed it as ideological opponents. Constantly. And as a child of the 80s/90s, you knew the ball was in their court for what was said next. Because it was either just going to be a “simple joke” (pivoting away if there was too big a blowback/problem) or a segue into a conversation about what a shithead George Washington and by extension the founding fathers were.

But, what if you countered by also bringing up how Che Guevera was a shithead out of the blue. They don’t like that. Because now YOU’VE introduced a “jokey-joke” non-sequitor about a figure THEY might like. It does kind of expose that you know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and that it wasn’t just a “jokey joke.” They take note of people that understand what they are and what they’re doing, because these methods are used to try and argue you in bad faith towards their ideological mindset with as little interpersonal argument as possible.

So if you just kick over the duckblind and let them know you see EXACTLY what ideological bias they’re coming to the table from, that you will not allow them to just be, “generally critical of bad historical figures,” but in fact force them out of an offensive, entrenched, sniping position and into one of running defense, then they get upset.

You’re not supposed to have this sort of experience or knowledge dealing with tankies or pinkos. If they pull off the benign interactions well enough, they try to get you thinking like they do with a minimum of struggle between you. Disguised as, “just general conversations about history and facts.” Which are shaved, doctored, manipulated and hair-did specifically and coincidentally to portray a certain view of only specific events and people in history robbed of enough context and smoothed out with benefit of the doubt in their direction to beg you to adopt it as fact.

Anyway. The Wishbone.

So for every negative fact they give about George Washington, you give them one about someone like Pol Pot, or Che Guevera, or Tito, or Mao. Because you’re just making JOKEYJOKES! Right, ole buddy ole pal? No unstated ideological bias here at all, no sir! Hahaha, I’m just like you! I sure hate those conformist sheep and study history! Hahahaha! You just so happen to shit all over the historical figures tied to ideologies they like and are supporting by tearing down their ideological enemies.

They can then do their pre-rehearsed spiel about what a shithead any given Founding Father did. Which, if you’re educated young enough, you already know, and match them point for point with, “how shitheaded historical figures are” by pointing out how figures like Marx let their kids starve to death. Just exchangin playful character assassination implied to invalidate everything they believed in, fought for, preached and stood for, you know! Just having fun! Making jokeyjokes! ^.^

Well the wishbone maneuver comes when a second person that you didn’t know was part of this conversation flanks you. They were always part of what this conversation would become, because they’re literally the airforce and wingman of the first shit stirrer. They swoop in and segue the conversation just enough so now you’re conversing with two people, not one.

And they both want to talk to you. But the purpose of this now is to try and polarize you, leaping off from your statements and attacking your defenses from another angle. The Third Party might bring up what a shithead Jefferson was, and try to make you defend slavery in order to defend Jefferson. They’re going to demand, through the rules of social convention, that you somehow address two conflicting points about two conflicting figures with the same point, and both reserve the right to interject and mock you if what you say doesn’t apply to their figure.

“Well this other founding father also killed natives and raped their slaves. YOUR argument is that raping slaves and killing people are bad things. Guess you think Jefferson sucked, too.”

Do you see what they’re doing? They dress up this wing-man approach. From the very start this third party was on the outskirts, waiting for a signal. Because the entire point of this engagement was to either spread propaganda or culturally negatively reinforce a view of historical figures through “candid conversation.” They showed up with an axe to grind and disguised it as genial conversation, and even had someone waiting during this pre-meditated farce of a conversation to either support them or bail them out of it if it went sour.

I saw this happen too many times, too similar in the ways it happened, always from the sort of people when caught on and called out in a group for their shit, resorting to the same excuse. “I was just twying to stawt a convuhsayshun. uwu.”

This is one of the many reasons I believe there’s a playbook for this kind of shit, and I only wish I knew what book of techniques and methods they were drawing from to teach their kids to do this. I distinctly remember this shit happening too many god damned times. It used to take me by surprise, but I was left dumbfunded, frustrated and blindsided so often I just started noticing the pattern.

[milktyama]

— ☕︎ MISTLETOE

synopsis: getting kissed under the mistletoe that was totally setted up

pairing: oikawa tooru x female reader

genre: fluffyyy~~, a lot of backstory?? lol i kinda got carried away oops

wc: 1.6k

❥︎ not proof read! i quickly wrote this and queued it before I went to sleep soooo don’t mind the small errors teehee. 

The bells at the door jingled as it opened while you and Oikawa entered the small cafe. The place was relatively small and it held a simplistic yet warm atmosphere. The neutral toned interior harmonized with the low steady beats of the music that quietly played in the background. The ambiance of this cafe was just like out of a movie; simple yet very eye catching. You made your way to the closest seat your eyes laid on when Oikawa suddenly yanked your arm as you were about to take a seat. You looked at him in question, slightly angered at his sudden move.

“Princess we are not sitting here today. Let’s seat by the window since less people would walk over there.” he said as he pulled you towards his desired sitting area. You complied, not like you have a specific preference like your perfectionist boyfriend. Oikawa Tooru was many things, and most of the time you trusted and went along with whatever he wanted.

Finally taking a seat down, you looked over the menu excitedly. You were known to have a sweet tooth, and it was not a surprise to anyone. It went well along with your personality; bubbly yet cheeky, the exact traits that were able to bring you and Oikawa together. The two have been together for a couple of months, with you confessing to him after the summer break, which to your surprise he accepted. But what you didn’t know was the way he looked at you before that, making this pairing as if it was made in heaven.

