#this is so lis coded its not even funny

[revelboo]

This is a sandbox storyline- basically a story starter anyone can play off of. No set Transformers universe here so any partner or partners goes- you want to romance BW Wapinator, IDW Megatron, and TFP Ratchet? Go for it. The premise? Cybertronians trying to find a human who's a compatible match to their sparks and biofields (bit different than my normal stuff, where here, a match needs to be made to be able to bond). Due to how severely endangered their species is, the factions are cooperating even if there still is palpable tension. The agreement is to lure potential matches onto a massive cruise ship where they can interact as their holomatter avatars with their real forms stashed in the hold. Flirting, chatting up, and romancing humans they're drawn to with the intent to reveal their true forms when the cruise stops at its first and only port of call. An isolated island.

If you want to play: no minors in any context, smut is fine, dub-con/forced seduction is okay, but anything beyond that is a nope. Pick whatever characters you want from any TF continuity and carry on the storyline. You can do next/previous like I do and reference this starter if you want, but you don't have to. It's free real estate since it's a very old fic I haven't touched in forever and it probably wasn't getting touched again ever otherwise, so have fun.

Cruise ship concept inspired by Swim Away by themaskismyface on Ao3

Cybertronian Cruiselines

Squinting up at the massive ship as the sun bakes you, people move around you up the walkway alone or in small groups. And some of your doubts ease a bit seeing the ship up close, because you'd honestly assumed it was a scam of some sort. The brochure that had come with your ticket had indicated it was a fantasy cruise. That you could roleplay and romance crew members as funny as it sounds.

Rounding a corner, you run into a queue of people and the cause? The two tallest men you've ever seen. One's mostly silver hair is swept back from an almost sinister, scarred face and red eyes that have to be contacts sweep over the crowd. The other one's hair so dark a black it almost looks blue in the sunlight, his eyes startlingly bright. Yeah. You absolutely understand the backlog now. Everyone gawking at the eye candy on display. That one with the contacts, his eyes almost glow with a feral light, lips twisting in annoyance. And that duster he's wearing looks too hot for the heat, his shirt halfway unbuttoned to show an expanse of tawny skin and tucked into tight fitting jeans. His buddy's shirt stretched tight over a broad chest as he smiles and reaches to hook a finger against his tie, tugging slightly.

"Welcome to the Iacon. I'm Optimus and this is my co-captain Megatron," blue eyes says, his deep voice easily carrying over the whispers. "Please get settled so we can set sail without delay." And he's sweeping an arm to get people moving in the right direction.

Glancing at the two hunks, you follow the crowd, pulling your luggage with you. If the entire crew is that lovely? You're going to have some fun. The ramp enters into an expansive main area, and your neck cranes to try and figure out how many levels there are above you. Never seen a ship this big before. Everything gleaming gold, cream, and glass. Looking far too bourgeoise for you to set foot in or touch. And it looks like the entire cruise line crew is right here, mingling and drifting among the guests. Men and women both and there doesn't seem to be any real dress code going on that you can tell. The only way to tell the crew from the guests is the lack of luggage and the little pins they're wearing. Little colored badges that look like funny faces. And there's multiple versions it looks like. Showing what their duty is, maybe?

"I can't believe that the future of our race lies with these pathetic creatures," Megatron growls, watching the humans wander up the ramp to the ship, fingers flexing in irritation at this indignancy.

Shooting him a censoring look, Optimus watches the humans go. "The strong should protect the weak. Though, these forms do take some getting used to." Rolling his shoulders, he rubs his fingers together, playing with the sensory net and the sensations that feel as real as if it was his own servos touching.

"It's a miracle humans have survived as long as they have," Megatron mutters. No claws, no fangs. Disturbingly squishy and weak, and still very determined to murder each other from what he can tell. Shuddering slightly, he growls as more of them head their way. To come gawk at him. But after centuries of failed attempts to create a hybrid or artificial spark? Their numbers are dwindling. This is the last, best option and he despises it. And as carefully as they selected humans to invite, he can't deny the dread that maybe it won't work. That the medics and scientists got it wrong and this is all a waste of time. That Cybertronians can't be saved. Head turning, he sees Autobot and Decepticon avatars crowding the railing, leaning to watch the humans that might be their salvation with open curiosity.

Annoyed when he sees several head into the ship to greet the humans. And to get close enough to see if any of them trigger reactions to their biofields. Oblivious little organics smiling and gawking at them as they're fussed over on the pretense of getting closer. Because that's the game here. A fantasy cruise where the crew, his people, cater to the human guests' whims, trying to find a compatible partner. It's horrifying that they've sunk this low.

[azulaaaaaaah]

rating every zuko ship (cause that mf is shipped with everyone)

CLICKBAIT!!! this isn’t every zuko ship just the main ones i immediately lied lol. idk if any of these are hot takes or not but please don’t crucify me (might do a part 2 where it’s azula ships)

Jinko - Zuko/Jin

6/10

awwww it’s cute (for what it is)

and what it is was one singular date that was never really mentioned again

i really appreciate how jin is so unperturbed by zuko’s awkward angst and just genuinely likes him

howevvver she’s kinda one dimensional (as she’s only in like an episode) and i just don’t see this going anywhere longterm

less a ship, more a vehicle for zuko’s character development lol

Jetko- Zuko/Jet

3/10

jet being zuko’s first gay encounter is canon in my eyes

don’t ship them however cause i hate jet with the fire of a thousands suns

similar issues to jin as well where their interactions are extremely limited so personally have no clue how this could be a long term thing

Maiko- Zuko/Mai

5/10

i am so impartial on this ship it’s not even funny.

i get that it’s canon. i get that izumi looks suspiciously like mai so it’s endgame. i just don’t see HOW?? it feels as if the writers realised zutara was becoming popular and were like ‘OH SHIT WE GOTTA DEFUSE THIS SITUATION SOMEHOW’

their relationship is basically just mai being a cold asshole and zuko being an angry asshole and there’s no change or development between EITHER OF THEM

however when they’re cute they’re cute !!!!

‘i love zuko more than i fear you’ COLDEST LINE EVER

however again it’s like - you had a crush on him as a kid. he was BANISHED. you dated for like a month as teens. you argued the whole time. he left again- and shortly after you saved him from prison, but then you were imprisoned partly due to his actions. you get back together again, he becomes the ruler of a country, and then you’re surprised it’s isolating him/making him even more of an asshole???

on the other hand we as a society need to admit that zuko is weirdly possessive of her (ig that’s a positive if ur a booktok romance girlie but im not). like if i was mai i wouldn’t put up with that toxic shit either

at the end of the day, i honestly don’t care that they’re canon lol- but i think they’d probably best as a bitchy best friend duo

Zukaang - Zuko/Aang

1/10

not round here partner. not round here

my first issue is the age gap is objectively extremely weird if examined in canon. leaving it at that

i get that this is grumpy x sunshine in a way the other ships aren’t to me- but we’ve only ever seen these two characters interact with each other when there’s (again) A WEIRD AGE GAP

they are bros in the least homosexual way possible

the cherry on top of this situation is: isn’t aang the reincarnation of his great grandpa? isn’t that giving slight, uh, inc*st vibes??? imagine if people shipped korra and jinora isn’t that just WEIRD???

Zuki - Zuko/Suki

8/10

is this my most controversial take ???

i am a sucker for bodyguard x royal family dynamics guys

and the fact that this is girlboss x malewife is even BETTER

suki seems the most competent at handling his pissy ass in a way the other people on this list aren’t

like she’s real. she’s not sugarcoating his situation, BUT SHES COMPASSIONATE !!

i don’t like throuples typically but suzukki is even eliter than this, which removes the whole ‘going against the bro code’ element that arises from them being together

also i feel like if you haven’t read the comics this doesnt make sense At All so please do

-2 points for the lack of tangible reason to ship them lol

Zutara - Zuko/Katara

7.5/10

okay this one makes the most logistical sense to me within canon (solely examined as a zuko ship not overall)

it really seems as if they were gonna make this canon and swerved circa book 2

LIKE CMONNNN OG ENEMIES TO LOVERS WHERE THE GUY ACTUALLY HAS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND ISN’T JUST EVIL? FIRE X WATER? ITS INTRIGUING

something about this makes me uncomfortable though. (despite the age gap which again a little weird)

something about katara potentially becoming the fire lady is so… icky. she’s a waterbender. the fire nation tried to systematically erase her kind. her mother is killed by the fire nation because they think she’s a waterbender. and katara…. what, becomes part of the royal family? it just seems wrong, and like something she wouldn’t be into

also i feel like their arguments would be a little too NUCLEAR. there’s like, a 50% chance of divorce

she deserves a better ending than that is all i’m saying

to paraphrase the hunger games: katara has plenty of fire herself. SHE NEEDS THAT DANDELION IN THE SPRING MAN

(i’m a kataang truther)

Zukka - Zuko/Sokka

9/10

my zuko related otp!!!

bros to lovers guys, where zuko falls first but sokka falls HARDER !!!

ik this will never be canon and im happy with that. i know there’s not even a whisper of romance between them in the show, but i just think it’s c u t e .

sokka (like suki) is very likely to call zuko out on his shit, but less likely to lose his own shit (like katara)

this in my heart of hearts is 10/10 however is still problematic in a similar way to zutara

his mother is killed by the fire nation and he (presumably) becomes consort ?

however though, i would still say it’s not as ruhroh as zutara bc firstly, sokka isn’t a waterbender, and secondly, ‘consort’ is a lot more open to interpretation than i think fire lady is. in my opinion a consort ≠ a fire lady, just like irl a consort ≠ a queen. it kinda means he can still be ambassador to the southern water tribe/a leader of his own people, while just so happening to be married to the fire lord.

overall i can’t help but stan a friends to lover ship cmOn now

[rookflower]

"everyone in mapleshade's vengeance (minus the kits and whatever other exceptions whatever person making this point opts to include) is a bad person" is a take that does indeed work to establish that yes, this is a story piloted by every party with any agency acting out of cruelty and hurting others, and is also an attempt at gesturing towards nuance (or at least, thinking outside of black and white morality. it is in itself a kinda inherently un-nuanced take) within the idea of good vs evil in the story. however where i believe the issue with the phrase lies is in the assertion that the reason why these characters are enacting violence on each other is because of some unique inherent nastiness they were born with or that were predisposed into their character writing rather than addressing that their flaws (while still horrible) are specifically systemically driven.

before she kills ravenwing, mapleshade commits no crime that is worth the persecution she faces, and her mistakes are in fear of facing what she inevitably does. she does not obfuscate information about her childrens' parentage or take them into that river out of malice or uncaring, she does it because she lives in a society that will exile her children in a storm once it finds out that they are illegitimate, and see that she leaves. the birchface thing likely exacerbated her punishment, sure, but she still had no safety net. if it could happen under that circumstance it could happen under any, and that is the tragedy of it. (the bridge-she-couldve-crossed thing is clearly not something the authors remembered or considered so is kind of textually irrelevant)

likewise, frecklewish does not display some unique inherent xenophobia to herself that we don't also see across the timeline from dotc to present, that even characters the writers intend as sympathetic like crowfeather and gray wing will display. this doesn't whatsoever absolve her of culpability, cruelty is cruelty regardless of the source, but it isn't her that is the source of her own hatred, it is the clan system, and her own grief that is amplifying it. "frecklewish wasn't sent to the dark forest for the river thing, it was because she yelled at the kids" is a funny take because yeah to us the readers her violent outburst is clearly her "wrong", but in-universe i really don't think starclan would care LMAO.

now, as with a lot of things in warrior cats that are deeper than the text on page i''m not sure the erins are necessarily consciously Trying to write the clan system as an inherently cruel, violent, and bigoted system- they might very well be throwing in antagonistic characters with the intent that their prejudices and toxic patriotism just form naturally and randomly like mutuations- but as i've said before i do find an interesting parallel between the series' necessity to maintain its status quo and flow of conflict for sake of marketability and series continuation, and the fact that the world in-universe has a code with xenophobia baked into its laws and consistently writes conflicts about the cruelty of the warrior code without ever being able to take steps to major to address and remedy the flaws that lead to this conflict lest it Paint The Clans As The Bad Guys or force them to step too far away from their tried and true formula, so the cycle continues. i think that's the tragedy of mapleshade's vengeance to me- it's a story that occurs because of some pointless interclan war about rocks or whatever else and everything that occurs to mapleshade is done to her by cogs and/or perpatrators of this machine that values compliance and order and clan isolationism. she's a minorly selfish and oblivious person, she isn't born evil. the people that hurt her aren't conniving supervillains, they're just people with the capacity for cruelty given the motivation and the chance. and that's worse, in a way, because they come out on the right side of history and like a dozen generations later squirrelflight and leafpool are going to get put on a trial to go to hell for the same crime that got her exiled, because the system is fucked and the system hasn't changed.

