#these are for MY archiving purposes sorry

[kiwiana-writes]

that bookmark script you shared is magic omg and i guess i know what im gonna do this sunday!! i wanna ask if you have a few more magic scripts you can share that's gonna make ao3 better? thank you so much!!!!

I do! First of all I honestly just highly recommend browsing GreasyFork specifically for AO3 scripts, because everyone uses the site differently, but apart from the bookmark maker I already shared, here's the ones I use:

AO3 floating comment box: this lets you enable a little… well, floating comment box that you can copy/paste particular lines from the work into as you read if you want to leave those amazing 'quote a line and scream' comments a bit easier

AO3 Word Count Script: this one adds word counts to chapter links on AO3 Chapter Index pages and in stats on each chapter page. I actually use this more for bookbinding than for reading, because I am an 'entire work on by default' sort of reader lmao.

AO3 Rekudos Converter: this one's fun! If you click the 'kudos' button on a fic you've already kudosed, it will give you the option to instead leave a random comment from a selection of comments. You can confirm that you want to leave the rekudos comment, but you DON'T get to pick or edit - it will just automagically post it. I believe the default rekudos comments are "Extra Kudos<3", "This is an extra kudos, since I've already left one. :)", "I just wanted to leave another kudos<3" but you can customise that list, and I have haha.

AO3 Display what chapter a comment is on in inbox: This also does what it says on the tin and in your AO3 inbox, will show which chapter a comment was left on (if it's a oneshot, it will show 'chapter 1'). Great for comments on multichaps and especially if you're a co-writer looking to only reply to comments on the chapters you wrote lol (I know at least one friend who uses it for exactly that purpose)

I also have one I use as a writer which is one I coded myself (so isn't on GreasyFork sorry!!!) which activates on the new work page, and does the following: sets the rating to Explicit, archive warnings to No Archive Warnings Apply, fandom to RWRB bookverse, category to M/M, and relationship to Alex/Henry (because let's be real, that's most of what I write); adds a template to the summary and beginning author notes fields; adds the link to my tumblr in the ending author notes fields; sets the language to English; sets commenting permissions to guests and registered users; sets the skin to my default work skin that includes EVERYTHING. I can always go back and change any of those things if I want to, but it's just a bit of a time-saver! During Kinktober I also added a bit to this script to also add the fic to my Kinktober 2024 collection, because that's all I was writing that month anyway lmao.

[crouteann]

were in a call of the netherdeep campaign and i decided to play finn in it!!! these are some quick sketches ive done since we started along with some design work for cesare, finn, and pappy up top.

tiefling is cesare, were doing toxic yaoi its fun. girlfailure/borzoi werewoof is viatrix. she rolls crit fails like its her job, the big guy with his boobs out is ash, genasi artificer, who is only with the party bc its convenient, and last but certainly not least is manston “pappy” pumpernickel, who “adopted” finn as his grandson years ago. this party is so fun and were probably going to get our shit rocked next session.

i gave my beloved dm fallon and she has already hurt me with him without us even seeing him, my man is causing PROBLEMS in the background and haunting us from afar. just twin things!!! i updated his look along with finns but all you get is his elbow bc hes still an unknown to the party (the joke that he will be just finn with a shitty pencil moustache is hilarious tho)

also the built in rivals are fantastic and theyre our friends. as a shifty bitch finn will keep them all at arms length like he does anyone else but hey… theyre cute ok. im in love with ayo jabe and WILL be drawing them that is a promise.

[escapefromnewyork1997]

THERE'S A DYKE IN THE PIT (1992)

pacific northwest punk comp put out by harp records

[dlrecrowley]

one of my own favourite things about sebek is that he's a girl who drinks tea and reads books

[cosmereplay]

Ok headcanon time. In fanfic land obviously Kaladin could've seen Tarah's safehand. But in canon???

