#which I'm not opposed to! It sounds kinda fun to write!!

[akuma-tenshi]

finished closing night!! boy do i have some thoughts. and now that i've gathered them, i'm about to make my autism your problem. spoilers below.

the first part of the event wasn't awful imo, it felt like character building and just helping establish the dynamic. i know some people weren't fond of it but given that i was never really that invested in hullabaloo before this and didn't know every little detail of these characters, it was nice to get some character establishment and figure out how they all are as people. i am also a fan of slowburn character-focused horror, so that may just be a personal taste thing lmao

bryce papenbrook does a good job as mike, even though there are definitely points where he sounds exactly like nagito (namely the scene where he's shouting at margaretha in the foyer). he has a very particular way of speaking / voicing characters that make it immediately clear it's him. however, i do think he fits mike well and he definitely lays off the nagito-ness in the second part.

the rest of the cast was excellent as well. while there was a Choice made with murro's voice (he sounds WAY younger than he's supposed to be, which is off-putting and takes me out every time he speaks), it's very clear everyone knows their characters well and they all do a good job keeping their mannerisms and vocalisations unique and fitting to each role. aside from some awkward lines (which i attribute more to stilted writing than to the va's themselves), the voice acting is absolutely a highlight.

margaretha's trauma with sergi is portrayed very well imo. bear in mind i have not suffered the same abuse as her, so i can't say how accurate or good it is, but it feels like it displays that it was a terrible thing while also being respectful and avoiding being exploitative. the added layer that everyone else (except joker) liked sergi and was unaware of the abuse adds a lot.

in general, i think mike and margaretha are incredibly well-written here. i think ne could've absolutely gone the route of popular fan interpretations and completely demonised margaretha while making mike a perfect angel, and they would've gotten a lot of praise for it. but they stuck to their guns and made them both very flawed yet understandable people, and that just makes everything feel that much more real, at least to me. they're such different people with opposing goals, and their friction really comes through. everyone else is very well done (shoutout to me a couple of hours ago calling joker cute for some godforsaken reason i can't remember) and i love all of their characterisations, but mike and margie really are the standouts here.

i do wish there was a bigger payoff for margaretha using euphoria so frequently. i know it's implied to have been involved in violetta's death, and i appreciate the connection to game 5, but i wish there was a little bit more there. it's not a huge gripe though, so i won't harp on it for long.

the pacing at the start of the second part had me extremely worried; things felt like they were dragging along and being padded out for the sake of being padded out, and i was not having fun with it. fortunately, this issue was remedied about halfway through, and once things got going, i started really enjoying myself. the pacing of the first half of part two is my biggest gripe with this story.

i was noticing a lot of similarities between hullabaloo and fool's gold: hunter forms of popular survivors being announced and used as a major part of marketing for an update to the idv story. with the aforementioned pacing issues, i was really worried that hullabaloo's reveal would shape up to be similar to fg's: a kinda cool cutscene and a lame chase sequence at the very end of a long, boring storyline. however, despite hullabaloo having a much smaller part in this story than fg did in aom, appearing only briefly in the fire at the very end, i still think it's a better incorporation of the character than what they did with norton. better to have it be quick and intimidating than just kinda tedious.

every death in this (aside from joker's) felt very purposeful and well-done. violetta's death was heartbreaking. the change in animation towards the end, followed by the single sound of her machinery giving out after the screen went black, was beautiful, and hey, at least she died happy. margaretha's death pulled at a very specific and very major love i have in storytelling, that being a character choosing to die free rather than live in captivity, and the payoff of all the underwater scenes where she swims towards sergi finally coming through when she chooses to sink away from him had me losing my mind. i genuinely did not expect mike's death to be a straight-up suicide; like i said, i'm not completely caught up on hullabaloo lore, so maybe other people saw this coming, but the fact that he truly could not live with the truth about hullabaloo is such a heartwrenching yet satisfying end to his character. like i said, joker's is the only death that doesn't totally stand out, but i like that they let you put the pieces together yourself.

the chase sequence with joker was unintimidating and a little lame, and honestly it felt somewhat forced, just a way to get his hunter form in there bc they realised "oh shit right this guy's like. a hunter isn't he." i do like that they gave him back his chainsaw though; very nice little callback to the betas.

the animation of the hullabaloo fire was absolutely gorgeous and the ending had me in shambles. for a while afterwards i felt similar to how i felt after finishing end roll: drained and flat but in a good way, like a ton of adrenaline had just released from my body after some intense event.

all in all, i really enjoyed it. i can't say if i like it more than aom, but that may be the frederick bias coming through, so i'm going to choose not to rank them and just say hey. banger event. well worth the hype even with its hiccups and flaws. i always say this, but idv has some genuinely talented people in its writers' room, and i can't wait to see what they come out with next.

[yersina]

a linguist* plays chants of sennaar (pt 1)

*i studied linguistics for four years and concurrently did three years of sociolinguistics research, but i'm not currently employed in a linguistics-related field.

[pt 2] [pt 3] [pt 4] [pt 5]

thought i'd have some fun breaking down the languages in cos and stretch my rarely used linguistics muscles in the process! disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the first language and will contain spoilers! it also assumes that you know what each of the symbols means already.

so the three glyphs from the devotee's language that you get introduced to right off the bat already tells me a lot: it's a pictographic logography (real life example: chinese characters), which is probably a good place to start for people who are new to language deciphering (also, none of these languages are spoken so an alphabet would be pointless lol). a logography is a writing system that represents whole words/concepts with a single character, as opposed to representing the sounds that the words make (like alphabets or syllabaries). i haven't completely finished the game yet (most of the way through the fourth language), but i'm p sure 1) all of the languages are logographies and 2) the devotee's language is the most true-to-life with its pictograms.

with these three words we can also begin to establish a pattern--verbs most likely have a line on the bottom, which holds true for the rest of the characters. i think the only exception to this rule is the character for "greeting", which is also used as the verb "salute" later in the game (an interesting choice (considering etymologies for greetings in irl languages), but it makes sense when your language is only 40 words lol). other patterns include the curved line for tools, the semi-open box for structures/locations, and the half-circle with the line for things relating to sight (which amusingly is also the overall game symbol for examining something). (not gonna include things like "man" and "music" and "plant" in this list cause they're defined in game.) i do think it's kind of fun that they introduced "i/me" and "you" before they introduced "man"—it validates that you'll find patterns haha.

(while writing the prev paragraph, it finally hit me that the symbol for "key" is open-tool. isn't that cool!)

i did notice at one point in the game that there was a devotee word that was cut off in one of the stone carvings that looked like it might have been the equivalent for "fortress"--it was the room radical with the two opposing arrows from the word for "warrior". although it's not validated by the game's automatic translation function, it does seem to be evidence that the language elements are fairly flexible and recombinable!

this language is SVO (subject verb object), like english, which again is a choice that makes sense in terms of easing people in. it uses reduplication with nouns to indicate plurality, which as far as i can tell is unique amongst the languages in this game. there's no tense markers, which is common to all the languages in this game (again, as far as i can tell without having encountered the last language yet). given how simple the languages in the game need to be, i'm not surprised that there aren't really auxiliary verbs or indications of infinitives either.

questions that still remain unanswered: - "dead/death", "seek", and "find" all have dots that don't show up in the other characters. not sure why that's the case. could be a representation of something metaphysical? - the character for "go/pass" has a "room" radical on the right side and something else on the left side. wonder if that was intentional

[mimicha-arts]

Person in the shadows

Hello everyone! I don't know if this can be called a theory or something like that, Probably someone has written this before me, but I just want to write down somewhere my thoughts about one character that relate to the main plot. These are just theories! I have too much free time and I like to have fun, don't take it too seriously.

