#then i was curious about what actually happens in the game so i read further. 3 hours later it was morning and i was changed as a person

[scarlet-bee]

I stayed up till morning last night reading the wiki pages for the DDLC characters, even though I've never played or watched videos of the game. No wonder it was so popular, god damn

[goodiegoddesselle]

my favorite pair | L. DH

pairing: enemy roommate!haechan x reader

genre: smut, sir/daddy dom, unprotected sex, degradation, pervert haechan lol, enemies to lovers, uses doll/toy as a nickname

summary: you see one day that your annoying roommate, haechan, hasn't done his laundry and just left his basket by the washing machine. sure, this is irritating, but it reminded you to do your own. when you finally start getting your own clothing, you notice that your favorite pair of underwear is missing. on top of noticing that, you notice that your roommate, who moves around the apartment a lot normally, hasn't left his room at all that day either.

wc: 3k

minors dni. dont like, dont read.

______________________________________________________

You were tired of him. Tired of the dishes constantly sitting in the sink. Tired of his friends constantly being piled up on the couch, like you didn’t live there too. Tired of all the noise from his gaming—finally, it truly occurred to you just how tired you were of your roommate Lee Haechan.

For the most part, he didn’t do much but sit around and annoy you, whether or not he actually did his chores. It was almost like he messed with you on purpose. Despite all of this, however, you couldn’t help yourself from still having a partially hidden crush on him.

Yes, sadly, you did have a crush on him. You did, but there’s only so much you can do about having a crush on someone that doesn’t really get along with you the way you truly would’ve liked. It was almost impossible not to, nonetheless, seeing as Haechan was one of the most gorgeous men out there. His hair was long, golden and wavy, his eyes glowed a glistening honey color, and his voice was sultry with the perfect tenor tone. And with the amount of talents this man had, there really wasn’t anything you couldn’t like him for.

Did Haechan know about this crush, though? Never in a million years. You figured you would die before he even came close to knowing about it, let alone actually knowing. Especially since he was so irritating to you, even at that moment.

“Ugh, can you actually do your damn chores Haechan? I would like to take a break too, y’know!” you called out. You were in your room, digging through your clothes after seeing his laundry basket lying next to the washing machine. You figured you might as well do the laundry anyway, since he wasn’t getting around to it and your clothing was beginning to pile up inside your room.

A deep sigh left you as you dug through your underwear and recognized that something was wrong. It was gone—your favorite pair of panties was missing, and oddly enough, this was the first time that has ever happened to you. Your eyebrows scrunched in complete confusion. Where the hell could they have possibly gone?

You searched a little further, peeking under your pillows and through the rest of the drawers until Haechan’s lack of movement started making you curious. Sure, he was annoying, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t another human, and he typically moved around the apartment a lot more than he was that day.

Immediately you turned around, walked out of your room, and headed to the bedroom next to yours. It wouldn’t take much to get in his room anyway, seeing as he was either playing a game or sleeping with all the grunting he was letting out.

At least, you thought so.

You simply knocked on his door twice before letting yourself in, ready to talk about his laundry until your eyes landed on your roommate, who rushed to pull his blanket over his completely nude body. The squat you would have to do to pick up your jaw would probably give you the strongest legs on Earth.

“Woah!” he yelled, his eyes wide as he scrambled to hide his hands under the blanket as well. “I, um—I was just, uh, I-I…”

“There’s no need to explain, Haechan,” you interrupted, a smirk slowly spreading across your face, “I already saw them. Really? That’s what you’ve been doing?” The laugh that left you made his face turn the hottest shade of red.

It wasn’t hard to see Haechan holding your favorite panties in his hand. For once, you weren’t angry about it either. It was, however, a teeny bit shocking instead. You didn’t know that he was like this at all, seeing as every time one of your pairs would go missing, you would find it somewhere in your room the day after. The whole time you just figured it was you making them disappear. At least, until now.

You walked a little closer to him, closing the door behind you and giggling lowly. “Lee Haechan, when were you ever going to tell me that you are the world's most hidden pervert?” you asked. It was like he was frozen in place, internally freaking out as you leaned in and ran your thumb across his chin, his breath completely silent. “Well? What are you going to say about all this?”

“You know what, I was going to find an excuse, but since you want the truth so bad…” Haechan sat up, suddenly grabbing your wrist and pulling it away from his chin while pulling you closer. Your eyes widened as he held up your underwear again. His lips rose into a cocky grin as he waved them back and forth, watching the annoyance cover your face all over again. “It’s one thing to want you this badly, y’know, but you make it really easy to come and get these. And if you want them back, babe, this time you’re going to have to work for it.”

You scoffed. “Work for it? When it belongs to me? Guess you’re always like this, huh?”

“Like what, Y/N?”

“So goddamn infuriating!” you answered, rolling your eyes. Haechan laughed and leaned closer and closer to you, all the way to the point where your lips were almost touching, but not quite yet.

“Do you know you only get hotter and hotter the angrier you get?” Haechan replied. “If you didn’t want me to be so ‘goddamn infuriating’, then stop being so goddamn hot.”

He closed the distance between you two, tilting his head and pressing his lips to yours. It took no time at all for you to respond to it. You kissed him back fervently and climbed further onto his lap, sliding your hands onto his shoulders and taking his words and actions as an invitation to fight back. It was hard to reject him, after all, especially after feeling his teeth graze against your bottom lip several times.

The feeling of Haechan’s arms wrapping around your hips brought you into a high you didn’t even know you could reach, only getting higher and higher as he leaned down to your neck, slowly leaving kisses and sucking marks onto your warm skin. Crowds of moans left your lips, making him bite even harder. Out of nowhere, he flipped the two of you over and shoved you onto his mattress.

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks or how much I infuriate you, babe,” Haechan whispered into your ear, licking the shell of it, “you’re mine whether you like it or not.” He tossed the panties away from the bed and went back to leaving hot kisses on your lips and neck. But this time, you could feel his fingers sliding down your torso, all the way until he reached your pajama shorts and pushed under them. Another chuckle left him, and you could feel your face scorching from embarrassment, knowing damn well that he was laughing because you weren’t wearing anything under them. Your lips separated for a moment, but shut shortly after, shyness killing your effort to say something before he did. Haechan, however, already knew where you were headed with that.

“Oh? What, do you only wear your favorite ones?” Despite knowing it was a genuine question on his end, you really couldn’t find it in you to answer him. You even looked away, but that had no point, especially since he grabbed your jawline and immediately pulled your head back into facing him.

“Look at me when I speak to you, and don’t make me tell you again,” Haechan ordered. “You can use your words, doll. In fact, I’d like it better if you did.”

“Um, n-no, I don’t,” you stuttered back. Haechan’s gaze alone was intimidating you, which only made the situation ten times better than when it began. In fact, it got even better than that, right when his fingers started lazily rubbing at your cunt, slipping between your lips and toying with your clit. A loud groan filled the room the moment he began.

Haechan slid two of his fingers into you while keeping his eyes on yours. “For someone that loves talking about how annoying I am, you’re pretty wet right now. Soaked, even,” he teased, fingers massaging at your sweet spot gently. “It’s real cute.”

A frown crossed your face. You wanted so badly to say something back to that, but there wasn’t much to say back to the truth, really. However, as he picked up the speed of his fingers, the frown died within a few seconds, followed by his name being pulled out of you. Each second after, you could feel yourself getting closer to finishing, and you were completely ready for it—until he ripped his hand out of you. At first you were upset about it, but then you saw him licking your essense off of his fingers with an evil grin on his face, and that settled right away, being replaced with the need for him to put something much bigger back where his hand was.

Haechan pulled his fingers out of his mouth and chuckled, saying, “don’t think I can’t tell when you’re almost there; you made that face like you were ready to explode.”

Another pout crossed your face. “Then why didn’t you let me get there?” you asked. His face straightened out as he looked at you like you truly didn’t understand the situation you put yourself in at the moment. Again, he grabbed your chin and made you face him, his eyes flaring now instead of swirling with honey like usual.

“Did you really think I was just going to let you cum and we’d be done here? When you haven’t even thought about what you need to do for me too? Get up.” His hand slipped away as he climbed off of you, gesturing for you to rise up as well and take your shorts off. Despite being ordered to, another thought came to your mind and you figured things would definitely get different if you followed it. This time, a smirk crossed your face instead, and you crossed your arms.

“If you want me to get up, make me, then,” you baited, watching a look of surprise spread across his face before disappearing quickly. Before you could even see what he was planning to do, his hand shot across the bed like lightning and grasped your wrist again, startling you. Somehow you knew where this was headed for you.

“Last I checked, doll, I told you not to make me have to tell you again,” Haechan growled, ripping you off of the bed and in front of him, “but if you’re going to make me, you’re going to find out why I warned you to begin with. Shorts, off. Now.”

Completely filled with intimidation, you wasted no time in pulling your pajama shorts off this time, being completely nude from the waist down. Haechan’s gaze swept over you before he lifted your shirt up and leaned in, lips heading for your chest, right below your neck this time. He began leaving spots all over it, suckling onto your skin and heading lower and lower each time. You couldn’t help yourself from whining as he did it, grabbing at his shoulders again as your legs shook.