[daipeanutsaiban]

Hello! Um I know it's been a few months since you said people could ask you more questions on your tgaa thoughts, but I was hoping to ask about your baskerzieks and genshinxwife ones. Like how they met, or what their last in person convos went like before each couple separated/died, etc, bc I really adore your Lady B & Mrs. Asougi designs! They deserved first names 😭

Also I'd love to hear your genklint/ville thoughts too if you care to share those!

ALSO I wanted to say you're 100% correct that if Kazuma & Klint ever actually met good ending au Kazuma would think he's the most annoying person alive. It's funny if genklint is platonic or romantic too, it's like Herlock Sholmes is right there and instead Kazuma thinks his dad's bf (best friend OR boyfriend lol) is significantly worse. Something something hating your parallel

Anyway no pressure, and sorry if you aren't looking to answer more questions at this time!

HI i love to yap and to yap about dgs especially so you're good haha <3 i'm the kind of person who needs to be asked tbh bc i tend to be self conscious/doubt myself so questions are always super appreciated 🥹💗 this post got LONG so i'm going to put it under a break to spare anyone who's just here for art or trying to look at memes during their lunch break

TL;DR: klint and primrose were engaged as kids but it was broken off upon his parents' death, it was renewed when he earned prestige as a prosecutor; their last conversation was when primrose forced him to confess his crimes to her but she'd started having doubts months ago; in my favorite hc, gkv never pursued one another beyond dropping hints here and there but because i am bisexual i also want them to have fun; genshin and yukari met by chance as teens and genshin had to convince his father to let them marry each other after finding out she was pregnant; he could never say his last words to her because writing about the professor's identity could've endangered her and kazuma.

first of all thank you so much, it makes me so happy when people enjoy my designs and characterizations for lady baskerville and mrs asougi!! for clarity, i'll be calling them by the names i gave them in this post, primrose and yukari respectively.

klint and primrose's engagement was decided by their parents and they met as children- i think they were probably feeling awkward around each other for a while since children don't really care about such things (right..?) and primrose actually chose to spend her time reading when her father would take her to visit, and she might've even been more interested in talking/playing with barok because there wouldn't be the daunting idea of an engagement looming on the horizon lol. eventually, she and klint do grow closer and come to consider each other friends thanks to him putting in a lot of effort to make her feel welcome and also have more fun (she finds him boring- i characterize klint as having been a very serious and dutiful child, though he does play with and dote on his brother).

when the van zieks parents die in my hc, losing their life in a fire specifically, primrose's father chooses to cancel their engagement because he doubts klint can suitably provide for his daughter- a cruel but logical decision as klint is just fourteen years old with no backing or achievements. as an aside, the fire is declared to be an unfortunate accident but klint silently believes it was premeditated- this incident contributes to him considering prosecution as a career. out of care for his brother, he never brings up this idea to barok.

still, primrose is a very clever child who's acutely aware that her father's doting is a form of control (such as making her wear beautiful, white clothes to easily find out if she's been sneaking out, which i think i talked about before), and she insists on meeting klint either at his estate or in the city while they both (and occasionally barok) wear disguises/common clothes. the latter option allows them to meet people outside of their social caste, and to develop a sympathy for them from an early age which also contributes to klint's growing bitterness towards other nobles. throughout his struggle to be taken seriously by these men in spite of his age, primrose continuously encourages him and even spies on her father's meetings with other gentlemen to then report to him, and this continues in their adult life with her reporting rumors and "gossip" from other ladies about their own husbands (with perhaps dire consequences in the long run, haha...)

primrose has ambitions of her own, though, many of which are philanthropic in nature and stem from guilt at being born in a wealthy household to a father who does not care about people other than his own. they are difficult to achieve as an unmarried woman (or even as a woman in general), as her father would never greenlight her ideas, and as such she becomes enraged with klint when he allows the engagement to be dispelled due to believing she would ultimately "be happier with someone else" when it would effectively condemn any ounce of freedom she could have. from primrose's perspective, klint is the only candidate for marriage because he actually respects her and understands her as a person.