[aliennazero]

☆Headcanon: brother-sister coding, hear me out

I need to get this post done before whatever that will happen in chapter 192. So even if I only got two more days for this theory to be around, I'll be glad that I finally let this out from my chest after a while. So, don't take whatever I will ramble about as something super serious.

First of all, maybe you guys will look at me and says, "what the fuck Alie they're like two different unrelated characters" and while that's true for now and so far, I just... can't really took my eyes off from this "siblings coding" the more I read Chainsaw Man. And I have some reasons and theories why (disclaimer: I did a crazy reach all over the direction) and I found it very interesting.

Reason no. 1: Their First Meeting & Re-occurence

Hirofumi is the first part 1 character that Asa meets (even before Denji). So, I think it's reasonable for me—the reader to be intrigued on what is Fujimoto's plan for their seemingly "not important" (but why be the first?) relationship.

My initial thought is that: oh, they might become friendlier in the future or even become lifelong enemies. Then I remember Hayakawa Family—Aki and Power as the first ever Denji's buddy, specific on Power.

Because even though narratively and character writing-wise Power and Hirofumi are fundamentally different, both of them are written initially to form false narratives that they'll become a token love interest for our protagonist(s) aren't they? They also share a somewhat similar strawberry cake motive, makes me wonder why.

Alsoooo, I think the way Hirofumi & Asa's Devil Hunter Club "date" being portrayed as very differently from Hirofumi + Denji and Hirofumi + Fami "cafe date" (a.k.a. work-related mandated date) is important, somehow.

Reason no. 2: Personal Motives and Untold Family Narratives of Asa Mitaka

We know since the very first time we met her that Asa is very lonely and her motives circling around getting a companion (either a boyfriend or a friend) and living selfishly (which as we can see right now is backfired rapidly, but I'll talk about this separately later, maybe in the future).

However, there's one aspect of her motives that's kinda underlooked, and it's her relationship with family member. Yes, we got a glimpse of Asa and her mom (never with her father so far) and Asa with her lovely pet—Crambon, however they already died years ago, and Asa blame herself for it.

It's unfair that in this world, she still had her family, as they said. So maybe she already gives up on that idea. Which is where the true weights of this headcanon come from. What if, she still could have it? Even though she never asked for this directly. Her getting a family again that she was maliciously accused of unfairly having, could be very nice, actually. Even if it's a very insufferable or a miserable mess workaholic kind of brother (or twin brother).

Reason no. 3: Hirofumi's Motives

This deserves its very own post just like my plan to talks more about Asa's living selfishly motive but to make it simple, Hirofumi lied at the very start because he already formed a parasocial relationship with both Asa and Denji by giving them options to have a somewhat nicer normal life (Denji not becoming Chainsaw Man, and Asa making a distance from Denji to prevent her from turning him into her weapon and thus also prevented her to feel down because of the guilt) even though he knows that another choice never really exist to begin with.

(Asa doesn't necessarily have to be his sister to add more depths to this motive. I just think won't it be very funny if Hirofumi was like collecting information all around, confirming that Asa Mitaka is indeed the incarnation of War Devil in weird case then he took a look at her Koseki then boom they have the same dad!? What the fuck was that. Here comes new responsibility that his father left behind, I guess)

As what we know so far, Hirofumi took his job and his responsibility very seriously and very neat about which one he could improve or "change" for everyone's sake involved. IF Hirofumi and Asa are indeed siblings (or half siblings) however, this gives more explanation on his involvement and his own personal interest. Hirofumi is not easy to read, but he still overshares to Asa (chapter 121 when he agrees on Asa's takes about solitude) and "taking care" of her.

Reason no. 4: Just Take a More Look at Them

Taller than average? Check. More athletic than average? Check. Insane face card? Check. Unbelievable amount of yearning? Check. Arguably suicidal? Check.

Both of them being a human stuck in status quo between human vs devil war like hostages in their own prison—Hirofumi stuck as hollow used cop for Public Safety and Asa stuck as War Devil very own vessel—with absolutely nothing, no one really on their side (Fumiko and Fami as mean of even more control over both of them)? Check.

Even as concept alone, child soldier and war maiden incarnate siblingsm could be developed to be something, very interesting.

Okay, now into more theories territory.....

Theory no. 1: Asa and Hirofumi are the Result of Kishibe Fucking Around and Found Out Post Quanxi Rejection Era

Why Kishibe would do that? Idk but it's a funny math because if Kishibe is in his early 50 now then 17 years ago would be him in his 30s. If Kishibe become devil hunter in his early 20s and meet Quanxi shortly after that and become buddies for 9 years then, the year just lined up lmao. How much chances of them being an oopsies baby thus explaining their very different last names but strangely similar physiques and even narratives? Not zero.

There are two options regarding this though. It's either they're twin siblings or half siblings. Half siblings mean they have different mothers but same dad, and twin siblings mean they have same mother but got separated at some point during their lifetime (Hirofumi went with Kishibe and Asa went with her mama who probably re-marry or just simply raising Asa alone and lying about her dad getting eaten by devil or something because her love story with that drunkard crazy man is just that bad).

Kishibe avoiding child support for 17 years and this is the consequences, also both of them got their ass kicked out by the very same lesbian who rejects their father, I'll say it's a beautiful storytelling.

Theory no. 2: Sinister Look on Vol 17 Cover and "Hirofumi will appear in Asa's Dream"

We will get into a more sinister area here because I believe the Makima-esque vibes, "necessary evil" narratives Hirofumi brought up to the table are not coincidences or neglectable at all. Even more sinister because his cover is him standing in front of alleyway just like how Makima cover is her in front of the door in Denji's dream.

Which led me to think that this could indicate something. However, kinda different on how it was portrayed, I think this make things clear that Hirofumi is not endgame antagonist since his cover came a bit too early than what we—the reader anticipated (there is absolutely no fucking nobody in the fandom that expecting Hirofumi to get a cover during before the cover reveal). However, he might be the key into Asa's end dream reveal later on.

Maybe he will appear on her dream being vague as fuck, or maybe direct her dream into a more "false happiness" directions since all he did is lying (see reason no. 3) to distract her focus on dead chickens. Personally, I think the latter will be more interesting because it will be the opposite of what Makima did in Denji's dream, if this "Hirofumi will appear in Asa's dream sooner or later" theory is true. The government and the church need Asa in her stable conditions to unleash Yoru anyway.

"Then what does this imply into your siblings theory"—because siblings should take care of each other, ideally. And I think it will add more depth, if true of course.

Theory no. 3: Hirofumi Cares About Asa (maybe more than what we see on-screen)

To put on more disclaimer, this is just what I imagine to fill out the gap in between narratives and it connects to reasons number 3 (again). Despite how he positions himself and blending in the crowd like invincible, Hirofumi is actually easy to care and feel guilty too (and the reason why he could kill the Immortal Brother assassin in part 1 is because he has the ignorance privilege, but with both Denji and Asa? Not so much).

I have no strong basis for this theory I just have my own feelings and a dream, and this is basically what I think Hirofumi has done so far for Asa (subtle) in the story:

Hirofumi just let Yuko loose and kill Asa's bullies during Justice Devil Arc. This may sound dark, but it fit his character in a way that he's okay with doing violence as long as it could benefit his mission (and maybe this time his personal interest too). Because he knows Asa got bullied at school. If this could solve her bullying problems, then why not? That's why Hirofumi is just sitting around during the whole fight until Denji interfered.

Hirofumi is the one who brought Asa to hospital after Falling Devil Arc (which is somehow in line for how I think he's Denji blood-giver in the same arc). Because well, I don't think Public Safety cared enough to get her conditions checked, but Hirofumi is aware about her injury conditions (arguably this is so that she could be a bargaining chip for Denji but we know that the main chip is Nayuta, I think Hirofumi just want to let him know just because also let me have this imagination for the sake of this agenda).

The reason why Hirofumi didn't or more likely can't kill Asa during CSM Church Arc is not necessarily just because War Devil has become stronger. Paneling focus on their face's expressions indicate that Hirofumi just can't bring himself more to do so (after he saw Asa's hand and her in pain), thus making him fail this mission to capture War Devil dead or alive. It's the guilt kicking in.

I think Hirofumi is somewhat relieved after he saw Asa's hands are back (yay) in Aging Devil Arc. Also, that's what he put his focus on FIRST after he got vomited out before asking his own situation even.

Personal View and The Main Takeaway (really): I need this to be real just because I think it will be so fucking funny

To end this unbelievably long ass post, I think it's important to note again that they have like five screentime together and I'm just insane. But if I should be honest, this is not me being rational at all, I just think the whole situation would be funny up to seven more factors if my ramblings are true.

Because this headcanon imply that the fandom meltdown towards them (as individuals or as in characters dynamics) is unnecessary at all. Like aside from Hirofumi being read mainly as queer, maybe him acting kind of mean and nonchalantly distant (and somewhat awfully playful) towards Asa are just because he like being petty and doesn't want to look like he wants to bang his sister (as a sister myself, yes I do feel the need to annoy my other siblings whenever I can just because I could and it doesn't have to be hatred, sometimes it's the love aggression kicking in).

Lastly, thank you guys for coming to my yapping ted talks.

[vanrougenui]

may this post find every avemujica fan in good faith idk all my commentary on the anime after episode 11 got blown out of proportion to the point that i got called illiterate multiple times by different people which is very funny because i am someone who always preaches about media literacy... so i am here to make myself clear on everything. why i think what i think and in general why i am so disappointed

my main problem stems with the fact that they made uika and sakiko RELATED. firstly, i have to state that i quite liked uisaki before episode 11 got aired. in fact uika was my favorite character in avemujica. i enjoyed their dynamic and it was very interesting. to me personally, i clearly saw their relationship as something that was romantically coded based off uika's behavior towards sakiko. uika is very clearly obsessed with sakiko and that obsession stems out of love (and trauma and mental illness). from the lyrics of imprisoned xii and to hugging sakiko's preformance outfit and sleeping next to it as if its a pillow and other cases, it was all obsessive behavior because uika loves sakiko, she wants to bind herself to her forever. many people like me thought that it was romantic love and even if it wasnt romantic, seeing how uika acted towards sakiko and then learning that they are related (aka aunt and niece) makes it so weird. i think i have full right to be upset. my complaints come from the fact that they could have handled this so much better and written it in a different way. the genealogy between sakiko and uika just popped out of nowhere and was very much unnecessary.

saying that the anime was always meant to be weird and uncomfortable doesnt help it. when you frame their relationship this way and then turn around and make it incestuous cant be written off as uika just being mentally ill. incest is a very sensitive topic to many people such as myself for example, so this plot point just was unexpected to me and made me feel upset just because of how it was handled.

what makes it all worse is that we know that the writters can do a good job, take mutsumi/mortis and her excellent representation of disassociative personality disorder or take the whole mygo anime for example. its not like they cant write well, hell even in that episode, uika's identity crisis and everything connected to her sister was so interesting, we could have had that twist as itself as we already had uika twin/sister theories circulating from start so it would have made sense at least and further developed her.

queercoding, queerbaiting and then dropping the incest on everyone was vile. it wouldnt have been as bad if they hadnt built this brick by brick just to crash it down. you think uika being related to sakiko added any depth to her character? it sure as hell didnt. and i will keep on thinking this way until its explicitly said that uika lied about something idgaf. "uika is an unreliable narrator" okay then she better be lying about being related to sakiko idk, uika already was a terrifying and interesting character without being sakiko's aunt. this isnt about media literacy, its about being uncomfortable with incest and the fact that people are condemning others for feeling this way is insane. incest just made uika lame and all the other people defending it lamer like i dont know go stand in the corner with your incest ship and think about it

i hope this isnt my last thoughts on this, well until the anime ends that is. which is in two episodes.. i will remain of this opinion most likely until uika proves the whole weaver of lies thing and if its stated that she isnt related to sakiko then great! will i still like uisaki? no and it doesnt mean that i dont like ave mujica or bandori anymore and that i am leaving the fandom. no i am not. just because of incest i will not stop liking the franchise or ave mujica i will just promptly ignore the incest and not pay attention to it or engage with anything relate to it for my own good. it just left a bitter taste in my mouth and i decided to state how i felt, i could have never guessed that people would get offended...

