#there's so much potential; and only the ending only really needs a few tweaks for me to be perfect; so!

[maerrine]

TOKYO REVENGERS RPG GAME ANNOUNCED OMG...

I literally just started thinking about tokyo revengers again today, what are the chances!! I’m actually super excited, I hope it’s good!

[spacedace]

Reluctant War AU Part 3

Part 1 Part 2

More of the brain worm that has taken me over, gonna probably post it to Ao3 here before too long. Already got another part started and so many ideas for additional stuff, someone please send help I've been consumed by this thing lol

Sorry if Waller seems out of character, outside of fandom I'm mostly familiar with her through Justice League the animated show & Justice League: Unlimited and her vibe there has always struck me as "deeply incredibly unlikable character that also kind of has a point but also has done so much fucked up shit in the name of her goals that you don't really care about her point anymore." So you know, complicated lol. If she's completely unrecognizable let me know, but I'm hoping she feels at least somewhat like Waller.

Forgot to say this in the last update, but still feel free to use all this as an overly long prompt if yall want. Literally anything I throw out to the void should be treated as a prompt lol If there's anything at all interesting to you in any of this nonsense go for it <3 <3 <3

---

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Ruthless, heartless, vicious, cruel.

She’d been called it all. Wore the words thrown as insults as a badges of pride and valor. Because at the end of the day, when it came to the problems she was given to face, the issues she was meant to solve, those words meant she’d done what others had been too squeamish or cowardly to do. Life was a never ending slog of trolley problems and she the only one unshakable enough to pull the levers that needed pulling.

It wasn’t so simple as a matter of greater good.

Greater good was what the weak willed muttered to themselves after having feelings over doing the bare minimum. A justification used by people on all sides to do what they wanted with fractured, faulty logic thrown around like truth was a thing immutable. To assuage their guilt when they were forced to make a call they didn’t want to.

It wasn’t a matter of greater good. It was a matter of preservation. Of protection. Of digging through the filth to find the threats skittering beneath and crush them with ruthless abandon. Of facing a god and not blinking because if you did it could cost the world.

Of doing what needed to be done, no matter how underhanded or atrocious it was.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the throat of something that could threaten to destroy it all.

When the Ghost Investigation Ward had been shoved her way with it’s sucking wound of a budget, it’s bloated incompetent staff, its asinine methods she’d seen a rotted limb in need of hacking off. It hadn’t been until she’d been conducting her inspection, digging through the trash for a few pearls of effective agents she could snatch up and put to work elsewhere, that she’d truly seen what they were working on. The potential.

Potential to better arm themselves with in the forms of the strange new weapons being created.

Potential for threats far greater than anything even she had thought possible before.

The GIW as it had been when she’d first come across it was a fetid waste of time and resources. A laughing stock agency only secret because no one took them seriously enough to look. Made stupid and useless with its own conceited delusions of importance it didn’t actually have. Yet.

She went to work on it. Hacking away as she’d originally intended, but this time with a different goal in mind. She ripped out the weeds with bare, calloused hands and planted proficiency and loyalty in their place. She took over as director herself, tossing the self-aggrandizing fool that had been running the place into the ground to the dogs as the culprit for misappropriate spendings, saving the agency by tweaking things until their ballooning budget was pinned neatly onto the former director as an embezzling charge.

Then she got to work.

The Fentons were brilliant, if entirely insane. But Amanda could work with that. She’d reigned Harley Quinn in - more or less - she could do the same to the two deranged scientists that so eagerly wanted to be apart of the fight against the dead. Especially when the benefit came in the form of the inventions they threw together so easily, especially when those inventions were weapons.

It took very little to get them on board with her plans for the GIW. Keeping their focus could be a chore, at times, but she didn’t even have to really do much in the way of pressing to get them back where she wanted them. They craved knowledge and understanding nearly as much as they craved the eradication of the entities themselves. Letting them have the first look at a new subject here, free reign over a vivisection there, it took so little to fuel their fervor and keep them busy working on the projects she set for them.

Things had been going smoothly.

For a time at least.

Until Phantom.

He’d been the main focus of the previous director’s attention, the big fish he’d so desperately wanted to catch and put up on his wall. Amanda wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t a tempting prospect, but not one she’d put above the other projects she had set in motion since taking over. No, Phantom was powerful, enough to be a real problem one day, but she could the awkward youth in the way he held himself, the inexperience in how he handled situations. She had time to get everything else in order before focusing on getting Amity Park’s would-be hero brought to heel.

And he would be brought to heel. One way or another.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the Core of a fledgling god and bending him to her will.

An artifact, old an powerful, recovered with some effort. A means of controlling specters, of chaining them to the will of the artifact’s wielder. Dangerous in the wrong hands. Dangerous in the right hands.

It was shattered, and even whole and functional Phantom was resistant to its power. But Amanda Waller prided herself in her ability to see the potential in things. It could be repaired, be made better. Even gods could be bound, be made to kneel, with the right pieces, with the right application of force.

It was just a matter of time to gather everything needed.

Phantom didn’t know he could single handedly destroy every last member of the Justice League. The baby fat, the innocent eyes, the split-second hesitations when he fought. He knew enough to be confident in fighting the usual ghosts that haunted Amity Park, but he still very much saw himself as a little fish. Maybe it was the part of him that was still Daniel Fenton, gangly teenager not quite sure what he was truly capable of yet.

She had time before the Fenton’s son truly became an issue. Time to judge if his parents’ obsessiveness would overcome their - rather shoddy, by Amanda’s estimation - parental instincts and continue to hunt him once they knew the truth. Time to get as much out of them as she could before hand, should they falter at the idea of attacking their own son. Time for the staff to be repaired and returned to working order, to get the other items needed for the truly big fish hidden on the other side of the veil between worlds.

She had time.

Until she didn’t.

Pariah Dark had not been something she thought she’d have to account for - not yet, at least.

If he wasn’t already dead, she’d ring the Ghost King’s neck with her bare hands. His arrival had opened Phantom’s eyes to what he was capable of, of just how big of a fish he was. Worse still, Phantom’s defeat of the war mongering King changed the state of play. Phantom was no longer an impressively powerful half dead teenager.

He was King Infinite.

He was an Ancient.

He was getting on her last damn nerves.

Phantom’s rogue gallery were now firmly under the boy’s control. Still distinct nuisances around Amity Park, but no longer considered true concerns. They were loyal to their boy king, delighting in ruffling his feathers but never crossing the line into treason or attempted regicide. Which meant that the GIW was the only thing that held his attention.

Amanda took the time to send a care package to the former GIW director in his tiny, dank prison cell. As thanks for his carelessness in revealing to the entire town - both living and dead - of the agency’s existence and their intentions. Had he stuck to standard protocol, Phantom would have been none the wiser to their presence. Would have scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders at the ghost that went missing upon occasion. Would have been boredly uninterested in the people his parents had begun working with. Would have been taken by surprise when they finally came for him.

But no.

No that self-obsessed, fame chasing imbecile had to go and announce to everyone and their dead mother that the GIW existed and exactly what it was they were in Amity Park to do.

Phantom knew what they were there to do.

They could only count on his naive certainty that he could broker peace with them for so long.

Peace. As if he and his people weren’t the invading force, the monsters slipping in through the cracks between worlds, the latest threat that had to be accounted for. As if he himself hadn’t rent their world asunder himself in another world, another time. No. Peace was not something they could hash out with this baby-faced monarch with his too-big crown. Peace was the assurance of safety, security. Of control of the situation.

There could be no peace.

The higher ups were somehow surprised when Phantom took that to mean there would be war.

Amanda Waller was not.

The Fentons, as suspected, took the right side when all was revealed. Steady hands and flinty eyes as they crafted the weapons that would be needed for the coming fight. Minds even sharper in their maddened grief, hearts set on revenge for the son lost and the entity that stole his face and friends and sister in his garish pretense at humanity. They were blinded to the reality of the situation in its entirety, the potential in what their son truly was, but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter. They did what she needed them to do, they could believe whatever it was they wanted so long as they did.

By the time the boy king and his armies marched upon the Amity park facility, preparations had been put into place. The base in Amity had been stripped back to bare essentials, everything of importance moved to more secured locations.

The weapons labs.

The artifact.

The girl.

All tucked well away from the front lines where Phantom and his motley crew could not reach. Their time to be put in play would come, but not yet. First she needed to gauge what Phantom and his people were capable of, what they were willing to do in the name of what they wanted. Amity Park was a pawn well sacrificed on that front. As were the other facilities she’d left easy to find.

The problem with making children gods, with giving them crowns and calling them King and giving them armies to play with, was that they thought there should be rules. That even in the trenches tearing apart their enemies, there was a certain level of playing fair that everyone was held to. They thought there was a way the world worked, of how things should be that blinded them to more effective options even as time stretched on and desperation set in.

It was the Dead’s problem though, not hers.

She reached out to the Justice League. Sour faced, unhappy, bitterly reluctant to accept that she needed their help. Stone faced and barely containing their rage at what little they knew of the situation, they agreed to a meeting.

She didn’t let herself smile until she was well and truly alone in her office.

