#they dont like looking at any part of themself including the hands

[thegreatyin]

scoundrel?? what scoundrel???? the magnificent mr cards (who ironically has more of a flower aesthetic going on) is completely unrelated to any "bandaged scoundrels" running around the neath. in fact it's never heard of the word scoundrel ever in its entire definitely long definitely ancient life. but yknow, hypothetically, if it did know the scoundrel, it's confident that they're really really really handsome and cool and epic and they're almost just as amazing as it is and you should totally donate all your valuables to them and stuff

aaand because i like them too much, have a transparent version. the Creachure. the Thing, even.

[girlhorse]

it is unfortunate how good a lot of puppy mills/byb are at masquerading as reputable breeders. and that is not to say that they are at all similar to how reputable breeders present themselves - they really aren't! In fact, a lot of the times byb have really well designed websites, have set up a Google business account so they can get reviews, are great at communicating with clients and marketing, and in general have a very prominent social media presence. meanwhile, i really cannot tell you how common it is for reputable dog breeders to have websites with several broken links that look like they were designed in the 90s, straight up don't advertise their litters, don't have a social media presence, and have shitty communication or marketing skills. I'm certainly not saying either way is better, but that you have to..not read a book by its cover. lf that makes sense. Research is much much more than looking for google reviews or reading whatever the breeder has written on their website about how good their dogs are.

in general i think people have the idea of what a good business looks like, and judge breeders based on that criteria instead of really trying to understand what the mark of a good breeder is. part of it is, of course, that people want to do the minimal research possible, so google reviews and the like will make that process a lot easier for people. If you get a dog from a breeder with 4.9 stars, you're going to feel like you're getting a good dog. Others still are very much swayed simply by marketing tactics, including a pleasing web design. I think it's easy to hide shadiness behind a nicely presented website. Reputable dog breeders are often just people who are really passionate about dogs but also people who may not have incredible business sense or marketing abilities, or may not even care to market themselves or advertise at all, since many are so well known inside of the dog fancy that they dont *need* more puppy buyers.

on the other hand i think in some ways the dog fancy can be a bit inaccessible, and sometimes downright hostile to newbies. this isnt the case for every person in the fancy, i think a lot of people are very welcoming and like to teach people about their dogs, and their passion, but tbh it can be a little exclusive sometimes. I do also think in a sense the US public might harbor some negative feelings about the dog fancy because of its characterization as snobbish and be unwilling to engage with it (ie - thinking they dont need or want a "show dog", not thinking titling means anything, thinking purebred puppies cost too much etc)

tldr. a dog breeder with a nice modern looking website with vaguely "health tested" dogs and raving reviews is almost never a sign of a good breeder. Not saying any of these are red flags in themself but they are certainly not what anyone should be basing their dog buying decision on!

[uwowrites]

Ok sooo

I saw requests for fics where open, so i hope you dont mind me requesting one. But well, could you perhaps write a fic with Boss being a protective dad to Eugene?

It's actually been a year since i played Underworld Office, so i dont remember alot 😅 (i plan on replaying it after i finish Charlie in Underworld tho), but like, after the events of the game, from the true ending. The the time between UWO and CUW, if after the events, Boss got worried and more protective over him and all that but wont admit it

So take maybe Eugene getting in another dangerous situation, not as life threatening as before, but still something bad and Boss coming to rescue him

And add mom River to the mix maybe, bc she does mother him alot lol.She'd be more open on caring about Eugene and tease Boss after everything I'm sure.

But yeah, obviously all platonic, duh. But i thought it be nice and all. Just a small oneshot of that

It can either be the part of the dangerous situation and the aftermath, or to make it quick and short if you need it to, just the aftermath maybe. I'd like angst and fluff, hurt/comfort if you will

All in all, just need some comfort after playing my first round in CUW, and possibly more soon as i continue to play it YwY

But yeah, hope it aint much trouble to ask either, take your time!

Pair-enting

(Platonic River, Boss and Eugene)

Eugene listened carefully for the monster, closing his eyes as he tried to concentrate on finding out where the monster was headed. Opening his eyes, he looked down at the child in his arms, who looked no more than four years old. They had never expected their patrol would include having to save a kid from a monster, the latter extremely dangerous and bloodthirsty. Knowing that they couldn't risk endangering the child's safety, they opted to hide.

The monster growled and roared in frustration, annoyed that it couldn't find the two that had been hiding from it. The child flinched and hid it's face in Eugene's shirt, the mortal held the small of their back and held them closer. Holding their breath, Eugene waited for the monster to move along, praying that it moved in the opposite direction of the office.

Hearing the monster's footsteps fade gradually, Eugene immediately booked it for the office, praying that there would be someone who could help them contain the monster that was currently loose on the streets. The child giggled in their arms and Eugene felt themself smile at that.

Phasing through the walls of the office, Eugene looked around and noticed that the others weren't present. He wracked his mind to come up with a plan and decided to leave the child and a message with Sean while he tried to ensure that no other ghosts got hurt by the monster. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Eugene! You're hurt!" Sean exclaimed as he noticed Eugene fly towards him. As the ghost took a closer look, he saw a small girl in the mortal's hands.

"I'll be alright. But I wanted to ask, could you take care of her? And if you meet the others, could you ask them to fly South towards Blair corner?" Eugene rushed in one breath.

Placing down the flower basket, Sean took the kid from Eugene's hands, "Wait, you are still hurt. You-"

"I'll be fine! Don't worry!" Eugene yelled as they flew away.

As Sean was about to call after them, Eugene had already slipped out of his earshot.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eugene was drained out from flying at their top speed. And although it took a long time for them to catch up to the monster, they still managed reach the place just in time. The monster was still thrashing around, and roared once it caught a glance of Eugene.

Eugene gulped and dodged one of it's oncoming tentacles. They were still at a loss of what to do when Boss' words came up in his mind.

'First, ensure all civilians have been evacuated. Determine the monster's preferred range of attack. Next, see if there are any nearby sources of light. Like ghosts, monsters are weak in the presence of light.'

"Alright. Let's do this." Eugene said with determination flowing through their veins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "That was tiring." River stretched, placing her hands behind her head.

"I didn't think that it would have taken this long to seal the monster." Joan stretched and winced in the process as she felt her back ache from the bruise she earned during the fight.

Boss, noticing her facial expression change, suggested, "Ma'am, we could go and meet Sean. He could help relieve you from your pain."

"That sounds like a good idea. Plus, it's been a while since we asked about Linda." River pitched in, as she hovered over the ground while her partners walked.

"I guess we could go and see the boy then." Joan agreed. She disliked the idea of having to burden Sean but she could feel her back pain worsen.

"Speaking of boys, how do you think Eugene is doing on their patrol?"

"I am sure they are fine. I have confidence in their abilities." Boss spoke with a hint of pride in his tone.

"If only you could speak this positively about me behind me back." River wiped a fake tear from her face, prompting Boss to roll his eyes at her in amusement.

"If you didn't always start fights, then maybe I would."

"You say that like I pick fights as soon as I step out the door."

"You don't?"

The two engaged in light banter while Joan shook her head fondly. Boss and River, although very experienced in fighting monsters and helping ghosts, were children in her eyes (even though they may be in their late twenties and are mature). Children who died at a young age while having their whole life ahead of them.

Once the flower shop came into view, Joan noticed Sean's absence and found it odd.

"That's weird. Sean normally distributes flowers in front of the shop." River said, confused but deciding to not think to much about it. "He is probably inside-"

"I am so glad to all are here." Sean spoke, accidently interrupting River in the process as he phased through the wall of the shop. "Please come inside. I really need your help."

Boss frowned at the statement. 'Something must be really bothering him since he isn't hiding from me or stammering in my presence. But did it really have to take a crisis for him to not be afraid of me?'

The three followed Sean inside the shop and saw a small girl sitting on the floor, with flowers in her hair. River cooed as she walked towards the child and kneeled down, "Hey there. Those flowers look really pretty. Did you pick them by yourself?"

"N-no. Um, he gave them t-to me." she stammered nervously.

"Ah. Well, I think they look nice on your hair. What is your name?" River asked, offering a gentle smile.

"Ezra." The girl smiled back.

"Well Ezra, my name is River. The granny's name is Joan and he is Boss." River pointed to the ghosts as she introduced them.

"Sean." Boss called.

"Y-yes sir." replied Sean, wincing at his stammer.

'So much for not stammering.' Boss thought, "Where did you find her?"

"That's, uh, what I needed your help for. Eugene brought her in before going off again to fight a monster. At least, I think he is. He seemed to be in a hurry to fly there."

"Wait a minute. Eugene is fighting a monster on his own?" River stood up.

"I am not sure. He asked me to tell you to fly to Blair Corner."

Boss gripped his fan instinctively. Trying his best to control his worry, he ordered, "River, you and I will be going to help Eugene. Sean, could you help Joan? She got hurt while we were fighting a monster."

"Yes S-sir."

"Hold on a minute. I am coming as well." Joan stepped forward.

"I am sorry ma'am. But in your current condition, I cannot allow you to come with us. If the situation becomes too much for us to handle, we will call you." Boss countered.

Knowing that there was no way of convincing Boss, Joan decided to stay put. The ghost knew that there would be a chance that she might end up becoming a burden since she was hurt.

Boss marched out of the shop with River following suit. As soon as the two were outside, they took off and flew as fast as they could.

"Eugene will be okay."

"I hope so, River." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'The area is clear and no one is around. Except of course, me.'

Eugene continued dodging the monster's attack, praying that they wouldn't end up getting crushed by it.

Seeing the stadium come into view, they let out a relieved sigh, "Finally!"

Eugene could feel their body scream in exhaustion as they flew, the monster hot on their trail. The monster, sensing the mortal's exhaustion, swept it's tentacle at them, knocking them out of the sky. As they fell, Eugene close their eyes and tried to summon all the energy they had left, hoping they could try to catch themself from falling.

"Got you!"

Eugene opened their eyes as they felt a pair of arms catch them midair, looking up, they saw River smile at them in relief.

"River?"

"Glad to see you still in one piece newbie. Gotta admit, I am impressed you held your own against this thing."

Eugene chuckled as they wrapped their arms around River, thankful that the female came just in time.

Eugene's attention was drawn to the monster as it let out a scream in pain. They turned their head to see Boss mercilessly wrapping the ends of his hanbok around the monster and using his fan to chop off it's tentacles one by one. As they watched the fight go on, they noticed Boss growing tired.

'Must be because he was sealing other monsters in that haunted building tonight.' "River, take Eugene and get out of here!" Boss yelled, as he dodged an attack from the creature.

River nodded and took off.

"Wait, River-"

"Eugene, You are hurt and tired. No way I am letting you fight."

"We can't just leave Boss to handle that monster on his own. He looks exhausted. Which is why I am asking you to just hear my plan out."

River stopped in their tracks and looked at Eugene. In a split second, she saw Eugene's 15-year-old self. Perhaps it was the way their eyes flickered with determination, similar to how they were when they fought Jack.

'The newbie really has come a long way, huh?' River's face broke into a grin, feeling proud of their newbie.

"All right. Let's hear it newbie."

Eugene smiled briefly before speaking, "So, there is a stadium nearby. If we turn on the lights, that should be more than enough to weaken the monster. The only thing is, we got to lure it all the way."

"Pretty sure I can anger it enough for it to wanna chase me." River said proudly.

Eugene chuckled before he noticed a tentacle come towards her, "Watch out!"

River turned around just before Boss's hanbok cut the appendage off.

"Come one Newbie!" River said, keeping a firm grip on Eugene as they flew closer to the monster.

"Hey!" Eugene yelled, trying to catch the attention of the monster.

Boss, annoyed that River and Eugene were still there, yelled, "What are you-"

"Just trust me!" Eugene replied.

Although he was confused, Boss chose to trust Eugene's judgement and started to float from the ground towards the pair.

"Follow us." River told Boss as she flew straight towards the stadium, feeling tired but still determined to stop this monster.

The monster pursued them, Boss hoped that whatever plan Eugene had would work out.

Once they reached the football stadium, River let Eugene down while Boss landed. The monster phased through the bleachers and screamed, causing Eugene to cover their ears.

"I'll try to find the light controls. Could you two distract it in the meantime?" Eugene asked, hoping they didn't come off as bossy.

"We will be fine, Eugene. Just be careful." Boss replied, snapping his fan open.

Eugene ran, knowing they no longer had the energy to fly anymore. They frantically looked around for the control panel as Boss and River fended off the monster. Their head was throbbing but Eugene knew they had to pull through it.

After what seemed like an eternity to them, they finally found the room. Phasing through the wall, their eyes darted around the room before landing on the controls. Sprinting towards it, Eugene immediately hit all the buttons, hoping that at least one would turn on the lights.

The sound of the monster crying in pain captured his attention and he looked up to see the monster squirming about.

River took this as an opportunity and wrapped her hair around the monster, Boss did the same except for with his hanbok. The two of them pulled the monster as Boss readied his fan. The two of them were weak as well, since lights were a source of weakness for ghosts.

Eugene flew out of the room and closer to the pair battling the monster.

"Eugene, Catch!" Boss called out as he threw his fan.

Eugene caught the fan and looked at Boss, who was struggling to hold the monster down, along with River.

"Remember our training and use it!"

Eugene's eyes widened in surprise, "But... I- I can't."

"Newbie, Boss isn't-" River nearly lost her balance before regaining it again and continuing, "Look, if he is sure you can do it, then you can. I believe you can do it too!"

Gripping the fan, he looked at it before opening it. Boss and River stood at the opposite sides of the monster, trying to restrain it from moving. Gathering his courage, Eugene charged towards the monster. Bringing their hand back, they swiped the fan with all the strength they had left, effectively absorbing all of the monster's mass into the keepsake.

Once it disappeared, Eugene snapped the fan close and laughed in relief. Boss retracted his clothes and River, her hair. River fist pumped the air in triumph while Boss brushed his hair with his hand. As Eugene swayed on their feet in exhaustion, they felt their last ounce of energy drain away. Feeling the world spin, they fell back on the grass.

"Eugene!" the ghosts called out.

"I'm... okay. Just... really tired." Eugene panted. The two of them looked down at them, concern etched on both their faces. Eugene spoke up again, "Do you mind if we just... you know, sat for a while?"

Boss disappeared, and Eugene worried if they accidently upset the male. River plopped down next to the mortal and laid on her back and yawned. A few seconds ticked by and the stadium lights turned off. Confused, Eugene looked at River who shrugged in response.

"The longer the lights stay on, the more we risk garnering unwanted attention."

Eugene turned his head and jerked in surprise as he saw Boss staring at them. The head of the office sat down next to them, before slowly lying down.

The three lied down in silence. Taking advantage of the quiet after their tiresome battle. The events of tonight replaying in their heads as they relaxed.

"You did well, Eugene. I am proud." Boss said, looking at the sky.

"Yeah, newbie! Color me impressed." River nudged Eugene's shoulder.

Eugene laughed, exhaustion still eating at him, "I couldn't have done it without you both. Thanks for helping me out."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ngl, I really wish there were more family moments in ciu.

[ramzawrites]

Ah right sorry! I dont know how but my brain was like 'yes discord is exists in minecraft'- Yes of course I dont mind! You can do whatever you want with the request :) Good im happy to hear that! And Thank you!

Original Request: Could I request a shy and quiet reader forgetting they're on a discord call and starts to sing a song that they are listening to? and whoever is on call with them joins in? maybe with Tommy, Wilbur and some other characters you want to write for :)

Remember to eat and drink water!

Secret Singing - Reader Insert

GN

Pairings: none stated but can be read as Wilbur x Reader

Characters included: Wilbur, Tommy, Jack Manifold

Warnings: n/a

Series: a request <3

Summary: Wilbur was busy, but not busy enough to help Y/N set up their workspace at their favorite spot! Going off to fulfill his own errands only to come back to a nice and beautiful tune in the air. 

Words count: 2125

Authors Note: Lmao you are valid, I mean after all skype is canon in the dsmp 💔 Skype my abhorred 💔

Also adhd went brrr again, I tried looking over it a ton but there might still be a few mistakes!

“Oh, wow! Need any help with that, Y/N? That’s a lot of wool you got there!” Wilbur was running through L’Manberg to deal with some errands but stopped in his tracks, having to do a double take as he just saw a mountain of blue wool on legs walk towards his direction. Only then did he notice that it was Y/N who was holding on to a basket with the wool in their arms.

With a concentrated expression Y/N turned around a bit so they could look at him. Pieces of loose wool was laying in their hair or was stuck on their flushed face “Oh! Didn’t see you there! And it’s alright! I’m just getting it over to my bench!”

With their bench they meant the wooden bench they set up themself next to a small pond. They loved working close by it hence the bench to make it a bit more comfortable. It was also still a minute or two off and with the way Y/N was already struggling with the basket, Wilbur couldn’t just stand and watch. How could he hope to be a proper president when he didn’t help people who clearly needed it?

He shook his head with a fond smile on his face, stepping closer to grab the basket from them “Nope, let me help you. Not taking no for an answer.”

Y/N let out a few weak protests but ended up just pushing it into his arms, not wanting to accidentally spill the freshly treated wool unto the ground.

“Hey, um, be- bend down a little, Wil.” their voice weak and wavering like usual. Their shyness getting ahold of them again.

Not even thinking about why they asked this of him, he obliged. They then scoped up the top of the soft mountain so Wilbur had actually a chance to look across. He might be tall but that didn’t help when you held something big in your own arms.

With a soft satisfied smile they begun moving again and for a second Wilbur just stared as he readjusted his grip on the surprisingly heavy basket that Y/N probably made themself. Following after them and making sure that no stray pieces of wool would fall off.

“So, what’s all the blue wool for?” he asked.

For some reason this seemed to amuse Y/N “Well, a lot of our clothes use blue wool. The flag as well! I need some blue thread to either stitch some more flags down on clothing or when repairing them. Same for the flags flying about. General stitching. Besides can’t hurt to have some extra, might even sell some!”

In hindsight this made sense. When this whole L’Manberg situation started out Y/N offered to help stitch together their torn clothes. Over time they got really good at it and nowadays they have kind of turned into the resident seamstress.

Wilbur once apologized for pushing them into this profession only for them to vehemently shake their head “No! It’s fine! I- I enjoy it! It, uh, it also gives me something else to do than worry about our existence.”

He couldn’t argue with that. It was something that he lacked. Everything he did was dedicated to this new nation after all and he would lie, and he did, if this didn’t take a bit of a toll on him sometimes.

Once they arrived at the bench, Wilbur softly placed down the wool next to the seating area as Y/N carefully returned the extra wool back on top. They then sat down on the bench while taking out their tools out of their inventory to turn the wool into yarn or thread.

It wasn’t unusual finding them working here, especially when the weather was playing nice. Often enough sitting together with other people in sometimes comfortable silence or happy chatter. Either making thread, stitching or whatever work they had to do and could do outside.