Possible spoilers! I think many people get the feeling that behind everything that happens there is a person in the shadows, whose goals and motivations are still unclear. And given that the plot leaves us with a lot of speculation, clues…Lets talk about Liu Xiao! Most likely, given the huge number of connections to story details, he may play a key role in the plot. 1. Who is Liu Xiao and his direct mention. Liu Xiao (刘枭) is a young man, the son of Liu Jing, who owns the Quede company. He is also the younger brother of Liu Min. So far, we don't know anything about his personality, but in his father's eyes, he is much better than his older brother, so we can definitely say that Liu Xiao is very promising and different from Liu Min. Considering the little clue given to us in s2s1, when Liu Xiao's father is talking to his business partners, Liu Xiao did not appear on the "main stage" because he was abroad. But, probably, we will soon see him in the frame.

Thus, for now, it can be summarized that the side that opposes our protagonists not only maintains Liu Jing (and Quede company), his lawyer Qian Jin with his subordinates and twins, but also Liu Xiao. The plot itself has already given obvious clues that this "side" is not a united one, each one twists intrigues and has their own motivation, because of which I dare to express the idea that in fact Qian Jin, who has already shown himself to be not the most loyal subordinate, actually works for Liu Xiao, not for Liu Jing's interests. 2. Posters & Liu Xiao in the "current" timeline. Have we already seen Liu Xiao? Quite possibly. Given the connection of the characters through the side of the antagonists and further information, I will speculate by referring to the posters.

It is quite possible that the young man in the hat, the only character who has not yet appeared in donghua directly, is Liu Xiao. We remember that on the poster it is the man in the hat who stands next to Qian Jin, which is his "shadow" on another poster of the character, which, it seems to me, can be a serious justification for assuming on whose behalf Qian Jin really acts.

Talking about any color coding, his design is centered around black, but his hair, although dark in color, has some kind of a purple tint.

In addition to the fact that this character covers his eyes with a hat, there are several other interesting details in his appearance.

1. The first is an accessory on his neck. I'm not sure what this sign is, but I saw that people suspect it is theta (death) symbol. 2. The image is quite small, maybe it's just a shadow or line of the collarbone, but I think it's a tattoo on his neck (maybe V letter or something). 3. Flashbacks, Li Tianchen From the last episodes, we learned that in childhood, Li Tianchen had a friend who greatly influenced the formation of his character. This boy from flashbacks deliberately does not show his face and eyes, and his hair is black with a purple tint. Of course, this is still speculation, but it is likely that this color coding, especially the purple tint of the hair, may be a hint that the boy in the flashbacks is the man with the hat from posters.

We have already seen that it was his words, the "the strongest survives" ideology, that influenced the actions of Li Tianchen (and probably the entire personality of Li Tianchen or even both twins in the future). Сonsidering that both boys are kids that time, the words of the boy with purple hair sound so out of age and kinda terrifying. A few days ago, Billibili also released a clip of this entire moment, which makes it pretty obvious how much this "idea" and character himself will be driving the plot to the future events. His voice actor is Zhao Lu, he cannot be a minor character.

After the death of the twins' parents, their case 7 years ago passed into the hands of Qian Jin, as we know from the last episode, but information about the case has disappeared, as well as the children themselves, just in accordance with the time when Qian Jin left the police. There are still many questions (his age, whether he has any abilities). But if the three characters I mentioned before (the boy from flashback, Liu Xiao, the man with the hat) is actually one character, his connections with Liu Jing, Liu Min, the Quede company, the twins and Qian Jin look too matched to be a coincidence. Probably. Another interesting detail that connects the two parts of the story is that Qian Jin calls "manhunt" what happens in episode 7 , and (in my opinion) this is very resonant with the words from purple-haired boy in flashbacks.

4. Speculations OK! Let me remind you again that this is all one big guess, and maybe I'm thinking too much about certain details. At the moment, I kinda assume that Liu Xiao is the one who manipulates all events from the outside. And maybe while Li Tianchen's hand is grabbing Cheng Xiaoshi, Li Tianxi's hand is grabbing the toy fox, he is represented by the hand from the shadow behind her.

About possible motivation: assuming that Qian Jin is acting in Liu Xiao's interests, maybe he is genuinely interested in destroying his own family because of his story or unknown background. At the same time, taking into account his words about evolving and hunters, it seems to me that he is pursuing far from material, but ideological goals, related to people with abilities.

Keeping in mind how it all started, I can assume that he also may be an unknown client from the first case, who gave a tip on Quede's financial manipulations and launched a case with Emma, dragging Qiao Ling, Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi into the maelstrom of events (if this moment of the plot does not turn into loop). There is also someone who collected information about the three main characters before the main events of the series even began (some earlier dates on documents, a few days before the start of the plot), so there is room for thoughts too.

Let me remind you again that all this is empty theory, and I play bingo. It will be interesting to come back to this post after a while and see how badly I guessed wrong, haha. In any case, thanks for reading, I was glad to share my thoughts ~

[henbytheshore]

Headcanon for a character based on a word huh? Sounds fun!

Hmmmm... flowers (not a bouquet just general flowers) and Shane- two of my favorite things!

Idm if it's sfw or nsfw, you do whatever feels best ^^

Have a nice day! <3

Send me a word and a character, and I’ll write a headcanon related to that word! :D Please specify if you’d like it to be SFW or NSFW uwu

Heyo! Thank you for the ask! :D I have several headcanons, but a lot of them sorta fit in together xD

I apologise this may be a little rambly! xD

FLOWER HEADCANON(S) FOR SHANE

RECIEVING FLOWERS/GENERIC OTHER FLOWER RELATED THINGS

When it comes to flowers, Shane is pretty indifferent to them over all.

Sure, he thinks they're pretty, but outside of the bouquet? There's no point of giving him any, even as a romantic surprise.

He'll blush, sure, and be very flattered, but he'll be more confused over why you'd give him flowers.

They're sort of just there in this opinion.

(For in-game flowers) If he had to say his favourite flower? He'd probably just say Fairy Roses - simply because those are Jas's favourite, so they're the only one he knows anything about.

(For real-life flowers) If he had to say his favourite flower? He'd probably say 'Bluebells'.

I feel he prefers blue/purple flowers, so, Bluebells' work well for that. They're a nice Spring flower.

Really, the only thing he dislikes is that they're not good for the Hens, so he (alongside Jas and Marnie most likely), have the fun of grabbing them out of the ground before the Hens can have a taste.

Apart from that, sure, Bluebells are pretty.

Why Bluebells? From a Meta stand point is due to their symbolism.

Bluebells symbolise: humility, constancy, gratitude, and everlasting love. There's old folklore claiming that if you wear a crown of bluebells, you can only speak the truth, and that if you can turn a bluebell inside out without tearing it, you'll win the one you love.

And, aside from humility because he already had a very negative view of himself, I think Bluebells fit Shane as a person once you go through his heart events - and if you chose to marry him.

Constancy: he goes to therapy, he gets help with his alcoholism. He finds a consistency in life, a constant, better, way to help himself that wasn't getting drunk. I know the 14 heart event kinda fumbled it, in my opinion, but we do see he finds a new distraction with the arcade game as opposed to drinking constantly - or at least as much.

