#where i'll actually succeed in getting shit done

[airenyah]

sitting on my fave table in my faculty library trying to work on a paper but i am just so sleepytired

[angrelysimpping]

Can I request a full thing with m!Whitney and m!Kylar actually working together because that ask just 👀👀👀

Hhhhhhh i know what this ask was referencing but I cannot for the life of me find the post. If I find it at some point, I'll add the link but until then, sorry! ><"

Contents: AMAB Whintey (he/him); AMAB Kylar (he/him); GN Reader (you/you, they/them); drugging; noncon; abduction; penetrative sex, reader receiving; oral sex, reader giving; multiple partners

Words: ~2.4K

"Fancy meeting you here, slut.”

You nearly drop your bag at Whitney’s voice. It was nearing six, birds chirping away, morning fog creeping across the ground, yet to get burned away. The bully didn’t really strike you as a morning person, one of the reasons you had decided to slip out of town before noon. In theory, you wouldn’t run into anyone you knew. 

Your theory was incorrect, apparently.

You try to collect yourself, plastering on a smile as you look at the bully. “Wh-Whitney! Didn’t think you were an early bird.” 

Mentally, you kick yourself for the stutter, but he doesn’t seem to catch it as he slings a strong arm around your shoulders, pulling you in close to his side.

“C’mon,” he grunts, not even bothering to wait for you to agree with him, starting to drag you along. "We've got somewhere to be."

Your heart sinks. "Somewhere" with Whitney probably meant you on your knees in some dark alley so Whitney could make a quick buck. You didn't have that kinda time. The bus you needed to catch out of town would leave, with or without you on it. You'd waited too long, made too many plans, to let that fall through now. 

You duck out from under Whitney's arm, holding onto your bag tightly as the bully swipes at you. 

“Sorry, but I have to-”

“Skip town. Yeah, yeah. We know already.”

You freeze, body going cold. Skip town? How did Whitney-?

His arm wraps back around your shoulders, tight around your neck, as he starts walking again. You’re too stunned to do much but walk with him. 

You hadn't told anyone. Not a single soul. It’d hurt keeping a secret like this to yourself, never sharing it with anyone. Not even Robin, whispering with them late into the night, knowing you had plans to leave. It had burned, behind your eyes and the back of your throat, as the other orphan clung to you and talked softly into the night about the future. A future where the two of you had taken the orphanage from Bailey, made things better.

A future you knew you’d never see, bus routes shining bright in your mind's eye as Robin talked of renovating the old orphanage. 

Hell, you hadn’t even said it out loud, afraid of somehow jinxing it. The closest you’d ever got to writing it down were scribbled equations, trying to work out how much you needed to make and how fast you could make it. A single slip of paper that you then shredded. 

Bailey may have done a shit job in raising you, but the paranoia they’d instilled in you had come in handy from time to time.

As Whitney starts to take you down an alley, you try to wiggle out of his hold. You don’t really succeed, the bully snarling as he shoves you into the cold alley wall. 

“Behave,” he growls, caging you against the wall with his arms, body pressing against yours. Eyes going wide, you shrink in on yourself. Whitney has done a lot of fucked up things to you, and you’ve never taken it laying down. You’d fight him off in the halls, throw shit back at him in class. Sure, you might have fooled around with him a few times, sucked him off in the bathroom or rode him in the park, but that was something else — your own self-destruction and giving into impulse.

This wasn’t that. No matter how Whitney hurt you, he never seemed so…serious. Not like now, expression dark and eyes intense. 

“You can do this easy way or the hard way,” the bully continues, “I really don’t care.”

When you don’t move, don’t try to push him away, he smiles, shoulders relaxing a bit. 

“Good slut,” he murmurs, and you hate how heat rushes to your face, pools in your gut. You hate this stupid fucking town, hate the person it’s made you into, a person who gets turned on by one of their biggest harassers praising them. 

You duck under Whitney’s arm, sprinting to the closest end of the alley.

You don’t make it far, Whitney’s arms around your middle and lifting you into the air. 

“Let go!” Your shout comes out as a hiss, air forced from your lungs as he squeezes you. Writing in his grip gets you nowhere, nails digging into his strong arms lost on the bully as he staggers back, taking you with him. 

“Fuck, he was right ‘bout you not coming quietly.”

Him? It only strikes you now Whitney’s earlier use of the term ‘We’, but you don’t get a chance to think about it. Whitney pins you face first to the alley wall, cheek pressing against the rough surface as you keep squirming, making him struggle to get something from his pocket.

The prick in your neck is almost unnoticeable, but the effects are near instantaneous, your world spinning around you as your body goes slack.

The last thing you see is Whitney pulling out his phone, swearing under his breath as he makes a call. 

-

Your head hurts. 

That's the only thing you can think about — the pain in your head. 

A steady, dull pounding. You can feel it in your teeth, in the back of your eyes. It feels a little like when you took stimulants to help focus on solving the maths competition except worse. At least then you could stumble to bed and curl up. Your limbs feel like lead, unable to move even a single finger no matter how hard you will it. Then there’s your mouth, unbearably dry. Almost like someone had stuffed it full of cotton. 

Some tiny part of you knows that you should worry, that you should panic over how you’re cold and in pain. That part of yourself is small, though, muted and made fuzzy  

"...can't just leave th-them like that!"

Is that Kylar? You try to open your eyes but struggle. Your eyelids feel so heavy. Maybe you should just go back to sleep. Then the pain would be gone, too. 

"Oh, what, you think they should just be able to do whatever? Walk right out the door?"

Whitney was here too? Strange. 

"W-what if they need to use the toilet."

"They can piss themself for all I care, serves 'em right."

"You can't-"

There's a thud and you try again to open your eyes. 

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do."

It takes what feels like a monumental effort, but you finally manage to open your eyes.

It takes even more of an effort not to close them immediately, the world fuzzy and spinning around you. Not the orphanage, you think dimly. Even with your mind muffled, you’d know the orphanage ceiling anywhere and you’re not there. 

“-won’t hurt them.” Kylar’s voice catches your attention, grounds you slightly, the world settling somewhat, if still too bright. Trying to turn your head makes the blood pound in your ears, but you manage it. 

Whitney. Whitney pressing Kylar against an unfamiliar basement wall, sneering, towering over the loner. Saying, snarling really, something, something you can’t hear to Kylar. Something that makes Kylar's expression darken.

The pounding in your ears lessens and you can make out the last of Whtiney’s words.”-not too bad, anyway. Would have left otherwise, jumped on the first bus outta town.”

Kylar’s eyes flick from Whiteny’s face to where you lay, eyes locking onto yours and making your stomach flip. His eyes are bright, hazy. You know that look, the same one that had taken over Kylar’s expression when he’d first declared you as his, pressing a knife to your classmate’s throat in the middle of English class. 

You try to speak but everything is muddled, whatever Whitney had drugged you with still lingering in your system. 

You blink but it must have been longer than just a moment. 

How else would Kylar get on top of you so fast? Nuzzling into your neck, the soft words that pour past Kylar’s lips tinged with a hard edge as he keeps mumbling for you never to leave him. 

Something warm and wet coats your thighs. His cum? You’re not sure. You’re not even sure where your clothes have gone. You’d been wearing them, hadn’t you? Now it’s just the soft fabric of a bed underneath you and the weight of Kylar on top of you. And…something else, something between your legs. 

Whitney. You know it’s Whitney’s doing, know the ache of his cock forcing you open over and over again. You can hear him, swearing under his breath as your body shakes with each of his thrusts, but you can’t see him, Kylar cupping your face so you can’t look away from him. 

Gasping as a calloused hand roughly strokes over your sex, the sound is quickly muffled as Kylar takes it as an invitation to press his mouth to yours, tongue sliding past your lips. It’s now you become aware of the hard cock pressing against your thigh, Kylar rutting against your naked body while Whitney fucks you. With a tiny, high-pitched whine into your mouth, Kylar cums, and something in you knows this is your fate now. Stuck as these two boys plaything.

The low moan of despair that leaves you is mistaken as lust, Kylar giggling as he comes down from his high. “Love you,” he mutters into your neck, arms wrapping around your middle. “Don’t leave me.”

“Us,” Whitney grunts, another harsh thrust making you gasp and shudder in Kylar’s arms. The loner’s eyes narrow, glaring at Whitney, but the bully doesn’t care. He grips your chin, pulling your face away from Kylar’s making you look him in the eyes for the first time since you saw him in that alley.

“You won’t leave. Remember your fucking place.”

There’s something in his eyes that scares you. A similar look to the one you’ve seen in Kylar’s before. You can’t really think about it as Whitney’s cock hits something deep inside you that makes pleasure wash over you, back arching as you moan.

Whitney smirks, “Told you they’d like it.”

It takes you a moment to realize he’s talking to Kylar, dots connecting only as the loner’s breathing hitches at your side. It’s with growing dread that you can feel Kylar’s cock twitching against your thigh, taking an interest again. 

You try to distance yourself, to put space between you and your body. Maybe this was all some kind of sick dream, a far too real feeling dream. You can almost do it, with drugs still lingering in your system. You can tune out Kylar’s mumbled words, Whitney’s sneered comments. You can almost phase out the ache between your legs as Whitney’s cock carves out your insides. 

That semi-blissful state comes to an end as Kylar straddles your chest, cum smeared cock resting against your lips.

“L-love?”

“Responds better to slut.”

Kylar shoots a dark look over his shoulder, making Whitney laugh, before turning back to you. With a trembling hand, Kylar strokes the side of your face, pausing as he feels small cuts from where Whitney had pressed your face into the wall of the alley. “H-he hurt you?”

You want to scream. Whitney was hurting you now, his cock bruising your insides, nails digging into your thighs, but Kylar was focusing on a few scrapes and bruises? “Kylar…” you try to say something, anything, but your tongue feels too thick for your mouth. 

His eyes light up, a wild grin stretching across his face as his thumb glides over your lips. “I-I’ll take care of those,” he says, thin fingers ghosting over the curve of your cheek again before brushing over your mouth again. “J-just, just, p-please?” His cock presses against your lips once more, and you don’t have it in you to refuse. Begrudgingly, you open your mouth as much as you can with your body still feeling unreal, letting Kylar slide his cock into your mouth. 