“H-Hae…” you mumbled, grip tightening around him. Haechan’s teeth grazed across your right breast before his head lifted. “Is there something my little toy wants?” he interrupted. With a tight throat, you simply nodded, hoping you could find it in you to answer him with words this time, but it didn’t take long for you to find out that those words wouldn’t matter either way. He lowered his head again and bit on your nipple, making you cry out into the room.

“Remember what I said earlier? Disrespectful playthings like you don’t get what they want either way,” Haechan said, sliding his hands under your thighs and lifting you up. “Learn how to act right next time and maybe I’ll reconsider.”

“Yes…” you moaned.

“Yes what?”

“Yes, sir…”

Haechan hummed in response and turned around, pinning you against the wall next to the door. “Now it’s my turn to play with my little toy,” he muttered. It didn’t take much time at all for you to feel it—the feeling of Haechan stretching you out with his size alone, making you wonder if you could even take someone as big as that. Your face froze with your mouth open, facing the ceiling in complete shock, your soul escaping your body more and more the deeper he got into you. Haechan himself let out a long, smooth moan as he pressed into you.

“God, I never knew you’d be this tight, Y/N,” he said, pulling out a little before thrusting himself back in roughly. “So, so good…” The two of you stayed still for a moment as he let you get used to his size. After a few moments, Haechan began again, pushing and pulling himself in and out of you at a slow pace at first.

“Sir,” you finally spoke, “can you speed up a little bit?”

“I will if you ask me nicely,” he responded, still moving slowly just to mess with you.

“Sir, please speed up,” you pleaded. Haechan leaned down and left a quick kiss on your neck before speeding up to a pace more hasty, more rough and harder to handle. Part of you regretted asking him to get faster, but most of you couldn’t even focus on that. You were enjoying the sensation of his cock hitting your sweet spot full force each time he slammed into you, your back pressing against the wall as he fucked you.

“Look at my pretty little doll, taking it like she should be,” Haechan teased, going harder and harder into you. At this point, you could barely handle what he was giving you, but every part of you wanted it. Needed it, even. You could even feel your orgasm coming toward you full speed, like a car on the highway at night. With how loud you were moaning, too, everything in you knew that he could tell as well.

“I’m so close,” you breathed, your arms tightening around his neck as your cunt tightened around him.

“Really? Is my doll already so close? How bad do you want it?” Haechan asked mockingly.

“So bad,” you replied, “really, really bad…”

“Yeah? Then beg for it.”

“Please, sir, please let me cum; I need this so badly…”

Haechan reached his hand down and began stroking at your clit. “Keep going, babe.”

“I’m so close, please let me cum, I’m begging! I-I’ve been doing good, please, I’ve been a good girl,” you continued pleading as a shock of what felt like lightning passed through you. If he didn’t decide now, you were going to release either way, and you didn’t want to disobey him all over again just to get another punishment.

“Hmm,” Haechan hummed decisively, almost jokingly. “You have been doing pretty well so far… I think you’ve earned it. You know what to do; cum for me, now.”

Immediately you released, his order cutting the tie for you. You were squeezing his cock as your juices leaked out, spreading all over him as he continued to thrust into you. It was amazing, but the overstimulation was starting to hit you not too long after.

“S-Sir, I can’t take this anymore,” you cried, legs weakening around his waist as he continued.

“Yes you can, doll,” Haechan responded, grunting lowly, “because good girls take what they’re given. And I’ve got something for you to take.”

Your nails were clawing into his skin at this point. Tears rolled down your cheeks as the intensity increased. You could feel another orgasm coming for you, and your whole body was ready to implode all over again. Haechan pressed his face into your neck again, taking a deep breath in before moaning at full volume, picking up speed as he pounded into you.

Not too long after, Haechan’s teeth sunk into your collarbone again as he moaned, “now take everything Daddy gives you.” Instantly, you were filled with more and more of his cum as he came, pushing you harder against the wall and leaning up to kiss you on your lips instead. The two of you made out even after he finished, even after both of you noticed that his release was starting to drip out of you, and even after you noticed you had also came while he was getting off. After a while, the two of you finally pulled away from each other, Haechan still carrying you but just not against the wall anymore.

Soon after, the high started fading away, replacing itself with a different level of nervousness. The reality that you just slept with your crush-slash-enemy hit you like a full-force train. At some point, you decided that since you already did all of this, you might as well just let him know anyway. “I just wanted to say, Haechan,” you began nervously, “that I do actually like you… I just didn’t really have a way to let you know, I guess…”

The nervousness began peaking when all Haechan did was watch you in silence while blinking. Then, out of nowhere, another gentle laugh escaped him. “You think I didn’t know that, Y/N? What did you think I bothered you so damn much for?”

“You what?” you gasped. “You fucking knew that already and didn’t ask me out or something like that instead?” He shrugged.

“Just wanted to play with my toy first. You should already know that you’re mine. I’m just glad everyone else gets to know now, too,” he said. 

You sighed. “You’re so freaking annoying.” Haechan leaned in right by your face again.

“Doesn’t matter; either way you’re mine. Aren’t you, doll?”

[degenerateworm]

Need to know what your Wesker from the gaming HCs thinks of The Institute from the Fallout series. It's a caricature, so sterile and advanced compared to the wasteland it surrounds that it's an intentional narrative turn, dripping with allegory and metaphors to the dangers of assuming the role of creation.

I'm so deeply unwell trying to figure out if he'd get ideas, or cringe, OR BOTH, or be uncomfortable, or be too comfortable.

I am so so so curious what he thinks of Big MT - their situation, how they were all brilliant minds akin to his own with stunningly similar teachings that were destroyed by one man to prevent them from enacting bloody ruin - and the resulting insane Zero, Eight, Klein, Dala, Morbius and Borous. How they behave, how they echo out their original selves incomprehensibly, stuck in obsessions they can't shake any more than they can regenerate their brains' neutered nerve endings.

I can think of so many games that echo out the 'hey science, Do Not build the torment nexus, please' thing oh nooooo lol

Thank you for reading!

What's up Nshtn! Thanks for the ask!

---

In my opinion, his reaction would differ varying on what part your Wesker is from, mainly either pre RE5, or post RE5.

Pre RE5 Wesker would find it laughable that these game developers were actually trying to say something about scientific discovery, something that has been said a million times before.

He'd look at Big MT and view it as a failure, but one with so much promise. Including all the Think Tank members.

They had made so many incredible discoveries and inventions; Saturnite, the retrieval harnesses, cloaking tech and cyber dogs.

But their demise only showed their lack of ambition in Albert's eyes. They didn't go far enough. And they weren't aware of the traitor in their midst before it was too late, and they had all been turned into shadows of themselves.

Albert Victim Blaming Wesker.

In his eyes, they deserved it, because they were weak. And Albert? He is simply different™.

---

Post RE5 though is a whole different story.

Albert will empathise with the scientists, yet he will quietly admire Mobius' determination to stop the others before they can cause further damage to the Mojave.

After all, Wesker has now been humbled, irrevocably. He sees that even if he did succeed in his mission of spreading Urobouros, he could have damaged the world beyond repair, being what his so called 'godhood' could fix.

And he could have hurt you.

Secretly, Albert wishes he was like Mobius; wishes he had been able to see the reality in his complex fueled delusion, and stopped himself before he lost such a great part of himself that he felt empty inside.

Miraculously, Albert has you to help heal him, but he can't help but wonder what would have happened if you weren't there.

Would he go entirely mad, like the scientists of Big MT? He can only speculate.

But he knows that despite losing so much, he's gained a lot more than what he had.

Albert Whumpsker. He'll be okay.

---

Sorry I didn't get to cover the Institute in this one, I'll mull it over the next few days and if you want I can post that too. I hope you're satisfied, and thanks again Nshtn!

[mantequillamcwhoremick]

Hi! I ended up reading through Choas Plan in pretty much two days (your writing is actually phenomenal) but I was actually curious on your inspirations to write it? Did it come from any other particular works or maybe episodes from sp?

WHAT NO WAY😭😭😭😭😭😭WHAT THE HELL THAT'S SO NICE HOLY SHIT THANK YOU SO MUCH <33333

You can't just ask me shit like that dude I will respond with a huge fucking essay I LOVE questions like that!!!!

I honestly have several inspirations, many come from the show itself and some I've drawn from cyber crime documentaries and books I like (namely the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, you might recognize the scene with Mysterion and Harris in chapter 3 is very VERY similar to the one between Kaz and Jan Van Eck at the beginning of the book), but if you've read the notes in the fic you might have seen that the story idea was initially born when I was playing TFBW.

The Idea

The U-Stor-It scene where Butters/Chaos locks the C**n and Friends in the facility and talks to them through a screen was just so fascinating to me, it reminded me a lot of Jinx from Arcane and the Joker in The Dark Knight (especially because of the flashy decorations and graffiti). Mainly the story evolved from the question I posed to myself in that moment, which was: "What needs to happen for Butters to become someone like Jinx?" and that's how I started brainstorming the backstory.