“Thank you, Wilbur! I’m sure you are busy so I won’t keep you longer but you are welcome to join me if you are done with work before me.”

Wilbur picked some of the stray wool off his uniform and sighed, not particularly looking forward to the work “Yeah. I’ll come around if I can. I’m going to meet up with Tommy in a bit so he might join as well, not sure though.”

Y/N nervously chuckled “Yeah, don’t worry. I know.”

They then begun to set up their tools to start working. Not even looking after Wilbur who begun walking off again in a snail’s pace. He really wasn’t looking forward to his work at the moment but alas it was very important.

It took a bit, but he soon arrived at the building he and Tommy set up as something of a headquarter. It was basically just a room covered in maps, scrapped ideas, plans and a few weapon and armor pieces.

Tommy was already waiting inside for him. He looked a bit annoyed with his arms in front of his chest. Before he could complain to him though Wilbur already threw his arm around Tommy and led him to his latest sketched out plan for L’Manburg. Trying to distract him with work.

They were mostly discussing how to ensure the safety of the new nation and how to create a functioning system inside that would ensure that everything inside would move along smoothly.

Hours passed as they schemed and begun setting a few safety measures up or helped the residents of L’Manberg where they could. Jack Manifold later joined them as well. Helping and even offering ideas of his own to incorporate.

“I think that is all we can do for today. I’m getting seriously tired.” Jack sighed, cleaning the dust off his hands on his own clothes.

“You’re going home?” Tommy asked.

Jack crossed his arms, his eyes wandered off to the side behind his mismatched glasses as he thought for a second “Mh, I was hoping we could hang a bit, you know, outside of work. Haven’t done that in a while.”

“Oh! I promised to maybe spend some time with Y/N if they are still at their pond!” Wilbur suddenly exclaimed, remembering the exchange from a few hours ago.

A happy smile appeared on Jack’s face “Let’s go together then! I haven’t seen them in a while, and it’s been even longer that I hung out with them while they worked. It’s always very calming for some reason.” The last part he muttered but Wilbur caught it.

He wasn’t the only one who thought like this. Most of the people in L’Manberg were drawn to them especially in this chaotic time. It was nice having someone like that around.

“Guess I’ll come with you.” Tommy suddenly exclaimed, pulling Wilbur back out of his thoughts.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, why not. I need to ask them to look at my coat anyhow.”

With that the group begun moving, it was slowly getting darker, but it was still warm outside, so if they were lucky, Y/N was still out.

They were chatting about what they were planning to do next or in Jack’s and Tommy’s case what they have been up to only for them to get interrupted by a tune that the wind carried over to them.

A bit surprised Wilbur looked at the others, hoping to see if they too hear it and true enough, they seemed to be just as surprised as them. Someone was singing but he has never heard a voice like this.

Frankly, it was beautiful.

The tune was sounding sad and yet the lyrics that accompanied it were hopeful. Wishing for peace in a time of turmoil. Promises of a better time filled with a deep love via the voice.

It was a song that none of them ever have ever heard. An original song perhaps?

But what really surprised them was from what direction the music came from.

It came from the pond. From Y/N’s bench.

Almost as if they were worried to scare away a wild animal, they begun to sneak towards said pond. Staying off the path and taking a wild berth. Hiding behind the trees, trying to avoid that if their hunch were right, that Y/N wouldn’t see them approaching.

Wilbur pressed his index finger against his pursed lips as they got closer, motioning for the others to keep quiet. To which Tommy just rolled his eyes, seeing how this was obvious.

Jack slowly moved around the tree and there he saw it.

Y/N was sitting on the bench, their legs crossed with a piece of fabric in their hands that they seemed to stich another L’Manburg flag into. Slowly moving their head from one side to the next to the rhythm of the song.

Wilbur followed suit, using his superior height to peak his head out above Jack while Tommy crouched down to do the same.

They were still intently staring at their handiwork, pushing the nail and thread into the cloth only to pull it out again. Their mouth turned into a happy little smile as they sang this hopefully hymn.

“Wow, I didn’t think they could sing like that.” Jack whispered, looking up to Wilbur.

He nodded, his eyes continuing to rest on Y/N’s happy expression “Yeah. It’s beautiful.”

“I guess it’s fine.” Tommy just whispered back. Of course, he still had to put on his cool dude persona.

Wilbur flicked Tommy’s head “Just say for once what you really think!” He still made sure to keep his voice down, not having heard enough of the song and Y/N’s voice yet.

Tommy scowled and jumped back so he was standing at his full height again “What do you mean? I say what I think! The hell are you talking about!” He tried to keep his voice down but at the end he got louder which made Wilbur panic and clasp his hand around Tommy’s mouth.

Though Tommy saw this coming and dodged out of the way by ducking, resulting in Wilbur to fall over. Crashing into Tommy and pushing him onto the ground, both of them letting out a startled yell.

The singing immediately stopped.

“Ah! Look what you have done!” Jack whined, helping the two reluctantly up.

“Well, if Tommy would have shut his mouth!”

“You attacked me!”

“I did not! I was trying to shut you up!”

“Guys?” a soft and unsure voice broke through their argument.

All three men slowly turned around to see Y/N clutching the piece of cloth they had been working on close to their chest. Avoiding any eye contact. Their face covered in a deep blush. Chewing on their lower lip.

“Are you okay? I- I heard a thud and- I just- I wanted to make sure-“ they stammered.

Tommy seemed to be confused at that “What? No. You were singing though, right Y/N?” Getting straight to the point apparently.

“Tommy!” Both Jack and Wilbur yelled out in outrage.

Y/N’s eyes widened, and they moved the cloth up to their face. Effectively hiding behind it “No. I- uh. I’m sorry?”

“What are you sorry for? Your voice is amazing! Why haven’t you told us you can sing?” Wilbur stepped closer. His eyes wide as well but in amazement.

Though Y/N seemed to cower down even more the closer he got “Because- Because I can’t. Please just forget about it.”

Wilbur wanted to know more, hear more of their singing but they seemed panicked. Hiding away and trying to clearly get out of the situation and he had to take a step back. Guilt welling up in him.

“I’m sorry. We just heard your song, and it was beautiful. I have never heard this song. I guess we got enamored by it especially since your singing was really amazing.”

Jack put his hand on Wilbur’s shoulder and pushed him back a few steps “Come on let’s drop it. They are clearly uncomfortable. I’m sorry Y/N.” He then begun pulling Wilbur along, grabbing Tommy in the process as well who just yanked his arm away from him stating he could walk good enough on his own.

“Wilbur?”

He immediately turned around again to see the nervous Y/N with a determined expression on their face. The cloth now back down.

“The song! I mean, uh, my parent taught me that song when I was a child. Apparently, they wrote it.”

“It’s a really beautiful one. Your parent must be very talented. If you feel ever more comfortable enough I would love to hear the full song.”

Y/N took a deep breath in “I know how to play it on guitar and keyboard? I could, uh, you know. Teach it to you?”

Wilbur’s smile returned to his face “Sounds like a plan.”

[writerofshit]

(I mentioned briefly a story of how the Stream Team met. This is that story.)

Somewhere in Los Santos, in the late night hours of a Tuesday, a convenience store is robbed. So is one several blocks southeast. And one roughly in the middle of them both. After all, what's more convenient than 24 hour chili dogs on every other street corner?

Cash. Cash is more convenient. So are guns. Hollering, waving one to get the other. Most important, back alleys that twist and turn, snaking away from increasingly distant sirens. Three individuals find themselves running through these alleys, a couple grand each weighing their pockets down.

It's through serendipity and convenience that their paths cross.

The man from the farthest store arrives first. He's done this a few more times than he'd like to admit, so he'd had a plan. Of sorts. Cut through the park, take a few sidewalks like an upstanding citizen, under the bridge and find a fire escape to utilize from there. There aren't any that reach the ground, of course, because he's smart but not quite enough.

And so this is why Trevor is standing in an dark alley, contemplating whether or not the dumpster will give him enough height to reach the ladder, when the man from the middle store appears. He's around Trevor's height, but would probably win in a fight between them, if he were so inclined. He doesn't seem to be, though. He seems shaken, like he's not quite sure how he ended up in this alley. He's holding a gun almost gingerly, as if it might bite him.

Trevor pulls his own gun.

'dont you fuckin' try anything!'

This does not go over well with Matt. He takes a step back, and then seems to remember that he also has a gun so maybe this is even footing. He holds it aloft, finger nowhere near the trigger.

'same, asshole!'

At this moment the robber from the first store arrives, also, of course, with a gun. And a mask. And an entire purple and orange neon fucking suit, actually, topped with a white cowboy hat. It gives them a few extra inches of height they are distinctly lacking, comparatively. Somewhere in the back of his head, Trevor acknowledges that this newcomer could probably kick his and the other gunman's asses. It is not a pleasant thought.

'oh, what the fuck!?'

Jeremy sounds more annoyed and less scared than one would think, considering they've run into an alley only to find two men with guns. Two men who quickly turn those guns on them.

'who the fuck are you?'

The question surprises them all, including Matt, even though he's the one who asked. As it turns out, people have a tendency to say the first thing that comes to mind when in a stressful situation. Such as, having robbed a convenience store for the very first time and immediately finding himself face to face with other apparent robbers. It would get to anyone, probably.

'i don't want any trouble, but i've already robbed someone tonight and i don't give a shit about felony murder!'

Two lies and a truth, is what Trevor has chosen to play, for some reason. In reality, one does not rob a convenience store at gun point if one is intent on staying out of trouble. And he does, in fact, care very deeply about felony murder. Felony murder is the precise reason he'd shot a bag of Doritos and not a clerk. In his defense, the clerk had initially rolled her eyes at him, asked what exactly he thought he'd get out of this. He'd found this question rude.

The truth, of course, is that he did rob a convenience store. That did happen. No take backs.

'so did i!'

Matt and Jeremy speak so in unison it's almost scary. If they didn't know any better, they'd think the two of them had always known each other.

Trevor's gun wavers between them, unsure which is the bigger threat. The guy who clearly has zero experience with guns, or the weirdo who seems to have far too much? It's a toss up, really. So his aim pinballs back and forth, but his finger does not curl around the trigger. He's serious about that felony murder thing.

The air seems to shift, suddenly, and the sound of sirens is now growing closer. This evidently also annoys Jeremy, and they throw a glance over their shoulder to the direction they'd come from. Red and blue lights flicker past.

'shit. ok. we're all robbers, i guess, and we're all fucked if we keep standing here. who's got a plan?'

Jeremy's eyes are staring impatiently at Trevor. Eyes being the only part of their face Trevor can see. And their hands, a plastic bag in one and a gun in the other.

Trigger finger is an apt name.

He glances at Matt, still wild eyed and glancing back and forth. No, Matt probably does not have a plan. He sort of gives the impression that he's never had a plan ever, actually. That perhaps he'd simply woken up here and decided to wing it. So Trevor makes an offer.

'fire escape?'

There's another moment of tense silence. Well, minus the sirens. And oh, helicopters. Even better. Jeremy shrugs.

'good a plan as any.'

And then they're off, brushing past Trevor and hoisting themself up onto the dumpster. He knew it could work. Trevor blinks and Jeremy has caught the ladder, is quickly working their way up. Shit, how does five foot something manage to get that high on a good day, much less in this situation and with a bag and gun in hand?

Matt's gun clatters to the ground, and honestly, that's probably for the best. He's climbing onto the dumpster now, and he mutters something about not signing up for this shit. Trevor reminds him that he apparently robbed someone, so yeah, he kind of did.

Before Trevor climbs up, he shoves his gun into his jacket pocket. Smart? Probably not. Convenient? More so than climbing with a gun in his hand. He follows Matt up the ladder, wondering what happened to his plan. Yeah, the ladder had been involved. Two other people, however, were not.

Above them, glass shatters.

'warning, maybe!?'

'oops. careful, there's glass.'

Jeremy's voice is no longer directly above them. Instead, it comes from one story up and a little to the left. So they've broken into an apartment. Sure, add breaking and entering to the list of charges, that sounds great. But Matt and Trevor follow, because there's not really another option.

Inside the apartment, Jeremy's mask is gone. The suit is quickly disappearing as well, revealing a rather boring outfit of a white tank top and...sweatpants? The true mystery lies in where the cowboy hat has gone to, because that's a hard item to miss.

'do we really have time for this? don't you think someone might, oh, i don't know, wake up and call the cops?'

Trevor doesn't mean to hiss, it's just that he's sure there's more pressing matters to attend to than an outfit change. Continuing to flee, perhaps.

'nobody's gonna wake up.'

They don't even have the wherewithal to lower their voice. It registers to Trevor that Jeremy's bag and gun are missing as well. Had they dropped them on the way up? It was certainly possible. Trevor thinks he would have noticed a gun flying past his head, but there's a lot going on.

'can we maybe not kill anyone? he brought up a good point with that felony murder thing.'

It's the most words Matt has strung together since he'd shown up. It's damn near a whisper, but at least it's progress.

'i'm not- god, can you two shut up? i gotta make a phone call.'

Jeremy yanks the door open, hand carefully wrapped in the fabric of their shirt. For a moment, Trevor thinks they're leaving and steps forward to follow Jeremy. Instead, Jeremy turns and heads toward the kitchen, pulling open a drawer and digging inside it briefly. They come back with a cell phone.

Something dawns on Trevor.

'is this- do you live here? did you break your own window?'

Jeremy doesn't answer. They put the phone to their ear.

'you're gonna wanna hide whatever you've got. and try not to look like you just climbed in through a window.'

And then-

'hello? yes, hi, i'd like to report a break in, i think? i was hearing a bunch of sirens and then i don't know what happened but some guy just broke my window? he ran through and i just- my friends and i are really scared and we didn't know what to do- yes, we're ok, he's gone, but we- you'll send someone? ok, thank you. the address? oh, uh, it's the del perro heights building, apartment 7. should i shut the door? no, don't touch anything. ok- guys, don't touch anything, she said someone's on their way to check on us! thank you so much- no, i think we'll be fine. thank you.'

It's a marvelous performance. Jeremy genuinely sounds like some poor flustered victim of a crime. Trevor would applaud if he thought Jeremy would appreciate it. Almost immediately, their voice is back to normal.

'check things out my ass. they're gonna show up, ask which way he went and never call me again. feel real fuckin safe.'

Jeremy settles themself onto the couch, choosing the spot closest to the door. Matt, who has apparently gotten over his initial terror, wanders into the kitchen. Searching for something to distract himself, if Trevor had to guess. Trevor is still standing in the middle of the living room, dumbfounded. How did a simple robbery become hanging out with other robbers, waiting for cops to show up?

'i'm jeremy, by the way. they won't ask, but y'know. just in case.'

They're flipping channels on the tv, seeming to arbitrarily skip almost a dozen programs. Finally, they settle on one and stand. Trevor recognizes it as an old Disney movie, and desperately wants to ask why the fuck Jeremy has put this on.

'uh, hi. i'm trevor. why are we watching Mulan?'

'matt. oh hell yeah, i love this movie!'

He sounds remarkably cheerful, considering the circumstances. How Trevor had seemingly switched places with Anxious McGee is beyond him. He needs to get it together. He pulls his gun from his pocket and takes it to the kitchen, sticking it in the drawer Jeremy had taken the phone from. There are several other phones of varying price point. He steps back to the living room just in time.

'that's why.'

They don't elaborate. Apparently Trevor is meant to just figure this out on his own, which ordinarily he might be able to do. After the course of events of this particular evening? Not a chance.

But he can't ask, because now there's a cop in the doorway and he's staring at Trevor and that will never be a good thing. Trevor stares back. He has no clue what he's meant to say. Hello? Welcome? He went that way?

'oh thank god! we've been so terrified, we didn't know if he'd come back or what he'd do.'

Naturally, Jeremy has taken lead on this. They're a phenomenal actor, Trevor has to admit.

'did you see which direction he went?'

'toward the stairs, i think. we've all been rooted to the spot, you know, it's so scary-'

Matt freezes in the doorway of the kitchen. He's just out of the view from the front door.

'right, well. you boys did the right thing by calling. can you give me a description of the man?'

The corner of Jeremy's mouth quirks.

'gosh, it all just happened so fast. taller than me, probably, but shorter than you, wouldn't you say, trey?'

Trevor nods, because he's not quite sure what else to do.

'alright, thank you. someone will be in touch with you for an official statement. in the meantime, if you remember anything else don't hesitate to call.'

He's holding a card out to Trevor, of all people. He takes it carefully, like if he does it wrong somehow the guy will know and arrest them all. The card is simply the number for a tip line.

As suddenly as he'd arrived, the cop is gone and they're all breathing sighs of relief. Jeremy closes the door.

'you guys can stay for Mulan, if you want.'

So they do.

Trevor asks about why Mulan again, and Jeremy explains that they assume most people have seen it, could answer any questions about it if they came up. Perhaps, if LSPD officers were less incompetent, they would have. Although if that were the case, they wouldn't be LSPD officers at all.

Matt asks about the window, and Jeremy says yes, they did break their own window. Of course they'd had an actual plan when they'd entered the alley. They were always going to end up exactly here, give or take the extras. Asking for a plan was simply a test, determining the merit in bring them along. They'd passed.

Jeremy asks if they want to stay for Mulan II, which is apparently up next. They do.

Somewhere in Los Santos, in the early morning hours of a Wednesday, three convenience stores are recovering from three separate robberies. Right in the middle of them all, their respective robbers are sitting on a couch together, watching a straight to video children's film.

It is the beginning of something far greater than any of them can imagine.

[mxthtea]

@booredx psps here ya go :)

lil new thing here!! this is written more from baal's pov (hence y/n being used more). originally, this was written as an assignment for english class. after editing my writing for once, here you guys go :). if anyone wants more stories of baal x reader i can offer assistance!! (i can do fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, anything but smut really)

i recommend using interactivefics for this! since there's use of y/n a lot n you can change it to your name. (as in, your preferred name) firefox, chrome (available on edge i believe but i dont have the link, apologies for my edge readers!)

baal x gn!reader warnings: very ooc baal, physical contact (hand holding, lil kithkith), baal refers to reader as 'darling', author can't describe clothing, use of y/n, written way before baal's release, grammar + spelling mistakes, lowercase writing, let me know if i forgot any description: you go onto your girlfriend's (baal's) roof as the sun starts to set! then you hold hands n kith :) word count: 1.2k

as the day was approaching evening and the sun was about to set, the weather started to get slightly cooler. baal looked up from her computer screen and at the clock across the room, well, at least she know how long she’d been working. sighing and shutting down her laptop. only an hour before they would arrive. she stood and walked up from the living room to her bedroom.

it was slightly messy, a few papers from her job scattered around here and there. nothing she couldn't pick up in just a few minutes. it's not like either one of them expected a clean house or apartment either way.

after looking twice, baal decided to choose a more simple outfit. a black turtleneck without any shoulder or sleeves and a darker purple sweater over it. including a pair of dark grey shorts and thigh high socks. the socks had purple stripes on it as well. compared to other outfits she had, this was more simple to baal. she tied her long hair back into a ponytail. the mass of hair still reached close to her knees but it worked at least.

finishing with some red eye makeup, baal decided she was ready.

on cue there was a knock at the door below.

walking down and answering the door, she was met with her significant other themself, y/n.

