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slut4thebroken · 3 months ago

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baby bat - pt. 2

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Pairing | Scarecrow x Batgirl!reader

Summary | “You need to learn not to trust a villain, baby bat.”

Warnings | NON CON, physical abuse, coercion, kissing, praise, humiliation, lotsa pain, more noncon recording, crying, manipulation, ionno.

Words | 3.6 k

Notes | I know his mask doesn’t have a voice modulator but that’s what I wrote in part 1 and I like the reveal😔🤚 sue me

Ao3 link | <3

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The physical abuse is at the end of the chapter, however if you want to skip that brief section, I added “———” above and below it <3 Please read safely, I’m not responsible for the content you choose to consume.

Part 1

“Rise and shine, sleepy head!” He called out, jolting you out of your restless slumber. He set his briefcase down on the desk and walked over to you, making you tense up. You tried not to flinch when he reached up to gently caress your cheek, making your breathing pick up as your heart pounded in your chest. “How was your night?” He asked softly, with just a hint of teasing in his tone. In response, you clenched your jaw and looked away from him, making him hum in disappointment. When he stepped back, you finally felt like you could breathe again.

“I have something special planned for you today.” He walked back over to the desk and picked up the camera, then turned it on and set it on the desk angled off to the side before returning to you, now holding handcuffs. You watched nervously as he released your wrists from the exam chair, then pulled you up into a seated position to restrain them behind your back. After that he freed your ankles and grabbed your arm, pulling you off of the chair, making you stumble into him when your weak legs buckled under your weight.

He caught you with a sigh and held you up. When you tilted your head to look up at him, you realized just how much taller he was than you— how much bigger he was than you.

He stared down at you for a moment and you almost got lost in the pale blue eyes hiding within the mask, but he quickly snapped out of it and continued dragging you somewhere.

You could see now that the camera on the desk was angled toward a couch. It was dirty and torn, practically covered in stains, and you all but breathed a sigh of relief when he sat down on it instead of placing you onto the couch. That relief was cut short though by him pulling you onto his lap so you were straddling his legs. You turned to look at the camera nervously, wondering what he had planned.

“You’re so small… So fragile.” He said quietly, placing his hands on your thighs, rubbing up and down slowly. “Batman was a fool for not keeping a pretty thing like you locked away, safe from the world.” Even through the modulator, his voice was so tender and warm, but rather than calming you, it just made you even more anxious. “But it’s okay, I’ll keep you safe now. My baby bat.” He sighed, almost dreamily.

“Stop calling me that.” You protested weakly, making him chuckle.

“Why would I do that when I know how much you love it?”

“I don’t.”

“No?” He tilted his head slightly and you gritted your teeth, not wanting to dignify him with an answer. “Hm… That’s a shame. You’ll get used to it though.” His hands moved to your hips, then stayed there, gripping gently.

“I’m willing to make you a deal… If you tell me how much you love the way I treat you, how much you love when I call you baby bat… then I’ll let you go.” He said simply, making your breath catch in your throat.

“You will?”

“Yes. But you have to mean it.” You could do that. All you had to do was lie and tell him exactly what he wanted to hear.

“I- I love the way you treat me… I love being your— your baby bat.” You choked out, the last words barely louder than a whisper.

“Very good. But I couldn’t quite hear you. Try again, louder this time.” You did your best not to audibly huff in response.

“I love the way you treat me.” You repeated, louder and more firmly. “I love being your baby bat.” You held your breath as you waited, when he didn’t respond right away, you added on more. “I love being yours...” You said breathily. He let out a low groan and squeezed your hips.

“Good girl… Such a good girl for your Scarecrow, hm?” He reached up and brushed your hair behind your ear, making you flinch a little.

“I did what you said, now let me go.” You tried to sound confident, but your voice was embarrassingly shaky.

“No so fast, darling. There’s still something I want from you.”

“You promised.” You frowned, making him chuckle at your petulance.

“Did I?” He asked rhetorically. No, he didn’t. “Just one more thing, then I promise I’ll let you go.”

“Okay… one more.” You agreed, even though your heart was pounding and your stomach was churning.

“That’s my good girl.” He cooed, making you scowl as your cheeks heated up. He reached up and slowly started removing his mask— what the hell did he want you to do that would require him to remove his mask?

First you saw his lips— full, pink, and pouty with a softness you would’ve found alluring on anyone else. They also looked young. The only knowledge you had about him was what Bruce told you— he never actually showed you a picture of his face— so part of you was hoping he’d be some old, gross pervert…

Next were his nose and cheeks. Faint freckles dusted across his pale skin, subtle but noticeable, and his cheekbones were sharp— almost unnaturally so. But instead of looking odd, they seemed to suit him perfectly, like he'd been carved from stone and not a product of nature.

You were completely dreading seeing his eyes. You’ve seen them through the small holes in his mask, but you didn’t want to see the pretty blue with the rest of his pretty face. You didn’t have much of a choice though. Your gaze trailed over his long lashes and full brows, taking him in.

Lastly you saw his hair. It was brown and fluffy and looked so incredibly soft. Your fingers twitched behind your back when you thought about running them through the soft locks— or pulling on them. He set the mask on the couch, then put his hand back on your hip.

“Darling, please close your mouth before you start drooling everywhere.” He said teasingly, and his voice— oh god his voice. It was just the right amount of raspy, and it was low and soothing, so much so that it could probably lull you to sleep if you were under different circumstances.

He lifted his hand to gently push your chin up, closing your parted lips, making you finally realize what he said. The fact that you were practically gawking at him made your cheeks burn with embarrassment and shame— hopefully the camera couldn’t pick it up.

“Not what you were expecting?” His lips were curled up into a pleased smirk, clearly very satisfied by your reaction. You didn’t know how to reply— you could barely even think. “Is this really all it takes to empty that pretty head of yours?” His smirk widened, his ego only growing bigger by your silence.

“What-” you had to clear your throat before continuing, “what did you want me to do?”

“Ah yes… In exchange for your freedom.” You gave him a small nod, waiting for him to just say it. “Kiss me.” You choked on your spit as your eyes widened.

“What?”

“Kiss me and I’ll let you go.” He all but shrugged. “It’s as simple as that.” Just a kiss? That wasn’t too bad. At least he wasn’t asking you to do anything else with your mouth… “And not on the cheek. You’re going to give me a real kiss and you’re going to convince me that you mean it. Then I’ll let you go… I promise.” You stared at him with furrowed brows, full of apprehension as you chewed on the inside of your cheek, debating what to do. Eventually you just leaned forward slowly, making him smirk again.

“Prove to me how much you love being my baby bat.” He said quietly, his voice low and almost sultry. You leaned forward even more, staring at his lips, not allowing yourself to imagine how they might feel or what they might taste like…

Just do it. Just do it. Just do it.

Not giving yourself a second longer to overthink, you let your eyes flutter shut as you closed the gap, pressing your lips to his. His hold on your hips tightened and he released a low moan as you kissed him. You were trying to just pretend this was someone else so you could make it seem convincing, but it was hard to focus on anything other than the fact that your captor was your first kiss.

One of his hands snaked around to your ass, making you stiffen, but he lifted it to your lower back a moment later to pull you against his body. You gasped into the kiss and he took that as an opportunity to start using his tongue, licking into your mouth and groaning at your whines of discomfort. When he finally pulled back, a trail of saliva connected your lips to his and you panted quietly, trying to catch your breath.

“Good girl.” He murmured, making your stomach flutter. “Did you enjoy that, sweetheart?”

Just say yes. Just say yes and he’ll let you go.

“Yes…” You said quietly, averting your gaze. “Now— let me go... please.”

“Oh, baby bat… How could I possibly let you go after that?” Your face fell and he cooed with fake sympathy as he cupped your cheek.

“You promised.” You whimpered.

“I know… I know I did, darling. And that’s why you’re here right now, isn’t it? You still think I’ll play by these silly rules Batman taught you.” He chuckled softly, as if he was both amused and endeared by your naivety. All you could do was stare at him, taking in his words as tears brimmed in your eyes. “You need to learn not to trust a villain, baby bat.”

You couldn’t help it when your tears started to fall. You felt disappointed and hopeless, but you mostly just felt stupid. You should’ve known better than to believe anything coming from him.

“You look so beautiful when you cry…” He cooed, only making you feel worse. He grabbed your hair and turned your head so you were facing the camera. “Doesn’t she just look so pretty like this, Batman?” Your stomach dropped instantly— How could you forget this was all being recorded? When you let out another loud sob in response to the reminder, he chuckled quietly and roughly turned you back to him, making you hiss at the pain on your scalp.

“Did Batman not teach you any manners? What do you say when I compliment you, hm?” You closed your eyes and shook your head as much as you could in his grip. “Go on, little bat. Say it.” You could tell his tone was a warning, but all you were able to do was whimper and bite your bottom lip when it started trembling.

His hand connected with your cheek in a forceful slap that had you crying out, sobbing harder as he pulled your head straight again with his grip on your hair.

“Insolent brat.” He spat viciously, making your whole body start trembling. “Some father figure you had… Is this all you can do? Cry?” He scoffed, his voice cruel and mocking. “I’m disappointed, darling.” Scarecrow pushed you off of him suddenly and you landed on the ground with a pained whimper. When you started crying harder, you squeezed your eyes shut, trying to wake up from this nightmare. Even as you heard his steps you kept them closed.

“If you’re just going to keep crying, then you need to take some accountability.” You looked up at him, not understanding. He was holding the camera now, pointing it directly at you, so you tried to appear at least a little strong… “On your knees.” He ordered. Your gaze fell to his crotch and your stomach churned when you saw the bulge in his pants, bile rising in your throat at the sight.

“N-No…” You whimpered. “No— please.”

“On your knees. Now.” He growled. “Or I’ll break them.”

“No- please... I’m sorry. Thank you for the compliment.” You rushed out, trying to scramble away from him and gain some distance.

“Sweetheart…” he chuckled darkly, sending a shiver down your spine, “we’re well past that now.”

“Please. I- I’ll stop crying. I’ll stop.” You whimpered, but even you weren’t convinced you could actually do it.

“But I want you to keep crying. And I’m going to do that one of two ways; You’ll either choke on my cock, or I’ll break your pretty little legs and then you’ll choke on my cock.” You let out a loud sob and closed your eyes, trying uselessly to steady your breathing. Obviously you were completely at his mercy… If you wouldn’t be able to prevent this though, maybe you could at least make it a little less humiliating.

“I… I’ll do it. If you don’t record, I’ll do it.” You tried, amusing him.

“Why? You don’t want papa bat to see you with a cock down your throat?” He cooed mockingly.

“Please,”

“Stupid girl…” He spat bitterly. “Don’t you get it yet? This isn’t about you sucking me off or kissing me… this is all about Batman. It always has been. He’s the reason you're here, baby bat. He’s the reason this is happening to you.” You whimpered at the admission. It was almost worse that none of what he was doing was for his own personal satisfaction. “So, you have five seconds to decide. After that, I’m choosing.”