Gratitude: The first thing Shane does after the 6 heart event is come and speak to the farmer about it. To say he's getting help. You do get dialogue relating to him being very grateful to the farmer; even new lines of speech in the 1.6 update (which I won't write because potential spoilers) mention he seems happier and such. Shane shows a lot of gratefulness towards the farmer and such as the heart events go on. He even says, as one of his marriage dialogues: "When I stop and think about it...I'm in a good place. My life is pretty nice."

Everlasting Love: I feel like Shane is the ride or die sort of person. He may not be the most romantic guy out there; he can be romantic, just don't expect grand gestures. But he loves hard, and deep - to him, it's everlasting. Divorcing him will just completely destroy him which is why I can never do it I will just start new farms I'm too soft lmao xD. Point is, I feel like when Shane loves; he does it forever. Whether that be the farmer, whether it be Jas, whether it be those in his life that have passed away - he'll never stop loving them, no matter what. He likes to be gruff on the outside, but he's scared to get hurt again - he pushes people away before he feels more pain, but deep down, he's a marshmallow and full of just love that never ends ;3;

GIFTING (JAS)

When it comes to gifting flowers to Jas? Oh he's going to do his best to grow them himself.

Sure he could just buy them from Pierre's, but, well, he feels it would mean more if he grew them himself yanno?

Though I feel like he does only actually grow them one time before deciding to buy flowers afterwards, because growing flowers is difficult u_u

Thing is, Shane does not have the greenest thumb. Animals, especially Chickens? Sure; man knows Chickens to the point I feel he could just look at a feather and identify the breed, whether they're a Hen/Rooster, age just from one look with terrifying accuracy.

But actually growing something? Oh the poor man is clueless u_u

Shane does try though! He even speaks to Evelyn about it - she's the one in charge of all the flowers around town after all, and it was very awkward of him to approach her to ask. But Evelyn is just everyone's Grandmother so I feel she's more than happy to teach him.

He also turns to you for help, somewhere for him to grow them where Jas can't find them - he'd hate to ruin his surprise.

Why go through the effort of growing flowers for Jas? Because she is the number one person in his life, and he'll always feel guilty for the things he said when he was at his lowest, the drinking, etc.

Jas's favourite flowers are Fairy Roses! So course he's growing those. He has the seeds, a garden pot from Grandma Evelyn, and whatever else he needs.

And then it turns out growing flowers is difficult. Too much water? It's dead. Too little water? Dead! A lot of flowers were sacrificed in this mans attempts u_u

But after about 10 dead flowers and a small break down to the farmer later because Yoba this is harder than it looks it's a flower why is it so difficult ??? He finally managed to have one success, and thankfully, it was even in Jas's favourite colour.

It was surprisingly stressful to grow flowers without killing them.

But seeing the way Jas's eyes lit up, the way she smiled brighter than the sun? Oh that made it worth it for him.

Even when she insisted on showing literally everyone the flowers Uncle Shane grew just for her

GIFTING (FARMER)

So similarly to Jas, I feel like Shane would try and grow the farmers favourite flowers

Except, of course, he won't tell the farmer because well, what's the point in that?

Now I don't think Shane is the most romantic person in the World. At least when it comes to gifting/gestures, things like that.

Totes a massive cuddler, and just enjoys physical affection. Laying on the couch watching Gridball together and eating microwaved pizza? Sounds like the best night ever.

But romantic gestures? He struggles. Not because he doesn't want to, but because he's always has that little self doubting voice in the back of his head. Wants to make the farmer their favourite meal? Oh but he might burn it, or cook it wrong, or give them food poisoning! Wants to watch a [insert genre] movie with you? Wait, you did say you like those movies right, oh the farmer looks bored maybe this was a bad choice?? Should he turn it off, or talk, ask what you think? Maybe you were tired from farming and he should've just suggested you guys go to bed??

Basically he is plagued with the thoughts u_u

But back to flowers!

He wants to do something nice to the Farmer, and the farmer grows a lot of stuff, so he's gonna try!

It goes as well as one would expect; essentially take what I wrote for Jas but, imagine its for the farmer instead xD

He does eventually manage to grow a pretty decent bouquet of [insert farmers favourite flower here]

He course gets those doubts, worries. What if these weren't the farmers favourite and he mis-remembered! Do they even like flowers???

But when he finally decides to give them to the farmer, with their partially wilted and creased petals, he murmurs about how he wanted to grow something nice for them.

And he see's the soft little glimmer to the Farmers eyes, the warm smile, the faint blush, and the struggle of trying to grow them made it all very much worth it

Especially when the farmer pressed a loving kiss to his cheek

But he's never doing it again it was stressful; if he wants to romance the farmer a little, he's sticking to microwaving a pizza for them

FLOWER DANCE

Okay admittedly most of these are more Shane and Jas head canons but they're based around the Flower Dance so I'm like lowkey cheating I guess? xD

Shane really does not enjoy the Flower Dance; he doesn't really get the appeal, nor does he like wearing that blue suit, and having to dance in front of the town. He finds it embarrassing.

He really only shows up for the food, and because Jas always wants to go

And I really think he finds it difficult to tell her 'no' ;3;

Anyway, he'd rather stay at home, but, he'll always show up whenever Jas asks him to

I feel everyone in town always wears some sort of flower with their outfit; something unique to them in a way yanno?

For Shane, he'd get that Fairy Rose, and, again, it's thanks to Jas. He knows they're her favourite, and well, he wouldn't know what else to pick.

Shane technically does the Flower Dance twice.

He does it once with either Emily, or the Farmer, during the actual event.

The other time? With Jas

Sometimes she asks him in the morning, before the actual event. She's bright and peppy, and teasing how he needs to practice before he dances with Emily/The Farmer.

He always blushes when Jas points that out.

But he also always agrees.

It's mostly Jas standing on his feet, holding onto him, while Shane carefully dances through the steps for her. She always giggles and talks about how she's going to be Flower Queen one day. Shane knows she will be.

Other times though, he dances with her at the end of the day. When the petals of the Fairy Rose he wears is slightly wilted and crumpled; when his suit was creased and in need of being dry cleaned and hung back up for another year.

She's tired, yes, but she can't miss a Flower Dance without an actual dance. And Shane can't miss dancing with his favourite person in the World.

Instead of letting her stand on his feet though, Shane will carefully lift her so she can rest on his hip. So she can cling onto him tight, and rest her head on his shoulder.

He's rock her back and forth, just dancing those familiar steps, Shane humming that Flower Dance music that he finds so stupid, but will be stuck in his head for weeks.

If the Fairy Rose he wears hasn't already been added to the compost pile, or wasn't completely wilted at that point, Shane will carefully take it from the breast pocket of his suit, and slide it into her hair.

And he'll dance with her, all night, way past her bed time, until she falls asleep, and he can carry her to her room to tuck her into bed.

He doesn't like the Flower Dance, but he'll dance it, he'll deal with it, because it makes Jas happy, and that's the most important thing to him.

[butchsophiewalten]

Findjackwalten 07/14/23 Update Walkthrough

Last night Findjackwalten updated! We've got one page update and two new pages. Let's start:

Findjackwalten.com

Our main page has updated! Jack and Rose's pictures are gone, and the whole page is greyed out now as opposed to being red. The shutdown text has changed to read "You just couldn't stay home, could you?". The play button here still works, with all new audio. It's a car radio, first it's an afternoon weather report, then just some talk radio intermission, and then it's music. There's also car noise, tires on asphalt, chair squeaks, turn signal, and general Car Creaking.

