#this is more of a ramble than a cohesive thought

[thedoodlebuggo]

john doe design progression throughout the season! design choice explanations/rambling below the cut

okok so. it was time for a redesign because after S5 i just couldn't really see the big hat working, not after his projection scene with the witch. it just wouldnt have the same effect if he looked like this jhsagdf

so! a redesign was in order, and i wanted it to change with his character so. here it is. woo!

SEASON ONE -i love the broken mask thing a lot of people use in their designs, and i wanted to use it for season one to play into the "unknown" elements of john's character

-that's also what the more smokey elements play into as well. his form isn't wholly defined, like his character--especially in season one.

-HIS CLOAK! a little worse for wear and covered in ash, courtesy of his time in the dark world. i also wanted it to be darkened and messed up because i didnt want it to be immediately obvious that the original fabric was yellow. one, cause the dark world erased his memories and identity, and two! because i didnt want him to be able to look down and see yellow fabric, what with his not knowing around all the references to KIY in season one. like this

SEASON TWO

-new cloak! after discovering who he is and his brief reunion with KIY, he gets a new cloak. but he's changed now, so--patches! i wanted it to feel handmade sorta because these changes, he worked for himself. he had help and influence, of course, but the humanity he's slowly gaining is his.

-also the mask is gone! we know what he is now

-he's also got some definition now, some lines in the face. os now he's loooking a little more humanoid, but still has a ways to go

SEASON THREE

-mostly the same as S2, but the colors have shifted more to gold than yellow. he's off; he won't fit back with the king. he's changed! woo!

-a bit of damage from the dark world, but nothing too crazy

-getting some more definition too! he's learning a bit more about who he is and who he wants to be through the choices he makes.

SEASON FOUR

-he's got a nose!! and his claws are shorter! woah! just more human development

-also getting some more patches. covering up fixing some of the damage from the S3 DW trip

SEASON FIVE

-claws are gone and he's got developed human features! wahoo

-more structural design change in the cloak. its kinda hard to see here so. better image for reference

-it's also almost entirely patchwork now. he's built his identity brick by brick and his cloak is meant to reflect that.

-still smokey because he's still got room to grow and also i thought changing it to hair would be too sudden of a change but i dont want him to be bald either so

-also smoke is just cool

-lily patch! i feel like this one is kinda self explanatory. i wanted to move the placement so i could put a patch representative of arthur in its place, but i couldnt think of anything that would look cohesive w the rest of it so. keeping the lily where it is! over his heart. :]

-also in his S5 design i think he wouldn't wear his hood up as much cause. well he knows who he is now, he isn't going to hide that. and there's not really much unknown left about him anymore, so

[necrotic-nephilim]

I think what I love the most about Reverse Robin AU TimJay is the absolute potential for hero worship with Jason toward Tim. In canon we often forget that Tim didn't really care for Jason as Robin, meanwhile as I never shut up about, Jason has been weirdly respecting and obsessed with Tim since finding out about Tim's existence. So if you flip their order, make Tim Red Hood and make Jason Red Robin, there's so much room for hero worship from Jason.

As Robin, Jason has always teetered that edge of being pro-murder or not. Whether you believe he killed Felipe or not, even in his Post-Crisis introduction as Robin, he almost kills Two Face. Those concepts of lethal justice have always been brewing inside him, just reigned in by Bruce. So if you have Robin!Jason witnessing Red Hood!Tim start killing people and quickly making noticeable change in the landscape of gangs in Gotham, Jason would take quick notice. I think Tim as Red Hood would still be lethal, but there'd be a different application than Jason's Red Hood. Heads in duffle bags isn't Tim's style, even if he kills. I think you'd see something much more akin to that time Tim almost killed Boomerang, where it's such an elaborately thought out set up, it realistically doesn't even look like Tim killed anyone. It'd take months for Bruce to connect this string of deaths as anything other than coincidental, let alone link them to Red Hood. And Jason is wickedly smart, even as Robin. Jason, putting those pieces together before Bruce does and witnessing the undeniable positive change for Gotham it's enacting? Robin!Jason would be incredibly drawn in by that, and then even more-so, a Red Robin!Jason who has to grapple with being replaced to make room for the next Robin would I think, in anger, turn to Red Hood. And Tim would push him away at first, his plans don't have room for a scorned teenager who's trying to get back at Bruce and Nightwing!Damian like this- but I think Jason would wear him down. Prove to Tim that Jason can think on his wavelength.

Slightly related, what interests me about Red Hood!Tim is how it'd implicate his closeness to Ra's. Jason is taken into the League by Talia in Lost Days and Ra's doesn't necessarily approve of Jason's presence, especially not of Talia dunking him in the Pit, but Ra's has always canonically been A Little Weird about Tim. I think in a world Tim dies as the second Robin, it would be Ra's who dunks Tim to preserve his mind that Ra's thinks shouldn't be wasted, and you have the potential for 'apprentice of Ra's' Tim wrapped up in it all, even without him experience the Red Robin arc. So when it's Jason as Red Robin, instead of him going to Ra's when he's scorned by the Batfamily, he goes to Tim. The person he once idolized, because I think Tim would've been Jason's Robin. Smart, competent, a strong legacy to live up to. And now he's back, and he's pro-killing, an edge that Jason has always teetered on and would feel even closer to when he's replaced by a young Dick. I think Tim wouldn't ever be able to get rid of Jason.

Then on Tim's side, I think his reaction to being replaced after his death would be a complicated one. Objectively, being the Robin who believes Batman needs a Robin, he'd respect the logic and know Bruce was always going to replace him eventually. But still, there's always going to be that instinctual emotional reaction of betrayal and replacement. I think he'd view Jason at first with anger and distance, but then, seeing Jason as this street kid with begrudging potential, I could see Red Hood!Tim testing Jason. Constantly throwing things at Jason, seeing how he reacts, if he lives up to being Robin. Tim has a need for analyzing people, understanding their strengths and weaknesses. And he seems the Robin mantle very uniquely, he'd need to have it proven to him that Jason can handle it.

