#your bad experience does not inform what the story is actually saying

[zan0tix]

May I just say I really really appreciate your approach to and respect for the transfemininity embedded in Homestuck. Like the fact that you depict Jake as a kind of "genderfuck" (for lack of a better word) character without trying to divorce that from transfemininity as so many others do, as well as being able to depict Roxy with certain clocky characteristics without disregarding her femininity or making it feel fetish-y, is all really admirable in my eyes. It gets extremely frustrating seeing large swathes of the fandom constantly trying to separate the story of Homestuck from transfemininity despite it having a transfem enby author, so I really appreciate that you don't shy away from it in your art :)

I am so glad!!!!! Its something ive Always noticed in like every fandom since i first got onto the internet the disparity between the amount of transfems i knew vs how often their story got to be uplifted in fandom spaces or get to be celebrated how transmascs did considering how queer dominated they are but then i grew up and realised how badly male centric queer spaces are too😭

Homestuck is one of the spaces that has a big amount of transfems openly engaging in fandom activities and that makes me really happy to see! since i often see gross rhetoric from transmascs or cis women about fandom spaces abt “who is allowed” and “fandom being a safe space” cough blatant transmisogyny (sobs everywhere its so bad)

I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW PPL BRUSH PAST HUSSIE BEING TRANS SO OFTEN ISNT THAT INSANE. To me it reframes homestuck how the creators of the matrix being trans does. Like I dunno maybe that informed the works presentation of gender somehow. Maybe all the commentary and critique and displays of frustration at the contradictory nature of gender but especially trying to fit “being a man” in society came from somewhere when they were writing it 🤔🤔🤔 hussie said it herself that alot of homestuck was just stream of consciousness. Everything that comes out of daves mouth near the end seemed very plausible to be a reflection of hussies own journey realising that Actually these boundaries of what defines A Good Man and A Good Woman are ridiculous and no person can possibly live up to that no matter what were told from birth.

But i try my best to reflect the innate transfemininity of homestuck and the majority of its cast, its something integral to the works themes and just the community who built it! It saddens me how skittish other transmascs are about engaging with or portraying the transfeminine stories when its just. Practically textual. And all you need to do is Listen and empathise. I love learning how other feminine people see themselves in this story like how often do you get such a menagerie of in depth fem characters. And i love seeing what the experiences transfems see echoed in homestuck are because its all such insightful stuff About femininity and its beauty and its ills all at once. Roxy..kanaya.. wipes tear from my eye.

I want to actively include and celebrate transfem features and bodies as much as transmasc ones get to be around here and i am glad my jake and roxy do feel that way 🥹🥹 my aim with my designs is to make them feel like some everyday people youd see, no fetishisation/sexualisation or demonisation, just Existing and appreciating. Because i know how much it can mean to see yourself in something and for that to be treated with care and kindness. Its why i create in the first place! Because of how others creations gave me that comfort when i couldnt find it elsewhere

I feel similarly about how people portray fat women or just like. Women in general. its sad how badly the whole sexualisation = acceptance warps how people portray things fatness or transfem features. Never ever saying these things arent hot or sexy or to be appreciated. Duh. I think how i portray jake says enough abt what i think of that LOL just that It feels like its the only way people try and show theyre accepting? Which just feels so gross and dehumanising the only way they think to display they feel empathy is through saying “Yeah i can get off to people like you”😭

Rlly bad in society in general so also in the homestuck space. Worlds hardest challenge is liking the alpha kids. Im so sorry for what they do to you jane and roxy🥲🥲🥲 Its baffling because Homestuck is Prime Example Numero Uno of how to humanise characters. Just display them being people; their thoughts, their feelings, their insecurities, their passions, their woes, their loves, their losses. So much can be communicated through how a character speaks with their friends.

I wana do that for jake and roxy! They get to be dimensional too! I like showing their laughs and their sorrows, just them Existing with the people around them. They get to be a part of the lighthearted comedy just as the rest of them do. They get to be a part of all the gender and sexuality insanity going on in their friend group, can point out their flaws and mistakes and insecurities. I dunno its rlly not that hard to just empathise with them and want to tell their stories.

I am so invested in the raw unabashed Humanity of homestuck. Its just one person pouring their brain contents into this huge thing and it displays the best and the worst and the absurdity and the questions. Its so interesting and hussies transness IS JUST BAKED INTO IT. Thus the characters contain that too and it kinda stinks of transmisogyny to throw that out!

YAPPING TOO MUCH OMG but i rlly appreciate this ask🫶🫶🫶makes me so happy to hear

[oatmealaddiction]

Okay but the weirdest thing about the whole "Brotherhood is better you should skip 03" discourse that's become commonplace now, it sort of forgets the world Brotherhood came out in and why you should watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist. When Brotherhood came out, the original Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the most beloved and most watched animes of all time. Brotherhood assumes you the audience have already seen it because of course you have, everyone has seen it, so it skips important information and speeds the story up because it doesn't want to bore you with things you already know. Have you ever wondered "hey why does the first episode of Brotherhood kind of suck, and why am I being introduced to like 50 new characters, and why are they acting like I know what the hell an alchemist is?" It's because Brotherhood thinks you've seen 03.

The first 7 or so episodes of Brotherhood constitute dozens of chapters in the manga, and the first 25 or so episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nina Tucker episode in Brotherhood, in FMA 03 takes up nearly three episodes. Yoki gets a backstory in 03 and it's genuinely one of the best episodes and taken directly from the manga and Brotherhood glosses over it because: duh, you've already seen it. And so if you skip the original you miss out on dozens of really great character building episodes like Ed and Al meeting Hughes for the first time and getting to spend a whole episode helping him free a train from terrorists, or Ed and Roy having a duel that expands on the relationship they have, or episodes where the brothers just help out random people in towns before the major story gets going.

The original also paces itself quite a bit better than Brotherhood and is more in line with the mangas storytelling. In the manga we don't find out about The Gate until nearly two dozen chapters in, and the same goes for the original anime. Like, that's a twist reveal in those stories, and it's weird that the most watched series is the one where they tell you all about The Gate in the first two episodes because they assume you've already seen the original show.

What's more, people don't know that Hiromu Arakawa helped write for the anime while she was still in the middle of writing the manga, and as a result was inspired to write scenes in Brotherhood that the anime did first. That scene of Edward getting impaled by a falling beam? Directly inspired by a similar scene in the original anime. There's a lot of little instances of that and they're great when you can recognize parallels and things in Brotherhood that are direct references to the original anime, but people don't notice any of that anymore. Because the original anime is just an automatic skip these days, and it's a bummer because people don't realize what a giant it was back before Brotherhood was released. They treat it as *bad,* not realizing it was one of the most beloved anime of its time and the problems people take issue with have a lot more to do with personal taste than any kind of actual flaw in the writing. Brotherhood was never meant to dethrone it, and the original anime was always supposed to be part of the viewing experience which is why those first few episodes of Brotherhood are so fast paced. So like, please stop telling people Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is a skip, or it's bad, or you don't need it because Brotherhood is better. Regardless if you think Brotherhood is better or not, the original wrote Brotherhood's check. It was huge, it was beloved, and Brotherhood is *banking* on the knowledge you've seen all of it and loved it. And trust me when I say there is so much to love about the original series. It's still my favorite branch of the FMA franchise, and it's worth your time, I promise you.

[utilitycaster]

Here's the thing about projecting your personal experiences onto a story. It's extremely normal. People do it all the time. It's part of being alive and human. If that's the primary way you wish to interact with fiction then you can and I cannot promise no one will physically stop you but I certainly won't. We've all decided that a pop song is about our lives (or about our blorbo's lives) and I am no exception.

However, your projection is not textual. It is your personal experience. Your personal experiences inform your understanding and taste, but they are not the canon of a fictional work.

It's sort of the generalized version of this post. You can ship whatever the fuck you want - follow your heart or your dick or whatever you ship with - but some things have explicit textual support within the narrative, and some things do not. This is also true of other interpretations. Many intrerpretations can be valid. Multiple conflicting interpretations can be valid. But some are not. Some have zero textual evidence.

When, for example, I say that people are projecting their trauma on a narrative, that doesn't mean their trauma isn't valid, nor does it mean I think they're morally wrong for doing that (nor, if I did think they were wrong for doing that, should that matter, as I am not The Arbiter Of How To Experience Fiction). It does however mean that I do not think they are reading the text with an eye towards what is actually happening, but rather what appeals to them based on personal experiences that are not necessarily pulled from the text, and therefore their feelings are valid but their analysis, decoupled from that, is more likely than not absolute dogshit. And people are similarly allowed to have dogshit analysis; no one is physically stopping you. People are just saying "wow your analysis was bad," because they think it was. There is no identity or personal history that permits you to cut the line and have The Only Correct Opinion On A Work That Is Above Reproach.

[kissohee]

bestfriend!sub!sohee x reader ☆ nsfw ; wc : 1.1k ☆ one-shot mdni! synopsis; your best friend spills that he has never gotten a blowjob before. what kind of friend would u be to not give him his first. warnings; use of good boy, cum eating @wontonstaro!

