#well-made robot bbeg

[cornedbread]

Hear me out: All the robots that Billy makes are aro-ace.

opens the door slowly, you see my meschievous grin peak from the opening, I let go of the door knob and strike a Lucky Luciano pose with my hands

“But what about Billy’s Girlfriend?” that robot is also aro-ace, being Bily’s Girlfriend is only a title to her, and the role is something that was programmed into her. Loving Billy is practically her job, and such could be used as meta-commentary in the narrative, to show how Billy’s constant controlling of others reduces love and passion — for people and hobby — into a marketed tool for social status.

Billy probably also doesn’t want to burden his robots with those kinds of fragile feelings, as far as he knows, romance makes it more difficult to make difficult decisions. Also, his robots are made for the purpose of social and service work, so the only love they need is compassion from respect; and friendliness from platonic love. I imagine he also probably programmed them to feel familial love later on once he realised he was getting really attatched to them, and also once they started working as part-time caretakers for his son.

[local-diavolo-anon]

i'm back!

ok so 2/3 days ago i found this youtube video where op turned Springtrap (or well, William Afton) into a fully build DnD character, and if i say so myself: things got out of hand fast

so here is my take on DnD Springtrap and specifically on that build (adding more infos under the cut for who is interested, i suggest to watch the video first)

starting with saying that unless you're playing in a scifi setting, this build is either not for you or to be modified, since in later levels spells are heavily centered around technomagic and electronic devices; personally when i will play him i will probably tinker around with the chosen spells and cantrips to make him less violently niche and/or more versatile

which kinda saddens me because it takes away not little of the characterization but, given most dnd stories take place in a medieval fantasy or high fantasy setting, a cantrip like On/Off or a spell like Remote Access are NOT particularly useful; so i will go for more psychic damage or necromancy oriented abilities, maybe i might take more than just 4 levels in artificier as well (especially given that again, all of those warlock spells at later levels are all technology oriented) but i need to see what those offer

however it is a kinda tank-y build given that with a shield on you can get up to a 27 of Ac, so even with low damage and not much hp you would not struggle too much to stay alive, and i like that!

as for the character himself, i put too much effort into my interpretation not to share it, so if anyone wants to play this guy as well, i fabricated a possible backstory that might come useful:

The character goes by the name "Dave Miller" (or whatever variant you want to use), and was originally a human artificier who created constructs for a living, mainly with the goal of offering aid to who needed it for whatever reason.

There however he ran into an issue, that being that a robot need a power source, and his own heart and lungs could not sustain a whole robot by themselves.

After losing part of his family to some kind of accident he became terrified of death, so with age he started replacing his own body parts with machinery to delay his last days (which made him a cyborg), until the point where he was very very close to become just a robot.

(This part may or may not involve a pact with a deity of death, this entirely depends on how you want to play him but it would make sense since the build is an artificier/warlock hybrid)

Through particular and very much not illegal experiments tied to necromancy he discovered that the life force of a living being could be shared, and used as a form of fuel. (possibly: age lived of the creature used= amount of extra months you get)

Here comes the second problem: this only worked with intelligent creatures, and more specifically, it worked best with creatures of your own race, which meant that he either went around murdering people or he found another solution. Non same-race creatures worked as well but not as good and there were not easy to find in the middle of a city and with a shop tied to your name.

And here is where and WHY he'd join a party of adventurers: after some time, his reserves or fuel were running VERY thin, and running into a group of adventurers was a god sent because by joining their party he essentially got a free pass to kill whoever he wanted, and reduce them to a dried raisin after sucking some life force out of them. Doing so you learn that the mowe powerful the creature is, the more energy it produces as well.

Your goal, that you as the player are following, when role-ing your character? essentially slay whatever powerful BBEG your Dm throws at you and suck all of that juicy fuel out of them, so that you can return to your little shop in the middle of the capital and return to create and sell whatever weird construct, doll, or robot comes to your mind for another few decades undisturbed.

And this is it. I think this might be a good backstory that could fit pretty much any setting you want to play this guy into, be it classic dnd or some scifi futuristic thing.

of course you don't NEED to use this one line per line, make up your own without looking back if you don't like it lol, dnd is the "make up shit and have fun" game after all!

Edit: also no his outfit makes no sense, i just went with vibes and decided a tanktop dress shirt, a twin tailed gilet and suspenders OVER said gilet was a good choice.

[zr-art-world]

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP MMMEEEEEEE DX

I've been playing with these twos designs since forever, but I can never be sure if their actually good, like, objectively.

Can people look at these and tell me what I might need to remove/improve/add

Some character info

I'll try to make this concise as possible

For one, this takes place in a superhero scifi setting.

Psi

With Psi, I was going with android with insect motif, in particularly, butterfly and moth.

He was a human who's psyche was put into a techno organic robot body because he was on the verge of dyeing.

He grew up in a privileged setting but was mainly raised by robots made by his family.

He used to be always sick as a kid

He is a child prodigy that has a hard time with people because of his up brining.

Before being put into a robot body, he worked as a scientist (robotics specifically, however, he heavily dabbled in other fields as well)

He put himself in the robot body after a group tried to kill him and steal his technology and use it for their own gain

He feels like his intelligence is his one good defining trait, something that he relies on and something he thinks is the only thing he can offer to help people

Because of his upbringing, he is naturally curious about almost everything, despite him probably already knowing about it from his research.

After having his psyche put into an android body, he left his previous position to proses his thought and feelings and he also felt like he could do more good with his new body and intellect

Aster

Aster and their younger siblings were orphaned kids and were captured by Venlarians (a faction of bad guys in my story baseikly) and were trained and brain washed to be assassins and soldiers. (Aster became a well known assassin and sniper)

They were also experimented on a given powers (Aster specifically has minor mater manipulation abilities and can heal really fast and from major injuries. They can also teleport and harden their skin)

At the age of 18-19, they escaped but were separated from their siblings

They are adopted by another character, Mar (Who was the adopted son of the bbeg and emperor of the venularian empire before killing him)

After living with him and Mar trying to give them a normal child hood and saying that he and his colleagues will find them. (After defecting from Venularian empire, he joined the coalition of heroes which is like the justice league to put it in short terms), Aster wants to go out and find their siblings.

They also want to help others because they want to repent for what they were made to to while being controlled by the empire and so no one has to suffer under the empire.

Once their old enough, they take a space craft to explore the galaxy and to find their siblings and to help people.

They love exploring different planets and parts of the galaxy

She often hides her true feelings under a happy go lucky veneer, not wanting to scare people and not wanting her loved ones to worry about her.