"good afternoon, baal," they greeted.

"good afternoon, darling. how was the drive here?" baal asked, letting y/n inside.

"mm, some jerks in traffic but other than that, it was fine."

“did you have any plans?” straight and to the point, baal was never a super big fan of small talk. no matter the person.

y/n smiled to themself before saying, “juuust gimme a second, need to bring in a few things.”

baal looked at them slightly confused. what would they need for today? “alright, can i help you at all?” she asked.

“i- yes please..”

they grabbed baal's hand and lead her outside to their car. opening the trunk, it revealed a red blanket and a cooler.

“by the by,” y/n said, “you wouldn’t happen to have a way to get to the roof of your house, right? because if not then my entire plan is ruined and we have to eat in the grass.”

“so that’s what you’ve been planning,” baal muttered.

she gave a quick nod to y/n, who smiled at the silent reply. handing baal the cooler and taking the blanket themself, they both started walking indoors and to the upstairs.

once upstairs, baal lead them both into her room and opened the window inside of it. y/n stepped out first and scouted a good place to sit at. deciding to stay close to the window but a bit more to the left. they set up everything in silence. y/n placed the blanket down and baal set the cooler down beside them but not entirely on the blanket.

the sun started to set, giving to a beautiful scene of the sky turning to an orange color. turning to y/n, baal smiled softly. they had their knees tucked to their chest and leaned their head onto their knees. y/n’s eyes were bright and their smile even brighter. somehow, even the smallest of smiles made them look radiant.

y/n turned to baal before pulling a soda out of the cooler, “want one? packed sandwiches too in case we, well i, got hungry.”

“i wouldn’t mind a soda and sandwich.”

“great, took me a while to make all the sandwiches.” y/n somehow smiled even brighter.

they handed baal a soda and a sandwich in a bag, y/n even grabbed themself one and started to chew on it. “so, you planned this all out?” baal asked.

"from the time to the bread, had it all in my head. wanted the best for my girlfriend after all,” y/n answered, girlfriend part even said in a sing-song voice.

as baal started chewing her sandwich as well she asked, “how come?”

“how come?” y/n asked back.

“yeah, why put in the effort for this? we could’ve just stayed inside and made dinner together.”

“hmm.. dunno! just wanted to watch the sunset with you.”

“did you put cheese in this sandwich? That explanation was kind of cheesy,” baal joked.

“says the one who used a dad joke!”

baal chuckled to herself and continued watching the sunset while eating. y/n already finished theirs and had their hands at their side. their legs were now pushed out, dangling more off the blanket again. they had a peaceful face, eyes now bright and a soft smile on their face. once again, somehow the smallest smile made them radiate brighter than the sun itself.

baal set down her sandwich beside her on its bag. slowly, she started to reach for y/n’s hand. she didn’t want it to be obvious but she was tempted to let them get the hint and do it for her. baal wasn’t shy, not at all, she was the first to confess to them after all. leaving the latter a flustered mess, almost too flustered to say yes. when it came to physical contact though, that was a job for y/n.

she continued reaching her hand, the further she went it looked like the farther y/n’s went. It felt like a loop. was she allowed to do this? did y/n want to be held? did they just want to lo-

baal’s thoughts were cut off as she came in contact with y/n’s hand. ger fingers lightly brushed over theirs. y/n looked down in slight shock before taking baal’s hand in theirs. they brought their thumb up and brushed over baal’s knuckles.

“panic over holding my hand? you’re too sweet.”

“i’m not the one who initiates all the cuddling.”

"whateverrr."

"i never said it was a bad thing. i enjoy cuddling with you," baal reassured them.

the two continued to sit in silence. y/n moved towards baal more, gently laying their head onto her shoulder. “how cute can you possibly be?” baal asked.

they let out a weird noise, a ‘y/n-noise’ as ayaka had called it. something they made when they were embarrassed by something.

quickly, y/n sat up and put their hands on baal’s cheeks, pulling her to look at them. she looked down at them confused before they brought both of their faces together, giving baal a kiss to make her as flustered as them. as quickly as it happened, they pulled away and gave a smug smirk to baal as she collected her thoughts again.

baal sat for a few seconds finally starting to get flustered herself from the quick kiss. after taking a few seconds to recover she took y/n’s face into her hands, baal brought their faces together. baal gave the final push and returned the kiss back to them. they clutched onto her sleeves as their face turned bright from it all. seems baal unintentionally got revenge as well.

she moved away, y/n still clutching onto her sleeves in their shock.

“i- i-,” they stuttered.

“are you not happy?” baal asked, slightly scared and embarrassed.

“no! just, didn’t expect it,” they mumbled.

“that was revenge.”

“w- hey! baal!”

y/n reached out and grabbed baal’s hand with both of theirs. they ran their thumbs over her knuckles once again. “thank you,” they mumbled.

“for what?”

“for watching the sunset with my. i love you, a lot.”

baal chuckled to herself again and reached over, quickly giving her s/o a kiss on their cheek.

“oh! i also have a question!”

“hm? what is it?”

“can I stay here with you for tonight?”

[orange-waterfalls]

Trans Male Reader HCs

ty @peachyplays​ for the request!

A/N: PEACHY SIR I AM SO FUCKING SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG UHHHHHH but im still alive. i am here. im fine. this is some hcs about before transitioning and during and a lil after bc i feel like after it would just be. pretty normal. uh i did the 5 that appeared in ahwm, excluding heistiplier bc ehhhh. Darkipier, Wilford, Yancy, Illinois, Magnum. Rated T, i think. TW: mention of periods, scars, binding, dysphoria. Yeah. I think that’s it. Enjoy!

Trans Male!Reader HCs

Darkiplier

Doesn’t really care

You have girl parts. Great

He has a century old demonic entity+a pair of twins. You're not special

Tries to be understanding, but mostly just doesn’t address it very much

There’s no need to! He loves you, it doesn't matter to him!

He will try to make you feel comfortable if you start to feel dysphoric

If you menstruate, he deals with it well

Both Damien and Celine would know precisely what to do so…

Heating pad, candy, movies + snuggles

Makes you lay down and hold the heating pad while you wait for the painkillers to kick in

Has a timer for 10 hours and you WILL take your binder off when it goes off

Is not afraid to threaten you over it

You know he doesn’t mean it and DAMMIT MAN YOU’RE GONNA HURT YOURSELF

If you start to take T, he just sits next to you

It might seem like he’s vibrating a little

That’s just the emotion seeping out

It seems like he doesn’t pay attention to your voice

In reality he listens closely everyday for how much deeper it went

You expected him to laugh when your voice cracked

he just asked you to repeat what you said

You appreciated that

He offers to pay for your top surgery if you decide to get it

Whether you say yes or know, he supports you

But he’s also nervous because Surgery

He checks the history of every person who even might be near you

Your surgeon was acting “strange” so he interrogated the poor man

You then explained he was doing his JOB

He squeezes your hand and kisses the back of it before you go into surgery.

The others have to convince him that you are not, in fact, going to Die

When you get out of surgery he stands on the other side of the room, waiting

He looks straight out of a horror movie

You almost scream when you wake up

He steps into the light holding a basket of fruit

He’s been watching a lot of romance movies…

Makes sure you DON’T FUCKING MOVE when you get home

You are going to LAY THERE and HEAL and you’re gonna LIKE IT

Often asks how your scars feel

A little defensive if people ask about them

A bit protective, but pretty much the same as before

Wilford

I don’t… I don’t think he comprehends the situation

I don’t think he knows what you mean, i’ll be honest

I think he just. Loves you. And filters everything else out.

Because unless it changes how you feel about him, it Does Not Matter

He treats you the same way he always does

Which includes being extra clingy and cuddly when you’re feeling bad or dysphoric

If you menstruate he goes into Good Boyf mode

Meaning he absolutely SPOILS you, moreso than usual

Cooks for you, buys you… a lot of things you probably don’t need…

Asks "is it shark week?" and buys extra detergent

You will take your binder off when it's time

You have no choice in the matter

and when you don't he somehow gets it off of you???

I dunno man, he's like. A god. Who knows

He WILL make sure you're safe and healthy whether you like it or not

If you start to take T, he's not allowed at the clinic

He's banned from like. Everywhere.

He always makes sure to say your voice sounds deeper

Even if it's early and it doesn't and you KNOW it doesn't, he says it anyways

He's just being supportive, it's fine

He's a lil nervous if you decide to get top surgery

The idea of someone just straight up cutting you while you're ASLEEP???

hate. bad. no thanks.

He tries to watch through a window but has to give up bc he just starts feeling Bad.

he sits and bounces his leg in the waiting room and plays with a fidget toy you got him

He basically teleports into the room when you're out

The nurse faints because what the FUCK

He just holds his bowl of chicken noodle soup while they're dragged out of the room

You eat and talk for a bit and he just gazes at you bc your voice is so nice

He's very smothering when you get home

Thinks you're gonna hurt yourself whenever you do anything

sit DOWN you dumbass you're gonna TEAR YOUR STITCHES

makes you binge a bunch of movies with him

He doesn't really pay attention, just watches you to see if you need anything

likes to trace and kiss your scars if you let him

Loves you so much <333

Yancy

I mean. He probably doesn't know what you mean

You are? a boy? I don't?

You explain and THEN he understands

He's a lil dumb, it's ok.

He isn't quite sure how to make you feel better when you're dysphoric??

Does he call you manly? Does he completely ignore you? What does he do?!

Eventually he’s settled on awkwardly calling you “Handsome” and “very masculine”

If you menstruate, he panics

He's had a mom before, he knows what it does

He doesn’t know how to make you feel better

He doesn’t wanna coddle you but also he likes feeling like he’s needed

He tries to cook for you but uh. yeah that didn't work out

The cook kicked him out and then made it themself, having Yancy deliver it to you

He convinced the warden to give him painkillers as well, and buys you candy

He’ll make sure you take your binder off when you need to

Might be a little lax, like with a child

“Okay… 30 more minutes. But then yous is takin' it off!”

Doesn’t fully understand the repercussions of you not taking it off

Once he does he literally BEGS you to take it off

Actually started crying one time

If you start T he asks a bunch of questions you probably don't know the answer to

He’s fascinated by how much your voice changes

He bites his lip to not laugh whenever your voice cracks

Once your voice gets like. As deep as it will go he kisses you and says you sound hot

He will panic if you decide to get top surgery

Constantly suggests robbing a bank or robbing a rich person

“There’s some expensive shit that’s been confiscated, i can help!”

When the day actually comes he's on the consistent verge of a panic attack

he can't even like BE there because. prison.

He cries while everyone else has to comfort him for the entire time you're healing

Once you see him again he interrogates you to make sure you're taking care of yourself

A guard lets you two have a little time alone, and you two talk about it

If you let him, he wants to see the result

He gives you a big hug and tells you how much he loves you

Illinois

Probably the only one who actually understands and actually KNOWS shit

though he's too narcissistic to really… like… care

He loves you, but like. If you don’t mention it he doesn’t really feel a need to

He will make sure you’re okay, he knows when you act weird

Other than that he doesn’t actively do much

He says "hey there handsome" or something like that every morning, and that's about it

If you menstruate, he just tosses you painkillers and says there's ice cream in the freezer

I mean. that's pretty much all you need

He will cuddle if you ask, though

Also flirts with you and talks to you more

If you bind, he will be very pushy about it

Will not let you do anything until you take your binder off after the designated amount of time

if he's on an adventure, he calls the others to go to your place and tell you to take your binder off

He knows you won't listen but I mean shit he doesn't want you hurt

If you DONT take it off and have bruises he will straight up blackmail you

Keep doing this, you don't get any cuddles or kisses

Mostly for your benefit bc. bruises. but still

If you start T, he will help, but only if you ask

When your voice cracks he laughs

He apologizes while still laughing

He sleeps on the couch a lot

A little startled after he comes home from an adventure and your voice is deep?? hot???

If you get surgery, he’s relatively calm

He doesn’t like the sounds and smells of the hospital, though.

They weird him out

He’ll kiss you a bunch before you go into surgery and then waits outside.

Probably goes to get some food as well

When you’re out, he sits by you and eats, waiting for you to wake up

He slides an apple over to you and tells you to eat if you feel like it

He does his best to take care of you at home

He knows how to heal, and you need to SIT your ass down

Stays home from adventures while you heal

He doesn’t trust you to take care of yourself

He will not ASK you to take care of yourself he will TELL you because he KNOWS how you are

Stares at your scars sometimes

He doesn’t mean to be rude, they're just… there

He likes them. They’re cool. They’re yours, how could he not?

Tries to be as respectful as he can be

Kisses your scars. Like a lot. Like a LOT a lot.

He has a thing for scars, they’re badass

Captain Magnum

Completely Does Not Understand

At the same time, Does Not Care

Can you shoot? Can you stab? Can you loot? Then you’re perfect

Treats you the same way as the rest of his crew but with a lil more special attention

That attention being calling you rugged and tough

If you menstruate, he recommends hanging out with the rest of them to distract you

He also recommends LOOTING!

You’re pirates, what else would he want from you

Will stop in a town to buy whatever you need, if you ask

But you can probably get something from some other crewmates

If you bind, he won't let you do anything until you take it off when you need to

Think you can trick him bc he doesn't know what's happening?

SURPRISE BITCH HE LOOKED IT UP

ya can't fool the man, he may be stupid but he's not dumb

If you want to start T, he’ll stay in one town for a while.

Understands that you need this, and doesn’t want you to be upset

NO he’s not playing favorites but yes he absolutely is

Doesn’t ask questions, it’s not his business

However, if you explain, he will listen

Will be elated if you steal from the town

He’s still a pirate, and you are still his boyfriend, you had to do something

Makes you sing sea shanties when your voice gets deeper

Better be prepared to sing the chorus alone, even if you’re a shit singer

He just loves to hear it and therefore EVERYONE ELSE will hear it too

If you get surgery, he’s very nervous

He's never really been in a hospital but he thinks it's unnatural

Too white. Too clean. Too much.

Refuses to go in the hospital, but gives you a tight hug before you go in

He then regrets not going in because he misses you a lot :(

Once you're out and can go back on the ship he's very gentle

He's not a gentle man, but he tries

Makes you stay in your quarters and tries to make you comfy

Doesn't really know what to do so let's a crewmate help you

Claims that your scars make you badass! and attractive!

Puts you on the front lines to boost up your confidence

It only makes you nervous really, but you appreciate the effort

[the-ipre]

what's the defiance if you dont mind me asking?

hello! welcome to the infodump :3 

short answer: the crew of star wars ocs made by me, @leenik-matagot, @not-from-the-absence-of-violence, and @drowninginstarlights. they’re a rebellion punk rock band and a found family, and star wars now belongs to us basically /lh. here’s an art dump!

longer answer:

the crew!

Cres J’ones, later Cres Defiance (she/they), is my oc. Cres is the drummer, the medic, the slicer, the general jack of all trades and master of none. She’s the heart of the crew, the weed friend, one of many who is allergic to vulnerability and bonds with people through physical contact and Not Talking About It.

Marlo Shenn (he/him) is Liam’s oc. Ex empire kid, he’s a bassist and pilot and self sacrificing protector. All of his hair (including chest and beard) has been dyed blue, because him and Cres make excellent decisions, and he needs to know who he is when he looks in the mirror. 

Nova Dillman (he/she/they) is Nico’s oc. Born and raised rebel, she’s the lead singer and guitarist and captain of the ship. Life is a performance and he knows that well, but along the way she makes genuine emotional connections even so. They definitely need therapy, but he keeps killing or seducing or cucking his therapists, so.

Dash Halcard (he/him) is Jack’s oc! Yet another ex empire kid, he’s the newest addition to the crew and plays tambourine and sings harmony, and later takes over bass from Marlo for a bit. He’s been running for so long and he finally gets to stay, the missing piece that they never knew they needed. Has a gay sex tattoo (a wampa and a rancor in a heart). They’re t4t.

Longest answer! under the cut because many thoughts head full <3

Relationships:

Marlo and Cres are Best Friends™, love each other to the point of self sacrifice, will never lose each other. They’ve made a promise that they’re the only ones allowed to kill each other, and surely that won’t come back for any dramatic irony :). Genuinely though, for people who have known so little love in their pasts, choosing each other time and time again, holding on and building their friendship from the ground up and one day realizing that they don’t ever want to let go. They watch shitty holos together! They paint each others nails! They’re best friends!

Marlo and Blue (yes from Campaign Star Wars, he’s ours now) are husbands! Good for them <3. They were childhood friends, then fuckbuddies, and then they caught feelings! Uh oh!

Nova and Blue are in a QPR that started off as just fuckbuddies (because this entire universe was made because Nico and Will wanted to kiss Blue <3 gay wrongs). Blue caught feelings (uh oh!) but Nova is aro and also terrified of commitment so ! times were tough for a while! But they worked things out and it’s excellent. Nova will not give anyone a straight answer on their relationship but he made out with Blue at his and Marlo’s wedding and also Blue has ‘boytoy’ embroidered on his capelet, so.

Even outside of all that the crew of the Defiance are friends, they’re family, Dash is Marlo’s hands when his are broken and Nova and Cres are gamers and together they’re all a family, on purpose, time and time again. Life commitment! Even after the war, they stick together, they tour the galaxy, they go back to their home planets, but they always come back to one another because they’re here, alive, defiant.

Backstories:

Cres grew up as the youngest of a bunch of siblings, never the best at anything and never all that important in the grand scheme of things. When she was eighteen she left home and her planet, went to go follow rock bands around the galaxy. They met a rebel named X who seemed larger than life, finally something so real that Cres could imagine she was real right back. They started being a part of the rebellion and it was fun, it was something, they were finally a part of something, and then in a single empire attack they lost X and their leg. After that, they travelled around the rock music circuit for a couple more years, ignoring the rebellion until they broke into the same ship as two other fools.

Marlo was an empire kid, second son who took all of the hits and punishments for his older brother. He was not allowed to exist for himself, and when he tried to, falling in love and getting engaged and able to finally imagine making a life, his family killed his fiance. Marlo finally left, a ring tucked away as the only remnant of his love. His brother tried to stop him, leaving a scar over his eye, and Marlo took the lightsaber he used and made it his, finally running. [Note from Will: ‘Marlo ‘idk what platonic love is until i’m at least 19′ Shenn’]

Nova’s parents were rebels from before he was born, struggles on their home planet giving way to the galaxy wide war. She never got to be a child, always aware of the rebellion as their parents were commanders. He and his friend K’ris share a kiss before a battle that feels like a broken promise when K’ris is killed and Nova loses a part of themself to the fight, bringing destruction down against their enemy. She stays with the rebellion and her family for a few more years before leaving and becoming an independent agent, still acting as a rebel but learning how to do so outside of his parent’s immediate gaze. 