So you would have this dynamic of Jason hero worshipping Tim, slowly believing in Tim's methodology. While Tim is at first dismissive of him, but then starts to test him, see what makes this kid tick. And I think the TimJay potential of Jason trying to prove himself to Tim could be Neat.

[starrysharks]

i am the cattt just chillin outt but in the night she's all i think aboutttt

[little-eldritch-gremlin]

Kind of random but im uhhhh I just want to dump this here because i have The Nighttime Zoomies™ and it seems like the general consensus from my previous post is that the HN fandom here has somewhat chilled out soooo-

Weirdly enough, as much as I've become disappointed with HN, to the point where I have a weird amount of trouble calling myself a "fan," there's a few things that it did for me that I also can't help but thank the HN franchise for.

Like a really good example is that I used to hate reading and writing with an absolute passion. Like I could only read graphic novels and a short novel occasionally but that was it. And I did like writing at one point but that got harder to enjoy as I got older and I just couldn't do it anymore. But thanks to the HN books, I realized that I don't actually hate it! Just when its for school-

I've also met some really cool and talented people here from this fandom in particular and it's honestly really cool seeing how creative and devoted some parts of this fandom are, and like yeah it has it's Moments™ (/neg) but it's still nice seeing people enjoy HN and talk about it even through the less than pleasant stuff that goes down here occasionally.

It also, for better or for worse, taught me about the importance of maintaining your creative vision and that PRIORITIZING MONEY OVER YOUR EMPLOYEES WELLBEING IS BAD ACTUALLY- (granted that was something I already knew but still. its good to keep in mind.)

So yeahhhhh uhhhhh... Thanks HN. Thank you Carly and Nikita for keeping me hyperfixated for uhhhhhhh fuck about 4 years now? 5? god damn I feel old anyway goodnightdayafternoon-

[arsenicflame]

hey does anyone wanna bounce bellhands/they all went to pirate school together ideas with me? im trying to figure out the missing pieces of my personal set up and it might be easier with someone else!

[systemwritingpieces]

Dormant

Dormancy is one of those things.

It’s just a part of a system’s life. It’s part of the cycle. Alters are created when they’re needed, and when they’re not anymore, they disappear. Sometimes they fuse, but other times, they go dormant. It’s not a death, they can’t die, but it feels like they die.

Dormant alters can always come back, whether it’s two weeks or ten years. But, after enough time, you stop hoping. You stop watching the door, waiting for her to walk through it and smile at you and run over to hug you. You stop hoping to see her face again. When she disappeared, you somehow knew deep down she wasn’t going to return.

Dormancy just happens, but you didn’t think it could happen to her. One day she was here, the next she was gone, and that leaves you. That leaves you alone, and you’re not really alone because you’re never alone, but it feels like you are because she’s not here anymore.

She’s everywhere, and you can’t escape her. The perfumes you own smell like her, so you stopped wearing perfume. Everyone calls you by her name, so you changed it. Every time you open your mouth you hear her voice, so you stopped speaking. When you look in the mirror her face looks back at you, so you stopped looking in the mirror. None of it is ever enough.

Her perfume is ingrained in the clothes you wear. Her face haunts you in every picture in that house. You hear her voice echo, echo, echoing in every recording. All you want to do is burn the clothes, break the picture frames and tear up the pictures, smash the phone on the ground so you won’t be haunted by her anymore. You read notebooks full of her words, her poetry and her thoughts and it was all just pain and suffering and sorrow for her, and you should’ve known that. You should’ve known and you should’ve helped her. It’s all your fault. The weight of the words crushes you, each sentence feels like a shot to the heart but you keep reading because you deserve it for what you did.

There’s nothing you can do now. You just have to move forward, and you try so hard to forget and move on, but everything around you, everything about you, is hers and it haunts you.

[apollosdrunkenmixup]

From what I understood of a two hour mutual infodump (I received kratos: god of war lore, he received greek myths)

Kratos is god of war bc he killed Ares (and a lot of other people/gods).

In better news no one is gonna tell the gods about this fuckup of a post bc you’ve assigned Hermes to a comedy club instead of his usual messages lol

this website’s easy watch. *dangles a bunch of greek gods like keys*

[welcometoteyvat]

wahoo finally “”””caught up”“““““ on fontaine leaks

[iguana-braces]

That sub!Jayce post really popped off, huh?

Ehehe okay here's my rambly thoughts about it (I'm literally sitting at work clocked out writing this instead of going home because THOUGHTS)

Building my theory off of this post:

And this one with all the examples of how Jayce's love language is clearly physical touch

*Disclaimer: there's a lot about season 2 that irked me in terms of plot and characterization so this is me retconning a little bit and picking and choosing what examples make the most cohesive argument. Like, in season one they're like "Jayce has this brotherly relationship with Caitlyn and him and Mel have this deep, meaningful relationship" and then season two was like "No more relationship building, it's time for trauma now" but, I digress*

First things first, he's a people pleaser. He does what he's told, clearly (against better judgment but like). And he's clearly committed to the people he cares about. HE BROUGHT VIKTOR BACK FROM THE DEAD (AND THEN KILLED HIM) AND THEN DIED WITH HIM AGAIN. You can't tell me that wouldn't translate to an "I'll do anything for you" attitude in the bedroom too.

I already did the bed gif but I also have to draw attention to the following:

Okay but season two, post-horrors!

Mr. Dopey Heart-Eyes McGee is NOT the one calling the shots here.

Season one Jayce? That man is whipped. One glance from his partner and he's on his knees like it's a religion. Whoever you ship him with! Mel, Viktor, both, a secret fourth option--

He spent an indeterminate amount of time alone, in the bottom of a pit. He's touch-starved but also! Traumatized!