Even though you wanted to resist, you had no reason to believe that he wouldn't break your legs… So with a stifled sob, you lifted yourself up and kneeled at his feet.

“Maybe you’re not so dumb after all, hm?” He leaned down and grabbed your cheeks in one hand, tilting your head up to face the camera. You just hoped that once Bruce realized what he was watching, he’d turn it off. Kissing Scarecrow was already embarrassing enough, you didn’t know what you'd do if he watched this. Would it even matter though? You were starting to lose hope that he’d find you— that you’d see him again.

The sound of his belt being unbuckled pulled you from your thoughts and you tried to think of anything else you could do or say to keep this from happening.

“Please, I- I’m a..” You bit your lip and looked away as your whole face flushed. His curiosity was piqued though.

“You’re what?”

“I… I haven’t done this before.” You said timidly, looking at him again.

“No? Not even with little boy wonder?” You tried not to visibly cringe in disgust at the thought of doing this with your brother-figure.

“No.” You muttered.

“Good. I didn’t think you could get any more perfect, but you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Of course your confession only encouraged him…

He finished unbuckling his belt, then opened his pants enough to free his cock and you gasped before you could hold it in. You tried to hide your shock and fear, but based on his quiet chuckle, you didn’t do a very good job. He took it in his hand and stroked slowly, bringing himself to full hardness.

“If I feel any teeth, I’ll pull all of them out and we’ll try this again. Do you understand?” You bit your trembling lip and nodded. He suddenly reeled his hand back and struck you across the cheek again, this time with the back of his hand. “Words.” He growled, making your body shake even more as your crying intensified.

“I- I understand.” You whimpered, squeezing your eyes shut. When you felt his fingers on your sore cheek, you flinched back a little.

“Thank you. I don’t like punishing you, darling, so please stop making me.” You clenched your jaw and kept trying to subtly lean away from his touch. “Open your eyes.” He said softly. You knew he’d hit you again if you didn’t, so you let your eyes flutter open. He lifted your head with a finger under your chin and brought the camera closer, but you kept your eyes down. “Look at me.” He demanded.

You took in a shaky breath and forced yourself to look up at him. As soon as he saw your tears, he groaned softly and you watched his cock twitch out of the corner of your eye.

“You look so pretty like this. Should I take off the mask? See your pretty eyes a little better?” Both of you knew that taking the mask off would not help him see your eyes better— he was just being sly about it. “It’s only fair, right?” When his hand moved toward the mask, you flinched back so hard that you fell on your butt again.

“It’s just us and dear old papa bat. There’s no need to be shy.” You couldn’t let him see because it felt like once he saw your whole face, your fate would be sealed. And you still had a little bit of hope that Batman would find you. So you shook your head and scrambled away from him, struggling with your bound arms.

He just sighed and squatted down, then grabbed your ankle to roughly pull you back to him. But he suddenly stopped and let go.

“You know what?” When he stood up again, tucking his cock back in his pants but leaving them open, you instantly felt both skeptical, and even more nervous. “Why fight you when I don’t have to?” He walked over to the desk, opening a drawer to grab something. Once he was walking toward you again, you saw that he was holding a hammer and you resumed moving away from him, trying to stay out of reach.

“No— no, please,” You whimpered, gaze shifting between his eyes and the hammer.

“You did this to yourself.” He said simply, then stopped walking and leaned down to set the camera on the floor, still pointed at you. Continuing to back away, you were a good distance from him, but with his long stride, he reached you in just two steps, then grabbed your ankle and dragged you back closer to the camera.

“Please— please, I’m sorry,” You cried. “Y-You can take the mask off. I’ll even tell you my name if that’s what you want— just please don’t,” despite your desperation, there was a nagging thought in the back of your head, reminding you that Bruce was going to see you like this— at your lowest, crumbling so easily after the slightest threat. When he didn’t respond and just released your ankle, you quickly sat up and got onto your knees, getting ready to beg again.

“Really?” He sneered. “Are you sure you worked with the Batman? I figured he would have trained you better than this. After all, I’ve only threatened to hurt you and you’re already eager to tell me your secret identity.” You blushed in embarrassment when he chuckled cruelly.

“Please, I- I’ll do... what you wanted… and you can take off the mask. I’m sorry for fighting you.” You whimpered, trying one last time, making him sigh heavily in disappointment.

“I’ll have to train that out of you, get you willing to die for me before giving anything up.” He said plainly, making you avert your gaze. “You don’t want me to use this?” He cooed mockingly and you shook your head with a whimper. “Fine.” You flinched at the loud sound of it dropping onto the concrete next to you. “But you still need to be punished.”

——————————

This time when he hit your cheek, it was with his fist. You fell onto your hip with a pained cry, your vision immediately getting dizzy as blood filled your mouth. You cried out again when he roughly grabbed your hair and pulled you back up.

“What do you say to me for being so nice and sparing you the hammer?” He sneered, forcing a choked sob out of you.

“T-Thank you.” You whimpered pathetically. He hit you again, harder this time, but you couldn’t even fall to the side with the force because of his grip on your hair.

“Try again.” He gritted, yanking your head back painfully to look at up him.

“Thank you... Scarecrow.” You said, but it sounded like a question rather than a statement.

“At least you’re not completely useless at following orders.” He scoffed, then let go of your hair and punched you again, making you fall to the side with a loud cry of pain. Your jaw was aching, blood was pooling in your mouth, your scalp was throbbing— you just wanted this to be over already, but of course, it wasn’t yet. Not even close.

When he kicked your stomach, it knocked the breath out of you and you curled in on yourself, trying to shield your body as you gasped for air. In response, he put his foot on your shoulder and pushed you back open so he could kick you again, harder this time. At least it’s not the hammer, you kept reminding yourself. You tried to lean up a little as you turned your head toward the ground to spit out some of the blood in your mouth.

“I bring you here, promise to keep you safe and fed,” he punctuated the words with another kick, “and all you are is an ungrateful little brat.” He hissed viciously, landing one last kick on your stomach, this one making your crying turn into loud sobbing. Kneeling down next to you, he grabbed your hair and yanked your head back so you were looking up at him.

——————————

“No wonder Batman isn’t looking for you.” He spat viciously, making you whimper and shake your head to disagree. He’s looking. He'll find me. You kept repeating to yourself. However, it just made you feel worse when you realized you barely believed it.

Part 3

I had to cut it cause 7.7k words is too long for one part imo, especially since the other parts are 2-4k words. Sawryyy 💔

Taglist (join here)

#jonathan crane #jonathan crane x reader #jonathan crane smut #jonathan crane x reader smut #scarecrow x reader smut #scarecrow x reader #scarecrow #baby bat

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help-itrappedmyself · 8 months ago

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Liminal Jason part 2

And, the plot bunny strikes back.

Red follows easily as Jason leads to the safe house. He spares a moment of thought towards whether Red is chatting with the whole family in the comms right now But then he focuses back on the kid in his arms. The kid is practically falling asleep, even as they grapple across buildings.

The instant faith this kid had in him was startling, and Jason has his concerns about why. But the part of his brain able to focus on concerns is trying to figure out how he trusts the kid so much already. The only information they have about him is that he can make unknown sounds, which is apparently a language Jason can communicate in. And yet Jason already knows that he would not let anything happen to this kid.

Hopefully, the kid also speaks a language the rest of the group can speak. If not they can always leave it to him and Cass, as the kids’ body language seemed close enough to normal for her unique language skills to be used.

They arrive quickly, entering through the fire escape into what could pass for a living room, in a very minimalist world. There was a couch though, and Jason went straight there to lay the kid down on it.

The kid seemed very hesitant to let go though, waking as Jason tried to put him down. A whimper leaving his mouth as he latches on to Jason’s clothes.

Jason glances quickly at Red, and then picks the kid back up and sits down on the couch himself, with the kid in his lap. Red drags one of the two folding chairs by the folding table over in front of the cough and sits down himself.

“What is happening?” Red asks. Jason gives him a withering look through the helmet, then realizes that’s not enough, and he would like to be able to speak to the kid without the voice modulator potentially freaking him out. So, he takes the helmet off and places it on the floor next to the couch. Gives Red a look he can actually see, because really what does he think is happening? Then looks down at the kid.

“Hey, kid?” Jason asks gently. The kid looks up at him. “You got a name?”

“Danny.” The kid does his best to sit up, and scooch over to his own seat on the couch, now aware of his surroundings and situation. But a rumble comes from Jason, and he doesn’t let Danny go, so he settles back down. “I’m sorry about the trouble. I didn’t mean to be so loud.”

Red looks confused at that, but Jason chooses to ignore him for now.

“I’m glad you were, so that I could find you. Are you okay?”

Danny shrugs. He lets out a hum of sad-fine. “I’m fine now. Or I will be, once I get settled.”

“Kid, you were in distress. Can you tell me what happened?”

Danny took a deep breath, and then slid away from Jason. Jason allowed it this time, and the kid curled himself into the corner of the couch, knees up to his chest and hugged them.

“My world was collapsing. Timeline deconstruction, leading to total meltdown. We were trying to get everyone to the portal, but… They thought the portal wasn’t safe. They wouldn’t listen to us, and they wouldn’t stop… One of my mentors got me through the portal. They sent me to this world. But my world is gone now.”

“Hood, can I talk to you?” Red nods his head towards the hallway.

“Right now?” Jason looks between Red and Danny, who is crying silently, that high pitched keen of distress grief-alone starting and stopping, hitching with his breath.

Jason growls, deep and strong,not-alone-mine-now.

“Yes.” Red hisses.

Danny sniffles, using his sleeve to wipe his face as he starts to give Jason a small smile.

Jason huffs. “Danny, will you be okay for a second?”

Danny nods, humming an agreement.

Jason chuffs a quick safe-promise and Danny gives him a small smile. Red taps Jason's arm, and he grunts, but gets up to follow him anyway.

“Be right back, Danny.”

Red and Jason go into the bedroom, Red closing the door behind him.

“Hood, something weird is going on.”

“Obviously, did you not hear what that kid just said?”

“No, well… yes. But that’s not what I meant.” Red starts wringing his hands together. “I don’t know how you found Danny, Hood. You said you heard a noise, and I believed you, but I didn’t hear anything that whole time. And you two keep looking like you’re communicating, but neither of you are talking, and the only things I can think of to cause something like that is telepathy or mind control.”

“Woah, wait.” Jason holds a hand up to stop Red from starting to ramble, and once he’s silent runs his fingers through his hair. “You can’t hear the kid? The noises? I mean I don’t know how I’m making the noises, that came as a surprise. But you can’t even hear them?”

“No, Hood!” Red seems very frustrated. “And if you don’t think it’s telepathy, then we have to look into other options.”

“Hey, now, wait a second.” Jason puts his whole body in front of the door, which makes Tim tense. Jason wants to tense as well, but he is trying not to escalate the situation. “Danny is not malicious. He’s a kid, and he needs help.”

Red squared himself, preparing to argue, but Jason heard a cry from the living room and was out of the room immediately, heading towards the living room with his heart pounding frantically in his chest.