Greater good. A lie people told themselves. A fairytale told to children. A means of convincing the weaker willed that they had no choice, that they had a noble duty to bend to. A belief that could be wielded like a weapon if the fantasy of the idea had dug in deep enough. And there were few it had dug into so deep as the members of the Justice League.

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands clenched tight on a victory long in the making.

---

Part Four

[russellsppttemplates]

It shouldn't work but it does (George Russell)

George shouldn't feel so pulled to you

Note: english is not my first language. I have never written Norris!reader, so this is a first! Also tweaked the request a little, hopefully it's okay! I feel like this was a good request and me tweaking it made it lose the potential it had, I'm not sure how I feel about it...

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

my masterlist

Cw: mentions a secret relationship for a while

Tag list: @myloverjk-blog

You were walking to the McLaren hospitality, greeting a few people on the way that greeted you back, a smile always on your lips while you did it. The day was miserable, grey and a little rain already threatening the race that would happen a few hours later, and yet you were a ray of sunshine. And George had trouble dealing with that.

His eyes would travel to you anytime you were on the paddock for race weekend, and now that you had finished university, it seemed to happen a lot more.

"George, we need to do a last seat fit", one of the Williams mechanics called him, his attention lingering on the way you almost skipped before entering the McLaren garage for a second longer before he walked back to this car, mumbling something no one could pick up quite right.

She's Lando's sister, who really is just a female copycat of him. Smiley, giggly, always cheering people up and spreading kindness wherever you went. George shouldn't feel the way he feels about you, no matter how much his heart raced whenever he spotted you or how he smiled when Lando spoke about you.

When he found himself on the podium after a three lap race, George allowed himself to enjoy it, spraying champagne on who he hoped he would be directly racing against and with the following season, as the call on his phone suggested.

Driving for Mercedes had been a goal George set himself very early on, and he was one step closer to that. Strutting out of the garage after taking a shower and getting dressed in his usual clothes, George was distracted on his phone as he waled to the Mercedes hospitality. On your end, you looked to retrieve the car key from your bag, Flo and Savannah walking in front of you and not preventing your collision.

"I'm so sorry", George let out, holding your shoulders to make sure you were okay, "Oh, hi, Y/N!", he greeted.

"It's fine, I wasn't looking either, sorry!", you giggled as you found the car key, flashing it to him, "by the way, Congratulations on your first podium, George!", you smiled at him before walking up to girls after waving at him.

Y/N Norris will be the death of him, and they wouldn't work. He shouldn't be attracted to her and yet...he is.

Getting in the car, leaving your sister to point out the interaction, "Since when do you talk to George Russell of all people?", Flo snickered, fastening her seatbelt.

"Why wouldn't I?", you defended yourself, "because him and Lando are not that close friends, like, Carlos is closer to him, for instance", she reasoned, "so I should only speak to people who my brother speaks to? George was on the podium, albeit from a questionable race, but it was questionable for everyone anyway, so why not be kind?", you attempted, knowing your sister wouldn't dwell much after that.

.

"You know", you broke the silence while you and George laid in his bed, the sun starting to rise in Monaco and softly illuminating his soft features, "I thought you were mean for the longest time-".

"And what got you to change your opinion?", he said, adjusting his head to look at you, eye to eye while you traced random shapes on his tummy. You were having a slow day before the season picked up again, opting to spend it in bed in the morning, followed by a hike in the afternoon.

"I found out you are the sweetest person I ever met", you cooed, kissing his cheek, "behind this posh, uptight english man thing you have on the surface, you will always get up with me to watch the sunrise.

"Where are you going?", George groaned, trying to grab your arm to pull you back into bed. It was the first night you spent together and he was unsure of how to react. Should he pull you back for a snuggle? Should he let you go because you figured out that you two shouldn't be in a relationship?

"The sunrise is so colourful today, look!", you whispered, mesmerised by the colours in the sky, knees tucked to your chest as you looked out the balcony. Your eyes were shiny, both from sleep and excitement at the scene in front of you, and as much as George thought that it was way too early to even consider opening his eyes, he got up, got the blanket at the end of the bed and sat next to you, watching the sky go from dark to a palette of orange and pink while drawing the blanket on your back.

"You can go back to bed", you reasoned, "I now you prefer the warmth of the sheets and covers", you whispered, "I want to be here with you".

"If Alex so much as dreams you are out of the bed at this hour to look at the sunrise with me but refuse to get up at eight am for your padel game with him, you are going to be teased about it until the end of time", you snickered, shaking your head when he nuzzled his nose on your neck.

"I'll do anything for you, darling", he smiled, kissing your lips. "Even when I wouldn't believe you had feelings for me and started yelling at you at the FIA dinner?", you chuckled, "even more then".

"You can't keep pulling me away, George, someone is going to notice-", you said as the British driver pulled you to the bathroom area, making sure no one was there to hear it.

It would be foolish to think that no one else would notice how beautiful you looked tonight. The dress you were to be the plus one for your brother at the FIA end of season dinner fit you like a glove, and George wasn't the only one to notice. Particularly, he focused on one of the sponsors representatives that had offered to escort you to the balcony a few times already. Luckily for George, you kept politely denying.

"I don't want him to think he has a shot with you, because he doesn't, right?", he questioned.

You thought about playing dumb about the situation, but after assessing the whole thing, you thought you better not, "I don't know, does he? I can't deal with this whole stealing kisses in the paddock and you and my brother gaming together like you're just two buddies who drive cars on the weekend? It was all fun and games when I was being a chatter box and defending Lando, but what now? Now that I care about you way more than I would've liked?", you let out.

Anger was an emotion everyone had, George knew that, but he thought yours was small, maybe non existent. Right now, you proved him otherwise as the tears pooled on your waterline.

"Didn't it even occur to you that I don't like that either? I don't want to have to look at you from afar in the paddock and wait until we're both stuck in a corner to steal a kiss or to know that you're secretly rooting for me! I like you, Y/N, and I want you to know that", he put it out. Done. For better or for worse, he came clear about his feelings to the person he thought he would never feel this way about.

"Oh my word, why are you crying? Does me liking you disgust you that much?", George added, afraid of touching you and getting a rightfully earner hit back, but the sight of your crying and upset was consuming him by the second. Happy, bubbly and giggly you was gone and he was the reason for it.

"No, you dumbass! It's because you like me back but I spent all of this time thinking you'd never like me that way", you hiccuped, grabbing a tissue from the skin to wipe under your eyes.

"Why? Why would you think that?", he questioned, "never mind, I'm missing the point - we're missing the point", he gulped, lacing your hand in his and rubbing the soft skin with his thumb, "we can work this out, can't we?", he pleaded.

"George Russell is begging?", you teased, going back to your usual self, "begging is a strong word, but it's an effort I'm willing to make", he smiled.

"Because you're so dedicated to the people around you", George mumbled against your forehead.

"I didn't know you were coming here, today!", your boyfriend spoke as he saw you enter the Mercedes hospitality, joining him, Lewis and Mick near the sofas.

"What? Did you want me to walk in here singing 'what a man?', love?", you joked, kissing George's forehead before pouring yourself some coffee and sitting down next to them.

"Your whole family is in the paddock this weekend, I thought you'd be with them", he reasoned.

"There's a lot of people in the McLaren already. Besides, I told Lando I would be here anyway, and he was fine with it", you smiled. Even though your brother had his first podium of the season in the last race in Singapore, an achievement you celebrated with your family in due course, but now you were back to supporting George closely. You noticed a small nudge on his confidence, so you stayed close, not only because you always wanted to be there for him, but also because you knew how this sport work. How easily drivers went from being the best to being the worst, how the critical persistent voices wouldn't shut up and how much of a toll it took.

"Are you not going to comment on the fact that I'm always joking about your brother not having a race win and what happened last week?", he wondered once you were alone in his driver's room. The question had been lingering on his mind whenever it got the best of him.

"I don't have much to say apart from what I've said to you already", you stated, resting your hands on either side of your body on the small sofa, "will I call you out anytime you went and go after Lando over something he fought to achieve? Yes, because I'm fair. But I won't let you be alone with your self doubts, nor will I allow that you think that I will ever think something and say the opposite to you", you sterned, stirring the conversation to what really mattered.

"I know you'll never do that, I'm just saying that if you want to pop over to McLaren, you can", George clarified, "I know I can", you didn't let him have one up, smirking as he shook his head, smile on his lips from your insistence and the attitude he loved so much.

"I love you, you know that?", he smiled as he walked up to you to kiss your lips, "I should hope so, I'm even wearing a Mercedes jacket today!".

"Even though I don't need protection, you're always there for me, even when Lando annoys me", you sighed.

The day Lando found out, you thought the world was ending. You were in Monaco for the last week of winter break before testing, and since you wanted this to be the season where you would finally were able to support your boyfriend from the paddock in the usual black and white Mercedes merch.

So, naturally, when your brother said he was going to play padel with some of the grid, you asked if you could join, knowing your boyfriend was planning to attend as well.

"You're more of a golf guy", you wondered when you arrived at the court, "why are we here?", questioning the change of heart and thinking how easily he was willing to go.

"Charles said it would only be him, Max and George and they needed an even number", he shrugged, "I told you to stay home if you didn't want to come, I-", he was interrupted by George parking next to him, "hey, man!".