Because of her powers and background, she doesn't have a lot of worry about her well being, often saving her friends and people in need at the expense of her well being because "I'll just heal right up! Don't worry, I can take it"

Aster originally had some avian aspects and I want to add those features again.

some other aspects for these two, they were slightly inspired by Psych and Eros

Idk if I want to make psi a different color other than blue, make his color pallet black and white like before or what.

sry for all the text, I always feel weird when talking about my oc's for some reason but I felt like the context was needed for me to get help with their designs

[toaarcan]

Ian Flynn's Eggman

I have a funny perspective on the way Ian Flynn writes Eggman.

Because in practice, I hate it. It's born out of a still-bubbling resentment for the last big arc of the preboot, and how he was handled as the villain for that (Arcan Grumbles About Mecha Sally: Part 2 will be about the villains, so I'll go into more detail there), and how it echoed both his earlier appearances from Issue 175-177, and how he's still characterised in IDW sometimes.

Flynn writes Eggman as this incredibly weird mix of a hypercompetent genius and a bumbling fuckup that averages out to a mostly-invincible villain who is usually only defeated by himself.

This is a bit like the game version that he's trying to base this character on, as I'll elaborate further down, but it's missing a few pieces, like the part where Eggman's downfall is usually because Sonic legitimately beats him. In the games where Eggman is finished off by a greater threat, it's normally after Sonic has already broken his final weapon. Contrast the Metal Virus arc in IDW, where Eggman's defeat is entirely because he screwed up, and if he hadn't deployed the Metal Virus as soon as the first test worked, and instead refined it into something he could control, he would've won, as Sonic was losing more and more ground to the infection, and the heroes needed the assistance of Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Starline's Warp Topaz to actually win the day.

Both Archie and IDW have moments where it's established that Eggman at least believes that he can win entirely at any moment of his choosing. IDW Eggman claims it, Archie Eggman proves it, and I have to say, I view this as one of the worst villain tropes ever.

If the only thing stopping the villain from wiping the hero off the board permanently is the villain's own unwillingness to do so, then the hero is a failure and the villain is an idiot. Congrats, you've fucked over your entire series

But what makes this unique is that, if you listen to Flynn talk about Eggman behind the scenes, it's clear that he really does understand the character at a core level.

Because here's the thing: Flynn is absolutely right about Eggman being a fuckup. I know some people really hate the idea that Eggman is not the ultimate BBEG of the Sonic universe, that he gets usurped by other villains so much in the 1998-2009 games (and now again in Frontiers) , but "Eggman unleashes something he can't control" was used for more than a decade of straight releases, at this point it's not a writing failure, it's characterisation.

Eggman is a mechanical genius. He builds fantastic robots, massive flying battleships, incredible weapons, giant mech suits, the works. But some of these machines he comes up with are very obviously the first-draft versions. He's deployed the Egg Dragoon twice in canon, and has never fixed the giant glowing weak spots. He's used the "swinging ball on a chain below the Eggmobile" design at least four times (three of them as himself, once at the hands of Mecha Sonic), and the only refinement he's made to it after all these failed attempts is replacing the ball with a sawblade for the fifth attempt.

His strategy usually boils down to "Bum-rush the objective with an army of robots" or "Make a big show of force with a new superweapon and demand everyone surrender" or "Throw something massive and destructive at his target to create free real estate." He's had some clever plans before, but only a handful.

And his propensity to unleash ancient evils that he cannot possibly control is, at this point, well-established. Because his most fatal flaw is his ego. His arrogance. He believes himself to be superior to everyone else, including ancient monsters and artificial gods and sentient superweapons. And Sonic. And he's wrong. He thinks he can make something more powerful than Perfect Chaos, he's wrong. He thinks Shadow is working for him, he's wrong. He thinks there are no consequences for upgrading Metal Sonic over and over and over again, he's wrong. He thinks he can control a Gizoid, he's wrong. He thinks if he builds a Gizoid of his own, that'll fix the problem, he's wrong.

He thinks he can beat Sonic, he's wrong.

Like, for all Eggman's self-aggrandizing boasts about being the greatest scientific genius in the world, he's not even right about that. SEGA themselves have established that. They gave Eggman an IQ of 300 (and yes, I know, IQ doesn't work that way), and then gave Tails an IQ of 400. By SEGA's own logic, Tails is smarter than Eggman.

And I think I get what Flynn is aiming for. He's trying to write a version of Eggman who is the grand villain of the series, who is the greatest threat to Sonic and friends, and is the antagonist who makes Sonic sweat the most. He also wants to sprinkle some SatAM Robotnik in there too, because well, guy is a SatAM fan (and hey, I really can't hold that against him, I am too), and that results in this hypercompetent, sadistic, borderline invincible Eggman. But he also wants to be true to the SEGA version, who isn't really any of that. So we get the bumbling self-sabotage thrown in, except this time they're the singular flaws in Eggman's armour, and he ends up mostly defeating himself, which is just frustrating for me to read.

So yeah, contrary to where other people who don't like Flynn's Eggman, I'm taking the stance that his take on Sonic's most persistent enemy actually isn't enough of a fuckup.

[that-there-is-a-wierd0]

Oh jee wizz, uh… Dude, are you ready for the rabbit hole… Here we go!

I believe that Bob loved Billy very much despite his disability, however his love was corrupted with insecurity. This is 1980s Lithuania (year date is comfirmed on a poster in CBA), people wouldn’t be thrilled if your baby came out all weird and think you were cursed by god or just plain unlucky. Probably even pity you and tell you that “It’s not your problem to deal with,” like a baby is just a minor invconvenience that can be put aside. Not only that, the attitude towards disabled is either pity or unfriendliness. Even worse, if you’re in a war then you’re just another burden. Because of this, though Bob loves Billy he feels ashamed for bringing him into the world with a body like his; and sub-conciously is also ashamed of Billy being born this way as though Billy had a choice in this — but he didn’t, that’s just how he was born!

And so in order to protect his own pride and also Billy’s safety, he kept Billy hidden away from the public. He homeschooled him and tended to his every need. People outside always speculated on what Bob did inside his house, so there’d be the occasional nosy person. This upped Bob’s insecurity, so he became paranoid of the sounds in his own house.

Then the day of the accident comes and Billy is orphaned, for the first time he is finally let out into the public so that he can be transferred to an orphanage (it’s actually a military camp with ROTC). He has gone outside before of course, but only alone and with very few people to see him. But now everyone has their eyes on him, son of Bob the Great II! Well by everyone, I really mean the other kids and the workers in the orphanage. Billy’s identity as Bob’s son is still kept secret.