Dash grew up as an ever observed empire child, never as good at playing the role as his twin sister, Nicali. His childhood friend, Rilis, ended up leaving him behind with no warning, and he had to face the fact that they had made the choice to go without him. He acted out to the point of getting naked at an Empire gala (good for him), which was the last straw before he left. He reinvented himself as a smuggler, jumping between crews for whatever jobs there were to be had, and found himself following the music scenes more and more, looking for Rilis all the while. He found himself drawn to the Defiance, breaking onto their ship and stowing away. Good for him!

AUs:

Evil AU:

Marlo and Dash never left the empire, Marlo (Valkai in this, never having become Marlo in the first place) becoming an Inquisitor and Dash his personal fighter (and boytoy). Nova’s destruction went a bit too far at K’ris’s death in this and she left home to be a bounty hunter, working more and more for the empire. Tragedy from the inside, comedy from the outside, absolute buckets of homoeroticism, blood, and toxic polycule. Good for them!

(Cres never left home, never became anything, stayed numb and surviving and dull. A quiet desperate tragedy that she would not do anything to change. Why try to run when at the end of the day, you’re still you?)

Bad End AU:

Original Flavor- After Marlo gets kidnapped, he goes sith, loses himself to the death and bloodshed and cuts himself off from his family. When the others find him again, Cres reaches out, still sure that he’s him in there, and Valkai drives his lightsaber through their gut. She dies in his arms and he begs Nova to kill him, and they do. Dash runs, and never stops running, and Nova goes home, tells the rebellion that her friends died well. He burns the Defiance and dies on the battlefield.

Cool Ranch- Marlo stabs Cres, Nova kills Marlo, but they’re able to save Cres before she dies. Cres has to live without their best friend, knows that the friend still left is the one who killed him. Dash ran, and keeps running, and never comes back.

We also have a vampire au, knight au, pacific rim au, skyjacks au...there’s a lot <3

other fun facts!

- all of the members have the word Defy tattooed on themself somewhere (knuckles for Cres, collarbone and then hip for Marlo, wrist for Nova, heart for Dash). Fans will write Defy on themselves in sharpie before concerts

- all of the members have been kidnapped at one point or another. whoops!

- we have collectively written over 130k words in less than two months. we can not be stopped

- there are playlists for all the characters if you would like. cres’s comes with a 1.4k annotation <3

[brain-jarred]

Chapter 2 Pear

 After the operation that ended in the two scientists parting ways for a bit, Dr. Hal finally left his room. He glanced around and saw that Dr. Param was still laying their body on the chairs outside the operating room, with a sad expression on their face. Dr. Hal sighed, and walked over to them. “Hey, Pear.” Pear was a nickname that Dr. Hal called Dr. Param sometimes. Mostly when he was being nice to them. “Sorry for snapping at you. You didn't do anything wrong.” He said, looking at his feet. Dr. Param smiled. “Thanks. I’m sorry too if I was a bit overbearing or annoying.” “You werent.” Dr. Hal sat next to his colleague. “You were just trying to be helpful.” He added, looking at a motivational poster. The poster had been there for sixteen years. It was a picture of a lake with a caption in bold white text that said “SERENITY” It was Dr. Hal’s favorite, because it was the least annoying of them all. “Yeah.” Param nodded. There was an uneasiness to their words, like they still wanted to bring up something, but did not want Dr. Hal to be mad at them again. They sighed and looked away. “Um. yeah.” They said suddenly very interested in the yellow carpet Dr. Hal took notice, and knew that Dr. Param wanted to bring up the work thing again. He didnt really know what to do about that, he really didnt want to talk about it again, because he knew he would get snappy again, but at the same time he also wanted to make Param feel comfortable, and this tension between them really sucked. “Look, pear, I’m just. I think-” Dr. Hal looked around, not sure what to say next. “I think i just need a short break. Like a vacation, and then maybe i’ll be less agitated all the time. I was wondering if you wanna take a vacation with me?” He asked. Dr. Param thought for a moment. “Sure!” They nodded. “Could be fun. Just like. Uh. A boy’s get away. Except that I'm not a boy, but you know what I mean.” “Boys can be gender neutral if you want.” Dr. Hal countered, draping his arm behind Dr. Param Dr. Param snorted. “Yeah, sure. Still not a boy.” They said, laying their hands on their lap. Or rather, hand and weird needle thing on their lap. They seemed to be more at ease with the vacation thing. This wasn't the first time the two of them had taken a vacation together. They never actually went anywhere for their vacations, that wasn't permitted. Mostly they just hung out in the green house. It was the nicest place in the campus. It was almost like being outside. Dr. Param stood up suddenly. “Let's go to the cafeteria.” They said to their colleague. They thought that Hal looked tense, maybe some nutrient solution would make him feel better? The two of them didn't exactly eat normal food, but they both needed basic vitamins and fuel for their human brains. Dr. Hal also got up “Sure.” He said. “As long as you don't repeat the yogurt incident again.” “Hey! I told you not to bring that up again!” Dr. Param playfully hit Hal. “Then don't try to put yogurt directly onto your brain, you idiot.” Hal laughed. “IT WAS A ONE TIME THING!!” Dr. Param retorted, not genuinely mad, but trying to act like it.

It was moments like this when the two scientists truly appreciated each other. Maybe things werent...ideal. Maybe being contractually obligated to remain in an underground space for the next 34 years wouldn't be great, but at least they had each other. And that was all that they needed. At least thats what Param told themself. They werent sure if He felt the same way. He did not in fact feel the same way. He was in fact very antsy to get out of this place. He just wanted to leave already, though he didn't allow himself to fully think these thoughts, always pushing them to the back of his head. But Dr. Param? He was content to just experiment on the subjects for eternity. As long as Hal was there, everything would be okay!

Everything was okay.

The two of them continued to walk down the hallways of yellow carpet and off white plaster walls. It was a familiar hallway, the two of them could probably go down it while blinded. As they walked, Hal decided to mention the vivisection, only to find out that Dr. Param had also been told about it. “Its rather short notice, dont you think?” Param remarked. “We usually have atleast 3 days of notice to prepare a strategy, and they usually give us information on how to best deal with them. When i asked Sarah who it was, she said we would be told tomorrow.”

Dr. Hal nodded. It was weird. “Well they did say it was high profile. Maybe they want to keep it under wraps. Heh. Maybe we are operating on the president or something.” The current president, Clair Vonyant, well...she was a controversial figure. A powerful psychic with the power to kill anyone just by concentrating really hard...That was pretty frightening to both of them. Not to mention her unconstitutional four terms as president. 

“I mean, she does kinda suck though.” Param rolled their eyes. “And it would be easy for me to alter her memories, since shes such a public figure and we know a lot about her. Last one we had, we didn't know a lot about. But for her? Easy. You can just make her hallucinate her dead brother and i can alter her memories so that she thinks he never died. There wouldn't be any struggle then.” They said casually, as if they were just discussing causal workplace terms. Which in their eyes, they were. Hal didn't see anything wrong with this either. Just a normal wednesday. “Agreed.” Finally they reached the cafeteria. It was a wide and large room they came upon, the yellow carpet gave way to grey linoleum, but the off white walls were the same color. It had a glass ceiling that showed the sky. Tables were placed neatly around the room. It was always strangely empty for such a big room. Like maybe it was built for more people. There were only 10 people who worked in this facility, Dr. Hal and Dr. Param included. 

There were three in the cafeteria now. Dr. Sarah was eating some lunch. She looked disinterested in the two who entered, more focused on her food. Dr. Hal was disinterested in her too, he walked around her to get to the nutrient dispenser. But Dr. Param took notice of Dr. Sarah, and they headed for her. “Greetings sarah. What are you eating?” They asked. It was some sort of soup. “Tuna soup.” She said after taking a bit to chew her food before answering. She had manners, she would have you know. Her soup looked kinda gross, but she wasn't complaining. Dr. Param nodded. “That's nice. I was wondering...well...I was wondering if there was any way that you could provide more information about the vivisection tomorrow?” Sarah looked at them with an annoyed expression. “I'm eating, Dr. Param. I would prefer not to talk about this right now.”

Dr. Param made a small noise of annoyance of their own, and sighed. “You're right, sorry.” They said as they walked away. They didn't understand what all this secrecy was about. Why would this vivisection be done on such short notice? Dr. Param didn't like it, they didn't like it one bit. This was unorderly. Something that interrupted and destroyed routine. They were soon roused from their annoyed vagaries when they saw that Dr. Hal was waiting for them. 

“Are you done being a detective?” He asked, one arm on the machine, the other sat on his hip. “It's hardly detective work to just ask a simple question.” They retorted, taking a pack of nutrient solution out of the glorified fridge. 

“You would be surprised, i’m pretty sure that's what being a detective is all about.” “So youre saying that I'm Sherlock Holmes now? That's nice of you.” Param smirked, popping the container open and inserting the needle that came with it into the back of their head. But they kept missing the hole. “Can you be like watson and help me with this darn needle?” They asked. “Sure just let me-” click, it was finally inserted into the right place. The juice poured into their brain, which was a pleasant sensation. “Thanks.” They said with a smile. “They should have made your body more streamlined for this kind of thing. Having the hole in the back of your head is a bit inefficient.” He huffed. 

“I actually like my body, thank you very much. I am the sexiest cyborg here.” They said, smirking. “Yeah sure.” Dr. Hal rolled his eyes. He didn't have a mouth, but he was smiling too, with his eyes. Sarah audibly groaned. She was so tired of having to hear those two’s banter all the time. It was so incredibly annoying! She was just trying to eat some soup, she didn't need to hear these weirdos talking about their bodies or whatever. The two scientists looked at her when she loudly groaned, before looking away. The two had an odd relationship with her. She was one of the more friendly scientists, as long as you didnt get between her and her goals. She got up and threw her plastic soup bowl in the trash and walked over to the two of them. “So the vivisection-” She began. “I can't tell you very much about it, but I will tell you that the subject has a fear of the dark.” She looked at her feet, almost shamefully. She seemed to be really hesitant to talk about this, but she was friends with the two scientists, and she wanted to make what was about to come easier on them.

“A lot of people have a fear of the dark.” Dr. Hal remarked. “But I appreciate the morsel of help. Is there anything else you can tell us?” “Hm.” Dr. Sarah thought for a moment. “She also has a fear of being perceived as weak. At least that's what the psychiatric tests told us.” So it's a female then. Dr. Param thought. “Alright. Thanks for the help.” They said brightly. Dr. Hal nodded. He figured that they wouldn't get much more info out of Sarah, and it was getting late. Might as well turn in for the night soon. He tapped Dr. Param on the shoulder and gestured towards his quarters. “I’m going to go to sleep now. See you tomorrow?” Dr. Param blinked, and looked at a clock, surprised at how late it was. It was almost 10 pm. They nodded. “See you tomorrow.” They repeated. Hal walked away as Sarah and Param continued to talk for a little bit. Eventually Dr. Param said goodbye to Sarah as well. Dr. Param’s quarters were the same size as Dr. Hal’s. But they had no bed like he did. They just had a metal table in which they laid their body on. They couldn't feel cloth, so a bed was unneeded. A small pile of junk lay in the corner of their room. Bottlecaps, paper clips and pens that they had collected. They looked at it as they initiated their body to release sleeping chemicals to lull their brain to sleep. Dr. Param was painfully human, despite being unrecognizable as one.

[asrasotherbottom]

Hi I live and would die for your writing. HCs for main 6 x an MC who is actively putting on weight? Like, they were very ill for a long time & now they're putting back on the weight they lost.. and then some. And they like it! They look healthy and like a Living Human again! They are squishy and chubby and love their rolls! But some days are harder than others? How would the LIs support them when they are feeling a little insecure with the sudden onset of weight?

So I have this post already done of an MC who used to be skinny and gained weight and is actively trying to not go back to how they used to look b/c they were miserable, in case thats something you also wanna check out. 

There might be some overlap with that post in this one, as a heads up. (also aaaa thank you

Blanketly, the LI’s care first and foremost about MC’s comfort and happiness, at any weight

Asra

Ideally he would whisk them away to Nopal so they don’t have any compounding stress of shop life. Also so he can focus on helping them feel better and keep all his attention on them. 

A few days of Asra cuddling them and telling them how fantastic they look and how happy he is that they’re feeling better. They can stay under the covers together and he can make their favorite rice pudding. 

He’d wrap his arms around them and their squishy bits and just be present with them and let them know that he’ll love them at any weight, always. 

“Asra says you don’t have to think about your body today” and he’d tell them to think that to themself every time the insecure thoughts creep back (my therapist did this with me and it works Wonders)

Nadia

She would spend the whole day in bed with them if they want, telling them that they’re special to her and spectacular in her eyes, always have been, always will be

Also that she’s delighted they’re getting better since their illness and that she loves seeing them looking so much better and more vital. 

She offers to have them spend the day in her contemplation tower with her, away from the gaze of others, tinkering away with her so they can forget their body exists for a while. 

Or, she’ll arrange to spend time walking with them in the gardens so they can focus on nature and the flowers and she can hold their hand and wrap her arms around them and remind them that she thinks theyre quite cute. 

Julian

MC can expect the full pampering experience honestly, he takes the day or a few days off if he can and spends it just with MC

Big enveloping hugs and cuddles while he tells them how much he loves them and how perfect they are to him and how his future is with them no matter what weight they are. 

He’s glad that they’re getting better and gaining weight after their illness and all their squishy bits and rolls are in his opinion a sign of strength and happiness and health. 

He’ll take them out to the Raven too if they want to get their mind off of their body for a bit. They can have fun and erm, paint the town non-plot-relevant-red no matter MC’s weight, and he just wants to remind them that he loves them and loves being with them. 

Muriel, Portia, Lucio Under the cut!

Muriel

If they want he is more than happy to pick them up and carry them around all day so they dont have to deal with the feeling of having a body and also remind them that hes still able to pick them up and carry them. 

They’re so, so, so important to him, and the fact that they’re putting the weight back on from their illness makes him so happy because he wants to see them Well, and he’ll remind them of that as often as they need. 

He’ll take them on a walk through the forest. Nothing intense that would make them hyper-aware of their body and the sudden weight gain, but enough to remind them of all the good and cool things their body does for them that they enjoy (like strolling through nature with him).

He’ll pull them into his lap in bed and just wrap his arms around them and let them know how special they are to him and how lovely they are. 

Portia

Oh she is absolutely not letting MC sit around and feel bad about their body on her watch. She’s got a whole 45 point presentation pulled up about how much she loves MC’s body (including the weight theyve gained) and why they’re cute and what parts she wants to kiss 

She thinks its so strong and fucking metal�� and rad that they’re getting better from their illness and gaining the weight back and she thinks they look so great (they’ve always looked great, they always will look great)

She’ll cuddle them and squish them and give their squishy bits kisses and stroke their hair gently and hold them if they want, whatever it takes. 

If they need to just forget about their body for a while, she always thinks that there’s eavesdropping to do and she drags MC to go listen to juicy gossip. They cant be sad when they’re laughing at palace gossip.

Lucio

They are the cutest magician he has ever seen, they were when they met and they still are now and they always will be and he makes it Clear there is no argument possible there.  

He’ll spend the day with them on their back while he kisses /every/ inch of them and talking about how cute and wonderful and lovely they are for absolutely hours on end without stopping. 

Lucio is intimately familiar with what its like to be very sick and hes just so glad that theyre feeling better and they’re gaining the weight back. 

If they need to get their mind off of things, he’s more than happy to show them around all the secret passages he knows about in the palace (and play a few more pranks on the chamberlain to make them laugh) 

[skywillsometimeswrite]

pls tell me abt ur ocs

*looks at my giant list of OCs* ...where do i start?

Welp I have an idea that I’ve been wanting to discuss for a while and kind of did during Nonbinary Week and I will gladly use this as an excuse to talk about it so thank you very much anon (genuinely thank you I didn’t actually expect to get any asks about my OC when I reblogged that sjkfhfljh)

I’ll put this under a read more so if people aren’t interested they dont have to hear me blabbing on about my characters

I’m going to be talking about 5 characters but I’m not gonna like… go too deep into them cause that involves delving into some more personal matters that if I were to ever fully share them I would need to give each of them their own posts. And they also have what I call 3 arcs… which again, I would have to discuss in their own posts.

These characters are who I call my “Editors.” They are characters that have never faded, so to speak, like other characters do, and were created as I went through pivotal parts in my life. When I was younger I attributed them to helping write my stories and I’ll talk about that a little bit, but I’ve also formed this narrative around them as they have existed. So right here I’ll discuss their first arcs the most.

(I’d like to point out since it’s important to the overall narrative that their collective stories exist inside my own mind or creative space. As such, since fandom is an important part of my creative upbringing, all of my Editors save for one (kinda) have a tie to one specific fandom but can span across multiple. They aren’t self-inserts, but they are OCs that existed within a canon of one or another fandom piece that also directly connect to their own stories.)

So let’s start with Sarasona Nova. She is the “Original” Editor (she technically isn’t but that isn’t here nor there right now). As she stood in the place of my persona for many, many years she has earned her spot to be one of the heads of storytelling. I contribute mostly plotlines and ideas to her because more often than not, if it makes sense it comes from her. She is the level headed one out of any of the Editors. She starts out pretty sweet, before any of the other Editors come along, but then she has her first true experience with fandom and she becomes very negative and critical towards it. The only reason she offered any story ideas for fanfics back then was because all of my motivation was towards it. This evolves further in the story into full on obsession with controlling stories and characters and everything having to be exact and perfect.

At first this doesn’t cause problems, not even when the second Editor comes into the picture: Dream/Dimension Ruler, or DR as I refer to him (his name has always been fuzzy). When DR first came into existence his purpose was to create settings and scenes for Sara’s stories to play out in, as well as be this caretaker almost for the out-of-use characters. He and Sara work together on a lot of things and are both fairly excitable people when it comes to creating, but Sara is more focused on the current story while DR is looking at the potential in others. He is perfectly fine with his role until he wants to start creating and telling his own stories, which Sara shoots down. She writes the stories, she’s the leader, she tells him what to make. Over time, this really breaks DR down and he slowly becomes less eccentric and enthusiastic in his creations or his personality. He stops looking after characters not being used, and over time they do start to fade into nonexistence. A character that hasn’t been totally neglected notices DR’s vulnerable state and decides to use this to her advantage.