their engagement was eventually reinstated following klint's multiple achievements, chiefly when he made a name for himself as an extremely prolific prosecutor and primrose's father couldn't really object to it (ha) anymore. when i researched, i learned that men in the victorian era would commonly get married in their thirties once their careers were established, and i especially like that for this couple because it means that genshin could've attended their wedding. (it's also amusing to picture klint pitching him as the best man while primrose is firmly in barok's camp and they have a silly spat about that, haha. but ngl i prefer genshin as their best man because it was tradition that the best man would drive the married couple to their month long honeymoon directly after the ceremony so. he could stay behind a little while if you catch my meaning. teehee)

on the topic of genklintville, my ultimate preference/personal "canon" is that they never outright acted upon their romantic or sexual interests in one another although the tension was clearly there. but like any bisexual on the internet, i like to indulge a little bit, as shown in my previous paragraph hehe. i like to imagine a kind of kinship between genshin and primrose as they are interested in similar literature and share a similar sense of humor as well (chiefly teasing klint- in a deadpan manner for genshin). klint and primrose tend to dote on genshin in a way they think is discreet, because they can sense his loneliness at being apart from his family even though he generally doesn't voice it, but as we all know genshin isn't a fool and it leaves him quite flustered haha. genshin also relates to klint in the way that they are both heirs to something "greater than them" (the asogi clan/the van zieks heritage) and sometimes yearn to break away from it which might contribute to why genshin left for london if the first place. i'd like to add that if i draw genklint without primrose present, it's taking place with her knowledge and consent, though them being pushed to cheating due to increasing stress or suchlike circumstances is an interesting angle- it's just not something i see myself making at present. though now saying that has made me think about the ways it could be fun to explore the way klint's lying and gaslighting keeps piling up, so what's one more lie? so i'd be interested in reading a story that would attest to his guilt from committing the act and his gaslighting towards not only his wife but also to himself, hmm. the best way that i can put it is that if i'm to explore gk without the v, she must be a relevant character because i'm not about to discard a canon female love interest to focus solely on the yaoi lmao.

now for genshin and yukari, or genyu for short as i like to call it in my head (lol)... there's a lot to cover here too 😵‍💫 some of this, particularly the stuff concerning ayame, is still undecided on but i thought the more context the better!

to understand their dynamic, it feels important to state/repeat my headcanons about the asogi clan aka genshin's immediate family beyond her and kazuma, which were mentioned here. but to summarize, they are very patriarchal, strict, and the type to suppress their emotions. genshin is his father's illegitimate child, and his real mother is... hm, well, she won't ever appear in my art because it's suitable for her character, but she's a high ranking courtesan, aka "oiran", and therefore pregnancy/being a mother could bring shame to her and likely ruin her livelihood, because they are meant to project the image of being unattainable both in appearance.. and price. her disappearing for some months to a year wouldn't be all that suspicious as few men can even afford to meet her.

because the oiran brings the House where she works good money, they help her cover up her pregnancy and her son's existence by sending him to live with his father as soon as possible. once, genshin tries to visit his mother, but he is turned away. in short, his first experience was to be abandoned by someone who was supposed to love him. i think this backstory also serves to give reason to his name (written with the kanji 'shadow' and 'truth') because he is a truth meant to be hidden by the government. if you think about his father giving him that name, it becomes quite sad and implies shame for bringing his son into the world. i think it would also justify the personality i like for him, which is more reserved and serious than how i portray the rest of the visiting trio (with a boisterous but ambitious seishiro and a downtrodden but shy and earnest yuujin), and with a greater disposition for being suspicious... which is naturally a good thing for a detective.