Imagine, if you will, that he survives the astral plane. Imagine he goes to find Mel, or Viktor also survives, or imagine your own y/n, OC insert scenario here. Whatever floats your boat.

In such scenario, and in the aftermath of his self-awareness epiphany where he realizes that yeah, he's kinda been used (by everyone really), I think that in regards to any potential sexual relationship, he would have to become more dominant, more in control of the situation. Especially if it's with Mel, since he does pointedly blame her, or even Viktor, who has literally shaped the course of Jayce's entire life since he was a child. The man needs to set some boundaries with people and good for him.

So I think dominant, scruffy Jayce does have a time and a place.

However, I don't think he'd stay that way forever. It's kinda like him trying to be a politician-- it's a different role that he can pull off, but it doesn't fully scratch his itch.

BONUS HEADCANON: Wouldn't it be just so interesting if he survived the astral plane and goes back to whoever, and while he's looking for comfort and reassurance and all that physical contact he's been deprived of, he realizes that he really doesn't like people touching his head.

I hypothesize that in regards to canon relationships, Mel and/or Viktor, once they regain his trust and show that they're not trying to use him again, he's 100% going to be simping for them even worse than before. Like, that relationship would've gone through the fire and only come out stronger on the other side. You might even say it's been vulcanized.... 🤭

From the on, he can go back to letting his walls down around them and letting them be the dominant one because he knows there's solid trust and respect there now.

Feel free to agree or disagree 🤷‍♀️ also please feel free to tell me all your thots about this too!!!

He's got all this beautiful hair that needs to be tenderly pushed away from his eyes by a loving hand, but he's a little fucked up from the times Mannequin/Mage Viktor did that little murder mind meld.

Like, he put his head in Mel's lap TWICE, you know it would kill the man if he couldn't do that anymore because having someone's hands near his forehead is too reminiscent of... well, basically his death.

[cannedbabs]

Rbti rewrite post :] (was gonna be more but I’ve had an eventful day.. will say later ofc)

Closeup of KCB, some more evolution of lore, and my day below cut!

((If I had the choice to redo this bug piece it would be to turn off his glowy eyes. Plot reasons. Also sorry I only ever post sketches, I fear if I do more it’ll sap my energy to get content out at ALL so))

I will say the plot has been wavering a LOT! I’ve been talking with some of my irl friends (all of them have lovely story writing or creative backgrounds which is amazing) and so it’s being patched significantly. Still not 100% finished, that’s why I haven’t made an entire lore post yet!! There’s a lot of loose ends and placement that needs to be figured out. But I feel like it’s only appropriate to state some at least :] you guys have given me amazing feedback and showed interest and I can’t thank you enough!

The “big bad” has been juggled around. I do like BEV, her motives are a little grey and need to be strung together accurately and cohesively. I also don’t want a twist villain, as much as that’s amazing I am not trying to rewrite WIR. Turbo in himself is a “big bad”, always will be, he’s the worst of the worst and completely irredeemable, that’s why the writing is so hard. “How do you put in a big bad that has to contest with one of the worst characters of all time?”

My answer is to make BEV solely target Turbo, and in turn it’s a domino effect for everyone, but then that makes this rewrite a little more Turbo centric than I wanted ((granted it IS because of my bias, but even then I realize he is NOT the main character of the previous movie))

These are out loud thoughts tho!! Def the story is gonna take a route where it’s more Ralph vs(?) Vanellope, where they realize their goals don’t really align but are trying to keep it from the other person (kinda like RBTI actually! But not as ‘drama needs to get in the way to actually make an issue’). Ralph is gonna be taking BEV’s side and Vanellope will be taking Turbo’s side, at least that’s the concept for now!

Talking about my day will be super short. Basically I showed my friend group (who doesn’t have the turbo autism I do, but Turbo has become such a referenced joke in my group. Instead of saying ‘this is my hyperfixation’ we say ‘This is my turbo’) the entire 2hr analysis video (thank you Randomalistic :]) and they loved it! Sat through it all front to back!! And I’m having a sleep over w them tomorrow and having a DnD session yippee!! But that’s the only reason why I’m posting this and not accumulating more for a bigger post.

I AM planning on working on ref sheets and even stuff like a ref sheet for their chat bubbles since they’re all different :] idk this became a super long ramble post idk have some funny WIR-related Jack box things my friend group made you earned it

[cindersnows]

the problem with mitsi (or as i like to call it. mitsogyny)

(context: this was written under a youtube video, which i'm sure most of us have at least seen pop up in our recommendeds, in response to many people taking criticism against the new episode. it has been edited a little to be more cohesive as a somewhat-essay)

ok, i wanted to write out a rant/essay/ramble/whatever sort of summarising the criticism against mitsi's plotline because a lot of the people here seem to be misunderstanding the fundamental issue that people have with it, including some of those people themselves.

first off, an analysis that i think tell both sides of the argument very well which i feel should be read before reading the essay: Mitsi: What Makes A Fridged Character (and why y'all are wrong about it) | an AvA essay by InksandPensblog. i will note: i don't care to discuss whether mitsi was fridged or not and that won't be of much importance in this post. the above link gives some insight into some of the fandom's criticism of mitsi and how she was "fridged", defining common tropes for examples. that's what's relevant to this post.

the main issue with mitsi, in my opinion, is less with the fact that mitsi's a girl and moreso the fact that she's one of the only female-coded character in the series, and that her character's main purpose was to further victim's own development. the other arguably female-coded character in the series is pink, who (like navy) only really exists to explain purple's motivations. i don't have much of an issue with that since they're not meant to be important or sympathised with at all. that's not their job in the story.

with mitsi, i've seen people point out that she has more character to her than just victim's love interest and supporter: she invents rocketcorp, she's smart, she's kind, innocent and helpful. narratively speaking, she shows other creations' relationships with their animators, parallels her innocence with victim's trauma, and introduces victim to the outernet (as most fans call the stick realm).