The Backstory

Obviously that was inspired mainly by Linda's behavior in Butters' Very Own Episode, but it features elements from stuff all over the series and the games that prove just how fucked up Butters' parents are and treat him.

(Remember when in TFBW he mentioned that they bought an electronic lock system to keep him in his room because he left the bathroom once while grounded? yeah, that convinced me Butters' home life probably would only get worse with the years, especially with him entering his teens & puberty, and Post Covid honestly just confirmed that.)

The Villain/Hero Concept

I hadn't yet watched much more of South Park than up until seasons 15/16 so I didn't know about Post Covid's Vic Chaos yet, I mostly just wanted to do something with Mysterion and Chaos that had a darker and serious tone without either of them having any Marvel-esque powers or tech-organizations aiding them, something closer to the South Park lore at hand and realistic enough to feel like it could happen in our world.

Chaos' Methods

With Butters having a knack for Internet-related shit and him being able to hack into a baseball stadium screen to broadcast his evil plans in the Professor Chaos episode, and ofc his whole thing in TFBW and the episode of him becoming a pimp, I figured he has the stuff to be a hacker and entrepreneur.

I started getting spoilered a lot on the whole Vic Chaos and NFT scammer thing so even though I hadn't watched Post Covid I drew a lot of inspiration from that as well. I've been watching a lot of documentaries on Cryptocurrency scams and other cyber crime related stuff, so yeah all that shit also gets my brain generating a bunch of ideas as well.

Mysterion

As for Kenny/Mysterion's side of the story- I'm a huge fan of the "criminal who gets paid by a shitty pig/capitalist who would normally never hire them to take on a job" concept in Six of Crows, so that's how I got Harris involved, later further fueled by his Thin White Line arc in TFBW.

The way Kenny used his death powers in the C**n & Friends episodes I found very intriguing, and I absolutely LOVE playing around with them, so I included my own interpretation & spin of it as an active "superpower" he uses in order to be successful enough as a vigilante to be taken seriously. His canon powers separate him from your average humanbeing. It's a way to show the audience "hey look, Kenny really is just some guy, but also no one else could take on this role, ever. He may not have super strength or speed or money for equipment backing him, but he can get into places and out like no other person ever."

Coming up with a kryptonite-type weakness was also super fun, because I didn't want things to just be too easy. Mainly it's his need to remain anonymous, but the biggest reason for that need is because he needs to keep up his ability to financially support Karen. That, I obviously got from the show-, namely episodes like Mysterion Rises, The Poor Kid and City Part of Town, but his dynamic with Karen got increasingly more interesting and influenced in the fic after I played the TFBW DLC From Dusk Til Casa Bonita. The fact that he's so obsessed with keeping her safe the best way he knows how but completely overlooks to consider letting her have a say in it, is absolutely delicious. Like fuck yes, let's go complicate these character relationships (rubs hands evilly)

TL;DR

Inspirations come from all over, but of course the main ones do come from the show and games. Kenny and Butters have always been increasingly fascinating characters to me the more I watched the show, so the fact that Kenny canonically is the only kid Butters respects (source: s16, Ep "Going Native"), to an extent that in the future Butters funded his entire career, I thought had a shit ton of potential. Hence their friendship in the fic before "the incident", and the way Butters goes about Kenny now that he's taking over the town >:)))

Thank you SO SO MUCH for the ask!!!! I hope I didn't ramble too much for what you actually wanted to know, but I just absolutely love sharing my inspirations for this fic. Really gets my brain go brrrrr heheheh I'm so so grateful that this interests you <33333

[vraisetzen]

I do hope no one has asked this anytime recently and I just did not see, but I can't help but be curious about the child situation at the end of Notte Stellata!

Did they actually end up having children? How many did they have and(if you have any ideas)what were the names given? I'm also wondering what their parenting methods/dynamics are. I apologize if this is an odd question, but thank you for reading regardless😅

Hi Anon! Please don't apologise for this question, because it's actually quite interesting! So:

I had half-written a bonus chapter for Notte Stellata that I initially planned to publish in line with the release of the movies, or Kokushibo's first proper appearance (which will come first) — it basically surrounds Kokushibo, the Reader, and their family situation. I kinda delayed finishing it because I was a little burned out from writing in general, but —

As it happened, I've gotten quite a few Asks about this as well — if they had a kid, if they could have kids, etc — and I've been getting back into the spirit of writing, that I can confirm that yes, the chapter will be out by the end of this year (before November, hopefully!). And I hope it helps with answering your first question~

Now, for your second question...

I thought long and hard about the names Kokushibo and the Reader would give their children, as a name nerd myself. Personally, I think the Reader would be quite modern, despite her taste for the classical arts. Michikatsu, on other other hand, as a man from a bygone era, would be a bit rigid when it came to names, preferring a tōriji (generational name) that could represent not only the renewing of the Tsugikuni family, but also a combination of the Reader's and his hopes for their children. This, naturally, led to a disagreement between the both of them

"Kiyo?" Michikatsu asked, looking across the Gō board as his hand hovered over the lines.

"Why not? It's a very popular name," you remarked. Canting your head to the side, you began listing out the names of children you heard whilst walking in town, the voices of their exasperated mothers echoing in your head. "Tomo, Teru, Nao..."

The stone he had been pinching between his index and middle fingers made a dull clack as Michikatsu dropped it back into the bowl.

"Tsugikuni Nao," he declared, with more than a touch of disdain in his voice.

"Sounds rather fashionable," you offered.

"It sounds provincial," Michikatsu remarked, fishing for another stone in his bowl.

"What do you have in mind then?"

Michikatsu stilled for a moment as he considered your words, his thumb polishing the glossy black stone in his hand. Then, slowly, he said: "Nobuzaemon..."

"What?" you giggled, hiding your grin with the back of your hand.

"A chi'd's name should be treated with care and importance," Kokushibo reasoned, placing the stone on the board with a light clack. "It determines their life and the path they will take."

"Still, we're naming a child, not a kabuki actor..."

Kokushibo said nothing further thereafter, and a stiff silence befell the two of you; as he continued with his game, you noticed that he seemed rather distracted. The sounds of the stone tapping on the Go board were louder than usual, each move proceeding faster as he filled the intersecting lines. Still, you chose not to comment, wondering instead if you should have humoured him when he suggested that name, however strange it was to your ears.

But the child is mine too, you thought as you tucked yourself in bed that night, after you two had spent the rest of the day and evening without exchanging another word. You were happy to concede to Kokushibo in many things — craft and repair, his knowledge of the arts, his skills on the Go board; just as he deferred to your expertise when it came to choosing his clothes, tidying the house, and managing your shared expenses. But a child was no room for compromise; Kokushibo's suggestion had indeed sounded antiquated to your ears, and you would loathe for your child to be teased by other children.

"I have something for you," you suggested three afternoons later when you realised you could not bear the cold drift that hovered over your heads. Michikatsu was seated in the yard, affixing a new strap for his sandals. You sat down beside him, and produced a piece of paper which you had folded carefully and stowed in your sleeves.

Smoothing out the creases, you revealed what you have committed yourself to for the past few days: a list of kanji that you liked in names: Tada, Kiyo, Hiro, Kazu...

Kokushibo's eyes drifted from the paper and to your face with curiousity. You continued: "You can add your favourite characters here, and we'll choose a name that we both like."

Taking the parchment from your hands, Kokushibo was quiet as he took in your selections. Eventually, he folded the paper back along the lines and slipped it into his kimono.

"I'll think about it."

"Don't just think," you countered, You tucked the paper further into the folds before pressing your hand against his chest. "Write anything that comes to your mind, and let me know when you're ready."

You stood up, and dusted away the dirt on your clothes. As you prepared to leave, however, Kokushibo grabbed you by the wrist, tugging you to an abrupt stop. Turning around, you saw that he was on the verge of saying something: an acquiescence, then? Or an apology, perhaps?

But you noticed how the hardened lines in his brow had softened somewhat, and he decided to let go of your hand without a word; instead of dropping your hands to your sides, you let your fingers linger a moment longer, brushing against the calluses of his palm, a small but knowing smile on your lips.

Now, if we're talking specific names — and I hope that I do not ruin anyone's headcanon of how Kokushibo/Michikatsu had named or would name his children (canonically and in the context of Notte Stellata) — I think the Reader and him would eventually choose Tada, which can be written as 正 (which means steadfast and upright), 忠 (loyalty), amidst other characters and meanings. Kokushibo would be partial towards the second, I believe, as a former samurai.

This could therefore imply the following name combinations and meanings:

Tadanobu 忠延 — loyalty + continuation/perpetuation

Tadasuke 忠仰 — loyalty + admiration/adulation

Tadahiro 忠熙 — loyalty + radiance

These names are generally considered a little old-fashioned, but not too much (like the one Kokushibo suggested, which comes straight out of Kurosawa film). It's a sensible old name (think Theodore, Frederick, Percival).