Eventually though when he’s an adult he moves out of CBA’s dull military town into the bright colourful one you see in BBEG! Here his relationship to Bob is finally publicised, but one problem… He’s viewed not as Bob’s son, but rather as Bob’s “well-made robot.” Billy came up with this robot gimmick himself, feeling guilty at the thought of undoing all of his dad’s hardwork to keep it all a secret. Of course as he gets older he realises how dumb this is — and even considers dropping the robot gimmick — but he’s done it for so long that he doesn’t really care what people think as long as his family’s name is said in good grace.

this ask hit me like a sack of bricks

[sisyphus-prime]

The more I look at widogast and zarra the more absurd this concept is

Lawful neutral warforged, who's 950 years old. He was sent off by the BBEG (a man who presents as a jsut ruler of his kingdom) to help the Golden Kingdom against the goblin hordes. He was part of just thr 2 platoons sent out. Thry all fucking died. His soul? Snatched. Put into a robot. Full memories. Runes in an obelick like substance to have the face. Expected to keep serving. He ran away, everyone in his platoon killed for fear of more runaways. He had a family while serving. Theyre long dead. Its now cyberpunk anesthetics. Hes been avoidant of people but still integrated into societies od the different kingdoms. Steals from other warforged parts he finds or from those he kills to keep his parts maintained. His knees are garbage. This fukcing 15 year old changeling accidentally clocks him while trying to randomly knock him out. Manages to not shoot her, she tells him her secrets. . Now they travel together. She's 20 and he'd die for her. There are no secrets to be had, but he spares her of all the details. Hes in charge of the financials so she doesn't spend it all on coffee. He has a -2 in charisma.

Chaotic Neutral changeling made a pact with the sleep god to minimize need for sleep. Sleeps once a week for 12 hours, unwakable. Coffee isn't addictive but caffeine still affects her, she has to make people sleep in exchange for this. Shes a wild magic sorcerer because of genetic connection to this God as well. Trained most of her childhood into perfecting these magica with her grandpa. Goes to a coffee shop a few months after the pact is made and sees the most pathetically tired middle aged man in her life. Casts sleep. It fails. She accuses him and he panics and she rapid fire shoots some secrets at him to put her at an equal risk or some shit. She manages to convince him to let her travel with him to explore. She's the one in control of the situation. She's the social one, the talking one, the thinking one (even if she's at 16 int and he's at 18 int). She rides the side car of his motorcycle. She has a camel pack full of coffee at all times. She has a passive perception of 17

Hes lawful neutral in terms of his own creed. The creed is to protect his people, his platoon, his men. He won't go out of his way to give a fuck about anyone else. He doesn't believe in getting involved in peoples lives,, but he will if she does. He is the most passively suicidal person you'll ever meet, but then this fucking changeling wormed into his life and now he cant.

Shes chaotic neutral in thr way she protects her own, but does whatever it takes to get there. Getting her fix is huge too. She's fine with murder, robbery, high stakes, low stakes. She is incredible charismatic, able to get her way. She respects his opinion, but knows he'll fall to hers at a moments notice. Subconsciously, she's abusing this fact, but she'd kill for him as he'd die for her.

[kyndaris]

Putting your Fate in your Hands

If Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep could be likened to a one-shot adventure, then Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands felt like a properly fleshed out mini-campaign with quests escalating in scope as the game wore on. Releasing initially on the Epic Game Store (as well as consoles) in March 2022, the game sat on my pile of ‘to be played’ for a few months until I was able to find a hefty chunk of time to fully dive into the wide world of Tiny Tina’s imagination.

The best way to describe Wonderlands would be to imagine a high fantasy medieval world that it crammed to the brim with guns or gun-adjacent weaponry like crossbows. In the place of  grenades are a slew of wonderful and powerful spells. Better yet are actual melee weapons (which I didn’t actually use much after that initial tutorial). Of course, there’s also a host of new character classes with practical class abilities that serve double the carnage while also being very pretty and sparkling to look at.

What I enjoyed most about the Wonderlands were all the role-playing gimmicks that were put into the game - from the character customisation to the pop culture references. After all, why shouldn’t a game of make-believe where dice are rolled to determine if a character successfully accomplishes a task  insert a parody version of Don Qixote, the Witcher and the Smurfs? This is, of course, all in the mad mind of a teen demolition expert, who is herself a side character in a bombastic franchise that has always poked fun at society.

Wonderlands casts the player as the ‘newbie.’ It’s never made clear who the Newbie is or how they stumbled upon Tiny Tina’s table of Bunkers and Badasses. What is known is that the player character remains entirely in character throughout their journey to stop the Dragon Lord. Commentating on the sidelines are Frette and Valentine, a robot and a pilot that had crash-landed on the planet. 

The backstory for these two new characters is relatively thin. In fact, there’s little to no focus to the actual real-life situation that these characters find themselves. Wonderlands devotes all its story-telling to the fictional world of B&B where the Newbie must go and save the world from the evil and demonic Dragon Lord.

Despite defeating the man in the early parts of the game, the villain is revived by one of his faithful minions and wreaks havoc on the world when he beheads Queen Butt Stallion. So, the Newbie, as the Fatemaker, must journey across the lands to put a stop to his nefarious deeds.

While the overarching plot is fairly derivative from most role-playing games, The Dragon Lord proves to be a more complex antagonist than previously thought. His goal within the game isn’t just the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) that laughs and torments the player-character. Threaded throughout the story Tiny Tina is trying to tell as the Bunker Master is The Dragon Lord’s attempt of throwing off the yokes of oppression. Once a playable character (PC) and fellow Fatemaker, Tiny Tina’s decision to use the Sword of Souls to smite every single villain saw him turn evil. Frustrated that her first playthrough hadn’t gone as planned, Tiny Tina decided to ensure the cycle of good versus evil would forever end in the favour of the heroes.

Though there were many reviews that bemoaned the fact that The Dragon Lord’s agency never saw fruition, the comments made by the Fatemaker when they decide to restore unity to the world seemed to indicate that the story of Wonderlands was very much about the pandemic and the widening cracks within society due to the stress of lockdowns, mask mandates and the inability to go about our normal lives.

In fact, the end message of Wonderlands was all about enjoying a game together with friends even when things might not go as well as one would like. As someone that has prepared material for my own hundred-hour campaign, I know the feeling of fear that my players might not go down the path that I’ve carefully paved for their journey. But as someone that plays video games and who likes to go my own way, I also understand why players might not always go for the tantalising bait that sits on the narrative hook. Yes. I know I’ve mixed my metaphors but that’s just how things like these go.

Wonderlands keeps a lot of the high octane from the Borderlands franchise while also putting its own spin. Whether Gearbox intends to make more remains to be seen, but given the glut of fantasy games and shooters and how much Dungeons and Dragons has infiltrated the social conscience, another entry into what was once a downloadable content (DLC) might wear out its welcome. Especially because it’s very much a Borderlands game with just a fantasy dressing on top of the world. True, it’s more colourful than dusty Pandora but given that Tales of the Borderlands and Borderlands 3 have opened up space-faring adventure, this is no longer the case.

Still, my playthrough of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands as a Spore Warden, and later as a Spore Warden x Spell Shot, was a fun romp and distraction. It might not be a Game of the Year contender but I enjoyed my time with it - as well as collecting all the lucky dice and other collectibles. The story might be a little on the simple side with no great payoff for what could have been a great villain, but I was nevertheless impressed by the message of unity and fellowship that was imparted by the game (although I played this completely solo - with only the commentary from Valentine and Frette to engage with).