"Hey!", George greeted as he got out of the car, "Charles just texted, he is inside already with Max", he urged, Lando walking in front of you as your boyfriend stole a squeeze of your waist quickly before you walked up to the stands, choosing a good spot to watch them.

Games were being well disputed and Max called for you to join them and substitute him for a while when he had to take a work call, "off to discuss technicals of this year's rocket ship?", you yelled from the little door to the court as he excused himself, shaking his head at your antics.

One of the balls Charles shot in your direction ended up under your feet, making you slip and fall on the floor.

"Darling!" and "Y/N!" were heard once your butt hit the ground, Charles seemingly the only one to notice what George called you until Lando checked you over and se you were fine.

"What did you call my sister?", he threatened, "is she by any chance the mysterious girlfriend you've been talking about?".

"Lando, please listen to me", you called him, holding his arm as he looked at George.

"Is he the guy you're dating?", he questioned again.

"Lando, c'mon! Y/N is a grown up, and it's not like I have some criminal record or anything like that!", George began as Charles stood there just watching the scene unfold, "and believe me, she's told me off everything I said about you, she didn't let any on that go!", your boyfriend tried.

"I guess there's worse", Lando mumbled, "still, he is the person you're being super secretive about?", Lando quirked a brow, "George? With three names instead of a surname?".

"How did you even know I was seeing someone?", you questioned, hissing as you grabbed the racket, "Flo had an inkling. At first I thought she was going insane, but I still supported her, you know?".

"Well, another reason why you should support me and George then!".

[cerastes]

Okay, Hades 2!

Supergiantgames does it again. It’s still Early Access, but it has more polish and content than a lot of fully released games on its price point and higher. Of course, all this content would not matter if it wasn’t good. It’s good. From gameplay to voice acting to sound design to music to graphics and visual elements, Hades 2 is airtight. There’s one exception we’ll discuss, but otherwise, it’s incredibly well crafted.

So far, there’s only one instance in the game I can say needs some important improvements: The second phase of the Tartarus boss, Chronos, who is an end boss. Not in terms of difficulty, mind you, it’s in terms of visual clarity: There’s so many lights and particle effects that making out what’s up can be frustrating, especially when Chronos hits you anywhere from 20~ to 35 damage, or, you know, his 1000 damage practical instakill. The instakill is HEAVILY telegraphed and easy to deal with, almost trivial, but in the concerto of lights and fireworks, it’s possible to miss one or two seconds of Going To The Don’t Die space and getting mulched. That’s not a big problem, it’s just a user experience issue that you just internalize after a few tries and some short term frustration. What IS an issue is Chronos using the Liu Kang flying kick from midst an incomprehensible mishmash of light graphics and taking out 25 HP plus forcing you to reposition in a fight that’s quite lengthy and in a game that’s stingy with its HP.

They don’t need to meddle with his difficulty! They just need to make the second phase easier to parse. It’s a great fight otherwise.

On the Melinoë end of things, some boons and weapons feel like they could use a touch-up: The Torches let you keep shooting while you dodge and move (movement speed reduced), for example, and you NEED to keep shooting to activate Omega Attack which is what actually does damage. But it’s a big commitment because now your defense option is also doubly important as your main movement tool AND your i-frames. This is all really cool! Except the damage does not at all make up for it in a game where the Torches’ linear nature hurt it more than help it, as enemies don’t line up and instead go around each other or otherwise have specialized movement and attack options. The Axe, with its wide sweeps, does pretty much all the Torches want to do, with a lot more damage and less risk. The Aspects of the Torches would try to help: Moros can be nifty, but the ghosts the Moros Torches shoot are physical objects to each other, so they pile up and soon your shots just collide with each other and don’t reach the enemy. It’s a constant tug o’ war with detonating them with Special, which, again, fun, but you have to set up real Hellzone Grenades before they are truly damaging. Basically, a ton of effort for damage I can easily get more safely and easily with other Arms. Which I hope they address, because I like the Torches.

Hestia’s boon is a bit underwhelming, but that’s expected from the DoT build, those are always the hardest to balance. Dionysius in Hades 1 was really strong. Hestia here has potential but ultimately falls off hard because no matter how much you build, it always ticks at 40 per second. That’s very low DPS for Boons that otherwise add no Attack%. With Sister Blades, I can rack up 600 Scorch and it’s still better if I grab Aphrodite instead and do that much damage in a few attacks instead.

And you know what you are seeing here in these paragraphs? Very easily tweaked things in a game in Early Access by a developer known to deliver. I am not worried at all. This game kicks ass.

[keplercryptids]

I know this was posted like. a week ago. but as someone thinking of running a forged in the dark game I would love to see your homebrew xp mechanics

hell yeah! so let me start by saying, forged in the dark games (at least, the two i've played, blades in the dark and scum and villainy) are designed to be run either 1. in campaigns with a maximum of 12-20 sessions, OR 2. in campaigns where you're running through characters frequently and telling a story of the crew as a collective, rather than focused on a specific group of characters. so if you do either of those things, i don't think you actually need to tweak the xp.

i am a longwinded bitch lmao and i also prefer running campaigns that don't switch out PCs often. so the rapid xp acquisition of these games is. troublesome. i've actually very recently decided to simply hand out milestone xp (which is what i did when i ran d&d 5e). basically, every few jobs, when something narratively Big happens, i'll give the players [x] amount of xp. but! i did come up with these narrative xp rules, which i like and i'm having fun with, so for now, any xp the players accrue by making desperate rolls will be added to their narrative xp bank to spend in the following ways:

(under a readmore cuz it's long!)

Narrative XP

At the end of each job, the maximum amount of XP that can be used for character advancement is 50% of the XP gained that session, rounding up. This is called Advancement XP. The remaining XP is called Narrative XP.

When Narrative XP is spent to increase or reduce a clock, 1 XP = 1 tick. Personal Narrative XP can be spent on campaign clocks, personal clocks, connection clocks, long-term projects or resolving traumas, as described below. With the exception of campaign clocks, any given clock can only be affected by 1 Narrative XP, per player per session.

At a player’s discretion, Character Advancement XP may be spent as Narrative XP, with the same restrictions as above.

CAMPAIGN CLOCKS

Throughout the campaign, there will be clocks tracking organizations’ goals, external forces outside the scope of the PCs’ sphere of influence, or events looming on the horizon. During downtime, these clocks can be increased or reduced by the use of Narrative XP. This is almost always going to be a meta decision made by the players and GM, rather than anything the PCs are doing within the fiction (though there may be some exceptions - talk it out!). The progress of campaign clocks can also be leveraged as Devil’s Bargains during play. There is no limit to how much XP can be spent on a campaign clock per downtime.

PERSONAL CLOCKS

Each PC can accrue personal clocks, tracked on your character sheet, that reflect potential complications, goals, or outcomes affecting your character. During downtime, Narrative XP can be used to increase or reduce ticks on these clocks (maximum 1 XP per clock per downtime). To use Narrative XP this way, describe or roleplay a scene to illustrate what your character is doing to affect the clock in question.

CONNECTION CLOCKS

[note: this text is taken basically word-for-word from Beam Saber by austin ramsay - a really cool game i haven't gotten to run yet! check out beam saber if you're interested in sci-fi forged in the dark games!]

The crew sheet contains separate 4-tick Connection Clocks for each other member in your crew, representing your character’s relationship with that crewmate. Make a belief about that crewmate for each tick on that clock (checking in with that player when you do). When the Connection Clock fills, ask the target crewmate for a truth about one of the beliefs tied to them, then reset the clock to 1 tick as you see them in a new light. When a Connection Clock resets, erase all the previous beliefs you had about that crewmate and write a new one related to the truth you just learned—it’ll take time and effort to understand them again.

A belief is a brief statement about how a character feels about another crewmate. Beliefs are simple, quick, and influential in the rapport between the two crewmates. However, the players need to remember that their beliefs are not necessarily true as they are based on incomplete information and gut instinct. A good belief is:

Something a character might say about their crewmate to a confidante.

Easily summarized, so that it can be quickly remembered when relevant.

Potentially true.

Suitable for the game’s setting and tone.

Something the player is interested in exploring.

During downtime or free play, Narrative XP can be used to add a belief and tick a Connection Clock with another crewmate (maximum once per session). To use Narrative XP this way, your character must have a one-on-one scene with a crewmate, which challenges their perception of their crewmate, and/or shows a new side of them, and/or during which the characters bond in a significant way. After this, spend 1 XP to tick the Connection clock with that character, and gain a new belief (see above).

LONG-TERM PROJECTS

During downtime, you may spend 1 XP to add a tick to a long-term project clock (maximum 1 tick per clock).

RESOLVING TRAUMAS

[note: there isn't a way in the rules as written to resolve traumas, but being able to do so is important to me, so i included this as a way to use narrative xp.]

When you gain a trauma, start a 6-tick Trauma clock on your character sheet. During downtime or free play, Narrative XP can be used to tick a Trauma clock (maximum once per session). To use Narrative XP this way, describe or roleplay a scene to illustrate what your character is doing to work on resolving their trauma. Once a trauma clock has been filled, you may remove that trauma from your character sheet.

