#lore and stuff likely to shift somewhat

[sunset-peril]

She took so looonngggg, BUT SHE IS FINISHED!!

It took so long to design her in part because I needed to know designs for several other characters before I could design her, so mega thank you to my friend Pupwin over on DA for selling me designs for the last two characters I needed 😂

This is Farren, aka Venus, Ardent. She’s a main character in my Kingdom of Gulior series, which is basically an original world of mine that I created by smashing the pieces of old AUs, fanfics, and original projects together. The plot is primarily my old Apollo Justice Trilogy AU, smashed together with half the plot of some even older Sonic stuff, and Farren here was originally Athena Cykes. 

She is a 23 year old Tainted Parringale who recently finished her Doctorate of Psychology. She was rescued from terrible circumstances in the Territories of Shiodal 5 years ago and shortly thereafter arrested and convicted of murdering the woman who killed her 3-year-old son, Lazar. She is currently on parole, as evident by her monitor, and was adopted by…. well, I haven’t decided what his exact title is, but he’s pretty much the director of the government department that controls all Guliorian lawyers. Like FBI director meets lawyer kinda deal. He got her sentence greatly reduced and then adopted her, then after she finished serving time got her a job with him to prove herself (and finish school) and then found her her current job with his old childhood friend at a non-traditional law firm. Due to her legal history, she cannot become a lawyer, but she currently serves as a courtroom psychologist. She has two older siblings, who are both about 30 years old. Her co-worker Arion (an actual lawyer, who is still transitioning from being a public defender and really would rather be a civil lawyer) rehabilitates horses in his spare time and thinks she should go into therapy (equine-assisted, specifically) since her legal career is under so many restrictions. 

Her biological mother is deceased, having died before she could be brought to trial as an alleged bioterrorist. Her mother’s brother is also currently in prison, convicted of killing his sister.

Kingdom of Gulior Masterlist

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS x Warrior Cats AU (part 1): That boy can meow!

Names and a huge inspiration credits to @clintbeefwoods!

(part 2)

[supernovafics]

hiiii i just read your entire i’ll be there for you universe and I’M OBSESSED❤️❤️ Friends to lovers is my favourite trope ever and I love how you wrote a cute slow burn without characters being toxic and mean towards each other bc that happens a lot!

I was wondering how would their parents react to them being together?? And when do they decide to tell their parents, and how it goes down? It’s totally okay if you don’t want to write it but I thought it might be cute!🌸🌸

𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑

"i'll be there for you" universe masterlist

pairing: bestfriend!roommate!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 2.3k words

warnings: explicit language, fluff, implied smut, very slight parent drama

summary: in which your parents finally find out that you and steve are dating 

author's note: thanks for the request! (also for @hippiefairy02 since you requested basically the same thing like a week ago lol). i didn’t really know how to end this one so it kinda just ends lol<3 enjoy though<333

general note: everything in this universe/series can be read as standalone oneshots but to understand the full “lore” it would prob be best to read the other stuff too<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Spring 1986

The movie became long forgotten after only the first twenty minutes, which was somewhat of a routine at this point. It was a good thing that you both had seen this one already. 

If you were to look back at who started everything this time around you’d toss the blame onto Steve for initiating the first kiss, but he’d put the blame on you for settling yourself close into his side and giving him a “certain look.”

You were far from thinking about who started what, though, because all you could focus on was the feel of Steve settled on top of you and his mouth against yours. 

Your hands started traveling underneath his plain white t-shirt and one of his took hold of your hip, teasingly slipping a finger or two beneath the waistband of your small pajama shorts. Your legs were tangled with his in a way that was a bit awkward because the couch was way too small to do anything completely comfortably, but you two were okay with making it work for the time being. 

You maneuvered a bit, attempting to push up so that your head could find the pillow that was leaning against the arm of the couch, and the abrupt movement made your forehead bump his.

It didn’t even hurt, but Steve still pulled back and looked at you concerned. “You okay?”

You nodded as you tilted your head up a bit to press a quick kiss against his nose. “I’m fine. You okay?”

“‘M good.” He nodded too and then slotted his lips against yours again.  

You were pulling away after only a second. “Wait, let’s switch. I feel like I’m gonna accidentally knee you or something.”

“Or we can just go to one of our rooms,” He suggested as his lips found your neck, which immediately made your eyes slip shut and you had to bite your lip to hold back the contented sigh that you wanted to let out. 

You almost said yes to Steve’s words, it would’ve been so easy to say yes, but you were trying to keep your thinking somewhat rational, so you shook your head instead. “If we do that, we’re not gonna come out for the rest of the night. And we said that we’d at least try to study for the test we have on Thursday once the movie’s over.”

“The movie we’re not watching,” He mumbled against your neck. 

“Still counts,” You said, lightly pushing him away, and he conceded as you shifted things around so that you were on top of him, settled nicely in his lap with your legs on either side of him. “See? Much better.” 

Before he could potentially say anything in response, you pushed a hand through his hair and leaned down to kiss him. His fingers started teasingly playing with the hem of your t-shirt before simply finding a home on your hips and squeezing you there. 

It was almost too obvious what should’ve happened next and both of you could feel the energy shifting into something a bit more heated, more needy. You would’ve lifted from his lap for a second so that he could slide down his sweatpants and boxers, and then you’d simply pull your underwear and shorts to the side because it would’ve been too much work to fully shimmy out of them. 

But then the phone started ringing in the kitchen and everything that felt like it was right on the verge of happening was pushed out of the window.  

You detached your mouth from Steve’s and sat up. “I’ll get it.”

He let out a groan, head falling back against the throw pillow and hands still on your hips. “Don’t.”

“We have six needy kids and a Robin, I think we have to answer it.”  

“Sadly, that makes sense,” His grip on you loosened and you finally maneuvered off of him after pressing a quick kiss against his forehead. 

You went to the kitchen, where the phone was, and picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hi,” It was easy to decipher your mom’s voice on the other end of the line. “What are you doing Saturday?”

It wasn’t surprising to you that your mom completely skipped past any sort of small talk; the “How are you’s” and “How’ve you been’s.” She always got straight to the point. 

“Me and Steve are gonna be out of town this weekend,” You answered. “I planned this whole date thing and we leave Friday night.” 

It was completely accidental; so accidental that at first, you didn’t even register what you had just told her.

“You and Steve are what?” 

“We’re gonna be in Chicago this weekend for—” You stopped abruptly, finally realizing what you said before. “Oh. Oh, yeah, um, we’re dating.” 

Her gasp was immediate. “Oh my God.”

You couldn’t decipher what that reaction was. She sounded surprised, definitely, but you couldn’t tell if it was a happy kind of surprise or upset.

“How long has it been?”

“A few months.” You shut your eyes then, bracing yourself for what you knew was about to be nothing short of an interrogation.

“What? Why haven’t you told us sooner?”

In all honesty, it wasn’t like either you or Steve were planning on keeping it from your parents forever, it had just never come up in the handful of conversations you’d had with them over the last few months. 

“It’s just, I don’t know. It hadn’t come up yet,” You ultimately answered. “And plus, you never really cared that much about my other relationships.”

“Sure, but Steve’s completely different. This is great!” She told you, and you inwardly sighed in relief that she was happy about the news; even though you were certain that you wouldn’t have cared about having her “approval” either way. “Does Christine know?” 

“No.” 

“Okay, I’m gonna call her right now,” Your mom told you, and you were actually perfectly okay with her ending the call with you right then to go call Steve’s mom instead. “Oh, this is so great!”

She was hanging up before you could say anything else and you were sighing as you placed the phone back on the hook.

“I’m sorry,” You told Steve as you joined him back on the couch. 

He looked at you, confused. “What happened?”

“I accidentally just told my mom that we’re dating, and now she’s calling your mom to tell her too.”  

“Oh, okay, that’s not that bad,” He shrugged. “I guess it had to happen eventually.”

“Yes, but I was kinda hoping that that day would be years from now. Like, when we sent out wedding invitations or something.” 

In your head, telling your friends about you and Steve was one thing, but telling your parents was something entirely different. Your friends were heavily involved in your life, and you knew that you couldn’t keep it from them forever because of that; and then it eventually just felt right to finally be honest about it, anyway. 

Telling your parents, on the other hand, was the farthest thing from your mind. 

“They would probably kill us if we did that. Especially our moms because you know that they’re gonna wanna be involved in the whole thing,” Steve told you, and you knew he was right. 

There were some few and far in-between moments where your parents would switch and pretend to be real parents that were actually involved in their kid’s life. Usually, it only happened during the holidays; Christmases spent pretending that you were a happy and normal family or Thanksgivings that were used to prove the same thing. In a way, it made sense for this news to warrant that same kind of treatment.

You groaned as you leaned further into Steve. “I hate that you’re right.”

Your mom was calling back barely twenty minutes later, right as the two of you were in the middle picking up where you had left off before the first call. Steve answered that time, pulling his sweatpants back up and heading over to the kitchen, and you slipped your shirt back over your head.

“Oh, um, yeah, that’s fine. That night is good,” You heard him say. “We’ll be there.”

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion at whatever he was agreeing to right then.  

He hung up a few moments later and gave you an apologetic look. “Okay, now I’m the one that needs to say sorry.”

“What happened?”

“It was your mom,” Steve started as he sat next to you again. “She said she talked to my mom and they’re both really happy about us dating. And they decided that they wanna have a “celebratory dinner” kind of thing with us.”

“No.”

Steve nodded. “It’s gonna be at your parent’s house on Thursday since she knows that we’re going to Chicago for the weekend. I couldn’t think of an excuse on the spot, so I was just agreeing.”

“Oh, God. I feel like this is gonna be like Thanksgiving all over again.”

“Hopefully the dessert is better this time around,” He said, attempting to lighten the mood, and you let out a laugh. 

“If not, then we will definitely be ending the night at Third Street,” You told him and he nodded in agreement before pulling you into his lap. 

“Can we please go to my room?” He asked, arms circling around you. “I feel like the couch is cursed.”

You smiled, lips finding his for a brief second. “Okay, yes, I’ll allow it.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

This night didn’t feel anything like the Thanksgiving dinner that you and Steve had been forced to have all those months ago; at least, not at first. During that night, your parents had gone on and on about their ski trip that was coming up and there were barely any moments where the conversation was focused on you and Steve. 

Now things were different because all they cared about was talking about you two, which did make sense given the reasoning for the dinner. But still, you knew your parents, and this amount of excited fanfare surrounding the two of you felt entirely unexpected. 

Your dad was jokingly giving his “stamp of approval” for the relationship, and Steve’s dad was saying something about how you’d always been a good influence on Steve. And then your moms went on tangent after tangent going down memory lane and telling stories about you and Steve as kids. 

“I’d been hoping this would happen ever since the cruise,” Christine said, a happy smile on her face. “You two were practically attached at the hip the entire time, and that still hasn’t changed.” 

“Yes, you guys were always so cute together. Oh, and remember when you took each other to your proms? I think I still have the pictures somewhere,” Your mom said, smiling happily as well, and you honestly wouldn’t have even minded if she brought out the pictures. 

Eventually, though, things shifted, and toward the end of dinner, the conversation moved away from you and Steve. Instead, your parents started reminiscing about old moments from their collective friendship that didn’t involve you and Steve at all. This made sense to you; you knew that it could only be a matter of time before they finally started talking about themselves.   