You knew Sohee like you knew the back of your hand. Unless it was about his sexual life. Sohee never opened up to you about how he spent his time in the bedroom, and you honestly didn't care. It didn't bother you if he never wanted to open up like that.

You on the other hand, had almost zero shame with him. If it was about a guy, you would give the most detail possible, maybe even sometimes acting it out so he'd understand the full picture, and he didn't mind.

Sohee actually like that you were comfortable enough with him to even share things like that. Thing was, Sohee hadn't really experienced much. Everything he had experienced was through you.

Guy couldn't find your clit? In his head he'd note to look for it first. Guy used to much tongue? He'd note to not do that. Guy didn't make you cum? He's sure with the amount of information he has from you, he could.

The most he got was a hickey, his hand, and a lame dry humping session with his ex-gf. He didn't seek out sex either, but yeah sometimes he was a little jealous of the guys you spoke about.

You actually had so much experience that it made him a little embarrassed inside. You had done almost everything he'd watch on porn sites, and could probably write a sex book if you really wanted too.

But you'd much rather spend your time ranting or storytelling to him.

"He brought me back to his house," you start telling Sohee about the date you with some random guy your other friend had tried setting you up with, "His house.. on a first date!" You lay down on his bed, Sohee sitting up across from you.

"Okay?" He raises an eyebrow at your complaining, "That's a problem, why?"

"Well. We just met and I wasn't look for a one night stand." You state as if it was obvious, "But he kept begging me for a blowjob!"

"He was begging you for one?" Sohee hated to admit that sometimes he would get lost at your stories. Why would someone ever beg someone for a blowjob? Was it ever that serious?

"Yeah he kept going on about how it was all he could think about whenever I opened my mouth or talked. Perfect size or whatever. What a creep." You pout thinking about the bad experience.

Sohee watched as you talked, now that you pointed it out, he couldn't stop staring at your mouth. Hes never gotten a blowjob before but now that it's in his mind, he does think you have a nice mouth shape.

Sohee was too busy looking at your mouth to take notice in the way he was starting to strain in his pants. "Sohee? Are you listening?"

"Huh?" He looks at your eyes and nods, "Yeah sorry continue."

"Were you trying to see if my mouth would be a perfect size for your dick?" You caught him in the act, but you weren't mad. You actually let out a small laugh to make sure he doesn't think you are upset about it.

"No!" He immediately defends himself, "Well... kind of? I've never had a blowjob so I wouldn't know what a perfect size is or anything like that. Like it's your mouth I dont understand how-"

"You what?!" He gets interrupted, your eyes widen when you process Sohee's sudden confession.

"I've never gotten a blowjob before.." He almost whispers, head shrinking into his shoulders.

"Like ever?" Your mouth finally noticing the bulge in his pants.

"Not really.."

"Do you want one?" Sitting up, you look at him with a smile on your face.

Sohees mind goes blank. Did you just offer to give him a blowjob? His best friend? Should he accept?

"Uh..." he trails, unsure if he should say yes. You like jokes, what if you're joking? If he says yes and you're joking, he might as well just die there.

"Sohee it's a simple question. I'm very willing to give you a blowjob, I think we trust each other enough."

"Sure." He says with a slight nod, watching you as you make your way to him. Sitting on your knees in front of him, the way you look up at him already has him in shambles.

You help unzip his pants and pull his boxers down. Sohee truly believes hes dreaming right now, lifes not real, you're actually not on your knees in front of him but at your house. The second your hand comes in contact with his cock, he's reminded that this really is his reality.

"Cute.." You whisper to his cock before softly licking his tip. Sohee shuts his eyes and when you do it again, his whole body shivers. Nothing has ever felt so good to him in his entire life.

"S-shit." He curses when your mouth fully takes his cock, the feeling of him hitting the back of your mouth making him twitch.

You remove your mouth to look up at him, "Look at that.. Perfect fit." Your eyes look so pretty from his point of view.

You place your mouth on his cock again, this time gliding your tongue all around it. Sohees eyes are shut, your spit feeling warm against him.

You bob your head, earning small moans from him, his hands holding him up. He feels so good he swears he'll faint when he cums, and he almost does when you moan against his cock.

The feeling sending vibrations, causing him to accidentally thrust his hips foward, making you gag. "Sorry.." He moans when you lick his tip again.

His hands start to curl up, holding onto his bedsheets as his breathing gets heavier.

The feeling is unreal, he does everything he can to not fuck your mouth, you're already feeling so good on him.

He used to be upset that he never got to experience much, especially at his age, but now he's starting to feel better about it. He's sure no one could've given him a better blowjob than you currently are.

You feel him twitch in your mouth, taking it a sign to go faster. Drool dripping out the sides of your mouth.

His moans get louder and more frequent as you're sure he's close. His face scrunches up as his head falls back.

"Fuck..." he grunts, the feeling of his climax only inches away. He opens his eyes and makes eye contact with you. The image of you looking up at him while your sucking him off forever engraved in his memory.

You take your mouth off of him, but continue stroking him. Your mouth wide open, ready for him to cum.

And when he does, he's a moaning mess. His cum shoots straight into your mouth and he watches as you swallow his cum and lick the cum around your lips.

"Good boy," you smile innocently at him, as if you hadn't just been doing far from innocent things to him, "How'd that feel?"

His eyelids heavy as a smile crept onto his face, "Really good. Thanks."

😭 my poor baby sohee never has fics on here 💔 - 🐠

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

as someone who's an azul kinnie im curious why you placed azul on the slightly dislike list considering you like scheming characters

[My TWST character tier list is here.]

I think the easiest way to explain it is that I came in with the wrong expectations of him? I thought Azul would be similar to what Jade’s character actually was, so Jade ended up upstaging him in that regard. Essentially, not all scheming characters are equivalent; Azul has other traits which weigh him down for me.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll reiterate it here because I feel it is very relevant for Azul. I… tend to not like “main” guys because of of how much they appear everywhere (including merch and marketing); it makes me feel like I’m being “pushed” to like them specifically rather than being allowed to think for myself about who I like. This is the case for dorm leaders, which includes Azul. Additionally, “main” guys tend to get more of a story focus (also true of the dorm leaders), and that in of itself can be a double edged sword. It means more information + backstory about that character, and while that’s great for lore and fleshing them out, it also means potentially polarizing the fans who were content with their perception of the character prior to the reveal. Once that change happens, it completely shifts how you see the character and then you can’t go back to how you felt before. This was a painful factor in what I call the “stock market crash” of my opinion of Azul Ashengrotto.

I actually quite liked him at first. I took his hand at the start when I first started playing TWST back in 2020 ^^! I even *gasp* simped a little??? (weird AU where Azul was my oshi instead of J word…) He was every bit an intelligent and calculating deal maker as I suspected he would be—well, at least that’s what the few vignettes available at the time and book 2 implied. Back then, only books 1 and 2 were available in full and book 3 was slooowly being updated in chunks. And really, I was liking book 3 a lot (he was still being a silly little scumbag, lol) and took no issue with it… UNTIL THE LAST PART DROPPED 💀 AND WE GOT HIS BACKSTORY…

Now 💦 I’m aware that the OB boys’ backstories usually garner sympathy and enhance the preexisting love we have for those characters but… Azul’s backstory actually had a very strong opposite effect on me. It was the moment I realized, “Hey, maybe I don’t like you as much as I thought I did.” I’d describe the feeling like having a pleasant dream and then you’re suddenly violently awoken by a loud alarm clock, a screeching parrot, and Sebek shouting in your ears at once.

I want to be clear when I say I do not mean to demean or to diminish Azul’s experiences of being bullied. I also do not mean to shame Azul for being (rightfully) upset about his circumstances or for being emotional. When I say that I started disliking Azul because of this backstory, it’s for a very personal reason: I just don’t like stories where a victim of bullying becomes a bully, thus perpetuating the cycle. It’s sad to see someone go down that path, spreading more hate because of the hate they had received before… and I’ll never believe that revenge is a good response for an injustice 😔 Azul’s case is a little different, as he does eventually go on to recognize how far he has strayed from the benevolent ideals of the Sea Witch and is now actively trying to work on himself (which I appreciate and applaud him for). However, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that I can’t quite scrub away. I think it’s because I found myself relating to kid!Azul in some ways, so that personal connection amplified the disappointment I felt in the decisions he made. It feels like looking into an alternate reality where I, too, went down a dark path—and that thought is unpleasant, to say the very least. Now I view Azul more like a cautionary tale and keep a safe distance from him.