I've already seen some people theorize that this is audio from Felix's drive home after the crash, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me since that's already what Guilty is. Feels redundant, as much as I love the idea of Felix driving home listening to Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express.

Findjackwalten.com/martinguaridasecretanoentrar

This page's URL and title is in Spanish. It just means "Martin secret lair do not enter" and the title "q pasa tia" in this context is like, "whats up, girl?". Kinda gossipy. Meant to invoke a vibe that you're being let in on a secret.

The top of this page reads "92%", referring probably to the percentage of TWF4 that is completed. The rest of the page contains "3 funny walten facts" Which are:

"Bon the rabbit was originally called Bon the Dancing Hare by Jack, ultimately Felix vouched against that because Rabbit sounds friendlier."

This is so fun to me! I did always think Bon was pretty hare-like. Funny that Jack wanted Bon to be a Jackrabbit. Also I can't believe "Bon The Dancing Rabbit" is still real. It's been so long since I've heard anybody call him that I kinda figured it was retconned.

"During the late 70s, BSI expanded further than restaurant chains, the showstoppers became famous for way different products such as random merch, plushies, furniture, toys, watches, bed sheets, lanterns, masks, lamps, toilet seats. BSI most succesful product was "Showstopper's Comedy Extravaganza", a 1977 animated TV show that ran for 3 seasons and was cancelled in the 1979's to make room for a "bigger project". it is unknown what was the cause for BSI to milk the showstopper franchise to that extent, what was the money for?"

This is something we sorta already knew? Relocate Project implied this sort of thing But I guess we didn't really know how successful their merch ventures were until now. Turns out, they were pretty successful! The "Showstopper's Comedy Extravaganza" thing is crazy to me though, three seasons? That 'what was the money for?' comment is also very ominous. It makes me think of the planned relaunch of Bon's Burgers but considering how vague the comment is and how the Bon's Burgers relaunch was something we already knew about, I'm wondering if it's something else.

"Sophie lived on the back of a meat store for the better part of 3 years, she managed."

How do I even comment on this. This is just so fucked. It makes me sick to my stomach. She was homeless for three years? Homeless? For three years? As a teenager? I feel like i'm undergoing hitherto unexperienced Sophie Emotions. What the hell do I even say.

Findjackwalten.com/btscene

Just a whole page of behind the scenes stuff! This is also hard to comment on, really. It'd be easiest if you just went and looked at everything yourself.

There's a little play button here with Anything Goes by Cole Porter, but I think it's been edited to sound more echo-y. Like it's being played in a big empty room, but also like the next room over? I've listened to a few versions of this song before but none that sound quite like this. This is also the song that's referenced lyrically in the new years 2022 version of /investigation1, with this bit of writing:

A decent bit of the stuff on this page is from the old Patreon, but not all of it, or even like, half of it. And some stuff (like the blue and purple Felix drawing) is old concept art that had been shared in the Discord server before.

[quetzalpapalotl]

Kinda a hot take but I feel like mtmte megatrons arc would have been so much better if he had stayed on cybertron, like if he had to stay and was around Optimus and starscream, people who arguably know him best, so he is always staring who he hurt directly in the face, bc to me while Rodimus is great for giving megatron a mostly impartial view, I think megatron redemption works best when he has to constantly confront his sins and magnus and rodimus feel to distant as characters to really be brutal with how much megatron has hurt people bc he doesn’t know them as well, tho megatrons arc in mtmte is really good I think this would have not made the rest of the story not so bogged down (sorry if this doesn’t make much sense)

You're making perfect sense to me, anon. And you're not the first person to tell me this. I do agree with you on some level, but the thing is that Mtmte Megatron's arc is Mtmte Megatron's arc. It cannot exist in any other story. I feel like this kind of what-if is runs into too much of an hypothetical for me to make any actual meaningful commentary. It's hard to explain but let me try.

I feel like saying what if Megtaron had stayed on Cybertron is not the same as saying something like "what if Drift had returned earlier" or "what if Pharma had stayed on the Lost Light" or even imagining ways in which his character could have been better integrated into Mtmte's narrative in that if Megatron had not gotten in the Lost Light, his character would effectively not exist.

I have told myself fanfiction where Megatron stays on Cybertron many times and there's lots of fun possibilities there., but there's a difference between a fannish idea and what it would have been in an official capacity. The key here is that the Megatron I'm incorporating into the exRID/OP narrative is still JRo's Megatron. He still has character traits and a backstory defined by that comic, even if I try to take as much of all IDW1 as I can in my interpretation of him.

Mtmte/LL, exRID/OP and Windblade/TAAO are all part of the same universe, yes, but they're all different stories, with different genres, tones, ideas and most importantly, different writers. I mean just look at what a different character Starscream is when written by Barber vs Scott. If Megatron stays on Cybertron then either Scott or Barber would have been his main writer and we just don't know what kind of character he would have been then.

Would they have tried to do a "good" Megatron? Well, the idea of Autobot Megatron was thrown at the brainstorming table for Dark Cybertron as a possibility and the JRo said that he wanted to do that. But the idea was there, maybe they would have picked it, maybe not.

I feel like, much like with Mtmte, Megatron just has too much gravity for Windblade/TAOO and the best way for him to be incorparated in it would have been sporadic appareances while he's in jail or something, probably to taunt Starscream, knowing Scott. This is double-edged for me, because I feel like the way the idea of Megatron was incorporated into Starscream's arc needed more buildup so this could have helped. At the same time I already feel like Starscream's character was too much reduced to being a reaction to Megatron's actions, which is no fun to me, and Megatron's inclusion in the narrative feels like it would highlight the aspects of Scott's writing I don't like as opposed to the ones I do. But again, I can't now. Maybe she would have tried to reform him as well, I have no idea how that would have looked like.

As for Barber, well, everything post DC was based around the fact that Optimus is just too big to not change the game completely, so the entire story became about that theme. It doesn't sound like including Megatron in that would be that. In fact, it's kind of a no-brainer, this is a story about the weight of Cybertronian history with is stuck in a cycle of violence riddle with war and colonization. The guy who did war an colonization better than everyone else should be there. It would be very satisfying to see Megatron, who rose up against the legacy of the Primes, be confronted with the fact that all he did was uphold their ideas of Cybertronian superiority. How does he handle the Decepticons? And then there's the mirroring where Megatron is trying to do better while Optimus is on the verge of losing it and everyone is worried he's gonna pull a Megatron. But again, who knows what kind of character Megatron would have been under Barber, maybe he would have played him as a villian until the end like he did before Dark Cybertron. He would have still been a thematic fit.

You know, I like exRID/OP a lot and I feel like Barber is more willing to take certain risks than JRo, so I think I would have liked the hypothetical version of his story that would have included Megatron but really, maybe he would have fumbled the bag, who knows how much the plot would have changed if it had included Megs, maybe he would have gotten a different idea, maybe it would have costed the Optimus and the Arcee I so adore. Also, a lot of people aren't that fond of Barber's writing so the general response to this non-existent story is another matter altogether.

Despite everything, I don't really begrudge Megatron leaving with the Lost Light in itself. Like yes, it removes him from the more direct consequences of his actions and is not fair that he gets to drop the Cons and go on a roadtrip of self-discovery. But Mtmte is a roadtrip story, there just isn't any way around this. Also, I don't care about what is fair because none of these stories are about fairness or people getting what they deserve. And finally, it makes sense in the way I read Megatron. One of his key traits for me is how his experiences led to him disregarding life and only finding worth in fighting, his arc is about peeling off layers of self delusion and it starts with giving him a place to chill so that he can see value in life again and be in a mental state to appreciate how badly he fucked up.