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

Comparing Killers

I sent an ask to my buddy @insane4fandoms a few days ago, and in their reply, they mentioned potentially doing a character analysis for both MadPat and my very own fanmade cannibal EgoPat Caliban in the future.

(This stemmed from one of their latest drawings. Again, thanks so much for remembering my scrunglies, friendo ❤️)

SO, being the way I am, I took some random inspiration and now I'm going through with that exact analysis myself! Just following my instincts as a writer and all that stuff.

___

MadPat:

Now, just to get this out of the way because I have a sneaking suspicion that someone’s gonna read this and automatically assume I’m being stuck-up: I really like Mad as a character. Matt has done an amazing job portraying him. . .though, Matt just has a knack for unhinged characters in general, lol.

And thanks to Matt's acting skills, Mad is an enjoyable villain. He’s cluster of chaotic problems shaped like a man in his thirties, and we all love him for it. (Honestly, I kinda see Mad’s behavior as similar to that of The Actor from all of Mark’s projects. Comedically evil with a tendency to throw tantrums when things don’t go his way.)

The FNAF Musicals have made many slight tweaks to the lore of the games to not completely plagiarize the story. So, of course, Mad is a slightly-tweaked version of William Afton: it’s made very clear that his crimes include murdering kids. On top of that, he has no problem playing long-cons with pizzeria employees before eventually killing them, too.

We’ve seen plenty of times that Mad is pretty much never afraid to get violent. Oh sure, he tries to put a mask on when he needs to, but it’s easy to see all his urges beneath that mask. (And again, much like Actor!Mark, Mad ain’t too shy about being callous and hostile to almost everyone around him.) He’s very quick to anger. To make things worse, he’s also quick to desperation.

While Mad is too smart for everyone else’s good, he’s still pretty damn impulsive/irresponsible. His crimes were all concentrated on the pizzeria; it didn’t take very long at all for the disappearances to pile up and gain unwanted attention. Now, a bunch of missing-person-cases are one thing, but leaving evidence is quite another.

Hell, in the beginning scene of Web of Lies, the wacko-in-a-bearsuit himself literally said, “Every INCH of this place is INCRIMINATING! Ten minutes of poking around this place and they’ll discover what I did. . !”

If Mad were to hear of Caliban's work, he'd probably be impressed at first and automatically assume that Caliban is just like him, just with more people-eating. However, if Mad were to actually meet Caliban and get a better read on his personality, Mad would likely end up insulting him one way or another. He'd see Caliban's professionalism as tedious.

___

Caliban Crawford:

Though I've made it pretty obvious that he's my special boi, Caliban is an objectively bad person. He may be insane, but he’s not delusional enough to deny that. Whenever his and/or Murdock's targets happen to be alive when they’re dragged to his den, he can be very, VERY sadistic throughout the butchering process. (Especially if the target has done something to personally affect him, Azalea, or any of his other peers.)

Sure, he doesn’t complain about working with dead bodies, but having a live meal is quite a special occasion. In such cases, he enjoys watching the unfortunate soul in question squirm and listening to them scream/beg. Taunting, dragging things out, making morbid puns all over the place, the works.

Despite all this, I’ve specifically crafted Caliban to be an extremely morally-gray character. (To be honest, the only fanmade ego of mine who’s full-on evil is LeviathanPat.) He’s still able to be logical/rational when he needs to. He takes pride in his self-control; yes, he has cravings for human flesh, but he knows he can’t afford to just attack any person he sees whenever he gets hungry. He knows he has to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL in order to keep his business away from the authorities. So, he only eats those he and his peers (Murdock, Azalea, etc.) are hired/paid to bump off.

On top of that, Caliban still has some humanity left. While he’s obviously nowhere close to a perfect angel, he’s still able to form genuine relationships and treat those in his circle with kindness/respect. Get on his good side, and you'll have quite a strong ally.

Though his morals are limited, one of the biggest differences between him and Mad is the fact that Caliban would never, NEVER stoop so low as to harm a child. In fact, he tends to avoid children altogether due to his own childhood trauma. (Totally not me projecting because I grew up in a dysfunctional family with verbal/emotional/psychological abuse.)

Getting back to the juicy stuff: Caliban is smart and efficient with his work. He prides himself on not leaving any evidence behind. (Yes, he still makes occasional mistakes, but even then, the aforementioned evidence still comes in very tiny amounts.) That's why he and Murdock became friends and started working together in the first place: since Caliban divides up which parts can be cooked/eaten and which parts can be sold on the Black Market, it really is easy for targets to just seemingly vanish into thin air.

Though my stories involving Caliban probably show him acting calm (despite his pun-addiction, lol), please, PLEASE don't be fooled. He's got just as much unhinged energy as Mad. He just happens to hide it a bit more often. But he definitely has his chaotic moments; half of the time it's out of unhinged joy, and the other half of the time it's because an enemy pissed him off enough to get their skin privileges revoked. (Basically, it's not that much of a stretch to see Caliban as a combination of The Hermit and Mack.)

Now, if you've seen @insane4fandoms artwork of him, then it's pretty clear that some inspiration was taken from Hannibal Lecter. And while I definitely appreciate references like that. . .well, that inspiration is mainly just for Caliban's appearance. I've said before that Caliban is nowhere near as arrogant as Hannibal. Even so, if Caliban were to see/hear about all of Mad's shenanigans, he'd write Mad off as being sloppy and unimpressive. If he were to actually meet Mad, his opinion would just get worse; he'd see Mad as a fair bit annoying and bratty.

___

@sammys-magical-au @b-is-in-the-closet @im-a-weird0 @themarpsimp @lexusinsannus @crazy-obsessed-enby @rozeliyawashereyall @gaymingintrovert @lampsforsocks @forestcouncil @x-hotrose-x @v1rus-seal

[inbarfink]

Okay, so I just found out that I can watch the whole 2015 stage production of ‘Shock Treatment’ on YouTube and, like, I have… so many thoughts and feelings. It really does demonstrate how Shock Treatment’s biggest flaws is just how unfocused and messy and… just needing one or two more rewrites to reach it's full potential. 

Like there are a few tweaks to the dialogue that makes the whole narrative a bit simpler and easier to comprehend, the satire is a bit more focused on the core themes, I thought most of the jokes were pretty solid (and the more sexual ones offer somewhat of a stronger thematic link to ‘Rocky Horror’) and now there’s actually Shock Treatment in the plot of Shock Treatment!

I do really like how they tweaked the lyrics of some of the song to smooth over some of the remnant ‘these were written for a very different RHPS sequel and re-fitted into this plot’ weirdness. I especially like ‘I they need some young blood’ and the change to the title line in ‘Looking for Trade Fame’ and ‘Look what I you/he did to my Id” (meaning Farley). Sometimes ya just need to change just one lil' pronoun and the whole-ass song makes a lot more sense. 

But the biggest positive change this Stage Version brought is the cast. Because ‘Shock Treatment’ the movie just has way too many characters. Like, look at this compared to RHPS’ cast list.

While this is maybe a natural result of the setting shift from an isolated castle to a whole town, it also leaves a lot of the secondary cast feeling flat and with no real space to develop. Comparing both of Little Nell’s roles is probably the best example. Nurse Ansalong is fun and Nell's performance is great as usual, but she’s just kinda around to be a RHPS nod and so Little Nell has Something to Do in this movie and an excuse to run around in a sexy nurse’s outfit. And these are all noble goals but… well, Columbia was an actual character, as campy as RHPS is, she was a character with emotions and pathos and tragedy and an important narrative and thematic role. Ansalong just never had the time to develop into someone with even a tenth of that depth.

(It also makes ‘Shock Treatment’ waaaay harder to Shadow Cast.)

So the stage version just cutting her out and… basically cutting everyone out except for Brad, Janet, Farley, the two Dr. McKinleys, Betty and Ralph just gives a much better chance for all of these characters to feel like actual people. Campy, exaggerated cartoony people - but definitely people. 

Like, we get to spend a little more time on making the manipulation of Janet into a superstar feel more gradual and convincing. Which both help her work better as… basically the Emotional cornerstone of the whole story and make the villains feel more despicable and more competent. Which of course really helps the two Dr. McKinleys since all of Farley’s other minions have been cut. In general they get more opportunity to say funny stuff and can really see how they use their faux psychology and therapyspeak to control people. 

....There's some level where I maybe think this script went a little too far in the other direction. That it's kinda disappointing that this Janet didn't never quite go off the deep end like her movie counterpart did. In general this version's slightly more.... grounded vibe - compared to the Movie's kinda Surrealist Nightmare Vibe - is one of the things I feel most conflicted about.

Like on one hand, this kinda campy nonsense world where gameshow hosts committing husbands to mental asylums and living your whole life on a sound-stage are normal is one of the most compelling parts of 'Shock Treatments' satire and it's kind of a shame to lose it... but also this more grounded tone creates a story that it's easier to follow an, more importantly, emotional stakes it's easier to get invested in. I think the Ideal Perfect Version of Shock Treatment’ that Exists Only in My Brain would be, tone-wise, in the middle between the movie and the stage show, but also maybe lean more towards the stage version?