“Hey Tooru, they have new varieties of milk bread today! Oh but they also released a special Christmas log cake… but I also have been craving the usual crepe cake... “ you pouted at the vast amount of options. Oikawa could only just chuckle at your cuteness. He looked closely at every small thing you did. How the way you would look stumped when choosing a dessert, or when you would start twirling your pencil between your delicate fingers, making it look like some magic illusion under your fingers, or even the times when you are just so indulged in the music that played through the shared earbuds you two had on. 

He truly loves the little silly things that made you up. Then when the time calls, you would roll your sleeves up as you held the brown clipboard to your chest, leading numbers of students with the power of your booming voice that echoed through the school gym. Everyone always sees the two sides of you, the righteous student council president, and clumsy third year classmate or senior. Oikawa had the luxury of seeing beyond that, and the same went for you. His prideful captain and popular boy from Aoba Johsai persona, you saw beyond that, and that is what truly brought the two of you together. 

And you also watched him closely, taking notice of Oikawa’s habits. Like the way he checked himself out at anything that could possibly even give off the slightest reflection, or how when he laughed wholly, his eyes would appear almost closed as his smile spread wide throughout his face, or even when he over exaggerated his reactions with large arm motions along with a whiny remark. You loved Oikawa Tooru with your whole heart, every inch of you wanting to unconditionally love him for the rest of time.

As you waited for your orders, you looked out the window, staring at the icicles that formed at the edge of the roof and the ground that was covered in fluffy white snow tracing the footprints both of you left when making your way to the cafe. With your gaze still fixed on what is happening outside the window, you call out to your boyfriend.

“Say Tooru, it’s December now,” you finally looked at him to meet his hazel eyes, “it’s almost Christmas. Do you have any plans?”

“hUH- uh n-no I don’t have anything planned, what are you saying Y/n-chan haha…” now it was his turn to look outside the window, but his eyes weren’t focused on anything, more like he was trying to find something to say to recover from his blatantly obvious mess up to such a simple question. You knew Oikawa well, and he was never the best at hiding things even if he wanted to so badly. But you decided to play along, if it concerned you, he would tell you without hesitation anyways.

“Hm okay then babe. Anyways before our actual date starts I wanted to discuss with you about…” you tried to redirect the conversation with school related topics and you could see that Oikawa actually appreciated the gesture. After your orders arrived, you put aside your school demeanor and put your lovey dovey side on. As serious as the two of you can get, you are both still high school teenagers in love.

As the date neared its end, Oikawa excused himself to the bathroom. You took this chance to quickly check over your phone, responding to some emails to teachers and students. There was a big school event coming up in a few weeks and you have yet to choose a topic. Still stumped on what to decide, you noticed that Oikawa was taking an abnormally long time to the bathroom. Was the food today weird? But you felt fine. Maybe he developed an intolerance to milk so now when he just drank his latte his digestive system reacted in way asー

“Hey Y/n-chan sorry I took so long! Let’s go pay the bill shall we?” your thoughts were interrupted by his sudden return. His face slightly flushed and and his nose tinted red as if he just came from outside. Wait, did he go out and come back?? You followed him to the cashier and paid for your food, with him insisting to pay this time. Making your way out, the bells attached to the door jingle once again, but this time Oikawa stops you right in front of the door. He stares deeply into your eyes and you also can’t seem to move your gaze away from his previous gentle eyes to now piercing ones. Standing there in silence, you managed to open your mouth as you questioned yet another one of his gestures.

“Uh Tooru… are you okay…?” your tone was laced with worry. Oikawa Tooru was many things, including slightly weird, but today was a little  more than the norm, even for him. Staying still in the position for a little longer, Oikawa finally changed his awkward grip on you, and his left hand pointed above the two of you, his eyes never leaving your. You tilted your head up a little further up, noticing the vivid green leaves with the bright red berries that laid in the middle of the bundle of them. Connecting the pieces together, something finally clicked in your brain. At this point, you couldn’t contain your laugh anymore. You started to burst out laughing, leaving a confused and shocked Oikawa.

“WH- BABE WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SUPER CUTE-!!” he said as he tried to get you to stop. You just continued to laugh, your stomach starting to hurt from all of the laughing. When you were finally able to calm down your loud laughter into soft giggles, you spoke up.

“Tooru baby, it is cute, but you failed-” well crap you started to laugh again. Oikawa pouted at your reaction, he really tried to do something to surprise you as your first holiday as a couple together. He wanted to make your heart flutter and kiss you. Well there is one way I can stop the laughter… Oikawa thought. He gripped onto your shoulder and leaned onto your figure, slowly connecting your lips together.

At first your eyes were wide open in shock, but soon after they closed, in attempts to enjoy the euphoric feeling that sparked inside of you that came with that kiss. His lips were soft, with a little bit of bitterness that lingered from his latte mixed with the sweetness of the moment and the milk bread he had earlier. The kiss finally broke with a person clearly their throats, appearing to wanting to enter the cafe. Flustered, you hid your face onto Oikawa’s figure and the two of you stepped aside. You looked back onto your boyfriend who now had a cheeky smile plastered on his face.

“Hehe, how was that princess? I did mess up a little but seemed to really enjoy it! You probably didn’t even see it coming!” he chimed. Well yeah, you gotta admit, even though his plan has seemingly failed, you were still swiped off from the floor by this man named Oikawa Tooru. 

“Babe, I did see it coming. You literally came back with a red nose as if you stood outside for a while. Did setting up that mistletoe take you ~that~ long?”