[ruvviks]

it's been a hot sec since i've talked about cyberpunk and i was initially working on a fic that would tell the story of this whole thing, but i've abandoned it many months ago and cannot say when i'll be picking it up again SO! i've decided to instead make this timeline. sorry in advance for how much information is in this thing the cyberpunk extended blorboverse essentially refers to the story parallel to the in-game events of cyberpunk 2077 that @mojaves and i came up with. we don't really have a better name for it but at this point the term has been used so many times that i feel like everyone here knows what it is by now, but at the same time we've never really explained the full scope of what the story is by now (it's a lot sorry). so in an attempt to get you guys a little bit more up to date with it all, here's a semi coherent timeline that describes the core events of the story and every branching story that came out of it! for additional background information, you can check out the following posts (timeline 1 / timeline 2 / timeline 3) to catch up with the continuation of the in-game storyline that's referenced in this timeline, but it's mostly irrelevant to everything here save for a couple of referenced events that cross over between the stories. it all ties together very intricately sorry about that. don't worry too much about it i've included my taglist down below to make sure people who are interested won't miss this post, but feel free to skip over this if it's not your thing! won't be doing a lot of this kind of stuff in the future but i'm trying to get back to the cyberpunk roots so this is kind of like, a good starting point and reference point for later posts!

The story starts in early 2077 and is centered around Sebastian Vidal, gang leader of the Cobras and previous test subject of Arasaka Special Programs (the linked page is a lot of information but gives the most coherent overview of what the branch actually is). The current director of the SERPENT projects, Andrew Colton, and Dr. Alana Cartier, both want him dead, to tie up their last loose end before the rest of Arasaka can find out and shut down Special Programs once and for all.

Over the past months they’ve been hiring various assassins in secret, to try and get Seb killed; however, these assassins keep failing, and their latest attempt lies in the hands of Cassidy Shaffer, an ex-corpo turned assassin with a strong moral code and plenty of experience to his name. With little to work with, as his mysterious client doesn’t give out much information, Cassidy starts with what he thinks is gonna be a quick and easy job– but he ends up hunting after Seb for essentially a year.

During this year, the two men have a series of wild encounters that get more and more insane the longer it goes on; it includes, but is unfortunately not limited to, Cassidy biting off a chunk of Seb’s ear, the two of them running over the highway, the two of them getting handcuffed together and chased by the NCPD then hit by a car right in front of the hospital, and Seb sensually licking blood off Cassidy’s face after having stabbed him when Cassidy wanted to strike at a concert Seb is visiting.

All of it comes to a sudden stop when Cassidy learns his client has been lying to him the whole time, and since he does not appreciate lying clients he ends up jumping sides and teams up with the Cobras to do some cleanup duty in Arasaka Special Programs. He and Seb work together to go after a list of targets to get the still ongoing projects mostly to a halt, while remaining in the shadows themselves as to not draw too much attention their way; and during this collaboration they meet several people from their past, bringing back both good and bad memories.

One of these people is Hanan Chisaka, the Head of Security at Special Programs. She ends up becoming the next test subject of Project Cobra after the last successful subjects, Xavier and Gabriel Mason, end up escaping in the midst of the chaos of Hanako Arasaka’s capture in mid-2077. Once Seb’s best friend and Cassidy’s mentor, she’s now forced to hunt the both of them down; but in their final confrontation she snaps out of the controlled mode Arasaka keeps her in and runs away with them, effectively leaving Special Programs without any test subjects. Another one of these people is Reid Bennett, Cassidy’s ex and ex-coworker back at MaxTac. He still works for the corporation and has been on an ongoing investigation into Arasaka Special Programs; seeing Cassidy alive and well, working together with Seb no less, piques his interest and he continues to look further into the case, which will cause him to make a very big mistake later on in the timeline.

By September 2078, Seb and Cassidy have successfully taken down all their planned targets and retreat back into the shadows, leaving Special Programs with many losses and no test subjects. With the APEX program discontinued a month earlier (incident discussed in this fic, which is a continuation of the in-game events), and Hanako Arasaka recovered and ready to take the corporation back from the hands of her corrupt brother, Special Programs ends up having to retreat for the time being, and cook up a new plan in the background.

Special Programs by this point is run by Andrew Colton, Alana Cartier, and Kaida Akiyama, three players who have been in the game for a long time already in the SERPENT projects’ runtime. Colton and Cartier are married– Cartier used to be married to Seb and cheated on him for a good amount of time when he was still at Arasaka– but their marriage is starting to fall apart. Akiyama has had to watch over Special Ops agent Ambrose Hawthorne for a while during his chase after the Mason twins, which ended up with the twins dead and Hawthorne going into early retirement (Arasaka doesn’t know the twins faked their death and Ambrose is now dating one of them lol), and xe is now determined to help Colton and Cartier get Seb back into Arasaka so the projects can continue.

Cassidy’s initial plan was to leave as soon as the collaboration would come to an end, but he has found his place with the Cobras and instead ends up officially joining them.The next chapter in the story is a more laid-back and easygoing chapter, in which Cassidy learns to be part of real life again, and in which Seb learns to let people get close to him again after spending years trying to convince himself he doesn’t need any help. Over the course of a little over a year (all the way to November 2079), the two grow even closer than they had already done, going on gigs together and, you guessed it, slowly but surely falling in love until they inevitably end up together at the end of it.

Not long after the two get together, Reid returns into Cassidy’s life. He wants to try and be friends again and Cassidy gives him a second chance, though this soon enough turns out to have been a mistake, with Reid trying to create distance between Seb and Cassidy and then going as far as trying to sell Cassidy to Kang Tao (one of the few corporations that have been hunting Cassidy down for a while now) in exchange for his own freedom from MaxTac (where he would have otherwise been stuck at for probably the rest of his life). Naturally, Reid can’t watch Cassidy get tortured for long and leaks his location to the Cobras, who find and free Cassidy and take Reid into captivity instead– he does not get killed, but instead has to sit out some time at a safehouse somewhere in solitude, where he gets to decide what kind of person he wants to be in the future.

This brings us to Elysium; a gorgeous spaceship which was supposed to be a relatively cheap escape from reality for everyone who wanted a refreshing break from Earth, but through Arasaka sponsorship has become just another cash-grab project to compete with the Crystal Palace– and considering the megacorporation has its greasy hands all over it, the secret labs in the spaceship are used for a series of very unethical experiments. Naturally so, it would be the perfect place for Colton to continue his SERPENT projects without the risk of Hanako Arasaka finding out and shutting the place down. He sends forces up to Elysium (obviously after his other attempts at relocating the project to space have failed tremendously, having lost contact with every single crew in the smaller Arasaka stations in orbit around the planet), but since he’s not there himself his cousin (one of the CEOs of Elysium), Maxwell Crane, unbeknownst to Colton, takes control of the SERPENT projects in space instead. From the earlier linked Special Programs page: “Project Eryx used the technology of previous projects, but took a completely new approach in the hosts it used; rather than focusing on the human psyche it attempted to create a new type of cyborg which would lack the humanity that caused previous projects to fail. The Cobra chips were no longer used and the software was instead installed directly onto the host’s mainframe. The flexibility of the new hosts– more robot than human, and in some cases the entire human aspect was lacking altogether– allowed for experimentation with highly advanced cybernetic enhancements and military grade tech and upgrades, turning the test subjects– dubbed ‘prototypes’– into dangerous, unstoppable killing machines.”

Things settle down for Seb and Cassidy, but this moment of peace does not last long. In January 2081 the two find themselves traveling to the spaceship Elysium, to investigate a curious situation in the laboratories– they’ve been hired by Arasaka without their knowledge and it’s a setup to get Cassidy killed and Seb back in Cartier’s control.

While in space, they learn that the secret labs have suffered an outbreak of the above mentioned prototypes. They quickly connect the dots and realize Special Programs is back in the game, and they work together with security guards Aubrey Valentine and Leon dello Russo to try and fix the situation before it gets out of hand. Obviously this fails tremendously and Elysium ends up on a complete lockdown after a ship-wide outbreak, which is eventually contained in late March of that year, with CEO Maxwell Crane dead, leaving only his wife Kinsley Osborn behind.

Elysium continues to exist and is rebuilt after the crisis, and Kinsley Osborn can now finally turn it into the retreat it was always meant to be. Previously, most Elysium employees were to be stuck in space for the rest of their lives; however, with Arasaka out of the picture they are free to leave as they please, which results in a gigantic cut in total employee count in the months that follow.

Seb and Cassidy return to Night City and take Aubrey and Leon with them. Aubrey reunites with his sisters; Becca, James, and Rikki, and soon after his return to the city he opens an LGBTQ+ nightclub called Bodytalk with them, found Downtown, City Center, in June 2081. Not only is it a fun place to hang out at, it’s also his main hub as a fixer, and he starts a collaboration with the Cobras to get business going between the gang and the club; and soon enough it grows into a large and powerful network of connections, which is the foundation on which the rest of the stories are built.