And anyways, what other game destroys the entire ocean with a healthy dose of MAGIC MISSILE?

[ketchup-monthly]

Sanders Sides D&D 2

Ooh fresh take: Jan is virge’s patron and that’s why there’s beef

Also: Jan is some sort of fae related being

Jan: i need you to do something for me Virgil: no Janus: that's not how this works!! Virgil: watch me :P

Okay so I was thinking of Patton as a cleric cuz ooh healer however, Patton as a Druid makes me so happy

I want logan to have Rage

(Also that could tie nicely in an arc about Logan learning to accept feelings)

but barbarian logan is going to be a scholar again and is gonna be smort

bc hes logan. he cant be not smart

Oh I figured he’d be the bbeg that eventually joins the party (hurt/comfort baybee!)(Remus)

he was the bbeg but then joined the party as a bardbarian or just a bard

plus, actual bard who accidentally casts vicious mockery instead of bardic inspiration

Side note: please include a scene where Remus attempts to seduce the dragon

also with this second au, i can start them at like level 5 so people can multiclass

Pat as cleric/druid

gasp logan as artificer/barbarian

janus sorcerer/rogue

because basically everything but alchemist would work well with barbarian, but alchemist feels very Logan

bc mad scientist being actually mad

alchemist logan making an experimental potion and going "here im not sure what this does but im sure its fine! someone drink it"

Remus does it voluntarily, but Logan usually tries to get Roman to drink it

Virgil will occasionally drink it when he's on his last legs and is just like.....100% done with the party

remus as a wild magic path barbarian and just fucking teleporting or doing something equally ridiculous whenever he rages

Oh my god Remus with rage would be a force to be reckoned with

You gotta describe the first time he goes into a rage really dramatically

obviously virgil is trying to "escape" his patron, Janus (really just do whatever he says to not do out of spite)

Eldritch knight roman

Feywild warlock virgil

hey so in the second d&d au, should roman and remus be actual full siblings but like remus went darkside and like romans just trying to get back at him for putting a dark stain on the family name

hey hey hey what about warforged Logan? (essentially a robot)(so like "i dont feel anything" becoming real)

okay hear me out. elf roman and elf base simic hybrid remus. so like maybe the reason remus went darkside was experimentation? so like. hes elf but special

FALLEN AASIMAR VIRGIL

virgil just transforming in the middle of a combat scenario and like his eyes turn into black pits and flightless skeletal wings appear on his back and like everyone near him has to make a charisma check and like he deals extra necrotic damage

Pat is the one human stuck in a band of misfits

so with it, roman would be a full elf, and remus would be an elf that has tentacles bc octopus

So robot logan

i meant literally he doesnt feel anything

like he has all the emotions, but he doesnt physically feel the need to like eat or sleep or stuff like that

he just.....he pretend he don't have the feelings.....but he do.....he feel so much and he hides it all in his littol mechanical heart <3

plus......if he warforged, then like.....AC huge

he stands in front of friends.....he protecc...."no, i don't have feelings, i am physically incapable of affection" but he do!! he do! he take hits for them because he do!! he care so much

Bro he spouts all this and then he uses a reaction to dive in front of someone and everyone’s just like oh

LIKE ROMAN STILL BEING MEAN TO LO BC HE THINKS HE DOESNT HAVE FEELINGS BECAUSE HE DOESNT HAVE A HEART BUT HE DOES

hey hey everyone needs to grow

and logan standing up for himself and other people stepping in and saying no stop thats not right

plus if canon wont give me roman facing the consequences of his actions towards Logan......

but also Roman learning how to properly handle his own emotions and how he interacts with others

logan who doesn't view himself as anything more than a machine to be useful to others

the party giving logan love and affection until he slowly learns his own worth as a person

Roman and Logan not getting along (maybe Roman has a Lore reason to distrust Warforged, maybe not) and slowly learning to trust each other

when Logan is feeling real down or having some issue, Roman actually comes through to help him, showing how far both characters have come

Okay yes but also can we please give Roman more confidence than canon? Like I’m sooooo sick of low self esteem being played for laughs or just being really really sad

this boy is going on a mission and will slap his brother upside the head and tell him to shut tf up remus youre not a monster just come back home and he will do it alone if need be

OKAY SO WHAT IF HE ORIGINALLY WENT ON THE QUEST JUST TO STOP REMUS ONCE AND FOR ALL BC ROMAN THOUGHT HE WAS A MONSTER, BUT ALONG THE WAY, AND AFTER LOGAN, HE CAME TO REALIZE THAT NO, JUST BECAUSE REMUS (AND LOGAN) ARE DIFFERENT, THEY ARENT MONSTERS, JUST DIFFERENT

AND LIKE IN THE FINAL PUSH TO MAKE REMUS JOIN BACK WITH HIS BROTHER, ROMAN IS PROJECTING HIS OWN FEELINGS ONTO REMUS AND EVERYONE IS LIKE WOW BRO YOU GOOD THERE, BUT ITS A BIG MOMENT FOR LOGAN, ROMAN, AND REMUS

im unsure as to how, but it happened when he was an older teen/young adult. a simic scientist either picked him (read: kidnapped), or remus volunteered (potentially to escape court life, unaware what exactly the experiment was going to do to him physically

bc also, remus and roman are royalty

so like. how best to get at the nobes/royalty/rich famous people than by turning their kid into a monster

wait, wait, wait, because i'm lowkey a sucker for this trope, but i'm not sure if it fits Remus: the experiments left him with some fairly significant physical pain/uncontrolled magical reactions. through some combo of trying to deal with that and trying find a cure for his pain, he keeps like....absolutely wrecking random towns on accident but also deliberately wrecking certain places looking for either a) vengeance on the guy(s) responsible or b) someone who can make the pain stop

SO LIKE. WILD MAGIC BARBARIAN DOING WEIRD SHIT TO HIM WHENEVER HE RAGES

AND LOGAN COULD MAYBE HELP WITH THE PAIN AND SHIT

BC ALCHEMY

Yknow, for simplification purposes, we could say the True Bbeg just gave Remus lycanthropy and Remus hasn’t managed to control it yet

lycanthropy but simic shit?

Mr. I-Don't-Have-Feelings sees the poor dude in pain and also Roman in emotional pain from seeing his brother in pain and is absolutely like "i must resolve this like right now, immediately" because he definitely doesn't hate seeing his friend suffering, or his friend's brother whom he's just met

he definitely doesn't relate at all to the idea of someone else shaping your body and absolutely does not sympathize with Remus's plight

i was thinking the grappling thing and either manta glide or the ability to breathe underwater for the simic stuff, but like he doesnt have control over the tentacles yet?