[simpingforcys]

OH, I ASKED THIS ONCE BEFORE, BUT I WILL ASK AGAIN, what's your favorite thing about turbo/king candy

I'm answering this in the late ass time of night but it's the perfect time let's gooo

I. Love. Everything. About. This. Man. I love him so so much. His style, his laugh, his voice, UGH HIS VOICE, movements, goofyness silly, racing, the JOY he takes in everything he does, his SILLY GOOFYNESS AAAAA, the way his crown always stays on his head no matter what, the BOUNCYness of his body at the smallest movement like a jelly, his adorable self, his UNHINGED SELF, the hint of growl in his voice talking about his possession of the game, his effortless and overall LOVE for racing, his eyes constricting/become smaller when he's absolutely pissed tf off, the authority persona he can pull off even in his short ass 3"0 self still so imposing (pant pant), the little patting he does to sour bill like pls my king do to me pls, the manipulative lil SHIT, but he's an entertaining manipulative lil shit, the way he so effortlessly lies through his teeth and makes it believable, the way he can make others do what he wants on just words alone without the need of force cuz he KNOWS physically he can't do SHIT and I fucking LOVE silver tongue characters HHHHHHHHH, speaking of- that tongue THO?? boy what that DO, that lisp I find so so hot just hhhh sir how dare you, I love the sparkles that always just follow him, on his clothes, his kart, his throne, just ALL of him, the way he just HAS FUN with everything he does (not even MENTIONING THE CYBUG EVERYTHING), the added helmet and gloves when he's racing that even Turbo didn't use??? the bow tie twirl it does when he's surprised, he MUST have coded that in, and oh- KNOWING HOW TO FKING CODE, whether someone told him or he learned on his own, being able to manipulative an entire world for YOU, creating a new model/body for himself, like it's TERRIFYING to know your entire existence and even YOUR OWN MIND can be manipulated from a couple of cables just below you and he fully took advantage of that, I love everything of his design, the purple sparkling coat, the candy wrapper bow tie, the heart designed hand cuffs, candy cane neck collar, the POOFY pants<3333, the crown with the balls that look like Ferrero Rocher chocolates, the chocolate dipped design, his jellybean nose<333 my second favorite candy, the purple eye shadow he looks so hot with and add to his for some reason constant bedroom eyes look, the rosy blushy cheeks that perk up when he smiles and giggles, the bushy eyes rows that make him SO expressive with every emotion EVEN WHEN THEYRE OFF COLOR SO OFTEN IN HIS MERCH DEPENDING ON WHAT THEY FEEL LIKE THAT DAY, his smile lines that curve with every smile, how soft his face, skin and lips look and bet they would feel just LOOK, the way his lips sometimes go expressive on the 'ooh's sounds so cartoony but also make me wanna kiss him so much, how soft his hands look even with finger nails cuz of course gotta look chibi and cartoony in the new game, the way he MOVES around with the microphone, TOTAL show off man built for the spotlight, beautiful perfect host like imagine a GAME SHOW WITH HIM AS HOST?? the little hip sway when he closes the door of his kart, the way he dives into his collar when he dodges down so CUTELY, his silly name puns and candy phrases that even pass on to the magic kingdoms game, so on point,

the two tail coats behind him that HONESTLY WORK SO WELL with the later dual cerci tails in his cybug form like a foreshadow, the little button behind his jacket that looks like a Mario coin (and I haven't looked at a picture of him since I opened this ask, this is just by memory he's just Aaaaaaa), the whole white chocolate design aesthetic with his royal racer kart and honestly himself too with the inner shirt, the fact that his "fans" are POPCORN, LIKE THAT'S NOT A CANDY but they're still there even tho like yeah animal crackers aren't candy either BUT ITS SO FUNNY to think Turbo went "I need my own little 'crowd' to fit in with the other racers, uh uh, POPCORN, yeah that was popular in the 80s", the fact he let his jealousy, vain and possessiveness for control get to him to destroy an entire game, like I fully believe he would PHYSICALLY PERSONALLY unplug a game if he could, I just love him so so much, Alan Tudyk, you did amazing with him, I genuinely can not see anyone else that would of taken him and made him AS GOOD AND ICONIC as he did, I just love him so so much, I adore him, I need him, I adore him, and I know it's gone so far when I found myself saying "I would let the world burn for this man," if he told me he hated another game and wanted it gone, disappeared, killing his competition, I would do it for him, anything to have him with me still. I adore everything about him.

And I haven't even gotten to TURBO since he got 24 SECONDS OF 3D SCREEN TIME (YES I COUNTED AND TIMED).

what was the question? oh favorite thing?

I'm very big on voices. so. voice. voice

[akaikali]

TMAGP EP 31 REACTION (SPOILERS)

OH. OKAY. SO WE'RE PICKING UP IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SEASON 1 FINALE. OKAY THEN.

so its just colin's hand??? not his entire body??? i mean, clearly he's become part of the system, right? like im assuming he TURNED into a system, like wires for blood kind of situation???

gwen you absolutely infuriating woman please get fucked (literally) i think it would really do you some wonders. find someone to dom you please im asking nicely it would do you So Much Good

OH. HAND'S GONE. GREAT. COLIN GOT EATEN BY THE COMPUTER AND NOW THE ONLY PROOF THEY HAD OF THAT IS GONE. LOVELY.

OH. OKAY. OKAY WOW. SO. firstly, jmj=null??? its not .jmj error rn??? and also "extension BECHER" so yes colin is become part of the system. and im assume the computer recording we're hearing is from...inside of him or something.

CROWBAR. YOU'RE JOKING. THIS HAS TO BE ON PURPOSE. BRUTAL PIPE URDER VS BRUTAL CROWBAR MURDER. EXCEPT THE CROWBAR WAS KIND OF SELF MURDER.

oh. oh thats. thats fucked. this is so sergey ushanka coded. tessa winters how i miss you my autistic girl with a tech special interest <3

hmmm okay thats strange. "self.host errors resolved" but ".jmj error not resolved"? but also now its like. if what happened to colin happened to jmj and THATS why they're in the system...my poor babies. except for jonah. jonah fucking deserved that.

new administrator permissions assigned?? TO WHO???? COLIN HAD ADMIN PERMISSIONS BEFORE, WHO HAS THEM NOW???? I THINK WHOEVER IT IS PROBABLY HAS FREDDY'S TARGET ON THEM.

"it sounds like the system was...provoked" SHUT UP GWEN YOU ARE SO FRUSTRATING YOU ARE JUST LIKE UR PREDECESSOR (our dear jarchavist)

"no, no, i'm sure we can leave!...Um. Freddie. Can we leave?" gwen i fucking love you, you stupid fucking dumbass <3

so like i also wanna know what alice knows about lena because CLEARLY, she knows that lena would know how to deal with this. also slightly concerned that lena might be dead seeing as she had uh. no exit interview. the government might have just nerfed her.

gwen acting all tough and like she's in charge but immediately running after alice and going "wait, wait for me!" because she's scared of being alone with the murder computer is SO funny

HELLO????? SAM???? MY BOY MY POOR DEAR BOY ARE YOU GOOD?????? listen i know we have mixed opinions on sam but like. come on. the man still fought off the archivist to protect celia when it came after her.

repeated by something. why is that underlined in the transcript. are there...are there like tape recorder creatures. is that whats happening here.

celia. celia honey no. i know you've got a kid and everythin but like sam is NOT okay. my girl, you sacrificed him and used him. and on top of all of that, you've lied to alice about all of this. this is going to end so badly.

"i...recognized it from a case" celia honey i know you can lie better than that. come on. you know alice does NOT believe that.

OH. THATS NOT FUN. THE PHOTOCOPIER PRINTING COLIN'S FACE EVEN WHEN UNPLUGGED. YEAH THAT IS VERY VERY SERGEY UNSHANKA. LOVING THAT. but also honestly valid coping mechanism alice you gotta make the dark jokes or you will break down.

IM SORRY YOU HAVE TO WHISTLE SOMETHING HAPPY TO MAKE THE ECHO MONSTERS LEAVE??? AND SAM CHOOSES FUCKING CIRCUS MUSIC??? "Not circus music, you cretin!" PLEASE IM DYING THIS IS SO FUNNY okay greensleeves is somewhat better.

OH MY GOD ITS GEORGIE ITS WIFE SHE'S BACK I MISSED YOU MY GIRLLLL she's always here for celia i love her. i think she knows whats going on. vaguely.

"But I just want you to know I think things are looking up. All going well, this should be the last zero-notice call out" "We'll see" GEORGIE WHAT DO YOU KNOWWWWW

"i want a solicitor" oh honey :((( even after being dragged into another dimension he first asks for a lawyer. i don't know if that was intentional but with him clearly being a brown man :((((

GEORGIE???? SHE'S. WHAT. CAPTAIN OF THE WARDENS???? "lacks the military mannor one might expect" IS THIS OUR TMA GEORGIE???? WHAT??????????????

"you got a ride in Gertrude" A RIDE IN WHAT NOW???? ARE YOU TELLING ME THEY NAMED A FUCKING TANK OR SOMETHING AFTER GERTRUDE????? okay wait if this is TMA verse then melanie would be around and melanie knows about gerrtrude's explosives so that. checks out actually.

oh celia. celia your web of lies is going to come back to haunt you. i know you cant tell them but at the same time they are going to find out the truth eventually and alice might straight up chuck you into the "tear" herself.

"licensing issues?" alice i love you never change

"How convenient that your only proof is sat in an inbox I can’t read in case it tries to eat me." "It did not 'eat' Colin! The system just… responded to an attack." "By eating Colin." dyhard how i adore you.

OHHHH ARCHIVIST CREATURE FOLLOWED SAM WE KNEW THIS OFC FROM THE TRAILERRRR

okay so. wait. is. was heidi a watcher???? like when the eyepocalypse happened, was she touched by the eye? like she seems like what i would have expected to happen to someone like amy patel.

oh my god we're getting to find out what LONDON was like during the eyepocalypse. whatever the creatures that were hunting down georgie, melanie, and their little cult was. oh my god.

OKAY SO THIS IS DEF TMA-VERSE "Not when the tower fell and the eye closed. Not when the pupil collapsed and the Archivist died, his face still burned into my mind." BUT ALSO FUCK ME NOOOOO IS JARCHAVIST REALLY DEAD NOOO NO NO HE'S SOMEWHERE ELSE I AM IN DENIAL HE'S ELSEWHERE HE AND MARTIN ARE LIVING IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE HAPPY IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

oh heidi. bye bye heidi.

WOW WHAT A START TO THE SEASON. WE GOT SO MUCH. I HAVE NEVER SAID "WHAT THE FUCK" THIS MANY TIMES IN A ROW BEFORE. GERTRUDE IS A VEHICLE NOW. WHAT THE FUCK.

[snailsgoingdowntown]

Intrigued With You

I ii iii iiii

Yandere! Pinocchio x Fem! Mechanic! Reader

Warnings: Implied toxic familial relationship, unbalanced power dynamics between the reader and Geppetto, very slight mental breakdown, slowly going into a downwards spiral, paranoia, mentioned past violence and stalking. When the full game comes out, this work may be completely different from the actual game. Please tell me if I missed any.

This blog contains/creates/interacts with dark content.

Minors/blank blogs/blogs that don’t reblog any fan art or fan fiction DNI.

Word count:3096k

Over all story summary: Your uncle’s puppet takes a bit too much of an interest in you: in which you fucked up in this chapter.

==

The public’s opinion of you started to go downhill since then.

It’s been a week, and while most of the citizens won’t throw rocks or stalk you, they still stare – glares that are sharper than a knife, cutting deep into your arteries. You could practically feel the blood oozing out, a puddle forming underneath you as you stood on the stage, heart threating to explode any second now. The crowd just stares, and the puppet next to you cheers. How funny. The damn puppet is offering you more support than the intended audience.

Your foot taps against the wood. Your head throbs and you hold back a scream. You’re a monkey in a circus and they’re throwing peanuts at you.

“Hello everyone. I am here today to introduce a new, and improved, Nanny Puppet, upgraded with new codes and everything.” Your smile is strained, some of the people cheering with others sitting in silence. Seems as though some are genuinely interested and perhaps even excited about the new developments.

Glancing at your uncle who rests behind the curtains to the side, he nods his head.  But most of his attention was on the puppet rather than you. “And it even comes with settings you can adjust yourself at home.”

The Nanny cheers again, robotic, and staticky still. So lifeless, its entire being written on a script. But as you look over the crowd on the wooden stage, head light and heart thumping like thunder, you feel the same. From the way you are standing, to the wave of your hands and your words, is all scripted.

A script written by your uncle.

“Now, come,” you gesture to The Nanny, and it listens, turning its back towards the crowd as you stand next to it. There’s buttons and latches, and you undo them all, with a quick ‘sorry,’ uttered into its ‘ear.’ A habit you picked up from the years of working with your uncle.

And with the rise of malfunctions, part of you thinks it’s for the best. Pretend you’re sorry to them, and maybe when everything goes south, they’ll take pity on you. Paranoia doesn’t look good on you, you realize, showing the audience the off switch, the lights in its eyes dimming as it turns off. This wasn’t a new feature.

But the kill switch is.