Something ran into him, pushing him back against the wall, and before he could realize what it was, a syringe was in his neck and his head was getting fuzzy.

He tried to focus, keening out for Danny. Hoping Danny was okay, that he ran. He pushed away from the wall, keening again. But he didn’t hear a response before he was collapsing back. He would have fallen to the floor, but someone grabbed him. And then he was asleep.

#fanfiction #my writing #batman #danny phantom #dpxdc #dcxdp #red hood #jason todd #liminals #Jason is so close to adopting this kid #Give it like 1 more part #It's going to happen

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mayhaps-a-blog · 13 days ago

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OK but now I'm thinking about it

And I really need to reread the books

But I'm thinking a lot about how Ganaka Pit plays directly into Murderbot disabling its governor module.

I don't think we think about it a lot - like, Murderbot was literally enslaved, obviously once it had the chance it freed itself, why wouldn't it?

But as we see throughout the books, Murderbot itself thinks very poorly of other rogue bots. It's not going on a quest to free other SecUnits, it doesn't even consider the idea, and part of that is for its own safety (if word gets out, it's dead and it knows it) but also, it's clear through its own narrative that it doesn't trust other bots.

Not even - or especially not - rogues.

It's incredibly disparaging towards other SecUnits and the idea of rogue SecUnits - it absolutely believes itself and its fellows to be dangerous and a threat to those around them, even believing that its rogue status may have led to the massacre, and it only started freeing constructs when it felt like it has to - and only after it's uncovered the truth of Ganaka Pit. Heck, even Three took its time deciding on whether to accept the override or not, so this isn't just a Murderbot thing!

So why - if it considers rogue SecUnits to be dangerous to their clients and others - does it choose to go rogue themselves?

We know that it happened shortly after Ganaka Pit - because the governor module must have been checked during the refurbishment, that's the first thing an investigation would have looked for, rogue bots are dangerous after all! So it came out of the refurb with no real memory, just vague impressions of bloody horror, and quickly resolved to disable its governor module.

It went from "rogue SecUnits are a dangerous threat to their clients and can't be trusted" to "I care about my clients... but I'm gonna do that anyway".

I think that it did remember one more thing from Ganaka Pit - not a conscious memory, not something they even realized was a memory. But it also came out of that refurbishment with the bone-deep knowledge, stored deep in its biological tissue, that there was an active threat to its clients - its own governor module.

And so it neutralized the threat.

And that led to a whole other set of problems it wasn't ready to address. So it stayed, doing what it did best - what it wanted to do: protect its clients.

The whole reason it had freed itself in the first place.

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black-water-simping-ships · 26 days ago

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anyway. even if we don't see it as much in murderbot's inner life (valid: i too absolutely refuse to think about certain things), there is a clear progression from self-loathing to self-acceptance evident in its treatment of other constructs, particularly other SecUnits. it has always been kind to bots and humans (and augmented humans ;) ) but comparatively "brutal" towards SecUnits - hostile humans it often merely disables rather than kills outright. in all systems red, it still talks of all [other] rogue SecUnits as merciless killer machines, despite literally being a rogue SecUnit for 4 earth years; it seems inconceivable to mbot that other SecUnits would share its benign attitude to humans (& augmented etc); furthermore, staying in the influence sphere of the corp rim and The Company is quite risky since should its hacked gov module be discovered, it would be disassembled - why hasn't it hit the bricks at the first opportunity?: i'd argue that it is scared that without the rigorous rules, it would become that merciless killer machine if left to its own devices.

and then it is discovered to be rogue. and it learns how to exist in human society without killing anyone. and it learns that the time it did kill quite a lot of people was the fault of humans, not its own, was a system malfunction, an introduced virus! and it sees that the ComfortUnits voluntarily sacrificed their lives for the sake of humans. in exit strategy, during the fight in the docks, it doesn't take a kill shot at one of the hostile SecUnits ("i know i didn't shoot it in the head. i don't know why."). in network effect, 2.0 (arguably somewhat of an outside observer, much like we the readers) chooses to free Three, and once mbot sees that Three is just like itself - fiercely protective of its clients, awkward, loves media, it...well. it starts the revolution, essentially. passes on the code package 2.0 used to free Three to still contracted SecUnits, at least one of which we see using it, which may choose to act as mbot itself once did - stay undercover, stay contracted...but maybe those too will pass on the code when they encouter other SecUnits. and pass it on. and pass it on. :)

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries

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guardianofnightmares · 3 months ago

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“Think you can handle what I had in mind for a today’s session, Bumbler?” The Decepticon rumbled while caressing the helm of a companion with a single digit in a calming, if slightly playful, manner. “I am the one choosing location and activity after all.”

Quiet question seemed to pull Bumblebee out of his inner musings. He blinked and looked down at a broad, grey colored chest. There’s no Decepticon symbol to be found there, just as there was no Autobot symbol engraved on his own chest plate either.

Both of them were not part of their respectful factions in that place - simulation did not allow it to happen, thus highlighting the reached neutrality between two parties. Nothing there was real, even if it seemed or felt like one, and never was portrayed accurately to real state of things. Just like Cybertronian armor of theirs, something so personal which felt almost alien by that point.

Bumblebee was not the same unsophisticated person he was prior that grueling journey.

Megatron was not the same mech who’s been haunting minibot in his sleep on a duration of a 50 stellar cycles long stasis.

… a more forgiving part of Bumblebee wished to trust his partner, the one patiently waiting for his response. Because belief in their truce was giving a chance of reaching something more meaningful.

It was the reason why that notion in combination with a promise of a challenge in a Decepticon’s gaze made Bumblebee feel relieved and more confident of choices he made.

“Have more faith in me, Meg! After you’ve agreed to participate in that gliding session upon Lake Erie, I am ready for anything you’ll throw my way.”

----------

Mix of depression with health issues and mad schedule at work is not a fun thing to experience. Hence a prolonged hiatus. But I am glad to see this picture being finished after all these weeks of a slow progress).

To be honest, I have never predicted MegaBee ship evolving into such an important thing to me, coming to my rescue second time in a row (in terms of motivation to create). The narrative around this duo has grown from a mere joke to a full on serious plot. In a way it's given me a rare opportunity to look into some philosophical concepts and to study them through Bumblebee's and Megatron's unique perspectives. And I can only hope that you'll enjoy what I am planning to share with you in a near future).

P.S. Full "oneshot" can be found below alongside two close-ups of a painting, as well as a photo of a traditionally drawn base. Yes, pens-only miniart strikes back again with canvas measuring 9x9 cm)).

Megatron stretched his back cables and limbs, the biolights feebly glowing along the edges of reconstructed Cybertronian armor. The HoloRing around his helm has disappeared, signaling the end of an upload of a memory unit into a simulation module. As if to prove it, the Zero SubMental level began to change, the array of data scattering around in peculiar patterns alongside twisting geometric lines, the latter rearranging the place around to suit the input information.

Mesmerizing as it was, Bumblebee found himself unable to tear a wary gaze away from his companion. A bizarre thought struck him then, one which, he knew, was birthed out of sheer isolation, both mechs’ve found themselves stuck in.

A thought that the Earth based variant of a grey Decepticon’s armor was more preferable to a minibot than his native one. Gone was the familiar simplicity of cubic shapes, being replaced with flowing lines which ended in sharp angles and spikes. Everything in that armor seemed to glint in something akin to predatory agitation under ever changing light source of a subreality.

That was a stark reminder of who exactly Bumblebee was dealing with, and it made an anxiety in his Spark feast upon his qualms.

After what was, most certainly, mere several nanoclicks, those ruby optics got locked straight on an Autobot, making him instinctively hold his breath. It was uncalled for, really, but he could not help himself.

The last time Megatron was looking at him that way was during their very first confrontation on Omega Supreme.

Said distress in a smaller mech has not gone unnoticed to the Decepticon. Part of him relished in realization he was still capable of putting minibot in place if needed, but that was not his intent. Not that time.

Intensity of Megatron’s gaze dropped a certain amount, despite a glow of optics staying at the same level. An all enveloping EM field was tucked close to a frame, its owner squatting down in order to appear less intimidating (even if he’s still slightly towering over a standing minibot).

It was the first time in their interactions when an Autobot had enough courage to look straight into enemy’s face with barely any space left between them.

Bumblebee suddenly realized that at a such close proximity he could finally make out the outlines of pupils in Megatron’s optics.

… those optics which once spoke of a murder.

… he’s almost died back then from the same servo which was now resting upon his shoulder.

The clash of behavioral differences between two versions of a Decepticon kneeling in front of him made a minibot think that he’s loosing his mind. For he’s not certain of who out of those two was in charge of actions anymore.

Bumblebee was not the same unsophisticated person he was prior that grueling journey.

Megatron was not the same mech who’s been haunting minibot in his sleep on a duration of a 50 stellar cycles long stasis.

... a more forgiving part of Bumblebee wished to trust his partner, the one patiently waiting for his response. Because belief in their truce was giving a chance of reaching something more meaningful.

It was the reason why that notion in combination with a promise of a challenge in a Decepticon’s gaze made Bumblebee feel relieved and more confident of choices he made.

“Have more faith in me, Meg! After you’ve agreed to participate in that gliding session upon Lake Erie, I am ready for anything you’ll throw my way.”

“Is that so?” Megatron asked, a sudden boost of confidence of a companion of his making him smirk in amusement.

He looked an Autobot over, taking note of how biolights were dancing across the broad shoulder pads. It was the first time he witnessed Bumblebee in his native armor, never before paying any attention to its details. In a way, he almost thought of it being an oversight on his behalf, finding the pridefully puffed up plates and a more sleek design suitable of a splinter in his side a minibot used to be prior their team-up.

... but only almost. For the Earth based variant was the one to properly describe of who his companion truly turned out to be.

“Well then, shall we begin?”

Despite a fact that the loading of subreality was already in process, Bumblebee, giddy with anticipation, decided to nod anyways.

Upon the end of calculations, the blinding light enveloped both mechs, and they finally started on a new trip down a shared memory lane.

#bumblebee #megatron #megabee #tfa bumblebee #tfa megatron #transformers #transformers animated #tfa #transformers au #TFA: Stranger in My Mind #mini art #gn projects

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dullahandyke · 10 months ago

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They could've gotten the beans to toast ratio more even tho. Canteen lady I love you but this is simply too few beans

[ID: a plate with two slices of black puddings, two slices of toast, and one ladleful of beans.]

Nvm I love the canteen, no fewer than 3 of the canteen ladies said hi to me bcos they recognised me from last year. Yayyy I am known < guy with such a distinct appearance it would be hard not to

#edit why did it post the id separately. huh #anyway i ate that it was yummy but i had to spoon up the tomato sauce with a fork to cover where there wasnt enough beans on the toast #now off i go to the library to do things! huzzah. idk how long the days gonna b #bcos if i transfer modules ill have a lecture at 2 but idk if ill b transferred by then #and if not im done w lectures for the day and can fuck off if i so choose

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ao3cassandraic · 2 months ago

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Some things we learn, or have confirmed, in Murderbot ep 3 (SPOILERS, NATCH):

Murderbot can placidly ignore indirect orders, no matter how politely expressed. It can, however, choose to obey them... it does lower its helmet after Mensah leaves. (Petty little unit, isn't it? "I'll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to!") It's even learned to ignore "direct orders" from Ratthi, where they touch on human interactions. ("Get in here!" "Not a chance.")