Manta glide seems like we could have fun battle scenes

he just jumps off a cliff to avoid mushy talk/dealing with his actions/roman

Roman: Remus just because you're a monster and though i wish i was an only child-- Remus, jumping off a cliff: byyeeeeee Patton: Roman, look what you did! Virgil: dammit jan what did you do? Janus: why do you think i had anything to do with that? im a fae, not a genie Logan, thinking: what an asshole. i wish i could do that

oh my god Logan always being tired mentally bc he cant sleep

Oh my gosh I love that. So Remus got kidnapped super young, (from royal family) they never found him, as a result Roman had to grow up super fast (side effect: lowkey inconsiderate and forgets to ask for others input). Meanwhile, Remus was experimented on by True Bbeg and came out with some trauma and super cool additives

yep! chronic pain and ptsd and all sorts of other shit!

so like, simic hybrids are usually created when they're adults. but what if the true bbeg decided to go younger to see what would happen, and thats why remus has chronic pain and stuff

he was still growing when his genes were spliced, so hes dealing with growth plates shifting and his body maturing and puberty and body changes and stuff

Pat is going to have a lighthearted story. Im saying that now. Hes the one without all the baggage

Sure, but his parents have to lowkey be the really kind people who are surprisingly always down for violence

everyone: multiple crises Pat: y'all need help Pat: love and affection in spades for his little band of misfits

Patton (which I think would be pretty simple, honestly he might just see danger and jump in and suddenly everyone in the party has Feelings)

Logan

Mhm. So how did he grow up? Was he just poof created? Wait

What if he was created by the king?

To make up for remuss disappearance

wait, wait....angst......he was created to fight (hence the barbarian stuff) but alchemy is his real passion

wait so like. a second son???

hes there to replace remus?

Yea! (But like in a sympathetic grief way) But that causes a bit of a complex in Roman and ergo Roman and Logan have a bit of a beef

okay so like. hes there to be a companion for roman, and like take remus' place, even though hes not actually in line for the throne?

LOGAN AS A KNIGHT

and just......the conflict of being created for a specific purpose (plus being, you know, robot and technically incapable of deviated from said purpose) vs the fact that he actually does have independent consciousness and like....wants to live life for himself

the parents made Logan a barbarian in hopes that him and Roman would be safe

okay. so logan was created by the king with the sole purpose to take remus' place as romans brother/companion, and to be his like guard? protector? and fight, but logan wants to be an alchemist and study shit

wait, wait, wait.....thinks about Asimov's Laws

he.....his first operative is protect (specifically protect Roman)

oh man. so hes literally just a shield

his second level operative is just like.....care for Roman's emotional well-being, but he doesn't really know emotions because he was kinda just spawned and nobody told him how

and he just....kind of....lets Roman treat him like garbage and take all his grief out on him because he's staunchly in denial of both having feelings or knowing how they work

Anyway Yea so Logan created by royal family in place of Remus which created angst between the two “brothers” and identity issues in Logan. Their arcs are learning how to healthily process emotions plus Roman apology and Logan commits to alchemy

So big question: why did virge make a deal?

Tricked

he gave janus his name

and instead of janus like killing him or whatever the fae do to people who break the rules of dealing with the fae, jan was like. hey. i'll give you magic, but do what i say

Janus is lawful neutral, but leans towards being selfish

hes self serving, but he has a strong set of morals and rules he follows

Tho I want to Virgil to also not be pushover so let’s say loophole happened and Jan has to stay with virge (hence why Jan is a part of the party)

okay so a couple of the rules are dont give a fae your true name and don't try to figure out their true name

So

what if virgil accidentally gave up part of his true name, and got stuck in the deal, but then figured out janus' true name

so in the same vein that janus had control over virgil, virgil now has more control over janus

he still gets his magic from janus, so he cant break free completely, but virgil has more freedom and can occasionally tell janus what to do or when to shove it

there should a running gag where virge can explain how he learned Jan’s true name but Jan can make something loudly censor him every time

(he learned his name bc once he heard janus practicing his evil genius voice and talking to himself in the mirror and janus said his true name)

so maybe janus sent virgil on the quest to protect a town or stop something related to remus, but virgil dragged him along

he might just be trying to protect a town thats close to a ley line, or something fae-related, and they just happen upon the whole thing

janus is selfish. but lawful vs chaotic is where he comes through, in morals vs doing whatever. janus has a strong set of loyalties to the fae, and to himself

so like....Remus is just too close to Jan's stuff and he wants to take him down

Virgil is just like....exhausted and said "fine, but if i gotta do this, you're coming, too"

or at least figure out a way to protect his place, even if it doesnt mean fully taking out remus. just moving him would work for jan

Janus: virgilllllllllll hes going to mess up my magic storage locker Virgil: Jan, its empty Janus: but its mine

Yea. Remus attacks a city away from the fae: Jan: Yknow I’m gonna sit this one out Virge: oh no you don’t, get up

Or

Janus vs Janice

so his real name is Janus, but Virgil calls him Janice

Virgil: This is Janice Janice: with a “U-S” Virgil: mhm, sure Jan

I'm a big fan of just like any of the old theory name being various aliases for Jan

Damien, Dante, Ethan, Declan, etc, etc

[extreme-technicality]

does talking to an anon help about ninjago help? cuz I'm down

DHDKCKGSC YES IT DOES THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OFFERING YOUR SERVICES

Okay now that I know I won’t be clogging people’s dashes buckle the fuck in my dude and I should stress that I literally would not be talking about this as much as I will be if I didn’t genuinely enjoy the show. I’m gonna go season by season and just Rant

S1 has the serpentine as the bbeg and like, as far as villains go they’re p lit. They’re early enough that they haven’t been done to hell, things are fresh, the characters and dynamics are being fleshed out, and all in all s1 is a pretty solid season. There’s some fuckery that gets brought up re: how the FUCK aging works and what the actual timeline of Ninjago is and how Wu and Garmadon fit into that timeline, fuckery that LITERALLY NEVER GETS RESOLVED IN A SATISFYING WAY BC ITS REVEALED IN A LATER SEASON (s8, dw we’ll get there lmao) THAT THE ONLY REASON THE FIRST SPINJITSU MASTER, WU, AND GARMADON LIVED AS LONG AS THEY DID IS CUZ THEYRE BASICALLY DEMIGODS AND ITS IMPLIED THAT LLOYD WILL ALSO LIVE FOR A LONG ASS TIME WHICH MEANS ONE DAY HES GONNA OUTLIVE ALL HIS FRIENDS AND EVERYONE HE EVER LOVED WHICH IS A FUN THING TO THINK ABOUT AT NIGHT But anyway I digress, s1 also coincidentally introduces Lloyd (he wasn’t in the pilot episodes that set up the rest of the series) and the existence of Evil Dad Garmadon.