“As you can see, the power switch is still enabled, even in these new models. So, don’t worry about that, but!” you bring out a control panel from your waistcoat pocket. It’s small enough to fit in your hand, and on the black surface lies a red button, a little glass cap covering it. To prevent any accidental touches. You grip it a little too hard.

“This right here is a kill switch. Now, I’m not going to press it,” your thumb rubs circles over the cap. You can’t find it in you to force another smile, mentally and physically drained from everything. “But the moment you press it, the puppet will immediately shut down… but it won’t turn on again, either.”

There’s some ‘ooo’s’ and ‘awe’s,’ but the silence of the rest is what puts you on edge. They’re most likely the protesters. You wouldn’t be surprised if this stage would set fire any minute now. You shudder at the thought. Another glance at your uncle – he nods, again.

But his eyes are still mostly focused on the puppet. You can’t tell if it is in interest, hope, or disappointment. Just like how you can’t tell if there’s still warmth in his eyes when he looks at you.

“How does it work?”

You blink, off guard. A woman raised her hand, curious eyes drilling into you. You prepared yourself for this, practicing in front of a mirror for hours on end. You got this. You need to. You might fall apart otherwise.

“So, essentially, it – “

“Or, how about you don’t make them at all? The puppets, I mean.” A man speaks up, hat hiding his gaze, but you feel the hatred and frustration radiating off him in waves. You prepared yourself for this too. But reality still sends you reeling back mentally, the thought of rocks being thrown, or stage set on fire. At least he pretends to be respectful, even with his group frowning at you.

Your body trembles the slightest bit.

“Oh – um… I understand where you come from. It’s… it can be difficult to see use in the puppets, but they’re mostly here for when you can’t do something or need extra help…” you can’t tell if you’re lying to him or saying the truth – it’s all part of the script. And truthfully, you agree with him.

You just keep your mouth shut on the matter.

“They’re taking our jobs, you know? Oh wait, you probably don’t – you’re well-off, producing and selling these… things.” The same man shakes his head before pushing others out of his way – he stops just shy of an inch before the stage. “You don’t have to worry about them stealing your job. For now, at least.”

He adjusts his hat, and the contempt in his eyes is so heavy you’re on the verge of drowning. You swallow. You do know, you do, but it’s not like you could do anything. You already tried, you tried, but talking doesn’t work and –

“Alright, alright, I think that’s enough for now.” Your uncle comes out, places a hand on your shoulder. It feels more restricting than comforting. “It’s been a rather long day for everyone, hasn’t it? The sun is going down, and dinner time is drawing near. Same place and time tomorrow, as it was yesterday and today.”

Unlike you, he sounds confident. Gentle, but firm, and yet, you’re starting to grow more wary of him than the protesters. You wish you could hurry and pick a side. Money or no money, everything was starting to seem more futile, meaningless. You want to live under a rock.

Live under a rock and become separated from your job. You tap your foot more aggressively, biting your lip once your back is turned to the crowd. Your hands twitch even with the control in your hands.

He doesn’t leave room for debate, guiding you on the shoulder to walk down the stage and to his little personal workshop. The police – puppets, again – prevent anyone from getting close. You weren’t here yesterday; it was just him. Did he go through the same thing? Is that why he’s so calm, so natural about it?

Or was he always like this? Disconnected from everything that did not concern his work, his dreams? His puppet, his –

“… Uncle,” you fiddle with the control in your hands. “Did anyone accompany you yesterday?” You can’t find it in you to look at him. Can’t even talk properly, no matter how hard you try to accept everything, like you should. It’s expected of you. And maybe it is because of that, that you can’t find yourself willing to do so.

“Mm. Howard did. It was a welcomed surprise.” He chuckles low in his throat, adjusting his hat as you make way home. Guilt immediately starts to boil within, your heart squeezing painfully as your throat closes in on itself. “He’s a fine young man indeed.”

“He is, isn’t? Such a nice young man…” you agree, nodding your head, ignoring the gnawing at your chest. You care about him, dreadfully so, to the point it was horribly painful. Which was why you tried to keep him out of your business.

But he was just so stubborn.

“Hm,” he takes a glance at you; eyes shifting from one side to another. You see it but don’t think much of it. But even so, you can’t ignore the lack of warmth in his gaze. “I heard he’s been visiting you more often now. Are you two perhaps…?”

“No! No, it’s not like that. It won’t ever be like that again.” You laugh, shaking your head. You fidget with the control more. You look down at your hands – scars and light burns decorate them like tattoos. No longer as ‘pretty’ as society would like to describe.

The though brings out a laugh.

“It just won’t work out.”

“How come?” He sounds interested, but not in a caring way – it was in a way that made you feel like a test subject. “You were such a great pair. He would have made an excellent son-in-law for your parents.”

You grit your teeth. “Yeah. He would have. But that’s neither here nor there; it’s in the past. And it will forever remain in the past.” Your face feels hot – anger? Shame? Annoyance and irritation jabbing at every corner of your very being, you try your best to remain stoic about the conversation. Even if you subconsciously know he’s taking a jab at you.

Even though he has no reason to.

You were sure of it now – all of the warmth that was inside your uncle was slowly becoming cold. Was he always this type of man? Cold? Disconnected from everything? But surely, there was still some left for you, right?

A faint chuckle. “I apologize – I shouldn’t have brought up the subject. I wasn’t aware that it was still a touchy subject.” His fingers dig into your shoulder before his grip loosens. He pats it twice before fully letting you go, turning his head to smile at you.

You think it was meant to be gentle. “It’s fine. It was my fault for… assuming you had other intentions by bringing it up.” It’s a lie. It wasn’t fine, and you both know that. But it should be okay, because he’s a man you consider to be your uncle, and of course uncle Geppetto always wants what’s best for you. It would crush you if he didn’t.

“Mm, that’s the spirit. Don’t let anything drag you down.” You’re at his personal workshop now, the wind picking up. It’s getting colder. The leaves are starting to fall more and more, flowers wilting as the days go by. Just like you.

“Now then, I hope you take great care of him. I have other business to attend to, but I wanted to make sure you made it back safe and sound.” Your uncle gives you exactly two pats on the back. Adjusting his glasses, he turns to look at you, smiling.

Smiling, smiling, smiling – it’s all he does. It’s what unnerves you the most. It’s what the citizens hate about him. It’s what unarms your family. It’s what feels the most inhuman about him.

“Yes, of course,” you reply, nodding your head. Your fingers start scrapping against the control gently. Foot tapping, you attempt to smile. “I would never harm… it. It is also my project, you know?”

It wasn’t.

“Mm, yes, of course. Thank you for all your hard work.” And with a tilt of his hat, he’s off – you watch his retreating back, the muscles with every movement. You just realized he could easily overpower you.

Your fingers dig harder into the control until you can feel your fingernails digging into your own flesh. You wonder if he would turn against you if you were to abandon this job field.

--

Two hours and forty minutes.

That’s how long you have been tampering with the legion arm – your uncle begged you to stop calling it a mechanical arm – greasing it, tightening the screws, making sure that the fingers curl just like a real hand would. And of course it did – it should, especially since nearly all your paychecks and funds go into this puppet and not your own personal life.

Two hours and forty minutes, plus two months and you’re barely about to be done with this damn thing. You finished two other ones before this, but even then, you might have to ‘fix’ them. Make sure that they’re up to your uncle’s very high standards.

“Fuck… why am I even working on this thing? This is the least of our concerns, not to mention – ow, fuck!” In your hurry to get another type of screwdriver, you pushed over a failed ‘heart’ test dummy. It lands directly on your foot, causing you to drop everything else as you hold it with your trembling hands.

They were doing that more often. “Wow, okay, great. Sure, let’s just let everything fall on you. God, I’m going crazy. I might turn into a menace before the protesters and puppets do.” Running a hand through your hair, you pace back in forth, biting your free thumb.

Every time you enter this godforsaken place, your sanity dwindles bit by bit. “Okay, let’s calm down – my foot isn’t bleeding, I think. I should… I should take a break.” Despite your words, you go back to working – picking up the old ‘heart’ and placing it back on the messy table.

Research papers messily stacked at a corner, puppet parts scattered all over, grease stains on the wood. The table wears scratch marks like medals of honor. Pausing for a moment, you walk to the far-right side of the table, picking up the papers and placing them into a clean square bin on the floor. You kick it to some random corner of the workshop.

The urge to rip them to shreds is, in a way, comforting. If those were gone, how could you continue on? They even had blueprints. Nails dig into your palms at the thoughts. Not harsh enough to draw blood, however.

“Hm, I should clean up… but what’s the point? Everything gets scattered again, uncle moves the parts to the most random of places, Howard ends up losing them… so much to do, such little time.”

Ranting to yourself, you stomp to the table again, picking up the new and ‘official’ heart for the puppet. You remember putting it elsewhere. In a drawer. Safe and sound.

And yet, it was on this stupid, stupid table –

“Are they trying to kill me?” you mumble out, on the verge of pulling out strands of your hair. “Not only that, but the fact I could have been harmed today… he knows they already threw stones at me, why make me appear in public again? Why get on the wooden stage that could easily be consumed by fire?”

Without thinking, you stride over to the puppet sitting on the red plush chair. When you’re shy a few inches from it, you take a moment to admire its beauty – the eyes were closed. Long eyelashes that cast shadows onto pale, freckled ‘skin.’ The carob brown hair still looked as soft as ever, with messy curls that remind you of his hair back when he was younger.

Back when everything was normal. Gentler times where warmth wasn’t forced into honeyed words, when you weren’t so scared of being beaten to death. When everything was fine. Happy.

It was missing the left arm – the legion arm. You cast a glance behind you, spotting the arm on the table. That’s the one he wants to put on for now. The most simple, basic one, no complicated functions, no paint, just metal. You decide to leave it.

Turning to face the puppet again, tilting your head, you really take in its appearance; it has an average body type. Maybe a bit more on the lean side, but aside from the pretty face and missing arm, it looked human. It looked normal.

And that’s what scares you.

“…,” against your better judgement, your hand reaches out. Fingertips graze against the cheeks, feeling how cold and smooth it was. It’s flawless compared to your hand. You pause to see if the puppet will move at your touch. When it doesn’t, you bring your hand up, taking a closer step to it. The hair was soft, fluffy. It didn’t feel fake like it should.

It felt real.

“… I shouldn’t be doing this. Hah. I really am going crazy.” The thread that was holding your sanity together was close to snapping. Again, against your better judgement, you act on impulse. Unbuttoning the white button-down, you feel your heart drop at how… human it looks.

But upon closer inspection, there was a thin line, forming a square across the chest. There was a little screw, the opening to inside of the chest. Huffing, you dig into your overcoat pocket, retrieving the specific screwdriver – your uncle makes you carry it like a lifeline. However, you are not sure if he thought it through – what if someone mugged you?

Your hand hesitates as you hold the screwdriver, hovering by the opening. The ‘heart’ was still in your hands. It starts to beat slowly, almost as if coming to life. “… Uncle might kill me if I mess with his favorite puppet…”

Instead of heeding your own words, you open the chest cavity, placing the screwdriver back into your pocket. You’ve seen it before; hollow, wires connecting with each other and to the sides. There’s a small open space where a human heart would be. You look at the one in your hand before nodding your head.

You were acting rebellious, in a way. And it may very well lead into your downfall, either being killed by a puppet going haywire or by your uncle’s red, blinding rage.

You hesitate before gently putting the ‘heart’ into its assigned area. Connecting the wires to it, patting it, watching as it starts to glow, beating steadily. You did not think twice about your actions. After a second, you close it, screwing it shut before walking serval steps away.

Nothing happens.

“Hah… ha-ha, what was I thinking? I went from zero to a hundred within a few minutes… I should take a few days off. Maybe even a week…” chuckling to yourself, you rub your head. You’re getting a migraine. Much be too much caffeine, that coffee would eventually kill you.

Turning around, you walk away from the puppet, heading towards the door to get some fresh air. To force some sanity back into your head before you scream your lungs out and pull out every single strand of your hair out. The longer you stay here, the worse you become.

Creak.

You stop in your tracks, blood turning cold. No. surely not – your eyes widen when you realize how stupid you are. You were dumb enough to connect the wires to the heart. But! When your uncle did that, this didn’t –

You turn your head around so fast you almost snap your neck. Your heart drops.

It opens its eyes, and the first thing it sees is you.

tag list:

@ijustreblogstuff-i-like @chiofany @quzbea @cute-angi

@nealcaffrey2129 @connorsoddsock

@rositabluemoon

[yunazxxx]

pairing ≫ meret manon x sophia laforteza

content warnings ≫ angsty as fuckkkk/but kinda fluffy, cheating , lying , manipulation , gaslighting , mental issue topics (selfharm, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempting, etc?) , drug usage (xanax) , alcohol addictiction, overdosing , daniela hates sophia, kinda danon too?? ,, etc maybe?

word count ≫ 2.4k almost 2.5k

author talks ≫ again another fic where i do not condone anything that takes place and if you are struggling with anything thats in the mentions, please remember that you are loved and there’s help out there for you. — this was kinda heavy for me to write too because a lot of it hit home but like yeah! have a nice read and remember theres srsly people out there for you to help however and whenever you need it.