After this point in time, many many more things happen but it would take me another hour or ten to go into full detail of all of that, so instead here’s a quick rundown of some of the other things that Bodytalk gets involved in:

Reid Bennett is handed over to Aubrey and he starts working at the club, and he becomes a very valued employee as well as a good friend to many now that he’s no longer fucking insane

Kaida Akiyama returns from Elysium and shows up to Hanan’s doorstep, to ask for her help with getting out of Arasaka for good; much later on, xe starts working for Bodytalk as well, in an attempt to put xyr past behind xem and become a better person

Urban Dynamite starts performing at the club regularly, and it becomes their home base

Luna Serratos, Cassidy’s ripperdoc friend from all the way back to killing era, gets involved in the Harbinger case from Maelstrom (one of the gang’s most feared members); turns out the Harbinger is in fact Reuben de la Rosa, a by then 22-year-old kid who has ended up in Luna’s care with his friend Noah Telavera after the two got caught up in an explosion. She requests the Cobras’ help with getting Maelstrom to let Reuben go

Officer Michele Diaz from Militech (who used to be Cassidy’s boss) is demoted following the lawsuits after the Elysium incident, and her investigation into the incident in hopes to get her job back leads her to Bodytalk; she begins threatening them and sends the whole club and their allies into uncertain times

Many people get married. There’s so many fucking guys here we went a little insane with the numbers but there’s several weddings and there’s a whole polycule going on too feel free to send asks about this if you’re interested

Cobra Cybernetics releases a new line of cyberware, which is incredibly buggy and dangerous to the public; it’s brought to the club’s attention and it makes them realize that Luiza Vidal (Seb’s sister), who not that long ago asked them to kill her husband (William Colton (Andrew’s brother), CEO of Cobra Cybernetics), has gone missing; they now need to get involved without getting the news out that they actually didn’t kill William and that he is still alive somewhere, while also balancing out dynamics between Biotechnica (angry at Cobra Cybernetics for stealing their designs) and Arasaka (the actual reason why Cobra Cybernetics’ designs look like Biotechnica’s designs, because William stole designs from Special Programs after halting their partnership after the Elysium incident, but these designs had been stolen by Arthur Jenkins from Biotechnica even BEFORE that to be able to hijack the European Space Council’s cybernetics following the Frankfurt incident. Are you still with me)

Vitali Dobrynin (fixer and main character from the in-game events storyline and the continuation of it; Vincent “V” Mayer’s boyfriend) ends up visiting Bodytalk after meeting Aubrey at a Fixer Council meeting, which happens in late 2083; this essentially ties the two main storylines together, which means that yes, a lot of the characters from the two separate storylines end up meeting :]

Officer Ulysses Dimakos (used to work with Reid at MaxTac) is sent to investigate Bodytalk following the Cobra Cybernetics scandal, and ends up teaming up with the club to get MaxTac on a dead trail in exchange for his freedom of the corporation

On top of the Bodytalk / Cobras centered storyline, there’s a couple of side stories that are still connected to the whole thing but are more of a standalone thing with only a few touching points to the rest of it all:

This obviously takes place a lot earlier because it’s already mentioned above, but Special Ops agent Ambrose Hawthorne is tasked with chasing after the escaped Mason twins; naturally he lets them go and ends up going into retirement, and Xavier Mason later on ends up becoming Bodytalk’s part-time repair guy on account of knowing Kaida

Gabriel Mason ends up in a car crash with retired security specialist Ames Ortega, who was also in Elysium during the incidents there, and the two end up babysitting Ambrose and Xavier’s kids together while those two are helping Hanan with getting Kaida out of Arasaka (Are you still with me. Blink if you can hear me)

Mercenary Frankie Sayyad gets a promotion from his fixer, Vulture (real name Diana Crane, Maxwell Crane’s older sister and cousin of the Coltons), and becomes one of her Bloodhounds; he works together with Evelyn Harris, Nimue Nkuna, and Beckett Rydel, the latter being one of the very first test subjects of Arasaka Special Programs, and the four accidentally get themselves mixed into a mystery concerning their secretive fixer

Caleb Harris, ex-security at Biotechnica, ends up back at Club Bodytalk not long after the conclusion of the Cobra Cybernetics scandal, and starts working for Aubrey; he is partnered up with Ramiel Al-Masri, a mercenary who has been working for Vitali Dobrynin for a while and has recently joined Aubrey’s mercenary roster too, and together they dive into a series of gigs neither of them had expected

Journalist Bodhi Shankar has finally found more evidence and information surrounding the mysterious cult gang Umbra and its so-called Prophet, Thiago Salazar; however, his antics have led to him accidentally becoming part of the gang himself, and he has to figure out a way to get Thiago to stop listening to the supposed deity that the gang worships known as Scintilla, before she makes him do things that will get many people killed

taglist (opt in/out)

@velocitic, @deadrlngers, @euryalex, @ordinarymaine, @gurathins;

@mojaves, @shellibisshe, @dickytwister, @mnwlk, @rindemption;

@ncytiri, @calenhads, @noirapocalypto, @florbelles, @radioactiveshitstorm;

@strafethesesinners, @fashionablyfyrdraaca, @aemondtargeryen, @radioactive-synth, @katsigian;

@estevnys, @elgaravel, @aezyrraeshh, @carlosoliveiraa

[cripplecharacters]

My girlfriend is writing a story that, after meeting me and hearing my experiences, she realized was about a (fantastical) disability and she decided to intentionally lean into that. As someone with a (real) disability, I have been a sort of beta reader to make sure that she is using her work to amplify stories rather than talk over them - she's been doing a great job on her own, largely in part because she's been asking me the right questions before writing scenes.

However, yesterday she made a post asking for help with the event that caused this fantastical disability, because the most logical cause is something big and flashy, while she wanted it to be something kinda mundane. In her own words, "most disabilities don't have flashy origin stories, they come from everyday things."

In reading the replies to this post, it came to my attention that people who have inorganic internal parts - pacemakers, replacement hips, etc. - would not survive the flashpoint. This felt wrong to me, but not because of how gruesome the image was, but because the overwhelming majority of people who have such parts are disabled. Everyone affected by the event is disabled thereafter, but a large swath of what I've been referring to her as "pre-disabilities" just wouldn't exist.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't necessarily find this to be a bad thing per se. It's background details and the actual story is going to take place almost two decades later. It's worldbuilding that might not even see print, depending on how important that detail is to the story.

My issue is that, as she is writing a story intended to help talk about disability, it feels problematic to kill off a significant portion of pre-disabled characters in the background. I've brought this up to her and she does agree it sucks, the issue she has is that scientifically, it is more realistic.

I bring this question to you guys because the two of us are unsure how exactly to proceed. Do we just ignore internal inorganics entirely and let those with them survive even if it's not realistic? Is it okay to let them die for the story? Is there some middle-ground option that isn't coming to either of us?

(I can provide more detail if need be about the story.)

Hello

Basically, you have to be willing to use some Hail Mary complete and utter random caveat that you add in after the fact to keep a bunch of people from dying.

I don't know exactly how this "flashpoint" works but let's say it deactivates technology. Maybe things like a pacemaker, which is embedded inside of a human, can't be affected because the flashpoint couldn't affect it through the layer of biological matter. Maybe you make this a futuristic where all internal implants are made using biochemical engineering because, I don't know, maybe that gives them a longer life in the human body. Maybe the flashpoint is basically a giant magic put hey, lucky us, internal disability devices aren't made of magnetic metals, or maybe, again, they're made of modified biological tissue.

Basically, you need to completely bs it. It doesn't matter how realistic it is, the flashpoint is fake but disabled readers are real. You can do anything, it's your story, so if you want the disabled people to live, you can create a caveat that would let them live. And no one can say "that wouldn't work" because yeah, it would, because you said it would work in a world that you have complete and utter control of.

Don't be afraid to grasp at straws.

Mod Aaron

Thank you for your ask! Please don’t have people killed for having a specific disability! It’s hard to give more information without knowing what the ‘flashpoint’ is, but you could have the event target metals that aren’t used in humans if that’s the issue. You could also make the event something that wouldn’t target a specific group of people, you don’t have to change the whole story, just the side effects of the event. As mod Aaron said above, it’s your story and anything can go, so please don’t put an unnecessary mass extinction event.

I’d also say killing off a specific minority group for a story, whether or not the story is about that group, is a bad thing. People with implants should be allowed to see themselves in fantastical stories and not be told that they’d just be dead so don’t bother. As you said this happens in the background, this side effect isn’t integral to the story, so why add it? The readers are already suspending disbelief that this event happened in the book, so why not let them suspend disbelief that people with implants won’t be killed in this story?

Have a good day!

Mod Rot

[coffee-master]

What would Kai do in season 3 with the blackout and Nindroids ? I guess he would have a different story than Nya, who had a love triangle problem with Cole and Jay

Ok so first of all- OMG PEOPLE ARE ASKING ABOUT MY AU- THIS IS HAPPENING-!! I'm very excited!!!!

Now to the main point.

In the reboot season, everything would be a little diffrent. I mentioned some things about it on the post about the relationships Jaya & lavashipping in this au here:

But this is only lightly mentioned, so here's more:

In this au Kai would have similar role like canon Nya, but with some differences.

The season begins with the fact "the ninja era is over" and ninjas now are teachers for the kids. They are about to go on a school trip to Borg Industries with the children, but before that could happened, when Cole and Kai are coincidently alone in the classroom, Cole decided to take a shot and ask Kai on a date.

It'd be a little awkward, since Cole has never asked anyone on a date before or was interesed in romantic topic in general. Meanwhile Kai would be taken aback by his question, because he hadn't expeceted that comming. Kai didn't even think that Cole was interesed in him.