S2 is where Garmadon starts acting a lot more Evil and a lot less Dad. He’s the main antagonist for that season, and I actually read somewhere that the show was originally slated to end after s2 which high key explains the fuckery of literally every single season after this lmaooooo. Much like s1, I really can’t find much to complain about, the first two seasons are pretty decent as far as I can remember

Season. Fucking. Three. Where the fuck do I start??? I hate season three for entirely personal reasons revolving around the STUPID GODDAMN ROMANCE WRITING. okay lemme back up and explain a thing first so, Jay is dating Nya and they’re fine, they’re going steady, aND THEN????? THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON INTRODUCES BULLSHIT LOVE TRIANGLE FUCKERY FOR ZERO GODDAMN REASON, BITCH I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES AND I HATE THEM EVEN MORE WHEN THEYRE DONE FOR NO GODDAMN REASON!!! AND THEN. AS IF THAT WERENT ENOUGH. THEY SHOEHORNED A ROBOT ROMANCE BETWEEN ZANE AND PIXAL AND I KNOW I RANTED ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY WATCHING BUT I DIDNT GO INTO ENOUGH DETAIL!!!! THEY MADE THE OTHER NINJA OOC IN ORDER TO PROP UP THEIR SHIP!!!!!! AND AT ONE POINT ZANE GOES “its like we were…made for each other” AND I HAD TO FUCUCJDHVE I HAD TO SCREAM INTO A PILLOW BRO, IM SO TIRED!!!! NO THE FUCK YOU WERENT!!!!!! YOU WERE MADE FOR YOU AND PIXAL WAS MADE FOR PIXAL AND IF YALLS WANNA BANG BOLTS THATS FINE BUT DONT IMPLY THAT EITHER OF YOU WERE MADE INCOMPLETE!!!! THATS AN INSULT TO YOUR MAKERS AND YOURSELVES, MOVE ON, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. anyway that season also killed Zane (for the first time, but not the last) (spoiler alert lmao) and like, not to be an emotional little shit but I did cry a bit at his funeral.

S4 is honestly one of my favorites, even though the romance crimes continue (the love triangle bullshit is continuing and honestly I maintain that Cole, Nya, and Jay should all have gotten together and in my personal canon they DID, and also Kai has a forced romance) the VILLAIN makes up for it imo. He’s campy!! He’s funny!! He’s a clown!! He’s serious enough that if he says “I’m gonna kill you” HE MEANS IT and that’s so fucking refreshing!!!! S4 is honestly 8/10 just for the villain alone, don’t like that it retconned the SHIT out of the elemental masters and how many different elements there are TO master but eh, it’s ninjago, shit is stupid.

S5 was…interesting? OH WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT S3 INTRODUCED A GARMADON WHO WAS A LOT LESS EVIL AND A LOT MORE DAD, HONESTLY I THOUGHT IT TOOK A LOT OF THE FLAVOR OUT BUT THATS JUST ME LMAOOO. anyway s5 killed Garmadon, and I was a little sad cuz I like him okay??? I just think he’s NEAT, he’s got big dad energy, he was teaching Lloyd some shit that just got DROPPED and literally was never brought up again which is honestly a theme in Ninjago. Ninjago drinking game: take a shot every time they introduce a plot point or ability and drop it at or before the end of the season. WHICH THEY ALSO DID IN S5 WITH A DIFFERENT POWER ACTUALLY, so all the ninja are masters of Spinjitsu right, well s5 introduced the concept of Airjitsu which only Spinjitsu masters can learn and it lets them FLY and they used that for seasons 5 and 6 and then they nEVER BROUGHT IT UP AGAIN EVEN THOUGH IT WOULDVE COME IN HANDY FOR S E V E R A L DIFFERENT SITUATIONS ACROSS THE SEASONS, ONE OF THEM WOULD BE FALLING TO THEIR DOOM AND MY ASS WOULD BE YELLING “YOU CAN FLY, DUMBASS” - anyway, they do that again later lmao it’s fine. But what’s low key NOT fine is they made Nya the WATER NINJA!!! Like I’m not mad she has powers, except I kinda am, she was doing just fine as Samurai X and honestly the only reason she has super special ninja powers is for plot reasons. Also Cole got turned into a ghost, but by s7 he’s????? No longer a ghost????????? And that’s NEVER addressed or reasoned away, so like. Cool lmao

S6 didn’t happen. Like, canonically, s6 ends with wish fuckery that undoes the entire season and none of the characters remember anything that happened except Jay and Nya because S6 is the season where they get back together so they remember all those events for???? Feelings reasons?????? Unclear, moving on. The actual bbeg for S6 was a djinn with a vaguely Spanish accent, and to this DAY I don’t know why they made him have a SPANISH accent. Djinn are Arabic, not Spanish!! They’re not central or South American, either!!!! Your villain design makes no sense, do better

S7 had MORE time fuckery, and retconned what happened to Kai and Nya’s parents and hmmmhmhmhmhmhm that makes me Upsetti Spaghetti :3 not just the retconning, but the fact that they LITERALLY brought them back oNLY TO NEVER MENTION THEM AGAIN!!!!!! LITERALLY!!!!!!!! Okay so at the VERY very beginning, like pilot episodes beginning, Kai talks about their dad like he died/left fairly recently, BUT s7 contradicts that and claims that both of their parents were essentially abducted when Kai and Nya were little kids, which makes me question what in the fresh fuck two little kids were doing for all those years alone. SETTING THAT ASIDE FOR A HOT SECOND, their parents were also apparently good friends of Wu’s and old war buddies (from the Serpentine wars, which is YET ANOTHER bit of the timeline that doesn’t quite add up but honestly I could make a whole other post about that shit). But if they were such good fucking friends, why didn’t Wu check in every now and again??? What the fuck was Wu doing that was so fucking important that he couldn’t have been assed to visit his friends ONCE in like TEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS and realize “oh shit, they’re not here and there are two tiny children running around unsupervised…My Kids Now : )” LIKE????? WU YOU LOW KEY SHOULDA LOOKED OUT FOR YOUR FRIENDS’ KIDS BETTER, THEY COULDA DIED BRO!!! Uhhhh the time fuckery also results in Wu getting yeeted ahead in time a bit and the ninja gotta find him

Season. Eight. I have…mixed feelings about this one. The beginning absolutely SLAUGHTERED me, and not in a “this is so fucking funny” way. No, the beginning made me feel like I was being flayed alive with just about every episode because Ninjago was back on its forced romance bullshit and this time it was Lloyd’s turn on the chopping block. That hurt my soul cuz like, look at that mans color scheme, he’s CLEARLY alloaro, why are you forcing romance on my aro man, why would you hurt me like that, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE AND THE GIRL HE WAS BEING SET UP WITH HAD A LITTLE HEART TO HEART REALLY EARLY ON AND IT WAS THE MOST QUEER CODED SHIT!!!! IT DEADASS READ AS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AN OUT AND PROUD QUEER AND A CLOSETED QUEER AND THEY MADE!!! IT!!!!! STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that kept me watching at first was wanting to find Wu, and then I started enjoying myself once Cole found a plot-relevant baby and had fatherhood thrust upon him. Everything went from “ehhhhh” to “holy shit this FUCKS” once it was revealed that Rumi (Lloyd’s love interest) wAS PLAYING HIM THE WHOLE TIME AND WAS EVIL AND HAD AN EVIL GIRLFRIEND!!!!!! LITERALLY IMPROVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SEASON FOR ME, I COULD EVEN FORGIVE THE WHOLE “let’s resurrect Garmadon, but as evil as possible” BULLSHIT!!!!!!