Problem is how much he bogs down the rest of the story as you said, and other minor things I can more easily ignore.

Side note, but you know that part in Combiner Wars where Windblade and Optimus are like "We cannot allow Starscream to have his way, but we can't just pull a coup?" I think it would have been really fun to have Megatron for that. No, Megatron you cannot beat the shit out of Starscream to solve the issue, you have to respect him as the president. Hilarous. I need to pay someone to do a short fic of this.

[kanona56]

Do you have any headcanons for Philip or any of the other killers/survivors?

Oh goodness, I have loads. I could go on and on really, but for this ask I'll stick with Philip. Let me know if you'd like to know about some others. ^^

I hc Philip as ethnically Igbo, which is one of the larger tribes of Nigeria and are mostly found in the southeast areas of the country. There's lots of evidence in his lore that points to this being the case, and I've made a Tumblr post about it before detailing how I came to this hc!

Adding onto my first hc, Philip's tome lore hints that he not only was there during the war, but was also a survivor of the Anti-Igbo progrom of 1966, in which a massacre was committed against the Igbo people, presumably from soldiers of the opposing Hausa-Fulani people and/or those native to Northern Nigeria who aligned with the growing hatred of the Igbo people during that time. I therefore like to hc that Philip is also a genocide survior.

His adoptive mother, Funanya, was born Igbo but married Hausa. When war broke out and she lost her husband, she tried to flee to the south with her children when she found Philip. Because it was extremely dangerous for an orphaned Igbo boy to be in the north where the war and killings took place, she taught him everything she could about the Hausa culture, including their muslim-based religion, language, and traditions. It's because of her that Philip was able to survive by pretending to be Hausa.

I'm sure I've made it obvious enough, but Philip has some severe and untreated C-PTSD. C, because his trauma spans over years of his life and cannot be considered one singular event. His symptoms tend to manifest as psychogenic tremors, prone to panic attacks, dissociation, heightened anxiety and vivid nightmares. Daytime flashbacks are rare for him, but if stressed out enough and exposed to a major trigger, they can and will happen to him as well. The smell of blood, the sound of gunfire and fire are his three biggest and most prevalent triggers.

Philip developed alcoholism as an unhealthy coping mechanism. He's an extremely emotional and depressed drunk, the kind of person who's pretty much the opposite of the fun party drinker. He's prone to very quickly losing control of his own emotions and crying instead. Drinking is the only way he knows how to knock himself out enough to avoid vivid, PTSD driven nightmares of Nigeria.

On a way less depressing note, Philip is lactose intolerant! But he'll 100% sacrifice his tummy every now and then for a good bowl of ice cream.

Philip is left-handed, but learned very early on to not use his left hand when interacting with others because it is considered rude and taboo in Nigerian culture (and generally in many other African cultures). His parents understood that his brain is just wired differently so they never forced or trained him into right-handedness, but they both kinda taught him early on to be mindful to use his right hand in public for things other than throwing or writing.

I hc Philip as a demisexual (possibly biromantic as well, but that's not something he's ever bothered to explore). He's the kind of person who definitely strikes me as ace, not ever having a sexual interest because he's such a lonely person and is just not immediately attracted to anyone at all. However, Philip is also a deeply emotional man and relies on them a lot, so it's only when he's developed a bond with someone that he'll start to develop that physical attraction. He quite literally NEEDS that emotional/romantic connection in order to be able to engage in sex, let alone enjoy it. Casual stuff is a total no for him. He tried it only one or two times as a troubled teenager and quickly found that he did NOT enjoy the experience. He just can't do it.

Philip's love language is both touch and undivided attention. He's the kind of person who is deeply devoted to his partner and, once he feels safe and secure in the relationship, will give you his whole heart. He's kind of terrible at speaking because he's such an introverted person, so he expresses his love through physical touch as well as almost always paying attention to his partner and their needs.

In terms of intimacy, Philip as an ace person isn't really all that excited about sex. He'll still definitely enjoy it with his special person, and he'll most definitely initiate it every now and then because he does find his partner physically attractive since he's deeply emotionally connected to them, but to him sex is a bonding experience and less of something to do just for fun. He's extremely romantic in bed - eye contact, kisses, little praises, holding hands, slower pace, you name it. His entire focus will be to please his partner and not himself. He doesn't need or care much about reaching climax, he'll be perfectly fulfilled with the experience knowing his partner feels good and is satisfied.

Since he'd moved to the US, Philip is a bit insecure of his accent because it really makes him stand out. Over time he's managed to tone it down significantly, but it's still there and still very noticeable, just perhaps easier to understand. When he'd first moved, he had a hyperfixation on touching up his English and sounding as well spoken as possible in hopes it would minimize his chances of being picked on as a black immigrant in the country. This was the 1970s, after all.

I'm sure this also goes without saying lol, but Philip is way more attractive than he gives himself credit for. Yes, half his face has been burned, but he'd been lucky enough to put himself out when it happened fairly quickly, so the damage didn't get too far deep into his skin. The burn scars haven't really disfigured his handsome features all that much, just changed the texture and color of his skin. Still, he often feels ugly because of how he looks.

Because Philip had nearly starved to death as a child in Nigeria a number of times, he kinda has an obsession with being as physically healthy as he can be. He runs a lot and does a decent amount of exercise to keep himself lean and in shape, because it feels good having a sense of control over his own body. He never EVER wants to feel malnourished again in his life.

Philip is a very tall man, like 6 feet and some inches and fairly broad in the shoulders. Despite his size, he's developed a natural talent for being extremely silent and light on his feet. When he wants to, Philip can move as quietly as a mouse and is pretty agile on top of that. It's a useful trait to have in the realm (in the context of OIN at least)- you'd think a big guy like him is an easy target to chase, but Philip has the impressive capacity to be deceivingly stealthy and hard to track.

Math (unsurprisingly) is his favorite subject, and Philip is also highly intelligent in this regard. He's a very quick analytical thinker and can do complex math problems in his head fairly well. It comes in handy with his job in Autohaven, to be able to make quick calculations and measurement conversions.

I definitely have more hcs but these are some of the big ones that I can articulate off the top of my head. Thanks for asking!

[card-queen]

Writer Interview game

Tagged by @dithorba over here!

When did you start writing? - I can't really remember a time when I wasn't reading, writing or drawing. I remember a bit step for me was writing out the introduction for my Inazuma Eleven fan team. I had fun putting together the team's origin and making sure everyone got a spot. But I as for writing in earnest and wanting to/believing I could make something of it, that was only in the last few years after lots and lots of reading & studying.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write? - I love spy fiction and horror that plays mind games. I like stories about messed up people that figure things out in the end. Most of all, I think, I like the heroes that persevere through it all and despite everything, the best part of them is still in tact.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often? - I don't think so. I don't think anyone compares my writing or style to anyone else and I don't want to be like anyone else. I really just want to be me the whole way through.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space? - Noise-cancelling headphones and access to my playlists of hand-picked tracked, mainly from video games, that put me in the zone to write that kind of scene. I've got folders for scenes of wonder, anguish, tension, action, battles, etc. It helps me be in the moment and they're usually from games that captured that moment so well, so it helps!