However, in the end Kai would agree with a smile, calming the earth ninja down.

Later in the Borg's Industrie as Pixal asked to go to the hundredth floor ninja, Kai at the last moment grabs his sister's hand and asks her to go with him because he wants to discuss something with her.

Even if Kai was good at hiding things and acting cool- He was a little nervous about this date and wated to ask his sister discretly for some advice.

Nya at first reluctantly agreed, but then noticed that something was going on and was curious.

So Sensei Wu, Kai & Nya go together for a tour around the factory. Nya is pretty much interested in the technology, while Kai is thinking how to approach the subject, without her sister finding out about this whole thing.

Eventually they come across this crush-seeking machine and the kids talk Nya into using it and when the result comes everyone is schocked, but Nya doesn't take the result too seriously.

Here her relationship in much better and based on common experiences and trust, and she has is no doubt about it.

The fire master actually takes this more like a joke.

Everyone: *looks shocked at the result*

Nya: Hah, clearly this mashine is broken.

Nya: Cole is only interested in cake.

Kai: ...well actually-

Nya: Hm?

Kai: He kinda asked me on a date today.

Nya: ...

Nya: He what?

After that they are attacked by the machines and ect. and later the whole team meets again. The boy give Nya her new costume and weapoon and later they go to the sensei Garmadon.

There's a lot of fighting, which is practically no different from canon.

Then later on the landfill while fixing Pixal, the result information from the matching-machine comes to light and everyone finds out about the result.

Jay is very concerned about this information, but he does not lash out in anger at Cole. He knows that Cole wouldn't do anything bad and even has crush on Nya's brother, but is still bothered by the result.

Like an inteligente mashine says there's better a match for your girlfriend than you.

That information is just really messing with Jay's head and giving him self-doubts. So during their mission Jay is nervous and wants to prove at all costs that he is better than Cole.

Nya almost immediately noticed that and is both worried and irritated by Jay's behaviour. So after having enough of this nonsense and finding a moment of peace she talks with him.

Nya tires to get this stupid thought out of his head and says that it was dumb of him to even think, that he's not enogh.

In the end everything comes back to normal and nothing too serious happened with their relationship.

Then next fights took place and Kai tries his best to help others, even if he is not very comfortable in the technological world.

Here Kai is also a Samurai X despite lack of engineering skills that Nya has, but but how it happened is another story-

There was not much time for Cole & Kai to interract and after Zane's sacrifice in the end never went on that date.

-----

That's pretty much season 3. I've gotten so many questions about this au lately, I'll try to answer them as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I'm often busy and write slowly, but I'll do my best!

[Siblings elemental change AU]

First | More about AU | Previous | Next

[plinko-mori]

Hello. I wanted to ask what is your opinion about the scene where Mori asks Dazai why does he wish to die? I read somewhere that the question was asked only out of curiosity on Mori's part, but I am not sure that is all. Maybe he had similar experience as Dazai when he was young?

As a Mori kinnie, Rintarou Mori reader and a reader who has read No Longer Human... Both Vita Sexualis and No Longer Human are semi autobiographical works where both protagonists don't have too much motivation to do things

While No Longer Human's protagonist is deep into his depression, Vita Sexualis' protagonist is trying to do things as best as possible for many factors— Also explained in The Dancing Girl, although Mori characters are somewhat "I feel like a shit, but I will ignore it to be productive somehow"

BSD Mori's line of admitting "Probably I will not understand but why do you wish to die?" it's so real life Mori because in social skills, understanding emotions, himself and others he was a shit. Vita Sexualis is about how the protagonist is trying to understand how to talk and understand people, but that's a deep topic

I personally think BSD Mori has a little or had depression, that he wished to die maybe if it was a short amount of time (because it matches Mori's existential crisis written in The Dancing Girl, although the author was kinda dramatic with the events in the story) and how he is so obsessed with helping others he tried to understand Dazai after actually keeping him alive. I say "a little of depression" as my way to express "not so severe depression", I'm sorry for creating my own language—

Anyways the all context of it wasn't only Dazai's "kinda childish behaviour" but the fact he wanted to die, and then Mori said «you remind me of someone». At least for me, it's so obvious a «Oh I was like that too, wanting to die, not seeing value at all in things but hey at least here I am somehow doing things»

No Longer Human's protagonist was rapped by many women, while Vita Sexualis protagonist almost got rapped by a man and his father told him "take care of yourself". While NLH's protagonist's parents disowned him, VS boy was told he was an invalid for thinking women have thoughts and the boy left them etc etc etc. There are aspects that are similar but have deep differences... Still, similar pains although while NLH is something more related to inside the character, in VS + The Dancing Girl is more of "the environment made it bad and is making it worse how different the protagonist is from the world"

Idk if any of these answer your question, I'm bad at reading with comprehension and love sharing too much information :(

[razorblade180]

Farewell

Neuvillette:*writing*

knock knock knock

Neuvillette:It’s open.

Furina:Wow, look at you. Hard at work as ever.

The man’s pen froze. He quickly looked up to see his old boss walking in with a nervous and sheepish smile. He rose to his feet.

Neuvillette:Lady Furina.

Furina:Please, you can just call me Furina. I’m just a normal actress after all

Neuvillette:Ah, yes. I do apologize but I think you know better than anyone breaking a habit after centuries isn’t a simple thing to do.

Furina:Heh, fair enough. I suppose keeping it is fine, since it’s you. I hope the workload is manageable?

Neuvillette:There’s an adjustment period, but everyone’s hard work has made it easier. Anyways, I’m sure my work isn’t what brought you here after all this time? Is everything okay? Do you need-

Furina:I’m fine haha. Dear Iudex, I am fine. I came here to tell you something in person I thought you should know. I’m…leaving Fontaine for awhile.

Neuvillette:Oh. I…I see.

Furina:Not for any bad reason, mind you. Sure some people aren’t exactly warm to me still but that’s perfectly fine. I just….There’s so much out there. Five hundred years of informants and change. Now that I’m free to do so much, staying here feels a little silly.

Neuvillette:I understand. It’s a freedom you earned. You should enjoy it. But I have to ask, do you actually have a plan?

Furina:Ha! Still you doubt me? I believe it was you who said “I am no fool.” *smiles* Yes, I have money, previsions, and a route. Aether is going to escort me through the desert and Sumeru’s jungle until arriving at Port Ormos. I do enjoy a scenic route and a little adventure. He’ll be on his way after that but he’s given me an impressive list of people to see and locations to go if I come across any really difficulties. Eventually I’ll head east and see other lands as well.

Neuvillette:Sounds like your networking shall expand tenfold.

Furina:What can I say? I’m a people person. Anyways, I head out in a days time. I should’ve said something sooner but….

Neuvillette:No need to explain. Somethings are simply better when the time comes. I will say it does make me happy that you chose to see me personally. May the world greet you as openly as your home back here always will.

Furina felt a warmth hearing that. Her gaze glanced to the window behind the man, the glass graced with light rain. Furina couldn’t help but give him a gentle smile as she exhaled.

Furina:Aww, Neuvillette. It’s okay. I promise you I’ll be back with a stories grander than any play. I might even gain wonderful inspiration to liven up Fontaine. I do have a talent for that.

Neuvillette:Heh, yes, you do. *smiles* I admit it. I will miss you, but I am nevertheless truly happy for you as well. Stay safe, Furina.

He gave her a bow, one that she returned in kind before making her exit quietly. That went well. She felt as if she wasn’t breathing in the beginning but things turned out well. Furina walked outside and stared at the rain silently. Little by little, the sound of thousands of droplets grew louder than crashing waves. Louder than her own beating heart. Furina took a sharp breath, sprinting back inside, ignoring all onlookers and running back into Neuvillette’s office with one mighty push of the doors

Clearly he wasn’t expecting her return, gasping at the sight of her as hadn’t budged an inch; tears visibly running down his face that mirrored her own. Without a second thought, Furina’s tears grew stronger as she ran to him, jumping into a hug he instinctively caught. His arms wrapped tightly around her while she did the same.

Furina:Hydro Dragon, Hydro Dragon, we’re okay. We’re going to be okay. Thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.

Neuvillette:I should be the one thanking you. Lady Furina, thank you for your service, for this experience. You performed perfectly. Please, take your rest.

She could no longer speak. All she could do his cry with the rain, until sunny skies would eventually come again.

xxxxxx

Back near the Opera House, a certain boy say near the fountain and let the downpour resonate with him, stirring his own emotions until they overflowed.

Paimon:H-Hey! Are you okay.

Aether:I’m fine Paimon. For once…the water feels good.

[homestuckreplay]

Cursed By Zazzerpan To Take Webcomics Too Seriously

(page 472-483)

8/14/2009 Wheel Spin: Captchalogue Lore Verdict: Just Captchalogue, No Lore

8/15/2009 Wheel Spin: being silly :3c Verdict: Slimer Pogo Ride – Inherently Silly

The imps have STOLEN John’s clever disguise. >:( How could they do this. Aren’t their jester hats costume enough. When John says ‘they’re mucking up all my cool stuff!’ he is right and justified in being mad. What little control John ever had over his living environment has now been completely obliterated, the imps (and Rose) running rampant and using his home as their own personal playground.