With the topic of you and Steve long forgotten, you two slipped away from the table, no one noticing or stopping you, and retreated to your old bedroom that was just down the hall. 

You sat at the foot of your old bed and watched as Steve simply walked around, taking a look at the things that you had decided to leave behind and not bring along to the apartment. 

You kicked your shoes off and crossed your legs under you. “Tonight actually hasn’t been completely unbearable.” 

“Yeah, weirdly, it hasn’t,” Steve agreed as he walked over to you and leaned down to press a kiss against the top of your head. “There’s no dessert though, so we’ll have to go to Third Street.”

“Do you think they’d notice if we slipped out of my window right now?” 

He laughed a bit. “Fifty-fifty shot.”

“Personally, I wouldn’t mind taking those odds,” You said, smiling up at him. 

“I would say okay, but I think I have to be the reasonable one here and say that we should just walk out the front door like normal people.”

His words only made you smile wider because usually, it was you who would say the logical thing to do in situations.

“We’ve swapped roles tonight,” You said as you stood up and put your shoes back on. “I think you do a great job as the reasonable one.” 

“I don’t like it. You can have that job back after tonight,” He told you, smiling as his hand found yours.

You only nodded as you and he headed out of your bedroom. Your parents were still at the dining table, laughing about something that you didn’t hear. 

“Hey, we’re gonna head out. We have to wake up early tomorrow, so yeah,” You said, pulling their attention onto you and Steve. It was a lie, but it felt like it would be a plausible enough excuse. “Thanks for tonight.” 

“Yeah, it was great,” Steve agreed with a quick nod. 

A slew of “Goodnight’s” and “Drive safe’s” came from your parents, which you two nodded and smiled at before exiting your house. 

You let out a sigh of relief once you were sat in the passenger seat of Steve’s car. 

The night hadn’t been horrible, you’d experienced much worse dinners with your parents. But that didn’t mean that you weren’t glad that this one was over. 

“So, are we gonna be basic tonight and do milkshakes, or have whatever pie Mary made for the night?” You asked as you played with the radio and then left it on a station that you’d probably end up changing in a minute or two. 

Steve took a quick glance at you and smiled. “If she made apple, then I think the answer is obvious.”

“Very true,” You nodded and smiled back at him. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(requests are open for stuff you wanna see in the universe/series!🫶🏾)

[yeoshii]

Thinking about byler in S4 again, and im just like srsly thinking like it would make kind of no sense if byler doesnt become somewhat canon in S5. Listen I was a little late to the byler party and started shipping them when S4 came out, the only reason I started shipping them tho was because I was picking up on some weird ass things that MIKE was doing towards will. I was apart of the GA before S4 I never really analyzed the show or dove deeper (I was also a brief mileven shipper from s1-s2, stopped being one during s3 cause I just thought mike was being such an ass towards el who I love) Anyways my point is that I didnt really care to dive deeper into the show cause I thought it was just lore and non romantic stuff I would find, and I like being suprised idk. Then in S4 the airport scene, the mutiple heart to heart moments they have, the looks he was giving will mutiple times throughout the whole season. That’s what made me be like ok wtf is going on w mike, ESP the roller rink fight the whole “we’re friends” X2 like im sorry that IS a romantic line ? I srsly cant believe ppl try to even deny that 😔 So then after those scenes I found out there was a whole community who shipped them, and reading the theories + analyses of their relationship just made everything make so much more sense. I feel like me and everyone who didnt ship byler were so confused w his sudden shift in personality in S3 also, esp towards will which is just weird. Making homophobic comments towards ur supposed bsf isnt just due to hormones that gotta be an emotional or environmental shift. We know that obv he wasnt hanging out w anyone new? So it had to be some sort of emotional shift, for him to just suddenly become sort of homophobic, even though hes stuck up for will when homophobic comments were made about him before?!?!?! Like it just makes NO SENSE , if he was just hurt by the things will had said in that rain arguement he couldve said smth else equally hurtful without being homophobic. Anyways off track my point is why would they make byler so much more noticeable in S4 to the point where it is breaking through to the GA, and it wasnt even just wills feeling that u could pickup on it as I said before I noticed things more from mike. I was one of the fans that took things at face value too so if theyre making things THAT OBVIOUS it has to mean something 😭 Idk if byler doesnt become canon and we are all just being queerbaited to the high heavens that will just make absolutely no sense to me.

[yinyuedijun]

bofurin trio in feudal japan | youkai au

inuyasha-esque au featuring the wbk characters as youkai and other feudal era figures. I watched too much inuyasha as a child and you can tell lol

kitsune!suo x fem!reader hcs here

sakura haruka | nekomata-possessed human

→ a nekomata possessed him while he was still in the womb. its memories are gone, but its powers remained. consequently, sakura was born as a human with nekomata features (including his black & white hair, superhuman strength, and a tendency to severely misbehave).

→ he can switch completely between forms. he cannot shift into the form of another human or radically change his human appearance, however.

→ he tends to prefer existing in his human form. (If he spends too long in his nekomata form, he becomes afraid that he'll forget how to be a human and permanently stay a monster.)

→ when he gets embarrassed or very emotional, his ears and two tails come out.

→ suo teases him a lot for this and will try to provoke it as much as possible lmao. he likes to offer sakura towels and ask him to dance whenever his tails are out. (the first time this happened, sakura tried to maul him lol)

→ growing up, sakura was referred to as a "demon child" and ostracized his whole life. after a demon attack on their village, sakura was blamed and his parents were killed for having given birth to him. he escaped to the mountains (where nekomata tend to hide) and lived mostly as a cat for some time before re-entering human society due to nirei.

→ this is why he's so poorly socialized and literally has feral cat energy btw lol

→ misses and longs for human connection, but is also afraid of it!

→ hates vegetables because he is a cat, likes meat because he is a cat, and likes eggs because his mom used to cook them a lot.

art by yoshitaka amano

nirei akihiro | human onmyouji

→ an onmyouji related by blood to the abe clan. originally a young and talented officer working at the bureau of onmyou, he became frustrated (frightened) with its politics and left for the private sector. he loses the court official hat, but he keeps the clothes because I think they're pretty 👍

→ his talents mainly lie in astronomy, divination, and calendar-making. very analytical stuff!

→ due to his family having been affected by disease spirits when he was younger, he has a strong wish to become skilled in exorcisms and always attempts to engage with evil spirits and demons to build experience.

→ chronicles his encounters with the supernatural, at first for his own learning, but now because he wants to put together a publication to help others interested in recognising supernatural phenomena and understanding common exorcism practices.

→ at some point, nirei was privately contracted to perform a purification ritual at a small mountain village. he heard stories about a boar demon that had been causing problems, so he went to go search for it, and it nearly killed him. sakura (living in his nekomata form) happened to be nearby at this time and saved him. he expected nirei to try to attack him or run at this point, but nirei instead tried to communicate with sakura, despite his monstrous appearance.

→ upon realising that sakura could actually adopt a human form, nirei convinced him to go back to the mountain village with him by offering to treat him to oyakodon.

→ the villagers were somewhat frightened by his appearance, but warmed up when nirei explained that sakura had killed the boar.

pictured above are japanese works depicting kitsune, which suo would be considered, but some of the below is influenced by lore regarding the related chinese myth of the huli jing

suo hayato | nine-tailed fox spirit

→ a nine-tailed fox spirit who was originally quite powerful; however, his hoshi no tama was stolen in a fight with a demon, which left him weak and nearly dead.

→ after these events, took refuge in a village with an inari shrine and acted as their guardian deity for some time as an act of gratitude.

→ having lost his hoshi no tama, suo's powers are now limited but still substantial. notably, he can still shapeshift freely between a number of forms—his original form of the common fox, different human appearances, etc.—but he cannot adopt his true form of a giant nine-tailed fox.

→ in his typical disguise, he is indistinguishable from regular humans. however, if you manage to catch his shadow in the light of a full moon, it reveals his true ears and nine tails. (based on this art!)

→ his disguises are otherwise so skilled that even other youkai and animals have difficulty recognising him. however, all dogs can sense fox spirits and are consequently terrified of suo. suo, himself, prefers not to interact with dogs.

→ while sakura did not immediately recognize suo as a youkai, he correctly identified him as a shitty person at his core (lol) and was later unsurprised to learn that suo was a kitsune. ("oh, the worst kind of demon.")

→ on the other hand, suo immediately recognized that sakura was a nekomata lol

→ being a fox spirit, suo is quite skilled in jujutsu and eventually trains nirei in exorcisms and/or demon extermination techniques.

→ sakura has a preference to travel and hunt demons at night, partly because there are fewer people around to make a spectacle of him, and partly because it's just his inclination as a cat. since nirei is a human and cannot see well in the dark (unlike his two youkai companions), suo lights up mountain pathways with kitsunebi to allow nirei to see.

→ in addition to enjoying tea and sweets, suo likes aburaage (since he is a fox spirit). if you offer aburaage to the kami at a shrine, there's a 9/10 chance that suo will come by and eat it before any of inari's actual messengers can visit.

[lady-ashfade]

Following The Tune

Percy Jackson x UnknownGod! Half-blood reader. (The reader is the child of the “Unknown” god, other wise known as Caias)

—£ Again, I have not finish the books so I’m making up my own gods/plot and stuff. I just find it fun. Also, reader has a sword like Percy, the pen.

—£ This is just a plot i made up, I just have a oc story in like so I did it! Please don’t hate because it has nothing to do with anything really (Or maybe it does)

—£ Warnings: Slight!Oc!Reader, slight angst, new lore to follow, all over the place, comfort.

The moment you laid your eyes on Percy Jackson- you knew he was different. Everything about him sang a different song the rest here. It was a familiar tone. When you learnt of what he had to face to get here made you guilty, knowing while you were dry and safe he had to face that same doom you faced.

“Maybe, just maybe…” you whispered while he slept. He look almost peaceful but the crinkle in his brows said another thing. Taking a step forward you close your eyes and tried to listen for something. Your senses elevate as you tried to sniff him out. Every was calling out but you couldn’t hold it for too long.

A creek in the floor boards threw you off and took you out of your powers, turning around there stood annabeth with a raised brow and her arms crossed. “I told you not to be in here.” You sighed and picked up your bag. Walking passed her and out of the door but she caught your wrist in her hands. “What did you feel?”

Snatching your arm away from her, a annoyed huff left your lips. “Nothing, not like you ever listen anyway.” You made it out the door before she could say anything to stop you. Now, you didn’t hate annabeth. It was just, no one ever liked to listen to you. She always thought she knew everything and when someone needed something from you- They tried to suck up to you.

But in the years you could call her somewhat of a friend, like everyone else. But there was no trust.

Which is way you made it out of the camp in the same way you always have, with no one noticing. You were the only half-blood in your cabin, no one to stick with at times. So being alone made it easy to slip away from time to time but it was always dangerous to go out. But you always had luck on your side.

Taking a step through the barrier you smiled feeling the human feeling of the air. Making your way to the road you followed, stopped a few times to figure your way to things. Took a few buses with the money you hoarded. 

Smirking when you stepped out on the pavement at your destination. It stunk. The streets sang with chatting of all the mortals, and the smell of greasy food. “Home.” Is what it reminded you of but there was a stench you didn’t like but continued to go about your way into the apartment building.