“WH- okay I didn’t realize how high up I needed it to set it up and the sTINKy owner’s son would not let me borrow their stepping stool!” his face crunched into a petty pout. You just can’t stop loving this man ever. You gave a small chuckle at him and leaned in for one more deep kiss as the bells from the door jingled once more, along with the mistletoe that fell right in between your feet.

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Garden of Death

“Are you all growing well?” Yuuri murmured as he entered his garden, violet eyes dancing from one of his fair flowers to another. All of them turned to face him as soon as he did, thousands of voices that only he could hear answering.

Yes, Healer. We’ve been waiting for you.

Yuuri picked up his watering can and headed for the first of the blossoms that needed attention. This was monkshood, a lovely shade of purple that matched his coloring, and every bit as poisonous as he was. He carefully watered it, pressing his fingers against the stem and feeding it some of his energy. The monkshood did not make an audible noise but he could hear it purring regardless. Yuuri petted it gently, assured himself that it needed no further care for the moment, and moved onward to the next garden bed.

Here he grew baby’s breath and there blossomed blood-root, over there was a bed of larkspur and another of iris. He loved every flower, but his favorites would always be those that were purple and those that were poisonous. When those tow came together, such as the monkshood, he put extra effort into tending them.

Not everyone could have all of these flowers together in the same garden. Even some Healers weren’t quite that talented. But Yuuri had known flowers and known the use of life energy and known what it was to use them both to kill from the earliest points of life. He’d been told that before he could walk, he’d been found cuddled up in a thick bed of oleander. There wasn’t a poison or a plant in existence that could kill a Healer but even they walked carefully around some plants. Not Yuuri. Not now and not ever.

In the center of his garden there rested a marble bench and there he settled, arranging himself so he could soak up the sun. Healers were much like their plants in that respect – they needed the warmth of the sun and the life of the earth, and occasional watering. Even Yuuri needed his down time.

It wasn’t time for the invasion yet anyway. The Professor promised him that when the time did come he had a special mission planned for Yuuri, one that he would most definitely love. Yuuri looked forward to it. He’d read all the information the Professor had available on what was going to happen – the existence of the four dimensions and how they were divided by summoning methods.

What the Professor didn’t know was that Yuuri had also researched farther. He’d found the facts the Professor wished hidden.

His eyes narrowed just at the thought. He’d never been much of one for loyalty. His plants were loyal to him and so were the cards in his deck and he returned that, but otherwise? He’d only had the first faint hints of it towards the Professor, and learning that the Professor in actuality hated him – well -

Well, he had plans for what he would do to the Professor when the time came. Carding would be a little too good for him.

He raised up one hand to caress the curve of the flower of one of his special plants, one that he’d grown himself. It somewhat resembled a Venus Flytrap, but only superficially. This one was far larger – large enough, in fact, to swallow and digest an adult human. It was a meat-eater as well. Yuuri kept it well-fed by hand, training it to eat whatever he gave it. It would come in handy one day. He did not doubt this at all.

Quiet whispers echoed. He couldn’t hear what they said but he didn’t need to. In this, his garden, he had eye and ears everywhere. He turned his attention to the plants closest to where the whispers came from – the yarrow. Quite lovely shades of red, those, and he whispered in the language shared between Healers and the plants that they grew.

What was there? Who was there? Who dared approach his garden, which no one was ever supposed to enter without his permission?

Children, Healer. A bit bigger than you are. They wear blue.

Ah. That explained a great deal. He knew who they were and he suspected he knew why they were there. Languidly he rose to his feet and strolled that way, blessing each flower he passed with a brush of his fingertips and a caress of his power. They would return the blessing when he needed them to. That might even be now.

“I don’t think he’s here,” a hurried, quite voice said. “We can check out what he’s got. You know how the Professor favors him. I bet he’s got some awesome plants!”

Ah, yes. Obelisk Blue, Healers’ division. Mostly devoted to keeping the Firestarters and the non-powered soldier-duelists from getting themselves killed on the battlefield. Also being stupid enough to enter his garden uninvited.

His senses flicked over each one. There were three of them. Two were bonded, the other wasn’t. Drat. Only one he could properly deal with then. The Professor made him promise never to kill those who were bonded, if only because it wasted so much effort.

In Yuuri’s opinion, if they were foolish enough to enter his territory, they deserved what they got. As these fools would find out.

They’d not taken more than a handful of paces before Yuuri stepped out, arms crossed over his chest, and stared down at them with his most amused smile, the smile that had sent more than one person screaming into the night. Cowards.

“I don’t believe you're invited here,” Yuuri said with just the right amount of cheer. “You know the rules on that. If you’re not invited into my garden, then I can eject you in any way that I see fit.”

The unbonded Healer turned pale. “We’re just leaving!” He declared, backpedaling. “We didn’t know you were here, Yuuri-sama!”

“He’s right!” One of the others agreed. This was the one that spoke before Yuuri arrived. “We’re sorry if we bothered you! Lovely garden you have, though!” The third only seemed capable of nodding his head quickly, words locked in his throat.

Yuuri sneered. These were the elite of Obelisk Blue? These were the ones that the Obelisk Force would be chosen from? Ridiculous. Pathetic. It was in their best interest if he thinned them out.

“Get out. If you can do it before my treasure takes you, then you can live.”

None of them asked what would happen if they couldn’t. They just turned and ran as fast as they could manage. For most Healers, getting out would have been easy – as long as they hadn’t angered Yuuri. But on his grounds, his rules governed, and he told the grass and the flowers and the trees one simple thing.

That one. The unbonded one. I want him.