Speaking of Rose, I was deeply struck by her total lack of regard for the monetary worth of a piano. Those things are expensive, and they’re not a standard thing for a house to have either! But this is not the first time Rose has thrown an expensive musical instrument around, as shown by her violin antics (p.236, 395) being more of an annoyance than a risk to a delicate possession. Knowing how rich her family is really explains why her response to destroying John’s house is a casual ‘Oops.’

We also get another moment of Rose dismissing John’s problems as not especially serious on p.478, when John says he was ‘hoping to avoid nanna and her spooky ghost cookies’ and Rose says ‘that does sound dumb.’ I know that Rose is speaking from her personal experience, but from an external reader’s perspective, if I am going to take it seriously that Rose’s mom might be an alcoholic and that Dave’s brother might be psychologically tormenting him with puppet tricks, then I am also going to take it seriously that John could have genuine trauma surrounding food. If he’s been forced to eat beyond his limits or eat food he doesn’t like all his life, that could definitely lead to a negative relationship with food, even if John’s dad and nanna are baking for him as an act of care.

EB: i'm not sure what came over me there, i was acting really crazy for some reason. EB: but my head feels like it's clearing up, i think i'm alright now.

This is the line that’s had me scratching my head and clenching my fists all of yesterday and today. I’m truly not sure what the intended tone is – if this is meant to be a joke, or a leading question about how exactly the control panels and possible time loops work, or a setup for a possible future where John does something really bad while being mind controlled by the Vagabond, or just a way for the author to justify any potential future out of character moments. I think I am biased towards reading this story in a serious and realistic way, and I think there’s lots of other valid ways it can be read, but from my personal reading this is existential horror, and more affirmations of John’s complete lack of free will and – importantly – his steadily growing awareness of this. I think a big part of his character progression so far is going from the vague and uncertain ‘something feels missing from your life’ to slowly being able to put words to his problems.

We actually learn a fair bit more about the rules, game logic and progression of Sburb in these pages, which I’m planning to lay out in its own post in the next few days. In contrast, we get no new information about the captchalogue and strife systems – it really feels like John’s passed that level now, and is able to do these things in the background without it interrupting the narrative. The same thing will probably happen with the imps after he’s got a few more kills.

I can’t figure out how to score points in the game on p.476 where we do sick pogo ride tricks as an imp (my high score is 551?) but I love it narratively. In the game we are definitely controlling the imp directly – there’s no indication that John or Rose have any hand in the imp’s antics - but in the text below, John is still addressed as the second-person ‘you’ and the line focuses on John’s own history with the ride. I like the suggestion that the imp is doing the same dangerous stunts that John once did, and the idea that there’s some parallels between John and the imp – both low level entities who are fundamentally at the mercy of the greater forces of Sburb, both clowns wearing disguises through circumstance instead of choice.

Anyway I am politely requesting that John check out the punch designix for real now.

[trappedinafantasy37]

🔥

Aight, here's my unpopular opinion that I'm sure will rifle up some feathers. If you get upset by what I have to say, tough shit. I warned you.

Based upon comments and posts I’ve seen across Reddit and Tumblr, the only people in the fandom who seem to truly comprehend the full nuance and depth of evil choices are the ones who are actually willing to make them. The ones who are actually willing to make the evil choices are the ones who actually see precisely how those evil choices impact the game, story, and characters. The ones who actually play the full game are the ones who understand the game the most (well, usually).

If you are someone who can’t do evil things cause “you feel bad” your opinion on the evil decisions has no value. Being spineless does not make you noble. Making evil choices in a video game also does not make you an evil person. I’m tired of constantly being called a bad person because I actually want to experience what the game has to offer. If you refuse to make evil choices, you miss out on a shit ton of content and characterization and come to wildly false/inaccurate conclusions because you are literally missing information. People who are unable to make evil decisions have to get their information from secondary or tertiary sources rather than see it for themselves. And, trust me, experiencing something yourself is extremely different than watching someone else do it or reading about someone else doing it.

[aria-ashryver]

Meet my OC - Viktor Ivanov

Name: Viktor Ivanov Book: Immortal Desires Orientation: Bisexual Pronouns: He/him Birthday: 12th October 1997 Sign: Libra Born: Dunedin, New Zealand Raised: Sydney, Australia, and Inverness, Scotland (with some short stints in both NZ and Croatia) Heritage: Croat

More under the cut! 🖤✨

Family

Henrik Ivanov (younger brother) Mother (name tbd) Father (name tbd)

Viktor’s closest family member is his younger brother Henrik (Henri, as a diminutive), who is eight. Henri attends boarding school, so they do not see each other much, but Henri idolises his big brother and Viktor would do anything to keep Henri from being hurt. He believes his parents treat Henri as the “do-over” child, and that they think Viktor “lacks ambition” and “refuses to take anything seriously”. There is a lot of pressure on Henri to perform well academically and to follow in his father’s footsteps, career-wise.

Viktor’s father’s career remains something of a mystery to him — he knows it is a somewhat high-ranking governmental position that requires him to travel a lot, so his father is only home for short stints every few months. When he was around 12 or 13, Viktor decided he would ask his dad outright what his job actually was the next time he showed an interest in one of Viktor’s hobbies or interests.

To this day, Viktor has no idea what his father does for a living.

His mother is a stay-at-home housewife. She is the family member Viktor sees the most often, and also the one he has the worst relationship with.

Skills / Hobbies

Sketching, painting, singing — frontman and founder of grunge/rock band Your Bisexual Awakening. Also plays bass

YBA cycles through names often, all of which have a story attached. They choose a new name via the following system: if a band member says something stupid or memorable in conversation, and two or more members simultaneously say "band name", they must change it to whatever was just said. I.e.

Cal: seriously, guys? again? Ava: my bad. Angel's refractory period is more like a Refractory Comma Angel, Viktor, and Luca, simultaneously: band name Ava: aw, fuck.

Random Trivia

Moved a lot as a child — growing up jumping between Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and Croatia has left Viktor with the weirdest accent. Its mostly Scottish... ish? Kinda?

Enjoys anime — once described watching Tokyo Ghoul as the purest spiritual experience of his life (and then sulked inconsolably for a week when he found out the final season was copaganda)

Scared of dogs (was bitten when he was younger)

Loves having his photo taken, but also can’t look at photos of himself sometimes, because they often bring on depersonalisation episodes

Huge collection of slogan t-shirts he crops and alters himself.

Can do overtone / polyphonic singing (but not well)

When he shared a dorm room with Luca at Avalon, for a while his alarm was this Marc Rebillet song (until Luca threatened to beat him to death with a pair of socks unless he changed it)

Has a crush on Kylo Ren

Is deeply ashamed of his crush on Kylo Ren

Favourite movie is Sucker Punch (will rant AT LENGTH about how people completely miss the feminist read)

His fashion sense is varied and questionable. One day he’ll be in gritty, black techwear, the next he’s full flower-boy poet. Then he’ll be Grandma-chic, and the next day he might be wearing a three-piece suit patterned exclusively with cobs of corn.

He does really love garments that drape and flow, though, and is a bit of a sucker for glitter and fun textures. No matter how loud, he somehow manages to always wear the outfits, and not have them wear him.

Viktor���s goals are informed by an odd mix of wanting a sense of agency and independence, while also just wanting to be taken care of and not have to think

Pathetic Babygirl of All Time

Personal Life

cw!! for talk around mental illness, suicide, and substance abuse

Viktor’s childhood was extremely difficult in that his mother simply does not believe that mental illnesses and neurologic disorders are legitimate conditions, and denies that Viktor’s many conditions are real. She believes he is making everything up for attention. Viktor has had this rhetoric drilled into him since childhood — there is nothing wrong with him, he’s just weak, lazy, a failure, a troubled child.

As such, he has never been diagnosed with anything on record.

He is quite mistrustful of authority figures as a result of his upbringing.

The first real, healthy parental influence in his life was Terri O’Rinn. She was the one to refer Viktor to a specialist doctor — she called in a favour from a friend/colleague, who was able to confirm Viktor’s diagnosis of mild to moderate Tourette Syndrome. This diagnosis remains strictly off-record. He primarily has motor tics, but he does have some verbal ones too — many of his tics are indistinguishable from the way he carries himself and his usual, somewhat eccentric mannerisms of speaking and moving.

Viktor also suffers from depression and generalised anxiety disorder. Luca has “diagnosed” him with “ADHD by peer review.” Viktor also deals with frequent bouts of passive suicidal ideation. Luca has had to talk him down on two separate occasions when he has threatened attempts. He has attempted once, on his own, and has never told anyone about it. Viktor loves Luca like a brother, as they do him, and their bond is fundamentally unshakeable.

Viktor fell into performing initially as a means to cope with his Tourettes — music helps to help him feel in control of his symptoms, so he can often be found singing, humming, or whistling to himself as he goes about his business. Alcohol and weed incidentally dial back his premonitory urges as well, allowing him to more easily suppress his tics, so there have been patterns of substance abuse throughout Viktor’s life when he’s been in a bad place mentally.

