#which option do you choose?

[disgracefulthings]

How To Redeem a Shen Jiu

A Guide By A Prolific Fanfic Reader

Option 1: Give him a transmigrator brother

Shen Jiu: Now that I've found my long lost brother I no longer need to abuse my students

Shen Yuan: You need better coping habits

Option 2: Give him a transmigrator disciple

Shen Jiu: I've never cared for a male disciple and I'm not going to start now

Disciple Shen Yuan: That's what you think old man, be prepared to get morals!

Option 3: Give him a transmigrator son

Shen Jiu: This weirdly intelligent baby has helped me see the error of my ways

Baby Shen Yuan: I'm too young to be doing this shit

Option 4: Have him be a transmigrator's son

Baby Shen Jiu: If I had better hand-eye coordination I would strangle you in your sleep

Shen Yuan: System, is it wrong to shake a baby?

Option 5: Have him take over Shen Yuan's dead body

Shen Jiu: So I get a loving family that's also rich without facing the consequences of my actions?

Ghost Shen Yuan: Hell naw, your walking my ass straight into therapy

Option 6: Have Yue Qingyuan confess

Yue Qingyuan: I came back for you

Shen Jiu, about to get his limbs torn off by Bing-ge: It would've been nice to be told this YEARS AGO!

Option 7: Have him get together with Liu Qingge

Liu Qingge: Let's have hate sex so you don't abuse your students

Shen Jiu: We definitely won't develop feelings because of this

Option 8: Kill him off and have Shen Yuan fix his problems

Shen Jiu: This is my favorite option

Shen Yuan: SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!!!

[chaotic-carnifex]

No hold on I'm gonna make an extra post about this:

I wouldn't choose to be alloromantic

If I were given the choice to either remain aro or become alloro again, I would choose aromanticism.

And I think a lot of people need to hear that.

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[prismaticsaltedink]

Scoria and Sakura are best friends! It's so cute when I see the things they do together, and it makes me so beyond happy that they both came to live with me so that they could share their lives with each other. They absolutely insist on it, and does so much good for the other.

I can't imagine how else they could have found happiness if things hadn't worked out exactly as they did. Scoria has basically been Sakura's "emotional support snake" while she worked through things from her past I'll never fully know that caused her a lot of issues with panic and fear. Sakura knows this too, and looks out for her sister, the only one she truly trusts and feels completely safe with.

The moment they wake up they both want each other to snuggle and play with. Scoria loves to be affectionate with both me and her sister who seems to have not had this earlier in her life- but Scoria is showing her how nice it is not only directly but demonstrating with me and Sakura also trying, copying what she has seen her sister do.

Sometimes when one goes to check on the other they'll join in on... I'm not even sure what they were doing. But they had a good time while taking a mandated union break from digging tunnels for the isopods.

So happy I get to share in the adventures of these two best friends! It makes me so happy to see them living their best lives together, and being beyond content snuggled together with their found family.

[icewindandboringhorror]

What would you choose? :0c

(note: original image is from HERE (link) - but I edited it to add a wider variety of options.. also added $3 extra to the total, even though I know that makes it more uneven lol, I thought if you're adding 10 whole extra items, the money to spend should at least be increased slightly, if that makes sense..)

[reinedeslys-central]

more!! again!! for the nico after blood of olympus fic!! actually I thought of this while writing the last one but I just finished it.

His elbows buckle and he lets himself fall into Will, snorting at his theatrical groan under the weight. They lay there for a second until Will shoves him gently, and Nico lets him manoeuvre them into a more comfortable position.

"Hi," he whispers, moving a curl away from his cheek. The greenish tint of the loft window casts a weird shadow over Will's face.

"Hey yourself," Will murmurs back, winking.

Nico rolls his eyes. "You look like Apollo when you do that. Please stop." Will squawks in protest.

"I do not! Also, since when do you remember what Apollo looks like? Actually, no, don't answer that, you can't bring up my dad while we're in bed, Nico, why would you do this to me?"

Now it's Nico's turn to sputter and whack Will in the chest - getting another dramatic oof and a laugh in return - before turning around to face Hazel's bed. He's not sure when he'll ever be able to sleep facing the wall. Will can't do it either.