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse? - Reading/watching bad things. Even video essays on things I don't like. Something about being really annoyed when you're reading something that goes off a cliff or seeing the faults of a project being laid out really gets my mind going. The worst feeling something can give me is apathy.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you? - Let's see... I kinda noticed a pattern of messed up siblings who are vehemently opposed but totally in-sync, to the confusion of everyone else. There is often a theme of twisted love, where it skews into obsession, overprotection or other stuff that is no longer love. Different (plausible) perspectives to events that shape peoples' views. It's all a bit vague but I'm sure some big-brain out there could spot a whole bunch of thematic similarities in what I do!

What is your reason for writing? - Because no one else is doing what I want to see!!! I want MY brand of fantasy, MY style of mystery and I'm not getting it anywhere else so I might as well!

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer? - My reliance on analysis. That sounds weird but hear me out! I am not smart, not by a long shot and I am not an analytical person at all!

BUT... I have learned to take things apart and understand the inner workings of them. A character who experiences X would behave in Y way and so to get more oomph out of their scenes, we sprinkle in some Z or pair them up with A. Because I break things down to such a ridiculous degree, I can better write their dialogue, understand motivations, plot out twists and schemes, and time it all just right!

I am also... terminally obsessed with making timelines for my events. Be it year-by-year or hour-by-hour. I will NOT be caught unawares by time paradoxes!!!

How do you feel about your own writing? - Some days, I feel good and some days I feel bad. Whenever I feel bad, I end up reading what I've written and then I feel good again! I cater to my own wants as a reader, which makes me doubt if there's widespread appeal at times but... I'm not making it with widespread appeal in mind. That kind of thinking makes paint-by-numbers, safe, approved by committee stuff that I don't care for. I'm carving my own path that does interest me, and maybe it interests some others too. By make no mistake: I like my writing because I am my own #1 fan.

Time to find some victims... Tagging @noisette-tornade, @vellatra, @reneethegreatandpowerful, @albicantknight, @merwetketet aaand anyone else that sees this and writes. Honestly, if you see this and don't join in, I will hunt you for sport. Be brave!

[pillarsalt]

Anon worried about her trans-identified friend again, I wish I had the words to express how much I appreciate your kind words!!! (Maybe admitting it made me tear up would help? haha) Your response was just as thoughtful and considerate as I thought it would be, but I never expected you'd write so much for a stranger talking about another stranger, let alone throw compliments my way. You're a truly special person and everyone on here, including me, is so lucky we get to hear what you have to say and chat with you :) (And see your wonderful art to boot!! Finding another bug-lover is such a lovely surprise!)

I'll keep your kind thoughts in mind whenever the rare friction comes up again between my friend and me. It was such a quick process for me to desist and become gender critical that I think it's easy for me to forget how much harder it is for people to change their minds on the trans topic when they're so much more invested in it than I was. (Feel the same way about religion too, even as a little kid I was asking questions about why certain things bothered me in the Bible and getting frustrated when I got shame instead of answers. Maybe being annoying and asking too many questions is just in my DNA haha. But all the more reason why it's important to help those who aren't naturally critical: they're the ones falling for unreality the hardest because of that fact.)

Ultimately I will keep being me and see what happens, like I've done before. If nothing comes of it, then there was nothing else I could've done differently anyway. I've asked her if she'd like to do gift exchange for the holidays. We're planning on getting each other a few embarrassingly nerdy collectibles we've been eyeing for a while :)

Thank you again for your help, I'll cherish your words always!!! Hope you have a blast on your trip and get to see all the little guys you could dream of!!!

I'm very glad to hear from you, anon! :) and thank you so much for the kind words! it makes me very happy to be able to help in any way. ❤️

It's funny that you mention questioning the bible as a kid. I went to catholic school and I remember being taught in first grade that we were supposed to love god more than anything. More than we loved our parents or even our dogs, and I just couldn't get past the notion that I had to somehow love the kinda mean, angry, invisible flying grandpa*, who never says a damn thing when I pray, over the actual people who had raised me. I stayed in catholic school until graduation despite opposing catholicism, argued a LOT. I think my point is that I've also kind of been primed for voicing unpopular opinions, so I'm biased when it comes to people who are more hesitant to take any position on the matters at hand.

*sidenote, around this time I obsessively read My Book of Bible Stories (1978) which was given to me by JW doorknockers. This is a bit uncanny, I haven't seen this since I was about 8. It was a treasured book to me, it's full of old testament stories and pretty brutal:

To demonstrate how young I was while reading this: the book refers to god as Jehovah, but I was still learning to read and thought he was called Joseph. So all the adults I told all these Joseph stories to were confused as to why I thought Jesus's stepdad was so OP. Anyway yes, Joseph was a scary guy in my mind, I mean look what he made abraham do before he said sike:

which really didn't give me much faith in him. Kind of a questionable thing to do to a guy tbh. Finally here's the illustration that basically inspired my URL:

Sorry to hijack your ask anon, for some reason your message sent me down memory lane. Finding that pdf was crazy.

ANYWAY: you made my night with yoir nice message, so thanks for that, hope you stay well. I'm happy that it's chill for the time being, and the gift exchange sounds like fun. Come around to chat anytime.✌️

[silverzoomies]

I’m so curious to see who you’d ship me with because I completely trust your judgement… so here goes nothing. 🌸💐🌷

-I’m a 23 year old female who’s currently in college for criminal justice and psychology. I’m awful at math but love love love science.

-I love animals, I have lots of snakes, lizards, fish, dogs, cats. I’m not opposed to anything besides spiders

-I love listening to music and my favorite artists are Taylor swift, Hozier, P!nk, and Kelly Clarkson. I like to think I’m a creative person but idk. I like to craft and scrapbook, make jewelry etc.

-im a perfectionist and if Im not instantly good at something I get very frustrated.

-I also have depression (yay) anxiety, autism, and possible ADD. People have told me I’m good at ‘hiding’ it and ‘fitting in’ though.

-im super shy in real life. Like beyond shy. Im not a fan of physical touch but if it was someone I really liked, I wouldn’t mind. My love language is gift giving.

-I like to cook, I play piano and guitar, and I like to go on a lot of spontaneous adventures because if my mind comes up with an idea I have to play it out that moment or I go insane.

-im pretty good at adjusting to any environment and tend to mimic people to fit in. I like to people watch and kind of mirror their personality and actions.

-winter is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I’d say I’m a pretty morbid person by societies standards. Like animals in jars and black clothes… listening to true crime podcasts to fall asleep. Stuff like that. I’m kind of goth, I’d say? I also love makeup and rarely leave the house without it on

oh...oh my gosh...ohohohohoh buckle up, my good buddy pal,, i've got a super fun one for you !!! i'm gonna put a read more, since this one's kinda long !! you gave me a lot of detail to work with !!

✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧🧡💛📚🧡💛✧❁❁✧✿✿✧❁❁✧

right off the bat, you talk about studying criminal justice and psychology. which are very respectable fields of education. it sounds to me like you're really takin' your education seriously !! and that's wonderful !! y'know...that kinda reminds me of a certain boy...

so, y'know who also takes his education pretty seriously? a guy who wants to change the world for the better? i'm def thinkin' of pre-death kyle for you. sorry. SORRY, OKAY !! i know what you're thinkin'...oh, zoomies, you're only saying this because i've got kyle in my url. ABSOLUTELY NOT !!

you make yourself out to be such a genuine sweetheart with a wide range of interests !! you're creative and down to earth - both of which are traits i think kyle would absolutely swoon over !! you treat animals with kindness, and you love every single one. c'mon...doesn't he seem like the same ?? if you showed him the super gnarly pets you have, i know for a gosh dang fact he'd think they're the coolest ever !!

mans unapologetically loves music. dude was so open about how much he liked toto. based btw. i can totally see him vibin' to your favorite tunes too. bobbin' his head, singin' along. no matter how feminine the songs seem, he really wouldn't care !! he'd have fun with 'em anyway !!

i think he wouldn't want you to hide how you feel, or mask yourself for the sake of fitting in. he likes you for your genuine self. the creative person you are, with all your talents - writing, music, cooking, making jewelry. he'd want you to be yourself openly and freely. and he'd be super patient and encouraging about it too !! kyle's a sweetheart !! you put two sweethearts together ?? recipe for love !! 💛🧡❤️

[crocheting-cupio]

"Quickly" Reviewing Four Nine Inch Nails Albums

A few months ago Germs by Weird Al and Closer were stuck in my head for several days. On a gut intuition I said "Well, I obviously like this music, why not check out more Nine Inch Nails?"

Currently I am attempting to steal Trent Reznor's gender and haven't listened to much non-NIN music last few months. So I'd say I might be a big fan. Possibly.

I'd like to thank my new friend Gray for giving a very helpful recommendations on what albums to start with. <3

For this I'll start with the few negatives, then move on to the many positives. Because I like ending on a positive note. :) We'll also be going in the order I listened to them as opposed to order of release.

Pretty Hate Machine: 8/10

Negative: I find because nearly all the instruments are fairly simple synths and MIDI soundfonts, the sound can get kind of monotonous when you listen to the entire album in one sitting. A lot of it sounds like video game music from 1990-1995 to me, which is oddly distracting. On first listen I kept asking "Why does this sound like DOOM music?" To be honest, I found Down In It the weakest track. Rap is just not Trent's thing and I'm glad he didn't pursue it.

Positive: Despite the limitations, these are really well put together tracks! I think this a very solid album, especially considering at the time no one was using synths this way. The melodies also feel very unique and are usually why these songs get stuck in my head. I found myself liking the lyrics way more than I anticipated. Even though they are dripping with teenage or young adult angst, which I typically don't like. The emotions on display are so raw and pure it's hard to not feel empathetic. It's hard to choose, but I'd say Terrible Lie and Sin are the strongest tracks to me. Just generally really good tracks that are addicting to listen to.

The Downward Spiral: 10/10

Negative: It's not an album I can listen to just anytime. I kinda have to be in a bit of a bad mood. Sometimes I find myself skipping songs that are very emotionally intense, like Big Man With A Gun and Hurt, because I'm so worn out and just want to enjoy some music. This album does not have a weakest track in my opinion. Any "lazy" writing lyrically or musically feels very intentional.

Positive: The positives on this one are really endless for me. Good lyric after good lyric. Amazing melodies and harmonies one after the other. Auditory assaults and walls of noise that are fun to listen to. Sound design that makes it feel like a soundscape of the mind. And I love that there's a story on top of all that. I could make a whole post about each individual track. This album takes you on a roller coaster that only goes down. Strongest track is extremely hard to choose, but I always come back to The Becoming. The odd time signatures, long verses, the increasing intensity of the vocals, and the theme of becoming something cold, emotionless, robotic, and other is a perfect combination to me.

With Teeth: 9.5/10

Negative: Not a lot of negatives here. Kinda has a similar problem to Pretty Hate Machine with the instruments sounding similar, although not nearly so much so. Sometimes I wish there were more songs that lead into each other. Weakest track is very hard to choose, they're all very good. But I'll go with Beside You In Time for no reason other than the throbbing synths legitimately give me a headache. Wish I could enjoy this song. </3

Positive: I really love the prominence of piano in this album, as well as the vocal layering and distortion effects. I also like the usage of guitars across this album, often I can almost feel the air vibrating with the strings. The sparing usage of swear words also means I can play nearly the whole album at work without issue. Generally I like this album a lot. It feels like something simultaneously from the future and the past. Strongest track for me boils down to personal preference. So I'll go with either All The Love In The World or The Line Begins To Blur, in my opinion two of Trent's most beautiful songs. They need to be put in a museum of some sort forever.

The Fragile: 20/10

Negative: Not much to speak of here. Sometimes the intense layering of sound plus high volume makes it feel like my ear drums are going to explode, but that is to be expected with NIN so I'm used to it. Can't name a weakest track. I look forward to all of them. It's 20/10 for a reason.

Positive: This may be one of the best albums I've listened to in my entire life. Every track has something memorable and creative. All feel meticulously designed to convey not an emotion, but Trent's exact state of mind at that moment. The lyrics are sparser than usual, but oh so much more impactful when they do arrive. It feels painfully real and deeply personal. It's not just a story of what-ifs anymore, it's reality. This album is a lengthy, beautiful mess of ideas and emotions and I wouldn't have it any other way. It is the most human a piece of art can be. Strongest track I think is almost forced to be La Mer. It impacted me emotionally so greatly I wrote a whole post about it before writing this section. Realistically I could make a post about each track if I wanted to, there's so much to talk about for each one.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[motheatenscarf]

Impressions from gameplay trailer;

God, I hope this sloppy expository dialogue isn't what will actually appear in game. Like. They recorded this just for the trailer to catch people up to speed, right?... right?

Minrathous is... interesting. Kinda got a cyberpunk feel to it. I'm not opposed, advanced and pervasive magic that replicates a kind of technological feel is a very fun and cool aesthetic.

I'm like 95% convinced they're gonna kill Varric. That would suck, but if they make it a meaningful story beat, I'd be interested to see which direction they took it as a theme.

Again, the dialogue kinda sucks based on the very limited interactions we got to see. It sounds like it's gonna fall on the VAs to do a LOT of legwork to sell any kind of personality or characterization through the writing if this is what they have to go by. Not that these games don't have great voice actors, but uh... yeah.

The entire emotional buildup to seeing Solas and Varric actually TALK for once about this lunatic plan was... severely underwhelming and nonspecific. I am not particularly enthralled or enthused if THAT is what Thedas' dwarf Shakespeare and bestselling novelist and viscount of Kirkwall has to say to the friend he's known for years to convince him, "Please don't destroy the world just because it's flawed."

[boombambaby]

This is actually a question for Mun, if you don't mind!

I'm putting together a roleplay blog myself, and I was wondering if you had any advice? I've never put myself out there in roleplay beyond accumulating small rp communities/friends on Discord, and I'm kinda intimidated by being Perceived on a platform as big as tumblr /lh

Advice on making the blog appealing to other roleplayers and any general rp advice you'd be willing to share would be very appreciated <3

|| Hi there! I don't mind a single bit! Sorry for the delay, I wanted to make sure I made sense and gave you good information :)

First off, it's so awesome that you're looking to start a roleplay blog! I am huge on encouraging people to write and join the hobby, and it's always nice to see new writers getting started and sharing ideas!