In classes at school, he was something of the class clown — Viktor quickly realised he liked dictating the kind of attention that was on him (and that he actually really loves attention when its the kind he has sought out himself). So rather than people staring at him because of his tics, he’d rather enrapture them on purpose with beautiful and hypnotic performances. Leaning into his role as the band’s vocalist and frontman did wonders for his self-confidence and overall quality of life.

Also — he’s just really, really, good at singing 🖤🖤🖤

You can find out more about Viktor via my masterlist, or read about him in my longfic, snow in crimson, starlight in gold on AO3! 🖤(direct link, fic is rated Explicit)

tagging: @choicesficwriterscreations

[cerastes]

I think my least favorite take, opinion, whatever you want to call it, is “why did Arknights not say the Inquisition was bad?”. It applies to any event, really, replace Inquisition with whatever the Authority Figure Organization is involved, and hell, I even agree with the sentiment sometimes, Arknights’ not flawless, but for the most part: You need to read better. You are playing the Game That Doesn’t Say Things Explicitly. It tends not to say things explicitly, turns out.

It kind of bugs me opening my inbox and seeing something to the effect of “I’m uncomfortable about Irene because she’s technically a cop, why is she not Condemned for it?” First of all, shame on your for wanting all of the art you peruse instantly moralized, to the point it needs to somehow involved a shovelful of The Opinion, served explicitly, at the drop of a hat. That aside, the Inquisition is not put on a good light to say the least, so even then the point is moot. Irene’s journey is very much seeing with her own eyes that “the Inquisition raised me, I respect and love the people I’ve met in it, as they do me, and the dogma surrounding the Inquisition is an important brick in the temple that is my life” necessarily is something that exists alongside “the Inquisition does in fact leave the imperiled to be doomed, and sees human life more as numbers and resources than human lives, the dogma is built, necessarily, on oppression of others as a means of fostering order and morale, and I’ve benefited directly from this privilege”, and that she has to make a decision. High Inquisitor Dario, her mentor and foster father, tells her as much: “Once you see things with your eyes, you have to make a decision”. Irene does in fact make her decision, leaving the Inquisition and the mentorship of The Highest Of Inquisitors, Saint Carmen himself, who was going to take her in and basically assure her a seat as a High Inquisitor in the future, because she found the latter realization to weight more than the former. In her own words, Irene decided to step away from this, because if she remained in the Inquisition, she’d only forever perpetuate the oppression on the Aegir, among other things.

Now, there’s definitely more to say about the Inquisition of Iberia, but I’m focusing on Irene here: Do you think it’d make sense for her to just suddenly have a moment of clarity, in the middle of all that fighting and struggling to stay alive, say “I’m antifa now, actually” and discard everything that has been her life until that moment just like that? If you do think so, I hope you don’t write anything soon. Your desire for catharsis is not unimportant, but the narrative shouldn’t have to accommodate for it in the most neckbreak way possible, and if you do need it to do that, then read something else, there are reads and games like that elsewhere (for example, Tales of the Abyss has the main character do an absolute 180 from one moment to another after a specific event in its story), but also do show some respect for the fact that Irene, in a way that resembles what anyone who just had her entire world view challenged not once, but twice (Under Tides and Stultifera Navis) would act, allows herself some time apart from the tension of the Big Happenings of the event, actually digest the paradigm shift, the loss of someone important to her, what to do with all the new information she has and what the experiences have taught her, and grow out from there organically. 

What I’m trying to say is that I’d rather have less “conclusive” overdone neckbreak moments of “you know what? Fuck this! Fuck you!” and maybe let the characters in any given narrative seep and stew into what happened and what happens from there on. Take, for example, Full Metal Alchemist, in which certain important characters have a real moment of “Hey... Are we... The bad guys?” that shapes the events of an entire, important part of the story long term, slowly, with the gravitas it deserves.

[emoevanafton]

Is gremlin Prescott misunderstood? The great debate!

My debrief…

Gremlin Prescott, just like many villains with complex backstories and lore from media, is a character who is horribly misunderstood, mainly due to how he is presented, outwardly.

For the sake of characters like this, i bid you to turn your views- Inwardly. It makes it much easier to understand a quote unquote ‘evil’ character, if you simply take into account how they are presented in this way.

Intro!

If you’ve ever played epic Mickey, or any games from the franchise for that matter, you would probably know who Gremlin Prescott is- an outwardly jealous, and egotistical character who, to an extent, is portrayed to be ‘evil’. You’re probably thinking “Well, why wouldn’t he be evil, he is one of the main villains you fight in the game!”

Just because a character is a villain, does not mean that they are a ‘bad person’.

Prescott is actually a perfect portrayal of this.

Funny enough, there is not actually a SINGLE action that he does in the game, which would make him a bad person! Even the fact that he attempts to murder the protagonists (mickey, oswald and gus) in my opinion would not be enough to deem him evil- he is simply doing what has been asked of him, in a fit of jealousy, rage and betrayal. And lets not ignore the fact that his relationships with these characters are not exactly good ones…

And of course Prescott would do what was asked of him, gremlins are naturally proven to want to serve the needs of others, in his case, he serves the Mad Doctor; half against his will.

Lets discuss this!

relationship with MD

Prescott’s relationship with the Mad Doctor is actually reminiscent of a father/son relationship- one in which he never got to experience. This is clear from the way Gus (his father) treats and undermines him.. gremlin Prescott is arguably one of THE SMARTEST gremlins within the franchise… but this is a whole different topic in itself. To cut a long story short, the Mad doctor takes advantage of Prescott and uses him for his intelligence, and betrays him immediately after…

The mad doctor, being the ‘evil and unforgiving’ villain that he is, takes advantage of Prescott’s vulnerability, after seeing how much he despised his mediocre job working at the gag factory. (Believe me when i say, he HATES working there.) Which eventually lead him to becoming one of the main villains. The fact that his Brother (Jam-face) was working on the one thing that HE was good at, really pissed him off, therefore he would be understandably upset

Now, Would it surprise anyone to know that the reason Prescott made the machine you fight in the second stage of EM2, was because of the Mad Doctors influence? Because the Mad doctor gave Prescott the attention he so desperately desired (and deserved), he did all this in an attempt to appease him.

And as we know, the only reason the mad doctor decided to take Prescott in, as it were, was to manipulate him into doing his bidding, creating a distraction from the larger problems in wasteland, caused by himself, and leading the public to believe that it was all Prescott’s fault. How unfair!

If that wasn’t unfair enough, think of the cutscene shown just after we defeat Prescott, where he gets sent to prison- there is a-lot of important dialogue here.

“I don’t understand, he told me no one could defeat me!” -GP

“He told you? Who are you talking about?” -G

*and then GP points DIRECTLY at MD as he comes out the projector*

(And yes, i do know the entire cutscene plus the song off the top of my head, it is a talent, i know~)

The ‘He’ in question, is actually the mad doctor, and as I’ve just said, the reason we know this is because Prescott points over at the Mad Doctor as he is retelling this information… And he was smart for this, however it appears to be to no avail- as Gus completely ignores him during this…the only reason he actually got hypnotised during this interrogation, was because the Mad Doctor KNEW that the first thing Prescott would do, upon being betrayed, would be to protest, and understandably so! How would you feel if the one person you trusted, who you considered your closest friend, betrayed you on the spot like that? Im sure this is something in which we all have a mutual agreement on, it makes you feel anything BUT happy..

So yes, Prescott is miss understood for this, as he was taken advantage of, and falsely lead into a state of evil- and as we know, Prescott can, and will absolutely murder and take vengeance upon anyone who attempts to upset him.

(I mean, all you have to do is look at the event that happened with the telephone in EM1- he dismantles the telephone because she Locked him in a safe and took his wrench… valid reason to murder? Thats up for debate…)

And To absolutely no one’s surprise, Gremlin Prescott is shown in BOTH GAMES to be a naturally vengeful character, which i might tel you, is not normal for his ‘kind-natured and down to earth species.’

And I’ve done enough epic Mickey two speed runs completed in record time to know that none of this was ever in Prescott’s control, its just how he IS.

So how can a character who’s personality and attitude is out of their control, not be perceived as misunderstood? Exactly. They can’t.

relationship with Gus + Jamface

If you observe how Gus is With Prescott (who, yes, is his son), you would probably notice how much he apparently cares for him- however, if you do some research and inference into the two character’s interactions, it is evident that Gus far from a good parent.

Would i go as far as to say he is partially emotionally neglective? Absolutely.

Jamface is put on a metaphoric pedestal by Gus (who yes, is also his dad… Jamface and Prescott are brothers, shock, horror..) all because of Jamfaces ‘excellent projector skills!’

Wanna know whos BETTER at working on projectors? Gremlin prescott.

And its not as if Gus doesn’t know this, either, during the investigation into who sabotaged the projectors, Gus outright states that prescott would never destroy the projectors.

“But Prescott LOVES working on the projectors, hed never destroy them on purpose’”

Would he though?