but most of this things imo are either stretches or invalid arguments. she's not really a 2/3-dimensional character in any way; her main character traits boil down to the fact that she likes to be in service of others with no nuance behind why she likes helping people. she hypes up victim for the villagers, she starts a company with him to share his talents with the world, and she helps him overcome his trauma from alan's torture. all of her main plot beats center around victim: and while technically the sticks are genderless and free to be interpreted however the viewer wants, alan and most of his team see all the main characters as male, and that subconciously affects how they're written. mitsi, the first major female-coded character, spends most of her storyline in service of victim, a character not written as female.

there's also the issue of her being victim's canonical love interest. i feel like this statement from alan is important to keep in mind (don't mind the sound effects and edits, this is the only isolated clip i can find at the moment). in particular:

"i just assume that [the ava/m characters] are just a bunch of bros]. i haven't thought of adding any female stick figures but i think it'd be good. i don't want to introduce any romance though, i don't want that to be a theme."

he seems to have changed his mind on that last part, which is fine, but the notable part for me is that he seems to associate female characters with romance from the getgo. before anyone misinterprets this, i'm not trying to call alan sexist or anything. but there's a common issue with women in stories being reduced to just a romantic partner for the male lead, and mitsi falls under this, with her entire character existing to serve victim. (not to mention people will make things about romance whether you like it or not. that's just basic fandom. search up grapeduo or chodark.) even her death is to put victim on the path of vengeance--- it doesn't need to happen to show the extent of tco and tdl's destruction, because that's already made pretty clear in ava s2 the flashback and the earlier scenes showing various characters escaping burning buildings. when you write a female-coded character whose only purpose is to serve a male character, you're contributing to sexist narratives.

a counter i see many people point out with the idea that she has no character is that she does have character traits, it's just that they're generic ones like "kind" and "innocent". the issue is that she has no flaws to counterpoint this; it's not that she didn't have enough screentime. in ava4 for example, we see tsc's flaws pretty clearly; they can be very mean when they want to, they're petty (albeit for a fair reason), they're a little impulsive. this is shown in 11 minutes (from the moment they come alive to the end of the video).

with mitsi meanwhile… she doesn't seem to have any flaws? she helps victim whenever she can. she's nice to all the villagers. her customers all like her and she's a great leader at rocket corp (to note, specifically as part of a pair with victim. they're a power couple, she's barely given credit for her work alone). she has 13 minutes of screentime, or 10 if you count from her waking up in the outernet. there's plenty of opportunities to show her having flaws; maybe she acts a little selfish during tdl and tco's attack, only wanting to help herself and agent smith, or maybe she overworks herself, or feels awkward at having too much attention (and that could also be why she redirects so much attention to victim, she's shy). you could argue that the episode needs to develop victim and agent smith too, but ava4 shows that's easy to do too: just a few seconds dedicated to showing rgyb fighting over who leaves first shows that they can be selfish and childish. it's very easy to insert a moment like that for mitsi.

it's a little disappointing when the first major female-coded character in ava is completely flawless, with no personality outside of being nice and helpful for others.

also, slightly unrelated, check out this quote from mitsi's plushie website: "her white featureless face seems to ooze mystery and feminine power all at the same time." her main character trait, as a woman, is being feminine. it's irritating as someone who's been raised a woman to see her reduced to just her gender. she feels more plastic than a person, like the concept of what a woman should be (perfect, kind, useful) and not an actual character/person.

i would expect more from the writing in the series seeing as it's not just an independent passion project anymore, and has multiple writers that all could've worked to flesh out mitsi, or at least get a sensitivity reader of sorts to point these issues out. it's extremely disappointing and i can understand why people were upset.

tldr: the problem isn't just that mitsi's a girl, or that she's nice or dating victim, it's that she's written in a misogynistic way.

[hufflepuffwritingstuff2]

No Hospitals

I wrote this using prompts I got from my new Storymatic card deck! I hope you guys like it!

Hero stumbled into the house, where their roommate and best friend, Civilian, was already making dinner.

“You’re late,” Civilian called, turning, “what took you so- oh my gosh!”

Civilian abandoned the soup pot and rushed to Hero’s side, just as the latter collapsed to the floor.

“[Hero’s Name], what happened!?”

“Nothing,” Hero lied, “I tripped…”

“You’re bleeding everywhere!”

“I tripped down some stairs…”

“You have gashes all over you!”

“I tripped down some stairs into broken glass…”

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, we need to call the hospital-”

Hero weakly reached up, gripping Civilian’s wrist before they could dial the number.

“N-no hospital,” they breathed.

“But [Hero’s Name]- [Hero’s Name]?”

Hero wasn’t listening anymore. Their last cohesive thought before going under was a silent prayer that Civilian wouldn’t call that cursed hospital.

…

“Hey, wake up! Come on!”

Civilian tried shaking them, no response. They looked from their friend, to the phone, then back to their friend. They had to make a choice and fast. Their fingers stiffly dialed 9-1-1. They shakily raised the phone to their ear.

“H-hello, my friend is bleeding out,” Civilian said, “please send an ambulance.”

…

Hero stirred on a soft surface. They opened bleary eyes to stark, white lights overhead. They could just make out faint whispering from unfamiliar voices.

They went to rub their eyes, but their wrist only moved an inch before being stopped by something. Hero looked down and saw a padded cuff fixed onto it. They turned their head; their other wrist was in the same situation.

“Civilian…” they mumbled.

The voices stopped. Two doctors came into view.

“Hello, Hero,” one of them said.

“Hero? Hero who?” Hero tried.

“We know who you are. The blood transfusion alone revealed quite a bit,” the doctor said.

Hero could pick out some sort of apologetic tone in the doctor’s voice.

“Where’s Civilian?” Hero asked.

“They’re in the waiting room, would you like me to get them for you?” the other doctor asked.