The empty cabin was looked over by Chiron and Grover, Luke standing by with his arm crossed. “How can they keep getting out like that? I don’t understand.” Grover pondered his thoughts out loud. “Get it from their farther.” Luke commented and shrugged, he smirked again at the thought of you.

“They’ll be safe, hopefully. Does anyone know why they lift this time?” Chiron looked at the boys as the taller one just shrugged again almost uninterested. Grocer shifted nervously and he looked down trying to not say anything but he gave up when the attention was on him.

“They visited Percy before they left. I don’t know why, maybe that has something to do with it?” The older man sighed and closed his eyes, the stress lines already showing. He nodded and walked out without a word while the boys looked at each other. It was a worried look but all they could do was await your return.

It was stupid. He was stupid. He smelled. The apartment smelled of beer that burned your noses and gave you a headache. All he did was sit on the couch and scream at the computer in his lap as you stared at him behind the wall. He was to busy to hear the door open. But you were thankful as his attention was so focused on the screen that he didn’t notice you. All you had to do was focus.

Closing your eyes you calm yourself and let your senses take over and watch for you. Slowly you got ahold of his mind which was dirty to look at, that it made you feel filthy. Making him tired you heard him yawn and feel his body start to give up. Opening your eyes you watch him drift off while he was confused as to why he felt so tired.

Once he was out cold you walked around the apartment with one idea in mind. To find a photo. Sally Jackson and her younger son, Percy Jackson. They weren’t hard to find and you found a wall of them on in the hallway. So many pictures of the family. He was so little and smiling with no clue of the hard world he knew now, his mother still by his side. But all of them had Gabe in them while little Percy glares daggers at him.

Moving on you looked on the tables for just a single photo to take back to him, one small memory to have with him. Then one image become clear.

“Don’t go to far,” her voice sounded lovely. The sun beaming down on the two of them, the sound of waves soothed the soul. “I wouldn’t mom.” It was Percy, you could seem them clearly. The day was beautiful. She smiled at her son as she watches him run off towards the waves, she knew. Watching him play in the water gave a high pitched sound in your ears.

This memory was different. You didn’t search for it. It was a forbidden memory.

The scene became dark and windy. No one seemed to notice and continued to play and smiled like they were. The waves clashed harder on the shore as the wind whistled through the ears. In the both places you covered your ears and tried to pull yourself out of it but nothing was working. Thunder clashed down from the clouds near the sand you walked one, making you jump each time.

“You wish to know? Weak, so very weak. I only show the truth little one,” the darken voice made you tense and watch black smoke come closer as it swallowed everything up. “Just like your father, always looking for trouble. But unlike him, you aren’t as well hidden.” Sometime touched your face, making you scream out in pain as it stung your cheek.

“Let this be known.”

You were pulled out, crushing over for your breath. Placing a hand up on your cheek you felt the pain and wet feeling, pulling it back you saw the red stain. “Blood.” Panicked you looked at the picture that gave you the vision and grabbed ahold of it. It was a core memory, one not to be messed with. Grabbing ahold of it you threw it in your bag quickly.

You frozen when you smelled that dreadful smell again, the sound of something heavy making the flooring creek. Turning around slightly your eyes went wide and took a step back trying to keep yourself from screaming. The large black figure with claws bigger then your face as it’s body took up all the hallway it squeezed itself into. It was your blood. It smelled you.

The green scales on it’s legs you could see made you feel sick, the empty face made you go white. Sprinting to the open window where the fire escaped was it knew what you were going to do and followed you, reaching out for you. Jumping over the railing and down the steps you cried out in fear as it crawled down the building. The screeching alone made you go crazy.

It was one of the faceless. Something your father had made, something that should have been on your side. But your father lost his war to hades and everything had been taken from him. He went into hiding, ignoring the prayers to him and turned his back on mortals. Until he had you. One last chance to be forgiven and have something to his name.

But he was coward, he lost his war and mind. There was nothing in him that you wanted to call your father, for his creations killed your mother. Maybe that’s why you wanted Percy to have the one thing you did not. Something to look at and never forget her face, her smile, the warmth.

“No, No. Nope.” You jumped down and the other way into the alleyway to get out of sight from people. From your pocket a pen, the cape flipped off and the shining blade lit up the shade. The figure come into the alley and looked at you, moving so slowly towards you. It wasn’t a smart choice but your parent wasn’t known for his smarts. But fleeing was.

Just one step…

Blackness started to take over your vision and you limped over the camp line, holding your stomach as something warm and sticky leaked all over your shirt. You used all your might to get to the camp alive, once you did your body gave out. Muffed voices called out to you but you couldn’t see clearly as blurry outlines leaned over you. When you were picked up the last thing you could remember was someone calling’s your name but you didn’t know who.

Percy watch in confusion as someone was rushed away, no one was saying anything. They were blood red, huge cuts across their shirt and skin. As he stared at them he could remember something he saw in a dream. That face…was watching him for a moment while he slept.

Something blinding hit his eyes and made him turn away. He blinked a few times and stepped back to see what it was. A brown frame facedown in the grass, it looked broken and bloody. He bends down and picked up the backpack, then the picture frame.

“Don’t go too far Percy.”

He saw his mom standing in a sunhat while her hair blew over her face, her arm wrapped around his smaller body. The cartoon shark trunks made him cringe, he used to never go swimming without them. This was a picture of him and his mom….What was it doing here? And why was it with someone he didn’t know.

The frame was broken, the glass shattered but he managed to pull the picture out and stand up when Grover called for him. He threw the bag over his shoulders and followed to the room were they had brought the camper he didn’t know. Percy refused to leave, he needed to talk to them. Everything was so confusing and maybe he could get some answers.

He stood at the corner of your room while watching over you, almost protectively. Percy clings onto the photo of his mom, while staying with you. Even started to eat lunch in your room and desperately waited for you to wake. You mumbled in your sleep while panicked and sweating up a storm. The meds they have you took longer to work and the cut on your cheek seemed to stay black while healing, a permanent scar.

“Percy…” the soft voice caught him off guard. Looking at you he noticed you still out like a light. You repeated the words his mother said just as sweet and caring.

Twitching in the bed, you started to groan louder and try to speak but nothing back out of your mouth. Seeing such destress made him scared, it was unlike anything he has seen before. “Y/n.” He walked close to the bed. He learned your name from the others.

“Wake up,” he shook you slightly in hopes to make you somehow wake up. Your body felt hot, too hot. “You’re freaking me out.” Maybe if I hit them with a pillow it will work, he thought to himself. A few seconds of pushing your shoulders and calling your name, he finally saw your eyes open for the first time.

Shifting your eyes in the light and away from the blurry vision you were spooked when something grabbed ahold of you. Jumping back you shoved his hands away, going as far back as possible. The last thing you remember was the faceless creature.

But you didn’t see the creature, but a boy with his hands held out in front of himself. The look on his face matching the slight fear and confusion you felt. “Percy?” You whispered and tilted your head to the side. He nodded and slowly lowered his arms while looking over you for any sign not to trust you. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I get that a lot.” He half joked full of sarcasms.

“No, no. You need to leave.” Your hands grip the side of the bed. It clicked in his brain that you didn’t move from your curled up place on the bed, your body still tense and shaking. You were scared of him.

“I’m not going to hurt you- Really, I just want answers.” He inched back to make you more comfortable. You watch him point to the corner, “You had a picture of me and my mom, why?” You look at the photo on the table and then back to him. You kept quiet and looked at the door trying to get him to leave but he didn’t budge.

His nose let out of huff, “Look, I’m not mad- Kinda weirded out but, I just want need some type of answer. No one around me tells me anything. Just give me something.” That’s when you saw him, truly saw him.

You looked at your younger self, standing before you with teary eyes while holding themselves close. No one wanted anything to do with you. It was easy to be forgotten and bullied. A nobody begging for a chance to prove themselves. Percy Jackson was just searching for a place in this world like you.

“I saw you the night before you came. I saw your mother, I saw everything happening but I had no clue.” Pulling your legs up and crossing them while covering yourself with your arms. “You deserve a photo of her, something I never had. Sometimes i follow the tone that’s showed to me,” Percy sat down on the bed listening to your story with all his attention and you could see his guilt, sadness and confusion.

“I heard the tone when I lost my mom, when I was claimed,” you look at the bed next to you, “And when i saw you enter the camp.”

“What does that mean?” Your shoulders go up and down as you hum without a true answer. “That you’re important.” His own shoulders drop down as he looked down at the floor in defeat. He got answers with the price of more questions

It was silent in the room. It was slightly uncomfortable but you could handle it. Then he spoke up, “Thank you by the way, it’s nice to see her.” You meet his eyes once’s again.

“You’re welcome, Percy.” Both your lips curled into a small smile. Maybe new friends were to be made this year.

[tumblingxelian]

The "real" Batman

I see people complain about the emphasis some people put on Batmans more negative character traits a lot.

"That's not the real Batman, that's flanderiztion, fanon, a few bad but popular adaptions, the 90's only" and the like are common refrains and it really gets to me. Cos see, while I am aware no incarnation of Batman is totally one note, I emphasize the more negative sides of Batman for reasons that aren't "Edgy, badass, GRRR, Toxic masculinity woooh" bullshit and I hate being dismissed as such.

So, here's why I do it:

First is because of general frustration at the dismissal of any incarnation of Batman, regardless of popularity, or ongoing presence in the main-line comics and timelines, being invalid. IE, the "HE's not the real Batman so he doesn't count" when he canonically is, & as done stuff like that.

60s/80s Batman smiles after sending a purse snatcher away in an Ambulance, kidnaps & others relies on torture style interrogations. Just like 90s/2000's Batman threatens people with assault in prison & looms over a Mugger he slammed so hard into a wall it left a giant blood splatter.

It is fair to ague that brutality is not all of what he is, that's valid. But that side of him is not something I feel one can just handwaved away as "not canon" & people doing so frustrate me in large part because it feels intellectually dishonest. Its refusing to engage with a metric ton of the canonical lore of a character they are discussing.

Secondly is the fact that a lot of the lore, history, character development, derailment, treatment, tone, framing and more for characters OTHER than Batman relies on him having a history of problematic behavior.

Cassandra basically living in a Bat-Cave with no civilian life or identity because Bruce is giving her what HE wants for himself even though its bad for both of them is just an example of a huge part of their dynamic. One that can be deeply damaging, self destructive and messy, but also makes perfect sense given the characters involved.

How Jason's entire shift in character and framing was done largely to insulate Bruce from criticism over his death, IE, Jason being characterized post death as violent, arrogant, not particularly bright and then coming back as a villain also ties into 20 something years of smearing his name to protect Bruce's.

Stephanie's entire character history begins falling apart if Batman doesn't treat her like the trash he did in canonical mainline comics, and leaves her with only a couple of borderline cameos at best. Hell, even 'new' stuff where he's "nicer" still has him do things like fake therapy appointments to trick her.

Hell, even Dick in a lot of incarnations as well as mainline comics at different times has a lot of issues that came from being raised/trained by Bruce. No, it isn't universal, but it is far too common & recurring of an element to just say "doesn't count!" & declare the discussion over.