—

"who is this" manon said, giggiling with sophia while she laid on her lap. "my friend, jen!" sophia exclaimed through her giggles. manon slid off of sophia, "can i meet herrrr?" manon was pretty clueless to exactly what jennifer's and sophia's relationship was, or really — she thought they were just friends and only, friends.

for the first she really had nothing to worry about, or never suspected anything between the two until sophia started cancelling things for jennifer or started getting more distant, which manon first suspected it as just her being really busy.

it started bothering manon too much for her to just stay quiet, one night while sophia was over and taking a shower, manon tried opening her phone and it was only four possible passwords, her birthday, sophia's own birthday, their anniversary, or her dogs birthday.

when none of those worked, manon furrowed her eyebrows. the black haired woman appered from the bathroom, "did it go off?" she asked about her phone, and manon just nodded, "i don't know if it was a call or anything, i can't get in" she said and lookd at sophia.

"oh, yeah i changed my password a while ago" and manon looked at her funny, "and why did you do that?" and sophia lied, "just changed the way the numbers are arranged, only because my friend guessed the password too easily"

manon just let it go, believing this lie from her girlfriend because she didn't feel like fighting her, "just get in bed soon" manon said and left the room, confusing sophia. she grabbed the brunette's wrist before she left, "where are you going?"

"downstairs, the door bell rung not that long ago" and sophia nodded, walking to the closet to finish getting dressed, while manon made her way down. no one was actually at the door, the doorbell was never rung actually, manon just wanted to get away from sophia.

she stayed downstairs, going to the kitchen and grabbing one of their many bottles of wine inside of the kitchen. she was gonna grab a glass but decided against it, going to the couch and drinking it out of the bottle.

she didn't even take her time while drinking it, chugging the whole bottle down and since she was such a lightweight she was drunk but she still made it her mission to leave that night. "sophhh hehehe" manon called out for her girlfriend who came down the stairs, "yeah?"

"gonna go out for a bit" manon slurred her words, which made sophia shake her head, "uh no, come upstairs, that's not a good idea" but manon tried getting away from her, sophia picked her up while she kept throwing a fit, carrying her upstairs.

"babe, you're drunk, you can't go out." sophia said, her voice stern, "bet you'd like me to though, so you could fuck jennifer" which took sophia by suprise, "what?" was all the black haired woman could get out.

"why is your" manon said, her voice way more clear now, "password different?" and sophia repeated what she said before, "its none of the four possible passwords. what is it?" and sphia froze, "its just the numbers changed up"

"you said that but never gave the code" manon said, staring at sophia, "come on you know" and sophia gave her the code, manon stood up, "fuck this" she said and left going downstairs. sophia followed behind her, "don't fucking follow me"

manon left outside and sat on the doorstep, she started breaking down, crying uncontrollably. manon's hands shook as she picked up her phone, dialing her friend's number. — they talked for a small while and she drove over to pick up manon.

"h-hey" manon's voice broke as she spoke, and the blonde woman sat beside her, "what happend this time?" she pulled the bunette, letting rest her head on her shoulder. "i don't know dani — her phone, she.." manon started hyperventilating as she spoke so daniela looked her, held her hand a they did breathing excersises.

"can i tell you this?" daniela asked, and manon nodded, "she's not good for you, this, and you haven't taken off this sweater or not worn a long sleeve in the last month. why?" manon looked around, trying to come up with a good excuse but she couldn't.

"it's just been really cold insde" which daniela agreed with, "but when it's hot and you're sweating, you still have them on?" and manon tried lying again but that guilt quickly ate at her, "okay... dani just, please don't freak out?"

daniela eyes softened looking at her best friend with worry, "yes? i won't freak out, what's wrong?" and manon slowly pulled her sleeves back, "this is why" and daniela could feel her eyes twitching while she was felt with both rage and hurt.

"m-manon, you? ...why?" daniela didn't know what to say, she could barely react senseble because she knew who was the cause of this. "it was just to controll the pain, you know because of life and whatnot.." manon said as she covered them back up, what bothered daniela even more aside from the fact they were there is that fact they were so fresh. — like she had just done them..

"when did you last.... you know?" manon looked daniela in her eyes, "i don't even know, i— i've been drunk and high for the last month easy, and i haven't felt anything" manon admitted which broke daniela's heart, she hated seeing her best friend go through this with someone.

it wasn't her first relationship like this and it scared daniela even more that it wouldn't be manon's last, while the pair spoke, a car pulled up. one with an all too familiar license plate, the silver metalic door from the car opened, a tall raven haired woman appearing from the car.

her outfit looked, slutty, like a late night link up. manon and daniela looked up at this woman while she walked closer to the door, the clicking of her heels hitting the concrete was the only sound that came from outside, "hey, you two must be the maids, is sophia inside?"

daniela tilted her head, looking at the woman, "excuse the fuck out of me? who are you talking to?" she began to look around, and the girl smiled awkwardly, "hello? you? the fuck" daniela stood up, and looked the woman on her eyes, "listen, i don't know whatever impression that no-good, cheating, lying scumbag has you under but it's not true."

and the girl looked at her, "oh you must be the crazy ex, ok.. and she is?" pointing to the brunette woman, making manon scoffed, "lets just go dani" manon could feel her friends energy becoming more aggressive the longer she spoke to this girl, she walked with daniela leaving, "yeah, she's in there, just knock"

manon and daniela got inside of the car and daniela took a deep breath, "are you okay", manon asked, her hand sliding over daniela's, "are you okay?", daniela looked into manon's soft brown orbs, the pain and hurt speaking louder than her words would, "yeah, yeah... i-i'm fine" she tried laughing it off, slowly nodding looking away while a tear fell down her cheek.

daniela placed her hand on maon's shoulder, "let's just go over to my place for a while and we'll see what we can do tomorrow, okay?" and manon nodded. daniela quickly drove back to her house, trying to calm herself down while manon was slightly dozing off in the passenger seat.

twenty minutes of driving finally became worth it when daniela finally made it to her home, as she pulled into her driveway she tried waking up the older but she wouldn't wake up, given how late it was, it was no surprise she was sleeping and didn't wake up as easily but when daniela parked her car and tried waking her up, she didn't move again.

manon wasn't a heavy sleeper which made daniela start worrying, she looked at her friend and noticed her chest wasn't moving properly, she placed two fingers on manon's wrist, noticing she didn't feel a pulse.

daniela shook as she called the ambulance, her voice breaking as she spoke to the operator and after she was told help was on the way she still did what she could to wake manon but she had no luck.

manon was rushed to the hospital and daniela sped her car up behind them, she was crying, her heart was racing, she didn't care about anything else, she wanted to make sure her friend would be okay. once they made it to the hositial, they rushed manon to the back and began hooking her to ivs and monitoring her heartbeat while someone was outside asking daniela what happened.

"i-i..... i don't know" daniela got out through choked up sobs, "i know she had alcohol tonight but it never does that to her" and the nursing assistant nodded, she hugged daniela and told her that they'll do their best to save manon.

while manon was in the back, the doctors found obvious traces of xanax, an amount enough to make someone overdose. the surgeons pumped manon's stomach and had someone keep a watch on her and her vitals.

they were in the hospital for two days total, daniela told their other friends, lara and megan were the only two who could come out the three that she told. when lara looked at daniela she noticed how puffy her eyes were, how tired and sickly she looked.

while they spoke to each other, the doctor came out and asked for daniela, telling her that manon is awake and better now to be discharged but she would need to be put on suicide watch, meaning more time in the hospital.

daniela ran in there and hugged the brunette, her heart feeling out so heavy she eneded up crying feeling her best friend's pulse again. "i'm so so sorry dani." manon weakly said but daniela shook her head, "no no no please, don't apologize. i'm so happy you're alive" daniela said as tears ran down her face almost uncontrollably.

she gave manon a weak smile and mano smiled back at her, daniela sat in the room with manon for a while before another knock came at the door, emerging a ginger woman and a redhead. they ran over to hug manon, the tears starting again.

after they spoke a bit, the doctors came in, with a big smile on their face. "lookin good there, miss bannerman. so, about your health, drink lots of fluids and stay away from alcohol for a while" the doctor said and also gave a few other things for manon to do, even offering her to get some therapy for whatever the issue may be.

after a few more days, manon was allowed to be discharged, the second she walked out of that door, daniela was standing there with a proud smile on her face. they went to daniela's house to shower and change, and after they left, daniela drove manon to a nice cat cafe.

after almost a whole week since the last time sophia had see manon, she still hadn't called or contacted her in any attempt, not even her friends. while they were at that at cafe, they saw sopia with jennifer. they were smiling and laughing like nothing happened, dani wanted to go over there so bad but she didn't.

she ordered hers and manon's drinks while the brunete played with the cats, daniela pulled out her phone and took some pictures and videos of manon while she played, sending them to their friends telling them manon was doing better.

while she was on her phone, she texted sophia — @danis_zini : why didn't you check on manon throughout this whole week? she tried to kill herself ffs

@sophia_laforteza : i've been busy, i'm sorry. how's she been? — daniela scoffed reading this, before texting again, @danis_zini : she's doing better now, could you come see her — @sophia_laforteza : yeah, sure

daniela looked over to their table, seeing sophia standup, she was sure sophia was lying to jennifer too, not that she cared. daniela watched as the black haired woman inched closer to their table, “hi soph" she stopped dead in her tracks, hearing daniela's voice.

manon had left over to grab their drinks, when she returned she saw sophia. "hi baby, how are you" sophia said manon looked at daniela handing her the drink she ordered, "they said it would be a little while longer for the desserts." and daniela noded.

sophia looked aound, "hello?" and manon sighed, "why are you here?", "i head about what happended" and manon scoffed, "bet you still didn't even care" and sophia's brows furrowed, "baby.." she attempted to reach for manon's hands but the brunette retracted them.

"don't call me baby, call jennifer that." and sophia shook her head, "she's just a friend, you know that" and the blonde woman scoffed, "okay i can't do this anymore, stop fucking playing stupid. you know that bitch isn't a friend to you, you treat her like your girlfriend more than you treat your actual girlfriend." daniela said, throwing her drink at sophia.

shocking manon and everyone inside, "you're fucking terrible, she gave you everything but you still chose to run to be with a slut. someone who's literally slept with everyone in the whole city." daniela stood up, trying to keep her voice low but she couldn't help it the more mad she became.

she wanted to fuck sophia up so bad but she fought herself and just said, "fuck you" going to the front conter and apologizng to the workers and everyone else inside. daniela payed them extra, even though they kept declining daniel had a guilty conscious and she couldn't just leave knowing se ruined others experineces and the wokers had to do extra work because of her.

her and manon left not long after that, daniela went to the park, her and manon just enjoying a nice walk through the sunny sky but cool weather, they stayed until it was evening, returnig to daniela's house to see their friends threw a "welcome home" party for manon.

sophia had tried contacting manon since earlier, but she was blocked, muted, and deleted. manon enjoyed the paty, everyone had hand writen notes for manon reminding her that she does have a support system, she sat on daniela's lap due to the lack of space in the main room.

everyone had brought so much stuff for her, manon could honestly only cry due to the happiness she felt after so long of just emptiness.

[99redragons]

Wow, I agonized over this post way too long. Here it is, finally. I was gonna make this a reblog but i think since it's referencing multiple posts (and boy it got super long and added a related theory) this is better on its own. This is furthering @gin-juice-tonic's analysis of the tBoB journal pages. Heavy tBoB spoilers, and warning for the darker content it has. (some swearing too) I'm convinced now they're a warped version of events and downright fake for some, however, I believe many are real.

...But did Ford remember them? "I can delete memories randomly, just for fun. Maybe I already have." I do NOT think Bill could erase everything. He probably can only erase small/recent sections. But this is a big part of my theory.

But first, Gin's points. (using some of your pics for this Gin, hope you dont mind) I'm not going to post every journal page, but I'll give a ref for ones that seem important.

Okay, this is the post that actually convinced me (went through the links from tapas, the first is sure suspicious, but the second has pretty compelling evidence.) Ford referred to Fiddleford as F through the whole of journal 3 (aside from in code), and Bill as his Muse until the reveal, he wouldn't suddenly change the way he refers to people, even if he planned to rip out the pages, in which case, why would you write them in the first place?