genshin's father's wife lost her life to an illness some years prior to genshin integrating into the asogi clan, which is why he sought comfort from the oiran. to avoid unsavory rumors and to preserve both women's reputation, syoma (genshin's father) forbids his son from venturing outside of the house - paralleling primrose's childhood, which they could bond over later in life - until he turns a certain age. he's the dark sheep of the clan, to make it short. it's by sneaking out as a child that he meets seishiro, and then yukari who is accompanying ayame.

as an aside, i want to add that while syoma holds misogynistic beliefs, he still feels a sense of responsibility so he does eventually pay off the oiran's debt in the end- not that she's particularly grateful since he led her on and made her promise not to abort his child without ever planning to marry her. not a great guy, but def a fun character to write. those are things genshin deduces in his teenage years, and he swears to never become like his father.

as for yukari, her family history is also nebulous, and i don't know if i even want to establish her circumstances before meeting ayame and genshin because i like the meta irony of those details remaining unknown to us just as they were unknown to those around her outside of how she is tied to other people. ayame's friend, genshin's wife, kazuma's mother- never her own person. she reaches a breaking point during genshin's absence, but i won't go into detail about that for now because it's part of a long project of mine. what i can say about her is that she does housework for ayame's family in exchange for room and board, but she's not categorized as a servant because ayame cherishes her, a privilege that makes her feel awkward at times.

genshin fell for her due to her frank and joyful approach to life which was so different from the outlook he was raised on, and she piqued his curiosity with her unusual and often "silly", but free, behavior. he has the utmost respect for her, which is why as much as i like gkv and think it could work in a modern au with yukari's inclusion/approval + rapid methods of communication, i think realistically genshin wouldn't have the heart to start anything with someone else when she is waiting for his every letter so far away. he wouldn't be able to read the expression on her face, and she could easily lie about being okay with it.

in this wikipedia article about marriage in japan in the edo period (1600-1868), it reads: "Members of the household were expected to subordinate all their own interests to that of the [household], with respect for an ideal of filial piety and social hierarchy. [...] Marriages were duly arranged by the head of the household, who represented it publicly and was legally responsible for its members, and any preference by either principal in a marital arrangement was considered improper."

you might've guessed where i'm going with this, but genshin's father had already chosen a wife for him, and that person was ayame, who is from a 'good' family. obviously that marriage didn't go through with yukari becoming pregnant at 18 or 19 (!!), and syoma capitulated to genshin's request that he be given permission to marry his girlfriend which only further strained his relationship with his father further. as for ayame, she was fortunate that the man she was interested in was studying medicine, and therefore struggled less for her family to accept yuujin as her husband. but for yukari, although she knows genshin doesn't love ayame, there's always that nagging feeling that she was the "wrong" choice. after all, she has to witness the interactions between genshin and his family every day, and her presence is often the source of tension. her only rock after ayame's death and genshin's departure is her son, who starts rejecting spending time with her as he grows older because, well, he's a teenager (something i want to expand on in that project i mentioned).

in yukari's case, she was never able to read her husband's last words as even writing about the professor's identity could endanger hers and kazuma's lives, but perhaps genshin had promised he would briefly return at the half-way point of his stay overseas and then ended up having to break that promise by choosing to investigate the professor killings before eventually losing his life. yukari's feelings of helplessness were confirmed as the truth in her eyes then.

as for primrose and klint's last conversation, it's been sitting in my wips for a while LOL. i def think she had her suspicions, and when she finally gathered her courage to confront him, he broke down and told her the truth. i've revised this comic and especially its dialogue so many times that i don't even know if i like it anymore, please pray for me 😅

It's funny if genklint is platonic or romantic too, it's like Herlock Sholmes is right there and instead Kazuma thinks his dad's bf (best friend OR boyfriend lol) is significantly worse.