For a daughter, however, they would choose something a lot less intense, for lack of a better word. I'd like to think, in line with the Reader's flair for painting, that they chose a name with an -e (絵, meaning painting or illustration) at the end, which gives us something to the tune of:

Yukie 雪絵 — lit. snow painting;

Fuyue 冬絵 — lit. winter painting/landscape

Tsukie 月絵 — lit. moon painting (this is a little on the nose, but I love it, honestly)

This, of course, harkens also to the Reader and Kokushibo's first encounter, where they met beneath a moonless sky, in the snow.

I hope this was helpful! I most certainly had a lot of fun thinking of the various names they would have. :D

xoxo, V ♥️

[gulava]

Sora may have opened the door in KH1

This isn’t to say Riku didn’t do wrong in KH1. He did. But, as far as the door and Destiny Islands is concerned, I think we’ve been getting hints for 20 years that it was Sora and Riku just got blamed for it on top of what he DID do.

How did Riku leave the islands? He disappeared into darkness and woke up at Hollow Bastion. You’ll recall Alice Lidell did the same. A disappearing act, so to speak. Data Riku and Xehanort leave through a dark corridor as well.

In the film, Alice cried tears and floated into Wonderland. Water plus sadness equals DARKNESS, my friends. She never opened the door.

Whether KH2 First Visit Belle is a Riku or Sora parallel in this particular scene is in the eye of the beholder. She’s a Disney character in a relationship so she’s one of the characters that it switches depending on the circumstance to create a balance in the relationship that is Sora and Riku but...

The 3D scene in the dream had me very...curious as to what was going on because we didn’t see Ansem SOD in the original version and sleep holds our memories they say which is why Roxas was able to access Xion’s memories and tell Axel something only Xion would know. That he’d always be there to bring them back. I don’t want to imply Ansem SOD possessed Sora in this moment but it’s plausible since...they met earlier. It always came off as odd to me that Ansem SOD would even speak to Sora if he wasn’t about to use him.

YMX says that Ansem SOD possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time which...okay, then why wasn’t he with Riku here...? He doesn’t follow Riku when he runs to the inlet. He doesn’t follow him in the dark corridor either. We don’t even see Ansem SOD again until Hollow Bastion way later on when we KNOW he actually does possess Riku. Riku doesn’t know him in the COM Novel when he meets him on the islands during Departure. HE DOESN’T KNOW HIM. Sora does. Isn’t that...suspicious? All Ansem SOD says is that the door will open soon and Riku goes off to find Sora. He doesn’t open a door!

He doesn’t remember Ansem SOD being there.

But he was following him.

Right before this scene, Data Riku states something very interesting after Data Sora accuses him of causing the bugs (the cause being Sora’s shadow). He says: “This world has been connected. Memory and reality now stand tied. It’s time for you to learn the truth.” Ansem the Wise states that data is a clue. The Datascape is shown again in Re:Mind to “remind” us that the future is already written and to go back and revisit the game known as Coded. But I recommend ALL the games on top of that so you can put the pieces together like I have. This is what Remy from Ratatouille was trying to tell Sora and co. about the fruit that he was gathering. (Essentially Nomura trying to hint to the audience that the answers are all THERE if you do enough digging.) He was trying to take the pieces and make it into a dish. In each game, therein lies another hint. Another piece of the puzzle. This is how I work out my theories. I treat each game as apart of each other without the assumption that nothing was planned. This is how Riku laughing like Namine did in COM WORKS even if it’s only finally shown in 3D and KH3. Writing evolves over time and so do characters.

“On the road ahead, more than one truth will come to light.”

What strikes me as even odd is that what they use to put Sora in a deeper sleep in 3D is things that happened back when the Islands fell but one of them wasn’t Riku holding out his hand or Kairi being swept away from darkness. It was something we never saw. It’s Ansem SOD coming up close to Sora while he’s either sitting or lying down. Perhaps...before he took a nap at the start of the game even. Hopefully, you’ve read my meta on how Replica Riku has some of Sora’s memories. Horrifying really as he’s used to play on Sora’s guilt as a way to get him further into the castle. But there’s one line in particular that bothered me to no end in the COM novel.

Ventus didn’t remember what happened to Strelitzia nor taking the book for himself. Baldr didn’t initially remember what happened to Hoder. It’s not that hard to grasp Sora might...not correctly remember a good chunk of things. Especially with how vaguely he describes his KH1 hurt in KH3. I imagine a person whose eyes cannot lie like Master of Masters...might educate him on the truth and it will probably be very ugly. My understanding is Sora’s true darkness will involve remembering. Yes, forgetting can hurt but knowing the truth will hurt you even more. I think remembering everything will be what breaks Sora. It certainly didn’t have a good reaction on Ventus or Baldr, now did it?

A very small bonus. Yuffie, a memorable “thief”, opens a door and hurts Donald in the process in the world right after the door opens and the darkness carries Kairi away so...there’s that. Sora is shown running through it also.

TLDR; check out the rest of this scene from KHUX below.

Alice is on trial for opening the door to Wonderland and she didn’t do it but is found guilty despite the lack of evidence against her. Hm...but how did Player get into Wonderland, I wonder? Ever consider that?

*glances at Sora*

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Hello! I was actually wondering, do you happen to have any concept art of namira by chance? I've been so curious to see anything of her if you have it or could find it. thank you sm for running this blog, it's awesome 😊

You know what, I wasn't consciously thinking about it but reading your question I realized I don't think I've ever come across any Namira concept art. In fact I've barely ever seen any official art of Namira either. There's a bit of art of Namira such as the little Gif of her from Daggerfall below.

This is how she essentially appears in-game. Mark Jackson did alot of the Daedra art for Daggerfall and could have made her design, but unfortunately none of his released sketches feature her so we don't know who did her Daggerfall design.

There is also this official art above. This art is titled "Namira's Shrine" and was produced for The Elder Scrolls: Legends

*Unfortunately the artist is unknown* If any one knows the artist or studio please comment below!

Lastly of course we have the also uncredited Namira Icon from the ESO forums as well as the Reachfolk Namira symbol further below, which is also from ESO.

All in all, there's surprisingly little art of Namira and essentially no public concept art. I'm rather disappointed as I'm sure you may be but I'm glad we at least have the Legends art of her shrine, even if it's uncredited.

[idrellegames]

Apologies if this (or anything similar) has been asked before, but how long did Wayfarer take to plan/write/etc before you started posting about it on tumblr or actually.. writing the game?

I'm currently in the very early planning stages of my own IF and I don't want to rush on making the worldbuilding. I imagine lots of planning went into Wayfarer (?) before you started to actually write the game or promote it on tumblr, and I suppose I'm just curious to know? Again, my apologies if this is a weird question or one you don't want to answer.

Oh that's a good question!

To be honest, I wouldn't use what I did as a good example of what to do. 😅 As some of you know, Wayfarer has its roots as a Dragon Age fan game. That game went nowhere (and has no similarities to Wayfarer other than Alexia, Ren, Calla and Aeran were all originally OCs for it), but it did mean that I had an audience from the DA fandom when I made the switch to original writing. I made this blog and did announcement posts and OC questions before I had anything substantially written. I released one demo in May 2019 and didn't get much further than that.

2020 was when I made changes and abandoned the fan game to work on what is now Wayfarer. I did about 5 months of plotting and planning before I made the announcement; I actually did most of the initial worldbuilding and outlines for a video game scriptwriting course I was taking at the time. I had to develop a game bible for a hypothetical game, so I used Wayfarer for that coursework, although that game bible is not very representative of what the game is now since I had to do specific things in specific ways to appease my professor.

The first thing I did after announcing the switch to orginal fiction was commission a portrait of Mel. 😂 I already had portraits of Aeran, Alexia, Ren and Calla and though those ones were commissioned while the game was still Dragon Age, their character designs are still the same. Though I don't think artwork is necessary to have a successful IF, it can be very helpful in terms of gaining an audience. Visuals are eye-catching!

I tried a lot of different things in 2020. Some things worked, some didn't. The first half of the year I was worldbuilding, outlining, and reworking the game bible. I wrote and coded a Prologue that eventually got scrapped, and the beginning of Episode 1 up to the fight with Kane, which didn't. I livestreamed it on my Twitch channel with my partner reading and doing voices (shout out to anyone who remembers Southern Sero because that was... a thing that happened).

I rewrote the Prologue with the one we have now in September 2020 and worked to add more material to Episode 1 before making an official game announcement in November 2020. I can't quite remember how far that first demo went, but I think it was the Prologue and Episode 1's fight with Kane if the player went to Rat Alley and up to the end of the meeting with Zenaida if the player went to the docks. All of that would have been around 51k words of playable content in the game when the demo released.

Looking back, I probably would have done things differently. I also think that there's no one way to make an IF. What works for one person is not necessarily going to work for another, it's okay to find your own path. 💗

But I can give a little bit of advice:

You need to know what you are writing before you go ahead and write it. IF is not a medium that can be pantsed (unless you're creating a short or micro game). Get comfortable plotting and outlining in well in advance. You should have an idea of how your game is going to shape up and the main thrust of the plot before you start, otherwise you're going to get overwhelmed with too many ideas and risk fizzling out.