Hero swallowed, then nodded.

“Yes… yes please.”

…

Civilian shuffled inside, looking like a puppy caught eating someone’s shoe.

“H-hi, [Hero’s Name].”

Hero felt too tired to be angry. They just stared at Civilian, who was now rambling themselves into a tizzy.

“I didn’t know what to do- you were dying! The doctors said you wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t called and- and- if I had known you were- well, even if I had known, I’d rather have you alive than your secret safe.”

“A secret I was keeping for a reason,” Hero sighed, “…it’s done now. I’m not mad at you.”

Civilian sat down by their bedside, still not meeting their gaze.

“Your blood is like a slushy, it’s how the doctors found out, that and they took your temperature.”

Hero sighed again.

“So, what are the cuffs for?” they asked, lifting their wrist a little.

“The doctors said it was a precaution,” Civilian said.

“Precaution my foot,” Hero mumbled, “I’m gonna be carted off to a lab as soon as they can forge some paperwork.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Civilian said, “I won’t let that happen!”

The doctors entered the room again.

“Hero,” the first started, “as medical professionals, we take our oaths very seriously.”

“Patient confidentiality is very important to us,” the second continued, “your secret is safe here.”

As they spoke, one of them removed the cuffs restraining Hero. Hero looked on in shock.

“Uh… thank you,” Hero said.

“When you’re more stable, we’ll get you discharged quietly,” the first said, “in the meantime, no one should bother you.”

The doctors left once more. Hero stared after them, slack jawed. Well, that was one less thing to worry about. They blinked slowly, the lights overhead growing blurry.

“[Hero’s Name],” Civilian said, “you can sleep if you want to.”

“I might, no promises though…”

Hero was out before they could finish their sentence. It was only then that the agents flooded the room.

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[maxe-murderer]

thoughts on the summoning choreo and the LiB's ages

aight so i watched the digital ticket last night and spent way too long analyzing the choreo for the summoning and a) want to ramble abt it cause its cool and b) wanna give my 2 cents for the Lords in Black ages theories (i don't think I've seen anyone mention this but im sure im not the first person to notice)

so the choreo for LiB do at the very beginning of the summoning is like a lot to take in all at once so i didn't take it in all at once and rewatched the same like 10 seconds over and over

so each of the LiB have their own little bit of choreo that's theirs, with Blinky and Nibbly's probably being the most obvious. But they all seem to do the same moves - with some little differences for a few of them - at completely different and seemingly random times. They do all start with "their" move. So breaking down each one, starting with:

Wiggly: The first move Wiggly does and the first one we see in the pro shot. Bent over at the hips, arms out to the side swinging in and out at the elbows. Reminiscent of his tentacles, yknow. One difference I can see with his choreo is he puts the majority of his weight on his right leg with the left out to the side and partially bent - he only does this the first time he does his move, and Tinky does similar but to a lesser extent.

Tinky: First thing he does, the bend down snap up repeat, arms back when down arms out in front when up. First time you see it in the pro shot is Nibbly doing it in the background behind Pokey (roughly 2:01:07). It doesn't make anything immediately jump to mind, other than like, goats fighting.

Nibbly: Since Nibbly has the lollypop prop it looks like licking the lollypop. For everyone else, it's just their right hand sorta sliding down in front of their face. The first time we see this is Wiggly doing it during the line "Wiggly wants his wrath".

Blinky: Bent at the hips, circle down and left to right and up. Blinky holds his hands in front of his to make that triangle/diamond over the one eye. Pokey holds his mask in front of his face for this, it looks like Wiggly does either the same hands as Blinky or basically the same but centered on his face, it's difficult to tell, Nibbly and Tinky just have their hands out in front of them.

Pokey: Swapping from facing right, right hand up in front of your face to facing left with the left hand up. Makes me think of Hamlet. Pokey looks at the mask while facing right and his hand when facing left. Everyone does the same with or without whatever prop they have. Tinky and Wiggly put their arms all the way up in a more of a presenting something type pose - Tinky's arms straight up and Wiggly's a bit bent. Nibbly does the move but faces forward instead of looking at his hands - he does this for every move, face is constantly directly toward the audience.

so I do wanna say first that while they do have all the same bits of choreography (just at different times) none of them do it exactly the same. There are small differences between all of them on the same moves (ex. Tinky: some people keep their head up when going down others have their face to the ground. Nibbly always keeping his face forward. Legs bent and feet flexed. Etc.)

Ok. So. The order that each of the LiB do each move is the same for all of them, but they each start at their own move and end on their own move.

The order goes: Wiggly, Tinky, Nibbly, Blinky, Pokey

Its a really fun way to keep the scene feeling cohesive but also super chaotic. It's pretty much impossible to notice a pattern if you aren't replaying the same part specifically looking for if there's a pattern.

As for their ages, I can't say that I actually have any strong opinions on the LiB's ages (I think any sort of hierarchy among each other they have is based on what I can best describe as their eldritch vibes) but this is fun to think about so like.

We all agree that Wiggly's the oldest so basically, the order Wiggly does the choreo as the ages of the LiB. And I think that when we look at it like this it has a sort of like, coming into being as the universe evolves to fill whatever cosmic need there is or smth like that. If you get what I'm getting at.

Wiggly's the oldest, he's clearly in charge and I think is also the most vague if we try to narrow down his "thing" if you know what i mean

Tinky would then be second oldest, I think it makes sense. He fucks with time itself, once you have a world you kind of need time for shit to happen in it

Nibbly next, middle child. He's hunger. As soon as you have life in the world that life will need to eat. And, he's the only one of the LiB who will consistently exist as a physical being outside of the Black and White (at least for a short while) and I think having the middle child be the one to have that sort of ability just sorta works

Blinky is the second youngest. His whole thing is sight. Not everything alive can see but a whole load of them can. Insert some sort of specific connection to the development of humanity. He's pretty satisfied with just having Watcher World seemingly. His brothers all have their domains and shticks already, so he'll just be happy in his corner torturing the shit out of whoever goes to Watcher World. No need to step on anyone's toes, y'know.