The added details that Brad and Janet’s marriage has been hitting a rough patch because Brad has been fired from his job just as Janet has gotten a promotion (which I think is a detail from "The Brad and Janet Show" draft that was dropped from the 'Shock Treatment' movie?) adds some thematic resonance about the characters dealing with the Changing Times, the idea that Brad might feel emasculated with Janet’s success while has been (temporarily) regulated to the role of a househusband is maybe understandable but it is also understandable why it would frustrate Janet and thus lives her open to the McKinley's manipulations. Again, the characters are still kinda campy, still kinda silly - but having a bit of grounding for Brad and Janet’s relationship does help when this is basically… all the emotional stakes in the story.

Now, in the Ideal Perfect Version of Shock Treatment’ that Exists Only in My Brain, the rift in Brad and Janet relationship would’ve been created by the lingering effects of the events in the Frankenstein's Place. Janet would rather pretend they never happened but Brad is still visibly reeling from that time he got forced-femmed by aliens. And although the events of ‘Rocky Horror' did definitely happen in this version, it’s mentioned as just a throwaway joke (“We’ve been through so much together! Infidelity, homicide, aliens, fishnet stockings… and that’s just the engagement party”). Still, it was a funny throwaway joke - and the promotion-and-firing idea they went with makes thematic sense in this version of ‘Shock Treatment’. 

Farley Flavors also get a bit of a ‘boost’ from the trimmed cast but… honestly the changes to his character are the ones I am most split about. Because this version of Farley Flavors is generally better because there’s a bit more… flavor to him. A more visibly wacky personality, a few more gimmicks to him. And when I first saw him I was actually… pretty hyped about him as the main villain.

Because, okay, the main problem with Farley as a villain is that, despite Cliff De Young’s excellent performance, he really is just another Evil 80’s Businessman and that feels a bit bland in the wacky world of Rocky Horror. Like, the whole ‘long-lost twin brother’ twist is supposed to feel like the counterpart to the Alien Twist in RHPS and a parody of stupid soap opera twists in general. But… the thing is that even before we found out he was an alien, Frank was already an incredibly distinctive and unique character. Being revealed as an alien in the last act of the story doesn’t define him.

But since Farley doesn’t have as much going for his character, the stupid parody long-lost brother twist does end up being his defining trait and it makes his whole character feel lackluster because… it’s a stupid parody twist! 

But since Twenty-Fifteen Farley is Fairly Far-Fetched right from the get-go this means the twist has more of a chance to feel more like the original Aliens Twist. Plus, there’s bits of dialogue here and there that feel like Foreshadowing. Farley constantly reiterates that Denton is his hometown, and that he’s a self-made man (which connects to the briefly-alluded-to implication that he was adopted into a poorer family than Brad’s and that's the source of his resentment), him saying some very Ominous Things to Bard at the end of ‘Lullaby’

And then…. It turns out this version decided to cut the long-lost twin thing!

Which… honestly I probably should’ve seen coming from the casting choices. 

And like, I see the logic here. Obviously the double-casting gimmick does not work on stage, that was supposed to be a parody of soap-opera twists and that element is a lot more downplayed in this version of ‘Shock Treatment’ and like… since this plot point has been already been heavily criticized in the film version I can see why they would want to cut it. 

But… it’s not just that I feel like this twist would’ve worked better in this version it’s also that… cutting this plot point and replacing it with nothing just makes Brad - who is already kinda relegated into glorified McGuffin for most of this story - feel like he had even less to do with the plot and makes Farley’s apparent animosity for Brad even more inexplicable and shoddy.

Like, Farley still says he chose Janet ‘because of [Brad]’ so I guess we’re supposed to believe that he just finds Brad to be such a massive lameo that it makes him seethe with a burning hatred of a thousand suns. Which is an even flimsier motivation than that Twin Stuff in the movie. 

‘Duel Duet’ always has that problem that it was originally written for two characters with a very powerful well-established rivalry and emotional stakes (Dr. Frank N’ Furter and Riff-Raff) and then had to be transplanted into being about these two schmucks who barely even know each other. And removing the Twin Twist just kinda removes whatever emotional stakes they did have and exacerbates the problem. 

.....Honestly, I think the main way to really ‘fix’ Duel Duet is… instead of that one kinda ‘Girl Power’ moment they tried to give Janet that I feel is a bit too heavy-handed and obvious…

Just make ‘Duel Duet’ a Farley versus Janet song!

Like, Janet is unquestionably THE Main Character of the story with the most important emotional journey of all of the characters, she was the core target of Farley’s manipulation and the focus of his schemes, she’s the one who actually got to interact with him and developed any sort of relationship with him, the focus of this scene is on how Janet realizing she has been used by him, she already spends all of Duel Duet physically kicking his ass…

Janet should also be the one to musically face-off against Farley, especially if you remove the only reason why Farley has to hate Brad so much. Like, yeah, she does get to beat him physically... but because this is a musical - the Songs are the thing that gets the biggest emotional and narrative priority. The person who gets to Duel Duet with the Farley is the person who really beats him. And this is really moment that should belong to Janet in this version of the story.

And maybe removing one of the few Things Brad actually gets to do in this plot which is also his Big Musical Number would kinda suck for him, but… well, this version also gives Brad a nice lil’ Triumphant Reprise of ‘In My Own Way’ where he reaffirms his love for Janet and maybe you can expand that into his Big Musical Number and… y’know, if the rift in their marriage was at least kinda about Brad’s insecurities about Janet becoming the Main Breadwinner of the household… Maybe it’ll be a good resolution to his story to embrace being Janet’s little Damsel in Distress?

(I mean, I think this is an element in this musical as it is but.... but you could've leaned into it more!)

And with both Oliver Wright and Macy Struthers cut, that gives more material to make Betty’s character more interesting. Without Oliver, Betty generally gets to talk about her ongoing investigation with Janet - and that means the two of them get to have more interactions and a more visible friendship. And on the other hand, She starts out as Ralph Hapshatt’s cohost, putting on a very Macy-esque false smile and pretending they’re still happily married. It’s a fun, character-specific spin on the whole ‘falsehood of television’ motif of ‘Shock Treatment’. 

(Also since Oliver is cut, it means Betty, Janet and Brad sing “Anyhow, Anyhow” as a trio. Which… I think that means they’re gonna have a threesome. And you know what? I support Janet Majors and her two girlfriends!)

And Ralph… really got the biggest boost in personality from the trimming of the cast - especially as most of the singing roles of these cut characters for assigned to him. Like, okay, I think something that’s kind of a problem with the ending of the original ‘Shock Treatment’ is how… unambiguous it is when compared to ‘Rocky Horror’. 

Because ‘Rocky Horror’ has a very morally ambiguous cast - pretty much every character has some element that makes them at least a little bit sympathetic and also… well, if not morally wrong than at least an (Audience Participation Voice) ASSHOLE (but also yeah, a lot of them are morally reprehensible even when working against other morally reprehensible characters). And the ending leaves it ambiguous whatever Frank got what he deserves or whatever his death is a tragedy, or some combinations of the two. Not to mention the ambiguity of what happened to Brad and Janet; whatever they’ve been liberated or exploited or corrupted and whatever or not they’re better off being left behind on earth or remaining in Frank’s clutches.

And meanwhile ‘Shock Treatment’  has a VERY clear-cut ending. There is a unambiguous differentiation between the characters who are the Good Guys, and those who are Bad Guys and those who are the Bad Guys’ Gullible Victims. And, like, yeah, all the Bad Guys succeeded in their evil scheme and and are now basically literally rolling in cash

…but literally any character who has any redeeming qualities gets to happily escape this Nightmare Studio while singing a cheery song about sex. 

Even Oscar Drill and the Bits, who are quite literally Bit Characters and have very little characterization or connection to our Main Foursome, get to escape. Basically just because what little we got from them made them seem like a nice group of young gays and they never did anything bad. 

And all of the people who stayed behind were portrayed as such exaggerated cartoonish bigoted caricatures literally rushing in excitement to get themselves exploited. Nor do we get any moment for our protagonists to show any sort of concern or regret or sadness about these people who they've known all of their lives. So it’s really hard to care about them as, like, Real People who've been duped into being ground down by this awful machine of capitalism and conformism. 

I understand the idea that having a wider cast makes Denton feel more like a Town compared to the isolated feeling of the Frankenstein’s Place, and that seeing all of these people fall for Farley’s bullshit in their own slightly-different ways help drives home how prevalent and influential and powerful this capitalist proudly-selfish image-obsessed philosophy really is. But… none of these characters get enough time to develop into anything but shallow parodies of Society. There’s just not enough humanity in them to sell even an ounce of the tragedy of Columbia and Rocky's deaths. 

So condensing all of these slightly-different characters into Ralph Hapshatt… that really made him the most complicated and morally-ambiguous character in this whole musical. Because, yeah, he is a self-obsessed sexist asshole driven primarily by a desire for fame and fortune but…

We spend enough time with him to humanize him. To see how he’s struggling with internalized homophobia and how he does have his doubts about what Farley and Co. are doing to his best friends even if his thirst for fame keep winning the moral battle and that said thirst for fame is pretty obviously born from a desperate need for love and validation that this homophobic corporate world just can’t give him.