To promote a game, you need to have a game. Before you launch an announcement post and officially start marketing your game, you need to have a playable demo with substantial content. Think of it this way: you only have one shot to make a first impression and it has to be a good one. The demo needs to introduce the player to their character, the world, the game's main mechanics, and a plot hook. The amount of work this is going to take is going to differ depending on the scope of your game and your writing style, but a character creator and 1000-3000 words is not going to cut it.

Don't use your blog as a way to worldbuild. Keep that offline and between you and your beta group or writing circle. If there's one repeat tendency I've seen a lot over the past few years of IF development on tumblr, it's that there is sometimes more interest in answering OC asks and writing flash fiction and answering prompts then there is in writing the game. These asks can be a lot of fun and can absolutely drive engagement for your blog, but at the end of the day they can either take away from the time and energy you should put towards your game or they will spoil the development of your characters for the players. The line between player engagement and player participation in a game's development is a very fine one that can get tricky to walk.

Worldbuilding isn't something that you do at the start and never again. It's something that grows with you as your write your project; sometimes you'll have to shift things and change them, fill in holes you didn't see coming, scrap ideas entirely. Allow yourself breathing room. I think you're off to a good start by knowing that you don't want to rush the worldbuilding. It's something that takes a lot of time to grow organically, and it's going to change and grow with you.

Good luck! 💖

[revserrayyu]

2.6 Penacony thoughts [part 3]

**Spoiler warning** for the very last bit of the story, starting with the party setup and everything that follows after. Of course don’t read further you haven’t finished the story for yourself because I wouldn’t like the ruin the experience for you.

I always love how self aware the game is. I personally can’t remember why he would be here right now but his tendency of using movie terms so passionately at every chance he gets is endearing to me for some reason, so I’ll let his sudden appearance slide just because I enjoy having him around.

Boothil calling Robin “singing queen” is something I didn’t know I needed until it was said and done, like shut up that’s adorable.

Him opening up about his past in an attempt to calm her down before the performance.. y’all, this pair was cute to me before but this whole patch has sold me on them.

Reca literally calling people npcs but at least he says they can still hold value and the power to influence others. I think life can be thought of this way too, like other people obviously can’t be you, they may not even be part of your supporting cast of characters, but they’re still human and should at least be treated with kindness because who knows how they may or may not affect your life.

Robin mentions Sunday once and all I can imagine is him still chained up to that chair Jade found him in. Really looking forward to seeing how our holy man manages to return in 2.7. I’m still placing my own hopes on him accepting Jade’s deal but we shall see. If so, I’m curious to learn what the consequence will be and how people’s opinions of Jade might change. I wonder, if she saves your beloved Sunday, would y’all still dislike her? I’m already so fond of her so naturally I’d love to give her more praise if such a scenario does happen.

But Robin has seemed so downcast ever since that final battle. Poor girl. She really has been doing so much on her own since Sunday got locked up. You don’t have to do everything by yourself sweetie! So many people are willing to help!

Ma’am you're so pretty. DJ queen is truly a bright and beautiful sight to behold! I’m glad she’s able to smile so big after all the chaos Penacony experienced recently.

And then we have our lovable cowboy sitting off to the side enjoying the show.. until some random npcs come over and drag him to the dance floor so he can really sway to the beat.

As much as I love seeing the Trailblazer wield different weapons in cutscenes, I really wish we pulled out the bat or lance for this one. Seeing us hold out the hat while Dan Heng wields Cloud-piercer and Rappa with her giant shuriken just makes us look a bit silly.

I did like how Reol’s song from Rappa’s trailer played in game during that whole section where all we did was spam Rappa’s technique and chase down Profnana. I hope Hoyo continues to include trailer songs more in the actual story in the future, like how they included a calmer version of Monodrama during the 2.3 Sparkle bomb hunt scene.

All that nonsense with the monkeys is happening and March is over here just living her best life at the concert. I suppose that’s fair. She was hard at work during our recent trip back to the Xianzhou with her training arc, fight against Hoolay and calming down a raging Feixiao, so now it’s our turn to endure all the craziness.

Never in my life would I have imagined seeing Boothill in the spotlight during one of Robin’s shows and yet here we are.

He’s such a fun, entertaining character.. I guess if he can moonwalk during his own trailer, he’s perfectly capable of tap dancing and busting out some silly moves like this.

Behold! A literal definition of crashing into a party.

At least we provided Dan Heng with a soft landing? Seems we’re totally fine with it too if the rock n roll hand signs are anything to go by.

Rappa naturally makes a much calmer landing, until one of her spray can bonks her on the head again. Still a fine ending to a successful mission.

Damn dude, what else has the IPC done to you?

I’m actually not too surprised to see Rappa act this way? like she doesn’t seem the type of person to be completely hung up on getting revenger over someone else who wronged her. She’ll still feel hatred towards them, sure, but she’s able to put all those emotions aside and focus on other things if she wants to, like that whole band side quest that recently started.

I dunno, I still think attending university in a dream is such a wild concept. Penacony is truly a bizarre place.

Oohh boy. Safe to say we’ll be seeing these two again in the future, yeah?

Well, that’s all for now. I did finish the whole band side quest that had all the rhythm games last night and it was fine. Far less Serval than I had originally expected with how the 2.6 livestream introduced the event though, but at least she was there for a fleeting moment.

[divinekangaroo]

Thanks @palmviolet for tagging me!

How many works do you have on AO3? 154

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 900k

3. What fandoms do you write for? Peaky Blinders, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy VII, Dragon Age II, The Professionals.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Interesting and not straightforward question: I've been writing since 2007 and only rebooted my fics to AO3 in 2023. I backdated them to time of writing rather than posting live into the current update stream. I was vaguely curious to see what *actually* attracts readers through the AO3 search engine. So, my current top five are all Peaky Blinders Tommy/Lizzie fics, and given my small followers list, everyone following me will probably already have read them!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do, and it’s my vain (both senses of the term) struggle with how to do it appropriately. I am conscious of how comments, particularly on an AO3 "archival" fic, can weight a reader's further interpretation/engagement of or with fic by that author, and that I'll never put so much time into comments as I do into fic.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The fics I thought of picking for these two pretty much overlapped. Perhaps this shows just how I approach happiness – it’s moments, it’s never an ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Only old Dragon Age fics. Interesting period of time where any fic author that didn't unequivocally support the moral rightness of one particular character's opinions was targeted. Like: ok to write torture/rape fics of this character, but only if it was clear the author thought this character was morally right. Such a destructive troll.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I'll write sex, mostly as part of a larger arc rather than standalone smut; often it is a partial scenario rather than linear start-to-end event written in a rhythm to support a coherent wanking rise-to-climax read. I'm pleased if people find it pushes their buttons, but I'm also not bothered if it doesn't. I do approach smut as one of many possible lenses or frames for a character, however, so smut that detaches from character confuses me.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Sometimes but they have to feel really right. I think I tend more to fusion or pastiche (I think those are the terms?) rather than crossover: I take a particular character concept/theme and port them into a particular environmental context which is not possible in the canon to see what happens. The only one I still have up is a FFXII/Dragonriders of Pern fic (incomplete) which was going to be all about the horrible knowledge of socially accepted and endorsed ritualised rape and forced feminisation of a character.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I'm not that popular to notice.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have a memory of one in FFXII but can't recall.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! Taught me a lot, including the kind of writer I am - difficult to collaborate as my push to complete within a motivational urge period will always be greater than a long-haul effort, and I struggle to be available for other people. I’m either good at the front end ideas-generation, or a micro detail ‘write this particular thing/scene and fill it with goodness’, and not very good at the middle bit – the long slot of planning and plotting and aiming for consistency etc. I am so grateful fandom exists to support non-traditional prose formats which let me play with writing and thinking and engagement without needing to produce to book-style production standards.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship? I usually fixate on a character, and pairings allow means to explore that character rather than being an end game.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Oh they all carry this potential. *cries* The issue for me is loss of motivational drive/thinking; because I rarely have good structural notes etc if I lose my immediate thread of 'thinking of everything all at once' I find it hard to pick up again later. I also stop some fics because I realise how ambitious the scope really is, and I feel like I can’t do them justice.

16. What are your writing strengths? Speed-sketcher? Completionist? Tests multiple ideas rapidly and freely and never worries about something 'being wrong' because there's always another fic to try? Intuitive gut level hits on characterisation here and there?

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Editing, pacing, I can't sustain long fic, I frequently move characters around like paper dolls for the sake of the cool and forget they need their own internal motivation.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I prefer the kind of cant-based/dialect-based approach which splices non-English terms fluidly into English dialogue, mostly because as a child of many migrants this has been my world experience. I do suck at writing this, hence my frequent use of cop-outs to say 'language shift here, meanwhile still writing in English'. But when it’s done well it hits so many of my sweet spots.

19. First fandom you wrote for? FFVII.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Anything in my Personal Favourites list: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3728710. (I'm still too close to Peaky Blinders to pick a fav, it'll take about five years of distance!)