“You don’t have to ask ‘em shit, idiot,” Whitney grunts from between your legs, but Kylar doesn’t seem to hear him, too entranced by the sight of your lips around his cock. 

Maybe it was because Kylar ignore him, maybe it was because he was just a dick, but Whitney reaches out, cupping Kylar’s balls from behind and giving them a squeeze. 

Kylar squeals, bucking forward into your mouth. You try to relax your throat as best you can but it still hurts, tears welling up in the corners of your eyes.

“D-don’t-!”

“They like it,” Whitney cuts him off. “Tighten up real good when you fucked their throat. Do it some more and they’ll cum in no time. Then we can switch. That’s what you want, right freak?”

Kylar’s eyes seem to glaze over at the thought of being the one in between your legs, the one fucking into your sore hole. “D-don’t,” Kylar repeated, all venom gone from his voice as he idly rocks his hips forward. “Don’t c-call me th-that.” Whitney doesn’t respond, only breathlessly laughing again as he continues to fuck you. 

The worse part is, Whitney is right. Your body has been trained to crave pain with your pleasure at this point. Between Kylar slowly fucking your mouth and Whitney rearranging your insides, you’re actually starting to feel good. You know it’s a natural reaction, but that doesn’t stop your face from burning when you do cum on Whitney’s cock, moaning on Kylar’s dick as the loaner pants above you. 

“F-fuck.” Kylar presses his hips flush to your face, cum hitting the back of your throat,  and leaving you no choice but to swallow.

Whitney’s not far after, his pace picking up, swearing under his breath as he chases his own end. With a soft sigh, Kylar rolls off you, curling back around you, pressing soft, almost sweet, kisses to your clammy skin as Whitney finally spends himself inside you. 

Whitney says something to Kylar but you can’t hear them, your ears ringing and mind drifting as you try to process your new lot in life. You’re not even sure when they move away from you, bickering amongst themselves. It’s only when Kylar scurries over, holding bandages and a warm washcloth, that you realize Whitney’s left the room. 

“Don’t w-worry, love,” Kylar coos, running the warm cloth between your thighs. “I’ll get you c-cleaned up and b-bring you some f-food, okay?”

You don’t respond, letting your eyes shut as Kylar starts to take care of you.

[star-anise]

Pulling a piece out of an already massive post to reply to @zenosanalytic :

Most of this is great, but I feel like this overstates the influence and power of exclusionists; they never took over either Feminist or Lesbian groups or turned them en masse against bisexuals and transpeople, at least not in the US(in Britain it's an accurate description from what I've read). They def were still there, TRYING to(they were majorly annoying in the Fair scene), and you'd meet them or lesbian-separatists moving in wider queer circles, but they were pretty consistently losing that fight especially in academic and political queer orgs and, by the 00s, were pretty much irrelevant. They stayed that way until the Conservative movement deliberately revived/coopted them in the 10s.

Because... here's the bit from the original post I think this is talking about:

That process of expelling bi women from lesbian groups with immense prejudice continues to this day and leaves scars on a lot of bi/pan people. A lot of bisexuals, myself included, have an experience of “double discrimination”; we are made to feel unwelcome or invisible both in straight society, and in LGBT spaces.

It is absolutely true that radfems did not succeed in making exclusionary politics the mainstream policy of LGBT institutions. Hooowever. That's not what I was talking about.

Most people do not engage with the LGBTQ+ community solely by, like... walking into a policy meeting at GLAAD. Generally we do things like finding LGBTQ+ content on social media, or by attending LGBTQ+ social events, or by trying to find people to date!

In those settings, groups that are minoritized within the LGBTQ+ community (bi, pan, m-spec, ace, aro, trans, nb, etc) experience being treated in ways that are invalidating or derogatory. Not all the time! #notalllesbians!! The majority of the community might actually be kind and welcoming, and it might be relatively small microaggressions. But those microaggressions can happen often enough, and in a context where not much is being done to show that we are valued by the community, to create a sense of wariness and unwelcome in a space that ought to be safe for us.

I didn't attend a single LGBTQ+ event, or try to date a single woman, my entire undergrad career, because when I was 16, the first real-life gays and lesbians I ever met laughed and joked, in my hearing, about how bisexual teenage girls are just sluts who are doing it for the attention, not actually gay. It's not that I believed them, since they were obviously wrong; it's just that I went, "Oh okay, so LGBT spaces are still ones where I'll be bullied and shit-talked. I absolutely cannot deal with any more of that, so I'll just never go into those spaces."

Mine is a very small story. There are a lot of little stories like mine, and also ones big enough that they'd look exclusionary even to an outside observer. I know people who actually did get pushed out of their college GSAs, or lost their whole social support network, or had people try to coerce them into thinking they were horrible misguided tools of the patriarchy, in LGBT spaces, because they were bi, pan, m-spec, ace, aro, trans, nb, etc.

If you'd clicked the link in the post labelled "double discrimination", you'd read an NBC article that says, in part:

“This study adds to the growing body of research confirming that bisexual people face unique mental health disparities [that are] closely related to stigma and discrimination [they face] from straight, gay and lesbian communities,” Heron Greenesmith, a senior policy analyst at LGBTQ advocacy organization Movement Advancement Project, said.

(Note: this means "unique" as compared to gays and lesbians, which have been the focus of most mental health research and practice in this area. Namely, bisexuals tend to face certain pressures as a group that cis gays and lesbians don't so much. It does not mean "unique" as in "only bisexuals experience this". Bisexuals are just one of many groups that feel unwelcome or unsafe in LGBTQ+ spaces they ought to belong in.

Maybe you didn't mean to imply that all these experiences didn't happen. I hope you didn't. Because it would be really goshdarn silly for someone who's been on Tumblr for years to suggest that the 2010s were not a fucking golden age of young LGBTQ+ people tentatively reaching out to explore their gender and sexuality, and being deluged with immense volumes of bullshit by other LGBTQ+ people for it.

I don't want to in any way discourage people from reaching out to LGBTQ+ groups, because it's very possible that the reward will far outweigh the risks. It's possible that other people will welcome you and will enforce a code of conduct against anyone who gives you shit. I'm not saying, "Hide forever! You're on your own, kid!"

But on the other hand, it is very easy, in a million different ways, to say "We didn't think very hard about making these groups feel welcome and protected in our space" without ever writing it into official policy.

[alipeeps]

Episode 39

I am honestly fucking scared to start this episode. *whimpers*

Ahhh so the plan is to get rid of Xiao Heng before the battle kicks off (because they're scared of him - cowards!). Not sure leaving the princess to ensure his death is their best plan though?

Wait up is that real Zhao Ke who's escaped from shitty uncle or is this fake Zhao Ke again carrying out the plot to bring Xiao Heng to the princess?

Ayyy you go grandpa!! That'll throw a spanner in the works of Wanning's little plan! 😁

Oh for fuck's sake, I was right, wasn't I? Yurong *still* wants Xue Li (still thinks he has any fucking right to her, like her opinion on the matter doesn't count?!!) and I bet that's what he asked Lord Cheng for as reward.

So he in one move poisons the princess, to justify the rebellion, and "saves" Xue Li from her prison. What does he think, she's going to turn around and be so thankful for the rescue that she'll take him back?!

Oh you absolute little shit of a man. Grrrrrrrr.

Oooh holy shit, confronted by poisoned Wanning as he's walking out carrying drugged unconscious Xue Li.

Pleeease Wanning, please, put those sociopathic tendencies to good use and kill the fucker. Take him down with you. Go on!!

"Haven't I treated you well?" WHat? WHAT? Bestie, do you even listen to yourself?

Go on girl stab him. I know you got a knife there somewhere. Stab that fucker.

Better yet, take out that hairpin he gave you and stab him with that!

Nonononoooo you did it all wrong! You were meant to stab HIM!!

Him having stabbed you does rather screw up the plan to blame your death on the emperor though so thanks for that I guess...

I wonder was the poison actually intended to fake her death not kill her, as discussed with Lord Cheng? Cos if so, that's you out of favour with the dude who was your meal ticket to success if the coup works out.

You're screwed fella. Whether the coup succeeds or not, the emperor will have you killed for killing his sister.

Meanwhile where the fuck in grandpa Xiao who is meant to be coming to rescue Xue Li?

Please don't despise me? Bestie, what fucking drugs have you been taking?

Your ruined her reputation. Tried to kill her. Plotted against her. Just told her that you're going to kill the man she does love. But it's all ok sweetie, afterwards I'll clean myself, and we can go back to being husband and wife just like before, ok? I mean wtf?!!

PLEASE tell me Xiao Heng gets to personally end Yurong's life. PLEASE.

Oh thank fuck, I was just gonna say AGAIN, where the fuck is grandpa Xiao and his rescue mission? Props to the old boy for jus straight up kicking the door in.

Oh dude it's the Luoyang bandits to the rescue too! Yassss! Get the fuck in there boys!!

Well fuck, shit's going down for sure cos Xiao Heng is actually armed with a sword rather than a fan.

Does... does he really think anyone would believe what he was claiming? If the emperor was going to imprison his sister, he certainly wouldn't do it so openly, and tell her consort why he was doing it! Wtf who would even believe such nonsense?

They better not kill my baby idiot boy Wen Ji! They just better not!!!

Oh I stand corrected - he did have a sword when he spoke with the emperor... but apparently he feels Lord Cheng doesn't warrant such extra effort and ngl I agree with him there. Kill his ass Xiao Heng!!

OOOOH it's a motherfucking METAL fan!! Yasssss bitch!!!

A metal fan AND his daddy's sword. Hell yes.

Uhhh yeah Xiao Heng. sweetie... he's got armour. And you don't.

Fuuuck that shoulder throw was a badass move!!

Sorry fella, what were you saying? What do wise men do again?

Ngl I especially love that moment cos it's a subversion of such a common trope in cdrama - in the middle of a massive battle, you stop to wax poetic about your motivations with your opponent. Of fucking course in a real life battle someone would take advantage of your grandstanding to shove a fucking sword into you! 😂😂😂 Well done that nameless soldier! Bravo! 😁

Ayyy it's Jiuyue and the Great Zhao boys!! Woohoo!!

Ahh shit, how's Lu Ji gonna fight off that many on his own?

Ayyyy pappa Jiang!! Never thought I'd be so happy to see that old fucker! 😁

You go pappa Jiang. You shoulda kicked him in the nards instead though.