As Will's arms curl around his waist and draw him back against him, just like they did back in the infirmary that one day, he thinks maybe he'd be okay trying that with him sometime. One day, in a house with gates, no longer wary of monsters.

Will noses the back of his neck, causing him to twitch. "What is it?"

Will's answering smile presses through the rough cotton of his t-shirt. "Nothing, sunshine."

Nico frowns under the covers. "Hey, what do you think of houses with gates?" He whispers.

"Gates? Well, it'd be safer, I guess, but we'd lose the neighbours coming over -"

"As if you want to see random people at the door anyway. What if they're monsters?"

"Oh, come on, darlin', I'm from Austin. Of course I gotta keep space for the neighbours to come knocking."

"…Fences? Actually, hey, why'd you assume I was talking about us? Obviously - Obviously I was talking about random. Random houses. For architecture reasons."

Will muffles his laugh into the back of his neck, again. "Oh, my bad. And I'm only here because you ripped a stitch on the lava wall yesterday."

Nico feels his ears warm.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"..Still."

Will reels him in closer until his back hits his chest and he can press a soft peck to Nico's still-red ears. "I think a fence is a great idea, by the way. We could ask Hazel for help with some ward stones too, like you have in the cabin. Gotta make sure we've got at least one window and standing space in every direction, though, or at least in the east, because you know my dad would sulk if he didn't get to scream me awake in the morning."

Nico's blush gets worse.

"Now who's talking about your dad in bed?" He gives up on pretending. Will sees him through every time, anyway. "Also, shrines, obviously, and we need a spot to stargaze."

"Yeah, shrines, obviously. Maybe just yours, mine, and Lady Hestia's though, or else everyone else is gonna get pissy."

Nico barks out a laugh like it's shocked out of him. "Pissy? Don't let them hear you say that."

Will holds him tighter and settles against the pillows. "Sure thing, sunshine. Now can we sleep?"

"Yeah, yeah."

It's not long after that that Will's breath evens out behind him, his muscles untensing. Nico knows he's got a few minutes yet, so he thinks.

Today was…. good.

Today was nice. Normal, even. Just a day of camp schedules, working in the infirmary, an admittedly short campfire, and this. No monsters, and no mistakes. No deaths, but..

Unbidden, the moments in the infirmary come to mind. He thinks of helping Will scrub in for his one surgery of the day, a kid that had gotten parts of an arrow stuck in their leg a week ago and hadn't noticed til yesterday. He thinks of yesterday during capture-the-flag, stepping in and desperately trying to copy what he'd watched Will do, because Lydia was hanging crooked from a tree and there was no one else around but him-

He thinks of Patroclus tying the straps of Achilles' armour, watching his lover sleep peacefully. He thinks of what Connor had told him about at the campfire weeks ago, of Silena Beauregard taking on a drakon when Clarisse declared the Ares Cabin wouldn't be fighting.

He thinks he might understand.

Lydia wasn't the same (thank the gods), but if there was something to be done that only Will could do right, yet couldn't, and the only way Nico could take up his mantle would be to die trying - then, yeah. He'd do whatever it would take for these kids. To do what Will would do. He's gone to Tartarus already, hasn't he? At worst, he'd try his best and greet his father early if he failed to survive. Nico could even give Charon a tip on the way in for the hell of it, why not?

If there is a luxury that comes from being a child of Hades, after all, it is that dying is not the thing that scares him.

There's a brazier still lit outside the window. Its glow falls in slits across their bed.

Will grumbles, pushing his feet forward until their ankles are wound together. The sheets shift.