[daitranscripts]

Hi! I really love the project and all the work you've been doing so far. <3 I wanted to ask if you knew what Leliana's HoF dialogue is if you defiled the ashes but she's still alive and if it changes at all if she's romanced with doing the same? I'm not sure if it's possible in-game but Keep allows that worldstate. I would assume it's the typical "trusted friend" and "my love", but I was curious.

Hello! This is actually my canon world-state, and it is possible in game. If Leliana is with you when you defile the Ashes, you can either kill her or intimidate her. Intimidation does not end the romance - it only lowers approval (that can be regained with gifts!). If she is not in the party at the Temple, when you return to camp she will either leave or be persuaded to stay (I think the Warden can lie to her? I'm hazy on the details).

The DA:I romance dialogue only requires the plot flag of "Leliana romanced" to be true, and "Leliana died" to be false. When you ask her about the Hero of Ferelden, she has 6 possible responses:

romanced, Warden died (and Leliana was not killed by the Warden) We were in love. Even in the midst of all the chaos, I was happy. Truly happy. And then [they]… I’m sorry, I’d rather not talk about this. ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

romanced, Warden alive (and Leliana was not killed by the Warden) [They are] always in my thoughts, even when we’re far apart. My love is on a quest of [their] own. When the Inquisition has no further need of me, I will join [them]. For good, this time. I have lost enough. I will not lose [them] as well. ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

killed by the Warden The “Hero of Ferelden.” (Laughs.) There are no heroes in real life, just people. And people can do terrible things. Like striking me down, for example. It’s hard not to bear a grudge. ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

left the party due to low approval/crisis The Hero of Ferelden was not what I expected. We traveled together in the early days of the Blight, but joining was a mistake. We never got along. I was young and had silly ideas. ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

any other approval level, Warden died I had the privilege of calling [them] “friend” before [they] died. The world seemed much duller after that. It still does. ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

any other approval level, Warden alive I count her among my closest friends. She’s probably the only person I trust completely. I haven’t heard from her in some time. She just… disappeared. I try not to think of what might have happened. or I count him among my closest friends. I still write to him for advice when I can. He hasn’t replied to my letters in some time. I try not to worry about it. He can take care of himself.

Interestingly, the plot flag ID for "Leliana died" is not the same as "Leliana was killed at the Urn." Using the plot flag editor, there are two different flags for her death:

Did the Warden kill Leliana after destroying the Sacred Ashes? - Did the Warden kill Leliana after a crisis unrelated to the Urn of Sacred Ashes?

Both of these plot flags are found in in the DA:I files, but her conversations with the Herald/Inquisitor about dying at the Temple of Sacred Ashes use the flag for "Did the Warden kill Leliana after a crisis unrelated to the Urn of Sacred Ashes?", and not the one that is... actually about the Ashes. I don't actually know if it's possible to kill her in any other way in DA:O, honestly.

Hope this helps :)

Edit: Sorry looking back at the question, I never really answered. If you defile the Ashes and do not kill Leliana, the game will go based off the romance/approval flag - DA:I doesn't read the "Warden defiled the ashes" flag, only Leliana's fate.

[cozyhatchling]

I loved baby Zhongli hcs so much, he's my baby pebble😭❤️ Could I please request some hcs for him with cg Venti?❤️

Of course! Thanks for the request~

Little Zhongli and Carer Venti Headcanons!

Caution: minor spoilers ahead for Prologue and Chapter 1!

Little Zhongli is usually very self-sufficient, so having a carer of any type had never even entered his mind!

Venti only found out about Zhongli's regression when he paid a surprise visit to his old friend

Zhongli was very confused at the time and snapped out of his regression fairly quickly, but Venti had still seen enough to know that it was adorable

Zhongli wasn't going to bring it up again; though he's not particularly self-conscious about his regression, he didn't really see a reason to involve anyone else

Venti was pretty insistent, however! He was super curious and had lots of questions

Zhongli eventually made Venti stop asking questions and offered to let the him know when he was feeling small again so Venti could just see for himself

So a few weeks later, Zhongli went ahead with this plan because Why Not, and Venti was just so overcome by the cuteness of it all

He didn't really know what to expect, but he wanted to bring Zhongli something to make him feel more comfortable (even if it wasn't really necessary), so he brought a little dove plushie with him

His gift was accepted with enthusiasm! (Well, as much enthusiasm as little Zhongli usually shows, which isn't too much; he's usually a very chill and relaxed little guy)

Most of this first visit was just Venti cooing over little Zhongli, encouraging him to play and being silly as possible to get a smile out of the little dragon~ He even managed to get Zhongli to let go enough that he grew the cutest lil dragon horns and tail, which Never happens

After this, Zhongli started letting Venti know when he was regressed more often; though he wasn't always in a playing mood, it was nice sometimes to have the other Archon around to encourage him to slip even further than usual

Venti loves to bring little Zhongli gifts! They're usually stuffed animals or engaging toys, like children's puzzles or games

He also plays and sings for Zhongli, both bouncy, happy music and sweet lullabies~

Zhongli also finds himself more likely to transform when Venti is there; he even ended up fully in his dragon form a few times (though as a cute little hatchling, of course!)

Though Venti is very silly with little Zhongli, he's inwardly so honored that Zhongli trusts him enough to show this vulnerable side of himself~

Zhongli is surprised that having someone act as a carer for him is actually quite fun! Though he still usually regresses by himself, he's so appreciative to have the option of someone to look after him if he wants/needs it

Ahhh, I was trying to find a middle ground between calm little Zhongli and excited Venti, I hope it turned out okay!

I found the Morax plush right here!

If you'd like to make a request of your own, check out my info post and active ask game!

Thanks for reading!

[canmom]

animes 2023

i didn't watch a ton of seasonals but i watched more than usual so... looking back? very somewhat brief comments! obviously inspired by @kbnet doing the same.

Tengoku Daimakyou

fave anime this year was probably Tengoku Daimakyou. easily the one that stood out the most from an animation perspective, the wonky brain transplant gender thing was a lot of fun, and for better or worse i seem to have now trained a pretty high tolerance for an impactful but questionably necessary sexual assault subplot in the finale.

I kinda get it, it'd been telegraphing a fascination with what makes gender, with power and exploitation, and in general the difficult experience of sexuality from pretty early on. there's a lot of ways that Robin could turn out to have clay feet when we meet him. they went for about the nastiest possible; that episode becomes a bit of a rape-revenge plot. the real question will be how they handle the aftermath.

and honestly? I am really looking forward to where it goes. I'm intrigued by what will happen to the psychic kids, I'm enjoying the main pair's meandering journey. it can deliver an impactful episode plot that hits hard, but it also definitely feels like it has narrative momentum towards something.

technically it stayed insanely strong throughout: the characters are distinctive and expressive, the animation is super lively, the backgrounds gorgeous. love to see Production I.G. firing on all cylinders like this.

Oshi no Ko

Oshi no Ko from the same season was also very solid, like it definitely dangles a pretty wacky premise, but it turns into this very earnest thing about acting and the many tensions and violences of the entertainment industry. Since watching that I've read all the manga that's available in scanlation, and it's a pretty direct beat for beat adaptation, but it's interesting how pacing that felt kinda laboured in the anime felt a lot snappier in the manga.

Probably the most interesting challenge for the animators was how to take a story that really hinges on the question of what makes for good and bad acting and make it convincing in animation. In the end, they still rely a lot on framing and symbolic elements like the star eyes to get it across, but there's still some really key moments where the animated acting shines.

I was curious enough to start reading Kaguya-sama: Love Is War by the same author and it didn't do a lot. I wanna check out the anime though bc it seems to be really highly respected.

16-Bit Sensation: Another Layer

16Bit Sensation has a lot of endearing aspects. The mc is endearing for her big himejoshi energy even if they're blatantly angling to push her together with the guy. The wilder turns taken at the end are fun (a lot to be dug into with the 'what if moe evolved in the states' thing) although it kind of quickly falls into a pretty conventional hero-villain save the day thing. I liked the yuri-lite subplot with the girl who the protag helps to buy some eroge who then becomes a gamedev herself. The concept can be read as a fascinating kind of CCRU thing with the concept of moe reaching back in time to create itself. That could be fun if you delved into it more.

If there's one thing it's kind of lacking it's like... any actual details on PC98 game dev, which mostly happens in offscreen montages. I was watching it with a friend who's a real big nerd for old computers so it was fun to share that with her, but ultimately the most it has to say about the actual games is that the girls are cute (one of them says uguu) and also dithering is a thing. The finale involves this escalating gag about strapping PC98s together in parallel to make increasingly unlikely compute stacks, which is fun but also it's kind of just using the PC98 as a symbol at that point as you get further and further from the actual capabilities of the machine.

What is that symbol? There's an odd kind of quiet nationalism in it. The significance of the PC98 is that it was the last successful home computer to be made domestically in Japan; likewise the stakes of the finale are the culture of Akihabara as an otaku space, with the alternative being gentrified blocks of flats and American cultural domination. I haven't had a chance to see the finale yet so I'm wondering how they're gonna resolve it. I feel you could do a lot more with the ideas they raise in this alternate timeline, but it's playing pretty loose at this point with a very protagonist centric story, so it can't really get into them.