S9 is a continuation of s8, Garmadon is back and 1000% Evil, 10% Dad, but none of the Dad energies is directed at Lloyd - it’s all directed at Rumi, and honestly I could write a whole ass post on just RUMI cuz that’s honestly my DAUGHTER and I LOVE HER and I’m MAD SHE DIES AT THE END OF THIS SEASON!!!! SHE DESERVED THERAPY AND TO LIVE WITH HER GF AND MAYBE SOME CRIME. AS A TREAT. RUMI DESERVED BETTER AND LOW KEY IM GONNA WRITE A FIC ABOUT IT, BUT ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Ah right, so s9 has the four major Ninja stuck in the original dimension with no way home, while Lloyd has no powers (cuz he almost died last season) and has to somehow lead a resistance against Garmadon (who has taken control of Ninjago City and is working on the rest of Ninjago). Actually, s9 is pretty cool. Like, the end of s8 and into s9 are low key my favorite episodes, and I kinda wanna rewatch them now -

S10 is a FUN one. Garmadon got got last season, but he didn’t DIE, so he’s in cold storage and now there’s Another Threat and he’s the only one who knows wtf they’re up against so they let him out and he works with them. The funny part is, he is still Very Much Evil and doesn’t quite Get emotions like he did when he was, uh, human lmao, sO HE WOKE UP EVERY DAY DURING THAT SEASON AND DECIDED TO CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING SHIT. 1000000/10 MY FAVORITE GARMADON, he ended that season by literally fucking off into Ninjago and they never decided to track him down 😭😭😭😭😭and I’m so SAD about it dude

S11 has another Serpentine as the bbeg, though in the setup to that they retconned how the fucking Serpentine tribes and history work??? I think???? Also Wu was a good 150% angrier and generally Done with the ninja’s shit, which was honestly refreshing tho I’m not quite sure I liked what the refreshed view was, but whatever lmao. S11 also had the ninja get yeeted to the dimension farthest from Ninjago, and honestly - okay, so they didn’t all go at the same TIME, Zane left about a week or two before the others did but there was time dilation fuckery afoot which I’m not too mad about cuz low key it makes sense. What I AM mad about is that they didn’t play the angst up to its full POTENTIAL!!!!!! Zane was EVIL in the other dimension!!!! Okay so I’m Ninjago he was only gone for maybe a week or two, but DECADES had passed in the other one, and all that time Zane was alone and disconnected from everyone he knew and loved, with a staff that boosted his power while slowly corrupting him and Turning Him Evil to help him, and like???? The thought of Zane trying to find a way home, trying to get SOME sort of message back, while he has to use the staff more and more to help him survive the long, lonely decades, so that by the time his family DOES show up its too late??? BRO. B R O. THAT JUST HITS DIFFERENT, BUT NINJAGO DIDNT DO THAT!!! THEY MADE HIM EVIL DUE TO MEMORY WIPE!!!!!! MEMORY WIPE IS BABY SHIT COMPARED TO A LONG, SLOW CORRUPTION!!!!!!

S12 was alright. It went into Cole’s mom, touched on some of the adventures she had had, threatened another forced romance (this time on poor Cole, just leave my mans ALONE) but thankfully didn’t follow through this time, introduced cool new powers that honestly hasn’t been elaborated on since that’s the most recent season I think lmao

Anyway thanks for reading and letting me rant!!!! I have,,So Much More I could talk about, PLEASE ask me about Rumi, some of my headcanons re: Garmadon and Wu’s dynamic, the Serpentine, my top five times they butchered Kai’s character for Plot Reasons, or anything else I brought up here that you want me to elaborate on!!!

[explolalola]

DND

Continuing our train adventure.

We discovered two of the NPCs behind the murder were automatons - skeletal robots made to look like people using the Sands of Time, a new magical mechanic that was introduced. It is able to magically transform into very convincing skin and even mimic blood. It had been surrounding these metal frames and looked 100% realistic. Not entirely sure of how it works, but it’s cool.

Our train is still on a runaway course and we can’t stop it. My Barbarian realizes that we can’t get into the conductor’s car, so she decides to burst through the front piece of glass at the front of the train. She has 20 minutes to do so before we enter a tunnel and she succeeds. (YAY) So I had a nice terrifying scene climbing on top of the train (losing 10 minutes in a poor Athletics roll) and bursting through the front.

We THOUGHT we took care of the Slayer (murderer we were sent to find) - turns out, it was another NPC who had been acting like he was helping us the whole time, Professor Cornelius. 

Turns out he was a disciple of our BBEG, Parnassus, who is putting our group through some weird experiment in order for us to fight in his war with fate and save all of Ravnica. Apparently Parnassus has done this before with groups - choosing the members, putting them together, and giving them trials to make them stronger so that they can eventually be strong enough to stop fate’s grip on time. He has apparently relived the destruction of Ravnica countless times - he’s stuck in some weird sort of time loop of some kind. He can’t control everything (not a god) but he can influence the things around him. We are his newest experiment - he was the one who put us all together in the beginning. He has also allegedly seen different timelines play out - one where, for example, my Azorius Barbarian rose in the ranks of Boros and became a leader there. Another future showed our Wizard and Cleric rising through Izzet and having their own labs.

Anyways. Our Rogue and our Gunslinger move onto Cornelius and quite literally take him out in one surprise round. We stabilize him with the intent of interrogating him later, but then decide such a powerful mage is better off dead so we dispose of him.

We have a few ideas to try to stop the train. Like the Rockport Limited in TAZ, it requires the conductor’s hand. So our Wizard (with a GREAT Arcana roll!) uses the new Sands of Time to reconstruct the conductor’s hand. We solved the train puzzle!

Before we could celebrate, the BBEG shows up to monologue a bit, clapping at our job well done.

We have half an hour before we get to the station and my Barbarian is STRESSED. The Gunslinger - interestingly enough - offers to relieve said stress. But there needs to be a conversation first, so my PC tells him to talk to her later. That’s going to be a long conversation.