Nico smiles into the dark, into the chirping of crickets and the soft glow of the fireflies out the window, and falls asleep.

more for this fic:

scene 0 - prologue-ish scene 1 - the library of social awkwardness or here (or in my heart, 'kidney function is not a right, it's a privilege' lol)

general writing directory

also lmk if you want more lore. I am so down to talk about this fic + the worldbuilding ideas I have for it in the notes it is unreal

[3416]

just need to give a shoutout to all the people who interact w me or the things i make on here for the love and good vibes. twitter's been pissing me off the past couple days and i just think it reaffirms i'll never really leave tumblr bc the fandom culture here is just so much.. more lol

[lord-squiggletits]

Y'know the thing about writing feral/unhinged versions of Orion/Optimus, is that you can't go too far into the feral/unhinged direction to a point where OP's core character traits are lost or become too diminished. After all, in a multiple-continuity franchise like TF, part of what makes the stories make sense is that even if details change (sometimes major details), the characters are still recognizably themselves to one degree or another. (Although this isn't always the case due to executive meddling or some characters being such blank slates from their initial G1 appearances that there's basically nothing to model them off of, but I digress.)

It's pretty much another reason why I love IDW1 Optimus, bc he literally is a canonical feral/unhinged Optimus who's unhinged as a direct consequence of who he is as a person and what he's been through. Like, he still has those fundamental character traits of trying his best to be moral and make good choices, trying to be a role model, etc, except after 4 million years of war and untreated depression he's basically holding onto his sense of self by his fingertips. So when he "goes feral" e.g. losing his temper and beating up/killing people or saying hurtful things, he's feral in a way that's directly tied to his normal personality and not just as a random quirk he has.

IDW OP's feral moments arise from the gaps between "Optimus' attempts to be who he thinks he needs to be" and "the reality of the world that he can't fix/seems to only make worse" that cause him to lose hope, or become cynical, or lose his temper. But in this case, the unhinged-ness makes perfect sense because it arises out of Optimus trying and failing to be the best person or to make the most morally good choices he's trying to make. Basically, the "feral/unhinged" label is just another way of me trying to say that he's not just unhinged because he's weird or because he's a bad person, but because it's an emotional reaction (more like an emotional explosion due to pent-up emotions) to the context he exists in.

I'd also say that IDW OP's personality being generally reserved/stoic and (trying to be) noble works in tandem with those moments he has of going feral because it makes him more realistic. His psyche is treated in a way where the writers are like, "Hey what if the pressure of having to be everyone's idol and be the best person in the galaxy at all times actually broke Optimus down mentally and emotionally?" It makes IDW OP far more relatable. Instead of naturally being a perfect Christ-like figure who never wavers in his morals or convictions and is just naturally a nice person who always has the wisest and best answer, being a good person is something that IDW OP has to consciously strive to be. Even when he feels like it's useless, or the cycle of violence will never stop, or any attempts he makes to help only ends up with things becoming worse.

And I feel like this does a service not only to IDW Optimus as a character, but also as a sort of moral/philosophical perspective for the reader to ponder upon? I feel like culture at large (or at least my experience of it) tends to believe that "goodness" in a person is simply an innate feature that people are born/not born with, and that being "good" means that you must be good at all times, both in your actions as well as the way you feel emotionally about yourself and the world. Like, there's a tendency for our vision of "a good person" to be good in every aspect at all times without having to try to be a good person. So I think IDW Optimus' character stands as a good example of how someone can be good at heart but still struggle to maintain those feelings of optimism and hope and justice. It's a good idea to have such a paragon of a character (in-universe and out-of-universe) be so conflicted and to even be mistaken, misguided, or make things worse because it shows that goodness is as much about "trying to behave/act in a way that is good" and not just "existing as an innately good person."

It's way more realistic for a person to want to be good, try to be good, and sometimes/often fail than it is for them to just be a good person. I enjoy the fact that IDW Optimus is both a good person at heart, but also has to strive to be a good person and live up to other people's expectations of what they see in him. I like how he wants to be a good person and change society for the better, but he also spends a good amount of time either feeling hopeless and alone or being angry at/detached from other people because of how frustrated they make him. He's realistically portrayed as someone who wants to be good and hopeful and change things for the better, but is also mentally and emotionally broken by that burden because of how impossible it is for him to Fix Everything and be the Perfect Prime/Leader/Autobot that people see him as. It's this fascinating mixture of "yes, this is who he is as a person" but also "there are things he desires to be that he could never possibly become or live up to."