& the thing is, when people say they want the "Real" batman or the "Good" Batman, they not only erase these characters histories. They don't replace it with anything worthwhile for anyone but Bruce himself.

If ignoring all that meant replacing it with stuff like Jason never died & or never became Red Hood & is a totally different character. Or Cassandra and Bruce having arcs about their obsessions with vigilantism at the expense of their personal lives, or Stephanie actually getting to be ROBIN. Then it would be something at least somewhat interesting to engage with. But they don't, instead Jason still became a supervillain & is the Red Hood, Stephanie still got fired if she was Robin at all.

They are either forgotten (Cass & Steph) or end up being warped (Jason) so their characters history, everything is different and all to better serve making Bruce look good. I really find it vexing that even in "Batman is not a jerk" stuff, he still warps the narrative to everyone else's detriments.

[yuurivoice]

Hi!

I’ve been a silent viewer for a little bit & I'm trying to get caught up. 

While watching your housewarming stream (congrats on the new studio btw!), & seeing/hearing about some stuff from the upcoming projects you/the team have been working on, I thought of something.

From what I could tell, it sounded like there may be a definitive “main listener” character in EoE who plays a specific, significant role in the story.

So, if EoE is the world that everyone in BitterSweet, Shattered, Lost & Found, etc. originated from before they became dreamers, is the listener in EoE supposed to be an amalgamation of all the listener characters from all the other series? Like, was the listener from EoE “split” into the dreamers we now know as Boo, Rook, Casper, etc.? (Similar to how there are multiple “multiverse” variations of Finn.) 

Or, will EoE be another instance where there are multiple listener characters that can branch off alongside the other original characters you introduced? (Like, Thomas gets his own listener, Evalas Finn gets his own listener, etc.)

Am I completely off with my interpretation? I fear I may be getting a little too lost in the sauce, & that I'm looking for information/lore that might not even be true or relevant. 

Anyway, I’m so excited to see how all of this pieces together in the end. Keep up the incredible work!

A little lost in the sauce, but I like your gumption! Short answer, there will be multiple listeners for SOME characters. Thomas most certainly will get one, but I haven't uncovered who or why they are.

What's really different about Evalas Finn's listener is that they're not really his listener. They're a member of a group whose POV will span multiple characters and interactions and are not tied to Finn in such a way that they are constantly in his pocket. While that is a tried and true way to do ASMR Roleplay things, I wanted a silent protagonist. Someone whose motivations are their own, and not so closely aligned with the characters they share scenes with.

Finn has secluded himself and kept secrets. What I realized in the now redacted EoE entry was that creating a character who just cares about Finn, or even had some motivation but ultimately had to be with him to function wasn't going far enough. We're in a fantasy setting in a world where I could do anything, with a clean slate and tons of options. It felt silly to just play the hits when we could get really interesting.

There's a key shift behind that and I'll just put it plainly.

I don't really care about selling smut tied to Echoes of Evalas. I've given up trying to voice every cut of meat so I could moan for money. I've given up on every relationship between character and listener being perfect and occasionally horny. The machine will continue running if I can't peddle my smut, and that means...not everything has to be a perfect, sexy, agreeable situation. It can get messy.

With that freedom.......it's a whole new world of options.

Now, I say that, but there is definitely spice pretty early on buttttt...it kinda serves a narrative purpose. The intimacy isn't just something that happens and is otherwise unbothered with the plot. It leads to some things!

What I think I'll discover is that my box I put myself in before this freedom was one of my own making due to listening to a handful of voices I let get under my skin...including my own.

There is something unique about this listener, but it will be at least somewhat clear early on. At least you'll have enough to start sniffing in the right direction!

[yurunivo]

A mechanical issue

Synopsis: making an unprecedented purchase from Fontaine might not have been so bad after all

Warnings: yandere, unhealthy relationships, power dynamics, Fatui era Scaramouche, mentions of experimentation, mentions of electrocution (to reader and scaramouche), english is not my first language, possible mischaracteriazation, female reader, no use of y/n, possible mistakes in relation to Genshin lore, practically gave up at the end, cursing.

Characters: Scaramouche x Fem!reader

Inspired by this and this

"She's beautiful!"

"She's stunning!"

"My my! I'll be on a run for my mora at this point!"

Those were the first words you heard upon opening your eyes. The gears in your head shifted, and the numb feeling in your arm spurred to life, all controlled by a specific set of precise handiwork. The last thing you heard before coming upon this situation were a few words from your creator. Robots remember everything, so of course you could rely on yourself for remembering what he said. You just couldn't rely on yourself to figure out what he said.

"I'm really excited for this one! Hm? You're awake already? Ah, good good. I thought I might have to force you to turn on. Now remember what you shall do, please the humans and don't let any mistake fall on your hands. Understood? Now, let's take another look at you one last time!"

How were you supposed to please the humans really? The only set of instructions manufactured into your head was to learn how to turn yourself off, the basic knowledge of teyvat that every human knows and the way to entertainment. Your creator really thought too much of you to actually know how you were supposed to please humans, whom you've heard are very hard to please. The auction house you were in at the moment was bustling with energy and people wanting to take you for themselves. Some looked devastated (as much as you knew anyway, not too reliable), some had this crazy, manic look in their eyes that just screamed "I want to win and there is nothing to stop me", while others were just eerily quiet, no word to escape their mouth nor no facial expression for you to poorly read. Still, the moment filled you with a foreign feeling, anxiousness, a human emotion likely. If you were sold off at this moment, how would the person that bought you be like as a person? Wicked, quiet or a pervert? The fact that you had no idea made you genuinely "scared" (if that's the right word). Your moments of over thinking and messing with your mechanic parts was interrupted with the sound of people bidding.

"2 million!"

"5 million!"

"10 million!"

Why the people were bidding over a mere mechanical doll that could be easily replaced with just a commission from the creator never failed to confuse you. Seriously, what was so special about a junk of metal that could sometimes do some basic stuff like entertainment when there were already jesters to do so? The mere thought of it made your gears spin until your body overheated with growing irritation. What was more frustrating is that you didn't know that you were irritated, it was just a feeling of discomfort that made you recoil yet you had no real word for it. After all, what can a automaton understand about emotions more than their creator?

After a few more screams and shouts of bidding and threats, the auction house went through a period of somewhat silence where only the rich rich were competing up until that point. The stakes rose up to 20 million, to 50 and even to 70. A noble man with a shit eating grin on his face was the one with the highest bid. Something told you that he was a bad person, an instinct perhaps? It's just the way that he looked that made you metaphorically shiver in disgust, yet the ever so calm look on your face remained. The room was filled with a palpable silence as the man rose up from his seat, determined to take you to his grubby hands away from the stand that you were surprisingly comfortable with, when another voice filled the room, so hoarse, yet so angelic that it sounded inhuman.

"100 million mora."

There was no sound, well maybe a few gasps, but the atmosphere just shifted to one of something. You couldn't understand what it was, perhaps jealousy? Looking up at your new investor, you felt the usually cold metallic material of your skin transition into a slightly warm temperature, because you couldn't deny that the man was beautiful, in a way where he could've been mistakened as a fair maiden. Maybe that was why he was so alluring in the first place. Lost in thought, you felt something pound from your heart. A beat, a real heart beat straight from your soul, or maybe in this situation your sentience.

"Going once, going twice. Sold for 100 million mora!"

That man's annoyingly loud voice wasn't in your head at that moment, up until he poked your head and returned you back to the world of the living where no such idle fantasies shall be allowed. The tightly bound ribbons on your hands loosened as you were just pushed aside to the indigo haired man. His men surrounded him, to which he, in a condescending, drawn out voice, told them to leave him alone, including you. A glance to his clothing made you figure out that he was an Inazuman with a particular style that you just couldn't put your finger on. Another glance to his porcelain hand led you to figure out that he was one like you. A doll. Well, maybe not completely a doll, but a puppet, an outcast to society, just like you were. Yet, for some odd reason concerning your own safety, you didn't ask him about it. His unfairly pretty face was scrunched up with a frown so sharp it could make a grown man cry, and with concern for yourself, nothing was asked between the two of you, the only sound being that of yours and the soldiers' foot steps rather than your non existent breathing.

Snezhnaya's weather was as cold as it was unwelcoming, the people in the Villages all seeming like they saw hell right before their eyes. No one looked happy nor pleasant from the cold tundra of the region, in fact they looked like they never wanted to be here in the first place. They bowed before the Fatui despite having the disdain visible in their eyes. They showed no respect for the military of the cryo archon and only showed their courtesy in visible disgust to not get killed right on the spot. Seeing how many layers they were wearing, you felt self conscious about your own, the ballerina outfit from Fontaine looking like a harsh and terrible contrast from the visible snow of the region.

The carriage that you were in was presumably empty, the only things filling it were your undeniable presence and your thoughts. The Fatui, an organization that was best not to engage with was now surrounding you with visible dislike. A thought went by your head, then another one. What would happen now that you were currently in their quarters? And what would the purpose for an entertainment piece be in a place of bloodshed?

The carriage stopped before Zapolyarny palace and you were escorted out with the help of a guard, whose hand remained on yours a little bit too long for your liking. You wished you were crafted with some means of self defense, but no, the only thing that was engraved into your system was to sit and look pretty until the job doesn't require you to sit anymore. Annoying really, but what could you do? A guard walked up to you, not bothering to bow unlike with his superiors. You got it that you weren't anything special, but a small part of you wished to be treated with the same respect.

"Lord Scaramouche has ordered you to come to his side."

So that's what you were doing, walking behind your investor. You noticed that he was quite short, the large hat making him look somewhat taller. Every so called "instinct" in your body told you not to say anything lest you wanted your body to get mauled to the point that you were only a mix match of body parts. Small tinkering noises followed your feet as you followed right behind, and you swore that you could feel him get more and more irritated despite only his back being visible to you. Finally, he turned around, his frown deepening as you stopped walking.

"Care to turn that annoying sound off? You're just making it to disturb my presence at this point, do you really have no value for your life?"

Well that escalated quickly.

"My apologies my Lord, it's a sound my creator probably forgot to uninstall during the time of my making."

A bow of apologies followed your lifeless words and you could feel his glare becoming deeper and more scrutinizing. But, as a matter of luck, he turned around instead, ordering you to come follow him once more. He was probably being lenient and let you off easy, and something told you that you should be more thankful of it. The deeper you got into the palace, the more pungent the smell became, up until you found yourself in a lab. The smell of alcohol, rotting flesh and fresh blood filled your senses, and as if you weren't already on alert, you became even more restless. Blood coloured your feet as the two of you walked up until you got to a strange looking contraption. His nimble fingers touched the keypad as he typed into the mechanism, your eyes following his movement. The door suddenly opened, and as you were about to walk in, you got interrupted once more.

"You are staying here. Don't move and don't go anywhere unless I tell you to."

He brazenly strutted into the room before the door shut closed. You didn't have anything to do really, he told you to not move and not to go anywhere anyway. Looking at the blood splattered across your feet, your face contorted to one of displeasure, feeling the red liquid seeping into your joints. It was so uncomfortable that you could barely fight the urge to move and find a tissue of some sort to wipe it off the best you could. That is, up until a child no taller than your knee tugged at your dress. You jumped and looked down at the one who poked at you, finding out that his appearance was a lot more demonic than what you had imagined. As if the bright sky blue hair wasn't enough, his eyes were red, just like the blood that surrounded you both. Using the contraptions coded into your own body, you squinted your eyes and took a look at the choker he was wearing.