Before two of them the trees and bushes parted, guiding them to the nearest exit with all due speed. But before the third one, the grass slipped under his feet, the trees dropped branches in his face, and the vines wove around his feet, tripping him. Yuuri strolled up and set a foot on his back.

“It’s feeding time for my treasure,” Yuuri said, “and since you’ve entered my grounds uninvited and without a just cause – and because I want to – you’re going to be my treasure's dinner.”

The unbonded Healer stared up at him with wide terrified eyes. Yuuri didn’t even bother to look at him. Instead, he gestured, and the vines that wrapped around the other’s legs tightened, lifting him upward and pulling him along back to the bench where his favorite plant’s mouth waited.

“You can’t do this to me! I’m from Obelisk! I’m a Healer, just like you!” He shrieked quite loudly, until Yuuri gestured again and a vine blocked his chattering.

“You should have known not to enter my garden, then. I never entered yours,” Yuuri admonished before he turned his gaze onto his favorite. “Have lunch, my dear. Eat well.”

The screams after that were very loud, but the walls around the garden and the soundproofing built into those walls – which Yuuri asked for after the first time some fool thought to enter his grounds uninvited and someone on the other side complained about the noise – kept most of it muffled to everyone who wasn’t Yuuri. Yuuri savored them as he settled back down on his bench and enjoyed the show.

What a beautiful sight his lovely creation was. He wondered what the plants of the other dimensions would be like. Even better, what would the Firestarters of another dimension be like? He’d never found one to his taste here. Perhaps there would be different. All the flames here were so weak, no matter how they professed to be soldiers. Perhaps they were, but the flames weren’t what he wanted.

But he’d find himself a Firestarter. Somewhere. Whether the Firestarter wanted to be found or not.

The End

Notes: I already know who Yuuri's Firestarter will be. *teehee*

[selfish-swine]

Let’s Talk About Star Fox and Character For a Moment - Part 2: OOC is Serious Business

Continued from here. If you haven’t read part 1 yet, then go do that first! You need context! Anyway, this is a long one.

So that whole big rant I wrote up was really just a preamble to get to something I REALLY wanted to rant about but found myself basically writing two rants to get my point across and needed to split stuff up to establish a reference point for what I’m talking about.

Let’s Talk about the fandom’s universally disliked unfavorite, Star Fox Command on the typical topic of how badly it characterized everyone and derailed things and all that hullabaloo.

Now let’s get somethings clear here. First off, I do NOT think Command is a good game by any stretch, mechanically or narratively. It does screw a lot of shit up. Second of all, I am not saying Command doesn’t derail characters senselessly and deserve pretty much all the ire it’s earned from the fandom.

BUT. Big but here.

It is important to not dismiss all of Command for these mistakes. To start with, for as much Command gets flat out WRONG, it also gets a lot RIGHT. Falco and Fox’s bromance is especially strong in Command, and characters like Slippy (who basically never gets written poorly) are still solid. Pigma also gets some actual emotion to his unceremonious death in Assault as a spooky space ghost, to say nothing of the small implications it gives to Andross’ motivations. Then there are things that were just the result of Command having an honestly shoddy translation job all things considered, which especially pertains to Star Wolf. Panther’s third person self-narrations are a misunderstanding of him speaking in an arrogant manner in the original Japanese, and Leon’s infamous liking of rainbows was meant to be sarcastic - but these are things that can not be conveyed in text in ENGLISH (but can in Japanese). Then there is Wolf, which brings me to the real point I want to get at with this post.

I said before it is important not to dismiss all of Command for these mistakes, but really what I should say is it isn’t fair to dismiss Command for the same mistakes other games did before it, specifically Assault. The big offenders of Command, Fox and Krystal, are just as derailed in Assault (if not moreso in the case of Fox), along with Wolf and to a lesser extent, Peppy, yet no one bats an eye because it suits the fandom’s tastes at large (or at least the English speaking fandom), and that bothers me. Out Of Character writing should not be accepted just because you like the direction it takes, because that is disingenuous to the characters.

Let’s start with Fox. Fox’s archetype (to see why archetypes are important read part 1 you weenie) is that of the charismatic heroic leader. There are some subtle differences between his Western and Japanese depictions, namely his confidence (Japanese Fox is in 64 at least more son-in-his-father’s-shadow than Western Fox, but is no less cheeky or cocksure for it), but the general idea stays the same. This is consistent with Fox in the SNES comic, 64, and Adventures (as well as the Farewell Beloved Falco comic). He meets every challenge head on with confidence he can over come it and his sense of justice is strong, and this is reinforced mechanically as Fox being the player avatar, puts us in direct control of confronting these challenges with confidence and bravado.

Assault Fox lacks any of this. He is bland, boring, robbed of any character he once had. He stammers like a teenager more than he ever did as an actual teenager over the simplest of things, constantly walks into traps and danger in spite of knowing danger is ahead and waiting, routinely makes bad leadership choices by no virtue other than the plot necessitating it, and then at the end of the game acts absolutely unemotional to the supposed death of his mentor figure only to later reveal he knew all along his mentor wasn’t actually dead and was just hiding this from his team. Honestly, I might just need to make another rant dedicated  JUST to WHY and HOW these ideas are detrimental to Fox’s character, but for now I’m going to leave this simple and possibly revisit the topic in greater depth. Either way, Assault Fox is uninteresting and vapid, underreacting to everything despite being previously established as a smart ass quippy hot blooded hero, and that’s terrible. Yet, noone notices or cares, because at least he didn’t break up with Krystal.