Pokey is the youngest and steps on everyone's toes. He both has a pretty nailed-down theme of control but is sorta, messy about it? his two main appearances have his existence in the physical world be directly connected to the meteor to the point of him getting kinda fucked over by it in Yellow Jacket. He's "The Singular Voice", he wants everything to be him, if it's not his voice he wants it dead. He's also the only one who we've seen get scolded by Wiggly. So like, the annoying and loud little brother.

anyway that's it. idk if you have any thoughts tell me. working boys budget breakdown soon to come

[dirthamen-enjoyer]

please remember that this is all my personal thoughts and i might be wrong about some of the things. it is critical. this started off as one specific topic about solas and then ended up turning into more of a ramble. i guess? anyways spoilers for veilguard under the keep reading line.

i wish my brain worked properly sometimes because i really want to know why i feel like they didn't write solas cohesively enough. to me, he is the best part of datv. and no, it's not because i romanced him in inquisition. actually, i could never finish his romance because he was such a know-it-all and it would annoy me lol. (it's because i'm a know-it-all and know-it-alls tend to clash. i plan on forcing myself through it one day though.) despite him annoying me, i liked him as a character. i liked his reveal, the moral greyness of him.

i think mainly my problem is how they presented his morals and why he wants to tear down the veil. it feels like they couldn't decide how to focus him. so originally he's tearing down the veil because it was a mistake and wants the world to go back to the way it was so the days of the ancient elves - specifically after the evanuris are gone - could return, at least that's what i got from it.

then at the beginning of veilguard, it suddenly it feels like tearing the veil down is just a byproduct of him needing to move the last of the evanuris to a better prison. huh? in my head i always thought that solas was ready to fight the evanuris when the veil is brought down because he's willing to take the risk of dealing with them just to bring the old world back. maybe that's too headcanon-y? also i never got around to reading the books or comics fully so i might have missed some details.

then at the end it's "i must do this for mythal or her sacrifice would be for nothing" or whatever he said. huh? i don't get why it's suddenly about mythal, even with the regret murals showing how close they were. it should be about him and all he sacrificed, only for it to not go the way he wanted. without even talking about what was revealed in the regrets murals, he sacrificed the world he knew to lock the evanuris (and forgotten ones) away to try and make life better for the common elves, the slaves.

i don't know how well that last paragraph comes off. i'm just saying that it felt like it didn't belong. his whole story is about regrets, yes. makes sense. he regrets the events that happened because of the veil mistakenly happening. he regrets what's in the murals (which i might talk about in another post because :/) but the game acts like him tearing down the veil is just selfish. there's no other nuance there, it's just selfish. huh? there is so much nuance to this position, in my opinion, that i can't even figure out how to write it.

okay so i've officially lost my train of thought about this original topic, which means i don't know what else to put. i'll just say that i feel dumb that i don't understand it while it feels like everyone else does. also i don't understand why i dislike how everything ended for him. it was like someone punched me when lost elf started playing because this ending didn't feel right. and i don't know why. (that one ending... "i am a god!" bffr he would NAWT FUCKING say that.)

also let me just quickly state that i do not think they should have made the evanuris, and elves, originally spirits. it takes away the fantasy in a the fantasy story, is the best way to say it. i know it sounds weird, but... mysteries are good. not everything needs an explanation. we could have had the mystery of "what were the evanuris?" if they kept them as just gods instead of explaining them. just have the reveal be that the gods weren't good to their subjects and are all-powerful. no need to explain all the time.

this has nothing to do with how much i wanted to fight actual gods (i did. i wanted to go up against actual gods other than the archdemons. and we know that reveal :/ ) or even how much more impactful it would have made solas's history.

[grandisknight]

thinking thoughts / xavier, his evol suppressor and EVER Group

+ mild spoilers for the following:

under deepspace: to begin - mysterious light (chapter 1-2)

world underneath: with light - has the light vanished? (chapter 4)

long awaited revelry - breakthrough: abandoned memory (chapter 2-10)

+ note: hello another rambling post from yours truly and making speculations on aspects of the story, tried my best to cohesively put my thoughts together while sourcing from in-game ;; as always take this with a grain of salt i’m truly just yapping

i hope we get to see more of xavier’s neck suppressor once his story branch comes ₍ ᐢ.ˬ.ᐢ₎

(but also just in general) given how xavier is essentially running on borrowed time, it’s interesting for the moments in-game story where he has no choice but to force his evol and therefore be punished by the evol suppressor

yet he has never brought it up, and neither has mc (as of this current moment)

the only other time we’ve gotten some exposition on it was through nero’s discovery (🫶 bless our lumiere megafan) as seen through the world underneath story

+ side note: xavier’s evol suppressor has appeared in both main story 1-2 and 3-3

(✍️ hc/musing time) his neck suppressor has the EVER Group emblem on it — i wonder what situation led to xavier getting entangled in EVER Group’s schemes?

are they aware of xavier’s past and that he is not from their planet but another (philos), and therefore keep a reign on him through his evol suppressor? maybe it has something to do with the chronorift catastrophe where lumiere made his debut, soon turned into a rumored tenebra…

also xavier is known to have lower bodily vitals in comparison to an average person (ie: heart rate) and is also very good at detecting energy/metaflux fluctuations… surely EVER Group must’ve picked up on it from how long xavier has been around (hundreds of years, mind you)… using their advanced technologies on someone who is essentially a superhuman in their eyes

because there is much more to EVER group than what meets the eye, as we’ve learned in long-awaited revelry chapter 2 — they surely must know something deeper about the deepspace tunnel