"Segment 52.. Weird!" You thought to yourself.

Dottore squinted at the security cameras, his eyes landing on your figure as you talked to one of his segments. He grinned through his mask as he shoved the machine aside before his eyes landed on Scaramouche.

"You've really caught a beauty! Never thought that you would go so far for a bet that Childe proposed about."

"Hah! I just took the first one on display. It's only by some grace that it isn't absolutely hideous to look at." Scaramouche sneered at his co-worker, not enjoying the way his mocks would reach his ears. His scrutiny about every single thing that he did just to find a way to taunt him never failed to tick him off. Scaramouche crossed his arms across his chest as he rummaged through his head to find a suitable insult for Dottore, his face still a frown from his interaction with you.

"Really? Just took the first one on display? When you spent 100 million mora on a mere doll that is only useful by its looks."

"So now I can't flaunt my riches and power over the mere mortals that were comparing with measly prices?"

The air in the room went cold with electricity as Scaramouche used his delusion. The sparks would have been enough to kill a mortal by now but he, and unfortunately the man in front of him, were not such. Dottore's face went expressionless as he too brought a drastic change in the atmosphere with his presence alone.

"Careful, electrocute my lab and you will be next."

Scaramouche toned down the electricity with a scoff, his face conflicted. Should he just fuck it and do it anyway or hold himself back? With great restraint, he decided not to, and instead just decided to flash a middle finger right in the (as he calls it) stupid motherfucker's face.

"Look, I came here to give this waste of space of a mecha off to you for you to freely experiment on. I do not want anything to do with that from now on, and I have no interest in dragging out this conversation. Is that really so hard for you to just shut up and listen to me?"

And, as if all the gods in teyvat came to fuck him up one more time, Dottore ignored his entire sentiment and only answered the last question with a considerate "yes". An irked expression went across Scaramouche's face as he struggled to keep his hands in check and not just shove an electro infused fist down Dottore's throat.

"But it really is such a shame isn't it?" Dottore mused.

Again Scaramouche held back an assault. "Stop dragging this shit out Dottore or I swear I'll-"

"-Really is a shame," he cut him off blatantly. "Such a beauty wasted because it had to be bought by you of all things. And so much money down the drain too. Tell you what, I'm feeling quite generous for it. How about you actually try to convince me that you hate it so much that you just can't stand it, and maybe then I'll take it as an experiment."

Scaramouche couldn't take it anymore. Just how many times was that damn man going to refute his decisions and bring up something else entirely? He felt his blood boil, and without even thinking, he gathered electro energy in his arms, the lightning taking the form of a compressed ball before he could even react. With a ragged breath, he attacked the blue haired man in front of him, the ball now taking the form of a sharp, pointy sword as he pierced him in the arm. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he felt a puncture in his stomach, looking down to see that Dottore had stabbed him as well. Scaramouche coughed, yet no blood came out as it should have out of his puppet-like body. Dottore sighed, a hand running through his hair before he grinned.

"Remember to come by soon for a thorough electrocution! I won't be taking no for an answer."

Scaramouche sneered as he pulled away from the pointy object that stabbed him, the visible emptiness on his stomach mocking him of his weakness. He turned his heel with obvious anger and quickly typed in the code of the room he was in, walking out as quickly as he could out of the Doctor's presence. He spotted you talking to a segment and for some reason, his rage fest got worse. Grabbing a hold of your wrist, he dragged you out of the hell that Dottore calls a laboratory, your questioning gaze on his damaged body never getting answered.

You were bored, and worried.

It has been a week since Scaramouche had dragged you out of that gross-smelling place (you were glad) and to his mansion. Compared to what you might have thought a man of his high status might have had, the manor was scarcely paid attention to. There was dust everywhere, statues, swords, the fireplace, you name it. It's like the house was dead since it had no inhabitants in it. There weren't even many decorations to begin with, and even the outside looked barren and bare. The fancy, metropolitan houses in Fontaine were such a stark contrast that you couldn't even believe your eyes. If your finger even slightly grazed any of the furniture, it was guaranteed to collect dust. Some part of you was disgusted at the fact that he just neglected the place to pile dust, while the other part just thought of what he did all day if he wasn't in the ridiculously large mansion. You couldn't imagine him sleeping, not even you sleep. Perhaps missions took most of his time? But then again, he doesn't seem like the patient type that let's missions drag on out for so long.

Speaking of lasting for too long, where the hell had he been? He just vanished after leaving you in this boring place, not even his subordinates knew where the hell that man went. And what the hell was that stab through his stomach about? What the hell happened in that room even? So many questions that remained ever unanswered, and you found your patience running thin. Is he seriously like that? Leaving people in the dark with no explanation about their crippling problems whatsoever? It's not like you could really do much, but some context would have helped. It was so boring just staying in his bare mansion too. Most of the time you just had the power of your system turned off to pass the time, basically the same as sleep but you could actually control it and not have any use for it. You looked at your dolled up appearance, eyebrows furrowing as you held in the urge to just not smash the mirror into pieces right that moment.

It was nice, you admit, the way your complexion looked. The dresses were high quality, so was the makeup and hairdo, just the the reason that he made you put on all this stuff that made you want to punch that damn man in the face.

"The Lord does not wish to see an eyesore by his side."

Seriously? That son of a- you should probably calm down. Why were you acting like this anyway? All petty and grumpy. Maybe it's because you were forced to stay inside for so long that you slowly felt your mechanical brain go insane. So much for sentience if you do not enjoy it.

He was still rude though, that was something that was going to remain a fact no matter what. Pompous, rude, arrogant and full of himself. You got it that being in a powerful position will make everyone all broody and negative in the end, but maybe you just got the worst example of that sentiment yet.

Why were you worried again? The same reason you were irritated. Where was he actually? That look on his face when he dragged you out was concerning. Scared, angry, fearful? What kind of thing makes someone look like one thing and so many others at the same time? You couldn't help but think that he was a lot more human in this way. A conflicted look that a robot can never replicate, you wonder if you'll reach that sort of humanity in any way soon.

Tinkering with the gloves on your hands, you considered to take them off. They were annoying your joints anyway. You looked in the mirror again waiting for something to happen to ease your boredom, like maybe the mirror warping your actual look, or maybe it'll turn into a portal and allow you to travel into another world. All impossible really, but fun to think of nonetheless, in your weird definition of "fun". It was then that a female Fatui agent opened the door to your room, carrying news that you did not expect to hear about for at least two more weeks.

"The Lord has returned."

So naturally, you decided to go downstairs and greet him with the best courtesy you could muster up, but before you got the chance to even take a step outside your door, you saw something in the corner of your eye, up until you felt a weight on your shoulder.

It was Scaramouche.

How the hell did he get there so fast?! Wasn't he just downstairs, like, 5 seconds ago? What kind of super speed did he posses? Looking down at the man before you, a sense of dread filled your whole body.

What happened to him?

His body was all but a mess. His hair, that indigo color, had the dye spread all across his neck, as if it was fading. One arm was there, albeit, the joints were in a terrible condition. Wires were visible and each joint looked more loose than the other, the hand practically looking disconnected from the rest of the arm. His other arm's forearm was missing, only a black abyss to replace where the puppet's parts should have been. His torso was a mess, and it looked sort of dislocated. The only things that looked relatively fine were his legs, but even they were covered in cracks all throughout. Actually, his whole body was filled with cracks all throughout. His eyes were closed, but you could practically feel how much it was supposed to hurt just by looking at him. With a grunt, your arm supported his body, up until you realized that he was on the verge of falling apart so you decided to carry him instead.

Laying him down on the bed, his eyes were still closed, his face showing some semblance of irritation and pain. What could you do in this situation? Did you know anything about mechanics? Nope, not a single bit of that kind of knowledge was engraved not implemented into your system. You looked at his messed up joints before slapping yourself back to reality.

"Get yourself together. I should probably find something to help, if I can help at least."

You muttered. With a short breath that you did not know why you took, you bolted off, trying to find something, anything really. Cabinets, drawers and closets were opened and left opened, nothing out of them. Does he really not store anything over here? You were getting frustrated by the sheer nothingness of this empty manor, your movements becoming more erratic as you tried to find something. After moving around a lot and reaching an area of the manor that was closer to the soldier training grounds, you found something there, bandages. While not very useful for his situation, it could perhaps be of help. Taking two rolls, you ran back inside, still not knowing why you were so panicked in the first place.

With a Huff, you entered the room with a rush of energy. You really hated this, this feeling of care. The one that made you feel concern, mainly because you always felt a strange pounding in your chest for no absolute reason. Grabbing a chair from a desk, you sat down right beside the bed, where his unconscious form was resting. He didn't move a muscle, the cracks on his face being illuminated by the light in the room. Taking the role of bandages, you tried tying the dislocated joints together, to make sure that they don't look absolutely horrifying at first sight. You first try, was, well, interesting to say the least. You hadn't the least idea what you were doing. Taking off the tangled mess of what you did, you started a new, this time the pieces of medical equipment looking neater, yet not as good as you'd hoped. With a sigh, you ran your fingers through your hair, which immediately turned out to be a mistake as the dye used to make you stuck to your fingers. With a scoff of disgust, you let go of your own hair, standing up from the chair to wash the stain off before it became way too hard for you to do it yourself. At the same time, you didn't notice how a dismembered puppet hand crept its way to your neck, channelling up concentrated electro energy to zap you, just enough so that your system would fall lifeless and that you would fall to the ground with a loud thud.

Scaramouche sat up from the bed, holding himself with a groan as he felt all the uncomfortable gists and turns of his torso and arms across his while body. As soon as he was recovered he would fucking kill one of Dottore's clones. He hated feeling weak, like he couldn't do anything,he felt pathetic all in all. His cracked foot met contact with your face and lifted it, allowing him to take a better look at your dolled up face. At least he didn't have a hideous sight to look at after what he had been through. His eyes scanned your unconscious face with a scoff, not understanding that peaceful look on your face after being fucking zapped.

He hated you.

He hated you the most out of everything in his life.

First a bet from Childe, then your annoying presence, then all the shit with Dottore, then all this. Were you just the root of all his recent problems? And what was your problem? Butting into people's business without any sense in your mind into thinking that they don't need help. He could do all those knots in his arms by himself, in fact, who commanded you to do all this? It's the fact that they're terribly done that makes it even more of a disgrace. He could do better, even in his roughed up state. His frown deepened onto his face as he bored his eyes into your sleeping expression, well he didn't know whether to call it sleeping or not. His hand reached out, and for a moment, he thought of zapping you again to wake you up, listing out all your problems and his degradations. That would at least make the two of you somewhat even, even though the scales in his point of view were not such, but he felt a surge of electricity burst through his veins, an after shock from Dottore's torture. He clutched his non existent heart till he let out a maniacal, crooked laugh.

Everything was mocking him at this point.

Every fucking thing.

The uncomfortable feeling of his leaking hair dye made contact with his neck, and he involuntarily shivered. He would electrocute his own neck if he could, and he was seriously considering it at the time of his spiralling insanity. With another look to your face, he felt himself laugh once more.

What an idiot you were.