Trigun Stampede

Can't say too much about this one because I only saw half and I was watching it unsubbed for immersion practice, and it was a bit beyond my level. It's interesting from a character design trends perspective. Orange are undoubtedly the kings of 3DCG anime, but I didn't like the lighting style here as much as I did Houseki. Need to watch this again at some point subbed.

NieR Automata ver 1.1a

Hard to know what to say here. This was one of several big production collapses of 2023 - a two cour anime that went on a long hiatus before finishing even one. I kind of fell off at that point, so I still need to finish it.

I went in with a sense of trepidation. I didn't like what I'd seen of the designs and photography, and the first episode seemed to confirm my worst fears, with some incredibly shoddy CGI and weak action. Thankfully, the later episodes all improve on matters a great deal.

This would be a terrible substitute for the game, but as a companion piece, it's pretty cool - it jumps between the main beats and fleshes out some of the side characters, or focuses on some odd poignant little stories. I was honestly surprised how many notes it could hit. Of course, Keiichi Okabe's music does a lot of heavy lifting - the animation is sometimes strong (if a bit melty) but I don't love the designs and photography style in general. Still this anime grew on me a lot and I do mean to finish it - it's NieR after all, practically a religious obligation at this point.

Attack on Titan: The Final Season: The Final Chapters: Part 1: Dream Drop Distance

lol

So like a year ago I watched through Attack on Titan with mogs, came to a somewhat questionable redemptive reading of it as not being the fashiest anime ever but charting a rather muddled break from a nationalist worldview into more of a Gundam type story of enemies putting aside their differences, the futility of military sacrifice, etc etc. (we later watched Tanya the Evil, continually waiting for the other shoe to drop with it being straight up a nazi propaganda power fantasy - it never did, that anime is straight up irredeemable lmao). anyway I said at the time that the finale would confirm or deny my interpretation of what it's about, determined by the question of how it addresses Eren's ideological turn. I think I was maybe out waaaaay on a limb with all this shit lmao. ngl mostly I watched this cartoon because the story is so deranged and I want to see for myself what insane turns the guy will pull next.

Anyway MAPPA spent a lot of animators on this, bc they're MAPPA, so it naturally had some very impressive scenes. Any sort of thematic resolution was still deferred and I'm 99% sure it's gonna be some sort of pathetic copout... oh apparently they released the finale like two months ago lmao, guess I'll finally get to find out. What a weird franchise to have driven the 2010s anime boom honestly.

Magical Destroyers

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. A lot of anime these days feels very sanded down and predictable, and whatever it is, Magical Destroyers definitely isn't that. It has a great OP that writes a lot of cheques that the show itself sadly isn't really up to paying...

...and there's a lot that's interestingly odd about it; it's got this cheerfully enthusiastic attitude towards explicit sexuality, it's got a very online weeb sense of humour, it honestly kind of feels like of if the people who do 'Otaku Vs.' on youtube got to make a series.

Anyway at some point I saw a 20 minute summary of the rest:

The explanation behind all this turns out to be: the creator is a 24 year old Japanese-American guy who's spent half his life in California, skating and drawing for clothing brands and DJing and stuff like that after he didn't make it as a mangaka at first, and somehow his connections turned into an anime deal. Ostensibly Undertale was an inspiration although it's not entirely clear how. The result is something incredibly disjointed that doesn't go anywhere, with incomprehensible meta turns and barely existent characterisation, but it certainly stands as something different.

Zom100

I watched this because Sakugablog covered it. It's very nicely animated for sure, with great use of saturated colour, but I dropped it after three or four episodes because I couldn't connect to the power fantasy, the only girl was way too overdetermined by being the obvious love interest, and it really didn't seem to be going anywhere. Also the flight attendant episode just felt mean-spirited, especially how little impact it seems to leave on our protagonists. I get that the whole point is the MC's sunny attitude being completely at odds with the apocalyptic setting, but I ended up finding him grating.

There's also some unfortunate irony in the fact that after the pointed jabs at the animators' former studio OLM in the first ep, they apparently ended up crunching pretty hard by the end.

and...

Damn is that really all I watched this year? Still haven't seen a few much-hyped ones like the Scott Pilgrim anime or Frieren. I guess mostly I watch stuff through Animation Night still...

As far as movies: Boy and the Heron/How Do You Live only just came out in the UK, gonna see it in a week. Haven't seen Suzume yet, or the whiskey one, or The Concierge. I wrote my comments on Kaina of the Great Snow Sea (disappointing), Tunnel to Summer: The Exit of Goodbyes (decent summer movie), Lonely Castle in the Mirror (solid and affecting) and The First Slam Dunk (actually incredible, made me understand sports) during Annecy - technically most of those came out last year anyway lol. Apparently there's a new Psycho-Pass movie too! When Psycho-Pass is good it's great, so I'll give that a shot.

Outside of anime - been meaning to check out some TV donghua like Link Click; also very excited to dig into Scavenger's Reign. I'll certainly report back when I do.

Animation Night's kinda fallen apart in the last few months - it would happen sooner or later, the project has kinda run its course and achieved "social connection" and "speedrunning an education in animation history" lol. but I'm glad I've kept it going as long as I have. I'm gonna try and bring it back in the new year, it would be nice to reach that big 200 before I wrap it up for good.

Thanks for reading my blog, nerds!! Let's see if I can make 2024 the year I go from just talking about animation to making my own short films.

[ren-054]

Hey! Sorry, but I'm curious and I would like to ask u something. I've already asked the same question to another blog but I decided to gather different opinions/feedbacks, out of curiosity.

Do you think Sun, Moon and Eclipse, canon-wise, are a good representation of a system?

I know that many people see them differently, everyone has their own hcs and I do too, but if they were a system would it be accurate in terms of shifting/fronting etc?

I apologize if this question sounds weird or if I come off as offensive, it was not my intention. I don't know a lot about DID, I'm still studying, so feel free to correct me or to simply ignore this ask.

Oooh this question! Hrmmm

Also it’s all good, I love answering questions that have to do with pulling from my experiences :] I don’t mind at all!

TL;DR because I’m very wordy— I think the DCA’s a decent rep of the idea of a system but it still ends up with a lot of the pitfalls of current system rep (like alters framed as evil vs good since it’s a horror game and Moon is an enemy + Sun and Moon’s inner conflict being resolved either through a fusion into Eclipse or simply letting a more stable alter front with little further elaboration on the matter)

So the DCA definitely feel like a system that could exist, but it still reads like that awkward middle stage of media rep where there’s still a dependence on shock factor and spectacle over them just being a system that exists, but they’re overall fine.

I think viewing them as a system is very neat and I love how validating/relatable a lot of the fan works can be when tackling the DCA’s dynamic with each other :] I see little issue with viewing them as a system, if that’s part of the question

Long answer below pfpf

Where do I start…

I think I’m a bit torn? Their canon switch from SB, if we are viewing them as a hypothetical system, definitely felt dramatized because it’s a horror game (but maybe some people experience switches like this! I wouldn’t know)

Also the fact the horror effect is likely coming from having an overall benign doormat of a guy suddenly becoming unsafe post-switch feels a bit iffy to me since it feeds into that othering/demonizing narrative of mentally ill + neurodivergent folk, but Sun’s panic about Moon fronting is still a mood, to be fair. I have my own paranoia about certain alters getting triggered out ajhdks

As for fronting, the DCA don’t really get to express how that works for them, so I can’t say. The only thing I could glean is that,

1, Sun was aware a switch occurred that allowed Moon out but, for whatever reason, was upset enough to still kick Gregory out the daycare knowing he could still be in danger so there’s not much info there, and

2, Ruin Eclipse seemed to have less memories than Sun or Moon given he acted like he just met Cassie when he fronted, sort of reminiscent of either an alter coming back after a long period of dormancy or a much more generally dissociated alter. Sun still talked after Eclipse came back so he’s still in there, and presumably Moon too.

For me, I think I have a lot of internal communication and rarely have hard switches (a switch where there’s only one alter fronting with little interference from any other part) so I can’t say too much about hard switches like what seems to happen with the DCA. Sun and Moon were in a terrible rapid switching and/or fighting-for-front situation in Ruin though, and I feel for them. I’ve been through it and it’s not fun.

I was actually surprised at how much more.. system-coded the DCA were in Ruin but I always had a bit of an issues with it for one reason

There wasn’t a lot of closure for Sun and Moon specifically (only implied through Ruin Eclipse’s calm and more child-friendly nature) so I’d feel a bit weird to say that the DCA as we know them at this point is a great.. summary for systems as a whole? Like you gotta do what you gotta do to heal yknow so this isnt judging how they need to help themselves, but I’m looking at the bigger picture of system rep and the preconceptions of a layman audience.

I know not every system likes the idea of their parts being ignored/shunted in favor of a more “complete” fused hypothetical version of themselves, including myself. But for the DCA, as Sun strongly implies, this is the best solution for them in the moment in order to stabilize so really I can’t judge them.