(✍️ hc/musing) my personal take is that the bigger story antagonist is EVER Group, they gave me the same vibes as the black swan collective from mlqc/lovepro so… ₍ ᐢ.ˬ.ᐢ₎

they have monopolies in many fields, and important ones at that (biotech, aerospace, evol energy, international trade)

there’s no doubt their influence runs deep within linkon city and even beyond, seeing how even the n109 zone was affected — i also believe they played a significant hand in the chronorift catastrophe, using their research to purposefully trigger the opening of the deepspace tunnel and whatnot

which. speaking of the deepspace tunnel it’s the second time noted in-game of it happening… (first being chronorift catastrophe) (second being what happened with mc and sylus in n109 zone)… surely there are going to be devastating consequences right…? lol

anyhow anyway anywho this goes to say again. a lot of this is just my ramblings and speculations and im sososo estatic to learn more about the story and characters as usual ! thank yew ₍ ᐢ.ˬ.ᐢ₎

[maryangelex]

Never Let Me Go (Pt.2)

John Price x f!Reader

Part 3

Summary: After meeting John, you couldn’t help but wish and long to see him again.

Warnings: tooth rotting fluff, some suggestive/mature language

A/N: did I say I was gonna update in Wednesday?? That’s crazy, I don’t remember that at all!! Anyways…here ya go kids, it’s disgusting and fluffy and short!!! I promise there will be smutty deliciousness soon!!!

This chapter’s song is Little Bit by Lykke Li

The next day you woke up and headed to work, everything was the same as usual. Except now you felt you had something to look forward to. Or more like someone you looked forward to.

If he even showed up, you thought. You didn't fail to remind yourself to not get too excited, to set yourself up for failure, just so that you wouldn't disappoint yourself.

The rest of the day at the cafe you served the same familiar orders, smiled at the regular faces, and that feeling of sameness and dissatisfaction was gnawing at you like it did the night before.

Despite your best efforts at not eagerly hoping to see John again, you couldn’t help but have a little bit of optimism and anticipation that he would walk through the doors again.

But what you worried would happen happened, and you were disappointed. It crushed your spirits to have let yourself get excited just to later on be let down.

You felt like you were stood up. And that night you locked up the cafe after the closing shift, said goodnight to your cousin, and went back to your lonely little flat. To do things all over again the next day.

You were woken up by the rays of light that bled through your curtains. As your eyes slowly peeled open, you realized you had fallen asleep on your couch, wrapped up in the knitted blanket that you kept there. You mumbled something to yourself as you rubbed your eyes, then reached for your phone on the coffee table only to check the time.

When you realized you had overslept, you jumped awake and scrambled to your room. All you could think about was that your cousin was definitely overwhelmed and pulling her hair out having to run the cafe by herself. She had probably opened late, too, and was more than likely cursing your name through clenched teeth. All these thoughts ran through your head as you did your best to get ready in under twenty minutes.

The best you could do was take the briefest ice-cold shower to get your body going and throw on the most cohesive, monochrome outfit your frantic brain could compute. The moment you made it through your front door, you practically ran to the cafe, the heel of your boots clacked over the cobblestone.

You finally arrived at the coffee shop, bursting through the door with a string of apologies to your cousin and a clammy forehead beaded with sweat. You peeled your layers off, one by one, until you were only wearing your long-sleeve shirt and jeans, and tied the apron around. As you circled the counter to get your day started, you rambled on to your cousin, who was barely looking at you as she poured an effortless foam art into a large round mug.

"I'm so sorry, cuz, I have no idea how I managed to sleep in so much—" You were cut off by your cousin placing the cup in your hands. Her hands stilled over yours as you looked down confused, then up at her. Her face was beaming with a cheeky smile.

"He's here," she whispered, wide eyes and smirking face expressing pure joy.

You looked over to the rest of the shop, your eyes scanning the patrons who had their noses buried in books or cups of coffee to their lips. Almost immediately, though, your eyes fell right on a familiar figure.

John sat at an upholstered chair in a far corner of the cafe, right by the large window with the sun’s glare casting over him, warming and softening the angles of his face. He was clad in a dark green sweater today, an arm crossed over his abdomen as he reclined into the chair with the book you gave him in his other hand. He was at its last few pages. His expression was that of concentration, with knitted brows and a light pout.

You marveled at him, your heart stopping in its track when you caught sight of him. But you turned back to your cousin with feigned aloofness.

“Well, he lives nearby apparently so it’s no surprise—“ she cut you off again.

“He asked for you, cuz,” your cousin’s eyes pierced through you, her face turning stern. “He walked in today and immediately asked for you. He’s been sitting there waiting.”

Your lips pressed tightly into a line. He was waiting for you?

Your cousin’s hold over your hands strengthened as she pushed you to move, to go approach him.

“Take this to him, cuz,” her tone was a mix of a plea and a command. “He seems like he really likes you…do this for yourself, you deserve it.”

You gave her a long look, her wide eyes were practically begging you to follow her advice. Maybe she was right. It had been a long time since you liked someone, since you let yourself let someone into your life. Maybe you did deserve to allow yourself to open up and enjoy yourself with someone.

Her hands let go of yours, giving you a smile as if she read your mind.

”Go sit with him, I’ve got it,” were her last softly spoken words before she sent you off.

You let out a deep sigh and gave her a light smile, shaking your head as if thinking ‘I can’t believe I’m listening to your love advice’, and made your way over to John. You picked up a pastry on your way over to him, on the house.

John looked up from the book as soon as he saw your figure approaching him. His face lit up, kindness shining from it. He immediately got up from his seat and reached out to help you.

At that moment you noticed that John had a thing for helping, for being of service; he couldn’t stand and watch someone else do something for him, he was the type of man that preferred to take care of others and do things for others.

“Thank you, love, I’ve got it,” he said softly with a smile as he took the plates for you and set it down on the small table in front of his chair.

You thanked him and stood beside the chair across from his, hesitant to fully sit and commit to chatting with him.