this made me laugh LMAO honestly kazuma would be so petty about it meanwhile i feel like he'd get along super well with the man's own wife 😂 i also think that as an adult kazuma would admire his father less and even be a bit of a tsundere lol, but yeah in a No One Dies/Good Ending AU(tm) he'd probably resent genshin a little for leaving him and his mother, whose struggles he witnessed firsthand for ten years. hell, maybe he does resent him in the current circumstances even if it's not the dominant emotion when it comes to his father, it of course being grief... still. lord van zieks get your paws off my dad!! 🙄💢 also if genshin starts reciprocating the attention kazuma might start killing LOL

...this answer is now well over 2000 words and i still feel like i'm leaving things out i feel CRAZY omg. autism diagnosis unnecessary atp lmfao.

also just found this in my #yukanotes i should've just copy pasted all this augh. i love yukari very much she is extremely dear to me. 😊💗

thanks again for your questions I'M SORRY IT'S SO LONG....... i DO love to yap 🥹🥹💗

[acid-harbringer]

please know i rotate your au in my brain a lot, i never thought of the characters and those connections that way YOUR ART IS AMAZING

Thank you so so much I'm genuinly honoured! I'll try to post more about the AU, I've posted a little more off it on twitter (mostly text posts though) I should work on drawing out the side character swaps some more (I have not neglected them don't worry) anyway thank you so much for the kind ask! have a little Octans/constellation siblings doodle!

(yes I know amalgams are white but this is a monster injected with the integrity soul and a monster that didn't even die)

[lostxmelody]

haha yikes wow i havent posted any art in a while. take these unfinished wips that i will not complete while i finish up moving

[nie7027]

You know what I've been thinking? I ve been thinking that Atlus shot itself in the foot by honoring p2 and making the explosion on the bridge caused by the death arcana to happen on the same year as p2 instead of a few years later.

Because imagine this.If it had happened a few years later we could have this narrative:

After the events of p2 EP Nanjo, not satisfied with the resolution reached, decides to take Kandoris research(that he had previously saved and kept under lock so it wouldnt fall on the wrong hands), create an investigation team and fund further research regarding Shadows and the collective unconscious/the des of souls in hopes to find a better solution to the fragile situation the splitting of realities caused.

Unbeknownst to him (as the P1 team had no idea about the true extent of Nyx power, only having fought a small scrap of it in the form of the Snow Queen Mask) Nyx starts to take control of the minds of the scientists working for him who start to commit unethical experimentation in the name of the research to fulfill Nyx objective.

Eventually Nanjo finds about the unethical experimentation, including a future project regarding experimentation on children, and immediatelly shuts down the research, angering the group of scientists and causing the fights that eventually lead to the separation of the group who will go on to become the Kirijo group under the leadership of Kouetsu Kirijo.

They of course take/steal the research with them.

As Nanjo couldn't draw the media attention and risk the knowledge that his company was involved with unethical experimentation to come out Nanjo couldn't stop them and he had to play the card about how the separation was a mutual accord caused by a difference of interests while trying to find a way to close in and stop the Kirijo group from the shadows without the research leaking out even more (here's where he hires Baofu and Ulala and starts working with them to find a way to subtly bring the Kirijo group down)

This all comes to an end when the Kirijo lab explodes and all the research is seemingly lost.

Nobody knows what happened and everybody involved died in the accident.

No matter how much they search they can't find anything.

Not even the son of Kouetsu, Takeharu Kouetsu, who now that his father is dead has inherited the company seems to know anything (in part because Kirijo is keeping everything under wraps, in part because even they actually don't know what really happened. The only one who knows it's Ikutsuki and he's manipulating everyone).

So believing everything was truly lost and there's nothing more to do, ridden with guilt born from everything bad that happened since he decided to revive Kandoris research (he should have know anything related to THAT would need up this way, he should have known it was a terrible desicion, why did he have to be so arrogant to want to take everything in his hands...) Nanjo ceases and decides to focus on his company and watching over his own team and the p2 cast (keeping watch on them and making sure they don't accidentally bring the end of the world by recovering their memories)

But there's always something inside of him telling him to keep an eye on the Kirijo group, to not ignore them and he kinda does by maintaining close business relationships.