On the first link (this one), this appears to be an embellished story. When you look at it from bill's perspective, he's reminiscing. He lies to himself. He's making it seem like Ford and Bill hit it off immediately, and while in a way, they did, it probably wasn't like this. I'll buy Ford used Cipher's line back at him, but the jovial way they banter is just so Bill. Ford would emphasize how he felt, the mysteries he was thinking about, his reverence for his Muse. He probably wouldn't recount it line for line when he was so secretive in journal 3. Bill makes it seem like they were more like equals, when in reality he likely relished the devotion and divine status Ford attributed to him. Also, "Cipher Speaks" is in Bill's handwriting from the sticky notes. could be coincidence? I think not. 'Ford' also describes it as the "GREATEST. DAY. OF MY LIFE." This mirrors bill's earlier statements about the reader's life being forever changed after meeting bill. According to Bill, meeting him is the highest moment of anyone's life, right?

In an additional post, Gin explains how Bill didn't tell Ford he was from another dimension. Ford had to find that out at the betrayal. So, all this taken, those two pages at least are fake.

For the third link, this one, while from Doylist perspective, Alex wanted the book to have fun little callbacks, from Watsonian, Bill simply can't help himself. Bill loves trying to be funny. He's trying to keep the reader hooked, and keeping the story interesting through callbacks is one way to do that. Some of these are Bill, some are self-referential because Bill's talking about real events from the past. (rats, cipherite suit, Small World cassette, we'll get to those later)

Bill has a habit of telling the truth through his lies. What I mean by that is, if he is repeating himself through actions or words, it's probably because there's some truth to it. If he's contradicting himself, there's something he's hiding. He'll claim he has no weaknesses, but later admit he does. He'll say he has no exes, only to reference exes later. So, we can glean truths from the lies he's telling in the pages.

I think Alex is a good enough writer to keep Ford and his writing (mostly) in character. He's made retcons/continuity errors before, but he knows the fandom will pick apart everything and find them, and will have a reason for it. There's definitely some fake pages, which begs the question, which are real?

One detail I want to point out is the vignette/burn marks on the edges of some of the pages. My secondary theory is about these. (And no, it doesn't indicate they were fake.) I'll explain later.

Assumptions/disclaimers: The pages we're shown are roughly chronological, though skip forward where surviving J3 pages would go. Pages aren't realistically double-sided like they would be in J3, these are inserted into tBoB magically. I don't have a blacklight version of J3, so I'm probably missing a little bit of context there. References J3 quite a few times, so this post works best if you are able to reference both books. I can go into detail and post more pictures for any sections that aren't clear.

First off, 'Lost in the woods'. This one I believe is real, because Ford's (author's cipher) codes are in it. This code is consistently used in the book whenever Ford inserts a page, even on the moth. For Bill to use this code would break the established pattern Alex has made. However, I agree with Gin that Bill intentionally placed this page to establish Ford as lonely, and thus make Bill look better for befriending him in contrast. I don't think it's that odd for Ford to talk about his social awkwardness, he talks about his childhood bullying pretty frankly, specifically on a page meant to be an author's About Me. However, he did rip this one out, so I think he was trying to ignore his feelings by hiding this page. No vignette.

'Cipher speaks', as we've discussed, is likely a fake/altered meeting. Vignettes on both pages. On the second page you can see where it looks burnt in one corner, and there's even tear marks like there's a page missing there, perhaps their real first meeting. It's also strange for Ford to draw himself like that.

'My Muse & Me'- Ford refers to Bill as his Muse again. Despite my doubts (I went back and forth on this one), I think this one has to be real. We find on the website computer (code: Fordtramarine) that Ford tried to submit a paper on fordtramarine. In that paper he refers to an 'extradimensional entity' and 'two-dimensional'. He shouldn't know that Bill is interdimensional at this point, so Ford must mean 'outside of physical reality', as in, the astral plane. Though, there's a painting of 'a muse' in the paper. Wasn't Bill supposed to be secret? Perhaps he thought he could get away with that small reference? Perhaps this paper was submitted more recently? I don't like the idea that things from the website are also fake, since it would be strange for Bill to have such narrative control there. The website seems to reveal things Bill can't control, even if Bill is talking. This page also establishes more timeline. This is saying that not only could Bill freely move in and out of Ford's mind within a year, he had full access to alter it as well, ahead of their deal before the test. This page is probably to make it seem appealing to let Bill into your mind. It also serves a purpose of showing us Ford had let Bill fully into his mind at this point in the story Bill's weaving. I am curious why would Ford hide this only to submit a paper on it, just to keep his Muse secret? And those damn red triangles, did Bill draw those, implying he could possess Ford before their deal? No burns/vignette. The neighboring pages both have it, why not this one?

June 15th- There is direct dialogue from Bill quoted, however, he refers to Bill as his Muse. Wouldn't Ford be creeped the hell out by the rat thing, and be alarmed that Bill possessed things just to kill them? I think this page was real, but was ripped out by Bill. Heavy vignette.

(Sorry for the poor quality, my phone camera is awful)

At this point I should explain: I think the burn/vignette represents Bill 'burning away' memories/altering them. Ford's memories, but possibly even the reader's. I want to be clear; I don't mean Bill erased the entire memory of the page, I mean Bill erased at least some part of those events. When it's heavy around the edges, heavier manipulation. It also could indicate which ones Bill burned/destroyed. More evidence for this later.

Karaoke page- How did Bill convince Ford to drink with him after the rat thing? Bill made him forget it was Bill. "The rats were his idea?" Yeah, he told you that right away, why did he need to tell you again? While probable this happened, the writing from Ford is sus. "This Bill guy, he's really got it all figured out"? Sounds a bit like Bill talking. The drawing is strangely detailed, too. 'Dancing queen' (disco girl's parody origin) was released in '76, so that lines up time wise, at least. Likely altered/created to make Bill seem friendlier. Either could have destroyed this one if there was a real version. Vignette.

A Voice from the Past spread- He says 'my Muse', but then mentions Bill by name, which indicates it's altered. Is the first bit real, then? Why would Ford rip out this important page revealing his muse's origin and past? His curiosity would overtake wanting to keep it secret, surely? And conversely, why would Bill fabricate it? To make himself seem more sympathetic? However, there is another explanation. There is the possibility Bill erased the memories of this conversation and it really happened in some form. Bill probably realized after revealing this information to Ford it could ruin his plans. Some vignette at the top, mostly on the right page. In that is a drawing of space and a code. The code says 'forget the past." Coincidence, or purposeful on a page for a conversation Bill made Ford forget? Bill could have ripped out the pages (if they existed) himself. It's also important to note Bill is trying to isolate Ford here, which is another reason he'd hide the pages/alter memories of talking about Stanley. Also, if Bill erased the phone number from Ford's mind later, it would make sense why Ford had to send a postcard.

A Winter Break/The Krampus adventure. Where would these pages have gone if they were real? It was January for the test, so it was before the deal, but after the bunker? Gin mentioned it feeling 'off' and strange because it's just Krampus, nothing weird or Gravity Falls-y about it, and I agree. And also, Fidds knocking it out feels... weird. I think that story is fabricated with some real details thrown in. Fidds is noticeably shaken up after, but otherwise the whole story seemed almost whimsical, and just...weird, and not in the GF way. It's fake. Ford goes back inside after looking outside in Time Traveler's Pig. He doesn't come outside onto the porch at all. You could say he comes back out after that, maybe. You could say it's a retcon. But we know the children's footprints were Dipper and Mabel, not random kidnapped kids. (Bill likely wouldn't expect the reader to know this.) My eyes are also drawn to the green and red rectangles. The festive theming bring to mind a Christmas special, and how often are those only partly canon? So, then what's real about it? I believe the gloves, and possibly the snow globe was real, since they come up again later. I believe if there was a monster, Ford (or bill possessing ford 'then-DARKNESS') fought it off, traumatizing Fidds even more. Something made Fidds shaken up. Fidds and Ford probably spent Christmas together. And Bill did warn Ford about Fidds' second thoughts (mentioned in J3). Did Fiddleford notice Ford forgetting things? Did he assume Ford was simply unshaken by what happened? For me what seals the deal is the heavy vignette around those pages. Bill altered his memories of what happened and is telling us this story instead, probably to make it seem not as bad, so Ford wouldn't be so angry that Bill wasn't there/realize that he possessed Ford. I'm also suspicious of the "Trust No One." at the end. Did this phrase really come from Bill? Wouldn't Bill be saying 'Trust me'? To be honest, it's possible the last page here was half a real conversation, but the way Ford suddenly changes his tune is strange AF and I suspect shenanigans for it. And the things Bill says are very different from 'F is not bold enough to follow through.' (J3 code, An Encounter) Also, most of these pages seem to have no reason to be ripped out, aside from mentioning Stan by name/drawing them, but he could have crossed that out, and the last page which Ford would have hidden from Fidds. If they were real in some form, Bill probably destroyed them to hide the truth.

Stanley memories pages- Real, not much to say about those. Goes after Bill's warning. Probably legitimately torn out by Ford since he'd want to keep these pictures before hiding J3. Though I do notice they are covering up a lot of red triangles, perhaps also drawn by Bill. No vignette.

Dream, or warning?- Before Jan. 17th. Real, since I can't see why Bill would make up a warning about himself. He wants the reader to trust him. The heavy vignette, again, indicates he made Ford forget about it and destroyed the pages before he could solve it, which would probably be easy since it was a dream. The laughter+fire at the end indicates Bill discovered them. Just a fun side note: the song referenced is 'Im your puppet'

"I was wrong about everything" spread- I think goes in the gap where the black scribbled out pages are in J3. Again, the Author's cipher is here, indicating these are real. Vignette again. Bill's possessing Ford a lot, trying to erase the idea of fighting back from his mind(unsuccessfully), likely also hiding these pages. More red triangles.

Bill-proof suit- Goes after The Blind Eye- references being banned from the library, Blind eye mentions still researching Bill. J3 said he discovered the chant to enter someone's mind by researching Bill, so he could also find the anti-cipher society and the cassette. Real. Bill likely destroyed these pages and the previous ones to try and slow down Ford and erase his plans to destroy Bill. Vignette.

Zom-bills to Looky Here: After 'Ways to hide', as Zom-bills is written in invisible ink, but before the truck stop. (This would require Ford to have written on the right page first, then Bill tore the rest of these out, but not a huge stretch) Bill is fucking with Ford hard. He's probably taking his anger out on Ford while simultaneously trying to bully and manipulate him like he would do to his henchmaniacs, as he says later. Vignette on most of these- he's constantly possessing Ford and making him black out, trying to manipulate his memory to make him compliant/torture him. Bill likely destroyed the cassette+the memory of it so it couldn't be used against him, as Ford presumably never gets the chance to. Why he's showing the reader this? He thinks it's funny. He could also be hoping to scare the reader, if the reader knows what he's capable of, they'll be more afraid, and fear and love are the same, right? Notably the sticky note page is only a little darkened, probably because Bill genuinely was trying to talk at first. I can't find any evidence that these are fake, but there's no codes indicating they're real either. I think they were real, but Bill destroyed at least some of them.

(Side note: Computer code: Oroborous. Curiously uses Bill's cipher, bill writes in J3 too. These pages are also vignetted. Bill wouldn't like Ford knowing he showed fear. He also purposefully didn't give the reader these 'missing pages', because he hates them and doesn't want to reveal his fear.)

Polaroids- Did Ford destroy this himself like the VHS? Trying to avoid being blamed for things Bill did? Just ashamed/horrified? Curiously, no vignette on the polaroids (this could be just to have the full page visible), or Bill wanted Ford to remember these to have the threat sink in fully. Probably actually happened, Bill doesn't really have a reason to fake these pages as they make him look worse/scarier.

Blackness/'No' pages: This is largely where my theory that vignette=memory manipulation makes the most sense, The darkness overtaking the page represents bill's influence and control, and stops resembling the journal pages much (though it could be invisible ink again). He can mess with Ford's mind as much as he likes. If these pages were ever real, Bill could have destroyed them himself too. Bill's pretty much telling the story here.

Fidds page, S page- Gin made another excellent post pointing out the problems with these. They're a bit redundant when compared to J3, aren't they? And in oddly specific ways. The use of the brother code indicates they're real, though. If Bill erased Ford's memories of these pages, him basically re-writing them makes sense, and also Ford going from 'the caves hold the answer' to 'the caves might hold the answers', the snow going from 'begun to fall' to 'has fallen', and going 'fidds wont speak to me'! instead of 'my assistant has clearly left me'. In some way Ford has probably retained a bit of his plans, but its not a stretch to say he'd loop his train of thought after losing memories. The "I grow maddened" at the edge is very shaky and blurry, which could reflect the shaky and blurry memory.

I also notice (this has probably been pointed out before) now in J3 that only once outside of Gravity Falls (route 14) can Ford plan clearly. Perhaps Cipher's influence is weaker outside the town? It makes sense. if Ford sent the postcard and made his plan while free(ish) of Bill's meddling, that's why Bill couldn't just erase his memory of his plan again.