John mirrored you, standing up parallel to you as if waiting for you to sit first. Quite the gentleman. And because of that you couldn’t let the man stand like a guard, so you caved and sat down. Of course, he followed you.

You sat there for a moment and collected your thoughts before asking, “So you’ve finished the book?”

“I did, actually,” he smiled at you, his eyes locked into yours, and they’d stay there from this moment on.

“I quite liked it.” He chuckled a bit, “But it was tough to read at times so I took all of yesterday to get through it.”

So that’s why he didn’t come, you thought, he was too busy actually putting effort into reading the book you gave him.

That thought made a smirk pull at your lips.

“Thought you said you’d come for help reading!” You said slyly, and he let out another chuckle at that. You loved the feeling you got when you amused him.

“ ‘M sorry, love, didn’t want to trouble you much,” he confessed taking a sip from the cup of coffee. His words confirmed your thoughts.

He pressed his lips at the taste of the coffee. Too bitter, you noted he liked things sweet last time. And he reached for the sugar to amend his drink.

The man in front of you was a delight to watch.

“You like sweet things?” You asked, hardly noticing the fact you had spoken up.

“It’s a vice, truly, worse than smokin’ for me.” He said with a nod as he tasted it again. “We don’t get a lot of sweetness at work.”

You chuckled. “Well you should give that a try…” you gestured to the pastry you brought him, “I, erm, make them m’self.”

A light blush scattered over your cheeks as the man smiled cheekily, reaching over to take the pastry.

“I already know it’ll be good if y’made it, doll,” he quipped before taking a bite. John let out a slow hum as he chewed the bite. You’d be lying if you said your mind didn’t wonder to the dirtiest of places when you heard that sound emanate from him—you wouldn’t mind hearing more of that, really.

“Bloody good, love, fuckin’ hell,” the man sounded like it was the best thing he’d tasted, proceeding to devour the treat. You bit your lip to suppress a growing smile.

“Now you have a reason to keep coming, John,” your own words surprised you, not knowing you had the confidence to make such a comment. You practically just confessed to him that you wanted him to continue coming.

“Oh I already had a very good reason to keep comin’, doll,” his tone was flirty, and his eyes burnt through you. Did they somehow get bluer? You felt the sting of your cheeks at his comment.

You stayed there talking with John for about an hour, occasionally glancing back at your cousin to check on her. Each time she’d give you a thumbs up and a shooing motion with her hand. The store was relatively empty, so there wasn’t much need for an extra hand.

Instead, you got to spend time talking to John. You asked him about his work in the military, but he told you there wasn’t much he could say that made for good conversation. You didn’t mind, you simply cared more about getting to know the man in front of you as a person and not as much for what he did.

But he told you about the places he’d been to because of his profession, about his friends in the service and their off-duty escapades, and about his family in Herefordshire. He told you he has a dog back home, and your dog-loving self couldn’t be contained when he showed you the picture of him on his phone screen. It made him laugh how giddy you got and how your voice rose a couple octaves in excitement.

You asked him about his favorite book, he said The Wind Also Rises. And when you asked what music he listens to, he gave you a whole Spotify playlist which required him exchanging numbers with you.

By now the coffee in his cup was long gone, and a second hour had passed. Your cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing the whole time. He wouldn’t let the smile drop from your face by hitting you continuously with a mix of the cheesiest pick-up lines and the worst dad-jokes you’ve had the misfortune of hearing.

And the fact that you made him smile and laugh too made a fire kindle in your chest. It surged a warm sensation and made you feel a sense of home that you didn’t know could be brought up in you by a person.

John’s deep blue eyes were glued to you, taking you in like you were the only person in the world. And you couldn’t look away either, as if memorizing every line of his face and every pore, wrinkle, or blemish on his skin.

He leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees to actively listen to you as you told him where you were originally from, how you got to co-own this place with your cousin, and how the two of you had made a business you were properly proud of. He listened with wholeheartedness and admiration, as if taking mental notes of everything you said to him, storing the information as gold coins in a treasure chest.

A third hour passed. Your mad ran dry with how much you had been talking to John. The two of you were now in a brief but pleasant silence as you took each other in.

“I really enjoy your company, love,” he broke the silence, his voice soft and earnest.

“I do too, John.”

“I’ve got to go but erm..” he inhaled, “I’d like to maybe take you out sometime.” He let out the breath he was holding, a grin on his face and a gentleness in his eyes.

“I’d like that a lot, actually,” you responded, making his face brighten even more and he gave you a pleased hum.

“ ‘M glad t’hear that,” his eyes raked over you then found their way back to yours. He looked at you for a moment before standing up to leave.

You stood with him, telling him you’d accompany him to the outside as you exchanged a few last comments.

You stood outside the shop with him on the street as he fixed his jacket back on as well as his beanie.

“So tomorrow at 8?” He asked.

“Mhm, I’ll be there,” you stood in front of him, craning your neck slightly to make eye contact with him.

He moved closer to you, standing just inches from you. You were reminded of his large stature compared to yours. His presence felt protective and warm in front of you, the cold weather felt like nothing thanks to the heat his body radiated to you.

John’s hand reached up to you, his index finger tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, with his gaze not daring to break away from yours. “I’ll see you then, love.”

The gesture made your whole body melt. You could hardly find any words to say in response. The most you could muster was a gulp and a shaky nod of your beer red head.

“See you, John,” you said, almost a whisper. And with that, he turned on his heels and went on his way. You watched him disappear down the street before heading back in.

You felt like you were in shock. Like you needed someone to pinch you awake or pull you back down to earth from heaven. Your heart couldn’t beat any faster.

It felt like every goodbye between the two of you was a door opening into another hello.

Like the void of loneliness that was opened in you that day was slowly getting filled by the warmth and comfort of John’s presence every time you got to see him.

And you couldn’t be happier about there being a third hello just a day away.