This is Manipulator, or Mani as I call her. Mani is a character that was created for a specific fanfic that actually eventually gave way to a larger original story and left her’s almost abandoned. She didn’t even have a name. At this point characters were supposed to figure themselves out, name and personality wise unless they were able to be fit into a story where things were figured out for them. Since Mani didn’t have a story anymore, she was kind of left on the wayside, no matter how often she bothered Sara for something, anything, to work with or do. Mani decided she wanted to be an Editor, maybe even the lead Editor. DR had been trying to help her and Mani decides to help him in return, by trying to take down Sara and everything she’s ever created. Through her namesake, she manages to become an Editor in direct rivalry to Sara. She became responsible for the conflict in stories, becoming the main antagonist of Sara’s story. 

And her biggest contribution to this was through getting rid of the Editor Glitch. Glitch was this “broken” character that came into existence. Sara was confused by them, asking them their name, and didn’t get anything in return. Sara thought they were a mistake or something, since most characters usually have something to go off of to begin with but Glitch had nothing. After a while, it was revealed that Glitch was the Editor for characters and their creation. They were every character at once in every story while they themself were barely sentient. They both understood emotions and didn’t comprehend them at all, wanted to save the world while also wanting to end it, could kill without hesitation while also not being able to hurt a fly. This caused them to be almost robot-like, where they knew every single possible reaction to a given scenario and would choose the safest option by not reacting or reacting in what they would assume to be the most logical manner. Mani manages to trick them and trap them into a specific fandom that only had one main story that kept changing. They got caught up in this ever changing story and eventually became a character themselves in it, and them fully taking over a character for themselves became a part of the story. 

That eventually leads into the second arc of their current stories. But amidst the third arc the last (current) Editor arrives in the form of Skylar Roch. Sky pretty much came out of nowhere in context of characters, and was practically shoved into the role of Lead Editor, much to Sara’s dismay and Mani’s amusement. Sky does their best to help the other Editors, including Sara, with all their issues but is filled with their own as they try to juggle this responsibility that they were thrust into without any knowledge of how to do it. Sara is resentful towards Sky and tries to point out that she should still be Lead Editor, meanwhile Mani, DR, and Glitch are all pointing out the awful stuff she did to them as Lead Editor.

Eventually, they do get a happy ending. At least… currently. Their stories continue on for as long as I live, so we’ll see, I suppose.

This is a lot longer than I meant for it to be and I have barely scratched the surface of these characters and this story. Maybe one day I’ll write it and post it, alongside the fanfics that go hand in hand with them. But for now, that day is not today.

Still, thank you tons for giving me an excuse to babble on about these guys!

[dearheartwitcher]

ocs masterpost

for ease of access! in-depth descriptions of all my favorite ocs, all in one post. you can find even more of my ocs (brief descriptions + reference images) over on my art fight page! (you have to be logged in to view!)

[[MORE]]

DnD Characters:

note: for some of these, i have to omit large portions of info as i am either actively playing them, or saving them for a future campaign, and i dont want anyone im playing with to see and accidentally spoil themselves

Fennryn Autumntide—

They were separated from their parents as a baby, and instead raised by an older dwarven woman named Rhiannon Autumntide (AKA Anna). They lived in the forest on the mountain together. She taught them how to fend for themself, and a basic respect for nature and other living things. Their relationship was very teacher/student, but as the years went by they saw each other as family. Fenn solidified this by taking Anna’s last name when they were of age. Eventually, Anna passed away, and Fenn was left in the woods alone.

Fearful of dying alone without ever having experienced life off of the mountain, Fenn sets out to find an adventure. And they find one, alongside a younger tiefling man named Finn. Finn is an experienced pirate, but he is vulnerable. Finn and Fenn trust each other explicitly, and after some time, they fall in love.

Fenn is tall, muscular, and an older elf. They’re around middle aged.

Alistair—

Alistair is a mystery. They are a bizarre-looking half-elf, with a wicked grin, and glowing cyan eyes that lack pupils. They are seemingly fairly young, despite their hair beginning to grow white at the roots.

Alistair is extremely curious, and values sating that curiosity above most things. They spend much of their time exploring and researching. They also have a complete lack of respect for personal boundaries, and love to study and inspect whoever they can get their hands on. (They’re good with a pair of pliers, if you’re willing to let them pull a tooth. They’d be happy to show you their collection.)

Alistair also thrives on positive attention, especially from people who don’t give it easily. Perhaps that’s why they insist on hanging off of Frey as much as they do. Frey Matthias Wolfe is a rich bastard. He’s a man of study as well, but he’s a real mean bitch. And Alistair loves him.

Alistair’s patron... Is a whole other story. One that will remain secret, for now.

Jesse—

Jesse was spawned from the thought “I should make a mean nerd for everyone to bully!” And the execution, imo, was flawless. A 24 year old human man. Jesse is a bard, and he hates it. He has been traveling on his own for a while, and finished his bard college education a couple years ago. He’s pretty studious, and he’s determined to learn everything related to magic that he can.

Despite being a jackass, and kind of a stick in the mud, he does have some semblance of a sense of humor. He also likes to use his intelligence and skill to feel superior to the people around him as often as possible. He is visibly extremely disturbed by corpses.

Jesse is very vague about his past and his reasons for traveling alone.

Ford—

Ford is my newest character! He is a firbolg cowboy. Extremely tall (approaching 8’), with a powerful build. I can’t say much about him yet! He is seemingly very friendly and happy to lend a helping hand whenever he can. He has a sister, named Clementine, who owns a small grocery store.

Cressida:

(note: cressida city + the world its a part of belongs to my boyfriend @ghost-gore ! all the characters that mine know belong to him as well. warning for gore on his blog.)

Ellis—

Ellis is a demon who works in limbo under a man named Crow. Ellis is technically speaking, pretty old, but he looks just as much the young man he was when he died. He keeps his long hair back in a ponytail, and can’t seem to ever wear his suit properly.

Ellis’ powers allow him to see and alter people’s memories. Limbo, as it works out, is a mess of memories. He is always very busy keeping things in order. He’s no stranger to making mistakes, but he has a knack for fixing them to make up for it. When he has a moment to himself, he likes to slip into the dreams of humans. He thinks they’re interesting! (But he keeps accidentally bringing them nightmares...oops. Don’t worry, he can fix it!)

Ellis is in love with his boss, and has been for over a century. He has a hard time keeping it subtle, but fortunately(??) Crow is oblivious. But a century is a long time... And things have gotten intimate between them more than once.

He is also good friends with a much older demon, named Cordia. They like to meet up for drinks, and bond over funny cat pictures.

Rosier—

Rosier is an old, powerful demon. He was once a high-ranking officer in “Hell”’s military. He was charming, and an excellent strategist. (Having a powerful beast form also helps.)

However, something triggered him severely. In a frenzied panic, he shifted into his beast form and flew off.

As a beast, he has large red eyes, long antennae, sharp claws, and huge black wings. Years passed as he isolated himself, and legends spread of the Mothman. Rosier lost himself more and more, until he lost the ability to speak. He stopped seeing any people as the apocalypse happened all around him.

Later, living in the ruins outside of Cressida, he is found by a young hero named Ghost. Ghost is initially intimidated by Rosier, and treats him as an enemy. They fight a few times, before Ghost realizes that Rosier isn’t necessarily a foe— he’s just defending himself. Ghost then begins to treat Rosier almost as a pet.

After some time rehabilitating Rosier, Ghost brings him back to Orion HQ, where they work for Cordia. Cordia is one of very few demons old enough to recognize Rosier.

Eventually, Rosier is able to read, speak, and transform back into a more human shape. He still retains a few of his moth form’s traits, including fully red eyes, fur here and there, and limbs that fade to near-black at the tips.

Cyrus Darcy—

Cyrus is a rich bitch whore. He cares about three things ONLY: wine, sex, and himself. Money is power and he has more than enough of it. His parents passed away when he was a teenager, and they left him a fortune.

Cyrus always gets what he wants. If money can’t get it for him, he has another trick up his sleeve that can. Cyrus is a celestial, meaning a human born with supernatural powers. Cyrus has the power of suggestion, meaning that he can give anyone a short command that they are compelled to follow.

Cyrus has all the makings of a villain, but in actuality he is very neutral. He just wants to have a good time unbothered. He uses his powers mostly to get randos to leave him alone. (Randos like Arley and Kier, who are sent by Cordia to recruit Cyrus for Orion. It takes a while.)

Evelyn—

Evelyn (AKA Evie) was born in the Victorian Era, to a rich father. With money and good looks, she was often pursued by men wishing to court and marry her. She was disinterested in all of them. She preferred to spend her time reading and studying. Evelyn loved to learn, but she also loved a good romance or fantasy to sweep her off her feet.

Enter Cordia, who spent her Victorian days posing as a man. They had a passionate love affair, until Cordia made a sudden exit from Evelyn’s life.

Many years later, Evelyn awakens in the afterlife as an angel. When she and Cordia meet again, it is as equals and business partners.

She is now working as a librarian/an archivist. She also boxes, because she likes to feel strong.

Marcy—

Marcy is a thotty rave twink. They love music, they love neons, and they love to flirt. Marcy is very enthusiastic, and they are a little bit in love with basically everyone. They flirt constantly, and are not shy with physical affection. They like to do drugs and make out and they’re happy to do that with pretty much anyone who’s willing.

Marcy is also a celestial. Their powers allow them to control their personal gravity. They can jump really high, and come down hard, among other things! They mostly use it to help themself go fast. They used to be in roller derby! And they still love to skate.

(ps they have thighs for days and an ass that wont quit. thank u)

Other:

Bonnie Briary—

My newest oc! She belongs to a world where monsters are real, but hidden. Monsters aren’t super common, and they generally avoid integration with human society. (The setting is also a blend of modern + victorian fantasy. Think Lemony Snicket ambiguity.)

Bonnie is shy, sweet, and curious. She likes to study plants in particular. Her style of choice is cottagecore/fairycore blend. She has a garden that she loves very much.

Faust (belongs to tovomiel on ig), is a trash punk gargoyle monster, who for some reason has decided he likes Bonnie. He teases her relentlessly and loooooves to make her flustered. The catch is, he’s too shy to make a move beyond teasing and the occasional kiss. Bonnie, sweet as she is, is dying for him to stop leaving her hanging. Shenanigans ensue.

[askbittyerror]

Wedding RP part 11

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 Blue finds themself staring... there's no way he doesnt know exactly, and intimately, what it does... not with a reaction like that. "...need a hug?"

salty darkness09/27/2020 "..." He nods.

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 They step forward, and just, hug him. Carefully, for Archer's sake- no squish- but they definately hug him.

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 The bitties pile on, barring Paladin who flies a bit away with a look of distaste, and all give him little hugs and nuzzles.

salty darkness09/27/2020 Archer giggles, purring and flapping their wings. They hug Blue too, clinging and nuzzling- generally just happy to be cuddled.

Nintendo wraps his arms around, wings doing the same. He watches Paladin fly away, wincing a little. "...does he normally do that?"

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "...he, has a very strong sense of-" justice "moral code. sometimes, it doesnt leave a lot of leeway for extenuating circumstance."

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Be a self-righteous grump who's very selective of what he gets all righteous about?" Magnus nuzzles, shooting his brother a look, who shoots him one right back. "Yes."

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "...good. just... stubborn."

salty darkness09/27/2020 Nintendo is quiet for a few more moments... then he nods, pulling away. "Okay." "...thank you."

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 Blue lets him go, but doesn't seem quite done with him yet.  "Can i ask you something else?"

salty darkness09/27/2020 A small huff. "I'm listening."

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "...i dont see any vials. and youre definitely showing what seems to be more emotion thsn ive ever seen our Ink without paint." "...how?"

salty darkness09/27/2020 "..." Nintendo sets Archer down on the ground, setting his cake beside them. "Hold on for a second, Archsie... eat that if you want, but don't get too much chocolate all over your hands-"

He stands back up, looking very serious.

And then doubles over laughing like Blue just asked the most absurd question in the world.

"Oh-my-god-they-didn't-tell-you-"

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 Blue may take a step back, looking somewhst startled - but mostly confused. "Um. Wait. What?"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 The bitties give him odd, and in Paladin's case, suspicious, looks.

salty darkness09/27/2020 He brings a hand to his chest, tugging on it. A glowing, upside-down heart is pulled out alongside it, tinted a bright, bright purple.

"I have a soul, obviously. How do you think Archer got made, sudden magic accidents?"

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "..." well. That left them speechless.

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 The bitties sputter and look away, flushing. Paladin practically falls out of the air.

salty darkness09/27/2020 "..." Nintendo is laughing again. The little jerk.

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 Blue.exe may still be processing this... [11:51 PM] "..." they should look away. All they can manage is a weak, "how?"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Paladin absolutely fucking glares and Magnus pauses, rips off his boot, and long distance beans him in the head with it.

salty darkness09/27/2020 He still laughs a little under his breath, wiping tears from his eyes. "Well, I didn't have it originally, obviously. Got it while I was... occupied. And stuck. Somewhere. After a certain incident. Then found and obtained it." "...and Dream punched me in the chest and forced me to absorb it, which was an entire fiasco- to keep things short and sweet, magic bullshittery."

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "..." "Our Ink's paints arent working right anymore. But, i... dont think that solution will work for him." [11:56 PM] A sigh, and they nuzzle Magnus again, softly whispering, "good shot, love."

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “Huh, okay-” Magnus shrieks as he is suddenly yanked from his biggie by his snarling brother, clawing and biting at him as the pair vanish somewhere private to ‘talk’.

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 ".........crap-"

salty darkness09/27/2020 "..." "Did I cause something?"

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "..." "If i say no, is there any chsnce youll believe me?"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "They just..." Domino sighs, massaging his temples. "Need a minute. And likely some healing when they get back." "Should I go yell at them?" Mercury asks his grandpa. "No." Domino pats him. "Just let them sort it out."(edited) September 28, 2020

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." "Im gonna throw my own shoe at hin next time." Blue mutters,  clearly not liking this, but pretty sure Domino is right, but- -but they want to follow. badly.

salty darkness09/28/2020 Archer looks up from where they had been stuffing cake in their mouth, babbling and getting chocolate all over their fancy coat. Nintendo sits down beside them, curling a wing around so his smol can nom in peace. "...sooooo. Any other questions, or was the knowledge that I can feel and have emotions in general good enough?"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Mercury raises his hand. "So are we brothers or..."

salty darkness09/28/2020 "Yes. Sure. We are brothers. Whatever keeps you from being sad or something."

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "YAY!" Mercury cheers. "NEW SIBLING!"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...can I worry about m-?" a flash of very pale gold, some distance above, and a rather harried looking Paladin, roughly ten inches tall, with very, very pale wings, is soon flying towards Nintendo.

salty darkness09/28/2020 Nintendo lifts his head, making a high-pitched noise of alarm. He folds his wings around Archer, protecting the smol. "..." Then he looks at the Paladin again. "Fluffdad?"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 relief, as he spots his son, quickly winging down to him. "-okay, you're okay. good... arm, please."

salty darkness09/28/2020 "..." He holds out his arm. "Uh, why?"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 He lands, with practiced ease, looking over the other with concern. "why the frick did I feel your emotions doing the fudging cha-ch-" he pauses, looking mildly confused at the words coming out of his mouth.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Fresh grins from inside his safety pocket.

salty darkness09/28/2020 "..." Nintendo narrows his eyes, giving Coryn a pap on the head. "It's fine. There's just a censoring frick around here, apparently." "...what were you asking?"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...um." he shakes his head, and looks back at Nintendo for a long moment, papping his cheek lightly. "I felt your emotions all over the place from the kids' retreat. What happened? Are you okay?"

salty darkness09/28/2020 "...yeah. I'm... fine." he uncurls his wings, and Archer flops down on the ground, the cake smashed to smithereens, remains of it smeared all over their hands and face. "We were just... talking about Black 2.0. And what it does." "...bad memories and... stuff."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." Coryn pats him softly, not pressing further. "Okay." He agrees, pausing as he finally notices the other bitties. He stares.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Hi!" Mercury waves.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 A slow wave back, vaguely baffled. "...Hi." "...um. I'm Coryn. nice to meet you?"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Nice to meet you too!" Mercury vibrates. "Your son is my brother now!"

salty darkness09/28/2020 Nintendo mutters something about explaining after the wedding.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "Um. Okay." His expression meanwhile is asking why the hell a nightshade bitty is being so sweet and welcoming.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Can I hug you?" Mercury asks. "I like hugs! Hugs are nice!"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 Coryn makes a small sound of alarm, stepping back and nearly falling off his son's arm. "W-why?"

salty darkness09/28/2020 "...he's a cuddly bitty, dad. It's not that deep."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." "Have you met! Your uncle!"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "You look soft and nice!" Mercury smiles.

salty darkness09/28/2020 Nintendo grins. "He is! You should hug him. He's really cuddly and open to hugs." [11:59 AM] "...and I don't care about my uncle."

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "I hug only if he's okay with it!" Mercury declares, hands on his hips.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." He steadies himself, looking at Mercury in something like confusion, but less alarm. "You... actually want to hug? If my brother said something like that to someone, they'd be about to die. horribly." "...my wings won't hurt you?"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "I don't kill people unless they're horrible abusive jerkfaces!" Mercury smiles brightly. "And it only hurts with prolonged contact or if you actually want to hurt me."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...no, I dont-" "my. magic probably isn't strong enough to-" He falls silent, then agrees, somewhat hesitantly, "sure. hugs." he offers his arms to the... very, friendly corrupted nightmare. and hopes that Braithe stays with the kids.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Mercury looks absolutely ecstatic and swings himself over, giving the Paladin a gentle hug, loose enough for him to escape if he wants to. "Thank you!!!"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 A brief, startled half flap of his wings... then slowly he puts his arms around the other. Still half expecting attack, but giving the benefit of the doubt.(edited)

salty darkness09/28/2020 Archer babbles, reaching up to try and hug the bitties as well. Nintendo moves his arm so they can wrap their arms around and snuggle. "..." "Thanks for the blackmail, dad."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...huh?" please explain. fluff dad's processing ability is currently running at half speed.

salty darkness09/28/2020 "Did I stutter?"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Mercury is over the moon, so much cuddles, including baby ones? This is the best day ever!

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 Blank look... then, he hugs a little more, even closing his eyes. He looks, content, slowly relaxing. He can't remember the last time-

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Mercury nuzzles him, purring softly, tentacles doing a happy wiggle-waggle.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 A faint, shaky purr... he starts to shift his wings, instinctively wanting to offer wing hugs, but still them almost instantly. No, nope. Not even with his low magic. "...okay. you, i like. you're nice."(edited)

salty darkness09/28/2020 Archer flaps their wings, giggling and purring as well. Cuddles! Cuddles for all! Except Nintendo. He's just watching everyone cuddle. And holding the bitties on his arm.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "I like you too!" Mercury is delighted. "You are also nice!"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 After an extended moment, Coryn let's go again... but he's smiling. "I like your new brother." He tells Nintendo, before using his wing to lightly boop Archer's nose. "you too, cutie."

salty darkness09/28/2020 Archer bats at Coryn's hands, looking very proud of themselves. "...yeah. I suppose he is pretty cool."