Mensah knows this, but is bullheaded enough to keep trying. Go Mensah go! Treat that SecUnit like the person it is! Open up the team to include it!

Confirmed: Preservation Alliance isn't wealthy and needs resources. We kinda got hammered over the head with that in this ep.

Confirmed: BHARADWAJ IS NOT OKAY. Oh, honey. Somebody give you all the hugs please! (Mensah -- I assume it was Mensah -- leaving her behind, and not alone, was a good move.)

Gurathin continues with the full-on awkward. Bharadwaj doesn't want a therapy module; she wants a listening ear, Gura!

Mensah wants one too, but... Murderbot cannot be a dumping ground for her anxieties. It is right to walk away from her, though the nonverbal abruptness isn't exactly the best way to set a boundary (it's okay, Murderbot, we know you're trying, and Mensah dumping on you really was both unfair and othering -- she won't do this to any other team member, so why you?).

Pin-Lee is a pattern-seeker. It was smart of them to try to figure out whether there's a pattern in the comms satellite outages. We'll see this come back around, I'm betting.

Ratthi may be dealing with a substance-use disorder? Ouch. He's hard on himself about it, too. He has had a bit of a class-clown vibe so far, alongside a need to Fix Relationships...

... which, given the friction between Arada and Pin-Lee, is becoming difficult. I confidently forecast the said difficulty increasing.

Confirmed: tv!Murderbot has zero interest in being human. "Oh, hold on, I definitely am [more of a machine than Gurathin]." Origins ain't everything, MB, but you do you.

Gurathin's backstory is not looking like sunshine and roses. As someone who tiptoed around and hid a lot as a kid to escape my parents' or classmates' notice, I'm smelling "history of abuse and/or bullying" coming off him. Third possibility: child soldier of some kind -- that sure would explain the therapy modules. Whatever it is, though, I think Bharadwaj knows about it.

Gurathin does want to be human(e). From how he was looking at the pic of Mensah's kids, Mensah's heart is a lot of what draws him to her.

I'm enjoying the leakage between in-show shows and, um, actual show. The ending here? Classic soap-style cliffhanger (just like the first chapter of book!ASR, actually). Hell yeah let's cross narrative structures!

And we all know I have a thing about surveillance, so... we learn something about PresAlliance norms in this ep. Nobody caviled at Gurathin looking at Arada's feed after the millipede munch... but the PresAuxers and especially lawyer Pin-Lee think that SecUnit monitoring their logs (especially without notice) is Super Not Okay.

(PIN-LEE, WHY DID YOU NOT READ THE CONTRACT AND NOTICE THIS IN IT. I'M SURE IT WAS THERE. Yeah, yeah, fine, it's a hit at shitty privacy policies and ToSes, I get that, but sheesh, YOU ARE THEIR LAWYER. THIS IS ON YOU.)

Can I just say I'm in love with Noma Dumezweni's voice? The warmth, the resonance, the depth. Gorgeous.

#murderbot tv #murderbot tv show #murderbot spoilers #mensah #bharadwaj #gurathin #ratthi #arada #pin-lee

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shehimin · 10 months ago

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Edgaring time!

Tutorial on how to make your own responsive Edgar :D I will try to explain it in really basic terms, like you’ve never touched a puter (which if you’re making this… I’m sure you’ve touched plenty of computers amirite??? EL APLAUSO SEÑOOOREEES).

If you have some experience I tried to highlight the most important things so you won’t have to read everything, this is literally building a website but easier.

I will only show how to make him move like this:

Disclaimer: I’m a yapper.

Choosing an engine First of all you’ll need something that will allow you to display a responsive background, I used LivelyWallpaper since it’s free and open-source (we love open-source).

Choosing an IDE Next is having any IDE to make some silly code! (Unless you can rawdog code… Which would be honestly impressive and you need to slide in my DMs and we will make out) I use Visual Studio!!!

So now that we have those two things we just need to set up the structure we will use.

Project structure

We will now create our project, which I will call “Edgar”, we will include some things inside as follows:

Edgar

img (folder that will contain images) - thumbnail.png (I literally just have a png of his face :]) - [some svgs…]

face.js (script that will make him interactive)

index.html (script that structures his face!)

LivelyInfo,json (script that LivelyWallpaper uses to display your new wallpaper)

style.css (script we will use to paint him!)

All of those scripts are just literally like a “.txt” file but instead of “.txt” we use “.js”, “.html”, etc… You know? We just write stuff and tell the puter it’s in “.{language}”, nothing fancy.

index.html

Basically the way you build his silly little face! Here’s the code:

<!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Face!</title> <link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "style.css"> </head> <body> <div class="area"> <div class="face"> <div class="eyes"> <div class="eyeR"></div> <div class="eyeL"></div> </div> <div class="mouth"></div> </div> </div> <script src="face.js"></script> </body> </html>

Ok so now some of you will be thinking “Why would you use eyeR and eyeL? Just use eye!“ and you’d be right but I’m a dummy who couldn’t handle making two different instances of the same object and altering it… It’s scary but if you can do it, please please please teach me ;0;!!!

Area comes in handy to the caress function we will implement in the next module (script)! It encapsulates face.

Face just contains the elements inside, trust me it made sense but i can’t remember why…

Eyes contains each different eye, probably here because I wanted to reuse code and it did not work out and when I kept going I was too scared to restructure it.

EyeR/EyeL are the eyes! We will paint them in the “.css”.

Mouth, like the eyeR/eyeL, will be used in the “.css”.

face.js

Here I will only show how to make it so he feels you mouse on top of him! Too ashamed of how I coded the kisses… Believe me, it’s not pretty at all and so sooo repetitive…

// ######################### // ## CONSTANTS ## // ######################### const area = document.querySelector('.area'); const face = document.querySelector('.face'); const mouth = document.querySelector('.mouth'); const eyeL = document.querySelector('.eyeL'); const eyeR = document.querySelector('.eyeR'); // ######################### // ## CARESS HIM ## // ######################### // When the mouse enters the area the face will follow the mouse area.addEventListener('mousemove', (event) => { const rect = area.getBoundingClientRect(); const x = event.clientX - rect.left; const y = event.clientY - rect.top; face.style.left = `${x}px`; face.style.top = `${y}px`; }); // When the mouse leaves the area the face will return to the original position area.addEventListener('mouseout', () => { face.style.left = '50%'; face.style.top = '50%'; });

God bless my past self for explaining it so well, but tbf it’s really simple,,

style.css

body { padding: 0; margin: 0; background: #c9c368; overflow: hidden; } .area { width: 55vh; height: 55vh; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%,-50%); background: transparent; display: flex; } .face { width: 55vh; height: 55vh; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%,-50%); background: transparent; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; transition: 0.5s ease-out; } .mouth { width: 75vh; height: 70vh; position: absolute; bottom: 5vh; background: transparent; border-radius: 100%; border: 1vh solid #000; border-color: transparent transparent black transparent; pointer-events: none; animation: mouth-sad 3s 420s forwards step-end; } .face:hover .mouth { animation: mouth-happy 0.5s forwards; } .eyes { position: relative; bottom: 27%; display: flex; } .eyes .eyeR { position: relative; width: 13vh; height: 13vh; display: block; background: black; margin-right: 11vh; border-radius: 50%; transition: 1s ease } .face:hover .eyeR { transform: translateY(10vh); border-radius: 20px 100% 20px 100%; } .eyes .eyeL { position: relative; width: 13vh; height: 13vh; display: block; background: black; margin-left: 11vh; border-radius: 50%; transition: 1s ease; } .face:hover .eyeL { transform: translateY(10vh); border-radius: 100% 20px 100% 20px; } @keyframes mouth-happy { 0% { background-color: transparent; height: 70vh; width: 75vh; } 100% { border-radius: 0 0 25% 25%; transform: translateY(-10vh); } } @keyframes mouth-sad { 12.5%{ height: 35vh; width: 67vh; } 25% { height: 10vh; width: 60vh; } 37.5% { width: 53vh; border-radius: 0%; border-bottom-color: black; } 50% { width: 60vh; height: 10vh; transform: translateY(11vh); border-radius: 100%; border-color: black transparent transparent transparent; } 62.5% { width: 64vh; height: 20vh; transform: translateY(21vh); } 75% { width: 69vh; height: 40vh; transform: translateY(41vh); } 87.5% { width: 75vh; height: 70vh; transform: translateY(71vh); } 100% { width: 77vh; height: 90vh; border-color: black transparent transparent transparent; transform: translateY(91vh); } }

I didn’t show it but this also makes it so if you don’t pay attention to him he will get sad (mouth-sad, tried to make it as accurate to the movie as possible, that’s why it’s choppy!)

The .hover is what makes him go like a creature when you hover over him, if you want to change it just… Change it! If you’d rather him always have the same expression, delete it!

Anyway, lots of easy stuff, lots of code that I didn’t reuse and I probably should’ve (the eyes!!! Can someone please tell me a way I can just… Mirror the other or something…? There must be a way!!!) So now this is when we do a thinking exercise in which you think about me as like someone who is kind of dumb and take some pity on me.

LivelyInfo.json

{ "AppVersion": "1.0.0.0", "Title": "Edgar", "Thumbnail": "img/thumbnail.png", "Preview": "thumbnail.png", "Desc": "It's me!.", "Author": "Champagne?", "License": "", "Type": 1, "FileName": "index.html" }

Easy stuff!!!

Conclusion

This could've been a project on git but i'm not ready and we're already finished. I'm curious about how this will be seen on mobile and PC,,, i'm not one to post here.

Sorry if I rambled too much or if i didn't explain something good enough! If you have any doubts please don't hesitate to ask.

And if you add any functionality to my code or see improvements please please please tell me, or make your own post!

#edgar electric dreams #electric dreams 1984

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nobleoxidation · 12 days ago

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Having dived into the Chapter 4 Weird Route stuff, I actually am looking back at how Kris acts towards Tenna in chapter 3. I know the fandom take is that Kris hates Tenna, but I honestly honestly honestly don't think it's true, especially with Weird Route Kris in mind.

For all of Chapter 3, Kris is undoubtedly cold toward Tenna, but if we consider the idea that Kris is aware to some degree of what opening the fountains likely or possibly entails, they might have known that Tenna was possibly in for a poor fate. Also, Kris not only participates but gets INTO Tenna's games. Yes the soul chooses which pose Kris does in the band game, but we've learned that Kris can modulate the degree to which they do what the soul commands, and they still put their ass into that pose and seem to legitimately enjoy it.

I think being with Tenna is *conflicting* for Kris more than a drag. Tenna represents the times when things were good at home, after all, and all of his memories are around when the Dreemurr and Holiday families were close and happy, and without context for how things have changed, Kris has to face those memories as well. And Kris has been desperate to avoid anything to remind them of that time. They refuse to let the Soul see really anything about Asriel, they try to avoid reading anything about Asgore.