The director really likes the imagery of a fighter's foot sliding/splashing into a puddle as they are pushed backwards in a fight. It's rapidly getting right up there with the wind machine in popularity.

"I rescued your wife." Oh grandpa Xiao you are really fucking growing on me!! 😁

JFC pappa Jiang's face!!

He's like wtf? When did this happen??!! 😂😂😂

Ngl though fellas, romantic as this is, you really don't have time for this. There's some fairly important shit going down right now. The slow-mo hugs really should wait.

JFC dude it's not just because of Xiao Heng that Xue Li won't look at you! She's never gonna look at you. You could kill every other man in the world and she'd still not look at you!!

Plus where was this fucking rabid devotion to Xue Li and being with her no matter what when the princess ordered you to kill her? Oh, that's right, nowhere!! You DID fucking kill her... except you're too fucking cringefail to make it stick!!

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! WHat a place to end the ep! Fuck!!

(Please tell me in ep 40 Xue Li turns up and puts a fucking arrow right through that fucker's face!!)

[signalhill-if]

How Signal Hill will dynamically update your saves

So it's pretty common to make big, fundamental changes in development that require players to start a new save. Sometimes shit just breaks. Sometimes you overhaul a system, and the new one is better, but the old one has to go. That's fine, especially since a lot of the games on here are only so many words and players tend to enjoy re-reading them anyway.

But with Signal Hill's unique structure, I saw an opportunity to make development super modular and updates really easy. That problem of needing to restart saves, though? That always nagged at me. I'm a perfectionist, so the idea of idea of making updates easy for me but keeping them hard for the player wasn't enough for me. And if you've ever developed a game, you know that "just don't make big changes that require a restart" isn't an option.

So I've come up with what I hope is a clever solution to make updates relatively painless. I'll get into the player's experience first, and then talk about the nitty gritty under the cut for my fellow devs (hiiiiiii~)

Seamless Player Experience

When the player opens Signal Hill, they are brought to the main menu where they can choose to load a save, resume where they left off, or start a new game.

If an update has come out, loading a save from any previous version will cause a permanent popup to show up on the top of the screen informing you that an update is required. This can not be removed or minimized without updating.

Clicking on the update will bring the player to a page with a brief explanation of how updating works and a changelog for the current version. The game will automatically determine what needs to be updated based on their save's data. Some updates will require the player to answer a question, such as "What choice did you make during this scene?" or "Did you succeed on this roll?"

Once the questions have been answered, the player will be brought back to the page they started on and will be able to continue the game seamlessly without issues.

Under the cut, I'll explain how this actually works in Twine.

Under the hood

So there are two kinds of updates that cause problems, assuming the content itself hasn't been rewritten. One is updating the StoryInit to add new arrays or set defaults for numbers. The other is when things have happened in the story that you need to record as a variable and reference later, but you didn't have the hindsight to do it at the time.

The game will now track a variable called $gameversion. Any time a major version is released, the $gameversion in the StoryInit will be updated to the new version, so a player starting a new save will automatically be on the correct version.

If the player is not on the correct version, a line of code in the header will identify that and show them the update message. This will bring them over to the update page.

Any simple StoryInit changes will be done automatically, such as adding new arrays or setting new variables to 0 so that the game can do math with them.

Signal Hill is a massive game and saves a fuckton of data, so this info can be used contextually to dynamically update more complicated variables. Here's are some examples.

The game saves a list of every character you've encountered as an array, $met. If $met.includes("yasmin"), that means you've met her. But the line of code that adds her to the list wasn't included in the first version by accident. However, this can be easily remedied.

When the player completes a lead, it is added to a hidden list called $playedleads. If $playedleads.includes("waveform"), that means you've completed the lead that introduces Yasmin. So if $playedleads.includes("waveform"), we can $met.push("yasmin"). We'll just have to include an extra safety measure at the end of that lead, so that anyboy who updated their game mid-lead will still get her added to the $met list.

In addition, the game saves events that happen through HiEv's Event Flag macro. If the player failed a roll at the end of KC's intro, they won't be getting paid for tagging along during Test Run, and it'll SetFlag "TestRunIntern" (some of my flags have very good names, tragic that you'll never see them haha). But that, also, was missed in the original release somehow. So if $playedleads.includes("lamplighters"), the game will prompt you on whether you failed or succeeded at that roll and the flag will be set accordingly.

The game version being recorded in the variables means that extremely old saves should still be salvageable, they'll just have to endure more updates. As the game recieves more updates, it'll send players to the appropriate page for their version. If the current version is 1.5.X and the save is from 1.2.X, then the player will be brought to the 1.3.X update page, which will include all of the updates from 1.3.X to present.

Eventually, old saves may become untenable due to some massive future change that can't be predicted right now. But assuming things go as planned, this should prevent players from ever having to start a new save if they don't want to.

This has been a little dry, but I hope it game you some ideas or was interesting! I'm pretty proud of this little hack, hence why I'm sharing, haha. Hopefully in the future I'll find ways to streamline this process even more.

[stephpuppet]

binge read your norrington/elizabeth fics and im OBSESSED. you briefly mentioned having an au in your head where james and jack are brothers — do you have any more thoughts about that? i’d never considered it before and now you’ve put the idea into my head i can’t escape it!!

Hi Anon! Thank you for the ask!

I really love the James & Jack dynamic in the film series because it's quite an unusual protagonist/antagonist dynamic (which one's which is up for discussion!). There is actually a fic on fanfiction.net where James and Jack are brothers, though I can't remember the title for the life of me, so it has been done before.

I'm going to spend too much time gushing about what I would do with the concept, so I'll put it below the cut to avoid clogging anyone's feed.

I haven't managed to put it in a fic yet but I really like the idea of James having a really poor relationship with his father. Because then you can play with the idea that James's career ambitions are either 1. a way to prove himself to a father who will never think he's good enough, 2. him trying to succeed to spite a father. If Jack is his older brother this adds in another interesting dynamic of there being a black sheep in the family that James is trying to escape the shadow of but is also somewhat envious of, because Jack has the freedom of not caring what other people think of him and also being very successful in his own right.

Focusing on Jack for a moment. I think that Jack is a character primarily defined by his selfishness and in the films we rarely see him do something that isn't at least a little self-serving and the moments where he does do something unselfish are really nice. I like the idea of Jack having someone that he does actually value above himself, because (as far as I'm aware), we don't ever see that in the films. Jack debates becoming Captain of the Flying Dutchman himself before ultimately giving it to Will, but it wasn't like he had his heart set on the idea. He votes for Elizabeth to be Pirate King, but doing so didn't do anything to his own chances - he wasn't going to get voted in. I want to see him truly sacrifice for someone else.

If I had ever been able to write this idea I think it would have gone something like this.

Curse of the Black Pearl happens as normal just with a touch more "I'm going to arrest my law-breaking brother because I am the GoodSon(TM) and he keeps flirting with my girlfriend" and "hey bro, long-time no-see, whoa what's with the hostility? anywho I have things to do, let's catch up later".

James still goes after Jack in Dead Man's Chest, still on the "I must prove myself to Parental Figure That Sincerely Does Not Give a Fuck" bandwagon. Hurricane happens, only this time Jack and the Pearl go back to fish him out of the water. Cue lots of James being "I hate you, you're the worst brother ever, please leave me to die" and Jack being "Idgaf, I love you and you're going to stay on my ship and I'm going to take care of you while you have your existential crisis/breakdown."

Will and Elizabeth individually turn up for their respective plotlines and Jack deals with them with James just in the background still in his emo-teenager "life is meaningless, woe is me" phase.

From here it gets a bit fuzzy. In this verse, James doesn't steal the heart and betray everyone because, despite all his very dramatic angst, he does actually appreciate that someone gives a shit about him. I think this is one of the tragic aspects of his character in the films - he doesn't have anyone that cares for him. Governor Swann kind of does but I imagine that relationship dissipates when James is no longer a prospective son-in-law. His men respect him but I imagine a lot of that again goes when first he loses the Interceptor and a load of men in the attack on the Isla de Muerta and then again when the Dauntless is sunk in the hurricane. Elizabeth ditches him for Will. He just doesn't have anyone.

That's why I really like the idea of Jack and James being brothers, because it can give James someone that will love him unconditionally and it can give Jack someone he values as more than just a means to an end and also (crucially) something that he can lose. If you think about it, all the consequences Jack faces in the films are temporary - he dies and comes back, he loses the Pearl and gains it again.

I'm not sure when or how it would happen, but I like the idea that James still dies (possibly at the end of Dead Man's Chest) and Jack just loses it. His motivations during At World's End change from the rather impersonal 'Save Piracy and Stop Davy Jones', to 'Find Someway to Get James Back and Fuck Everyone and Everything Else'. There's now a solid motivation for him to try to become Captain of the Flying Dutchman and I feel it would be really interesting to see him sacrifice his principles and screw over people he cares about to achieve his goal. Like all bets are off, the ends will justify the means. And not just his innocent "Yes I betrayed you but it all worked out in the end", but legit life-ruining, "we will never forget or forgive this" betrayals.

I like to think in the end Jack succeeds, potentially without having to become Captain of the Dutchman. Like maybe he's able to make some deal with Davy Jones (and/or the EITC??, prob not though). He gets James back but at some huge cost. Would be super interesting if Elizabeth ends up dying because of Jack's actions and he has to lie about it to James because he knows James wouldn't forgive him if he knew what he had done.

Anyway those are my extensive thoughts on the subject. I like the ideas but I'm not motivated enough to commit them to paper and write the fic.

[katzirra]

Okay, I'm a chapter from the end but I'll finish on my drive to work tomorrow but GOODNESS.

Like I keep saying; love the development of character thoughts and incentives!! It's nice to see that internal desire to be a better man in Thomas and really REALLY realizing how fucked up stuff is. The unhinging of Lucille more so.

The passage of time is done so well and is something that we don't grasp as nicely in the movie. How long this all would have gone on, how long it would have taken McMichael to get to England actually!! I love that a lot, it's very important to me. It's the biggest flaw of the movie for me; as a movie, we cannot grasp time very well. For all we know each cut is a new day, versus how drawn out days and weeks could be.