Going all the way for someone that you could practically call a stranger. The most interactions that he ever had with you was close to zero. Well, the most friendly interactions. He swore that your meddling was some kind of ploy to get his guard down, so that you could somehow hurt him more than he already was. He would've commended you for that, for having the audacity really. But as his mechanical gaze wandered throughout the room, he felt a foreign feeling, uncertainty.

Him? Uncertainty? This had to be some kind of sick joke. He was the balladeer, sixth of the Fatui harbingers for Archon's sake. He was merely a step away from perfection, from becoming a god like what Dottore once promised. Yet, when he built up his energy to stand, to walk really, he came to a realization that things may not have been what they seemed.

Haphazardly placed chairs, signs of running and a struggle and open drawers everywhere. It was an eyesore to look at, usually since he was used to the pristine look of his empty mansion. He looked back at your unconscious form, his eyes squinting with suspicion. From an outsider's point of view, the room hadn't changed. It still looked clean to a standard of nobility, but he could see all differences made within his quarters, even if his presence is usually barely there. Seriously, all this effort, for him? He couldn't believe your idiocy. But fine, if that was what you wanted, then he would indulge in it.

All the times that he had been betrayed made him feel self conscious about what he was really doing. He got abandoned by his creator, but this time he had his control over you. He got betrayed by humans, the very kind that his past version tried to mingle with, but you weren't such. You could live on and on, forever and ever all by his side. You could be his shadow, his so called partner. You could be his everything,and nothing would happen. You couldn't die. You couldn't betray him. You need him, and in some twisted way he needs you too.

So, as vines of electro crept up your body, lifting you up and placing you on the bed, don't be so surprised. He would indulge in your fantasies. He would indulge in your curiosities. He would bring the whole of Teyvat to hell and back. He would give you anything, aside from the keys to leaving his side. He would stay by your side and he'll be like a plague, never letting you go no matter what. He would keep his eyes on you and watch like a hawk, keeping you safe no matter what. He would keep you safe from Dottore, hidden and away from prying eyes. He would keep you safe from the Shogun, the vile creature that he called his mother, she couldn't have everything, not yet. He would do anything.

So don't be so surprised when he stared down at you, and don't be shocked at how uncharacteristically gentle he's being by lifting your hand to his face as if he was a gentleman. His murmurs, his promises about never letting you go all met your hand, and he brought it to his cheek in some sick, perverse way. He smiled with glee as you didn't reject his touch (even as you were unconscious to be speaking). With a ragged breath, he declared all his feelings in a soft murmur, the bangs on his head preventing him to see how you were slowly waking up from his intrusion in your rest.

He would be yours, you would be his, and he'd make sure of that. Even as your questioning gaze lands on the pursuit of the man before you. You don't have to worry though. He'll give you everything,he will make sure of that.

This took so long to make and it still ended up being quite shitty

[yogsandchaos]

I clicked on a video essay about the problems with mcrp by frostbyfreeman, and boy did I regret it, giant rant under the cut

I genuinely think the dream smp as a story and it's failings can only be done by someone who was a fan or at least had some respect for the series. Listening to anyone who doesn't try and talk about it is very...painful, like I'm sorry but the Hamilton homages were really good and fun and helped make sure everyone understood what was going on! I've been listening to the frostbye freeman's video on scripted minecraft videos and i am wincing at the incorrect details and honestly somewhat pompous takes on what counts as a good story.

Wilbur's writing was genuinely good and moving at times, and the smp hadn't hit it's BIG popularity yet when it super was leaning into the hamilton stuff so they still were mostly just goofing around and the scripting was a lot looser. Like he spent the entire opening gassing up the early more obviously scripted stuff as if there wasn't like 30 over a million views yandere simulator knocks via all the yandere highschools, it's the same thing!

By the time the story shifts into Technoblade's allegories the entire genre of the smp has changed from a goofy joke about countries that also tackled things of justice in the background, into a more tense action and espionage story that fits allegories better (which tbf i always thought were a little forced, tommy is not theseus at all really, techno has more in common but thats a whooole other rabbit hole)

Also head writer? Since when was Technoblade a HEAD writer, he wrote the stuff around his own character yes, but everyone else around that was being written by dream quackity and tommy after Wilbur stepped down! It was not or never was his goal to tie all of the dsmp into a cohesive story to my knowledge or according to anything I can find.

While he has some points about people fighting for attention, a lot of the arcs that went nowhere or suddenly pivoted or stopped were for a lot of reasons outside the server's management. While I am sad some things didn't get proper endings, their existences weren't problems or a sign of arrogance, it was people excited to tell their own stories. Some failed, some didn't, that's natural for a collaboration of this size, and while things could have DEFINITELY been organized better 100% its just how its going to go in a project like this that not everything is going to be able to get the attention and streams it needs, people have lives outside the smp and have other things to do or run out of ideas, it happens.

If anything I liked how everyone had their own lore! Everyone had biased versions of events or thoughts and opinions! No one needed to agree on everything because the inherent nature of choosing a streamer is choosing a bias! No one 100% knew the truth, and everyone who saw the same event came out with different interpretations! That's just how things work! Thats not a writing error!

You say none of it made sense but did you actually ask someone who cared about the series about it! People have spent so much time piecing everything together it's actually kind of insulting to flat out state that it makes no sense when so many people could just straight up tell you the entire timeline for their streamer, or of events, or how things led into each other!

God I hate the use of "if everyones the protagonist no one is" like first of all, pretentious as hell. Second of all, the point of the other streamers isn't to just be supporting cast but to ALSO have their own goals and desires, because all characters have goals and desires! While tommy is the quote unquote main character, everyone in the dsmp has clear goals or at least interests that make sense for them to go after! Do you expect badboyhalo and quackity and everyone to just do nothing while tommy's in exile? No! That's stupid and he is ALSO a streamer who needs a story to tell!

It would be completely immersion breaking and so much less real feeling if every single story and every action was just about tommy and if he's not in the area it just stopped until he got back! You can just admit this kind of format isn't for you! Lifesteal isn't "worse" because there isn't one singular main character, that's not how servers work! You pick your favorite and see their pov and how they see events unfold! It's not supposed to be an unbiased telling, it's one person in this world giving their biased and personal accounts! THIS KIND OF CONTENT HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE LIKE 2012 WITH HERMITCRAFT, IT'S NOT NEW!!!

"The dream smp's only lasting legacy besides the amazing countless fanarts is infecting all the wannabe content creators it spawned with a terminal case of main character syndrome." Oh fuck offfff, have you literally talked to anyone in this fandom ever? Songs, animations, cosplay, stories, and CAREERS were launched off the back of the dream smp "and that final folly" say you've never talked to an inniter without saying you've never talked to an inniter.

Genuinely the entire dream smp part of this video is insulting, misinformed, and lazy. Getting key differences wrong and presenting opinion as objective facts. The worst part? You can find every single issue in an old school scripted series. He spends the entire opening talking about the good days when minecraft roleplay was earnest and was well written and had meaning but like?

"its homage" every single yandere highschool series but especially the main og of samgladiator's

"it has too many main characters" mianite

"too many dropped plots" aphmau, just aphmau in general

"the lore is confusing" jurassic craft

in fact, you can sum up ALL OF THAT UNDER THE YOGSCAST

YOU KNOW?

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SOURCES OF THOSE SCRIPTED MINECRAFT EARLY ROLEPLAYS THAT GOT SO HEAVILY PRAISED AT THE START? SHADOW OF ISRAPHEL?

IT HASN'T GOTTEN WORSE AT ALL, EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM LISTED, IS NOT THE DREAM SMPS FAULT, BUT IT HAS BEEN THERE SINCE THE GODDAMN DAWN OF MINECRAFT ROLEPLAY!

Calling all of the dream smp, life steal, all of those smps "crude performance art" is genuinely the most disrespectful thing I've heard I just, how is this video not disliked into oblivion!? You say they've yet to change from genre to it's own medium of art, but that means nothing! That has no meaning! It is the same thing! The medium is just the place the story gets told, it's the lens the story is created with. Writing is a medium! Drawing is a medium! Painting is a medium! Minecraft smp videos are inherently in the medium of the minecraft program!

The utter constant disrespect of the genuine stories and tales people try and tell with minecraft, saying minecrafters have nothing to say, it's cruel! I can find you so many minecraft videos over an hour long that are poignant! I can give you so many stories about minecrafters handling tough themes! To dismiss it ALL as lazy slop is at worst a show of utter pure pretension, and at best a lack of understanding for the genre and a lack of research.

Why are you trying to engage with a minecraft scripted story as a FILM it's NOT A FILM and it is not TRYING TO BE A FILM, it's closer to a tv series! You say people cant be off their cellphones during a film, but you're BINGING something not MEANT to be binged! You are also engaging incorrectly! You would fail to grasp the merit of a podcast because people listen to them while doing other things! Each video he showed of parrot's has MILLIONS of views so clearly, this isnt a universal fact! you just do not like this kind of content! That is okay! It does not mean theres a secret sickness!

Genuinely every word out of this person's mouth makes me want to start biting, he calls the videos entertaining, then DERIDES THEM for not being "actual stories" and that "he needs to sit at the grown up table if he wants to be a story teller" like literally? what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Just because it's not fucking brokeback mountain doesn't make it not a story. A story is just that, a story! You can tell a story in three lines

"Once upon a time there was a dog named spot Spot had a nice nap about chasing squirrels before he woke up Then he went to chase squirrels before taking a nap again"

THAT'S A STORY, that's objectively a story! im being a storyteller! Its not a long story, it's not LITERATURE, but it is in fact. A story. Just because it's not the odyssey doesnt make it not a story! THAT'S HOW STORIES WORK. How can you deride a story taking place in minecraft...for being bound to the rules of minecraft? thats a part of the medium! YOU JUST SAID YOU WANTED IT TO BE IT'S OWN MEDIUM AND YET YOU CONSTANTLY DERIDE EVERYTHING THAT MAKES IT UNIQUE

The lack of self awareness, the lack of care, the lack of understanding why these videos get so many views, it's insidious, it infects every pore of this video. The premise is "i dont like something therefor its bad and im going to ramble about cinema to make me sound smart for saying that" and it's so goddamn blatant that he worked backwards from an inherent bias against a type of medium to condemn it as a whole without taking any real steps to question that bias!

Also the sheer nitpicking against "content creator" vs "storyteller" like i get content creator is an annoying term and everyone hates it, but its literally just shorthand for "makes something for other people to enjoy" like oh my god you don't need to treat it like it's this disgusting plague on the minecraft community. Like you ask why minecraft roleplays have to be scripted smps, and the answer is that some stories want to be told through that lens, while others want to be told through different lenses of what minecraft can be used for. You might as well ask why some people use pens instead of pencil or why people use fantasy instead of sci-fi for all the meaning that question actually has. It's either so benign it has no meaning to ask, or complete apples or oranges!

God, how am I only 30 minutes in. I don't even want to continue. This was only supposed to be me rambling about how the dream smp cannot be understood fully as a story from someone who refuses to engage with it on it's terms, but the sheer audacity of everything this video says is just...disgusting to me and I had to keep commenting on it.