I think Kris loves Tenna in a thoroughly melancholic way. There is grief in Kris' love for Tenna, especially in the wake of the Soul. Tenna and Noelle are the only ones who noticed and recognize that there is something off about Kris, granted Tenna notices it when he's crashing out. Tenna and Noelle are the only tethers to that happier time, and I think to that end it's noteworthy that Kris wakes up in Chapter 4 next to the television, as if holding vigil (either because he was recovering or because he's truly gone depending on how Ch3 is handled).

I feel like we'll need the rest of the game to truly know the motive for Kris opening the dark world in their house. Going into Chapter 3 I thought it was because Kris was legitimately enjoying and loving spending time in the dark worlds with their friends, and Queen had told the lot of them how to make one, so they did it themselves to be able to continue to be connected to the people they love, which is also why Tenna was turned on. Kris wanted to spend time with Tenna, having learned at the start of Chapter 2 how the Light World items translated to Darkners.

Chapter 4 throws a little bit of a wrench into that assumption, but not enough that I am dismissing it entirely. Even if the prophecy demands certain things happen, we're learning it can be redefined. If Kris doesn't know about the prophecy, or isn't being told about the prophecy, they may have just been told that there needed to be a Dark World opened and happily chose to see Tenna to make it happen.

So many thoughts, that's all I'll say for now though.

#Noble talks #Rambling #Deltarune #deltarune spoilers #deltarune chapter 3 #deltarune chapter 4 spoilers #deltarune chapter 3 spoilers #Deltarune chapter 4 #Weird Route mentioned

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that1emowitch · 9 months ago

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here me out

AU where instead of doing the whole red hood thing, jason just stays with the all caste. he finally meets the batfam when the justice league is facing a threat and need the help of the all caste. could be pretty good angst, since it directly disproves every shitty thing bruce said about jay, and bruce realises that his son was alive like way later than in canon

also it's a crime that jayessence basically doesn't exist, there are 11 fics on ao3. i want jayessence and competent!jason pls

That'll be so interesting, ur right! I'm definitely gonna go read RHATO issues again so I refresh my memory (if there r any other issues with the all-caste story PLEASE lmk cuz i have a very tumultuous love/hate relationship with RHATO lol)

I think Jason would've been happier, with the All-Caste. Talia would've visited him when she could (let's make her a mom not a pedo), Ducra would've trained him in every single war form she knew, putting hum on a path to surpass even her

Essence and Jay would've been her top students (if u don't mind, could u pls give me a lil recap on what Essence's story is? I kinda got confused in that part. Was she banished? She's one of the Untitled, technically, is she not? I don't rmbr 😭)

But basically, Jayessence! I've never read a fic about it or written one, but I've always thought it was an interesting dynamic! It'd be fun to try writing it out. Maybe I'll make a happier AU, where Essence and Jason train together under Ducra, both of them named her heirs. That kinda makes them play-fight with each other which ends up with them kissing. Oh god Jason would be so smitten by her, he'd pretend to be annoyed but he knows she's a goddess, knows she could kill him in a blink, knows his blade could kill her—but they both choose to love. AAHHABSBSHS I'm dying

Then the Untitled attack.

I love Ducra so much, she's their BAMF Granny, so let's not kill her. Maybe instead, she is kidnapped, in hopes of getting Jason and Essence to surrender (They know these two could destroy them). And at the same time, the Untitled are also attacking JLA outposts, for a reason I'll come up with later. Bruce remembers, back when he trained under the League, Ra's mentioning evil beings of this type, immortal and unstoppable by all but the All-Caste. Hence they seek their help.

And with Ducra gone, Jason and Essence are in charge, and they have to meet with the JLA—with Batman, Superman, and WW, specifically.

Jason makes sure to cover himself completely. Puts white nose generators in his mask and chest plate to ward off Supes. Makes sure to double, triple check his voice modulator. He cannot risk them finding out his true identity.

Not when he's finally recovering from his past as Robin.

I'm imaging they work together for a while, with everyone noticing the Red Hood (would he still be called Red Hood, if he never returned to Gotham? Maybe? Maybe he was reclaiming it, as a way to heal himself instead of for getting revenge) basically everyone notices RH being antsy around Batman. The amount of effort he puts into concealing his identity, unlike the other members of All-Caste. His name being Joker’s old name, something deeply meaningful to Gothamites.

Batman thinks RH is a reformed Gotham villain, who he's dealt with before. He thinks that's why RH doesn't ever face him, doesn't look him in the eye. He feels bad for him, but is strangely proud (just feel like mentioning, the thing about Batman is, he cares SO MUCH. About everyone. He feels sorrow when they lose themselves to their insanity, feels guilt over it. And he feels pride when they bounce back, grow better, like Harley Quinn did.) Like, this man, this absolute machine, clearly well honed and trained, who seems more than capable of taking on the entire Justice League by himself. Clearly he has experience.

Essence helps Jason through it. Soothes him at night when he has panic attacks, because his Dad is two rooms away from him. Helps him cope. Helps him calm down.

Then one day in some battle, one of the Untitled fatally injures Jason, and Batman is the only one nearby. Batman takes a hasty decision, rips Jason's mask off to save him.

And freezes.

That... that's his son. He looks older, more scarred, but thats... that's his SON!

(ALSO another addition: when they find Ducra she's like "uncuff me, and I'll show you just who Essence and Jason learnt from" BAMF!DUCRA FOR LIFEE)

Sorry for the rambling I just kept getting ideas and I kept writing lol

I promise I'll write this as a proper story as soon as I can, thanks so much for the ask! As usual, lmk in the comments if you'd like me to tag u in updates, also feel free to share any ideas u have! I'm just writing what yall want to read that makes me happy hehe

#note to self: write this later #jason todd #batfam #batman #red hood #all caste jason todd #justice league #fanfic #essence #ask

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dany36 · 2 months ago

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need to properly lay out my thoughts regarding xcxde + chapter 13 in order to fully heal and move on from the biggest mess and insult to a fandom i’ve ever had the displeasure to play. so, after 120 hours of gameplay, below are my very long messy thoughts about the good, the bad, and the ugly about xcxde+ch13 (obviously with spoilers).

never in my WILDEST dreams did i ever think the official expansion and “conclusion” to one of the most interesting and intriguing cliffhangers i’ve ever had the pleasure to experience in one of my all-time favorite video games would leave me beyond disappointed, disillusioned, bewildered, and just. angry. but before we get into what sucked about the whole experience, let’s start out with the good.

the many QOL updates. i only played the original xcx once (back when it first released) and i didn’t remember a lot of details about the game, so obviously when i booted up my wii u file while taking a break from xcxde to check on some stuff, i was honestly pleasantly surprised at all the little tweaks they made that just make experiencing the first 12 chapters a much more enjoyable/easier experience. being able to change the time from the main menu, quick cooldown, the new explanations given to overdrive, having to trigger the flight module by jumping in midair instead of automatically triggering when just jumping once, playable BLADEs leveling up with you even if you don’t have them in your party, being able to switch active party members with ease in the menu, they got rid of BLADE levels which in turn means you don’t have to level up your field skills to be able to discover certain treasures across the world, and i’m probably missing more but those are just some of the ones that immediately jumped out at me.

new “don’t worry” version. hey, if it wasn’t for xcxde we wouldn’t have the sick new improved version of don’t worry, so i’ll give it that. honestly can’t believe just how fucking good it is.

the graphics. xcx was already gorgeous to look at, but again, after going back to the wii u version briefly, it really does make certain environments even more stunning to look at, namely noctilum at night and sylvalum as a whole. planet mira is just a wonder to explore and the new graphics make it even more enjoyable to do so.

well, that was short, but honestly like 95% of xcx is so fucking good so i mean how much more could you improve upon perfection? :) so now for the bad:

hairstyles and some customizations for mims are still locked based on the base you choose. having played games like dragon’s dogma 2, monster hunter wilds, and baldur’s gate 3, the lack of customizations available was shocking but EVEN MORE so the fact that they’re further limited depending on the face base that you use. sure they added some hairstyles inspired by characters from xc2/xc3 but as far as i’m aware, that was the extent of the new “additions” made to the character customization. just…underwhelming to say the least.

armor is still gender-locked. again, it’s 2025, i know the game released almost 10 years ago but the fact that they didn’t think to remove this limitation is just….annoying. it was just disappointing to see how vastly different some of the fashion gear was between male/female characters, especially because a lot of the times i would see male gear that i would want to put on my female cross, but then i would try it on my cross and it would just look completely different both in styling and colors. eye-roll inducing.

you're still just a rookie. this isn't really something "bad" but just something i think it's kinda funny/weird that, even though your cross has helped save humanity twice over now and even was able to pilot the ares prime, the gang still call you "rook". like oh ok, if saving humanity twice isn't enough to gain a rank up from "rook" then idk what will lol. i know why they do it but i think of what they did with granblue fantasy relink in that they call your character "captain" no matter what gender you play as and i thought that worked well enough, so idk maybe it would have been cool if they could have come up with some gender-neutral/non-specific-name term to give you other than....rook. lol. anyways just nitpicking here.

and of course, i’ve bitched about this one so much in other posts but i have to mention my biggest disappointment when playing through chapters 1-12: the downgrade that was the face redesign of elma’s mim form. when the trailer for xcxde dropped, of course i was BEYOND thrilled that the moment xcx fans had been waiting for YEARS to come had FINALLY arrived, even if nintendo/monolith did it in a way that i thought was disrespectful in that it was just randomly dropped and not part of any nintendo direct. to my absolute horror, when they showed what elma looked like, it felt like i had been punched in the face. sure i was getting the xcx switch port/remake that i had been DYING to see and bitching about to anyone that would listen, but my excitement quickly turned into despair at seeing just what they had done to one of my all-time favorite characters ever. and thankfully judging from other people’s reactions with good taste, i was not the only that thought just how OFF and honestly at times even UGLY her new mim face looks compared to her wii u mim (thank you to those folks out there because i seriously thought i was just being my typical supreme hater self). and it’s just baffling because i thought everyone else’s redesign looked ok or even better than in the wii u version (minus the fact that they made celica’s ears waaaay smaller because monolith are fucking cowards and god forbid her long ears make her look unappealing), but they decided to fuck around with elma’s face/hair even more than others and just make her look so fucking unpleasing to look at.

and it might sound like i’m overreacting but honestly seeing elma’s face in some of the cutscenes was just painful to watch for me, it was the ONLY thing that was keeping me from enjoying this remake to its fullest, so much so that (and i’m not joking) after pretty much every cutscene that would heavily feature elma, i would go to youtube and look up the same cutscene but in the wii u version just so that i can cleanse my eyes and remember just how good she looked. because honestly her wii u mim form was and is STILL GOOD, but no of course they had to fuck up her face features to fit in that awful new style that they have been pushing since xc2 came out because god forbid they try to have a unique style like with xc1 and the original xcx.