The ghosts are interesting, not as vivid an image as the movie, but my favorite is the one from under the bed. I forget which one it is right now unfortunately. I love how there's a narrative of "it watched" around the house, ghosts observing the living tenants.... ahhh

The chain of events and dramatization of events is nice, a bit eh to the original sometimes but narratively it flows nicely. I like the added sort of look in from characters who could be present in the scene in a way but not? Like Edith observing Thomas and Finn outside from the window, seeing his machine succeed. NICE TOUCH.

The desperation of her not wanting to believe her love of her life has done or did what he did and the up and down of that is much more emotional and turmoil ridden than the movie which is nice to experience. Makes me sadder. Though the final send off with them didn't hit....as hard? There's a lot to be had in that last exchange visually with the actors involved imo!! So we lose that. Lucille is much crazier and frenzied in the novel for sure - ALSO NICE NOTE OF THOMAS SEEING THE MANUSCRIPT BURNING AND IT BOTHERING HIM.

Also man!!! MAN!!! I LOVE THOMAS THOUGH. His struggle shit is so good. Him like hating that people see him for a handsome bitch and a lord~ and he's like man, I thought my wife's dad was a great dude and she saw me for my brain AND my huge dick unù

I also just... the novel really made me think more about how much I started wanting them to be able to be happy because I forget so much that her dad was an engineer?? She grew up around all that stuff and jargon!! She'd understand so much that Thomas would talk about or refer to. And as a MODERN WOMAN that's neat because it makes her that much different still....

I think the only thing I'm eh on is how DAZED I feel in this battle at the end? I feel very lost in it for some reason. Like since Thomas has been stabbed something about the pacing is throwing my ass??

I'm gonna back up and listen to the last two chapters and epilogue tomorrow :u

ALSO LIKE OKAY SO THE BIG THING WAS UHH THOMAS' FLASHBACK TO THE DAY THEIR FATHER DIED OR LIKE THE FIRST MAJOR TIME LUCILLE GOT BEATEN... The fucking GASLIGHTING AT 8 YEARS OLD BRO..... BROOOO.

Also like she's a little creep showing him foreimages on books?? LIKE DON'T SHOW HIM THE SEXY IMAGES ON THE BOOKS THAT'S WEIRD DUDE.... LIKE I'M SO.....MMMM. augh???

BUT ALSO ALSO I LOVED GETTING AN IMAGE OF THEIR FATHER HIS DISDAIN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY ESPECIALLY THEIR MOTHER AND LIKE SEEING WHERE LUCILLE WOULD DEVELOP THAT FROM... being cruel and it's learned behaviors from both mother AND father... and also more of Thomas' kind heart and inventing. I love the woman of action and man who just... never knows what to do and feels he can't help ever because his whole life he's been made to feel he can't do anything...

The guilt and gaslightis insane to think about. The it's the least you could do being the foundation of that whole incestuous situation and it just... kept going because of that narrative. If I love my sister, this makes her happy and we just can't be separated etc. INSANE. There was a lot of interesting shit with that one chapter - it packed a PUNCH???

Really good shit. Also like as much as I do love Thomas for a multi faceted little bastard, I love that the book very much is struggling to like stress that... IDK there's a lot of feelings on these characters and how they feel towards eachothet.

I do kinda wish the stabbing scene of Alan was done more emotional or weighted because it's a very well done scene and one of my favorite down strikes in the movie?? The book is very Lucille off the SHITS about it versus like HOW ARE THE MARRIED SHARPES DOIN" FELLAS? NOT GREAT. THERE'S A LOT GOING ON AND THERE'S A LOT OF BAD VIBES. Even Alan like... the author is so funny with him but I'd like to have gotten more flavor text with him there too. I did like the kinda Doctor Brain moment about thinking about organs etc.

I also might have not been paying as much attention at that moment abd might just need to go back a dee chapters tbh :0 we'll aee. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow and reflect better.

VERY GOOD THOUGH. GOSH.

[captainninej]

shadow and bone season 2 thoughts!!

me and my sister finally finished season 2 of shadow and bone last night and HOLY SHIT. despite everyone shitting on it for some reason, i actually fucking loved it!! there were some absolutely incredible moments and overall i think they did a really good job blending the books; some decisions i may have slight reservations about but i can see the logic behind each of them from a writing perspective (except for maybe one of them, which i'll talk about later). every single character got their moment and i don't think anyone can say that there was a single flaw on the acting side. these actors BECAME their characters and we are so so lucky we got such an amazing cast, who care about their characters this much!!

SPOILERS BELOW

things i liked:

Alina's storyline. i actually have not read the original trilogy past halfway through siege & storm, but i know what happens in the books and how her story ends. jessie mei li gave alina her absolute all in this season and i thought she did an incredible job. i like how she got a bit messy and power-hungry, doubted herself and her leadership, snapped a few times. her reaction to mal being the third amplifier absolutely broke my heart AND THE SCENE IN THE FOLD WHERE THEY KISS AND IT ALL TURNS RED AND GLOWING WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. i also like how she's part of the grisha triumvirate (though david in my view 100% deserved to be there :( ) because her ending in the books to me would be really unsatisfying. she didn't go through all that shit to become a housewife. ALSO THE ENDING??? HER GOING KINDA BAT SHIT??? EVIL ALINA??? since i haven't read the books i actually don't know if this actually happened at some stage BUT I KIND OF LOVE IT FOR HER. i think if they can pull it off (and give me white haired alina i will die on this hill) it could be super cool, and not something we see in media very often, especially with female leads. without mal to ground her, i want to see how dark she can get.

Mal!!! someone is going to send me a death threat for this (which is very messed up how liking a character can cause someone to do that) but FUCK IT i like mal. i really love the humanity archie gives him, and his own little moments like paying the shop owner in novyi zem and bantering with nikolai. also his morozova storyline was done really well, and you can see how crushing it is for him to realise that he has to die for alina to succeed. also his outfits idk just really suit him? he really grounded alina throughout the season and i'm honestly not sure why it's a crime to like him. i think he's severely underrated and will hopefully be appreciated more in the years to come, just like how peeta was dragged for years but now everyone is starting to see how wonderful he always was. i also did not see his ending coming, but i really like it now that i think about it. his character has always been so attached to alina, and like he said, now that the morozova side of him is gone, he doesn't know who he is. while it was sad to see him say that he doesn't know if he loves alina anymore, i also really respect the 'choice not destiny' thing and how he wants to make sure that he loves her for her, beyond the amplifier bond they shared. it's been a common theme throughout his story that he's been forced to be a soldier his whole life, but has always just wanted to explore the world and now he gets to do that!! i like the idea of mal having his own adventures and his own leadership role beyond alina, and i think their relationship will be better for it.

NIKOLAI LANTSOV. listen my friend has been simping for this man since high school AND I UNDERSTAND WHY NOW. i've read the KoS duology and adored him but PATRICK FUCKING GIBSON LITERALLY ROSE RIGHT FROM THOSE PAGES AND BECAME NIKOLAI. i hope the girlies who trashed his casting are very embarrassed right now, this man was BORN to play nikolai. he was my highlight of the season and i think i am in love now. he fit in with the s1 cast seamlessly and provided the perfect bridge between the crows and the s&b gang. i am a little upset we didn't get any interactions between him and zoya, but we got some hints AND the demon king tease so i'm willing to wait for it in season 3 (another reason i will be fucking furious if this amazing show is cancelled).

KANEJ. KANEJJJJJJJJ. i, along with many others, was TERRIFIED that netflix would butcher their relationship. there were a few moments (the hallucination scene, the bandage scene, etc) that i couldn't even enjoy because i was so scared they would kiss or something. BUT they didn't, and now i can go back and actually enjoy the scenes because they did them so well!! they were perfectly in character and honoured the books amazingly. their bond was strengthened so much this season AND THE FINAL SCENE IN THE CHAPEL THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS JUST SAYING THE WORDS ALONG WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY WERE RIGHT FROM THE BOOK!!!! freddy and amita CARRIED and their chemistry is so good sometimes i felt like i needed to look away omg

kaz being the messy, anti-hero bitch he was born to be. i think a lot of people who haven't read six of crows who watched season 1 didn't really get the fuss about kaz, but i think they do now. they really masterfully unpacked his character and freddy absolutely blew it out of the water with his acting. they really did kaz justice and somehow ended up adapting crooked kingdom before six of crows but i get why they did, the ice court heist needs to be its own focus, and the parts from crooked kingdom that they cherry picked for this season were purely for character development that was really needed for the crows. i liked how the audience was left guessing just how far he would go, like the scene with albie. AND THE SCENE WITH PEKKA IN EPISODE FOUR HAD MY JAW ON THE FLOOR, IT WAS PERFECT. also him hating on wesper was fucking funny, and his dynamic with nina was EVERYTHING I WANTED

GENYA SAFIN MY BELOVED. this entire season had me rooting for her and wanting to jump into the screen and give her a gun. daisy head CARRIED, she did such an amazing job and had me literally sobbing. genya's story is so devastating but she's such a powerful and kind character who really got to be in the spotlight this season. she and nikolai and zoya are my favourite og trilogy characters, and HER AND DAVID WERE SO FUCKING CUTE SHE DESERVES ALL THE HAPPINESS IN THE WORLD.

nina!!! danielle galligan absolutely nailed nina's energy and her being added to the crows at last was worth the wait. i love how she outsmarted the others and just got shit done.

we sadly didn't get as much zoya in this season as i wished however i ate up every scene she was in and screamed when she said she could fix nikolai lmao

WESPER MY BELOVED THEIR SCENES WERE SO CUTE AND WERE LIKE LITTLE POPS OF HAPPINESS AMONG ALL THE CHAOS HAPPENING THIS SEASON. the piano scene?? them under the cart during the shoot out?? them fighting in shu han and then wylan telling him he was the first person he wanted to tell about the butterflies?? i am on the FLOOR

WYLAN. wylan stepped right out of the books and he was GLORIOUS. jack wolfe nailed his energy, and i loved the details they included - like how he labelled his bottles with music so he could read them!! he and kit had incredible chemistry and i loved the conflict they had about jesper's grisha abilities and wylan's dyslexia, it felt really true to the books. ALSO HIM BEING SO EXCITED ABOUT THE BUTTERFLIES and then feeding them to the crew LMAO i will protect him at all costs.

tolya and tamar!!!! they were so fucking cool!!!!

the hallucination scene, for all the characters

the little hints to king of scars!! the bee landing on zoya's arm!! thought that was really clever

I WILL HAVE YOU WITHOUT YOUR ARMOUR KAZ BREKKER OR I WILL NOT HAVE YOU AT ALL. MY GIRL SAID I AINT FIXING YOU FIX YOURSELF

the beautiful colour alina's powers turned when she connected to mal and destroyed the fold

'i'm sorry, did you say mal is a bird?'