So...yeah! Some are definitely fake. Some are placed or altered intentionally to serve a narrative. Bill could be manipulating the reader's and ford's memory to have never seen these pages. Some of these memories could have been simply warped, or erased later- not right away. I'll be honest I don't love the implication that Bill can just manipulate Ford's memories freely, so I'm sure there are significant limitations to it. Bill has to stall for the whole book and give away a lot of secrets in order to change the reader's brain enough for him to be satisfied, and even then it's not enough to make the reader give in. Bill's abilities are much less than he purports. He also says that the person can notice his 'tune-ups', so there is only so much he could alter someone's brain before they notice. However, if he's been messing with Ford's head this long, he'd have a big advantage. Is the explanation that Bill erased Ford's memory a little lazy? ...Yeah? But it also kind of heightens how badly Ford was being manipulated and why he got so paranoid and unhinged there. It lets a lot of these puzzle pieces fit together that wouldn't otherwise.

My vignette theory isn't super strong, I'll admit, but I think it definitely indicates something, given some pages don't have it when they could have. They could also simply indicate those pages were burned, though it being on the fake pages makes less sense then. Bill having destroyed the pages himself makes sense for a lot of the pages, but I cant rule out the possibility Ford did destroy some of them out of frustration/shame.

Something I also realized while going through J3 again is how many 'doodles' in J3 involve red triangles. (you can see an example on Frilliam's page) The triangles I assumed were Ford's obsession with Bill, but what if they were Bill's obsession? For another post perhaps.

So, what do y'all think? Ideas? Agree? Disagree? Things I missed? Questions? Something huge that shatters my whole theory? Let me know!

[sk8erboi04]

Achilles Come Down is Regulus coded and I can PROVE IT!!

Okay so I have literally never posted anything on the site, I literally just exist as a ghost that likes silly funny things, but I have been inspired so severely and I physically can’t not say something.

Picture this.

I was driving my car, minding my own business and absolutely vibing, when all of a sudden a song auto-plays that I haven’t heard in like, three years.

‘Achilles Come Down’ by the band ‘Gang of Youths’ hit me like an emotional truck, and outside of how beautiful that song is on its own (literally if you haven’t heard where have you been go listen to it NOW) that silly little fandom worm we all know wiggled its way into my brain and gave me the most violent fanon idea I’ve ever had.

*Ahem*In this essay, I will explain how ‘Achilles Come Down’ is a perfect representation of Regulus Black and his relationships with Sirius, James, and his parents, as well as his inner turmoil as a character.

Okay, so to start, we are running on the idea that James and Regulus have or at least had a relationship in some capacity. I will accept one-sided feelings on James’ part, mutual feelings but never official, or officially together for any stretch of time. If you are not a Jegulus shipper, your mom’s a hoe, but you can enjoy the familial aspects at least, so there you go.

Beginning with the song as a whole, there are three voices we hear singing at different moments throughout the song, each with their own intention and influence on the song’s subject. Within the song's narrative, we listen as Patroclus tries to inspire Achilles to fight for his own life and push through his hardships, while Hector tries to poison Achilles' mind with self-doubt and despair.

As I mentioned though, there is a third voice that appears throughout the song that speaks French in the time between the characters fighting over Achilles’ well-being and the chorus. This character’s identity is unknown as far as I can tell, but his narration is far more metaphorical regardless and we’re not gonna get into that until later(though each instance will be numbered for later reference), in the meantime, we can move on to the lyrics and how this is so incredible Regulus coded and how I KNOW I’m right.

The song starts with the opening lines:

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof? - You're scaring us and all of us, some of us love you - Achilles, it's not much but there's proof - You crazy-assed cosmonaut, remember your virtue - Redemption lies plainly in truth - Just humor us, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof?

Now this first stanza reads to me as an emotional James, trying to convince Regulus that there is still time to join him and Sirius and the other marauders and to get away from his parents/Voldemort. Perhaps at this time, Regulus is feeling like it’s too late, maybe he already has the dark mark, but James is begging him to understand that it’s okay, and he still has time to make the right decision.

After a few lines in French (1) from our third voice, the original voice continues:

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof? - The self is not so weightless, nor whole and unbroken - Remember the pact of our youth - Where you go, I'm going, so jump and I'm jumping - Since there is no me without you - Soldier on, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof?

At this point, I still believe this is James, becoming even more desperate to save Regulus and bringing up their time at Hogwarts and the relationship they had at that time. Now, I personally believe they would still be together in the context of the song, but it works from multiple angles, playing at possibly a past relationship that’s now over but still treasured, or a one-sided thing for James where he’s still trying to reach Regulus in a way he never could. Regardless, this is James’ hail-mary, saying if you do this, you will leave me empty; an attempt at reaching Regulus emotionally, even if that means threatening his own well-being.

From here we move on to the chorus:

Loathe the way they light candles in Rome - But love the sweet air of the votives - Hurt and grieve but don't suffer alone - Engage with the pain as a motive

Today, of all days, see - How the most dangerous thing is to love - How you will heal and you'll rise above

Now this is clearly James and Sirius (and whoever else you want on the side of goodness) reaching out to Regulus, but the first half gets a little tricky. I’ve taken it to mean Regulus loathes the way they do things with the order of the phoenix and Dumbledore, but loves the grace, safety, and love they show. (this is related to hating what Rome is doing ((lighting the candles)) but loving the results ((the sweet smell))) They call out to him saying “you will hurt to leave what you know, and you will be afraid but you don’t have to be alone in this. We are fighting because of the pain they have caused you and everyone else.”

The second half of the chorus is much simpler, speaking to how literally the WHOLE THING in ‘Harry Potter’ as a franchise is that love concurs all, and that while it would be dangerous to leave the dark side, he can heal and rise above his family and history through ~the power of love~.

After some more of our French gentleman(2), we hear from our second voice:

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, jump now - You are absent of cause or excuse - So self-indulgent and self-referential - No audience could ever want you - You crave the applause yet hate the attention - Then miss it, your act is a ruse - It is empty, Achilles, so end it all now - It's a pointless resistance for you

This is Regulus’ parents, discouraging their son from following in his brother's footsteps in their terrible parenting way. Speaking of how he would be selfish to leave, how Sirius would never want to see him again anyway, and how it would be pointless to fight what they have already predetermined for his life.

A little more French(3), and then we’re back to the original voice:

Achilles, Achilles, just put down the bottle - Don't listen to what you've consumed - It's chaos, confusion and wholly unworthy - Of feeding and it's wholly untrue - You may feel no purpose nor a point for existing - It's all just conjecture and gloom - And there may not be meaning, so find one and seize it - Do not waste yourself on this roof

Now THIS is Sirius talking. He argues against his parents' negative influence and tries to convince Regulus that everything they’re saying is a lie. He then relates to Regulus, referring to his own experience of leaving the family and how he felt hopeless and lost, but calling Regulus to action to find meaning outside of his family (cough* James *cough) and push forward, not letting the family and Voldemort waste his life.

We then hear an updated chorus:

Hear those bells ring deep in the soul - Chiming away for a moment - Feel your breath course frankly below - And see life as a worthy opponent

Today, of all days, see - How the most dangerous thing is to love - How you will heal and you'll rise above - Crowned by an overture bold and beyond - Ah, it's more courageous to overcome

Not much to say here tbh. I don’t have any strong feelings on a different interpretation one way or another, other than the fact that ‘it’s more courageous to overcome’, is something Sirius was able to do while Regulus, unfortunately, couldn’t, and maybe this was destined, as Sirius was a Griffandor and Regulus (in my opinion) actively fought being placed in his brother's house and thus, couldn’t show his true courage until the cave.

A tiny more French(4), and then THE moment the fight comes to a head (note that the ‘good’ voice is the one in parentheses and/or italicized):

You want the acclaim, the mother of mothers (it's not worth it, Achilles)

More poignant than fame or the taste of another (don't listen, Achilles)

But be real and just jump, you dense motherf#cker (you're worth more, Achilles)

You will not be more than a rat in the gutter (so much more than a rat)

You want my opinion, my opinion you've got (no one asked your opinion)

You asked for my counsel, I gave you my thoughts (no one asked for your thoughts)

Be done with this now and jump off the roof (be done with this now and get off the roof)

Can you hear me, Achilles? I'm talking to you

I'm talking to you

I'm talking to you

I'm talking to you

Achilles, come down

Achilles, come down

This is very dense, but I think the obvious back and forth of the voices speaks as well as it can to the fight of good vs evil in Regulus’ mind as he tries to grapple with what he wants and knows is right vs the pressure of the dark side and the fear of its wrath. I DO especially like the line about being more than a rat, simply because of the symbolism with Pettigrew and how Sirius/James are reaching out and trying to save Regulus, all the while, their friend is being swept away as well.

A bit more French(5) and then the last iteration of the chorus:

Throw yourself into the unknown - With pace and a fury defiant - Clothe yourself in beauty untold - And see life as a means to a triumph

Today, of all days, see - How the most dangerous thing is to love - How you will heal and you'll rise above - Crowned by an overture bold and beyond - Ah, it's more courageous to overcome

This last bit, when listened to with Regulus in mind, comes across as very hopeful. Throw yourself into this unknown, but safer reality, do it ferociously and courageously, and surround yourself in the light of these good people who want to help you. See that your life is not condemned, you can live to be happy for yourself.

Whoa! That was a lot my friends, but now that that's settled, let's get into this FRENCH! (also the fact that they speak French, it’s literally too perfect) I’m just going to translate and do all of it in one big chunk for clarity and also this is already a mile long😅.

I see that many people die because they believe that life is not worth living. I see others, who are paradoxically killed for ideas For illusions, which give them a reason to live (What we call a reason to live is at the same time an excellent reason to die).

Of a building manager who had killed himself it was once said that he had lost his daughter five years ago, that he had changed a lot since then, and that this experience had changed him

What triggers the crisis is almost always uncontrollable. The newspapers often speak of “intimate sorrows” or “incurable illness”. These explanations are valid. But we should know if, on the same day, a friend of the desperate person did not speak to him in an indifferent tone.

The memories of a lost homeland, the hope of a promised land. This divorce between the man of his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.

Either yes or no. this would be too easy. But we must make allowance for those who, without concluding, always question. Here, I am hardly being ironic, this is the majority. I also see that those who answer “no” act as if they thought “yes”.

Now, if you just read that all and were like, WTH girl, what even was that? Well, let me tell you! Every instance of French in the song is an excerpt from ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, a book written way back in 1942. Why does this matter? In all honesty, it kinda doesn’t😅. Sisyphus was a king who figured out how to cheat death so everyone could live forever, and it SUPER ticked off the gods, so now he’s stuck rolling a boulder up a hill forever and ever.

I have racked my brain trying to tie this into the Regulus stuff, but it’s just not working so now you just get to know what the French stuff is about and that’s gonna have to be good enough, I’m afraid😂

ANYWAY, with everything combed through and all the parallels pointed out, I hope you can go listen to this song with new ears and get on my wavelength about it! Enjoy your life, you know, drink some water, viva la vida loca and all that.

TLDR; I’ve decided ‘Achilles Come Down’ is the perfect depiction of Regulus trying to get away from his parents' harmful ideations while being called to by Sirius/James who are attempting to save him.

[eleanorfenyx]

I have finished Mysterious Lotus Casebook, and here are some of my thoughts! (Obviously not spoiler free)

The cases are absolutely batshit insane and I loved it every single time they were like 'we totally collected this evidence that incriminates a secret suspect, just believe us and also don't question when the fuck we had the time to do this or when we figured out that we needed to look for it'. 10/10 no notes, that's a hilarious way to have a genius detective. Show us nothing, tell us everything, YES king.

That being said, I could have done with a lot less standing around having the supporting cast repeat whatever Li Lianhua and Fang Duobing announce, maybe in an attempt to make sure their genius is clear for the audience? I get it, but at the same time it felt a little too hand-holdy for me, especially in scenes where LLH and FDB had already discussed their findings between themselves before presenting them to the concerned bystanders. I can read between the lines (or else understand what has just been explicitly stated) without having every conclusion filtered through a slightly different sentence structure to make sure I got it.

Di Feisheng amnesia arc my fuckin beloved

Di Feisheng destroying his 'father' and freeing everyone in Di manor in a vicious act of catharsis that tied nicely into the main Nanyin bug-mind-control-thing narrative my beloved

Di Feisheng my beloved

The amount of times I was like...genuinely surprised he and Li Lianhua didn't kiss is both embarrassing (because I do in fact understand censorship and what I sign up for with these dramas and yet and yet) and numerous enough that I could...possibly...theoretically..write a 5+1 fic of every time I want them to kiss about it. No one hold me to that but it's something I think I'd like to do.