Sun said thank you, though, so I hope that means them and Moon are getting some well deserved rest away from front. I do hope to see things from them feeling better in the future, but I don’t have much faith that we’d be given that.

[oddvanilla]

ultrakill yaaayy :33

basic info that i am 99% sure you already know:. its a bloody and violent fast paced fps where you are a robot who went to hell for blood (blood is fuel and allat 🔥🔥) . you kill literally everything. its level based and you travel down through the layers as you go. theres multiple weapons and multiple weapon types and also 3 different arms that you can switch through really quickly to get more style points and deal more/different damage

my favorite weapons are the marksman revolver (your can throw up to 4 coins in the air and then shoot them.) and the pump charge shotgun (you can also parry the shells to make it go further which is awesome and really cool and also awesome. if you overcharge it, it blows up and can launch you really far. both good and bad depending on what situation youre in) but theres more weapons and i dont really want to explain every one, so. :3 (oh oh the screwdriver railcannon is also good cause itll hit an enemy and cause it to bleed. which heals you. hence the 'blood is fuel'.)

there's like a. score thingy and your rating for each level is determined on how fast you complete it, how many enemies you've killed, and your style points. (and i think how many times you die). all levels have a like. best score that you have to get for it to be like, S or A or whatever. P ranking is beating a level under a specific time, killing everything, and getting at least a certain amount of style. and not dying at all. its kinda. pretty hard. this is what a p rank looks like

that was for the level where you fought v2 and got the whiplash (arm that is like. uhhh. grabby thing? how do i explain it . like it pulls you towards things or things towards you depending on their weight. like a grappling hook?? idk) basically it was just a boss fight thats why the style points and kills are low. i dont have pictures of any other levels ive p ranked.. so .

anyways :3 its a really fun game. its very fast and there's always shit happening and you have to be like. always alert or else youre dead. this was not as in depth as i could have gone. and i didnt talk about the characters or like. some other stuff. if you want more explanation lmk and i will be happy to do it 🔥🔥🔥 SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG LMAO I WAS TRYING TO P RANK 6-2 AND TYPE THIS SO EVERY TIME I FAILED ID COME BACK TO THIS AND ADD MORE 😭😭

autism fueled rant over 🔥i should have added more pictures but i was scared that if i left the tab this would have been deleted. :333

First of all. This is, THE COOLEST EXPLANATION IVE SEEN EVER. I've NEVER been more interested in reading long paragraphs than right now.

Second of all, HELL YEAH!!!! FAST PACED GAMES ARE THE BEST!!! or at least for impatient people like me...

WHAT I GOT IS THAT THERE'S LIKE. DIFFERENT WEAPONS FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES?? LIKE SOME GET YOU MORE STYLE POINTS THAN OTHERS?? IDK ABT YOU BUT MARKMANS REVOLVER SOUNDS COOL ASF!!! AND P RANKING IS LIKE,, ENDING SOMETHING IN A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME.?? I THINK THATS LIKE SPEED RUNNING A LEVEL😍 IS THAT WHY ITS CALLED ULTRAKILL?? BECAUSE YOU JUST KILL EVERYTHING?? DAMNN

Im actually curious what's the lore who are the protagonists and what are they fighting against

[nutterzebutters]

Hey so hot take

Saying "I'm not going to turn into a pedophile by consuming media with pedophilia in it" in the face of "maybe don't go out of your way to consume inherently disturbing material 24/7" is purposely obtuse and you are missing the point.

No, you are not going to turn incestuous by watching Game of Thrones, you want to know why? Because Game of Thrones actively shows why cersei is delusional in the midst of her incestuous relationship with her twin brother. The show actively makes it a point to show other characters clear disgust and adversity to the mere idea and shows the active side effects of her actions. Stop using it as your safety net against the argument "fiction can affect reality."

Fandom, and fiction itself inherently has the goal in mind to make human connection across media, and a lot of the time are passion projects created from the human soul. because of this you can never truly separate the fiction mirrors reality argument. No, you should not be policing your thoughts, but you need to understand where the argument tends to take place and why you need to evaluate why you're feeling attacked.

The prime argument is in the face of things like pro-shipping or pro-fiction and those in FAVOR of incest, fetishizing lolicon, abusive relationships, ECT, people who did NOT know how to separate their fiction from reality. People who actively engage for enjoyment in these specific subjects. There is a fine line between consuming your media in moderation while that media properly depicts the disturbing content versus overindulging in media that tends to glorify or fetishize said disturbing content. To say that this 24/7 consumption will not affect you is either naivety or denial, especially when ppl are prone to things like being an "irl" (people who genuinely believe they are those fictional characters because of the state of psychosis) or those with online 🌽 addictions aligning with dopamine rushes for these fiction dynamics. You also have children on the internet who were groomed into these concepts and don't know any better, so they have a habit of overindulging in these fantasies as well because of the lack of moderation.

This also applies to people who claim it as a coping mechanism, if it is a coping mechanism it has to affect your reality in order to do something for you. Coping mechanisms are built to better your behaviors in the face of trauma. If you are struggling with trauma I promise you the indulgence and problematic media will not help you, in fact it will most likely make it worse by validating the very behavior you suffered from, there are better more effective ways to help you heal from your trauma. And for the love of god, many things like non-con kinks are a completely separate conversation, the way you role play that is most likely for the CONSENT OF HAVING CONTROL and is NOT the same as romanticizing the outright actions. If you do, then it's time to seek therapy in other means to dismantle that within yourself. Stop bringing in the bedroom conversation when it's based off of the consent factor and safe space with your own partner, not the wild fantasy that a character is being 🍇'd- WHICH AGAIN. IS WHO THIS CONSERVATION APPLIES TO AND TARGETS.

If you are a person who reads things like darkship, power Imbalance, or anything that contains these subjects but never romanticizes them THIS CONVERSATION NEVER APPLIED TO YOU and you shouldn't be listening to those who think it does. That is 10 steps further than we needed to go and is 9/10 not a good faith part of the conversation nor is it coming from someone who is fully informed or aware of what they're claim means, exposure is actually a really good thing. In items like Game of Thrones built for mature audiences, the exposure lets us know yeah, it happens, and if you're curious you can learn more about it, children's media largely cannot and should not enter the chat here- as children can handle heavy topics as seen in bluey and be taught right from wrong. But should NEVER contain that type of content. Exposure in and of itself can be a small reality pointer which is good! We need to know about how these things work, and it's important that stories are written that explore these things thoroughly from neutral or personal POVS while being mature about it.

In the same breath, there is a reason we think of pro-shippers and people who tend to fetishize prepubescent anime girls or are into non-non and make their whole internet persona about how much they fantasize about it, that is because the "fiction doesn't affect reality" statement is a safety umbrella for them.

Once more, if you consume your media in moderation without that media romanticizing or otherwise trying to glorify inherently immoral subjects this conversation never applied to you and should never have accused you. No you are not going to suddenly be gay by consuming queer media, absolutely nobody of sane mind has claimed that. If you are not actively promoting dynamics that tend to reflect or represent something that's very harmful to real ppl, again this conversation does not apply to you. It applies to people who do not know how to handle themselves properly, and you trying to make the argument look absolutely insane has every warrant to have people assume that you are the issue in question. If you are not being a weirdo online pressing it on other people by making them look stupid for being against it, go ham.

Who cares if it's not canon, the people who care have long since forgotten what fandom etiquette even looks like and don't remember what fandom looked like before the "Great Tumblr Purge". But they're not the topic of this conversation.

You may notice that I mentioned IRLs. Many of these ppl do not need your "reality check" either, you are not a licensed medical professional or a psychologist, hell even a psychiatrist. You still don't get the merit to do so even if you took 101 classes, you can harm them and it can backfire, BAD. Again, these ppl do need to be careful about what they consume and how they consume it because there are people prone to not being able to separate the line and it can end up hurting themselves in the end, rarely have I seen hurt it others but I don't need it to affect outside of the IRLs bubble for me to care about how IRL got there and what they might be doing to themselves in the face of distressing/conflicting information, it's a state of mind realistically nobody wants to be in. Many of you act like saying "if you can't separate fiction from reality then that's an issue" isn't also where "fiction affects reality" comes from. We are well aware. That's why we're saying it.

I should also preface this, you should never want to label yourself as pro-ship/pro-fiction when the biggest and most well-known definition applies to somebody who absolutely does not know where to draw the line. If you are "anti-harassment" about the tame ships, maybe it is time to come up with a new term and to stop associating yourself with such ppl. If you immediately jump to defense, maybe you should dismantle why that is, bc you're not fooling anyone. No, there is no proof that violence and video games will cause a school shooter to become a school shooter, they were most likely already subjected to the ideas and desensitized, the violence of the video game only ever promoted it and their fantasies, two things can and should be true at the same time. I'm tired of y'all making it seem like the ppl saying "Hey maybe we shouldn't over indulge in something that gives us a vicious cycle of dopamine based in seeking disturbing/immoral content" are insane. Again, maybe dismantle why you feel the need to get defensive about it.