'everyone's lost their minds'

did i mention nikolai because nikolai

the costumes??? were so fucking gorgeous??? i couldn't take my eyes off them everyone looked AMAZING

THE ENDING HAD MY JAW ON THE FLOOR. I DID NOT SEE IT COMING AT ALL, I THOUGHT WE WOULD GET IDK SOME SEMI-HAPPY ENDING WITH THE CHARACTERS LEFT OPEN ENDED BUT HOLY SHIT IT WAS SUCH A GOOD CLIFFHANGER and a perfect segue into both six of crows and king of scars!!! it also makes sense timeline wise that it would happen, so i'm really happy with it and can't wait to see what they do with it!!

things i did not like

...wesper. or more specifically, the way they did wesper. i really don't see wylan as someone who would be going out having one night stands with people?? this was the writing choice i didn't get. idk, it just felt really out of character for him and it also just removed all of the tension from jesper and wylan's relationship. no 'just girls?', no 'i kind of like your stupid face', none of the pining that was so crucial to their relationship in the books. don't get me wrong, there were moments i loved, but the foundations of their relationship in the show were a weird choice that's only just balanced with the sheer joy of seeing them onscreen together.

matthias. mans spent all eight episodes in literal jail. with all the promo and stuff with the six of them, i really thought we were going to get all six of them onscreen together this season!! i think it was a waste to just keep him locked up, sometimes i forgot he was even there until they randomly cut to him in hellgate. idk with everything else going on this season they couldn't have let calahan skogman out of the prison set and have one scene with any of the characters?? i really feel like they wasted him here and i get that they're going to break him out for the ice court heist, but surely there could have been room for him with the other characters somehow this season.

alina and nikolai getting married and going through with the engagement??? PLEASE i do NOT want them together, not married, not nothing. i like how they had a *few* suggestive moments, but that was sort of enough. zoyalai is one of the best ships and i really don't want alina to be in the middle of them. i like their friendship but the idea of them actually getting married is just not it for me. i can see them like getting married but then nikolai and zoya falling for each other, if they can manage that then fine but it takes away the focus from zoya and nikolai and idk if i'm about that

DAVID. my boy did NOT deserve to die so early. his scenes with genya were so sweet AND THE STEEL PART FROM THE BOOKS HAD ME WEEPING. i'm really holding on to the fact that we didn't see his body and that genya couldn't feel his heartbeat because she wasn't amplified by baghra because fuck i want him to live and marry genya like he deserves. i am okay with being delusional

WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT LOOK WAS BETWEEN TOLYA AND INEJ GET RID OF IT I HATE IT

i can see why people are frustrated that they took a lot of crooked kingdom elements and put them before the ice court heist. the feud with pekka rollins was crucial to kaz's motivation to even go to fjerda. inej leaving (on a ship that kaz did not buy for her hmmmm) with mal to hunt slavers, how is she going to rejoin the crows? wesper already being together. i can see why they did these things but i can also see why readers would question it. i guess it's just switching the order of things, we'll see...

it did seem rushed - but i think the reason people are really noticing it is because of how slow season 1 was. don't get me wrong, i love season 1, but they really faithfully adapted book 1 of shadow and bone across the entire season; compared to season 2 where they adapted siege & storm, ruin & rising, and elements of the lives of the saints, crooked kingdom, six of crows and king of scars. i honestly think if they shaved off a couple of characters - like that annoying tidemaker chick, pekka rollins even, vasily - there would have been a bit of breathing room. it sort of felt like BAM massive thing happens and then BAM switching to the next scene with a different set of characters. i understand again why they did it - they don't know if they're getting a third season - but it does stand out as a bit of a flaw.

maybe this is a personal thing, but i kind of like how king of scars moved away from alina and mal's story to focus on the other characters. i completely understand why they've kept alina and mal in the show - they're the two main leads, and to get rid of archie and jessie would be sad - but now that their story is more or less finished, i hope alina doesn't take up too much of what is going to be king of scars. i am 100% down to see her evil era and her white hair, but i also want there to be room for the other characters beyond just alina and i'm curious to see if they'll be able to pull that off with her still around.

for all the fuss about the fold, it being gone within the first ten minutes of the finale was kind of funny lol

overall i really loved this season despite a couple of gripes, and i don't see why everyone is being so shitty about it. yes it's not accurate to the books, but i think more importantly it's really accurate to the characters and that's what matters!!! ALSO PLEASE KEEP STREAMING BECAUSE IF WE DON'T GET A SEASON 3 WE WILL NEVER SEE ZOYALAI OR THE ICE COURT HEIST OR THE ACTUAL SIX OF CROWS COMING TOGETHER MATTHIAS WILL STAY IN JAIL FOREVER DO IT FOR THEMMMM

[g-xix]

Grace my love!! Have you watched the new sidemen Sunday?? I’m an hour in, any thoughts if you have???

Hey Buzzy Bae! (hope I'm okay to call u that :) )

Saw this come in ystrdy but was only about 10 mins in and wanted to give you a good answer so I've let it marinate and watched so that I am now also about 1 hour into the video

Hmmmmmmm very very interesting Sidemen Sunday, this one... I'll list down a bunch of rando thoughts n u evaluate them with me and give your own opinions also

For reference, this is the Sidemen Sunday of the week:

SO! Thoughts:

Simon always hits so well whenever he's host - moresidemen, main channel sidemen, he's honestly really good at filling in all those little gaps in conversation and he's quite quick-witted with his jokes, and I think that might be to do with the fact that he loves Stephen Tries and Beta Squad, British-type humour and he's done really well with emulating that type of humour in a way that fits his vibe

Ah, I love seeing Deji in Sidemen videos! He's such a sweetie, looks and acts like a big teddy bear which I love for him. I feel like he's such boyfriend material, like, he's so cutesy and honestly kinda fine, like, why does nobody else SEE THIS SHIT!!! Would be the best hugger, so funny + positive, absolute listener, so real with you... Ugh, need his energy in my life

ANOTHER VIK + HARRY TEAM DUO! These two together give me LIFE! I feel like Harry just loves tryna bond with Vik because whilst Vik is so so so intellectually smart, Harry is so practically smart and that bright sort of person that balances out Vik so well. Like, Vik studies theory and Harry knows how to do it practically, is their duo's vibes.

Also about Harry + Vik - I am (haven't watched the full vid but currently they're dead last) ROOTING for this team to win. They have chemistry, they have effort, I know damn well Harry's a good cook... Idk, this team j gets me smiling most, I wanna see them succeed

Ethan and Tobi duo is more interesting. Generally I think these team/duo works really well together because Ethan's hilarious and Tobi laughs a lot + they j vibe like that and it's fun to see! This vid though, Ethan's more stresso about the cooking aspect bc obvi he wants to win and he's come across (so far) as a little whiney and complaining... Tbh, Ethan's whining does get on my nerves a touch, but in the end I end up sympathising + feeling worse for Ethan bc i know SDMN fans CANNOT empathise w Ethan's stress or shouting or however he reacts and then they bully him? Like, Sidemen fans see one thing they don't like and they just will not shut up about it. We saw this about the colleague's thing, how ppl started hating on Ethan- calling him insensitive and ungrateful for calling the boys "colleagues", as if the fans weren't practically agreeing with him prior when they made their comments of "Sidemen feels overproduced, we prefer the old videos where it's just banter between the boys", like, Hello??????? Dunno if this point made sense but summary: Ethan's complaining mildly pisses me off but I actually feel bad for him instead of annoyed, because I know fans will have a go at him for complaining + take things wayyyyy too serious.

And oh deary dear, JJ and Deji?? I love love love these boys on their own but in a weird way why are they so jarring on a team together? I feel like Ethan and Deji would've worked rly well, maybe Tobi and JJ on a team instead? JJ always acts so unhappy to be with his brother and it kinda reminded me of 2017-2020 beef between Dej and JJ. Like, JJ was just being mean and telling Deji to fuck off, that he's useless... But they're both at the same competency level?? Like, sure, Deji isn't really competence, but JJ is no better (even though apparently his omlettes are delicious). I feel as though JJ always takes place as Sidemen's greatest wally/idiot asw, and having Deji there means that JJ cannot be the biggest oblivious-one there, but he doesn't know how to fit in other than that... And so he takes on the character or the persona of a bully/just being mean to Deji, but (at least in my opinion) it feels really jarring and sort of uncomfortable to watch. I don't think this is a very popular opinion that I have either- maybe I'm just deeping it, or maybe I'm just projecting my own experience onto others.

Slightly more lighthearted note asw, I thought Kimberly (Special masterchef guest!) looked a lot like Faith which was quite funny lol. Like the American version of Faith :D

Right, very long, very waffle-y...

What are your thoughts? Agree, disagree, think I've read any situations entirely wrong? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or post a letter through the inbox n ill reply sooner or later :)

Thanks for asking, Buzzy, hope you're having a good one! <33

[finniestoncrane]

May you pretty please write something with Arkham Riddler with a reader who has a degradation kink?

Trying to do the Riddler challenges in the Arkham games is so bad for me (especially with the Arkham Knight races) because I absolutely suck at them (I can’t drive for shit in video games). And so of course because I’m failing Eddie just starts dealing out insults and makes everything worse. Cause like then I don’t want to succeed right away you know?

I just need a reader that just adores Eddie degrading them please.

Totally don’t have to do this btw, sorry it was a long ask.

Pathetic. Worthless.

Arkham!Riddler x GN!Reader, word count: 1.7k don't ever apologise to me for long asks i swear or i'll smack you on the head with a broom i love the detail you've done all the hard work for me lmao but anywayyyy... you are speaking my fuckin language baby this is a tight as shit concept and i am ALL OVER IT because guess who likes to be called a silly little slut (it's me, i'm the silly little slut teehee) and i also spent a majority of what i've played so far fanning myself when he tells me i'm stupid 💚 request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi minors DNI!! 🔞 cw for nsfw stuff: language, degradation, humiliation, forced oral just a smidge of aftercare cos he's a soft boy really

You placed the wrench on workbench where Edward was busy with another of his projects.