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Immense Mercury-based pride.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...so that's the only thing that had you upset?" Coryn presses gently, attention returned to Nintendo. He knows his son better than that.

salty darkness09/28/2020 "Uh..." Nintendo looks away. "Yeah. It was."

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "My dad offered to be his dad too." Mercury helpfully offers. "And also my uncle got upset about it and dragged Dad off to hopefully just yell at him."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." gears seem to be turning in Coryn's mind, and he looks wary again. "okay, awhile I want to know why he was upset about it, I'd also like to know whether I should intervene. mostly because if there's a big enough fight, Braithe will find a way to join it... and while I love my brother, I wouldnt wish his attention on anyone but my worst enemies."

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Uncle Pal disagreed with some of new awesome sibling's actions." Mercury shrugs, then frowns, looking thoughtful. "Well, it has been awhile... They usually don't take this long."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." "I'm gonna go look for them." Coryn mutters, uneasy.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "I'm coming with." Mercury says. "I can hold back Uncle Pal pretty good and neither of them will hurt me." "Please don't do anything stupid." Jabber sighs. "I won't, my darling beautiful beloved sweetheart." Mercury smiles at Jabber's immediate flush. "Promise."

salty darkness09/28/2020 "..." Nintendo laughs rather nervously. "You, uh. Don't want to hear what those actions were? Just in case? So you don't come back and yell at me later?"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...please-" Blue doesn't know what to say. Normally they'd have run after the two themself, but aren't willing to consign the rest of their family to the floor in an unfamiliar place. "-just, be careful. all around." Coryn gives Nintendo a small frown. "-have I ever yelled at you? Once?"

salty darkness09/28/2020 "...no-but-depending-on-how-much-you-care-about-Lark-you-might??"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "...I care about Lark. he's Uriah's biggie, and also your step brother. but I hardly think that's going to change my tendency to raise my voice." Soft paps. "-we'll talk about this when we get back. But you're my son. Even if you did mess up, that's not going to change, understand?"

salty darkness09/28/2020 A nod. "Okay." "...sorry in advance."

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 "..." a nod, and then he offers his hand to Mercury. chase by wing, or teleport?"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Teleport." Mercury takes it. "I can kinda feel where they are. Want me to do it?"

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 A nod. "You lead. My magic's a bit fickle."(edited)

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Mercury focuses and yanks them away to a dark corner. Magnus is on the ground, leaking Marrow heavily, kicking up at his brother and growling, teeth sunk into his arm. Paladin snarls, sword stabbed through Magnus’ shirt and going steadily deeper.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 Without a second thought Coryn let's go of Mercury, teleporting behind Paladin and snapping out one golden 'tendril' to wrap around his neck, offering zero forewarning, or even a sound.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 ...he intends to pull, a solid, even, jerk... away from Magnus.

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Paladin growls and his sword is yanked from his brother’s chest, swung back to try and slice through whatever is holding him. Mercury darts forward, a too sharp smile on his face, and his tentacles wrap around the arm, the blade and Paladin’s waist, tearing the sword from his hand and flinging his uncle very hard into the wall. A chunk of bone is ripped from Paladin’s arm, the gash leaking dark-stained gold, and Magnus spits out the mouthful of dust and a glob of black, more leaking from between his teeth. He stands, legs quivering, back hunched and snarling viciously.

with-bells-upon09/28/2020 Black tendrils shoot from the shadow behind where Paladin falls, wrapping around every last bit of bone they can grab, and holding tight. Tight enough to make bone creak... even as Coryn watches Magnus, wary about whether he'll be attacked by the other as well. [3:29 PM] an icy aqua eye watches as well, silent.(edited)

JusticeMom09/28/2020 Dragon slides down the hall towards where they sense tiny angry auras flaring breathing hard as they race to make it in time

[undert33th]

I really like your Chara design can you talk about your interpretation of them?

First off tysm !!!!!!! I’m so glad u like them ;0

Second off yes of course ! Here’s a few things about them :

-they r mongolian-american

-they lived in northern Oregon/southern Washington for most of their life on the surface, both in civilization and out on the woods (I’ve always had this idea of Chara being a forager, super self sufficient, it’s one of the first things I developed abt my interpretation of them)

-lived in a group home as a child (along with that they love kids !)

-Chara has inattentive ADHD as well as bipolar disorder

-SpIn’s include: fungi, knives, sewing and geometry (which they suck at but it’s challenging and stimulating and fun work)

-they were 9 when they ‘fell’ underground and 12 when The Plan was enacted

And now for more game related stuff:

-i whole-heartedly support NarraChara

-I know everyone likes to think that Chara has a special connection with Frisk but I like to think that they could interact the same way with every fallen (that includes influencing their choices)

-going with influencing the choices of the fallen they initially did their best to cause the children to fail in hopes of saving their family after death

-they talk Like That at the end of NM to appear more intimidating (by Like That I mean like a walking dictionary)

-the no mercy route was NOT their doing (I like to think of the player as an entity, while Chara is more of just an outside force if that makes any sense? Chara can certainly control Frisk as a vessel, but only of A) frisk has given them that option, B) they’re anxious/angry/emotional enough that their power amps up and allows them to overtake frisks living soul, or C) the player is controlling Frisk through Chara) (I can post more of my ghost stuff if y'all want it just shoot me an ask) back on track for this one the no mercy route was not their doing, but they do give you, the player, not frisk, an ultimatum at the end of the no mercy route because they’re fucking pissed at you

-Goopy Chara? Cool! It’s congealed blood

-Chara only finds out that Flowey is Asriel in true lab which is why its so weird (i cannot for the life of me find the post but its super popular, probably a birdsareblooming or undertale-in-2k19 post)

Personality wise:

-theyre super skittish and jumpy. Startle at everything and wear headphones Everywhere

-theyre semi-verbal and have selective mutism (won’t speak in public at all, rarely in front of Toriel and Asgore, and frequently to Asriel and Frisk)

-with that, they’re super light on their feet and hardly make any noise when moving

-also; very quick and hard to catch

-they tend to fall apart under pressure . In a situation where something is expected of them they’ll either overwork themselves into a burnout or stop functioning all together .

-very logical and has a hard time processing strong emotions (mostly anger)

-does a lot of mimicking and can take a while to trust

-hyper empathetic 

-they can be very charming and good at manipulation; take that how you will

Extra HC’s:

-Chara knows magic! It’s not much, and it really drains them, but Asgore taught them (it’s mostly enacted through hand signs and they know healing and self defense)

-they stim a ton! Cracking their knuckles and chewing are the big ones

-Worn Dagger is a survival knife gifted by an older human brother from before falling who I’m referring to currently as Anthony . It’s got a wood and resin handle and a seven inch blade with gold embossing of flowers (specifically daisies). The sheath is hand made and embroidered by them !

-they know sign language and are constantly making new slang terms . Their signing is so modified and personalized that a lot of people have a hard time understanding what theyre saying

-arthritis in their hands and wrists from a couple injuries that never healed right and constant use of their knife only made it worse (they have these splints designed to look like gloves that hold their wrist in place)

-listen to me . Listen to me. They get their hands on Tetris and never let go . Tetris is the coolest game to them . Have y'all seen Tetris tournaments ? If not watch one they’re addictive . Chara gets in . Chara rocks it . They don’t win but they get up there . They fucking rock at Tetris guys

-also after frisk shows them minecraft they fucking lose it okay . ‘Frisk’ starts making houses or rooms fully furnished for seemingly no-one and Tori only . raises an eyebrow

-they listen to lots of rock and early 2000′s alternative/techno once they can get their hands on it. Frisk hates it so they’ll debate about it a lot

-super sensitive to smell and textures

(ps: its worth mentioning that a lot of my chara is based around myself! chara is one of my comfort characters and so a lot of them is just kinda … me, or who i wish i was on some level owo)

and might as well throw in some thoughts on canon compliant chara:

-we dont really know much about canon chara, but theyve shown to be somewhat manipulative and have a really strong case of suicidal idealization . this sort of ties into the idea of them being a martyr, the future of humans and monsters; thats like a huge fucking load for a kid to carry that i definitely feel could have some effect on mental health. like, telling a kid that they’re the future of two separate races, while theyre also learning about 1) how horrifically humans acted towards monsters and 2)  how the barrier can be broken, especially while already having a tendency towards self harmful actions (i.e: jumping off a fucking mountain), and given how presumably awfully humans treated them in comparison to all the kindness theyve been shown by monsters, I think I’d get some ideas too.

- I’ve already said that i don’t think they’re evil, and I’ll stand by that opinion until the day of my death

-that said, their plan was flawed. I mean, obvi. the things they did, such as attempt suicide on 2 occasions,  and succeed on one with the help of Asriel (as well as taking him down with them !) were wrong for quite a few reasons. I think ultimately they were blinded by the pressure placed on them, whether it was intentional or not, and not having a place to diffuse that anxiety, they sort of absorbed it and honed it into a plan to save everyone important (monsters, who showed some bare minimum decency and kindness) and kill everyone who wasn’t (that being themself.) And, once the first part of that plan succeeded, they sort of exploded; being on the surface, with humans, the people who hurt them, the people they hated, was a good enough motive to release all that built up tension .

-also, i might as well go into no mercy- I think Chara winds up with a lot of power, a lot of anxiety, and anger built up, so when every monster in the underground is killed theyre sort of gaining power bit by bit- until the end, after you kill flowey, and we get to meet them for real . I think they’re pissed off, and they try to convince you that you’re in the right, they thank you, etc; they try to appeal to the player, who throughout the run weve only seen as a mindless killing machine, in an attempt to get you to erase the world and go back on your decisions . When you don’t, they get frustrated, explode, using all the power they’ve gained through the run to erase the file themself.

I just . I dunno . i could talk about chara for hours please ask me more questions about them

[corvidprompts]

Dissociation

 Dissociation. Okya. We got this.

This one came first because I thought it would be short. Help

Disclaimer: Not a psychologist. Never had the opportunity to see one, so I’ve never been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder of any kind (though it’s extremely likely I experience it) (thanks brain)

Dissociation is what happens when the brain decides that Reality Is No Good So ????

There’s a few types of dissociation, and this article is Really Good for a science explanation. I’ve used it a few times to figure stuff out/ 

thanks brain.

This is not a post on dissociative identity disorder- it’s a lot more general. Dissociative identity disorder is a very specific mental illness that i am probably not qualified to write too much about.

For those of you who torture your characters, or have had your characters suffer traumatic events, you may want to look into dissociation. I’ve always believed that Harry Potter should/ probably does experience some kind of dissociation, for example.

THERE ARE A FEW MAIN TYPES

Dissociation is the Scientific Term for any experience involving the disconnect between the self and reality. The specific kinds of dissociation are as follows

DEPERSONALIZATION

Depersonalization is when the disconnect from self/reality occurs between person and body. It’s essentially a feeling that you may be ‘floating’ or out of your body. This also includes experiences of plain old feeling ‘wrong’, as though you’re too big or too small in your skin, or looking in the mirror and not recognizing your face.  Some good descriptions I’ve seen are ‘existing, but a little to the left’, ‘i can’t see my feet, therefore they Do Not Exist’, and ‘im staring at the back of my head’.

From an outsider perspective, I doubt much would seem very wrong as it’s easy to cover that shit up yo, though the character may interact oddly with mirrors and photos of themself

I experience depersonalization (probably) and am available for questions

DEREALIZATION

Derealization is when the disconnect happens between person/reality. This means that between the ‘person’ the ‘body’ or the ‘reality’, only one feels real at that moment in time. This means the person may feel like they are moving through jello- everything seems slow and hard to understand, noises may be Too Loud, a person may be Suddenly Aware that there has been a shift in how they are perceiving things, but will not be able to tell if they’ve exited or entered a dissociative episode. Some good descriptions I’ve seen include “i am hearing everything that is happening but i am not processing any of it’ ‘everything has become 2-d” “i have Spider Senses and the brain of jellyfish help me” and “*toothbrush noises*”

People experiencing derealization would seem ‘out of it’ or unfocused from an outsiders perspective

I experience derealization (probably) and am available for questions

DISSOCIATIVE AMNESIA

This on is So Much Fun (kill me)

Basically, there’s 2 types. There’s Dissociative Fugue and low key fuckery which i dont think has a special name.

Dissociative fugue is probably something you write a whole story centered around, not just a bullet point in a character sheet. Basically, Dissociative fugue is when the brain goes ???? forgot everything. Made some shit up. A person loses all the memories of the past life, can sometimes travel great distances, and just set up shop with a new life in a new place with new memories. This new persona can last for months until the brain reboots and loads all the ‘previous life’ memories.

Low key fuckery, on the other hand, is when your brain goes ???? in general. Experiences include ‘you havent’ finished speaking your sentence, but i’ve forgotten what it is’ ‘is this a memory of a dream?’ and the extra fun experience of ‘i’m on public transit and remember Nothing of how i got here have i missed my stop yet when did i get on’

Characters who struggle with dissociative amnesia will robably frequently repeat information, ask if they’ve already said something, miss social cues like asking how someone is (because they think they have already and dont want to ask again), forget to eat, mess up on dates, ect ect.

I, of course, experience this (probably) an am available for questions

IDENTITY CONFUSION/ ALTERATION

I was gonna write a thing about this but honestly the paragraph from the article does a gr9 job so here

Identity confusion is a sense of confusion about who a person is. An example of identity confusion is when a person sometimes feels a thrill while engaged in an activity (e.g., reckless driving, drug use) which at other times would be repugnant. Identity alteration is the sense of being markedly different from another part of oneself. This can be unnerving to clinicians. A person may shift into an alternate personality, become confused, and demand of the clinician, “Who the dickens are you, and what am I doing here?” In addition to these observable changes, the person may experience distortions in time, place, and situation. For example, in the course of an initial discovery of the experience of identity alteration, a person might incorrectly believe they were five years old, in their childhood home and not the therapist’s office, and expecting a deceased person whom they fear to appear at any moment

I don’t think I actually experience this holla

Every character is gonna have different triggers directly related to their dissociation. They’re likely going to be related to emotions and stress, such as times where your character is having emotionally vulnerable conversations, or is performing heavy emotional labour. I have two big ones. One is those ‘awareness’ exercises, like trying to regulate your breathing, and the second is things like ‘Do you ever think about the fact that your older self is watching you through memories?”

Anyway, upon writing this I’ve come to the conclusion I probably need to see a psychologist lmao

[jazzmckay]

fallout 2 liveblog, lads. got distracted with things and took awhile to finish this post up but it is finally here

this is incredibly excessively long. fo2 is like 5x the size of fo1 and i just ramble a lot more this time too

seriously i just popped the text into word out of curiosity and this is 10.5k ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- the beginning is so vastly different from fallout 1 and its great. there are a couple cinematics, including a chilling introduction to the enclave, and an introduction to the elder of your tribe, in contrast to the one with the overseer in fallout 1. super cool, feels fresh. also the upgraded game engine is def noticeable. starting in a tribal village instead of a vault is rad

- so, fallout 2 is not messing around. the TUTORIAL kicked my ass so bad i ended up restarting it lmao i was able to figure out what i was supposed to do alright but the combat was brutal until i got a technique down. also this was my favourite part:

- early fallout games, a summary:

- checking out everything in arroyo was nice. tons of little things to do and people to chat with, some of which are stated to be relatives of the chosen one which is neat. i already feel more connected to home here than i did with vault 13 in the first game, while still feeling like character creation is fully up to the player; they arent IMMEDIATE relatives, its just a “this is a family and community” feeling without forcing certain close relationships. real good. it doesnt force you to act a certain way because of relationship bonds, but it does make arroyo feel like home

- most notable things i did in arroyo: rescued a dog named smoke from some geckos. bless. the geckos kicked my ass pretty easily too, i ended up sneaking past half of them to get the job done; fought some sentient plants in the shaman’s garden. interestingly, these are similar to the plants you find in vault 22, zion, and big mt. how did big mt.s death plants get over here

- off to the first town; klamath! i helped a guy guard his brahmin. i bought everyone a round at the bar. nearly got killed by some more geckos

- also stumbled into a crashed enclave vertibird (fun fact, in fallout new vegas, one of the enclave remnants members, daisy whitman, says that the only time she ever crashed a vertibird was by klamath so we can assume this is hers), complete with some corpses. one of them had a keycard on them and i have no idea what thats about but im guessing itll be important eventually?? guarding the vertibird was a damaged robot

- between that and this quest ive got to kill some “rats of unusual size” im starting to encounter all the references fallout 2 is known for

- its time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel

- the rats ALSO kicked my ass. everything is kicking my ass. normal rats are fine because you can manipulate their action points but anything bigger than that is tough and the boss itself, was REALLY tough especially because i only had one gun and the gun only had one bullet

- so, i took a break and went back in town to pick up my first companion: sulik! he’s really awesome i love talking to him. my charisma is 7 so i think that means i can have 3 companions but theres way more than that in the game and i want to travel with all of them at least a little but i have a feeling im not going to want to ask sulik to leave hes my good pal. 

thanks, small child

- anyway sulik and i ended the rats it was good. other than this one mishap:

- got to the den which was initially pretty unsettling. in the time between fo1 and fo2, jet has been invented and most unnamed npcs in the den are addicted to it. there’s a slaver guild on one side of town. also, all the kids in the den try to pickpocket you when you pass them. atmospherically, fo2 is a lot lighter than fo1, but the subject matter is much more mature. that said, i started going around and picking up little errands i could do for people and theyre all very nice. not as scary as i thought it would be. i rescued a guy from the slavers and got a new companion: vic! when im much better equipped, i am coming back here and killing the entire slaver guild, no doubt about that, but sadly i still have barely any decent equipment for myself, let alone anything to equip my companions with

- theres a ghost hanging out in an old house and she wants her locket back. ghosts exist in fallout. cool. got the locket and she turned into bones, which i then went and buried in the town graveyard. i checked out all the other headstones and they were incredible here are some of my favourites

- a guy in the junkyard is willing to sell me a car if i bring the right parts. i can have a CAR 0: definitely dont have the parts OR the funds yet but...... im coming back for this car

- while heading for vault city, i discovered modoc, a quaint farming town going through some struggles due to a drought and a farm up north that is apparently run by ghosts and is decorated by dead bodies. wild

- lots of the quests here required some sleuthing and running all over the map talking to people but i think i got it all figured out. turns out the bodies are faked to scare people away and the ghosts are just some people living underground under the farm. i managed to resolve things peacefully and now i think modoc will be okay, yay!