But it isn't enought.

He's not as as meticulous as he was before, as he should have been.

Thisakes him completely unprepared when the Fall happens years later.

And again nobody knows what happened, worst of all, everybody seems to have actually completely forgotten anything even happened.

But he knows.

He knows whatever happened was Persona/Shadow related so he once again turns his full attention to the Kirijo Group but this time he keeps a careful eye on the young heiress, Mitsuru Kirijo, as it's clear to him she isn't all that it seems.

He keeps his distance, not interfering, but staying watchful. Hoping to learn anything about what truly happened before acting seeing as how badly trying to take everything in his hand went last time.

And that's how Nanjo eventually learns about the Shadows ops (but funnily enough still knows nothing about the Fall being this the most guarded secret the Shadow ops, NO, SEES has).

And this narrative would have been great.

It would have been good way to keep everything connected ... IF ONLY the kirijo lab had happened a few years later.

By making it happen a few months after p2 it gives a very tiny widow of time for the fallout between the Nanjo and Kirijo groups to occur.

In fact it gives too little time for everything to happen considering P1 takes place in 1996.

By 1999 only 3 years have happened since the P1 cast found out about personas, shadows and defeated Kandori.

Only 3 years for the Nanjo group to start its research, a fallout to occur which ends up creating the Kirijo group AND then the Kirijo group doing everything they did until the formation of the death arcana and it's battle with Aigis on the bridge...

All of that in the span of just 3 years with everything in P2 happening at the same time.

And I KNOW I could change it.

I could move the dates a little to make everything fit better without really changing anything...

(Makoto losing his parents at the age of 8 instead of 4 for example doesn't really change anything. He would repress equally the same)

BUT changing the 10 years that Minato stored death inside of him feels SO WRONG.

It feels likes it's something quintessential to the narrative...AND I DONT KNOW WHY.

*coughcoughmaybeit'sjustmyfixationwithmultiplesof10coughcough*

[subsequentibis]

tending to find the interpretations page on this might be a wiki a bit dull bc it looks like a lot of people jump to death/drugs/afterlife/etc kind of interpretations when i think the johns are fairly clear when their songs are about that kind of thing! but also i really want people to play in a more fantastical surreal space and accept that the songs sometimes draw a picture of a world that makes no fuckin sense because sometimes real life makes no fuckin sense, and that's like. fine!! not every weird sentence is said by someone on drugs!!

also i want people to draw more connections between songs. sure 'answer' could be a song about a guy who thinks he's God's Gift To Women. however it could also be about how sometimes you gotta settle and you'll find out the thing you settled for is actually perfect, and also i think it's kind of the opposite perspective to 'she's an angel' - like shit, god answered my prayers and THIS is what i get? i'm kind of perturbed and upset! can i talk to someone in charge about this? and the angel is like what the fuck man, i was made for you? can you get over yourself? you're always doing this. grow up.

[secretiveplotting]

Ima be real when i saw this at first i thought he was pregnant and i needed to step back for a moment

[cousingregs]

i hope he gets stuck in a meat grinder and dies

[deductivisms]

i have so many bkak thoughts swirling around in my brain but im so tired

i just think that people who reduce them to usual manzai duo archetypes forget that akaashi's mental cataloguing of bokuto's mannerisms and traits is not normal guy behavior 😭

he doesn't even do that for any sort of "practical" reason like bokuto exasperating him or feeling like he needs to reign him in he does that because he's obsessed w/ him ("at the back of my mind i saw him as a star player" .. okay-) and then furudate flips the table on us and reveals that actually bokuto is the one who's more capable of managing akaashi's moods than the other way around 😭😭😭

bokuto's straightforwardness is just what akaashi needs to declutter his brain as someone who gets so so so bogged down with how many thoughts he experiences that it actually becomes debilitating!!!