“Having fun tinkering?”

“It’s not tinkering! It’s…just, pass the screwdriver.”

Handing the wrench to him, you tried to hold your smile back.

“Are you stupid?”

“I don’t know, Eddie, why?”

He placed his fingers at his temples, obviously trying to hold back his irritation, or simmering rage. But it was the effect you had hoped to garner from him. All day you’d been purposefully obtuse, getting his riddles wrong, so wrong and so consistently wrong that he had stopped telling you them, which was a first. And this was now the third time you had brought him the wrong tool. Smacking his hands down on the desk he turned to face you, no doubt straining to keep his words curbed, trying to remember how fond of you he actually was, even if he struggled to show it sometimes. And when his eyes met your coy smile, noticed you batting your eyelashes and shuffling your feet, he understood immediately.

“Ah, I see.” There was a glint in his eyes as he narrowed his eyebrows, lips curling at the edges into a wicked sneer. “You are stupid.”

It took all of you not to jump up and down on the spot, but you couldn’t contain the little giggle that erupted.

“Enough of that! If this is going to be pleasurable for you, you can forget it.” With a wink, he stood up from his seat, inching closer to you until your noses were pressed together. “I’m not in the mood to be nice to you right now, nor to placate your insecurities and tell you that you are smart after all, that you’ve been very good today, when the exact opposite would be correct. Get on your knees.”

You fell to the ground instantly, knees making contact with the oil-stained floor, shards of metal and glass and whatever else luckily not pressing too hard against you where you knelt. Looking up at him, you tried to hide the excitement in your eyes, but it was a futile attempt. Eddie knew you. Very well.

“Now, I’m going to be very rough, but that’s only because you’ve been entirely insufferable today. And if I’m being too mean, you’ll just have to take it. I want to see just…how…much…you…can take.” As he spoke, he let his fingers trace your lips, pushing two inside and pressing down on the teeth, opening your mouth and lowering your jaw, his thumb resting on your chin. “To see how much of me you can take.”

Towering above you now, he began unbuckling his belts, tossing one to the floor, the other, clattering to the sides of his pants. Unzipping slowly, he slid the fabric down, unsheathing his cock, holding it in his palm, hardening from soft at the touch, growing ever more impressive as he became stiffer at the sensation, at the prospect of what he had in store for you. He palmed it, hissing through clenched teeth as he let his thumb stroke the head softly, tentatively.

“Ok, remember what I’ve told you.” He lifted your head up by the chin, smiling as he realised you were staring intently at his cock, mouth subtly open in preparation. “If a job is worth doing, do it well. We don’t half-ass things around here.”

He slapped softly at your cheek twice, letting his trousers fall further down to his knees, his legs exposed, deliciously thick, dark hair covering his thighs which you reached up to touch, letting your palm glide over them, fingers pressed in slightly.

“Put the whole thing in, don’t make me struggle to make it fit. This is the best way to shut you up, you insolent little pain. Take my whole cock in your mouth.”

Grasping himself at the base of his length, he dragged the tip along your lower lip, pausing before he inserted himself.

“I would say I’m going to fuck you stupid, but that would be a pointless task. You’re already completely stupid.”

There was no more waiting around, as you were taken back by his swift entry, the taste of sweat and salt hitting your tongue, saliva pooling instantly as you let your tongue swirl around his head, trying to savour as much of him as you could. Pressing the very tip against the slit of his head, you looked up in response to his light whimper, which he quickly shifted into a deeper groan when he spotted you looking at him.

“You’re a thirsty…shameless slut. Prove you’re good…for something. If you can’t please me…with your mouth…then you can leave.”

He wrapped his hand around the back of your head, no pressure on the touch, just letting his fingers brush through your hair. In response, you hollowed your cheeks and slid your mouth further up his length, taking more of him in, moaning around his cock as he grunted in pleasure.

“That’s more like it…mmmm…yes, that’s good…this is your only task right now…focus on me…I could replace you with a robot…in an instant…so you better do a good job…”

Edward’s breath hitched as you bobbed your head at a more rapid pace, slowing down as you got close to the base, drawing your tongue languidly back up the shaft before pursing your lips around the head.

“Keep your eyes on me, idiot.”

Staring up at him, trying to hold his gaze despite the fact you were consumed with pleasure, arousal building in your stomach, skin clammy and prickled with excitement.

“You stupid, pathetic, worthless little creature.”

He growled as his hand pushed on your head onto him, fingers gripping your hair at the root and directing you onto him, only letting go when you gagged loudly, choking on him.

“Oh, come on now! Put some effort into this, use your tongue, hollow your…ok no, I’m not going to tell you how to do this.”

With his hand softly on your cheek, he let his thumb gently pass over the skin, back and forth, soothing you.

“Dear, dear. Your mouth was big enough earlier, this shouldn’t be a problem for you. It doesn’t take brains to know what to do if you’re choking, no?”

Pulling himself out from your lips, groaning at the sound of you gasping for breath, he watched you quietly as he panted. Your moment of reprieve was done though, as he guided his tip, slick with your drool, back into your mouth, spit falling from your chin to the floor.

“You’re making such a mess, my dear. Is this really so hard for you? I’ll just take a hold of your hair then, to help you. Good thing you wore those silly little pigtails. Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re going to be my pathetic little sidekick like that idiot clown and his little jester?”

Your hair, tangled in his fingers as he gripped both of your pigtails, he forced your head down onto his dick, more of it hitting the back of your throat than before. Gagging against it, you focused on breathing through your nose, trying to do your best for him, despite the fact that you were desperate for him to degrade you further.

“This kind of humiliation and punishment really suits the intellectually challenged such as yourself. Is this an achievement for you? It should be, you should be grateful that I would pay this kind of attention to a little slut.”

You nodded, mouth still full, lips pouted around him, tasting his precum, your own saliva.

“Shall we try a little task, a challenge?”

Again, you bobbed your head, muffled moans of agreement emanating from your otherwise occupied lips.

“Ok, you tell me you’re stupid when I’m out. Time it right, take a deep breath in, say your piece, and then get ready to take me again. Got it?”

He gripped his cock at the base once again, bring it out for you to struggle a ‘yes’, waiting until you caught on and offered your statement.

“I’m stupid.”

With no time to process, he was pushing himself back in, sliding himself in and out of your mouth, giving you the bare minimum time to tell him how stupid you were, following his demands to say you were a whore, to tell him you were worthless, to beg him to choke you. He settled inside of you permanently again, allowing you to get back to a pace where you could properly satisfy him, the tip of your tongue pressed hard to his shaft, flicking over his head, stretching your mouth open wide enough that he wasn’t touching the edges before enveloping him in your wet, pouting lips.

“Using you…hmmm…like this, I’m disappointed it’s taken this long, but I am…phew…I am going to cum. And you’re going to take it…all down your…worthless…pathetic…mmm…throat.”

He growled every word, pausing only when his breath hitched and his whines managed to escape.

“And you…my silly little…idiot…you’re going to take all of it down your stupid throat…do not open your mouth…until I’m finished…this should be…a gift to you…hmph…a treat…mmm…as if someone…god…of my…urgh…calibre…would ever…hng…stoop so low…ah…ever…again…ah!”

Edward’s hands held firm to the back of your head as he came down your throat, leaving trails of his seed along your tongue and on your lips as he pulled out, holding your chin up and your head back until you swallowed it all, hands slipping to your throat as you opened your mouth wide to show him that you had done as he wanted.

“Good girl.”

He fell to his knees in front of you, shocking you by kissing you, lips against yours, tongue flicking out and then pulling back, his eyes screwing up as he tasted himself. He smiled though, as he stroked your cheek.

“I hate to ruin the illusion, my dear, but you are above and beyond. You are perfection. As if I would sully myself with anyone not intellectually worthy, hm?”

Ed pressed a gentle kiss to the top of your head as he stood up, offering you a hand to help you onto your feet.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 3 Tatarigoroshi pt. 9

The teacher Chie listens to Keiichi talk about how they suspect Satoko is going through terrible abuse. The chapter ends and then we move on to Keiichi approaching Mion about the idea that the Sonozakis, Kimiyoshis, and the Furudes are behind the Oyashiro sacrifices.

Mion seems pretty relaxed about the rather heavy allegations Keiichi is throwing around. Still though, given all the abuse he's hurled at her she takes it all in stride, rather admirably so.

Kidnapping and extortion is one thing Keiichi but murder? Even though they totally killed the dam foreman? Your words are like spears Keiichi. Also you don't know about the murder/torture shack on the Sonozaki family grounds in this timeline Keiichi.

Seriously Keiichi, how are you so easily read? Mion took one look at you and deduced Takano was the one who implied Mion was behind the curse killings. Although it does play rather well into the time loop theory, that only Keiichi doesn't remember it.

It's kind of interesting that they haven't actually shown us the Sonozaki matriarch. I know in the previous scene there was a housekeeper who mentioned having done stuff for her before leaving, but it just seems peculiar that they haven't actually had her interact with anyone. It's like with the mayor Kimiyoshi, they get mentioned as having done things, but don't actually appear on-screen, only to presumably die later.

The three arrive at school, and hey presto, there's Satoko looking none worse for the wear. Keiichi is filled with doubts, but ultimately doesn't press on it while Satoko mentions her annoyance at having social services called on her uncle. Then Rika is able to overpower and drag Keiichi out into the hall. Where they have a conversation with the teacher Chie.

With the information that we learn from this bit I can't help but wonder, why does Rika know this? You can handwave that she knows about Satoko's phony call to the child protection agency as something Satoko told her about, but the rest of it?

I know that most of this is framed as Chie was the one telling Keiichi this, but Rika more or less confirms that version of events she says. Is Rika secretly a mind-reader?

What a rather ominous thing to say Chie.

Ah, there we go, back to more savory conversations like cannibalism.

Well shit.

What follows is a very uncomfortable scene of Satoko basically mentally going through all of the abuse she has gone through throughout the chapter (perhaps more, but I'll say it's just for the past few in game days). Keiichi tries to make things better by talking to Satoko, but only succeeds in making it worse all the while. Culminating in:

It's an extreme overreaction, but I don't really blame Rena for this because of the sheer emotional volatility of what's going on. Emotions are running high, and it's extremely hard to keep your cool in a situation like this.