- i got myself into an eating contest, also, here’s the eventful part of it. i will let anyone reading this experience what happened for themself

this reminds me of the time mass effect tells you just how many balls krogan have

- continued on to vault city and man just. a real roller coaster of an experience. at first, vault city looks like the most safe and stable settlement ive seen in fo1 or fo2. its very clean and organised, its well populated, it has good defences, has a more elaborate (reminiscent of the old world) social structure etc. a GECK was used here and id say part of this areas purpose in the game is to show you what youre actually trying to do for your village

however, vault city is full of self-righteous, bigoted, slaving assholes. “outsiders” are kept outside the bounds of the inner city until they can get a day pass and theyre searched before they can go in during the day, if they make it that far. there are slaves but the people claim its not slavery and get mad if you call it such. i hate these people. 

and they sent me off to a ghoul inhabited town because the power plant the ghouls live in is infecting their water and its pretty understood they want me to kill the ghouls and destroy the plant or whatever. no sir. 

- so yeah vault city sucks BUT I RAN INTO companion number 3: JOHN CASSIDY!!

hello soon-to-be father of one of my all time favourite fallout companions!!! welcome to the group

- headed up to the ghoul town, gecko, to see about this malfunctioning power plant. its so good and refreshing after vault city, i love this place and all the people in it so much. here comes a lot of screencaps of chats i had with some lovely ghouls.

harold again!!! and since fo1, he’s gained the famous tree, herbert, or bob or whatever. 

this ghoul, lenny, came from necropolis and also saw the vault dweller. i believe hes a potential companion but i couldnt ask him to join, either because i already have 3 or maybe my reputation in gecko isnt up yet. hes excellent though and i will come back for him when i have a convenient chance to leave a current companion somewhere safe

i love this

ghouls are so good

relatable, my dude!!! also you can play that card game with this chap. i did so and won. now i have two sets of cards. im the king of games

idk why but this is so fucking funny to me. that ghouls in general can just go on an epic power nap and be assumed dead. and that this ghoul in particular just wanders off and sleeps for ages. i got a quest to find him. he was at the den and in a coffin and one of the citizens was convincing people to pay to see a “mummy” and honestly? honestly. this is one of my favourite fallout quests across ALL games, maybe. its so funny. heres a bit of it:

you tell woody to leg it and he just thanks you and bolts. incredible

- I GOT THE CAR (feat. vic, cassidy, and sulik)

- we drove in the car down south. i’m aiming for ncr territory because a) i think thats where the main questline advances and b) im ready to see tandi again, who at this point is like 96 years old i think. super excited. however, new reno is on the way so i thought id pop in and check it out real quick, not intending to stay and do anything yet but then SOMEONE STOLE MY BRAND NEW CAR.

- getting my car back cost me almost all my money. god damn

- anyway i took off right after to the ncr and then vault 15 to move along the main story. once again, the khans are causing trouble and really the only option is killing them. i guess the khans change a lot between the early games and new vegas. certainly explains how frustratingly anti-khan the ncr is in new vegas though. in rare ncr playthroughs i get so mad about how the ncr treats a potential alliance but. man, i know the history now. getting to see where faction tension came from helps, especially since in new vegas you mostly hear about bitter springs, not all the crap that happened before that to make the tension more two sided. im still mad at the ncr and think they could stand to be more civil after what happened at bitter springs but its still interesting to know how things progressed. the khans caused trouble in the first two games but eventually chilled out and the ncr still hasnt gotten over it

the fight with the khans was VERY difficult. lots of them had automatic burst fire weapons id never even seen before this point and it took a handful of times to get it done to my satisfaction. BUT this is where i encountered my first sniper rifle, my preferred weapon in the first game, and it proved just as useful this time around

- i looked up how long i had before all the dream sequences (id only gotten the first by this point) because i was anxious about the “time limit” and it turns out i have all the time in the world to mess about so main questline went on hold. time to drive around to all the places i bypassed earlier and return to other places to finish things up. also it occurs to me that the chosen one had probably never even seen a car before leaving the village?? they just fucking buy a car and cruise the wasteland in style despite having no prior knowledge of cars. i cant believe the companions willingly get into the car with them. other than sulik who i imagine is down for whatever. i love sulik

- stopped in broken hills and hit someone with my car. remember how i literally just said that the chosen one doesnt actually know shit about cars

broken hills is great, its super mutants, ghouls, and humans all living in peace and the sheriff is marcus, who you see in jacobstown in new vegas!! you also find out marcus’ backstory a bit more. in nv he does talk about naming jacobstown after a friend but you get the longer version here, which is that jacob was actually w/ the brotherhood of steel and they were fighting each other but so evenly matched that they ended up just talking and becoming friends. everyones very nice and its a neat town. theres a scientist with a scorpion hes experimented on to make it smarter and stuff and you can test your own intelligence, agility, and perception against it. i won agility and perception but failed to beat the scorpion at chess rip. the main quest here requires getting something from new reno though so i moved on. ill get back to it on the way back south

- dealt with some raiders i wasnt properly equipped for earlier (the first time i checked them out i barely made it past the many many traps and the scorpion den). went back to vault city to let them know the raiders were dealt with. they made me a citizen after i fixed the power plant in gecko and tbh i hate that the npcs here call me citizen now i hate this place lmao that said, i left vic here, in his daughters shop. as far as i know, companions will just wait exactly where you leave them even if you never come back, they dont actually return to any kind of daily routine but in a roleplaying sense i like the idea that ive parted ways with vic here so he can try to work on his relationship with his daughter. after that, i went and got lenny, the ghoul from gecko whod been in necropolis when the vault dweller blew through. cassidy keeps says he smells. shut the fuck up, cassidy. also vic used to complain about sulik and that is why hes the first to get cut from the crew, js. 

- finished up a couple things in gecko and modoc then headed for the den. got a monty python reference special encounter

i got too caught up in it and forgot to screencap the last question oops. but they asked for the prerequisites for a specific perk, and the potential answers were various levels or agility points. i think i guessed agility 6 but i was wrong and i died lmao

- got back to the den and killed all the slavers finally. feels good man. the citizens seemed pleased. one of the bar owners even paid me for it

- suddenly started getting this mysterious message even though i was standing in the middle of the street and my cursor wasnt even on “tell me about things im pointing at” mode. i have no idea what this means

- went down to redding. the first thing i see is this kid

- as if that werent enough, a bartender and a shopkeep both refused to properly speak to me and kicked me out of their places just for having a ghoul in my party. redding is on my shit list

- its a mine town and i was asked to help get one part of the mine up and running again. theres a chip missing and also the mines are full of “critters”. it turns out redding is kind of the place where the politics between multiple factions starts to become more noticeable. there were hints of it between vault city and ncr, but redding is a small town with literal gold mines underneath it, and the chosen one gets to decide who to put in charge of the mine once they get it back in working order: the crew that wants redding to join the ncr, a faction thats aiming for expansion and prosperity and ruling out as much criminal behaviour as they can, or new reno, a vice city ruled by a bunch of competing families living in casinos and bars. considering the one time i went to new reno my car was immediately stolen i think id be in favour of the ncr side even if it were the ncr as they become in new vegas. there has been an undertone of “the ncr wants to bring as many towns into the fold as possible and enforce their laws across all of the state” in other places, but you get more of an active say in it, here. a precursor to the major mojave changing choices you get to make in new vegas

- i got a bit ahead of myself there with the politics and rpg game design talk. i didnt even mention yet that the critters in the mines were aliens

yeah. THOSE aliens. at first i thought it would be just a little easter egg and the rest of the critters would be a mix of rat variants or maybe id finally see some deathclaws but nope its all aliens

they were kind of reminiscent of deathclaws though. they were certainly on the perceptive side and while they didnt hit as hard as a deathclaw, it was easy to get swarmed by a lot of them and still take lots of damage fast. for the first time while playing the classic games i had to pull a stealth move. i do it occasionally in new vegas but kind of felt like in these old games going in alone was a quick way to die. but it worked wonderfully. i left my companions on one level of the mine and then me, my sniper rifle, and my mediocre but decent enough sneak skill went and cleared out the rest with no trouble at all. aim for the eyes and all that. im not sure how sneak criticals work in these games but theyre effective

also i inspected one of the corpses just in case there would be more flavour text and just

fair enough.

- once i finished up small quests in redding, i continued to new reno. i kind of still didnt want to do anything there tbh it all kind of seems like Bad Karma stuff going on here. but i needed that one part in order to help out broken hills. pretty much got the thing and left again, just like last time.

- finally got a deathclaw! in was in the mine where i fixed the broken hills air purifier and it was called “lesser deathclaw” which makes sense because i killed it in one shot. a very easy first deathclaw encounter

- after finishing up most of the broken hills stuff i went back to the ncr because id literally only done the main quest and then taken off again. except everyones like “well we have this problem but dont ask me about it youll need to talk to this specific dude” and I Cannot Figure Out How To Get To Him

- so instead i drove west until i hit san francisco just for the hell of it. i just wanted to know where it was. and also i want to get into the brotherhood asap for power armour and special stat implants tbh but the brotherhood dude asked me to fucking infiltrate navarro alone and im not super prepared for that, first of all, and second of all i really feel like anything to do with the brotherhood and enclave is solidly “act 2″ stuff and this is fallout so you can do whatever you want but for the sake of a good First Time Playing story progression it makes sense to finish the whole vault 13 geck thing first u kno

- but those ncr quests were bothering me and so i went back and continued trying to figure out what i was missing, which ended up being that im just. allowed to ask the guard to be let in. i could have sworn the previous time i tried to interact with someone on the other side of a force field i got the “you cannot get there” message so i just ASSUMED... BUT. not in this case, it seems. before i even got to that though i did the caravan run for him thats available through a merchant in town and thought that would be fine and easy and might make working for the dude easier. in the first game, i escorted a caravan once and we just had to kill one pack of raiders and that was it. nothing to worry about. [freeze frame] little did i know this would be the worse mistake i ever made

- first of all i got the second dream sequence just as we left ncr. pretty sure im still several months away from the last of them but it did remind me that Time Is Advancing, SECONDLY there were like 6 encounters along the way and two of them had super mutants & abominations, one of them had multiple deathclaws (tough ones this time), and the others were raiders and such. it was all i could do to keep myself and my companions alive, especially against the super mutants holy fuck. after a truly harrowing journey, we made it to the caravan destination, redding, and we were without the car. i never thought i would miss the car so, so much. walking from redding back down to ncr took FOREVER and the encounters were near constant. once again, keeping everyone alive was not easy. cassidy especially was having a lot of trouble; one of the encounters included him getting absolutely swarmed by centaurs and having to run out of combat while saying things like “my heart is giving out!”. HARROWING. eventually we made it to new reno, which is about half way between redding and ncr to do some trading and take a damn breather, but we still had just as far to go and time was ticking faster than it had since we first got the car. everything happens so much. i think overall, this took like 2 months. before the brahmin run i was like “i have SO MUCH time” but after the brahmin run i was like “okaaaay time to get back to the main quest then i guess”. not to mention that i felt like doing something Different after that, so in the end i never even went to talk to that one dude

- so!!! vault 13. the vault has new inhabitants and i love them

hell yeah!!!! they were all so nice and cute. i was even allowed to go into the deathclaw mother’s cave and talk to her, though my companions had to stay outside. there were some humans living here, including a mother and daughter who’d found safety with the deathclaws, a person who’d been at vault 15 before and i had a pleasant talk with, and a terribly depressed man whom the deathclaws were trying to help, even by way of medication. these deathclaws are so good they are So Good. 

- and here we have...... a new companion!!! hello there pal

i had to leave lenny behind in order to recruit goris, but how am i to resist a deathclaw friend? i figured vault 13 with all these lovely deathclaws would be a perfectly safe spot to leave him for the time being [cue dramatic irony if anyone reading this has played the game themself]

- i offered to help the deathclaws fix their computer, because the voice recognition was broken. popped over to new reno, got the thing, went back, the deathclaws love me

- i went right to arroyo with the GECK and discovered that my entire village was killed or taken by the enclave! ay! i already kind of knew this is what happens no matter how long you take getting back with the GECK (ive read that even if you speed run to vault 13, you still always get the last dream sequence after that says everyones dying and even so it wouldnt really matter because the enclave ends up being the problem, not the lack of water and food rip). in retrospect, i guess this means theres no point in rushing and its beneficial to stick around in places and gain as much xp as you can to level up. i suppose if you dont get the car as soon as possible youd run out of time a lot faster. but even if the outcome is the same i still Feel Bad for not going faster in a roleplay sense, you know so its fine im glad i continued as soon as i felt prepared and equipped to do so. in these classic fallout games i certainly felt more compelled to advance the main questline for the sake of the people waiting for me waaay more than, say, the main questline in a game like skyrim. dragons are rising all over the place and killing tons of people and the fate of the realm rests on the dragonborns shoulders? yeah ill be there in a year leave me alone. i like that the urgency in fo1 and fo2 is felt honestly even if you have a lot of time left or the enclave will show up and ruin everything no matter how long you take

- since i was already so far north, i came back south by way of another round trip through the towns with decent merchants to unload some more inventory because im constantly overloaded, cassidy is constantly overloaded, the car trunk has no space, i need to Stop Hoarding. at vault city, goris told me he sensed his pack was in trouble and said he needed to leave. i didnt really think that much of this, just thought it might be a minor thing. it was not a minor thing. 

- since goris left and lenny was also back at vault 13, i stopped in broken hills to recruit marcus. we went back to san fransisco, i left all my companions with the brotherhood guy who wanted me to solo infiltrate navarro and took off on my own

- cue me making the following hard save:

- as expected, the road to navarro alone was not easy. the first time i did it, i encountered centaurs that heavily irradiated me before i was able to kill them all on my own, and then an enclave patrol that just obliterated me. the second time i did it, i encountered the cafe of broken dreams special encounter!! which means i could get dogmeat from the first game :D unfortunately i couldnt keep him. the whole point of this trip is to be without companions, after all, but the cafe stayed on my map so i can go back for him if i want to

- finally got to navarro and was able to convince a guy at a gas station that i was a recruit. he gave me a password, but then when i tried to go inside, he got all “this is private property, leave”. idk what i did wrong but whatever i killed him. it didnt turn anyone hostile because they werent close enough to see or hear it. i think maybe the greeter was directing me elsewhere and i just missed it? it was nighttime, so its possible the darkness made me not see it properly. to reference the enclave remnants quest in new vegas again, one of them (i think its cannibal johnson) mentions the sergeant finding a recuit out of uniform and im assuming thats implied to be the chosen one. i figure there was a way for me to get in on the ground level where that incident would have happened, but instead i went down into the basement and geared up there instead

- infiltrating navarro ended up being on par with exploring the glow. theyre both atmospheric and scary as hell, just in different ways. the glow is more environmental, more “if my rad-x wears off ill probably die of radiation poisoning within a minute”, and navarro is more about being undercover, more “if i say the wrong thing to the wrong person i might reveal myself and be alone against an entire base of enclave soldiers”

- but i pulled it off okay. the first person i encountered was suspicious because i wasnt in armour but when i said i was new they told me to go gear up in the armoury, like i mentioned, which gave me my first suit of power armour and also a bunch of other goodies. i released a trapped intelligent deathclaw, got put on guard duty by the sergeant (who patrols around and will force you back into place if he sees you somewhere else. it was very scary), aaaaand.........

dog dog dog dog!! his previous owner was super shitty and had a soundproof lab because he ran gross experiments. he disabled the robodog for biting him and you can find a part to fix him and also kill the scientist (thanks to the soundproof room no one else is hostile) and take k-9 with you instead :D my dog now, asshole

- here are the overly cautious save files i made while navigating navarro and feeling like things would go bad any second

- got back to san fran, gained access to the brotherhood bunker which is super small, just an outpost really, but it had brotherhood power armour which i immediately passed on to sulik because i desperately want him to make it out of this game alive. and it also had the special stat implant computer and i was able to take charisma right away. i think i must have picked the module up in navarro? i didnt know what it was when i grabbed it so i didnt take much note of it. i didnt even know that in this game you need the modules in order to get the stat upgrades. but boosting my charisma by one did indeed allow me another companion, so i was able to bring everyone with me even though i also had k-9. also the computer had a kind of ai named “ace” and told me they were lonely. god damnit :( ill come visit u as much as i can, ace. they said some really sad stuff about artificial intelligence developing mental disorders god i didnt ask for these feelings

- then the enclave showed up and killed my new brotherhood friend while i was out shopping. enclave can you fucking stop

- decided to go back to vault 13 bc i wanted goris back but the old military base the vault dweller blew up was on the way, so stopped there first

- there were a ton of wolves around and at first they didnt mind me passing through so i got right up on the door and all the rubble from the explosion and then suddenly the wolves all swarmed together and attacked us. wolves nooo

- marcus threw a flare at the wolves. my throwing skill across both games has been very bad and also im stubborn and cant be bothered to equip flares so this was literally the first time id ever seen a flare in use. incredible. thanks marcus for showing me this mechanic i refuse to use myself

- the military base was full of rats, super mutants, and some dead enclave soldiers. we fought through the first two levels but left the third alone because my companions had been taking some heavy hits and were kinda soaking up my stimpacks. didn’t really matter, i got another set of power armour and another stat implant module so i feel like i got the best the military base had to offer for the time being. i can go back later if i really want to. gave the power armor to cassidy. marcus cant wear armor, being a super mutant, and ofc k-9 cant either so i officially had enough power armour for every member of the party who could actually equip it

- made it back to vault 13 to discover that the enclave came by and slaughtered all the deathclaws. ENCLAVE. STOP. all thats left are blood stains on the floors. im so sad. goris was still alive, though, and luckily so was lenny. i was worried for a second that the map would be effectively reset somehow and hed be gone but he was still there. i left marcus with him so they can pal it up in a nice vault that is. now. all theirs. :( and took goris back with me instead. 

- travelled back to san fransisco. i still hadn’t done much in either san fran or new reno. i know i missed a companion in new reno but from what ive heard i wont like him nearly as much as the crew i have now. if i could take another on, id would be marcus or lenny still, so. also i think you can get a robobrain as a companion from a location you only get through a quest but im not sure?? what that is. its fine. again, i really like the crew i have. 

- the captain of the ship that will take the chosen one to the enclave wont chat unless you get some reputation, so i talked to a fella who gambled away his spleen while drunk. yep. another amazing quest, honestly.

not quite on par with the ghoul mummy quest, but its up there man. its up there.