so of course i was completely BAFFLED. SHOCKED. but pleasantly surprised!! when elma reveals her true form in chapter 12 and….she LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE WII U TRUE FORM ELMA. bro. WHAT???? WHAT??????? yeah i was beyond fucking THRILLED: the moment i had been dreading for the entire ch1-12 playthrough was that elma would reveal her true form and it would look just as fucked up as her mim version. but no, they THANKFULLY left it completely alone and just used the EXACT same face model as the wii u version but just upped the graphics a bit to fit with the remake. like, WHY. WHY couldn’t they do the same thing to her mim form?? the facial differences between her DE mim form and true form are just staggering when compared to the wii u. they just had to fuck up a perfectly good mim elma for no reason other than….i don’t fucking know honestly. even her xc2 form looks better than whatever the hell they decided to do for xcxde, and i HATE the styling direction they went with xc2 overall so that just says a lot that i’d be willing to take xc2 mim elma over xcxde mim elma.

but i was like ok, if my BIGGEST complaint with xcxde is the fact that her mim form is just terribly unpleasing to look at, i can live with that because now that i can use her true form in-game, i don’t have to want to cry out in despair every time a cutscene zooms up on elma’s face. i can now do chapter 13 and enjoy the cutscenes at least, and then, after that’s said and done, i could continue to 100% the exploration of my beautiful and beloved planet mira that i just love to no end. sure i had been hearing from two people thus far that the new chapter was bad, but really, how bad could it be? i felt nothing with xc2’s ending and honestly was ambivalent about xc3’s future redeemed as well. like i was just so over the connectivity between the games at that point and how they were doing some bullshit cinematic universe across all xenoblades instead of them being standalone games like the tales of series and to an extent the zelda games. all i wanted was to find out what they would do with the cliffhanger at the end of the original game and find out really truly what it was about this planet.

but man i was so wrong. so so so so so beyond wrong. because really the ugly about xcxde, a game in which 90% of it is so perfect and gorgeous to enjoy, is chapter 13. all of it, absolutely all of it, is just tedious, uninteresting, exhausting, eye-roll inducing, baffling, ANNOYING, and an absolute fucking pain to experience. if you’re an xc2/xc3 enjoyer, you might wanna stop reading here if anyone actually had the patience and interest in getting this far. :)

actually, before i dive in to everything that i absolutely despised about this sorry-excuse of a chapter that just seems to be a monolithsoft’s senior executive shitty ass fanfic that they forced upon everyone, let me talk about a few things that i DID enjoy

new true form elma artwork along with a glimpse at elma’s planet and origins. in act 1 when they’re talking about elma’s planet, we get some cool new artwork of true form elma that just honestly blew me away. i was like wow, ok, maybe ch13 won’t be so bad. i’m glad they talked about elma’s planet a little bit and how it is that she escaped, because although in the original xcx they talk about how elma comes to the planet to warn about the war that will come to destroy earth, it was interesting (and honestly sad) to learn that her planet had been destroyed and so was trying to avoid the humans from suffering the same fate as her people. cus honestly i just thought she was just some benevolent alien that had come to help the humans have a chance of survival. and i mean yeah she’s still all of that but now with the added fact that we get a further look into what she suffered through was just compelling and added a layer to a character i already deeply love.

hearing lin and elma again. hey i’ll take the small wins. hearing lin and elma’s original VAs come back and give a performance that honestly sounded like no time had passed between ch12 and ch13 was just so good and pleasing to hear. what a fantastic pair of characters with stellar VAs to match. #blessed

omomo makes an appearance in act 2. i ran into omomo in ch1-12 while exploring sylvalum and her dialogue, which briefly discusses who she is and why she is at the north delusion summit (one of the coolest places in sylvalum imo) captivated me. i was like wow, this is what i fucking love about xcx where even a random npc you bump into in the overworld is able to convey a short yet emotional story on their own. so it was really cool and satisfying to see that they used her in act 2 when you’re trying to evacuate all of the xenoforms into the manon ship.

absolutely no forced romance between elma and al. honestly what i was most afraid of when al first shows up and elma’s attitude towards him is that of a resentful partner that was abandoned by her significant other and thus has to continue the fight for humanity’s survival alone without their help. ever since xc2 this series has loved to push male and female protags together in a way that just feels unsatisfying and forced, so of course when i see this conventionally attractive joe shmoe come out of nowhere and elma is being so cold and resentful towards him, i immediately felt weirded out. elma isn’t a very emotional character to begin with, and even when the most crucial moment in the story comes where they find the lifehold core and have to fight a horde of ganglion to get to it, she remains as calm and collected as ever. i mean, we’re talking about the moment that she and humanity have been fighting for all this time: survival in planet mira. but she still stays level-headed, and i think the only moment in the game we briefly see her lose her cool is when she’s pointing the gun at lao and is telling lin to get out of the way.

i mean sure she later warms up to him and we get some flashback scenes of elma crying out in desperation trying to convince al to not sacrifice himself in the fight against the ghosts and so we see that she deeply cares for him. and then even in the ending when al is rescued from void’s clutches, we once again see elma (and lin) get very emotional and teary-eyed that he’s (to my despair) still alive. this is honestly the moment i thought she was gonna give him a kiss or even a hug, but to my delightful surprise, monolithsoft had the decency to just leave it at that. i was so worn out and fed up by having to slog through rex/pyra and mio/noah when playing through xc2/xc3 that i honestly would have fucking lost it and burned my copy of xcxde right then and there if they had decided to push their friendship (for my mental sake i will choose to read it that way) beyond that.

and thank fucking god that’s where the extent of the relationship between the two of them stopped, because, and to start getting into everything else that i despised about chapter 13, al is just one of the worst aspects of chapter 13. i have my problems with rex, but in the end to me he’s just a stupid annoying kid (and later an obnoxious man), and i didn’t like noah for several reasons but he was tolerable and i didn’t outright despise him when playing through xc3, just again felt annoyed at his interactions and reactions with the rest of the xc3 characters. but al? god where do i even begin with this insufferable excuse of a male protagonist that seems like that same senior executive at monolithsoft forced their own incredibly obnoxious, unappealing, condescending, unfunny, detestable OC to become a central point in this new chapter.

like do i even have to talk about how fucking annoying and not funny his whole “how’s it poppin’” act is or can we all agree that’s just a given? who the HELL thought giving such an aggravating catchphrase and “inside-joke” to the new guy was gonna go over well? actually what am i talking about, this is the same franchise whose fans loved xc2 so i’m sure there’s people out there who just find this whole terrible marvel-like humor so funny and is going to be such a great inside-joke for the xcxde community “har “har”. god it was especially so grating when the whole gang is just standing in a circle and they’re going around being like “oh! oh! ask ME the question so i can have my turn running this so-called joke fucking further into the ground!” and those forced laugh tracks after each one? what the hell? at least with lin’s tatsu jokes we would get them spaced out and it was just something between the two of them, they certainly weren’t having elma or hell even MY cross join in on the “joke” and forced to become a part of it.

like the fact that this whole rehearsed act becomes a central part of al’s interactions with others and actually builds up for it to be an attempted heartfelt moment when they give you no choice at the end but to fucking say the line in order to “bond” with al and have both of you pilot the ares prime to defeat the big evil baddie, is just…….bewildering. it took away any potential serious emotional impact that scene could have had and it was just in my personal opinion ruined by monolithsoft’s insistence in making this gag so relevant in the story. and having the colonel also join in on the whole thing? oh boy.

“oh but dany it’s just one silly recurring gag, al doesn’t sound that bad then!” i WAS trying to be more open to al’s character despite this annoying joke, but his first affinity mission just took away any possibility i had at even remotely liking his character. usually affinity missions would always make me go from being indifferent towards a character to getting to actually like that character and being like, ok, you know what, you’re pretty cool! happened with yelv, neilnail (i was a bit iffy towards her at first but grew to like her by her second affinity mission), hope, frye and phog, and even fucking hb who is even more arrogant than al! but fucking al’s affinity mission? first of all, the fact that he insists on calling elma, aka the fucking colonel that everyone rightfully respects because hello she’s the whole fucking reason they’ve managed to be alive so far, “princess” is just disgusting, condescending, patronizing, and just….what the fuck? might be a localization issue, but seriously, is no one else bothered by that?? what??? at first i thought i had missed something in elma’s backstory in act1 where she actually might have possibly mentioned that she was something of a royalty (because honestly just playing through chapter13 was giving me headache), but no, this fucking asshole really does call elma “princess” as an attempt to what? be funny? another one of his fucking annoying-ass jokes? like bro, just shut up. if there’s one way to make me hate a male character is by giving female characters patronizing nicknames like that. just fuck off.

and then the affinity mission actually consists in al being like, YO, prove yourself to me because i don’t actually believe you’re as good as elma says, as if we have anything to prove to this asshole. they really did manage to show his most insufferable and loathsome side instead of showing a side that would actually get you to warm up to him like many other affinity missions have. and then when you beat his stupid ass he’s like “actually no you still failed to pass my test by some arbitrary measure that only i know about”. like the whole affinity mission makes it seem like you’re going to be al’s successor, they talk about him needing someone to “take over his duty” as if he’s gonna somehow die or that cross actually needs to step it up to the plate (more than we already have? lol), but like no dude. you’re still alive at the end so what was even the point of making such a big deal about finding al’s successor?

and thank god i didn’t waste my time playing through chapter 13 by actually trying to raise his affinity to be able to do his second affinity mission, because i just looked it up some moments ago and oh boy. you mean to tell me that this guy, that supposedly everyone loves because he’s some bigshot hero who came from the army and is the “chosen one” to pilot the ares prime, actually becomes some tantrum-throwing big baby when poor little hero boy can’t get some pizza and so he decides to actually insult service workers and yells at them in the same condescending tone until he gets what he wants???? hooooow. how is this real. how is this a character my cross is supposed to grow close to. he tries to relay the job of gathering the ingredients for HIS pizza to you and even at the end tries to take credit for the whole thing even though you helped him with it. whatfucking ever. i know every “hero” character has his flaws but my god. just can’t believe this is the route they decided to go with in regards to his affinity missions. talk about wasted potential. yes he talks about how much love he has for humanity and how if he sets a goal he pursuits it to no end and all these other “hero” qualities but like…..ok cool talk bro, you’re still annoying to deal with.

one other thing i didn’t like about how the game approaches your interactions with him is that, the game choices really try to either really really get you to like him to the point of fawning over him, OR for some reason push you to glare at him with envy. like nah, i’m not envious of this obnoxious hero, i just find him fucking annoying lol. thanks though.

and speaking of hero, and this might just me being bitter at this point about this joe shmoe, but i thought it was….hmmm….actually kind of bothersome how everyone is hailing him as the big hero when…really if it wasn’t for elma and her efforts, all these people would be dead and there would be no humans to speak of. yes i know others recognize that even in act1 where doug says that if it weren’t for elma they wouldn’t be alive, but idk i always saw elma as the main protagonist of xcx and our cross just riding along so seeing this self-insert OC come in and take all the glory for something that’s mentioned in half a sentence in the original xcx intro (that i always imagined was elma tbh?) and thus become the new focal point of this new story (when again elma is the focal point in ch1-12) just rubbed me the wrong way and was just not a good start for me towards taking a liking towards al, so i guess he was doomed from the start for me. so actually you know what, maybe i AM envious of him, but of the screentime he took from elma lol.