Satoko tries to play it off, but honestly if I were the teacher I would probably pull Satoko, and Rena out of the class to try to get to the bottom of what's happened.

Anyway, shortly after this Keiichi turns into a thriller villain and starts thinking about how he can commit and get away with killing Tekken Houjou. It gets kind of silly, there are scenes in the Ace Attorney games where the cartoonish murderer of the episode is soliloquizing to themselves that are less silly than this boy who plans to murder a full grown adult. Which I have doubts he'll be able to pull off.

He's gonna cut himself on all that edge. Shortly after this Rena tries to see if Keiichi's alright after all that's just happened and he reacts coldly. Mion notices that he looks different than usual, his eyes are more... shifty? Calculating?

I'm starting to think we might not even get to see Watanagashi happen this go around. Which might be for the best, I don't know how I'd handle another bout of extreme emotional whiplash. Hey, maybe Tomitake will get to survive this time by virtue of the chapter ending before he's officially whacked.

I had originally intended the following to be a separate post, but I don't really feel like posting much in the way of screenshots.

The TL;DR is: Keiichi is a terrible criminal mastermind. Would've thought the fourteen year old could be a better murderous schemer, but alas.

Chapter nine is basically about how Keiichi plans to kill Teshar Houjou. He keeps going over the particulars of how to enact and get away with the devilish deed. Basically, he's going to take the bat Satoshi had left behind and acting like this is fucking Excalibur is going to beat him to death. The problem with this plan is he plans on making this "a perfect crime." So that he and everyone else can go back to living their peaceful lives only without the spectre of Tasigur's violence living over Satoko and the rest of them. Initially the plan consists of attacking him in his apartment and then whisking the body away to its hidden forest burial ground. Eventually he concedes the plan would work better if he can ambush Tav in the small wooded path behind his apartment building instead.

Keiichi sells himself on this being a completely perfect plan, despite its myriad flaws. His scheme to assault the uncle is based on the notion that he'll call out Satoko's uncle to the shrine grounds where the festival is being held, and he'll ambush and kill him on the wooded path. Why Tengen Toppa Guren Houjou would use the woods path instead of the main street outside his apartment is anyone's guess. Fair credit to Keiichi, he does eventually realize the plan has one fatal flaw in that he doesn't know if he can actually win a fight against Torrent Houjou. It's one of many flaws, but baby steps. However this momentary doubt is swallowed by him criticizing himself because he remembers the completely miserable existence of Satoko so he resolves himself for his flawed plan.

Leaving aside the idea that Keiichi, an admitted not physically fit individual is going to overpower and murder a man "who looks like he can fight," this "perfect crime" has problems. His plan is to kill Houjou in such a way that it looks like he just ditched town, but he plans on beating him to death with a baseball bat. No matter how you look at it that is going to be a very messy method of death. Then he has to drag the corpse to the area he's decided to bury him. Which, again, Keiichi admits he's not a particularly strong or fit individual. So if he drags the corpse he'd basically just be leaving a direct line to the abandoned corpse. Then there's the notion that he's going to do this after he digs the hole to plant the body (he wisely decides that he shouldn't try to dig the hole after killing Tidal Houjou). I don't care how physically fit you are, you're gonna be pretty gassed after digging a hole large enough to dump a body into. Let's be charitable and saw Keiichi gets up bright and early on the day of Watanagashi, and goes to where he decided to dump the body. Assuming the place is empty, which isn't guaranteed because everyone will be pretty amped because of the festivities, he takes his shovel and digs the hole, and it takes let's say three hours to do this. He'd be pretty wiped from digging this hole in the middle of the June heat. Not to keep harping on it, but he says he's not in the best shape physically so his arm muscles would be sore as can be. That's stacking the deck against himself when it comes time to do the deed and ambush Houjou. Assuming it all goes swimmingly, what will he do when someone inevitably notices the nice new chunk of freshly dug up dirt? Even if everyone assumes that Tito Houjou fled Hinamizawa again, someone is bound to notice the hole.

But whatever, Satoko looks miserable, and so Keiichi tells himself to quit being a puss-wagon and get on with it. He decides to enact phase two of this doomed scheme, and call Mion, to get her to take Satoko to the festival. Even without the freakout Mion has as a result of this conversation it should be pretty obvious why this is a bad idea on Keiichi's part. Mion has a bad reaction to Keiichi's phone call because wouldn't you know it last year Satoshi called and asked her to take care of Satoko for just one day and then promptly died. Oh sorry, transferred. To the afterlife.

In this version of the timeline Mion doesn't seem to be quite as bloodthirsty as she had in prior Chapters. So Keiichi is taking a massive risk by basically trying to rope Mion into his conspiracy to commit murder. Sure Mion this time around seems slightly more easily cowed than the last times, but it's still a needless additional risk to his "perfect crime." Especially since the cops are probably still suspicious of the Sonozaki family and they might just think she had something to do with Turducken Houjous disappearance.

Well hell, what do you know, he was actually able to do it. Egg on my face. This is chapter 10 by the way. In case you're curious, it's the mangagamer version and not the modded version because I'm not on my usual computer at the moment.

[tiaamorosa]

Sunset Died - Bunch Family/Clavell/Wan ...................................(5)..................................

Jack is back home. "So, were you able to get anything?"/ "mhm, if all goes well, we'll have two canisters outside the door in the morning. "/ "So they've got gas there?"/ "You can't imagine how much, Judy. That would easily get us all through the winter. And then I bumped into Nick, or rather he bumped into me. I was almost completely freaked out"/ "what was going on?"/ "I just can't shake the feeling that he's hiding things from us".

"I agree, Jack, but it's hard to figure out what. You know I don't talk to Nancy, let alone Vita"/ "well, maybe Xander knows something more, but I don't want to get too involved… But just looking at that face makes me want to punch him.“. Jack had a scowl on his face again as he thought about Nick. ",Please don't. I hope Xander succeeds. That would really help the doctors".

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

Later… at night…

It's quite late and Xander has done his last walkabout. He wanted to see if anyone was still walking around the grounds. But the coast was clear… So he headed towards the outbuilding. "I'm afraid I can't remember exactly how much we actually bottled…".

There was a large cellar room in the outbuilding where various things had been stored. Boxes, some utensils, even umbrellas… "When it's enough, I'll come back here tomorrow morning and fill up what I've taken away".

There was a separate room in the basement that Xander went to… And it was just as Jack had suspected. There was a lot of gasoline stored here, and not just in the large tanks. "O.k…. It's not that little after all, I haven't been down here for a while, Nick usually fills them up… Well then,…".

Xander grabbed two of the canisters and made his way to the Bunch house with them. He's in luck tonight… Who knows how things will go next time.

Later. When Xander came home in the middle of the night, he was surprised to find that Pauline wasn't in bed yet. Instead, she was pacing around a little nervously the whole time. "Is everything okay?"/ "What… No, I… I just need to get some fresh air, why are you home so late?"/ "I had something to do…". But before she could answer him, she suddenly felt sick again and ran downstairs.

After she got downstairs, she threw up, quite a long time. and after the biggest pressure, at least from her stomach, was gone, it went on somewhere else, because there were some things she realized now. "h-h, ooh shit, why now of all times? No…, no…".

Pauline is conflicted. Both men have a special appeal for her. Xander, because he's older, a bit more experienced and incredibly interesting. And Hank, who is still attractive to her despite all the difficulties. But how are you supposed to find out who the father is without a functioning laboratory? And who should she tell first?

Despite all this, she went to bed almost reluctantly, but she was terribly tired and exhausted from the day. … And she has decided to talk to someone about her big little problem as soon as possible…

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

End of part 5...

@greenplumbboblover 💓

Note on this part: Pauline's pregnancy came as a surprise to me too. The game panned me to her while I was still supposed to take a picture. So, who is the father of her baby now? I have a mod in the game that experiences the duration of a pregnancy to 9 days. That's enough for me, as I play quite slowly anyway. but there are also longer spans you can put in the game.… We can be curious…😁

[dragonofeternal]

So this year has been really, really good in terms of like... reminding/validating that I'm actually like smart and good at what I do?

Like.

First off, I got my new job which whips ass and is super fun and challenging and pays way better and where my ability to do nine million different things is like very valuable. Like oh yeah, I can reformat this word doc/that powerpoint. Do you want me to do a little bit of graphic design to make this actually look nicer? Oh, you need this video for a presentation but it's on a site other than youtube? Yeah sure, I'll rip it for you. And also just the day-to-day of being able to take good notes, and being able to help copyedit training materials, and generally being a pleasant and mostly on top of things person in the office.

THEN, I took one of Killian's creative writing classes along with them. Which, for one thing, was super fun, good teacher, nice to have an organized space/time to hang out and talk about writing. But also it was really validating to have someone outside of the internet/my inner circle of friends read and critique my work who was like... I dunno another adult/serious writer type person? Our teacher is a published poet -- Though more specifically she's prolific as a TRANSLATOR of poetry. A fair number of the translated Palestinian poets you've seen being posted around tumblr recently are most certainly her work. -- and when she realized the level I was writing at she started critiquing my work a lot harder. Still had nice stuff to say! Just also being willing to dig in and point out places where I could improve.

We actually hung out with her last night at a fellow classmate's band's show and she took both me and Killian aside for expanded critique/thoughts on our final pieces, and said some really nice stuff which included that she sees both of us as like professional-grade writers who should continue to hone their craft and who she really wants to see succeed/get shit published/etc. I'm currently letting a short story (that is... probably gonna end up as a novella orz) that I wrote for class sit before I do another draft of it, and then she's offered to do a more critical line edit for me so I can shop it around and get it published somewhere really good.

(Which is also interesting because I see myself as working very much in genre spaces and she's very in the "literary" sort of mode, and she said that she saw a lot of literary prowess and style in how I wrote which she could see getting it published in a more literary type journal. And that's like a weird/wild thought bc of my complicated thoughts on the way the literary/publishing world looks at and treats genre writing blah blah blah....)