So when the show ends with him being happily strapped unto to the Shock Treatment device he illegally modified with his own two hands because he just can’t allow himself to refuse a chance to star on TV - on some level this is karma, but it’s also a grim reminder that even if our threesome of heroes are happy and free, this exploitative entertainment machine also 'just got to keep going', just got to keep grinding down other people in the name of mental health, the American family and quality entertainment. 

And although we’ve technically scaled down from a whole town to just one guy, this feels so much more tragic because as selfish as Ralph is, and as silly and intentionally-ridiculous as the writing is sometimes, he still feels so much like a person. 

[lunar-lair]

oh my god i never told you guys abt my disaster twins competitive pkmn players concept. one sec ill put it under a cut for you bc this might get long lmao

so basically. gen 9 came out, and the boys, in their recent-switch glory, were like omg hell yes. game time. donnie and leo both get violet and mikey and raph both get scarlet (theyve got their own games bc they would tear each other apart if they had to share physical copies trust me) and generally trade around exclusives and chill etc etc. also while im on this leo picks quaxly, mikey is a toss up between fuecoco and quaxly, raph picks fuecoco obvs, and donnie picks sprigatito, as does april when she gets her own copy of violet later (which she honestly only chose for the loyalty points lmao she likes karaidon better)

anyways i was saying. donnie is one of those nerds who like perfectly iv trains his normal ass in-game team and builds perfect compositions around typings and looks up the gyms types n stuff and he was SO excited when he learned abt tera types and how they impacted team comps

leo on the other hand has the messiest type crossover and team comp EVER but still manages to thrash his opponents bc he uses really good movesets and strategies

the twins get into watching competitive videos while they play violet in silence together (hashtag parallel play) until donnie eventually starts commenting on weird stat spreads and leo eventually bursts out about shitty move choices and weird sets, or leo starts showing donnie videos abt odd pkmn getting high in latters, and then they start watching showdown battles...

and they lightbulb.

donnie loves building teams more than anything else, loves making them efficient as humanly possible.

leo loves showing the potential of odd pokemon and would kill for a good strategic challenge after all this time (hes been protecting against nemona and using electroweb against gym leaders, poor guy).

and, well, its not like you need anything special to get on the ladder in violet...

they start out simple, donnie building a basic team and leo reviewing it before going at the basic gen 9 ladders.

they kind of wreck house.

they just start going at the ladders with that team in their free time, then a different one when they get bored, then one with a few oddballs when donnie decides to ask leo what pokemon he wants to use, then they get kind of bored of just paldean pokemon so donnie gets to work understanding showdown...

but while its fun, they dont have anyone to brag to, because their brothers have no fucking clue what theyre talking about.

donnie has experience with youtube, right?

so they set up a little joint thing; a channel called disasterx2, no webcam, just videos about ladder battles. they end up specializing both in unique teams and movesets and in just vids about breaking down walls in ladders with a normal team. what makes both nifty is that donnie explains the whole team comp in a separate video to the battles, and the aesthetic quality is improved by donnies sensibilities and mikeys input (he was absolutely excited when they asked him to help with it. leo was no help. so much offense, actually, i have a feeling his fashion sense is good but the moment you try to make him make something look good visually on its own hes screwed.), and leos strategies are batshit, and ofc the boys are the boys, they go on tangents sometimes when they do real-time audio during battles and sometimes they just. dont cut them out. raph and mikey make guest appearances sometimes, april cheers them on on occasion, her and raph are very relieved bc its finally something non destructive they can spend their time on, its all great.

leo very often picks pokemon and movesets out and then donnie provides the pokemon (through breeding and stat spread tweaking, because god knows hed love that nerd shit). donnie likes it because 1. how leo uses those outlier pokemon is very interesting and 2. it gives him an opportunity to think about how to apply the right stats, natures, etc to apply to the pokemon and moves leo chose.

one of my favorite ever headcanons is that leo gets quiet when he focuses. like, dead quiet, and terrifyingly quiet. hes well known in their fandom for being very chatty over voiceover and then pretty quiet whenever hes playing challenging battles. donnie doesnt understand the strategies all that well so when leo gets too focused he just talks a lot abt the stat spreads and they add extra text to the video lmao. sometimes they utilize their clueless family members to have them ask questions they wouldnt have considered due to their knowledge in videos, sometimes donnie snags mikey while leos too quiet when theyre doing real-time audio, etc the fam knows theyre just glad theyre having fun

looks around flips through my mental notebook. nods twice. thats it i think! basically i think itd be fun if the twins played competitive but donnie built the teams and leo played hehe. i thought of it one day and it just stuck with me. anyways thanks for sticking w me through this long post that i need to end before my phone glitches out oops

[rolandkaros]

coco is young and she has so much potential, i really doubt that it would be her only slam but yeah, i get your point. I’m always scared of any player getting a career ending injury, just the thought of it makes me want to cry

i mean that’s sort of what makes it so sad to me, like, we’re all so confident she’ll win another slam, and the anxious part of me is like well what if she doesn’t, what if we just keep saying ‘oh it’s only a matter of time, only a matter of time, next year, she just needs to tweak a few things, she just needs to do this or that or the other thing’ and then the next thing you know she’s retiring with one slam.

which like, wouldn’t be the end of the world by a long shot bc a slam is still pretty lit. but also coco is also a more extreme example, and not one that im realistically all that worried about.

tbh the thing that scares me more are the young players who seem to be on the road to making it big, but never really make an impact. like i follow a fair number of players ranked in the 60s or above, and they’re all quite young and they’re all actively improving, but im like damn. what if the third round of a grand slam and a career high of 60 is literally the best that it gets for them.

or like mirra andreeva, who seems to have such a bright future, doing better and better each tournament…and it’s entirely possible that she just never wins any big titles. even though she seems so incredible now, that’s in the context of a 17-year-old. we have no clue what the landscape of the wta will look like when she’s at her best – we don’t even know what her best is. it’s just so wild and sad to me the idea that however good you are in the moment, really means nothing over the course of your career.

and yes, god, as a football fan career ending injuries are my worst nightmare…awfc acl crisis 22/23 season took so much out of me. some players return and are just never the same. it’s really fucking sad :((

[my-current-obsession]

Taking a break from Rune Factory 4 Special to fantasize about a potential Rune Factory 5 Special. Which probably won’t happen, but I can dream. This is basically just a list of updates/changes/etc. that I would like to see.

- (re)incorporate a lot of the stuff found in datamining, like the ability to run a shop and the DLC love interests - Livia, Radea, & Terry. Whether those three remain DLC or are just added in as new options, I would LOVE to have them. I wouldn’t even care if I have to wait until post-game to properly romance one or both of the girls, since it would be worth it. I’d also like Misasagi to be a love interest but I just don’t think that’s feasible since she has a child already and the writers/developers won’t want to have to deal with you marrying & moving in with someone who already has a kid.

- Speaking of Hina, she and Julien ABSOLUTELY need to grow up some after you’ve had kids. Those two are like... somewhere around 7-11 initially, and there’s at least a three or four year timeskip after having a kid (plus ANOTHER timeskip after the twins). It’s REALLY jarring to see those two looking/acting barely older than your own kids when at minimum they’re seven(ish) years older. Ideally I’d like the “young adult” models/sprites (as in, all the marriage candidates basically) to get a bit older too but that’s less of an issue than the two kids who noticeably Don’t Age.

- Bring back the “reverse” proposals from RF4S. I understand giving the player the agency to choose when to propose, but having an event that ends with their love interest proposing is SO GOOD, and it’s not forcing you to accept, so you can still propose on your own terms later. And several love interests make it clear they WANTED to propose when you do it, so just... let them do it! I think ideally I’d want MOST of the guys (3-4?) and at least one or two girls to do this, while the others still leave the proposing to you. In all cases, they’d need either one more new event or tweaks/add-ons to their final event to flow more naturally into this.

- Make sure the game is actually optimized and performs well on the Switch this time. I’ve heard the PC version is much better, but I got the game when it first came out on Switch, and it’s... not great. Lots of lagging, random crashing and visual glitches... Fix all of that.

- I ASSUME this was an oversight and not intentional, but definitely fix the issue where if you date multiple people in one run and then get married the other love interest(s) still act(s) like you’re together. The pet names are dropped but the romantic dialogue is not. It was SO awkward when I talked to Martin like the day after I married Ryker and he contemplated whether Cecil would approve of “our” relationship. Well, considering I’m married now, and not to you, probably not!

- This is a little less important, but along a similar vein I’d like if the game actually noticed and slightly altered some events depending on who you were dating, or if that’s too difficult make an effort to NOT have “date” events feature multiple potential love interests. Once again, on my first date with Ryker, Martin strolled up and interrupted us which embarrassed Ryker SO MUCH he left. I was pretty embarrassed too, considering Martin then casually said “Sorry I interrupted your date, Love.” Ideally either change date events so other love interests DON’T casually appear, or go immersive and have them react DIFFERENTLY if they also happen to be dating you. There’s also a non-date event where you and a few others play the King’s Game but Ryker is rigging it to help Ludmilla flirt with you. Again, odd to see it when I’m dating him and NOT her.