Let’s talk about Krystal next. To say she was treated OOC in Assault is honestly to suggest she had a character to begin with, but in all fairness she does have elements of it from Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Adventures, if broken and disjointed due to her loss of protagonist status. Going back to what I wrote about archetypes, Krystal was, in DP64, completely set up to be an aspiring hero, but when DP64 became SFAd, she lost that narrative importance and was reduced to a Damsel in Distress crossed with a Macguffin Girl, which totally undermined what she had, but as I said there was traces of something still there. She is bold, brash, heroic and full of justice (much like Fox), but also more contemplative and insightful as well. She’s the wise hero to Fox’s action hero, or should have been at any rate.

So what did Assault do? Absolutely rob her of all that and just ram in hard the Love Interest nonsense. Everything about Krystal in Assault revolves around FOX - she has NO agency onto herself anymore, something she even had in Adventures at least at first until she got captured for 90% of the game. Not Assault Krystal, though. Her whole character is defined by her fawning over Fox, worrying over his idiot well being and wanting him to be safe, stammering affectionately like two high school kids who haven’t had their first kiss yet. Yes, she does have some moments free from this nonsense, but those moments are not her DOMINANT portrayal. Even when discussing things with bad boy romantic rival Panther, she focuses on -Fox-. Krystal’s entire character in Assault is dominated by the existence of her love interest.

That is the worst case of “love interest centric” writing you can commit, because when you take the stuff away that doesn’t bear on Fox, you have so little left. I’d honestly consider Command Krystal BETTER than Assault, because her rude angry bitchy self was at least her OWN character and not joined at the hip to Fox. Notice how the cutscene with Fox and Krystal with Tricky, Krystal barely says anything worthwhile to the conversation? It’s all Fox being flustered liked a stupid teenager while Krystal coyishly “teehees” in the background while Tricky hammers in the fact they are romantic interests. No. Agency. But again, no one cares, because its fuel for their ships, amirite?

Now we get to who is in my opinion the worst offender of Assault’s derailing character writing, Wolf. Fox might’ve gone from heroic leader to bland cardboard, but at least he’s still the protagonist. Krystal might’ve been reduced to a vapid love interest, but at least she didn’t have much left to lose to start with. Wolf, though, not only oversteps his boundaries as an archetype, but he PUSHES OUT other characters from their meta narrative roles as well. Wolf is the black hole of Assault’s writing, and he absolutely got away with it because he’s “cool” and “badass”. He is the pinnacle of my point in this rant.

Let’s talk about archetypes again. Wolf’s is that of the eternal rival, the black recolor, the evil counterpart to the hero. His mission is to see Fox undone for the sake of his own ego. In Japan, a little more supplemental information is known, namely that Wolf has a rivalry with the McCloud family name as a whole starting with James, and Fox’s reaction to Wolf’s persistent pursuit is treated more humorously than in the west (namely Fox is subtly dissing Wolf rather than being intimidated by him), but these subtleties do not change the core base that Wolf is an impulsive, rivalry motivated antagonist.

So of course Assault saw fit to.... shift him into a mentor role. This only compounds for the worse when you consider the fact that Wolf only even formed Star Wolf because Pigma manipulated and goaded him into doing it (another Japanese lore tidbit), further cementing that Wolf does not make good wise decisions. He is violent and aggressive and obsessed with his rivalry. Why the HECK is he suddenly giving advice to FOX? Wolf is the WORST person to give advice or take advice from, he is literally Mr. Bad Decisions, but Assault’s writers saw fit to absolutely change his entire persona from an aggressive archrival to a quasi-antihero cool guy big brother-esque mentor... and Fox doesn’t even remark on it! (Another mark for Fox being OOC I suppose).

Worst of all though isn’t the damage this does to Wolf, but rather, to Peppy! Wolf becoming the mentor effectively butts him into Peppy’s meta narrative role, and he essentially replaces him for it. This isn’t to say Star Fox characters can’t develop and shift around and change, but Wolf doesn’t DEVELOP into a mentor, nor does Peppy develop BEYOND it. Wolf just usurps it from Peppy and proceeds as usual. Good character writing is finding how to fit a character into a story - that is, finding a role they fit into and working from there. This is why so many fan OCs fail - they don’t fit into a role, they usurp from canon characters. One need only look at all the Star Wolf OCs that exist purely to replace “uncool” characters like Pigma or Andrew and see the flaws. When you write to replace another character, you aren’t writing true to that character, you are shackling and chaining them down to the one they are replacing. This is what Wolf does in Assault: he is sloppily mischaracterized, and then because of that, he butts into another character’s writing space.

And once more, the fandom at large did not notice or care, because Wolf is “cool”, “badass”, et cetera. This is my beef. This is my issue. So I leave you with what I said at the start of this rant: do NOT just accept changes to a character because it placates you superficially. THINK about what roles it is a character serves and why, and respect that. Don’t just blindly complain about character derailment just when it suits you because you don’t like the change personally, or because it fucks with your ships. Press yourself to be better than that.

[survivor-switzerland]

EPISODE 5: BACKSTABBING ME BEHIND MY BACK - ABEL

ok so if we lose this next immunity challenge i kinda want brett out. he's a huge fucking threat that needs to go. i don't trust anyone enough on this tribe to make that move happen but im also pretty sure he has an idol because of the tasks challenge. i know that someone on that tribe has an idol so. guess we'll see.

max needs to go. he's rubbing me the wrong way and tried to tell me i didn't need to study for my exams and implied i can do the challenge? bitch don't fucking tell me what i can and can't do. i sure as hell CAN and WILL vote your ass out.