At the SAME show, though, our teacher had brought along a friend, who is also a teacher at the community college. Said friend works for the theatre department and recognized me from volunteering to act at a one-day event last semester for Killian's playwriting class. Like this was an event where I was acting for MAYBE a grand total of fifteen minutes. And she basically said "HEY YOU'RE REALLY GOOD, WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN YOU AT ANY OF THE AUDITIONS?" So then I chatted with her some about how I've done a lot of theatre over the years but time/jobs/money meant I haven't had a chance to in a long time...

But now my job is a 9-5! So I gave her my number and I'm now basically the understudy for if/when someone drops out of the productions currently going on. Apparently they have a lot of issues with people dropping suddenly so it's likely that I'll end up doing something next semester! Which is good cuz like. Damn, do I love the theatre, and I've missed it A LOT.

I dunno just having two different people being really impressed about my creative work in a short time was really, really mood/ego boosting? I dunno. When I last did theater in Pittsburgh I ended up feeling really burnt out by the exhausting sense of always having to hunt for work, feeling like I wasn't good enough, etc... And last year I was struggling a lot with feeling like all my writing was futile/unwanted/etc... So having people remember me and be super complimentary was. Nice.

[deviantartdramahub]

 3 notes

Just bc Sam's a bad person doesn't mean this whole blog's at fault, and when I explained how Sam was a liar about a bunch of things, Club was quick to understand then cut ties with him. However, before then, it was hard to understand what exactly was going on, especially bc at that time SAM was the one manipulating me (He still tries to of course, but no longer succeeds.) and made me believe I was at fault, so because of that I tried reassuring Club that Sam wasn't bad. Before he manipulated me, I already had a hunch he was a bad person, and warned Club about it. I was basically very confused about Sam back then, and this caused Club to get confused. I should've thought rationally about the whole thing to give Club a proper warning without any confusion, so it's not his fault. However now he does know Sam is terrible. (Especially considering the fact Sam lashed out at Club and falsely accused him of stealing his Discord mod thingy or whatever.) Club would never be friends with Sam if he was properly aware of what kind of person he is and what he's done.

1 note

Ugh a hypocritical nutcase is throwing baseless slander at Club and threatening to get him arrested, wHy On EaRtH iS hE uPsEt??!!

1 note

No hon, what I think you mean is Club is nice to me unlike you, so no shit I know who to trust.

 1 note

Yet to this day he's still very active on the internet. Y'know, you won't be able to scare innocent people anymore when you give these empty threats and...they prove to be nothing but bluff.

2 notes

My guy, how is me liking to roleplay with my friend him grooming me? You know throwing that word around hurts awareness of the actual thing, right? You really need to understand not all roleplays are erp smh. And that part where you say your blog doesn't dox people?? OOPS! You doxxed Tri and sent some magazine, and I'm pretty sure it was an erotic one too bc you guys are creeps, and on my last post, I called out this...4 notes .

Oh wow! So yeah DADramaNow, your blog is indeed full of doxxers and/or people who are perfectly fine with doxxing someone. Keep lying, I'll be happy to tear those lies down.

3 notes

That post of his wasn't even about you, but you made it about yourself...and again Club didn't actually commit pedophilia, but YOU did indeed commit harassment among many other things...including pedophilia :)

And why do you think childishly pretending to take away Club's OC will work...? He ain't gonna listen to your ass, honey. And he is a victim of your lies and harassment, meanwhile you're a privileged pos who's not a victim of anything. And for the love of God leave his poor mom alone, she has no idea of this shit-hole drama's existence and is probably a wonderful woman. Don't paint her as a hateful alcoholic.

Aight I'm once again done for now, bye!

Manipulation as a concept is something many people have trouble defining the borders of, but in the end, there are rules of thumb that make someone less of a red flag.

[creative-lampd-liberties]

Adoptable Plot Bunny #4

A little thomxiety hurt/comfort bit. I may continue this but I would Love seeing other people's takes on the idea.

☆☆☆

Ever since the fiasco with Remus, and then the wedding, Virgil hadn't been able to avoid being summoned whenever Thomas was alone. It wasn't conscious on either of their parts. It's just that Thomas was a hair's breadth away from panic anytime he had a moment to think. But that didn't mean he had to let Thomas see him and make everything worse.

He couldn't delude himself. There was no way Thomas wanted to talk to him. It was written all over his face whenever he caught a glimpse of Virgil, in the steadying breaths he took and the stilted awkwardness between them. One confession and he'd undone every ounce of Thomas's trust. It hurt, but the damage was already done.

So he kept to the shadows, a near invisible spectator. It was exhausting, being dragged away from this room at all hours. Only able to sleep when Thomas managed to sleep, which wasn't often these days. Watching, as both of their stress levels ratcheted, unable to help. Something had to give.

Maybe that was why he did it. After a day spent hovering while Thomas aimlessly scrolled through social media, Virgil was wound up. So when he saw the phone left unattended, Instagram still up, he pounced. Pulling up stories, he hit record, letting the anxious thoughts spill out of him.

"Do you ever wonder what people really think about you? Sure they might say they like you. That you're kind or funny or helpful. But you can't ever know if they actually mean it or if they're just trying to be nice-"

"Virgil!" 

"Shit!" Virgil fumbled the phone as he spun around, dropping it. A tone sounded to let him know the video was uploading, and he winced. Thomas stood in the bedroom doorway, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Oh this is not good. What could he say. He hadn't actually meant to post it, but no one would believe that. An apology died on his lips, his breath stuttering.

Thomas moved closer as he stood there floundering. "We've talked about this before. You're my anxiety, you don't need to be tormenting anyone else."

Virgil's eyes stung. Tormenting. Well if that didn't sum it up right there. Trying to keep his voice steady, he ground his teeth. "Sorry." He flinched when it came out sharp and cold. "I'll get out of your hair." He didn't quite succeed in keeping the wobble out of his words. Closing his eyes against tears, he moved to sink out.

A hand caught his sleeve. His eyes flew open. Thomas gripped his other arm, pinning him in the real world. "Where do you think you're going? We need to talk."

Virgil's heart twisted unpleasantly. "We really don't. I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I promise. Let me go. Please." He couldn't bring himself to look at the disappointment on Thomas's face.

Thomas loosened his grip, but didn't let go. "Virgil, talk to me. I don't see you for weeks, and then you show up just to hijack my phone and bail. What's going on?"

Virgil stared miserably at the floor. He didn't even have the hint of an excuse. "Sorry." He muttered again.

Thomas took a breath. "Okay, you don't want to talk. That's okay. But can you stay for a bit? I've missed you.

What? Virgil's head snapped up, mouth gaping. That didn't make any damn sense. 

But Thomas was looking at him, face soft and confused. No disappointment, no anger. Virgil floundered. "You… you missed me?" He felt lightheaded with relief, and his confusion must have been written all over his face.

"Of course I did! Virge…buddy, what- oh…oh no, come here..." He was crying and he couldn't seem to stop, even as Thomas reeled him into the warmest hug he'd ever felt.

☆☆☆

As always, please tag me if you do anything with this. I want to see 😊

[repo-net]

In preparation of this year's Nagisa month

Likely to be my biggest project to date, and one I'm most definitely passionate about with how often I've talked about such a scenario playing out, ahahah.

For this year's Nagisa month - I'll be releasing a story based around a remastered version of Ultra Despair Girls' fifth chapter, with the plot revolving around Nagisa being present in the chapter!

While there's a lot of things I already enjoy about UDG and its climax, I've always felt that for one blue character in particular, it's a waste to have him absent from it because of the fact his character arc never gets a proper conclusion to it. Or rather - it did, if Nagisa actually ended up dying under his robot like he realistically should've, since it'd make a perfectly fine tragic ending (come on, doesn't 'kid getting crushed by a robot, symbolizing all the expectations that he couldn't handle crashing down on him' sound like a reasonable bad ending to you?), but then you find out that he's actually still alive for god knows what reason, it all starts to feel like his story is incomplete.

Nagisa is a character that undergoes a lot of shit tossed at him, from the start of his life with how godawful his backstory was, to the present where he's still going through a conga line of trauma and manipulation from friends and allies alike, he just can't catch a break; this story aims to show Nagisa the consequence of his actions, make him realize how much he's messed up, show the emotion and conflict that was caused by him and his friends, and give him a way to not redeem himself, because lord knows with how much he let his friends get away with - he's still far from the point of being redeemed and that's a story for another time.

Rather, it's for him to be able to come to terms with his heart and finally grant him the closure he deserves, to give him more interactions with characters and groups that we should've seen more of in the game. Nagisa; the one kid in the Warriors of Hope who truly prioritized their paradise, protecting the kids above all and just wanting to be appreciated for once finally getting to open up and accomplish that with people that are willing to give him a proper chance to see the consequences of what he's done, and to have the avenue for him to get over the hurdle that he threw his morals and emotions away for - Monaca herself.

I aim to show all the sides affected by the atrocities that he and the other Warriors did, because these kids aren't spotless and they deserve to feel bad about themselves for all the shit that they put Towa City through, but I think by having them acknowledge and recognize these faults, then accepting that even if they succeed here, they've still got a long road to go ahead of them before the damage they caused are healed, it'll help Nagisa's (and hopefully others too, idk how much confidence I have in writing them though) story culminate in him being able to rest easy knowing he's free from being a puppet for expectations, and now he can move ahead with his life to start righting his wrongs.

The general sequence of events will remain the same, really. Kotoko will still be present since I'd feel dirty erasing one of the bright spots of her own arc, and I think it's about time those two have a proper conversation with each other since we never really got enough of the other Warriors of Hope interacting with each other that didn't involve Monaca. The main change is that Komaru and Toko actually end up helping Nagisa out and saving him from his robot, having him treated, anger breaking out among the adults because their supposed savior rescued one of their biggest enemies, and Nagisa coming along for the journey all the way towards Towa Tower to finally come face-to-face with Monaca so he can help put a stop to the madness.

The prologue and the first chapter will be posted on October 4 (give or take a few days), on (hopefully it gets verified by then lmfao) my AO3 account, which I'll link here on Tumblr once it's up, with chapters coming out every handful of days leading up to the finale on October 23, which is the blue boy's birthday himself.

That's all, really. Thanks for sticking around, and hopefully y'all enjoy what I put out this year, it's been a long passion project of mine and I'm really wishing I can stick the landing on this one to give Nagisa the love his character deserves.