- It would honestly be nice to set your sexuality/preferred love interest gender at the start of the game simply so you’re not bombarded with EVERYONE’s events and not getting hit on by everyone when you’re talking to them every day. This way you’re only given the events and flirting by the gender you want.

- Bring back dungeon seeds/field dungeons! That’s just a simple and fun way to spend a lot of your time and get random rewards.

- Include more random conversations between townspeople! Literally the only “group” conversations in 5 are between the 6 boys and 6 girls at festivals. Let two or three people meet up during the day and have conversations. I miss that from 4 so much, it really helps flesh out the town and how certain characters interact with each other.

- Newlywed Mode would be nice.

- Murakumo being the only person running the bathhouse often causes problems. Any time he’s NOT there, such as festival days or just when he’s eating lunch/dinner, you can’t take a bath even though the inn is technically open/available. He has an in-universe reason to work alone so you can’t give him a helper, but you COULD do something like leave a note at his desk that we can investigate which says how much to pay. Bado in RF4 had something like that for whenever he was slacking off. Basically, we need some way to access the bath even if Kumo isn’t doing his job.

EDIT - thought of one more! Give us a way to access the flower shop earlier. Having Ludmilla be the sole person running it when she doesn’t even join the town until halfway through the game is... A Choice. It is RIDICULOUS how late in the game this shop becomes available. I think you could have Priscilla run it initially, and just decide where Lucy works between the shop and the bakery. Then when Ludmilla joins and takes over, Priscilla takes the other open job.

[the-sky-queen]

Am I the only one who wants to see more of splash and how that version of no-place works...? Like I want to see the charaters interact because to me no-place is the most interesting shatter-verse. Like bosscage doesn't really have much to work with/around. (At least to what I can think of. Only thing I was able to come up with was that bosscage is sorta like a dystopian version of the Canon world where most people are currently on an spaceship in space and the survivors on the earth are very few. I went somewhere with this AU but ran out of ideas for it and ended it abruptly and then failed to find any other ideas for bosscage) And for New Yoke, I think the actual show fleshed out the world enough. Whatever AU I create around New Yoke is just a happy-filled environment (for the most part, I do start with some torture and agony to a certain charater for them to be rescued and have a recovery arc but after that it's just happiness) Like I can't make myself give more suffering to theese versions anymore so I decided to leave it alone. And for the grim, it has potential due to all the crystals and emptiness, but I couldn't really figure anything out since in the show it looked really small compared to other shatterspaces, Am I the only one who felt that? I felt like the Grim was significantly smaller in size than any other shatterspace so I just couldn't come you with anything for it. HOWEVER, No place was an entirely different story. I really looked at this and said wait a damn minute. It really was what I am looking for, A huge uncolored canvas. It set up a pirate theme and that's it. So I came up with a lot of stuff for it and was even more amused when I searched and found a whole lot of different prompts, stuff I never even thought of about it. I read through a lot of prime au's containing all shatterverses but again... I really focused on No-place the most. Because again, I didn't really find anything new in bosscage prompts, and all New Yoke prompts were full of angst which are fun and very sad to read but again I really can bring myself to expand an AU on more greif given to these people. And I found no grim prompts, I never really specifically looked for them, I just never saw any scrolling through the sonic prime AU tag.

But holy hell was I invested in all and every No-place prompt I saw. It was very amazing how different yet so similar they all were. It can go to deities making their return to simple pirate adventure between a corny but absolutely lovable pirate version of th cast.

I found Splash through Gale from @son1c and I actually loved the concept and was very sad about there being only 2 posts about it.

Sometimes family members ask me why I never post any fics I write. It's because I know that this little monstrosity just contains at least 1 line that is my orginal idea and everything else is just a mix and mend between 186 different prompts that I definitely don't know who wrote and can't credit and can't find the posts Again because I probably found it after scrolling for 3 hours on the sonic prime AU tag. All my sonic fics are actually connected in some way, Meaning that every AU is canon in every other AU so it's basically I take the prompt idea and find a way to slap it in with a few small tweaks and changes to make it somehow work. I made a monstrosity that I am so proud of, which you will never see because I will never post it.

Now please,

I beg of thee. Make more of splash the hedgehog because I actually can't think of anything.

This made me smile! I'm so happy to hear that you love Splash, even though I haven't posted much about him. I'm planning on writing a story for him as part of my With Great Power Comes AU. I need to rewrite the first chapter and figure out the plot though. 😅

Anyway, you made me happy, so here's some various doodles of Splash! (Sketched these as soon as I could because you talking about Splash got me thinking and I had some ideas.)

Some close ups under the cut.

[grace-nakimura]

WHAT IF FREDREICH WAS IN THE WHOOP TWO PARTER THO

Okay, okay, okay! For real tho? When I was toying around writing it - gonna post it on A03 but I need to make a few tweaks - I initially had it where the baron survived. He survived and somehow felt a pull, like he could feel someone from his pack was around, and initially, when he makes it to Mumbai he thinks it's Gabriel. Grace, at this time, has no idea she's expecting, she just thinks it's "stress from moving" but since Grace isn't a wolf, Fredreich knows she is carrying a wolf or someone who could be potentially a wolf.

(Also, since he never died, Gabriel is kinda... wolf-y, but it's something he is still Fighting against, and in the third game his behavior is explained by that.)

For a month or two, especially when she finds out, Grace is kinda stalked - tho he claims it was protecting her - by a wolf. Until she runs into him and, since the last time they saw each other she tried to burn him alive - both she and Gabriel did - she is, understandably, terrified. Of course, he is only protective of her bc she is carrying a part of his pack, so it isn't genuine.

And - at first - he is kind of using her to get to Gabriel, so he plays nice, charming, and very approachable. You know how it takes Grace a while to figure out she does have feelings for Gabriel in the games - and in my personal hc it's towards the end of GK2, but keep in mind most of it was just her envy of him, and not wanting to be left out - and Gabriel even longer? Frederich is older than them. He realizes that he feels the same way about Gabriel as he does about Grace quickly and hard. She is passionate, sassy, and yes, she is hardheaded and unyielding, but Gabriel said it best - she is something.

Calling the baby Whoops was funny the first few times. It got old, but much like Gabriel, Grace hid behind sarcasm and humor to deflect true feelings, so he let it go.

Rittersberg is a lot more dramatic. Gabriel is filled with guilt. Thinks von Glower is using Grace as a human shield and is manipulating the situation - which, fine, he was at first, and he might still be pulling some strings, but he isn't lying that he fell hard for Grace just as he did for Gabriel - and, um, it takes a bit longer for the three of them to really meet in the middle. A bit quicker with Gabirel and Grace, they still have the same sort of talks, but eventually, Fredreich and Gabriel do talk. Things happen. Then things happen with Grace - honestly things already probably did happen with Grace in India, bc hormones, but only after he realizes his feelings were genuine - and then. Well, things happen.

They do tell their guardians about Whoops earlier. The nursery is also furnished earlier, too, since Fredreich is excited. Gabriel is still scared, but hedging on a shy sort of wonderment. Grace has made up her mind and she's going to see this through, but she ends up being a little more openly excited with Fredreich around. A bit shy, like Gabriel's, but she isn't so afraid to show it. Before Gabriel has to leave for Scotland, their only real contention is naming the baby - Fredreich suggests Elisse; Gabriel jokingly wants to name the baby after himself, if only to annoy both of them; Grace still goes by Whoops to annoy Gabriel more. You know, assert Dominance. He does think of the name Chiyo, though, both out of respect for Grace's heritage - which he does know Uchinaguchi and modern Japanese, since he's been around for a while - and because of the meaning. A thousand generations. Full circle, almost. And then when Gabriel suggests Rebecca - to bind a thousand generations - it fits.

Grace still calls her Whoops even up to her birth. Fredreich is a baby hog. Bex - or Whoops - might be a wolf, but she might be a dormant one, which happens, and she might be destined to be a Schattenjäger. Much like the ending of my story, nothing matters but the right now.

And if Grace and Gabriel driving slow as hell back to Schloss Ritter was first-time parent cringe, all three of them are kinda known to just watch Bex sleep to make sure she was breathing.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

Context for the Adira fragment?

Okay! So, I can't remember how much I've talked about her story on here. But the basic summary is - first book (of which I've written an assorted quantity across... three different drafts, I think), she discovers a copy of the Bible, and that book is really her ascertaining truth, along with a great many other things. I have part of the second book also written, although it's legit such a time since I really worked with it that I can't remember clearly where the books separate. In the second (?) book, the authorities take her away (there's potentially a timeskip but I may write something in between I'm not certain) and try and break her and destroy the Christianity (which has been their goal for a while). At this point she and Tom are engaged. But not just take her away, the authorities stage it in a way I'm not 100% sure about yet, so that her friends and family don't even know where she is or if she's alive or dead.

(During this time, Tom uhhhh develops something of an eating disorder, her friend Emily* goes through a crisis of faith and nearly dies of hypothermia, and Adira herself is tortured and reasonably close to death on a number of occasions.)