As silly as it sounds, my biggest piece of advice is to NOT be intimidated. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there, follow characters in your fandom, share things, post your HC/drabbles/favorite ships/ideas/storyline ideas etc and reach out to other writers or groups for interactions! The more friendly you are, and the more you put your writing out there, the more traction you'll receive as opposed to just lurking around and liking stuff here or there. : ) I'm still new to roleplaying on Tumblr, but the first thing I did when I decided to make a blog here was look at other writers to get a general idea for how my blog should be set up. It's helpful for a writer to see right off the bat who your character is/their fandom/the writers writing style, and rules. Some writers are very cautious about writing with minors and won't interact if you don't have your 'age bracket' right on the front page where they can see it. Your blog doesn't have to be super big or flashy, but I always like seeing a writer with open starters posted, a simple list of rules and hashtag categories so I can easily find something if I look on their page. But the main thing I look for are recent posts with active writing! Someone can have the coolest blog in the world, but if they don't write it's kind of a let down! Even if it's timeline banter-- which I absolutely adore-- it shows you're an active writer, and that's what we're looking for. : ) Other general roleplay advice is this; Don't be afraid to check out other platforms. Tumblr is big, yes but there are other platforms/sites/forums you can write on! If you're on Discord and not opposing to branching out, you can search for your fandom (Disney roleplay for example) on Disboard and it will show you different roleplay groups listed there. When I first started with Kuzco and realized how dead the fandom was, I made an account everywhere. Here, Twitter, Facebook, Roleplayer.me, Aniroleplay etc. And I just started posting. IC statuses, drabbles, headcanons-- whatever came to mind, and started following as MANY people in related fandoms as I could find. You slowly build your friends up as you go, and can branch out and sometimes form connections between characters you never thought would cross paths, which is a lot of fun. I'd also say to keep in mind that it is ALL about the QUALITY not the QUANTITY. If you can write 1500k+ words each reply? That's awesome! But if you can write a beautifully descriptive reply in 500 words, that's just as amazing! Don't pressure yourself to do more than you can just to make someone else happy! Work at your own pace. Last but not least; HAVE FUN WITH IT! There's always something new to learn, but don't be afraid to jump right in and get your feet wet. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you as well, I'd be more than happy to in whatever way I can!

[self-loving-vampire]

2, 8, 18, 23, 25?

2. Do you like playing with mods?

Generally I do, but I don't usually install them immediately. I usually prefer to play a game without mods first, at least for long enough to know which parts of it I'd rather change.

Depending on the game, the modding may be pretty mild (just quality of life changes) or more major, such as new spells, major balance changes, new weapons, new mechanics, and so on.

Skyrim is an example of a game I always play with a ton of mods. In my opinion the base game is kind of mediocre. It's not super unpleasant to play, but it's kind of shallow and tedious. A lot of the things I'm interested in, like the vampirism, are also super inconvenient in the base game (you can't even loot corpses in vampire lord form!)

But with enough mods it can actually be a fun time. I make it into a sort of vampire simulator since there's actually not that many vampire RPGs (especially ones set in medieval fantasy settings as opposed to something more modern, like VTM:B).

8. A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved?

I think this is pretty much the default? I personally don't really mind spoilers in most contexts, though.

18. A game you’d like to replay that you haven’t

I want to replay every Touhou game sometime.

23. A game ending that’s really stuck with you

Surprisingly enough, the ending of Wizardry 8. You spend the game gathering artifacts that will grant you access to the Cosmic Forge. There's multiple possible endings, but in the one I got you actually do use it.

It's a magical pen that can be used to re-write the universe, which your party does to make it a much kinder place. Your characters all ascend and become the benevolent deities of this universe.

In addition to the meta implications of the final Wizardry game handing the player the pen and telling them to create a new world themselves next, I just really like that there's a game where your objective is to become god and fix the universe and it actually lets you do it and nothing goes wrong as a result of your "hubris".

Sort of related: I have been thinking about the ending of Mary Skelter 2 lately, months after I finished it. For reasons that... well... spoilers.

The ending of Planescape: Torment is also worth mentioning but that's a whole essay in itself. I think the ending of Fallout: New Vegas is also really cool aside from how buggy the final sequence tends to be (the game as a whole, really).

25. A game with a cool art style

There's really a lot that I like, in different ways. I like a whole lot of the environments and monster designs in games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, for instance, and I'm also a fan of anime art styles in general for other reasons (they're cuter and make characters look more appealing to me).

But I think if I'm going to mention anything specifically it should probably be the first Fallout. While some of the animations were kinda crude, I think the general way the game looks and sounds is still fantastic and extremely fitting for the feel it's going for.

[official-kenralie-fanbase]

after i sent you that asl i realized how much more fun it would be if Oralie was alive during this whole thing, the plot mainly focused on forkle completely losing his mind to obsession over his brother and in turn finding Josie but i’m starting to think also having it be about both girls bonding with Oralie and having Oralie build a relationship with Josie’s (the twin) mom Regaila.

another thing about Josie her is actually kinda curly, identical twins  having a slightly different hair texture can happen with identical twins i’ve seen it before.

pros of Oralie being alive

i was originally making a pros and cons list but convinced myself in the process

Sophie and Josie having opposing parallels with Josie’s genuinely trusting afterlife finding out Oralie is their bio mom while sophie hated her afterwards

the drama that would caused by Josie’s mom being a pyrokintic, who BTW doesn’t have a problem with Josie building a relationship with her bio mom because she’s not worried about Josie loving Oralie more (that’s a genuine worry that some adoptive parents have but it’s SO overused, your kid can have more than one set of parents that they love)

dramatic scenes when it’s much more obvious that she’s their bio mom and the drama that would ensue from that, people wondering if the general public will figure it out (Oralie is forced to step down?)

Josie having doubts about Oralie even caring about her because she was an accident on the black swans end (her abilities are wonky because of it) and thinking that Oralie wouldn’t have done it i’d she had know that there would be twins

i can write a bio parent bonding with their bio child the way i’ve always wanted it to be written. keeping the adoptive parents still the parents and not having the relationship with the bio parent seen as more important (it’s a pet peeve of mine i’ll save the rant for another time)

i want Fintan to be their Bio dad and Josie knows and let’s it slip, cue drama, angery bronte yelling at Josie because she should have known it would upset Oralie because of Kenric, Josie loses control of her inflicting (which is highly unstable), and says she doesn’t even know who Kenric is (she grew up in the neutral territories) and that’s a whole thing because Bronte feels bad.

Keefe Sophie Joise and Oralie confront Frokle about something (Fintan?) and he has another breakdown (he’s slowly losing it throughout this fic) and ends up attacking sophie Oralie defends her and takes all three kids back to her castle in a panic

the last scene having Oralie protecting both girls from the everblaze (it’s important to the story ALSO parallels) possibly sacrificing herself? Forkle also dies in that scene so maybe to much?

most of the people in my family are adopted while i’m not one of them i still have STRONG feelings about how adoption is written, Shannon did amazingly and i will forever adore her ability to write adoption well without having the plot centered around adoption. i would honestly want to expand on that.

Ahh YES

Just... yes to every single word

First off, Forkle losing his mind to obsession? And Oralie defending her kids? Okay YES. And then her sacrificing herself to save them from the Everblaze is also YES- and something that I really actually think might happen in the book.

This sounds amazing backwards and forwards. I LOVE the Fintan-is-Sophie's-dad theory (if anyone wants to hear it I could go into heavy detail on why I think he's the only possibility that really makes sense, but I know that's a topic that's been discussed a lot). So even if it's not canon I would love it in this AU. And Josie being a pyrokinetic? And Oralie having to deal with that after what happened with Kenric? Yes!

And I love what you said about adoption! I also love the way Shannon handled it. But since you're someone who has adopted family members I'm glad it is handled well from your perspective.

Any questions you have or things you want to work out (especially characterization/development surrounding Oralie) send them my way! I love when people talk about their AUs so anyone else that has one/any other AUs you end up having feel free to invade my inbox at any time!