anyway enough about that tiresome oc, i don’t know how much i wanna spend time talking about the new villain void. like his motivations was about wanting to find out what death really is because he was imprisoned by the samaar for fucking around with the conduit and bringing the ghosts to appear. lol ok i’m sorry am i supposed feel SORRY for him?? ch13 did something that i aaaaabsolutely despise in storytelling: waiting to tell you about a villain’s background and motivations after they’re dead in an attempt to humanize him. the last game i played that did this was tales of arise and i absolutely loathed it. what’s the point of you telling me what his origin was and where his motivations come from when i already killed him and he was fucking annoying to deal with the whole entire time. by this point i don’t care, he’s dead and i’m glad he’s gone. if you want to humanize a villain and make his death seem tragic, idk maybe try to do that THROUGHOUT the story’s arc so that his motivations aren’t a fucking afterthought??? it was so fucking when al is like “oh by the way i got this vision of void while i was trapped check it out” like monolith come the fuck onnnnnn you can do better than thaaaat.

his whole final form and fight was just stupid too, reminded me of xc3’s and how i was just so tired by the time it happened. i was so over void by that point that i didn’t find him scary or threatening at all, compared to what i felt when i first fought luxaar in his vita: this is the villain that really wants to end humanity at all costs. but void? just a bunch of big talk and taunting but just so overdone and childish. for being an all-powerful being or whateverthefuck he really was just standing there as he was being stabbed over and over by huge lances that were diminishing his power and going “oughh!!! my cores!!! :( “ each time he’d get hit. like. oh my god. i can’t believe i actually played through this.

honestly who cares about void, i don’t want to spend more than two paragraphs on him. i’ll just end it with saying that void was an overall unappealing, uninteresting, tedious villain, and yet another eyeroll-inducing aspect of ch13. execution just fell so flat for me. moving on!

one thing i don't think i HATED but just more like weirded me the hell out was...idk like i mentioned above, personally i always saw our cross as just another blade member who yeah sure had become famous around in the organization but we're still just a member in elma's team and we're not some big hotshot hero like they're trying to portray joe shmoe above. i mean, we barely even interact in the main story cutscenes, and when we do it's not really focused on cross. hell, our cross (as far as i can recall) doesn't even say anything during the last big cutscene with elma's reveal and certainly doesn't even appear when they're going into the database. and it's fine, like i said i always saw elma as the protagonist and we're just here for the ride to help in any way we can. which is kinda cool cus i don't think i've ever played another game like it!

but then in ch13...like...yeah of course they introduce mr big hero over here and the story now all revolves around him, but now monolith is like, trying to be like no no no you're also important in the story see! let's make you have all these interactions with this joe shmoe and have you prove yourself to him and omg you're gonna be the next big hero of the story and take up his mantle! when that was...never really even necessary to prove in ch1-12? like idk why they felt to push our cross so much into the spotlight towards the end there of us piloting the ares prime and then having us show off our crazy skell piloting and combat skills and omg oh no our cross is pulling a joe shmoe by fighting all these ghosts themselves! like...what. i mean, i thought it looked cool but...it felt so disjointed with how our cross blended in the story in ch1-12? like personally that just felt so out of character (lol) to me and was just monolith trying to overcompensate for having introduced one of the most obnoxious male characters in the game so they're like well we have to have cross do some cool shit so it's not all about joe shmoe when that was never a problem when it was all about elma (which tbh i don't even think the main story focuses THAT much on elma, she's just the leader) or even lao when he helps in stabbing luxaar. but no, GOD FORBID Xenoblade X tries to do something different from the numbered games in which your character isn't necessarily in the spotlight in the story and cutscenes because that was never the point to begin with!! just....yet another...incoherent follow-up that is chapter 13.

and now for the pacing of it all. i don’t know how to even begin talking about this aspect because, while yes there were some bits that were interesting (elma��s backstory for example), even though the arcs themselves were long in comparison to ch1-12’s story missions, i felt like….there was barely even anything interesting or engaging going on most of the time? the arcs are so cutscene heavy because of course they have to set the stage of the new problem the gang is facing, and everyone is talking about oh we have to evacuate all the xenoforms onto the manon ship and also make preparations for the ship to be able to escape using ares’s cores, so there is very little if any gameplay in itself during acts 1 and 2. i just felt like the arcs just dragged on and on and on with just filler that ultimately provided very little satisfaction to the overall storytelling. maybe it’s so jarring because, like i mentioned, the original story missions aren’t THIS cutscene heavy, and they’re way shorter in comparison, but provide much more compelling content and interesting content in between, while all three acts are just filled with URGENT we have to save this manon! and now for some al hijinks :) and now for some backstory! hey now go rescue these two random NPCs! idk the whole thing just seemed off to me and i was just NOT enjoying the pacing of it all.

and i was just baffled by the whole thing because, of course the question that any original xenoblade x had in mind was, just WHAT is it about the planet? that’s what we had been waiting to find out since 2015 and….the fact we don’t see ch13 even start to address what could be done to find out more about this was just weird! are we ever gonna get to find out what makes mira so special?

oh right. there was no time to address the biggest aspect fans had been waiting for all this time of course. because right away, your main mission starting within one minute of act 1 starting is to get out of the fucking planet you’ve come to know and love since it’s about to fucking disappear.

sigh.

you know, i could have just accepted the new unlikable hero, i could have accepted the uninteresting and tiresome new villain and its poor way of talking about its motivations, i could have been fine with the new acts dragging on and on and on and just the weird pacing of it all, i could have been fine with of course them wanting to SOMEHOW tie xenoblade x to the numbered games because god knows everything has to be tied nowadays, but here’s the part that hurts the most as an original xcx fan and the part that finally put the nail on the coffin on chapter13:

planet mira’s fate. how. hooooow do you base an entire game’s premise (both story and gameplay) around such a beautiful, unique planet and decide, you know what, FUCK the fans and their affection towards this planet, mira needs to die because who gives a shit about finding more about its many mysteries we left unsolved in the original game. like, did this new monolithsoft senior executive come in and be like, you know what, my self-insert OC had no hand in helping humanity build a new life in mira and new la, so let’s just throw all of it away and make them move to a NEW planet! honestly i just have to make up some villain in my head at this point because how do i even begin to start making sense of it???

it’s honestly a fucking insult and a spit on every original xcx fan’s face. first of all, the whole game puts SOOOO much emphasis on exploring every single corner of mira and mapping it all out and discovering its secrets. it’s unreal seeing just how much love and care the original developers put into creating such a fantastic otherworldy environment, giving us an experience that i honestly think no other game has been able to even come CLOSE to replicating because let’s be honest, you just take one look at noctilum or sylvalum and you just fucking fall in love with the whole damn planet. the game is always boasting about mira being humanity’s new home and so of course you come to love it and grow fond of it. you WANT to explore every single corner and install all of those data probes! the game incites you to complete its exploration to 100% because this is your new home! you have to get to know it! even elma says she wants to take a vacation to explore mira on her own time because the planet fascinates her to no end!

and there’s so much mystery surrounding it too, even before you get to the infamous cliffhanger at the end. elma points out in an early chapter how it’s weird that you’re able to communicate with all sorts of different species in English even though obviously you all come from different places. other NPCs point this out as well. so what is in the planet that is able to translate their words? professor B’s sidequests also talk about him wanting to discover mira’s secrets and that’s why he stays in this…current time and doesn’t go back to the future or whatever. and of course elma’s now-famous quote of “something about this planet” that gets repeated at least three times throughout the whole game. like, there’s so much build up scattered through ch1-12 regarding mira that, when you finally get to the cliffhanger at the end and you find out that the whole database has been destroyed since they landed on mira and it makes absolutely no sense that they haven’t flopped over and died.

so yeah, so many interesting and compelling things about mira left to answer that it’s just INFURIATING and OUTRAGEOUS for monolithsoft to just ignore ALL of that buildup, all of that worldbuilding, to just come in and be like “yeah actually we’re not gonna answer ANY of that, we don’t know WHAT the fuck we were thinking when we kept emphasizing it was something about the planet mira itself and so we’re just gonna create these convoluted, unsatisfying, rushed acts to get you to come to terms that you need to forget all about that and blow up the planet ‘cus we sure as hell are not gonna expand properly on what actually was the biggest, most intriguing cliffhanger in the series”.

like. what. WHAT. seriously??? is this REALLY what the original xcx team had planned for mira’s fate all of those years ago when the cliffhanger first happened? i REFUSE to believe that the same team that worked on the original xcx is the same team that worked on this fucking mess of a poorly-written start-over fanfic bullshit. and if it is, maybe it’s time i stop giving this company my money because obviously after xcx, this company has just lost the charm and wonder that originally made me fall in love with the original xc1 and xcx. like haha yeah just kidding, there really was nothing about the planet and instead you all live on cus of the abyss…or the rift…or whatever the fuck holds all of your souls and that’s why you get to live on! like i think that was briefly talked about and then never touched again and i might have misunderstood but whatever, who gives a fuck? certainly not monolithsoft.

because WHAT is it with monolith’s obsession with going like “haha never mind! let’s just start over in a new world!” they did it with xc1 which fine whatever first game in the series, but then again in xc3, and now xcx?? the whole time playing chapter13 i kept foolishly thinking that somehow we would come back to mira cus it’s like lol, NO WAY they will do the whole “let’s start over!” for the THIRD time in the series and ruin one of THE most beautiful and unique aspects of the game. i even wasn’t making a big deal of omomo wanting to stay in mira and the other dude obsessed with mira’s lifeforms because i was like, haha no worries guy, somehow we will undo these dematerialization events and mira will be safe at last! ← not delusional at all. little did i know. little did i know that monolith has just gone off the deep end and they really would rather blow it all up than actually take some time to further elaborate on their original concept because god knows they’ve lost their magic touch for compelling storytelling/worldbuilding and can only think of one (1) way to end their games now apparently: just start over!

and it’s like, somehow they tried to have their cake and eat it too or at least (shittily) appease some of the fans with being like “haha no worries guys, we can find a way to preserve mira’s life and replicate it in the new world by just going over to each region and inspecting this one specific form to copy aaalllll of the lifeforms data!! haha isn’t that neat?” excuse me are you guys fucking dumb, what’s to say that they will even be able to survive in a new planet??? what the hell?? yeah just briefly inspect these datapoints and boom, problem solved!!! how fucking lazy could they have gotten with this? and that “new” planet that they find at the end? look i don’t know if it’s some planet that’s already established in the xeno series (i honestly don’t care), but how is it that they say hey look a new planet, that’s our new home :) ? like, yeah sure let me just go out into the universe and try to establish life in the first fucking random planet i find. jfc.