[teardropvampire]

Mahiru Shiina - Super Heartbeat

[adriles]

yes. i will schedule when we will hold “patroclus’ funeral and game night” but its not gonna be before i exact my brutal revenge

[arvoze]

[2/3] HHNFLARTAS - hell hath no fury like a rescue team association scorned

hell hath no fury like a rescue team association scorned not a fic or anything, i just ramble a lot about my pmd ocs in a digestible format that's more or less that kind of content. random yearly event for rescue teams. covers no more than like, one week of VV content

[ 1 / X / 3 ]

hey guys just realised the abbreviation for this says "flartas" this is so embarrassing

hell hath no fury like a rescue team association scorned #2

(sorry this keeps repeating this is just how i organised it all)

and mike's right to worry. it's the team's worst nightmare, for obvious reasons -- it's fire. they're grass. it's a fucking volcanic location. there's no water or anything. they're screwed from the get-go.

but that's the point. you can't always pick and choose where you're headed. sometimes you have to suck it up and get over it and just deal with it. that's the point the RTA try to make, here.

keith's team - well, guildmaster rime, probably, actually - would argue against that. yes, you can't pick and choose all the time, but actually, yes you can, you pick the jobs you can do, and you're an arrogant asshole if you take a job in a place that leaves you at a disadvantage. what are you trying to prove by doing that? just leave it to a team more suited for the job, for the sake of the pokemon that need to be rescued.

right. the pokemon that need to be rescued.

it's a gruelling journey. the team is surviving, barely, always hanging on by a thread, but hey, at least it's a strong thread. it's not a total nightmare for them, for now. but it's going to be. it has to be, because the requirements are to save the rescue and bring something back from the end of the dungeon to "prove" that you completed it (in case the rotom drones aren't watching). their inventory is stacked up enough for this. keith's body is a machine that turns reviver seeds into plain seeds.

..

moderately deep in - about halfway through the dungeon, which is deep for grass-types - the rescue has been found. keith's team go about the regular procedures: are they injured? are they famished? what kind of help do they need? are they in danger? the rescue is the priority. the rescue is the priority. they're safe, thankfully. they're an "actor", so of course they're safe, but it's mandatory to check anyways - keith's team take this stuff seriously when it matters.

they've got to make a decision. for many teams, they don't have to worry about this. but for keith's team, it's only one way or the other.

take the rescue home, and abandon the latter half of the job (to reach the end), or take the rescue with them to the end -- on a journey they can barely survive themselves, endangering the rescue.

the answer is clear: why not do both?

hell hath no fury[..] #3

why not split the team? one takes the rescue home, the others continue pressing on. this is the logical solution that the three come to.

luwel says that the RTA are probably gonna hate it, but that it's easily justifiable to do. keith and mike are in agreement, because when it comes down to it, the rescue is the priority. two of them can take the fall in a fight if they need to - the rescue got home, which is the most important thing.

like clockwork, a monster house will spawn. they still have the rescue. the RTA can't help it, they love a well-timed monster house.

the team is split using the following thought process:

keith is one of the two that stay in the dungeon. this is a given, both because he's the team leader, and also because he's really, really shit at running away as he's a notoriously slow runner (can you blame him). he is the most physically defensive, as well as the most physically strongest (i mean, mike's strong, too, but a regular punch from keith is gonna be a lot worse than a regular punch from mike).

luwel can be fast, but he's not all that strong. he is, however, the best at problem-solving and adapting to situations as they happen, at least out of the three of them. he's also the one who planned their inventory in advance, so luwel actually knows what's in their bag that can be used for situations like these. he's staying with keith in the dungeon.

mike is fast, can fight off stragglers on the way out, and can also carry the rescue on the way. mike's going to be the one splitting from the team to ensure the safety of the rescue.

mike will take out a few pokemon from the monster house before upping and leaving. he can't risk staying for too long, as unfortunate as that is. he doesn't want to go. he knows the situation. he is terrified for what might happen to the others. but he is reassured, constantly -- not reassured. yelled at, really, in that one way keith sounds when he's serious. go. now. just take them and fucking go. despite how long they've been on the job together, it's not a side of keith that the other two see often.

mike's gone. the rescue is gone, too. it's just down to keith and luwel now. oh, christ, it's down to keith and luwel, who are already drained at this point, surrounded by fire types, in quite literally the worst place either of them could be in. the realisation is starting to dawn. gears are turning in luwel's head. the same can't be said for keith, but that's to be expected.