Yeah so Trent goes with 5 votes for him and 3 votes for (QUEEN) Renee..

I'm happy that the OG Monte Rosa members did not lose a number during the tribal and now Luke comes in to the Monte Rosa. Putting back the OG tribe ratio back to 4v4.

I wanna know how these last two votes went so bad! Both of them had been 5 - 3. I wanna know who got C'iere out because I wanted to work with him SO bad! And there's this vote where it was 5 - 3 again... What a time to not have a third eye or whatever.

Anyway I've been bonding with Ashley Sarah and before the vote she told me that Logan is friends with Daisy and stuff. Hmm Logan is becoming a bit dangerous for my taste, I'm still weary on that alliance that Tyler suspects of Logan, Nick and Dom. I need to continue spreading my network of information because if that tight alliance of three is legit they're dangerous!! But I'm gonna continue and be the friendly person I am because that is the foundation of my mad social skillz!!

This current tribe is the purrfect (oops) time to solidify something with Ash and Brett! Me and Tyler need to rally our own army if we're going to go against Nick and Logan's.

Now in my previous confessional I mentioned how I wanted to work with Zack, but now... I kinda don't wanna?? Idk after composing myself a little I feel frightened by him plus he turned his status on skype to "away" just because I talk to much? asdfghjk buddy if you wanna stop talking then come up with a lie, jeez that's what I would do. So right now I've just been quiet today since I've gotten self-conscious lol.

So we're doing a music video and I'm quite excited on how this turn out. The song were doing is something from Eurovision which I don't know what that is but I just went along because I've got nothing better to suggest, unless if this tribe was packed with otaku's I'd probably go at it. One last note, I'm going to the beach for 4 days tomorrow so wohoo for me!!

Ciao!

I'm now on the Monte Rosa tribe! Since coming back from Exile Island a few people have asked me "what happened" which is code for "did you find an idol?" and like...I don't think these people realise that the idol clues are literally relevant to the challenges HOW am I supposed to have gotten an idol when I couldn't do the challenge on Exile. It makes me laugh that these people apparently don't realise that but oh well. This tribe is pretty cool, I feel well connected so hopefully it goes well for me. Daisy spilled her guts to me about how Logan betrayed her at the last vote and lied to her so I know I have Daisy in my pocket again. Logan and Nick are obviously working together but Logan would more than likely choose me over Nick so I'm cool with that. Renee doesn't really speak to anybody but I know that Zack would expect me to look out for her so I'm going to do that as best as I can. Zack and Renee will be trouble if they meet up again so it might be time to take Renee out sooner so I'm conflicted about what to do. I'm Abel's only friend so THAT'S fun, he trusts me a lot. Benjamin and Lily are from OG Monte Rosa but I think they'd work with me if push came to shove.

My Tatzelwurm and I are doing well, we love that we got a round to sit and do nothing but I need to survive 2 more rounds until it can hatch and help me win this game.

The dreaded music video comp ugh how I feel right about now

I'm super nervous about this tribal. I feel like there's another swap coming up after this round or the next one. I need to start talking to people more but like I have a gut feeling that people are going to want me out. If anything they should want out Tyler for not doing... anything.

ok so i talked to zack and he doesn't have an idol. or so he says. it'd be stupid to not tell me because im literally trying to save him. but i know that i need to keep my mouth shut because this is literally the same situation that happened last time. i really want to work with zack and jev but at the same time, I'm here to win. I'm trying to beat my old placement. God i hope we just fucking win this immunity challenge.

whew... I really hope our music video wins? I'm not entirely too confident in my position in the game at the moment, even if I do have some loyal allies. And plus, this kinda scenario was what killed me in Solomon, so I don't wanna deal with the same scenario again, but just slightly further into the game.

Here's what i was venting about sorry.

so Ashley sarah and I may flip to jev and zack

at least making it 4-4

but what might also happen is I might try to get the 6 monte rosa to split 3 and 3

by planting a seed of doubt by telling them zack or jev has an idol

or at least telling them that I think they do and by being safe by splitted 3-3

Ashley sarah and I would vote opposite ways

so for example

me brett and ian vote for jev

ashleysarah max and tyler vote for zack

But Ashley sarah and I don't actually vote for either of them, instead we vote for Max/Brett making the vote 4-2-2

but that would take a lot of work and convincing

Thank GOD we won that immunity challenge because I feel like I'd have been in trouble had we not won, so thank you Monte-Rosa for serving Valentina teas with your lip sync!!

I

am

so

tired

of

Daisy's fake ass pretending to talk game to me when she throws me under the bus to everyone here. Our conversations go nowhere bc she talks in circles and won't ever be straight up. Also her handwriting is ugly. Flop ass flop.

Ugh! This game man. I just can't wait until it's all done and I never have to talk to these people again!

Ok, so Abel, Renee, Logan, Ben, and myself blindsided Trent last round... I am really glad it worked because it hopefully means that we should have a majority going into this round. Immunity is this ugly ass music video challenge... so I record me doing the entire fucking excruciating lipsync and then Logan forgets to edit me in the video :( I am not gunna hold it against him because he def put a ton of work into editing but I was really made. Since I lied to Daisy and Lily last round I had to mend some bridges this round. I try and tell Daisy that Logan and I were looking out for her because it was either Trent or her. Also I really want to have those bonds, especially with Lily down the road... you never want somebody in the game who will never work with you. So we lose immunity AGAIN and end our asses back at tribal council :/ I think this should be a fairly simple vote because we can just vote out Daisy for being a crazy ass messy player who legit throws names out the wazoo whenever we lose an immunity competition. However, I have this sneaking feeling that somebody might be trying to pull a blindside TM tonight, maybe Luke? I just hope im not the target of get blindsided... I think i have been playing a very lowkey game upto now, not the traditional crazy antics of my other ORGs, sure I have generally good connections with all my tribe mates, but I dont think thats enough to land my torch in the snuffer for a couple of rounds. I think this game has bigger fish to fry before I get served with a side of tartar sauce.