This got really far off based from feral/unhinged Optimus sdklfjaslkdlfkas. The TLDR is that if people want unhinged OP, I feel like they should give IDW OP a chance because he IS unhinged but he's unhinged in a way that's a realistic/thematic representation of how being an Absolute Good is impossible. And how being a good person isn't just about Existing And You Are A Good Person, but rather goodness is a constant state of flux in which you adjust, you make mistakes, you lose your temper and feel hopeless, but then you pick yourself up and try again.

Also IDW OP really likes climbing in dangerous wilderness and jumping out of flying vehicles which I think is very feral and sexy of him to do.

[momowoah]

I posted about this before but Taylor Kelly and the other TK are not the same

Leaving and coming back vs leaving and having to be chased after

Joining in on his stuff vs not bothering

Celebrating him vs "Enjoy it while it lasts"

Acknowledging what the 118 means to him vs dismissing it

Being welcome in the 118 vs .....

[theadventurek9]

Ryker has shown some aversion to water, including puddles and creeks and what not. Which doesn't fit our outdoorsy lifestyle.

If he never likes swimming he will never have to do dock diving or swimming for fun, but for the sake of safety and being able to follow us on hikes and backpacking trips he has to be willing to cross creeks and confidently swim if he ever falls into water.

So today we did some fun splashing around and some not so fun creek crossings. Luckily he gained confidence fast and started stepping into the water on his own after a bit.

Only needed one learning moment of 'yes you have to cross the creek' at a creek crossing that had some deeper moving water. Let him take his time thinking about it but encouraged him that he had to eventually choose to join me and Aayla on the other side.

[crossdressingdeath]

So I deliberately failed the wisdom save just to see what happened and... ouch. I'd heard there was an option to beg the party to put you down like a rabid dog (and get a unique bad ending by successfully getting them to do it) and I wanted to see that, but it didn't show up. Which is very sad, but this almost makes up for it.

That "No one will ever love you now, might as well take pleasure in being feared" thing... Augh. Again, I find myself wondering if this sort of thing has happened to Durge before; that "It is better to be feared than loved (especially if love is likely to end in murder)" thought process is the sort of conclusion I can see them coming to pre-amnesia. "No one will ever love you now" is also not an unreasonable conclusion to come to, since as you may be able to guess from that Shield reaction popup the party does in fact immediately try to put Durge down like a rabid dog—their words—if you don't convince them you had nothing to do with it. I said I didn't get the option to beg them to put me down like a rabid dog, not that there was no putting down being attempted.

[first-ex-wife]

okay no but I saw a poll earlier that broke my little won’t stop thinking about GTA heart and now I have a new question

[sansevierias]

bg3's character creator's super limited face options are so lame though. not only do they cause everyone's unmodded tavs and durges to look the same, but all the npcs share the same basic faces too. and you can just find your own player character's face on a random npc. i'm on my second playthrough and i'm so sick of seeing the same generic faces everywhere and recognizing who they "belong" to (=some specific npc that my brain has decided "owns" the face).

i can understand recycling faces for some random npcs that just speak one line, but the characters that return in almost every act and are tied to specific quests should have more unique features. it's kinda funny that zevlor is one of the lucky few with an unique face, but seems like his act 3 storyline didn't even make it properly to the game.

i also have to mention that as a woman, i'm disappointed how little variation there are in the options for "female" faces. apart from maybe few half-orc options, they are all really stereotypically feminine faces and generally just really pretty, even with the makeup removed. i always want to create a more butch/androgynous looking woman and there's not many options for that in the game.

i have seen similar (well, opposite?) opinions about the "male" faces too. they are all quite masculine, almost comically so! the people in charge of creating these face presets seem to have had a pretty narrow and traditional view of what women and men should look like. it's really disappointing for a game released in 2023, not to mention for a game that allows the player to choose non-binary/other for the player character's gender. despite that choice being there, you kinda have to choose between masculine or feminine face, there's not much room for middle ground.

[spoofyleaf]

just a reminder that this scene exists

[entamewitchlulu]

i'm watching a let's play of the walking dead s2 and i'm gonna be real if these weren't my favorite let's players i'd skip the hell out of this because man this game is just so fucking mean spirited imo