..

thank xerneas one of them knows how to prepare for the worst.

hell hath no fury[..] #4

keith does what he can to take a few of them out, but the exhaustion is really starting to kick in. he can only take so many more hits, under this heat, and bless luwel for being there with him but he's not exactly pulling his weight in a two-on-who-knows-what -- they're tired, drained, dehydrated, everything. they're probably even wilting at this point, the poor bastards.

luwel has a last resort, per the norm. years of the worried and paranoid "what if" scenarios playing in your head before every possible adventure will do that to you. he'd waited until the worst of the worst to use it -- and one could argue that this was as bad as it gets.

he has one singular flood orb, a moderately expensive upgrade to the rainy orb. his ass is not getting compensated for using it by the RTA. whilst the rainy orb generates, well, rain for a short period of time, the flood orb will generate torrential downpour, flooding the floor. overuse could lead to serious disasters in a dungeon, but nobody's got enough money for that. and nobody's got enough balls to ask kyogre to keep upgrading their orbs -- how long had keith had that in storage, anyways? there's not a chance in hell that he's seeking out kyogre ever again.

it's enough. even if it's just a break, it's enough. if keith wasn't the anchor that he is, he'd probably end up getting swept away by the flood that started to form in the room. luwel is holding onto him, of course, whilst keith berates him for using that item, even though he jokes about the fact it's actually fine and he's not mad at all. it's not total garbage water either, which is perfect for keith, because he loves his water absorb ability. it's keith's dungeon now, we're all just exploring in it.

thanks to the water absorption, keith's body has become as resilient as ever - he's slightly larger, now, to accommodate for the water* [note*], and he feels better than ever. better than he was before he even entered the dungeon. he'll take the world on, he doesn't give a shit. luwel is just idly getting by. it's nice to not have to deal with the heat for a little while. the orb fades in his hands, its blue hue transitioning to a dull, deep grey before crumbling to nothing. it was nice while it lasted, he reckons. he'll make a mental note to look for authentic upgrades orbs in the market when the time comes.

most of the monster house is just… swept away to a different part of the dungeon. they can move on, once they've taken their breather. the RTA will probably ban the use of upgraded orbs after this, but modern problems require modern solutions.

hell hath no fury[..] #5

they… get there, in the end. they reach the end of the dungeon. there were further hiccups along the way - luwel's body is a machine that turns reviver seeds into… well, we've heard that one somewhere before. they grab whatever it is that's needed at the end, and then they fuck off. they don't want to be there anymore.

(the details themselves aren't that important… it's just a regular dungeon exploration for the most part. fighting things, taking hits, healing, missing, whatever. all that good stuff. there's no point detailing the actual dungeon stuff itself right now).

mike is finally reunited with the guys. he's been living his best life outside of the dungeon, dealing with normal temperatures and - heaven forbid - a dip in the lake to cool down. mike's doing his best to not laugh about the state his brothers are in. why the fuck are they bald. (they are no longer bald)

..

it takes a while, but the RTA get back to them with their results. they've got to assess every team that took part, of course, so the waiting period was to be expected. for this particular trial, keith's team was met with, well…

a failure. they didn't pass. it's not something to be demoted over, but it cuts them out of qualifying for the top hundred teams in the continent. they haven't been failed in a good number of years. what gives? they did what they were told, didn't they?

yeah. but it's more intricate than that.

[pt 3.]

-

*[note; borrowed from swagulousbeing @ twt]