The time is here. I finally get to face Daisy in the face. The one who's been backstabbing me behind my back. This ends tonight. With hopefully...her blood...on these hands.

Honestly I'm probably going home but if I don't I need to CHILL OUT. Too many people are coming to me for plans with votes and I'm not here for it. I don't want to be seen as someone calling the shots, regardless if I am or not.

WHEW I WAS LOOKING AT THE WIKI AND ORIGINAL MATTERHORN IS TRULY IN SOME HOT WATER. 4 of us have already gone home and tonight it's looking like a 5th may be leaving so AHHHHHHHHH I brought it up to Renee and she was shook so. Whew.

I've been approached with two different plans tonight. One plan is to vote out Daisy and the other is to vote out Abel. I think I'm leaning more toward where the numbers are tonight and voting out Daisy. It's great for my game because people think she has the advantage (teehee) and she's also paranoid and doesn't trust me 100% so.

I'm predicting the vote tonight to be:

Abel - Lily, Daisy

Daisy - Luke, Abel, Renee, Nick, Logan

and Benjamin is in a gray area right now because nobody knows what he wants to do. I'm hoping this goes right because I'd be 4/4 for voting in the majority and controlling the vote teehee

So we win immunity again woo!!

So I'm now in an alliance with Ashley, Tyler and Brett!! Woo my faves!! Right now we're trying to figure out if there's indeed a GIANT pre-made alliance in this game. Ugh pre-mades... Anyway we think that Logan is the one running it and he has his hands on Nick, Dom, Daisy, Lily and Luke. That's dangerous as hell and if there is a pre-made well it needs to be killed like right now!!

So it seems like tonight it's either me or Abel. Daisy vs. Abel: The Showdown! Basically, I thought I had my numbers for Abel. I had me, Luke, Nick, and Lily and all I needed was Logan or Ben to have that majority. Ben's not answering me, so I talk to Logan and tell him to just be honest with me and tell me whether he's voting with me or not. He says he doesn't know yet, but it might be me tonight and he thinks people are lying. Which means that he's now gonna try to figure out what the majority actually is, and he might vote with me he might not. Ben gets back to me and says he's heard Abel. And right now I'm confident about Lily voting with me, maybe Ben because it seems like he's been busy. But I'm nervous about Nick and Luke. Luke is trying to comfort me and reassure me everything will be fine, and I can't tell if this is similar to when he would reassure me when I was just being overly paranoid, or if this is similar to when he reassured me that Abel was going home pre swap. Also I've barely talked to Nick, and he totally lied to me last round. So he could easily be lying again. Apparently Renee is voting for Abel too? Which shocks because I was told that they're a pair. I don't know, maybe she's just trying to make sure she doesn't get votes again. Or maybe she's not actually voting for Abel. I have no idea. I'm just scared, and I feel like anything could happen tonight. I hate going into tribal feeling like I have no idea how the votes are gonna fall. It's nerve wracking.

EPISODE 5

Now Trent's gone. Great. Literally the only two people I was excited to play with have already been gunned down and I didn't get to share so much as a hello with them. It's rather depressing. I'm going to do everything in my power while I am in this game to avenge both Keegan and Trent. The good news is that with so many of original Matterhorn destroying one another, we are now up 10-6 and now I only have 6 people left on my kill list.

There has been a lot of speculation as to how original Matterhorn's hierarchy was. The first two votes were unanimous, but in the tribal council in which Ci'ere was voted out, three votes were cast against Abel. Ci'ere was the first, obviously, and I'm thinking at this point that Trent was the second--and likely the reason original Matterhorn didn't attempt to draw him in when they were swapped an even 4-4. Now it's just a matter of figuring out the third vote. Furthermore, there were three votes against Renee, leaving two players in the minority of last night's vote. Did all of original Monte Rosa and Renee vote out Trent? Or were there fractures among Monte Rosa's votes? There's a lot more uncertainty about where you actually stand in the game when you haven't attended a tribal council. I'm really curious how everything is going to unfold.

The challenge was uh...it was a god damn music video. Shoot me in the face. I immediately volunteered to sit out only to face the revelation that Luke was on Exile and had now joined the new Monte Rosa, so we were EVEN and I couldn't fucking sit out! After pushing host Amanda into a vat of monoxide, I relaxed and was able to focus on the win.

How Music Video Challenges USUALLY Go:

1. Literally everyone has different awful taste in music and pushes for something they like to be the song of choice.

2. No one agrees on anything.

3. No one wants to be the editor (and can you blame them?)

4. 7/8 people begrudgingly learn a song they don't care for and roll their eyes through their entire recordings.

5. Shitty de facto editor puts together a slapstick, shoddy video.

6. The judges brutalize.

How Music Video Challenges SHOULD Go:

1. First establish the editor. Without an editor, you don't have anything--this is the most important step to the entire thing and really should be the only thing considered at the beginning.

2. You let the editor pick whatever fucking song they want and you shut the fuck up about how much you hate it for the sake of unity and in gratitude that you're not stuck with editing said video.

3. You film your scenes enthusiastically.

4. The editor, who has gotten their way with song choice and everyone has treated with a modicum of respect, is passionate about editing said video and puts together something actually passable.