There's also fun stuff with betrayal as well, which is what really messes up Adira and her family the most, but anyway. She ends up with a lot of trauma and physical injury which results in scarring (none self-inflicted, though it may look like it). After a long while, she and Tom finally get married when they are unexpectedly made to adopt children (I still need to work out the specifics of how that works with the altered plot since Vaniah's story was removed from this universe, but they are twins and their names are Faith and Hope). They have at least one biological child (another girl, this one named Joy). There's a bunch of persecution, but for Reasons (some of which I still have to work out) they aren't simply wiped out by the authorities, and most of them are not too traumatised or having to hide their entire existence.

Anyway, at some point Tom and Adira buy a house which I can picture perfectly and I've even seen a smol canyon (idk that's the wrong word) that was precisely what I was picturing, except plus the house. In that snippet they're lying on the grass outside their home, a few (?) years after they got married. Incidentally, the whole trauma thing combined with problems of Tom's that showed up (he has significant anger issues, has been reunited with childhood friends who rejected him due to an illness in his teens but who were extremely misogynistic which occasionally shows up in him despite his working on it and drinking his respect women juice ever since) nearly broke their engagement/marriage early on, but they've learned to sort that out with various help.

But they get along SO well all through (they first met when she was fourteen and he was ? (I need to tweak the ages, I started writing this years ago and the age gap at that point is Not It) due to sharing a class 'cause she was precocious and he was struggling) and I love them sm. I love how they can still remain lighthearted to some extent even through all the things they endure. Ultimately, theirs is a lighter and gentler connection than, say, Vaniah and his Emily, which has a lot more heaviness to it.

One of the reasons I haven't written a great deal of this lately (read: have touched only twice since a year and a quarter ago) is because I've been finding romance just not what I want to go near for some reason in writing for the most part (Emily and Vaniah are different because that's not really romance ig). But I love them and I love their dynamic, both when it was purely platonic and when it grew to include romance as well. In the first book, Tom struggles significantly with an illness - I need to work out the specifics, but I drew to some extent from chronic fatigue syndrome, which my dad suffered from when I was young and still suffers from in a reduced quantity. One thing I like about that is that it shows how singlemindedly driven Tom is for any goal of his, which feeds into the anger issues he has later on, and problems related to his somewhat obsessive nature. Which he doesn't entirely fix and he still has to deal with to some extent, but it much improves (and it's not *all* bad, there are good points to it too).

Anyway, yeah, I think that's most of the context off the top of my head. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything! I love talking about my characters. :)

*The Emily of Vaniah's story and this Emily were originally one and the same, but I ended up choosing to separate the stories. I'll probably change the name of Vaniah's Emily at some point, but haven't yet. In Adira's story Vaniah still exists, showing up precisely three times, but his ending is entirely different - while in his story he leaves his job and becomes friends with them and marries Emily and heals from his problems, in Adira's, he leaves his job but rather more explosively and choosing to save all the people he can before he is found out. He then commits suicide to avoid a long and painful death at the hands of the authorities (it's possible he could have done things differently and simply fled to join some of Adira's family and believers overseas, but he also entirely does not mind dying at that point). In Adira's story he is never named specifically, and his actual ending may or may not be specified in those books.

[aresmelaina]

Wanted Connections

[These are mostly just suggestions, and I'm happy to tweak things at certain points. Might be updated in the future!]

Old Flame: Ares old girlfriend from highschool. She and Ares had been dating since middle school and were going on strong to the point that most people thought they'd end up marrying some day. However, things weren't going as smoothly once Ares fell in with a bad crowd and they broke up shortly before Ares got kicked out of his family's home. Whether she broke up with him or he broke up with her can be discussed! However, she might not be too happy about what he has done with his life since they last saw each other.

Partner in Crime: Someone who was also involved in some rather shady dealings in the past and knows Ares as a result. The two became friends of the ride or die sort rather quickly, and experienced a whole lot together - close calls with the cops, nights spent in holding cells, fights with other drug peddlers, crazy parties and the likes. Maybe there were some feelings that went a little beyond friendship for one or both of them, or maybe their relationship was entirely platonic, but regardless they haven't seen each other since Ares went to prison - and are now encountering each other by chance in Redwood.

Hook Ups: Not really much to be said here. Maybe they're someone from his past who he's hooked up with before, maybe this starts up in Redwood. All kinds of possibilities!

Kind Soul: Ares has fucked over quite a few people in Redwood but he spent almost a year trying to help people out, so I'd love to see someone who has a few positive experiences with him! Could be someone he saved from walkers, or maybe someone he shared supplies with when they needed them. Just someone who has only really met the Ares who is trying to be a better person!

Fellow Rogue: Someone from Ares old raider group. Could be a fellow raider who Ares befriended who has just as much to hide as Ares does (and who maybe ends up bonding over their shared guilt). Or maybe someone who was taken prisoner by the group for one reason or another. Maybe Ares tried to be kind to them during their imprisonment and the two had some kind of tentative friendship, but this doesn't have to mean that they forgive him! Potential for lots of conflicted feelings there!

[coursesfreedownload]

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[jayteacups]

I just read the links you posted. And I would love to know more about Nuwa hehe.

I was interested in her relationship with Levi, her clan, the cause of humanity and her desire to save innocent people underground, and some of the concepts you wrote for her. As I was reading it, she seemed to me to be a more selfless character than Levi.

I've always been curious about this and in general the 'what if' style of writing where Levi and his partner say fuck humanity and run away together and live a peaceful normal life. Unfortunately, I see this topic and idiom in very few fanfics.

Anyway, I hope this doesn't sound ridiculous and pointless. I'm just a LevixOc enthusiast and I don't know if you plan to write this fic one day, but I think you will do a good job in Nuwa's character building and fitting into the universe.

Unfortunately, especially in Aot, the concept of the Underground is not touched upon as much. No matter how much humanity has survived the giants forever and finally got free and reached a happy ending, there are innocent people in the Underground who are persecuted, who have never seen sunlight, rain and sky, who live in hunger and misery, who will never be free.

I always wanted there to be an end where they were finally recognized as human beings and given citizenship, or they had to go to the surface because it was no longer habitable because of the Rumbling, or because it was used as a prison where only criminals should live.

And your character seems to me to have the potential to solve it.

Anyway, without further ado, the last thing I will say is that another fic I liked was your grimreaper fic and I wonder if that fic continues.

I'm glad you enjoyed those old one-shots! 🥹 Also it's always nice to meet more Levi x OC enthusiasts 🫶🏼 Though I don't think my fic will be strictly canon-compliant (there'll most likely be some tweaks and changes) I'm really happy to know that you liked what you saw of Nüwa and that you think she would fit into the AOT setting 💕 I'm excited to explore her character further as I workshop the story, especially with the more morally-grey aspects of her that she would prefer to keep hidden lollll

You're spot on with what you're saying about the Underground - an important part of Nüwa's story will be about fighting for the people who live there. In general, I want to explore the Underground more in my upcoming fic and do it justice. I've always found the concept of it unjust since they've been deprived of basic needs, like you've said, which is why I wanted to make Nüwa somebody who's motivated to make things better, based on her own experiences growing up there. (I understand that the main story had a load of other things to get to, but the Underground has so much storytelling potential hence the emphasis I'm putting on it) I like the idea of everyone being able to make it up to the surface and granted surface citizenship at the very least (I picture Nüwa heavily advocating for this), especially since the Rumbling would probably have caused some cave-ins, and post S3, Wall Maria has been reclaimed and the island is cleared of titans, so there'll definitely be land space.

I'm glad you picked up on Nüwa's selflessness as well - in my opinion, any character who has a romance with Levi in the canon setting needs to be selfless to some degree for it to work, that's just how I headcanon his s/o to be. It's interesting that you say that she's more selfless than Levi - I think she is as selfless, but it shows in different ways to Levi's selflessness since they go down different paths and end up in very different day-to-day scenarios. I love drawing parallels and I will definitely have a fun time exploring their similarities (selflessness and devotion to their causes are the main examples) and the differences in the way those similarities presents. (hope that made sense aaa) I also do plan on having her struggle with her sense of duty and some of her more selfish desires, because nobody is infallible (she has plenty of flaws too; I want to give Nüwa complexity), and who doesn't love a good moral dilemma in a fic?

Maybe spoilers (but not really haha) but I can say definitively that I won't be going down the route where they decide to run off into the sunset and leave everything behind because imo that would feel OOC for Levi and I can't picture Nüwa, who I've written to be incredibly dedicated to fighting for the Underground people's rights, to give that up - but both of their resolves will definitely be challenged, and they'll definitely think about it when things get overwhelmingly hard, because this isn't the AOT universe without suffering 😈 at least you can rest easy knowing she isn't a Scout but that doesn't mean she won't suffer at all lolol 😈

Oh you've read The Harbinger's Premonition too?? I'm glad you liked it! 💞 It's currently on hiatus at the moment, sorry! I've been stuck for ideas and have been focusing my limited creative energy more on the It's A Wrap! stories and the big Levi x OC fic outline, and I have a nasty habit of coming up with more ideas, jotting them down, spending time thinking about it but then being unable to actually write when faced with a blank document LOL. Basically my brain has been pre-occupied with other things for a while. I'm not saying I won't ever pick THP back up again because I really am proud of the premise and the few chapters that I've written so far! But right now it's just been on the back-burner, so it's on a hiatus until I get the mojo back for it 😅 sorry to disappoint! Thank you again for the ask <333