[rubyredsiren]

[Mindscape under the cut 👀]

[Warning, it’s a lot]

Been holding back for a hot second but I’ve pieced together which memory is what. As well as nicknames for each half to differentiate w/out typing Human/Siren!Sammy over a dozen times.

The hub area is called ‘Safe and Sound’ and is reminscent of a giant cavern made out of blankets and pillows. Fairy lights hang overhead, illuminating the paths to each memory. At the center is a tiny workshop that looks partially like a child’s playhouse but also a makeshift scrap metal house seen a lot on Pandora. There you meet Sammy’s halves.

Firefly = Siren!Sammy

Bugbite = Human!Sammy

Bugbite wants to be rid of Firefly, at any means possible because ‘when’s being a siren done her any good?’

First memory/location is when Sammy got her powers back post leeching.

Known as ‘Red’s End’

The area is a cacophonous blend of Carnivora’s Guts and The Dust of Pandora.

In the parts where engines and mechanisms purr, robotic arms and legs reminiscent of Sammy’s prosthesis designs jut out from the walls, kicking and scratching anyone who treads too close.

Along the path, we hear overhead voices of Evil Kurt (The Shepherd) and Troy’s (The Godleech) voices relaying the same taunts Sammy’s heard a thousand times over.

“Awww, bug, did you fall doooown?” “Stupid little kid.” “Poor widdle baby, ‘oh no, not my powers! Those were the only thing of value I ever had!’ Hahaha!” “This world’s gonna chew you up and spit out the seeds, Bug.”

The fight between The Shepherd is ranged, and requires the VH to bring down his shield before being able to attack Shepherd. Occasionally, Shepherd will close in for a quick but heavy melee attack with his eridian staff.

The entire time Bugbite chastises Firefly about how she could let things get this bad and how better things were when Bugbite ‘couldn’t hear her anymore’

The fight with Godleech is similar to the og one between him and the VH, save it involves more emphasis on the powers he leeched from Sammy, aerodynamically swiping down at the VH and causing pillars of fire to explode from the ground.

The memory ends with a replay of Sammy regaining her powers after Troy’s demise. As Sammy’s reflection breaks down, we get a first glimpse at the BBEG of this domain.

Bugbite panics and leaves the memory before Firefly reluctantly follows.

Second memory/location is Sammy’s days when she was a kid learning how to control her powers and running around Sanctuary.

Known as ‘Bolthole’

The area looks like if Sanctuary l were taken and expanded into a Lectra City sized town, with giant overarching skyscrapers and streets that lead to back alleys and shortcuts along the rooftops. Over time it bleeds into Moxxxis bar, just a lot bigger and longer.

Disappointed murmurs and chastising are overheard from an Evil Akachi and Evil Audrey.

“Can’t believe I wasted my time with you.” “You’re such a mistake, Sammy.” “How can you be this weak?!” “Quit crying.”

Bugbite is just as unhappy with this skewed perception of her friends and family, and calls Firefly out on it. How could she have let it get this bad?

The boss is a dual fight between both evil perceptions of Akachi and Audrey, Akachi sending lightning strikes towards the VH and Audrey quickly closing in for a flurry of phasethread swipes.

The memory ends with a replay of Sammy being invited to lunch after ‘super secret siren sparring’ between the three of them. Firefly chimes in how happy she felt that even if her powers didn’t work half the time, it was still nice to be included and around people like her.

The third memory/location is when Sammy first became a siren at the tender age of six.

Known as ‘Home Sweet’

The area is dark around the edges, and looks like the interior of a gigantic house, with giant furniture, toys, and other things reminiscent of a house with children running about.

There are tiny handprints burnt on the walls and on the floor wherever the VH walks. Tiny nervous giggles are heard occasionally, as well as the tinkling of a music box. It reeks of alcohol.

Bugbite comments how things weren’t great, ‘but they weren’t absolute shit then, either.’ Before being a siren actually sunk in for the two, and what Firefly’s presence meant.

Once again, voices are heard. Berating from an Evil Ryk (Motherfucker) and an Evil Moxxi (Clown Lady).

“Where’s my drink, what the hell’s taking you, kid?” “I used to be beautiful before you came along.” “Keep this up and you can spend the rest of the night in your room.” “Bug, yer really pissin’ me off wit yer screamin’”

The only boss in this area is Motherfucker, he’s huge and his face looks burnt, charred and melted like plastic with only one eye to be seen through his matted, bloody hair and beard. He lobs Molotov cocktails and deals barehanded melee attacks to the VH if close enough.

Before Clown Lady gets a breath in, Bugbite intervened and wills the fight away before it can start. Claiming, “she’s the only one who we haven’t run off yet, stop it.”

The memory ends with a vague glimpse of Cupid, her back towards the VH, Firefly and Bugbite before disappearing in a vault gateway that crumbles seconds after. Regardless of what Sammy remembers, the truth is Sammy only knew Cupid for a couple years, but too young to really remember who she was aside from stories told in Sammy’s youth.

[In lieu of dlc4 I’m super tempted to write out a mindscape for Sammy]

[that-there-is-a-wierd0]

I got some light-hearted headcanon for you. There’s a blackboard in one of BBEG’s classrooms that has an attendance list of what I interpret to be students. Most of these students are physically disabled so they’re able to recognise Billy’s cyborg implants as prosthetics — Billy’s cyborg enhancements only connect nerves to the prosthetic limbs, they do not replace missing limbs. Meanwhile the few who aren’t disabled genuinely buy into the robot gimmick. Anyway, Billy ends up playing into this robot gimmick while explaining his disability so that the abled children are familiarised with it. And subsequently, the disabled chidren end up feeling more comfortable with their conditions. There’s a weird hypocrisy in Billy when it comes to his self-presentation. When he’s in public he expects himself to be “The Well-made Robot,” but when he’s behind closed doors he’s “Mr. Billy.” So there is some conflict and confusion among the children as to why Mr. Billy always tells them to be “unashamed of your differences,” and yet in his interview shows plays an act — Mr. Billy avoids the children’s questions though eventually caves in, spilling his internalised ableism rhetoric that he inherited from his father’s paranoia and insecurity.

Overtime though — in a timeline where BBEG:11YL doesn’t happen — as he spends more time with the kids he learns to let go of this internalised rhetoric, and actually follow his own advice :^) be unashamedly himself, imperfections embraced.

omg;;;;;;; that's so cute!!

That's mostly how I see him too..hes like 75% cyborg because I hc as an engineer/robotics guy so ofc he's gonna do crazy mods on his prosthetics

But I see him more as robot because I'm evil and what took his legs was a disease that also ate at his limbs until he decided fuck it im astro boy I guess lol

(not?) Fun fact both mira and billy are hypocrites because they love each other's perceived flaws; Mira thinks billy is cool as fuck and wants to help him, and billy thinks Mira is soooo pretty and kind. These are traits neither see in themselves (self destructive queers blast GO!!!)