Re: the above point: because what the FUCK was that ending?!!! EXCUSE ME?! I gotta FIX THAT SHIT.

There will come a day when the strength of my hope for an unambiguously happy ending in a queer(-coded? is the source originally bl or is this its own thing?) wuxia drama is rewarded....but it is not this day. I must fix this myself.

Jiao Liqiao's laugh is one of the most annoying things I've ever heard. I was reaaaaally hoping someone would just up and stab her during one of her little evil laughing fits. At one point I was shouting "KILL HER, KILL HER" at my screen because I could NOT take anymore of her (unfortunately, I did in fact have to take more of her).

I still think her insistence on being obsessed with DFS is hysterical when he is so VISIBLY only interested in LLH. Explicitly STATES that his only life purpose is to fuck fight LLH again. Babygirl (derogatory) he is so fucking gay let's get you a nice knife to the gut instead, okay?

I thought the whole Shan Gudao plot was interesting, going from looking desperately for his body -> putting him to rest -> hunting for his murderer -> finding out he's alive/the mastermind behind everything going wrong (which I was proud of myself for realizing before the reveal, I'm normally bad at that) -> thwarting him with sass and superior martial arts at every possible turn -> killing him stone fuckin dead with beginner level skills because he's so up his own hole he can't see that's what's happening - was really fun!

He also has a SUPER annoying laugh he can fuck off

OH OH OH MARTIAL ARTS SKILL OF TRANS YOUR GENDER?! I MARRIED HER SO HER AFFAIRS ARE MY BUSINESS NOT YOURS??? ASKING YOUR WIFE FOR HER FORGIVENESS AND UNDERSTANDING AS YOU LAY DYING AND SHE GIVES IT TO YOU?????? OKAYYYYYYY

The twist at the end that LLH is the one with royal blood was so funny to me. Like it's a good twist and I love that Shan Gudao was just quite literally always a fuckin try-hard loser in ways he didn't even know, but also it was SO funny. Granny coming in clutch at the last fuckin minute with secret knowledge she just literally never shared.

LLH is such a smooth motherfucker. Shame about his insistence on dying when quite literally everyone (bar the people who suck) is begging this man to just live. Just LIVE DAMN IT!!!!! I really liked it when FDB begs him to just consider his own life as important for ONCE and remember that people care about him because YES his self-sacrificing and committment to Chilling Out Farmer Style was not the mercy he thought it was!

LIVE AND GROW OLD WITH DI FEISHENG YOU DAMN IDIOT (the likelihood of me resisting the urge to write at least the one fic for them is zero to none)

Unironically love spitting up blood as a plot device and this show is no different. The Drama. The Panache. The desperation of everyone around you because you have BLOOD coming out of your MOUTH and you are FAINTING. Poison acting up? Spit blood. Someone bitch slap you with their magical palm ability? Spit blood. Get stressed? Spit blood. Get stabbed? Spit blood. It's always good!

Okay I think that might be all I've got for now, if I think of anything else I'll add them in a reblog. I thoroughly enjoyed it, would definitely recommend!

[vulpesverda]

I'm sure you were referring to my Kayn Making Food for the Group headcanons, but I think this would be more fun to do a headcanon post about the kinds of pranks he'd pull on all of the members. I'm also a menace who loves giving myself extra work, lmao

Prank Master Aphelios

Content: No Warnings 》 SFW 》 Alune Included

Requests: Currently Open

Masterlist

K'Sante

We all know about Aphelios replacing K'Sante's protein powder with flour, right? KNOWING this man eats that shit DRY? Evil. And I love it. On top of that, I like to imagine Phel changes the lock and homescreens on K'Sante's tablet to just... really weird shit. Obscure memes. Sometimes ones he's made himself. Ones he's made about K'Sante. How did he get the pass code. K'Sante doesn't know. K'Sante does not have the power to stop him. Someone help this man.

Sett

Pranking Sett is both so easy and so difficult. It's so easy to get a big emotional reaction out of him... but there are some pranks that will just fly right over his head. But I think Phel's favorite thing to do is gaslight this motherfucker. Tell him fake facts knowing that Sett is gonna repeat it later and look silly. And when Sett is like "Phel told me that! It's true!", Phel is like "I did not say that, where did you hear that".

Yone

You might be thinking, "If anyone were to be free of his shenanigans, it's got to be Yone, right?" And you would be correct. However, no one is free, and therefore Yone suffers. And by "suffers", I mean his cold brew is replaced with decaf. Yone notices. Immediately. He doesnt even have to taste it. He is not happy.

Yone is aware he can just go buy a cold brew, but its the principle of the thing. You don't fuck with a man's coffee, or his morning routine. But Yone can't prove anything, and his coffee is re-replaced as soon as he makes a stink about it, so.

Kayn

Kayn loves to dye his hair, canonically. And if he dyes his hair with any dye that comes in containers like the Arctic Fox hair dye, you bet Phel has intentionally switched around the colors. He bought sticker remover stuff so he could peel off the labels and switch them around undetected, so Kayn opens up his next bottle of pinkish purple dye and ends up with ultramarine or black or green and dumping it directly on his head.

Because let's be honest, I don't imagine Kayn would put that shit in a bowl and apply it with a brush. He's squeezing that bottle on his head and rubbing it in with his hands. And you're lucky if he's using gloves.

Ezreal

Ezreal is an easy one to prank. If Ez leaves his phone alone for even a SECOND, Aphelios is on that shit, hiding it away in his pocket or something so Ez is frantically looking for it. And then he puts it in a spot he KNOWS Ezreal knows he's looked. He gets a really big reaction out of it, too, which is what makes such a low effort prank so worth it. Minimal risk, big reward. If he's lucky, Ezreal might start whining.

Aphelios

Now, dear reader, you may be asking "Why is Aphelios on this list?". And the answer to that question lies in the fact that Aphelios is not even safe from himself. Particularly when he is drunk. I envision drunk Aphelios giggling to himself as he thinks "It would be really funny to piss off sober me", and doing something he knows is going to inconvenience him while hung over. Like rearranging his bedroom furniture in a way that doesn't make sense or is impractical. Or hiding the toilet paper so he has to do the shuffle of shame after his morning shit.

He is a menace, even to himself. I told you no one is free.

Alune

This is her brother. Her brother who loves her, but her brother nonetheless. He's perfected the art of the prank, and she was his unwilling test subject for many, many years. Anything you can think of, he's probably done it to her. There's nothing he can do that would surprise her, at this point. I think he enjoys stealing her hair ties and hiding them somewhere she can't reach. Or hiding all of the left socks in her matching pairs. Anything to inconvenience her just a little bit. And she knows this has the work of the Phae (Phel/Fae) written all over it.

》 ------ ◇ ------ 《

AN: God I love aphelios. End note.

[stalkyarsen-ebook]

How did Li Ling & Long Mian relationship started in your au?

Depends which au your talking about. in canon, they never even met. And I realized that because Long Mian is chinese-coded, it doesn't necessarily mean he grew up in Tangton. Unlike Li Ling who is told AND shown he is part of the Li clan.

In the swap au (which is not a traditionnal swap au btw), it follows the canon lore except their situation changed. They never met until they were both adults and they came to conflict. I'm explaining it more here and here.

They're not exactly a "thing" but oddly enough, I think they have more chance to end up together someday.

In the childhood friend au, they already knew the other because their families have ties between them, in one version the Li clan and the Long family were descendants of Nezha's and Ao Bing's family. But even despite that, it was also political obligation to keep friendly terms with them. Plus, their parents are really close friends. But even I keep it vague, this AU is just a guilty pleasure of mine because children hating on each other are just funny to me. If you want to see more of this AU, I have two scrapped fanfics on ao3 here and here, and that's not counting the doodles I make lol.

So yeah, here they knew eachother from the get go, doesn't mean shit to them. but little li ling had a huge crush on long mian growing up huhuhuhuhu

As for Foe with Benefits ? It is just fanon at its purest. They just met and there was too much tensions between them for them to not be a thing. Sometimes they're normal, sometimes they're metas. The only consistant thing about this version of them is that they keep their relationship secret.

I'm also on my way with some dark fantasy (fantastic ?) au, with all the monsters and mythical creatures that can inspire me, I'll probably end up doing them someday :P

[robbieshomestuckliveblog]

Day One

02/10/25

HOMESTUCK to John: Open up that package!

( page 1 to page 126 )

Favorite Panel: Page 97

Favorite Pesterlog: Page 63

Favorite Flash (if applicable): Page 82

Takeaways:

- Act 1 is nothing if not dense, littered with coding and computer science jokes and gargan which flies over the average reader's head, but man is the writing witty. It bums me out that the early act writing isn't appreciated for its simplistic hilarity.

- John’s such a dick of a teen boy, he’s mean but so obviously well-meaning, I love him so much man, he’s literally JUST adorable.

- My favorite pesterlog!

As much as I enjoy Dave and John’s witty banter in Dave’s introduction, John's first pesterlog with Rose really takes the cake for me. I enjoy the snark and how Rose clocks him immediately, just such a cute interaction.

- My favorite Flash!

You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

[S] ==> is SUCH a good flash, it really hooks you, eludes hints at something greater that lies in store for John. The wind accompanied by windchimes and John’s simple gaze at the sky, it’s so simple, so perfect.

- My favorite panel!

Panel 97 is really funny to me. I like that John's urgency to leave is downplayed so heavily by his nonchalant ass sprite. I like how his Dad isn’t batting even the smoke that hard, his arms are barely out or up, it’s just a really funny visual I enjoy immensely.

[thealexchen]

What parts or characters of the LIS series do you think aged sorta badly?

OH-HO, could I go on...

LiS1:

The slang /j

Max's comment about the vaccine poster "The last time I got the flu shot, I got the flu. Fuck you!" is so made fun of that it's become the "Max is anti-vaxx!" joke, but yeah, that has aged even more badly since COVID.

In all seriousness, I don't think Nathan telling Max, "now get out of my face, d*ke!" in Chaos Theory was necessary. Assholes gonna asshole, but Max was neither out nor really aware of her queerness, and she wasn't overtly flirty with Chloe in Nathan's presence or presented as stereotypically butch. Nathan's name-calling felt more out of left field because he didn't have much to go off of, rather than something like "get out of my face, nosy (insert nasty name here)" or whatever.

BtS:

What I think is the most egregious example: Rachel (with Chloe as an accomplice) literally drugging Victoria to unconsciousness to get her role in the play back. That is in wildly and insanely bad taste when the first game's involved Jefferson illegally drugging and kidnapping teenage girls, and how Rachel herself fucking died. It's barely covered up with a sapphic-coded moment Victoria calling Rachel pretty, but the fact that it's framed as funny at all is batshit crazy.

Also, how Nathan and Frank's characters are softened so they can be almost buddy-buddy with Chloe, when Nathan can literally kill her three years later. Also, D9 actually animated Frank checking out a 15-year-old Rachel for a second in "Hell is Empty" 🤢

D9 sorta shot themselves in the foot by framing Chloe in a more sympathetic light in this game (Chloe attempting to reach out but getting increasingly ghosted, Chloe missing Max so much in-game) after how the narrative treats her in DE...

LiS2:

So ironically, because Trump-era racism is still alive and unfortunately more relevant than ever again, the racism depicted in LiS2 is now being brought up by fans as "ahead of its time." Cassidy and Finn's dreads were already a bad move in 2019, though. I do think what will age badly are the explicit uses of slurs: Brett calling Daniel the r-word, Hank (and later Chad in ep4) calling Sean a racial slur, and Nicholas calling Jacob a homophobic slur.

I don't think the Blood Brothers ending has aged well. It feels so bizarre and backwards that Sean and Daniel spend the whole game trying to clear their names and escape to a life in Mexico where they intend to live peacefully... but then the BB ending has them stealing money and involved in gang crime. It's such a disappointingly shallow, stereotypical depiction of Mexico. I also don't like how low morality Daniel becomes such a cold murder machine given how normal and stable his upbringing was.

Daniel should've been obsessed with Fortnite, not Minecraft /j

TC:

I wouldn't say aged badly like "became problematic" but with time, the game's relentlessly optimistic tone has led to a less memorable product. Actually, everyone in the game is so cheerful and sanitized that I can't really think of any truly problematic things from the games besides some off-screen events like Alex and Isaac. In 2021, I loved TC's persistent themes of hope and looking to the future and I think it fit with Alex's character arc of grief and learning to identify her own emotional needs. Narratively though, Alex's grief felt a bit too neat and tidy and it makes for a less compelling story upon replay. Trauma can manifest in irrational, ugly, hurtful ways, and I think D9 could've afforded to make Alex, Steph, Ryan, and Gabe a little rougher around the edges.

DE:

The entire Pricefield breakup has already aged badly AHAHAHA

Thank you for asking! I really appreciate these LiS-related asks!