5. The judges only brutalize slightly.

I want the above steps to be circulated to literally everyone who will ever play Tumblr Survivor or any similarly formatted series because I feel like people don't understand this formula and will continue to make asshats of themselves because of it.

So Maximilian stepped up to be the editor and that was the first time since this game has started that I've ever appreciated Max. Max fucked up in the scavenger hunt. Max was useless in endurance tasks. Max has just been generally useless. So the fact that Max stepped up to be editor, a major key role in this challenge--all the respect in the world. I could not be more grateful to Max for this. Max chose a rather annoying song by a Swiss artist, but it was a good song choice because if you're like me and don't want to learn the words to an annoying song, there is a lot of instrumentation and whistling in Sebalter's "Hunter of Stars." I did find it funny that Max chose a song with chorus lyrics: "Want me to go 'cause you think I'm lying." It's not lost on me.

I told the team that it would be cute if we were to all wear red/white in coordination with the colors on Switzerland's flag. I don't recall how many of these goobers actually complied with that, but for me, I had a blast with it. I remembered that my Harley Quinn shirt that was a part of my Halloween costume is those colors and it struck me that it would be fun to dress as Harley and have the baseball bat as a prop. In my first take, I attempted to fake-hit my phone with the bat, but I actually ended up hitting it dead on and I bashed my own phone! It made for a very funny music video closer and an excellent gif, but that was not my intention! Zack made the gif and I love it so much. I told Zack, "You are my favorite Matterhorndog." The rest of the scenes went much easier and I used an umbrella and a pinata in addition to the baseball bat as props. The following day, I learned that Tyler Fennessy was unable to participate and I printed out his picture and shot another whistling scene while I was at work, in my suit, at my hotel's lakeside patio.

All in all, Max edited a really fantastic video and they killed their scenes as well--the lip synching and violin playing as on point. I think my scenes were great and Ian was a terrific dancer and lip syncher as well. It was a brilliant team effort.

Can we talk about Monte Rosa's video for a second? Yikes. Renee was so cute and animated and I feel like I would really like her personality--that is all of the positive critique I have on that video. The guys were all terrible. Lily was terrible. Daisy...she really needs to reconsider her lipstick. I've gotta say. She looked like an extra from Glee. Logan's interpretive dance was ridiculous, but he has a pretty smile. The whole thing was an utter mess. And I feel Logan's pain. Finding someone to edit the video SUCKS. And if Logan had been voted out, I would have been pissed on his behalf. As far as I'm concerned, if you step up to be editor, especially if it's because no one else can be bothered, you are IMMUNE from being voted out. The loss cannot be put on you. So points to Logan for actually doing things and points to Renee for being cute.

The original Monte Rosa members on New Matterhorn are now 5-0 in challenge wins. Ashley Sarah, Dom, Ian, Maximilian, Tyler, and myself have never had to attend a tribal council in the first five rounds of the game. It's kind of awesome, but not being involved in votes really makes it difficult to cement bonds. Tyler finally got around to pitching the idea of an alliance to Ashley Sarah and now we are an alliance of four with Ian rounding out the squad.

A few things were discussed in this new alliance of four, titled "H4rmony" (I hate the name, but I don't care):

1. Ian believes Lily was one of the two who didn't vote out Trent last round due to a voting confessional that looks like something Lily's said before.

2. Zack has allegedly told Ian and Tyler that he believes Ashley Sarah has a hidden immunity idol--it makes us believe that he is actually in possession of one. That and/or the huge advantage that came with throwing the endurance tasks challenge.

3. No one trust Logan.

4. We want to keep a line of communication open with Jevvon as a potential wild card.

5. According to Tyler, Zack claims Dom has approached him about having an alliance including Dom, Tyler, Zack, and Ashley Sarah.

6. Everyone seems to have something going on with someone except for Maximilian. Because of this, I volunteered to speak with them to see where their head is at.

So I went and talked to Maximilian and conversation literally could not have gone worse. Max was already someone I found it very difficult to talk to and this conversation just made that concrete. Conversing with this loser is EXCRUCIATING. It is so bad. Max has this air that asserts their intelligence is higher than others (but with no actual credentials to speak of). And they're just so standoffish that I left the whole conversation feeling super uncomfortable. My strategy in speaking to them was to start with pleasantries and then ease into how never losing a challenge has lulled me into a sense of security I shouldn't have and I've found it difficult approaching people because I've been warned about a massive pre-made that exists (that last part actually is the truth).

HIGHLIGHTS

Max: "I've gotten to a point with this community where shouting about premades is a surefire way to get me to vote you out the next round, to be honest."

Me: Yikes. Well you can write down whichever name you like, Max."

Max: Not threatening you. It's just the pattern I've developed."

LITERALLY WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? Who fucking says that? Jesus Christ that was so uncomfortable. This asshat is non-committal and wants to just sit on their ass while this whole game happens around them. You do you, Max. But you know what's not good game? Not playing ball with someone attempting to play ball with you for no apparent reason. Zack might very well have an advantage or an idol to use if we lose the next challenge. I have a simple solution and Tyler agrees with me completely: play up that we are splitting the votes between Jevvon and Zack (3-3-2), forcing Zack's hand in using their advantage/idol, but actually voting out Maximilian, someone no one will be playing an idol on (4-2-2 or 4-2-1-1 or some variation of that). Even though I'm a Neda in nature, the Ika Wong can and will come out from time to time. And I'll take a shot at this guy when he least expects it. And I won't miss.