- NOW the captain is willing to chat and tell me what to do to get this ship going. it requires a couple things from navarro and vault 13, and fuel. luckily some of that was already done. unluckily, simply getting fuel proved to be on the complicated side. the main faction of san fran has all the oil and obviously they wont just hand it over, i had to do some stuff for them. they wanted the same item the brotherhood dude wanted and since brotherhood dude just made a copy, i still had the original and could immediately pass it over. cool. the second thing they wanted was for me to kill the leader of the enemy faction. im not normally the type to go in guns blazing without seeing if theres something i can do for the other side and maybe resolve things peacefully, but the hubologists are. unsettling. and remind me of the children of the cathedral from the first game. i did try talking to the leader first and his only offer was to get me to kill the shi leader instead and i wasnt about that so. had some fun shooting my way out of there

- the shi allowed me to have the fuel and now all the citizens in the streets have much nicer floating dialogue. before it was stuff like “are you a spy?” and “leave us alone” but after taking out the hubologists its stuff like “guess youre alright after all” and “you did a good thing for us” so i guess..... thats good. still not sure if there was a peaceful way of handling things or if it really was simply “pick a side” but from the reaction, i think i made an okay decision

- to install the parts on the ship i had to go below deck and found a shit ton of aliens, centaurs, and floaters. it was a real pain in the ass tbh, these enemies are only hand to hand combat so they swarm you and you cant MOVE and its so hard to see whats going on bc the outlines all overlap. they suck. there was a lost person down here as well that i could help back up to the deck

- and with that all squared away, off to the enclave oil rig!

you got it, cassidy. there’s my endgame crew: sulik, cassidy, goris, and k-9. mightve been a good idea to bring marcus instead of k-9 but. dog. his damage output isnt the greatest but sometimes he knocks people over which can be helpful.

- there was a terminal right inside that i could use to disable some defence systems but anything more than that was above my skill level, it seems, and i got locked out. i took a staircase down to the next level and found my tribe as well as the inhabitants of vault 13 whod been there before the deathclaws took residence. we shot our way through a ton of enclave soldiers and scientists but luckily it seems that defence disabling i did meant some robots on this floor never attacked

- that said, i still lost goris almost immediately on this level. while most of the robots had been disabled, the turrets were not and they sure can do some mean damage. one of them took goris out in one hit. rip deathclaw friend

- i couldnt free everyone right away, the leader of the vault 13 folk told me the best bet would be to disable the power generator 3 floors below.

- the next floor down included a maze with electric floors. it was. troublesome. after a couple attempts i ended up leaving my companions outside the maze and working through it myself until i was able to get rid of the electric floors, at least, so we werent all constantly taking damage while i figured this crap out. there were two supply rooms on either side of the maze as well so i got some more useful items AND another geck. ive got two now, incredible. for some reason the guards in both siderooms werent armed at all??? i pretty much stood in the doorway which allowed only 2 of them to get close enough to attack and even then they were punching and kicking which isnt very effective when your opponent is in advanced power armour so. that fight was more time consuming than stressful or anything

- after that is a floor with very powerful enclave soldiers protecting the president. in contrast to the unarmed losers on the previous floor, these guys had energy weapons and miniguns and shit. did not go well the first couple times. i ended up doing kind of a cheese thing which was going down alone, getting a sneak critical on one guard, and then sneaking back up the staircase, ending combat. eventually enough guards were coming over to investigate that sneaking was no longer possible so that method only worked a couple times but after that i brought my companions down with me and we worked our way through everyone whod been alerted. 

- then i stopped to do some healing maintenance before figuring out the best and safest route to the president and............. the game crashed. this was the first time either classic game crashed on me. i dont think it liked me spamming “heal yourself” dialogue with cassidy or something. or maybe its completely unrelated. i HAD been bouncing up and down staircases a lot so maybe the frequent loading was unappreciated

- so we had to redo some of the fight but luckily id been saving a lot bc i wasnt sure if my weird tactics were gonna get me in a rough spot haha

- met the president. killed the president. killed the presidents vp and secretary. fun times. its at this point that you get the most clear idea of what the enclave wants to do: kill every mutant, but not just full mutants but anyone who has been exposed enough to the outside world with all its leftover radiation that theyre “less than human” so basically they want to kill the entire world except themselves and the people who were still in vault 13. it seems to me at this point, most vaults have either opened naturally, been forcibly opened, or have metaphorially or literally self-destructed so yeah good plan, enclave. there is no one left by your shitty standards and also get over yourselves, mutants are the Best. have you seen lenny and marcus? have you?

- when dealing with the pres i tried out a new gun i got off an enclave guard and holy shit

im not as accurate with it as i am with the gauss rifle but damn

- you can convince a scientist in this area that what theyre doing is bullshit and to give you the fev cure and also cure your village/the vault 13 inhabitants before flooding the oil rig with fev to kill everyone else. this seems like its a really handy and useful thing to do but on this particular run, both cassidy and i died and when i went through the next time, this scientist joined in the fighting and i wasnt able to talk to him again. oh well

- the next floor had the power generator. i put an explosive near it and took off. the path back up to the top floor drops you in an area i never bothered to clear on the way in and we were Obliterated. i tried a few times but seriously this floor was tough as hell. i started doing the stealth thing alone again and that is when i discovered that if you dont have your companions with you, you can just walk through most areas because youre in enclave power armour. i am a Fool. everything could have been so easy!!! i could have left everyone chilling on the top floor, gone off to take care of stuff in simple style, and waltzed back out to the boss fight. but it was too late. i had to reload pre-destroying the generator anyway so this time i did indeed leave my companions in peace while i took care of it and it was so much easier. god. goris could have survived this easily if id done this in the first place. oh well, next time ill know exactly what im doing i guess. 

- so with the countdown going and only the frank horrigan fight left, i talked my way into getting an enclave group to join my side. youre supposed to be able to access the terminal here to get his own turrets to turn on him as well which presumably makes for an easy fight but OF COURSE this is the computer i fucked with when i first arrived and got locked out of. i had the enclave group support but let me tell you. they were not the most effective. they were a distraction at first, but i still only made it out of this fight with almost no stimpacks and one less companion. cassidy died here, unfortunately. in the middle of the fight i had to loot his corpse for all the stimpacks id given him because i needed them for myself, it turns out. it really was tough, and i also ended up using chems for the first time. i dont like using chems in fallout, generally, but i was willing to take whatever edge i could to actually finish the game

- a couple of the enclave people on my side survived, and sulik and k-9 were ok as well. we headed for the exit with about 5 minutes left on the countdown to destruction. classic fallout protags really have a habit of blowing shit up

rest in pieces!!!!!

- cue ending slideshow. to summarise: the arroyo villagers and the remains of vault 13 used the geck to settle a new community together, the den, modoc, and san fransisco simply prospered well, gecko was taken over by vault city because i optimised the power plant and i suppose that caught vc’s interest but vc ended up withering away themselves and were taken over by the ncr so i hope that means my ghoul friends were eventually free again, redding joined the ncr as well, broken hills dispersed peacefully (and we know from nv the super mutants from there settled happily in the mojave), ncr and vault 15 did well and expanded, the vault 13 deathclaws were unfortunately killed by the enclave and the end card kinda blamed me for it :(, new reno stayed exactly the same because i never bothered to do much there oops, and while there were no ending cards for it, we know from nv that the ncr took over navarro pretty shortly after the enclave oil rig fell. 

- and there you have it! sulik, k-9 and i were deposited back on the docks of san fransisco and i now have the option of finishing things i didnt do before (like new reno) and/or exploring around gaining levels until i either reach 99 or im bored. i will check out new reno and prob go chat up some of the major characters who may have new things to say now that the enclave is gone and TOTALLY NOT get distracted for ages by fallout week and replaying the entirety of fallout new vegas which was really great now that ive played both classic games. oops- anyway, picked up lenny and marcus from vault 13 since sadly, my party was halved by the oil rig adventure. in future playthroughs i think it would be kinda cool to assemble all the companions and leave them hanging out in vault 13 when theyre not with me like how you can send everyone to the lucky 38 in nv

- started driving around to places with good merchants again because as always i am overencumbered. i lost some good shit on the oil rig when cassidy died because sulik and i could not carry it :( first stop was ncr for selling shit and checking in with tandi. she wouldnt speak to me and her bodyguard/secretary dude also told me to fuck off. kind of thought they would be willing to comment on the enclave deal but i guess not, fine.

- then back to vault city, where i DID get new dialogue about how awesome i am and was also instructed to go log my exploits in the vault 8 terminals. i put my pip boy in the terminal and got some behind the scenes info as well as a cheeky hint to go look at a certain other terminal which, when interacted with, gave me so much xp i instantly levelled up. i did it twice more and levelled up even more. what the heck. incredible. all this levelling up would have been even better if id had marcus and lenny with me because especially marcus has not travelled long enough with me to completely level up BUT EARLIER ID TRIED TO BARTER and the people CALLED FOR THE GUARDS and everyone WENT HOSTILE because i had a super mutant and a ghoul in my party HEY VAULT CITY JUST A REMINDER I HATE YOU

- whatever. i decided to drive around unlocking the rest of the map even though im pretty sure there are no new locations, it just looks nice to have it all coloured in properly. got some combat encounters on the way and prior to dealing with the enclave i tended to skip ones that seemed too dangerous but now im like COME AT ME this party is 3 ppl in power armour, a cyber dog, and a super mutant, with guns that will disintegrate you. TRY IT

- one of the encounters i got was this fucking incredible thing:

this person just kept saying “oil can” over and over so i grabbed the can off the ground, used it on them, and then they opened up dialogue to thank me, saying theyd been stuck there for ages, and then walked off. lmao what a wild encounter. curious that theyre in enclave armour. did they find the armour and not have training in proper use and management? is this a former enclave employee that just fucked up? who knows

- speaking of former enclave i totally forgot that when i went back to ncr i talked to a doctor there and got new dialogue to ask if he knew about the enclave and it turned out to be dr henry, one of the remnants and eventual residents of jacobstown o: i DID notice they had the same name but i assumed henry would have been at navarro like the rest of them. turns out he had a falling out with the enclave before everything went down and the remnants left to the mojave together

- based on the end clip, i wasnt sure if id find my village in arroyo or not. the voiceover described the new settlement as “miles away from their old home” or whatever but that might have been about the vault 13 ppl specifically, which arroyo IS far away from. also its not like the settlements that disbanded or anything in the slideshow already look like that post-storyline so really i did not know what to expect or if i could actually access my people again. unfortunately, the bridge to arroyo was still destroyed and everything still looked pretty bad up there. so i guess we do not get to know where everyone eventually went

- i still had an outstanding quest in broken hills as well. first of all, a sentient plant wanted to be moved to a different garden which was a simple thing but required a shovel that i didnt have at the time. it was p funny, i went up and immediately used the shovel and the plant was like “dude dont just start digging me up give me some warning first” IM SORRY. but yes i talked to the plant and then moved him and then he gave me a hint on how to defeat that scorpion at chess that i was playing against ages ago. also, one of the ghouls in broken hills is the son of set, the ghoul leader of necropolis from the first game. if you get him a bunch of stuff he’ll eventually tell you the location of some “treasure” that ends up being bottle caps, the currency of the first game. kind of weird that they went back on the bottle caps as currency thing in fo2? i wonder why. glad the new games have caps again. but anyway the chosen one was not amused by getting caps instead of money lmao the caps were in a well so you have to enlist some help and then you get so riled up about it being caps instead of money you forget to help the guy back up

- OKAY. NEW RENO.

- i went to talk to this myron bloke ive heard so much about since i know hes a possible companion and god he annoyed me so fast

- this is the first time ive ever pissed off a talking head enough for the animation to change to their “angry” face i think. i once pissed off killian darkwater in the first game but i have no idea what id done to cause it since it was after id already worked with him and it wasnt nighttime or anything i think it was a bug idk but with myron i was intentionally smartassy with him bc he was just SO ANNOYING and also hes the creator of a drug that has fucked up a lot of people and he doesnt seem to even understand what hes doing?? or care??? not to mention hes got slave labour. when i saw that going in i was kinda feeling like id be more likely to kill him than ask him to join my party (which was already full anyway, i really had no intention of bringing him along) but huffs i dont think theres a quest attached to that kind of thing so it would probably just be considered assault/murder and maybe get more people hostile than im willing to deal with. so. i just left

- so that aspect of new reno sucked as expected but then!!! THEN!!! i became a BOXER! i convinced a guy named stuart little to hire me as the lone woman boxer, he gave me a list of nicknames to choose and i decided on “hurricane” and then i beat the hell out of a guy

this is the second guy i fought, after id gained some popularity and i fucking killed the dude. i killed him. i was really scared for a second that id have to fight the entire room but they didnt even care, accidental death is just something that happens in this line of work sometimes i guESS?? okie doke. but after literally murdering a man in the ring i decided to take a break from boxing

- theres a dude in new reno that i spoke to once ages ago and im not actually sure what his deal is but i talked to him again since last time he passed out and it looked like hed finally got back up. he had new post-game fourth wall breaking dialogue and he gave me a book that acted a lot like the terminal in vault city, it gave me a shitton of xp AND levelled all my skills to 300%, which is the highest they can go. holy shit?? im just. as op as possible now. nothing can stop me.

- so with my newfound opness i decided to start working for whichever of the new reno families seemed the least shitty. the wrights are by far the easiest to talk to; the bishops are practically impossible to communicate with in any meaningful way, the salvatores arent bad but sure do have twitchy trigger fingers, and the mordinos seem sketchy as hell in general and are the ones already mostly in charge. the wrights wanted me to investigate the murder of one of the familys sons and it turns out one of the other families poisoned him. then they sent me to the sierra army depot to look for weapons, presuming there might be a fight with the other families. the wrights seem nice enough, all they really want to do is protect their family, not necessarily fuck everyone else over so. alright. and i really wanted to get to the sierra army depot one way or the other

- it ended up being even cooler than i expected. its surrounded by turrets which didnt stand a chance now that im op as hell, and the doors are super sealed shut so i got to fire a massive howitzer gun at it to blast them open. i felt really cool

- inside are lots of robots but again, 300% science skills means hacking everything without problem. this place has a LOT of amazing loot. most of it is useless to me now but i did pick up a lot of stimpacks and other drugs that are valuable and weightless so why not. i also found a cookie. doesnt seem to have use but hey, i have a cookie now.

- turns out an ai here wants to get out and see the world, and tasked me with making a robobrain body for it. this involved finding biogel and looting other robobrain corpses and such for parts. also there are terminals where you can literally harvest a variety of brains and other organs. i know robobrains and other splicing was being done at big mt. but it looks like a lot of that stuff was happening here, too. ive got a human brain in my inventory now, as well as an eyeball that i can use to give me retinal scan access. im not sure why the eye is just. there. actually. ALSO there are holodisks you can pop into your pip boy to learn about some old world shit and it was actually fascinating. it was all great but as a canadian and a lore gremlin, this was my fav part

there is SO MUCH going on here. so much. god. all the info in these disks was incredible. the entire location was really fucking interesting and i loved searching and reading everything. i saw something about like. viruses/plagues and stuff on one of the terminals but i couldnt see everything before it shut down, im gonna have to reload a save or just. keep it in mind for future playthroughs i guess. amazing

- but back to the ai thing. i assembled “skynet” a robobrain body and was able to recruit them. unfortunately i already had a full party, so theyre still chilling there. eventually ill need to drop off a couple companions at vault 13 or something and grab not only skynet but dogmeat, who is still at the cafe of broken dreams on my map, just waiting for me to return.

- so when i went back to the wrights, they said i was now part of the family and i got to take a name with them just like i did when i became a boxer. there were a lot of really good and funny names available, but since i tend to prefer long range weapons and stealthy combat, heres what i went with

- id had a quest for the salvatores but didnt finish it before becoming part of the wright family and now when i go back to them, theyre pissed and attack me haha WELL ALRIGHT i guess that makes sense but i think that also means im pretty much done with new reno already. i suppose if youre methodical about it, you could work for all the families until the end of each branch, like you can do with the factions of new vegas until you piss them off too much by working with others etc but i did not plan anything going in. its cool though, i like the wights well enough. theyre the only family that didnt outright threaten me or something so its all good. too bad i dont get to see how this would change the slideshow card for new reno in this playthrough. next time, though

- and thats it for real now!! as far as i can tell, ive done everything still available to me unless its something bad karmaish that im not interested in doing in this particular playthrough

- another random thing: since i did a lot of driving around the map just because, a fair bit of time has passed in-game and my age went up. the game actually kept track of how much time has passed and acknowledged my birthday. thats actually SO GREAT

if you read all of this, thats p incredible. this is long as hell. thx ily

that was really a wild ride and i loved it. its so much bigger than fo1, such an enormous expansion, both in gameplay and in lore. the world really does develop massively between both games, and i found the tone shift to be very interesting. the first game, in my opinion, is definitely post-apocalyptic, as the name calls it, and even dystopian. its very dark and creepy feeling, and the music really backs that up. some of the music tracks are creepy as HELL (”the vault of the future” always creeps me out, especially when it plays in vault 22 in nv god and “city of the dead” really does make you feel the way the title suggests). the first game nails a desolate wasteland atmosphere incredibly well. 

the second game, though, is what id call post-post-apocalyptic. there are a lot more proper settlements with a lot more people to talk to and do quests for. in the first game, shady sands is smaller than modoc, the tiny farming village. in fo2, ncr territory is massive and incredibly well off, with vegetation and force fields as security and shit. people are making it work, in fo2. but the further we get from the old world, the more things change, too. tribal culture is a thing. many mutants of the wasteland have settled down well, now that theyre away from the influence of the master. post-war chems have been invented. slavery is a new problem. people have been able to survive well enough that theyve gone back to age old ways of being shit to each other. people do things not to survive but for profit or fame or just because they want to. you, the player, can have sex on multiple occasions in multiple ways for multiple reasons. the world is full of so much again! the first game is about survival and power struggles and adapting to a new status quo. the second game is about living, and about people. theyre both remarkable in their own ways and do such a good job setting a tone both times. honestly, i dont think i can say, at this point, which i liked better because they were both the best at being what they are. maybe after time and more playthroughs ill settle into a favourite but for now all i can say is both of them were so solid in unique ways.

gameplay-wise i definitely found fo2 more challenging, though once i upgraded to advanced power armour and a gauss rifle it felt like i was at the top of the food chain. something i love about fallout games is you usually start out so squishy and end up godlike, which makes you feel like you progressed as a character while progressing through the story and get to constantly do more and more awesome, badass shit. they also improved some mechanics with the companions that made life a lot easier which was great. my only complaint is that there isnt a single female companion. at best you can argue that certain characters dont have a gender (k-9, skynet, technically marcus as a super mutant but really all the mutants get gender coded anyway, i dont recall there being a mutant who wasnt blatantly male or female aligned, so,,) but pretty much katja is the only female companion across both games. but i suppose ill let it slide bc in new vegas they give us an incredibly diverse selection including both a gay man and a lesbian so alright alright. they improved majorly.

anyway. i already want to replay both games lmao. since i did character creation mostly based on what would make life easy and a more blank slate in terms of personality since i like to go into first playthroughs just doing whatever i feel like at any given time, i might like to actually craft a specific kind of character and do some more serious roleplaying. nice

thanks for reading.... again... since i failed to stop talking after the first time i said it. [finger guns]