If it was fuled on jealousy, yes, he would.

Prescott and jam face are shown to have a conflicting relationship right from the start. (Sorry Prescott x jam face shippers, but that would never work out :) )

And Prescott is shown to be overly jealous of jam-faces position. He is dubbed the ‘best mechanic in wasteland’ despite this not actually being true…

Could jam face single handedly build multiple intricate interactive dioramas depicting historical events in lore, and build a literal war machine for the sake of someone else?

I think the answer we are looking for here is No.

So why would Gus give jam face a job and title that he doesn’t exactly live up to, and give Prescott the boring job of working in the gag factory… its basically like forcing the worlds smartest mathematician to work a 9/5 office job for the rest of their lives, and giving the person with no experience of working a complex job, a job as a doctor…

Prescott even says to Gus that he does not listen to him, in his plans to upgrade the projectors… so we can infer from this that gus doesnt really give a shit about what he has to say. And whats even worse is that Gus rarely believes in prescotts ability to do well… as we see in the first part of EM2, where states “i knew i shouldn’tve let Prescott make that amplifier” the fact that HE KNEW gives us the impression that he had thought on it before hand, which leads us only to believe that Gus doesn’t think to greatly of his OWN SON’S ideas and abilities, which in turn is a negative attitude to have towards a person, regardless.

Gus simply favourites Jam-face over Prescott, which actually happens to be the main reason as to why he turns ‘bad’, so to speak. Prescott becomes desperate to appease his father, attempting to persuade him to give him the projector job, and when he realises that he isn’t getting the appreciation and approval that he wants, he turns to the only person willing to help him- the mad doctor.

Which leaves him to be backstabbed in the end- ironic right?

Shame on you, Gus.

how does Gremlin Prescott respond to criticism?

Gremlin Prescott is presented as being highly intelligent, and that wouldn’t exactly be false either, because he IS highly intelligent. However, upon being faced with criticism of any kind- such as Gus disregarding his ideas of upgrading the projectors, or Goofy not using his supercharger machine to filter thinner out of Ostown, be becomes rather grumpy over it, and so he should. (To be fair, Goofy wasn’t even using the supercharger properly in the first place, you are actually only supposed to use one.)

Not to be bias as an Epic Mickey two speed-runner, but Prescotts supercharger method during the first portion of the game is actually proven to be both effective, and fast! And a time saver for us speed runners… (thank you Prescott<3) Despite the after effects being a spray of thinner at various houses, it does actually get the job done,

Need a faster way of cleaning up the thinner in Ostown? Prescott provided the perfect solution!

And to add to this, Jam-face was the one who suggested using the three pumps as they are, whereas Prescott basically went a step further and provided a faster method which requires less pump use- and judging by the interaction between the two characters, we can only assume that this was another one of Prescott’s attempts to ‘prove himself’ to Gus, and to prove that he is better than Jam-face- which, he is!

And not to mention, Prescott also gets rather offended when someone tries to insult his intelligence- he saw Gus putting him in charge of the gag factory, as a criticism to his work, and therefore, he is slowly driven mad by it, Which unfortunately leads to his downfall.

This would again, proves him to be misunderstood, as the people he is trying to prove himself to are critical to his ideas, that are actually useful; they are not giving him a fair chance.

I might also add, Prescott will stop at nothing to prove himself correct. Going back to what i was saying with Goofy misusing the supercharged pumps, when he misuses them, Prescott snaps at him for doing so, only because after misusing them, Goofy decides on using jam-face’s method! (Idiot.)

Further on this, if you use prescotts method of clearing the thinner, he sounds certain that they would work, just like he said, in a rather bothered tone.

In conclusion to this, Prescott is just one of these people who- if questioned when he knows he is correct, he will willingly put up a protest!

gps waisted potential

Unsurprisingly, due to Prescott being given an awful job at the gag factory, he has naturally lost his potential to do well.

He blames Gus for wasting his talent- i quote

“My talents were wasted in the gag factory, wasted by you, Gus!”

Prescott’s idea of a place where he would be appreciated, is a dark, isolated and potentially dangerous abandoned float-yard- which perhaps implies that he does not believe he will ever be appreciated, hence the isolated area?

However you look at it, this definitely damaged Prescotts self esteem when it came to his works, he was constantly told by the mad doctor that “no-one could defeat” him, Despite Mickey and Co defeating him at the end of the second section of the game…

If you complete a flawless paint path for the dioramas (fix all 3 of them no with no mistakes), there is a section of dialogue between Abe and Prescott which is recited to Mickey, Gus and Oswald when they ask if he has heard from him.

To summarise, Prescott explains to Abe that what he is doing is for the benefit of himself, and that he is “going to a place where he will be appreciated”, he also states that “soon, everyone will remember his name.” Whether people will remember him for something good or bad is never actually stated, but we can infer it to be bad, as Prescott appeared to want to take over wasteland in vengeance against all who disliked him, maybe for the mad Doctor?

Gremlin prescott clearly has some kind of trust problems.

Abe appears to be one of the VERY few people (robots) that Prescott trusts, as the news does eventually get back to him that Mickey, Gus and Oswald are looking for him- which he is not impressed by… :|

So, would wasted potential be a factor for Prescott being misunderstood? I would say yes, as this is yet again, another reason for him to feel the need to lash out, and side with the mad doctor, one of the only people who seemed to appreciate him.

Para6: the telephone incident

For those unaware, Gremlin prescott dismantled (murdered) mickeys telephone in the thinner path of EM1, which happens to be the true ending… He did this because the telephone lured him into a safe, locked him inside and took his wrench; this is referred to by the fandom as the ‘telephone incident.’

To be blunt here, Being locked in a safe must’ve caused prescott some form of trauma- if he felt that strongly about being locked in there. What we could also infer from the incident is that prescott is INCREDIBLY vengeful; its not every day you see a person commit murder over being trapped somewhere…

And this incident could have influenced Prescott’s later actions in the game, potentially forming more of a hatred against Gus for putting the telephone back together.

Conclusion!

What conclusions could we make from this? Well, Prescott is a clearly complex character, who is evidently misunderstood. He struggles to trust people due to his past experiences, and because of the way he had been treated by Gus, having his work overlooked, he latched onto a person who turned out to not have the best intentions… we’ve heard this story before, haven’t we?

This is a common occurrence in antagonists, and the sad part about this particular situation is, Prescott looks up to the mad doctor as a father figure- and if the mad doctor didn’t turn out to be a twat, they could’ve been the perfect duo…

Maybe in another universe, folks!

[what-am-i-outside-my-google-tabs]

You watch Bang Brave Bang Bravern and you ask yourself, how much of this was intentional and how much casual.

The girl in the box is an actual child. We see her grown up in the future, and her face and body changed, she is a child and she get adopted and watch cartoon and does not have a romantic relationship with one of the leads. But her body is still sexy, and in the beach episode she have a bikini and low waist jeans, and her tits giggle, and it is normal for tits to giggle, but was this fanservice for the classic mecha public, was it a critic to how these character are represented. She is a baby, but we see a shot of her ass, and we are not sure if the very cis very male director didn't do this scene as a consolation price to the men forced to draw oiled abs and men grinding on each others.

The CIA waterboard the protagonist, and it is a traumatic experience not even being saved and thanked can cancel out. There are two other waterboarding scenes after, one against a child and one against a giant robot. They both play comedically, because they both fail. It is just to show how the genre of the story changed, from real robot to super robot, or does it means more? Is it a critic to the system of torturing people to get information, because it will never function, and maybe waterboarding a giant robot will not get you anything, or is it just for laugh?

And you ask yourself, why are you asking these questions on a gay mecha anime, and well, i would not ask these questions if it was not a gay mecha anime.

It is a show decided to change genre three times and mix real robot and super robots in a gay romance that save the worls, and it is meant to be a love story to the old super robot genre, and to aks the question of why these type of stories exists. Maybe i should ask myself these questions.

They reference evangelion, but they are not able to give a woman character space, and you have no idea if it is for parody or for being unable to do it. There is an autistic fujoshi, and she is only an autistic fujoshi. There is the woman love the protagonist, and she save his life, but she is not important to the plot to she stay on the sideline. They tell you the military is not that bad, and you close your eyes to it because it is set in a not so far future and maybe things have changed, and than they give you two men singing a love song to each others shirtless.

And then the story tell you that the desire to die honorably, the very japanese feeling of getting out in a spectacle, is not good. It is actually what the evil guys want, to die honorably. You deserve to live, and you deserve to want to live. You can say no and hope in a future with the men you love. And if you want to live any diegetic explication for the super robot effects will disappear, and people will be able to transfer you the energy to resuscitate the commands and transform in the final gold form, and your hairs get longer and you can now defeat the final main guy, a giant angel created from the deaths of your other enemies. And since now everything does not need anymore to make sense, your partner is send to you again, for a third time, and you want to kill him for what he put you thought but you take his hand and the sky is blue and everyone is happy and the world is saved.

Where does the comedy end. Where do the serious thoughts start. How does the fanservice, and which kind of fanservice, control the plot. And it is a gay mecha show.