For someone who talks about how important brevity is, this hour long video is full of boring unrelated nonsense that easily could have been cut, false dichotomies being drawn, and far too much time talking about stories you clearly dont want to give even a chance. It's just bad, it's the "why is minecraft boring now" video for minecraft roleplay where it demands it be something its not and never has been, and then throws a fit about it and about people who do like it and holds a nostalgia for something that has the exact same flaws and thus polishes into something Better.

As a story teller myself, as someone who enjoys minecraft roleplays, who has been watching mcrp videos since 2012, it's genuinely disgusting how little respect or care he has for the creators he talks about. As if those creators and all the people who like it are idiots while He is the only one with True Taste that everyone else must go up to meet. It's annoying as hell, and i regret clicking on that video

[kieranneedsahug]

Curious if there's any interest in which AU designs I should draw next (I've just been using a wheel so far lol)

Brief descriptions under the cut <3

Brief descriptions and tones:

Chivalry: Tone- medium-ish, contains darker scenes and angst, contains Pokemon death. Set in past Galar, Florian takes the role of a Prince, Kieran takes the role of an amateur sorcerer. Many Pokemon are considered bad because of their typing, things like Fire and Electric types are considered dangerous and to be avoided, things like Fairy, Dark, and Dragon types are considered even more dangerous. Most people treat Dragon types with disdain, and if able to kill them on sight, even young first stage ones. Kieran does not subscribe to this belief.

Everything I Am. : Tone - unsure yet, probably angsty but not too dark. My take on a toxic chain AU, only Florian is the one under the influence of Pecharunt. Happens because he's feeling frustrated over constantly being railroaded into stuff without even being asked. Need to flesh out more. Takes place after Terapagos.

Human Too: Tone - slice of life, somewhat light hearted but in a dark surrounding setting, little angsty sometimes. (Think story about two people running a happy farm together but their in the middle of an apocalypse sort of thing.) Has a lot of lore to it, but basically some people are born as Pokemon hybrids (no actual pokemon involved in making them) and they get treated really really badly like worse than Pokemon. Additionally Pokemon are a lot harder to catch and come by so battling isn't really a thing and places like Blueberry don't exist. Probably my most out there AU. Florian is part Rockruff.

It's (Not) My Legacy: Tone - Fluctuates. Starts at the beginning of the game so takes a while for Kieran and Florian to meet. Basically the 'battle essence' or something of all of the previous game's player characters are in Florian's mind (I'd say spirits but they're all technically still alive and also separate so idk how I'd call it.) He starts hearing them on his first battle with Nemona on the beach. As a result he knows things he really shouldn't, like types of Pokemon he's never seen before (they don't know anything but educated guesses about 'new' Pokemon though.) Kieran quickly begins to think Florian is cheating somehow and is determined to find out how.

Life, as it Were. : Tone - Fluctuates, mostly light-hearted and sort of slice of life/journey-ish. This particular one explicitly has an OC instead of Florian, but he takes the player character roll. The events of the game play out how I want to right them, and then after that OC and Kiern decide to travel together, going to other regions. In this AU the events of ScarVi happen first, and all other game's stories are shifted to have OC as the focal point. Very self-servicey but also idc.

Mechanical Hearts: Tone - Dark. Florian ended up jumping in the way of Terapagos's blast and is presumed dead. after much studying and convincing on Kieran's part, Kieran and Penny are able to create an AI Florian. The different main characters take this differently, and it results in Kieran basically being isolated in Area Zero with the AI Florian. He had studied in pokemon biology as an excuse to get access to area zero, down there under the guise that he's studying the local Pokemon. AI Florian has none of Florian's memories but most of his personality. It freaks Kieran out sometimes when he does something way too similar to Florian.

My Boyfriend My Boyfriend My Boyfriend: Tone - light. Mostly slice of life with a few heavier scenes scattered around. Basically after some Terapagos shenanigans at the Crystal Pool, it accidentally summons two other versions of Kieran. It's unclear if these are from the same time line, or from alternate realities. One of the summoned Kieran's is from between showing Florian the dreaded den and before the festival, and the other Kieran is from before the champion match but after Florian joined the BB league. Current time line is post-mochi mayhem, with applin being traded and Kieran and Florian being boyfriends.

My Screen My Heart: Tone - Light with a few darker scenes scattered. Florian ends up becoming a streamer under Iono's recommendation, being taken under her wing. With her guide he's able to become largely successful. Someone didn't like that though and ended up attacking him outside of Uva. The academy takes it very seriously and ends up silently transferring Florian to Blueberry. In this AU Kieran knows how to use and navigate the internet and is a huge fan of 'Darkitty' (Florian) he has no idea Florian *is* darkitty. Timeline wise, Florian was able to help out Penny and Arven, but had put his gym challenge on hold after three gym badges, eventually planning on streaming himself making his way up the ranks. He never goes to Kitakami, and the time machine in area zero isn't an issue as it's not as far along yet in this AU.

The Secrets We Keep: Tone- Fluctuates, mostly lighthearted. Has quite a bit of lore tied to it, but the long and short of it is that Kieran's family are secretly Zorua lines, and Florian (only him not is 'mom') is a mew. Neither of them know each other's secrets. They both still train Pokemon but because of the way they were raised neither find it weird. Kieran's family is marginally smarter than regular Zoroark line and might as well be a different species when it comes to their minds.

Un/Lucky: Tone - Dark. Easily the darkest of all my AUs. Deals with imposter syndrome, self harm and thoughts of purposeful death, and even toying with it. Florian is lucky- extremely lucky. To the point that he wins things he even knows he *should* by all means lose. Sometimes he has flashes of losing but he blinks and it's back to before he lost. No matter what he does he wins. It makes him feel bad, not good. Like nothing he does matters. Timeline wise takes place after Mochi Mayhem.

Why Are We Here? : Tone - fluctuates. A PMD AU where Florian is an Eevee and Kieran is a Deino. Typical PMD AU stuff, needing to find out how to get home. Both of them keep their full memories. Has some lore tied to it but needs to be fleshed out more.

All of them are candy apple shipping in some way because I have brain rot lol (I guess except for the OC one? I'll figure that out later idk haha. everyone' Florian's are so different they're basically OCs anyway and Iive for it tbh)

[supernovafics]

lowkey, i wanna see steve in the “i’ll be there for u” world taking care of reader after coming back from a bar with some college friends—he’d be so sweet taking off her makeup & trying not to laugh at her messed up sentences

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄

"i'll be there for you" universe masterlist

pairing: bestfriend!roommate!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 1.6k words

warnings: explicit language, drunk!reader, fluff

summary: in which after a night out with some friends, steve takes care of you

author's note: thank you for the request🫶🏾

general note: everything in this universe/series can be read as standalone oneshots but to understand the full “lore” it would prob be best to read the other stuff too<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Spring 1986

Your main goal when you entered the apartment was to not wake Steve up. 

However, that was almost impossible to do when you were accidentally shutting the front door much louder than you wanted to, and then you were tripping over the pile of shoes that sat next to the door and were actually neatly stacked for once. 

Somehow, even in your inebriated state, you managed to catch yourself and only stumbled a bit instead of falling straight to the ground. You couldn't help but laugh loudly at yourself and then you abruptly slapped your hand over your mouth when you realized how noisy you were being. 

You flicked on the light and then dropped your bag on the kitchen counter before sitting on the floor so that you could fix the shoes. It should’ve taken barely a minute to do and you tried your hardest to focus on the task at hand, but all you could do was giggle at your confusion. And then since you were on the floor, you decided to work on untying your Converses and taking them off, which also proved to be somewhat of a struggle because of your drunkenness. 

It was then that you finally came to the conclusion that you probably should’ve stopped drinking after your third drink. 

Your initial plan hadn’t been to get drunk, and you honestly didn’t even think that you’d end up going to the bar in the first place because it was a last minute plan set up by a few people in your communications class. But then you were lying on the couch in the living room, already in your pajamas at only nine o’clock on a Friday, and you changed your mind. You got up from the couch and traded in your old t-shirt and sleep shorts for a cute enough outfit, and then called Steve at Family Video. 

You told him that you decided to go to the bar and you were very close to asking him if he could meet you there after his shift, but then you remembered how early he had to wake up for his one tomorrow. 

“You okay?” The abrupt sound of Steve’s voice made you jump and drop the sneaker in your hand. The pile actually looked worse than when you started to fix it what felt like five minutes ago. 

“Woah, you scared me,” You said as you turned to look at him. A pair of gray sweatpants hung low on his hips and he had a white t-shirt on. It was when you noticed that his hair looked like a disheveled mess and he was rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes that you remembered what your goal had been when you entered the apartment. “Oh shit, I woke you up. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” He told you with a shrug. “Why are you sitting on the floor?” 

“I messed up the shoe pile…” You mumbled and haphazardly gestured to the sneakers next to you. “Also, I think I’m a little drunk because the floor actually feels really comfortable right now.”

Steve smiled at that. “I think you’re more than just a little.”

“Not true,” You said as you shook your head at him, which he only smiled wider at because your head shake was much more dramatic than you intended it to be.

Steve reached his hands out toward you. “Come on. We’ll fix the sneakers in the morning.” 

You grabbed his outstretched hands and he pulled you up, which you couldn’t help but giggle at. You were simply looking at him and smiling widely before your lips were quickly finding his. 

After only a second, he pulled away, chuckling a little at your eagerness. “Hey, no funny business right now. You’re drunk.” 

Instead of responding to his very true statement, your arms wrapped around him and you buried your face in his neck. “It’s okay. I don’t care.”

You could feel him shaking his head at your words, but he still hugged you back. “I care.”

There was something about the way he softly said the two simple words that made you smile and hold him tighter. You were pulling away after a second, taking a reasonable step back away from him and then holding your hands up in a joking surrender. “Okay, fine. I’ll keep things completely PG.”

“Good,” Steve laughed before he reached out, intertwining one of his hands with yours, and then led you to the right toward your bedroom instead of to the left toward his. 

You sat down on your bed and Steve went over to your dresser, rummaging through it to find some pajamas for you to put on so that you could get out of the jeans and black top you were wearing. 

“Here, change into this,” He said as he handed you a random oversized t-shirt and sleep shorts. You nodded and started to unbutton your jeans. “I’m gonna grab you some water for right now and aspirin for the morning.”

“Thank you. You’re the best. I love you,” You said, smiling widely. Your affectionate words right then were actually pretty tame compared to how sentimental you’d usually get whenever you were drunk. You’d done enough emotional drunken rambling to the cab driver you had on the way home. With absolutely no prompting, you told him about you and Steve and how you two had been best friends for years and years and then decided to move in together this past summer and then just recently finally got into a relationship. The driver was actually pretty interested in the story, or maybe it only felt like he was because of your inebriation— you’d wonder which was right in the morning. 

“I love you too,” Steve smiled back at you and then leaned down to press a kiss against your forehead. 

You gave him a teasing look. “We’re supposed to be keeping things PG, remember?”

He laughed a bit. “A forehead kiss is the most PG we’ve been in a while.”

“I’m also completely okay with not being PG,” You told him.

“Not happening tonight,” Steve said, placing a quick kiss against your cheek this time before walking to the door and heading into the kitchen. 

You were fully changed when he came back, and the clothes you’d been wearing were in a heap on the floor next to your bed because you couldn’t feel bothered to put them anywhere else. Steve handed you a glass of water and he noticed that you put your t-shirt on backward, but he decided not to say anything about it and only smiled at you. He knew that you definitely hadn’t sobered up in the slightest because you didn’t question the amused look he was giving you. 