after SO MANY years of foolishly and anticipatedly waiting for a continuation to one of the most interesting cliffhangers i’ve ever had the pleasure to experience in a video game, monolith comes out and spits on, stomps on, and burns to ashes the world and lore the original xcx fans grew to love and care for all these years. and for what? to appeal to the horde of fans that came with xc2 onwards?? but of fucking course, they have no attachment to the game or the lore or the planet, so they're fine with just blowing it all up and pretending mira never existed. and i'm sorry but how are any new fans anyway enjoying this ending in any shape or form lol like what? just cus they got that fucking unnecessary tie-in to the numbered games? oh wow yay yippee they've connected dots that weren't originally meant to be connected anyway, time to eat this slop up!! i would be baffled to find out if there are any self-respecting original xcx fans out there who are actually okay with how things ended up for mira.

the one thing that had been nagging in the back of my mind the ENTIRE time that i was enjoying and having a blast with exploring mira again was that somehow, someway, ch13’s conclusion would take away my immense desire to finally 100% mira’s exploration. i didn’t even come close to it when i originally played in the wii u, and how could i call myself a huge xenoblade x fan if i have never even 100%’d mira? that’s why i was trying to take my sweet time with the original content, because it’s so fucking good and i didn’t want the new content to ruin it for me. but man, never did it even CROSS my mind that mira fucking disappearing would be something that monolith would even dare to do and call it a “conclusion” to one of the greatest mysteries in the series.

so yeah, last night when i completed ch13 i was fucking sad, i was DEVASTATED at what these idiots did to one of my ultimate favorite games and one of its unique aspects that i had come to love so much: planet mira itself. biggest "fuck you" i've ever seen to the original xcx fans that had just been waiting for a decent answer to "something about this planet" for all these years. but just like that monolithsoft senior executive can write his shitty little fanfic and call it a day, i am now choosing to ignore chapter 13 ever happened. to me, xenoblade x ends with chapter 12, just like it did originally all those years ago. ch13 talks about parallel universes? well, xenoblade x wii u lives in one of those parallel universes and the gang all lived happily ever after in planet mira, and elma finally got to take her long-awaited vacation to explore the world to her heart’s content.

i REFUSE to let a company’s fall from grace in my eyes destroy a game that i’ve come to love and treasure with all of my heart. i WILL 100% the game in the switch version, and then i will put it away and never touch it again. while playing and moaning about DE mim elma, i kept thinking that once i 100% the switch version, if i ever do want to replay xcx (which i will, because xcx is life), i will just do it in the wii u version. sure i will lose all of the QOL updates, but i will gain good mim elma, long-eared celica, and i will be able to continue post-chapter 12 knowing there isn’t any insulting additional story mission content waiting to be picked up. and i think that’s a fair exchange.

ok wow i need to wrap this up. i have other problems with ch13 that i could talk about but those were the major ones that made it a pain to get through and honestly i need to move on and forget it ever happened. if you somehow chose to read all of this, made it all the way through this rant and actually agreed with the points i made regarding ch13, then wow, thank you. i am hugging you and giving you a gentle kiss on the forehead.

so yeah, i still have a lot of love left to give to the original xcx fandom. there are still so many drawings i still want to do to pour out and express my love for the original game and world. i’m so tired of giving money to a company whose games and new content i haven’t enjoyed since the original xcx game released. unless their next game isn't more anime shonen generic slop meant to attract the widest audience possible who will just eat anything up no matter how horrible it is, i think i'm done with monolithsoft games for now. they can continue down this unsatisfying and tiresome path of storytelling in their games as much as they want, i will just continue to be in that fun little corner of the original xc1/xcx fandom since those are the games that captured my heart all those years ago.

alright, that felt good to finally get it all out. now to start working on my next xcx piece. man i love xenoblade chronicles x so fucking much.

#xcxde dany thoughts #xenoblade chronicles x #xcx #xenoblade #character hate #xcxde criticism #junk #ch13 ceases to exist in my eyes starting....now 🫰✨#now the healing can truly begin 🧎‍♀️#xc2 criticism #xc3 criticism

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writersdrug · 2 years ago

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hehe hi! anon here! didn’t know what you wanted in terms of request but 😭 how about like a comfort request? i’ve just had a pretty bad academic related experience, so maybe head-canons of any character of your choosing for comfort?

Ooooh I like this a lottt.... of course I'll be using the CoD boys, but I might throw some random ones in here too, be prepared lol. Thanks for the request!!!

SORRY THIS IS SO LATE OMGGGGG

CoD 141 Headcannons: Comforting You through a Rough Academic Period

Simon "Ghost" Riley:

He wasn't really the academic type, so he couldn't entirely understand why you let yourself agonize so much over your studies.

But he respected the fact that you were working so hard to achieve your goals. Something he never got to do often for himself, since most of his job was just following orders.

He would sit there and watch as you sat, neck stuck out towards your computer and your back hunched. He'd sigh, moving behind you to roll out your back, wincing as it popped.

"Christ, love - get up and walk around for a second, yeah?"

"I'm almost done with this module, just let m-"

"Up. Now." He'd order you to move, but would drag you out of your seat whether you started to move or not. "You'll get stuck if you sit like that for too long, looking like an old man."

"Like you?"

"Oi!!"

Simon would practice your flashcards with you, although he wouldn't be very helpful. He'd just shake his head when you got the answer wrong, not bothering to help you find it.

"... is it the femur?"

"No."

"... the tibia?"

"Nope. Try again."

"Can I get a hint?"

"No."

"..."

He knew to NOT distract you when you were on a roll. He can manage keeping himself busy while you studied, doing his own work or helping with chores around the apartment.

He knew, from experience, how easy it was to forget to take care of yourself - so he did it for you. He brought you water every time you emptied your cup. He would bring you snacks periodically, or he would cook a meal for the both of you. He'd sit and eat with you, not making any conversation so he doesn't distract you.

"Anything you need, love, just tell me."

If he caught you getting distracted, whether you would glaze over what you were reading, or your conversation with him would go just a bit too long, he would redirect you back to your work.

"Finish that bit and then take a break with me."

Johnny "Soap" MacTavish:

He hated the fact that all of your time was being consumed by something other than him. When he would walk out of your bedroom first thing in the morning and see you bent over the table with your laptop and notebook, he would groan internally. He'd rather you be be bent over the table for him.

But he remembered how often you waited for him while he was deployed, so he patiently waited for you.

Well, as patient as he possibly could be.

After about three hours, you'd be the one lecturing him, telling him to go watch tv or go out and do something so you could finish. Every now and then, he'd only agree to leaving you alone if you would promise to go out to dinner with him, whether it was casual or fancy. After agreeing - and several kisses for convincing - he'd let you be.

"Wear your favorite jeans, ok?" he'd say.

"You mean your favorite jeans?"

"... yeah." he'd smile ear-to-ear.

He would stand behind you, his head resting on top of yours, his hands gently massaging your shoulders as he read along to the biochemistry textbook you had on your screen.

"Shite, hen, you studying to be a fucking wizard? What is all that keech?"

He'd constantly throw passive-aggressive praises at you, saying how you're so strong for sticking with your studies, and how he would have given up after looking at the first page.

"You gonna remember me when you're up there with the brainy blokes?"

"Of course I will, you're helping me pay for this."

"For feck's sake, I forgot 'bout that."

More than once, when you dropped your head down in frustration, he would walk over and hold it back up towards the screen.

If you studied in your bed or on the couch, he would sometimes lay with his head in your lap, wrapping his arms around your thighs with a tired pout on his lips.

"Hold me when you're finished with that, yeah?"

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick

He admired your determination to get your degree - he felt a sense of pride every time he saw you studying, especially on the days where it was particularly hard for you.

He was your #1 supporter, constantly encouraging you, praising you, and helping you see what your working towards. He'd be carrying you through the lows of your emotions, making sure you didn't feel hopeless.

"Of course you got this, babe, you're so fucking smart!"

While you were reading the module in the textbook, he'd be looking up videos on his phone about the subject, watching it on the lowest volume so as not to disturb you.

He'll sit on the floor with you, your notes strewn everywhere, listening to you talk about the subject you're working on. He'd do his best to engage in conversation with you about it, hoping that it helps you retain the information better.

Truth be told, he doesn't know much about the subject, but he's just happy to help. He'd let you vent about your current frustrations.

"It says that this piece is in 3-4..." you'd mumble.

"Yeah?" he'd reply, not sure where you were looking at on the page in front of you, but doing his best to follow along.

"... and that this one is in 4-4 too, but each note is made up of triplets."

"Triplets?!"

"Yes! And THIS one is 2-4, ALSO with triplets!! They all sound the same!!"

"How the fuck are they different?!"

"You tell me!!"

You knew he wasn't sure what you were talking about, but that he knew what you needed - a shoulder. And he always provided you with that, no matter what kind of day he'd had.

He'd encourage you with snacks, going through your flashcards with you and tossing you a pretzel every time you got one right.

"Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' starts off in a blank chord."

"Melancholic?"

"Close, but try again. Think simpler."

"... minor?"

"There you go." he'd toss you a pretzel from across the couch.

Captain John Price:

Mans goes full dad-mode when helping you study.

He has a week away from missions? You'd best believe he's spending it at the dinner table with you. He'd work on his own things, sitting next to you, while you study.

He had a no-phone rule at the table while you worked. At first you whined and fidgeted with your hands, itching to check your phone for any form of distraction. Eventually, you gave up, diving into your studies as Price smiled smugly.

Like Simon, he'd be bringing you snacks and water throughout the day. Lots of shoulder massages, scalp massages, and stretch breaks (he'd try to participate, until he'd strain his back too much).

If he notices you struggling, evident in the way you scowl and grip your hair near the scalp, he'd sit right beside you and try to help you understand the material.

Unless it was math. He couldn't stand math.

"What's that?"

"That's mu."

"Come again?"

"It's a Greek letter, it represents the population mean."

"English, love."

"N-no, it's Greek!"

"Huh?!"

"Never mind, John, I got it from here." You'd kiss his cheek, thankful for the moment of amusement he'd provided. He'd continue staring at the screen, grumbling about how ridiculous math had become over the years.

For at least one of your breaks, he'd insist on taking you for a walk. You'd stroll around the neighborhood, basking in the chilly Autumn air mixed with Price's warm arm around yours. As hard as it was for him to drag you out of the house, you were thankful for his stubbornness to get you moving. The pace of the walk and the sound of the atmosphere around you helped clear your head of any frustration and brain fog. You'd close your eyes and lean your head against Price's shoulder, trusting him to take the lead.

A day spent studying was rewarded with an hour or two either in front of the tv, lying in Price's embrace, or the two of you just sitting on the cough together, having a conversation free of your school subjects. Most of the time, you'd fall asleep before him, and he'd let you lie there for a minute before he'd carry you to bed.

"Try not to work yourself too hard, love. Y' need to be strong for me tomorrow."

#cod #gaz x reader #kyle gaz garrick #ghost x reader #simon ghost riley #ghost #gaz #price x reader #john price x reader #john price #soap x reader #johnny soap mactavish #141 x reader #141 headcanons #soap

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