You drank some of the water and then placed the glass down on your nightstand. You got into your bed and pulled your blanket over your legs. “You’re staying in here, right?”

“Of course,” He nodded as he settled in next to you. 

You laid down, head easily finding the pillow, and then turned on your side to face Steve and he did the same. He decidedly kept a bit of space between you two because he wasn’t sure what you, or he, would be tempted to do if your legs became entangled and your warmth was radiating right against him. 

“So, how was tonight?” He asked. “I’m guessing you had fun?” 

“Yeah, it was good,” You answered with a nod and there was a hint of a smile on your face. “Missed you a lot. Probably told way too many stories about you to everyone.” You laughed as you covered your face. “I think I became the kind of girl that only talks about her boyfriend. I’ll probably never get invited out by them again.” 

“I wish I could’ve been there to see that,” Steve said, smiling softly and you had to push away the urge you had to run a hand through his messy hair and kiss him. “Wait, did you tell any embarrassing stories?” 

You shifted a bit closer to him and dropped your voice down to a whisper. “Don’t worry, I promise I didn’t mention the time when we were twelve and you were staying at my house and I jumpscared you so bad that you peed your pants a little.”

“Now I don’t know if I believe you because you thought of that story way too fast.”

“It’s just one of my favorites, but I promise I didn’t say it tonight. Girl Scouts honor.”

He laughed as he shook his head. “You were never a Girl Scout.”

You shrugged and poked his side. “Shh, let’s just pretend for a sec.”

Steve only nodded in response and held back his laughter. 

The quietness that prevailed over the next few moments made a sudden wave of tiredness wash over you; it was as if a flip was switched and you were finally ready to pass out for the night. You shut your eyes and let out a soft sigh. 

You heard Steve’s voice after a second. “You okay?”

“Mhm, jus’ a little tired.” You closed the rest of the distance between you and shifted around so that you were settled back against him. You weren’t even really trying to make things non-“PG” between you two; settling in close next to him was always just the most natural thing to do.

“Okay,” Steve said and wrapped an arm around you, another instinctual thing to do. 

“I’m really sorry I woke you up. I know that you have to get up in like four hours,” You abruptly said as your hand found his and intertwined it with yours. “I really did try to stay quiet when I came in.” 

“I think I would’ve found you asleep next to the shoes in the morning if I didn’t wake up when I did,” Steve told you before pressing a kiss to the side of your head. 

You let out a sleepy laugh. “That’s probably very true.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(requests are open for stuff you wanna see in the universe/series!🫶🏾)

[divinityunleashed]

Just a mini drabble on how I've been feeling lately (All good, no worries.) so gonna read more it so I don't wall of text everybody.

Ready?

Go.

After having spent some time over on my Yu-Gi-Oh blog, it's made me think that really comes down to my own preference with small rosters and fandoms in comparison to juggling so many in one place.

Granted, I'm crossover friendly so that boosts somewhat.

But interacting mainly people of one fandom with only that fandom's characters was a breath of fresh air. I have lots of fun over on @legendary-duelists because, quite frankly, I'm smaller over there.

People over there are super supportive, lovely, and welcoming. Every new person I've met has been super nice, supportive, kind, considerate and patient, and it's super fantastic.

Not saying any of you lovely folks aren't but being recognized and treated equally in a singular group just keeps my muse going and my drive non-stop. It helps too that I feel close to a lot of my Yu-Gi-Oh moots.

Which brings me back here. So many people wanting responses and content out of me, so many fandoms in one conglomorate space. Now, I LOVE writing custom lore and headcanons. But with how much I've done, I feel like I'm being overly ambitious, literally crafting an entire modified world all at once instead of just intermediately.

I will openly admit: I want to start fresh again.

Like a friend of mine did. They took a hiatus, then started fresh with a smaller roster, slowly bringing everything back. But I know that a lot of people might not want that because they'd think I'm paranoid.

And in truth I kinda am.

I don't know what to do or feel about my lack of musings here, and lack of dedication. I burn out frequently here but almost never on smaller places. Is it the size of here, being here for a year and a half now? Is it how many people I've followed, started things with and forgotten about because of how often my muse shifts?

Is it because I wrote solo stuffs for so long?

I don't know.

Gonna continue on my mini break, and be on legendary duelists, but please.

If you guys wanna add your two cents, please do. I'd love to hear your thoughts now that I've effectively poured out my heart.

I love you all! Seriously! Don't ever doubt that!

Just in an awkward place.

[cinderellaenjoyer]

Did somebody say Meryway PJO AU?

Introducing: Ruby Summers and the Olympians!

Ruby is the protagonist, Daughter of Posideon and Heroine of the Great Prophecy. Since she never got sent to Meryway in this AU, school wasn't exactly great for her and she got bullied a lot. She's still bright and bubbly and optimistic, it's just despite what she's been through in this AU. She doesn't like Posideon for what he did to her Mother. "you are Posideon's Daughter." "'I am Lucy Summers Daughter."

Edith is the Daughter of Artemis and deurotagonist. She's also been bullied pre coming to Camp Half-Blood, so she acts pretty similar to Meryway Edith. She's Snarky and sometimes not the nicest, but she has a good heart. She quickly befriends Ruby when they meet, and their attached at the hip for the rest of the series.

Reyna is the Daughter of Hades. She initially has a somewhat Rivalry with Ruby since they're both daughters of one of the Big Three, but it's mostly one sided since, again, Ruby doesn't like Posideon. Reyna gets over it and has an arc where she realises that Hades doesn't care about her and learns to do stuff for herself instead of for his attention.

Viva's the daughter of Aphrodite. She gets annoyed when people assume that her Cabin in the 'weak one', Aphrodite is a war goddess guys. She isn't really the 'Piper' of this AU since she loves being feminine but she does end up taking over as head of the cabin in the HOO equivalent of this AU. She's protective of the others in the cabin and can and will fight you if you claim one of her siblings either isn't pretty enough to be in the Cabin or say they're weak or stupid because they're an Aphrodite kid.

Mary is a Daughter of Ares, but she's notably weirdly chill. Like, WAY to calm most of the time. She can fight dirty and bloody but she will be SILENT throughout it. Sometimes she creeps the other campers out (they still love her though)

Nadia is a Hermes Kid. she's head of the Cabin despite being 12, and she looks out for her siblings as well as most others in the camp. She's pretty friendly but isn't afraid to fight. As a small nod to canon PJO, I think she mentions at some point having a brother (Luke) who turned out to be awful and it kind of really messed up the cabin.

Victoria is a daughter of Demeter. She literally couldn't be any other God's kid. She's one of the strongest Demigods and she uses that power for good. Deeply connected to nature and plant life. She's head of her cabin and a real sister (both younger AND older) to the other kids there. She's deeply respected and liked in the camp too.

Isabella is the daughter of Athena. She's a clever girl, witty as can be - and it turns out she uses that wit as a form of manipulation. She's turns out to be the main antagonist of the AU (she's also the main antagonist of Meryway but I'll explain her lore for that later!) and plans to overthrow the Gods. She's not exactly Luke since she's also 12/13 and NOT a groomer/pedo, but she has similar goals to him and a lot of people's trust are broken and hurt when her true nature gets revealed.

Hannah is an Apollo kid. She's still really shy and tends to avoid leading the sing alongs unlike the other Apollo kids. She still has DID and Emi as an alter, the only difference is that she can't shape shift here. She trusted Isabella a lot, so it's safe to say she isn't doing great when Isabella is revealed to be a Bad person.

Feel free to ask me more about this AU!

@punkeropercyjackson @insomniac-jay @mayacondotcom @frosity @pixelatedboombursts

[katyspersonal]

fbdbd hi sorry I’ve just been rotating your post about Heolstor and the grafted blade greatsword/weeping peninsula and I need you to know that it’s enriched my reading of Nightreign as a whole.

Like, I know this almost certainly isn’t the Intent behind nightreign but it’s my headcanon now that the other nightlords are his former/slain comrades reborn or rediscovered (since to me it then explains why they all cooperate with each other despite being very different and adds some flavor to me in how they all are sorta subservient to Heolstor and he borrows their elemental affinities n stuff in his fight)

The timeline for a few of em simply Wouldn’t Work Out (without some convoluted time things at least) but I find it really fun to think about, n it all just stemmed from your one post

This post, for the context:

jdfsjfddfhdsfh I am so glad people are liking this post, and that you are getting inspiration from it! Yeah, sometimes you can just say that "it is probably not what the writers intended, but it is fun so I'll take it". It is compelling from emotional standpoint, too!

Yeah, all the minor Nightlords seem to be contrarian to the Erdtree / Golden Order, if not straight up wronged by it too!

Triple wolf species of Gladius otherwise is only seen in Farum Azula, and might have been deified, since it is where Elden Ring used to be before. Might have been a victim of cultural shift where Golden Order started to condemn them, just like they did with previous deified Crucible Knights and Misbegotten

Adel was a drake! The Erdtree people jumped straight onto hunting drakes to eat their hearts after allyship with Ancient Dragons! We never knew why Bayle rebelled against Placidusax, it easily wasn't nothing! But even in that case, why the whole species should suffer for what their progenitor did? And it was not Marika's and Godwyn's business to adopt Ancient Dragons' side into their politics!

With Gnoster, you could speculate that the reason for climate change that forced them to evolve and drove them away was somewhat Marika's doing. Erdtree usurped the role of Sun and life, so there might have been a bit of shift like "oh you don't need to depend on climate and weather anymore, I will just personally hand boon of life and nourishment from my own hands :)". So maybe rains stopped for it to always shine... until they didn't (Weeping Peninsula cough cough)

Maris is the same "species" as Elden Beast but devoid of role, nothing left to say! Greater Will sent Elden Beast as its last falling star, and established life as connection with golden grace and golden amber. Blue spirits like jellyfish, and blue stars that horrified Azur and Lusat, exist 'outside' of it, like a hidden part of existence, or cancelled early draft.

Libra is a demon, creating the Gold that should only be domain of Elden Ring, and whoever currently owns it, through alchemy. "Heretical" is probably an understatement here x) His opinions probably go beyond how the age of the Erdtree itself is very unfair and full of Marika's own biases, but the concept of a God that owns Elden Ring and creates laws of nature is unfair, and the fact that Greater Will does thing and Frenzied Flame is kind of just there until someone seeks it is unfair, and Two Fingers being everywhere but Three Fingers being just little feeble sealed creature is unfair... yeah. Bro probably thinks fondly of Shabriri for contributing to the balance; the "feel too sad and you will unleash Frenzied Flame" disease was his doing!

Fulghor worshipped Old Gods that got replaced with the Golden Order! If Gloam-Eyed Queen is the snake that is "Erdtree's traitor", and her apostles killed Gods, it might mean that many of those fell because of Marika, not only Fell God! He could never let go of the old times, and honestly? Fair enough

Caligo is an Ancient Dragon, but a unique one, as her body lacks the gold everyone else of this species lacks. Similar concept to Seath being the only Everlasting Dragon that lacked scales. The thing is, 'gold' was made the measure of all things, it was the measure of someone's very species' worth. Albinaurics and Silvertears are loathed for lacking it. For all we know, she had a hard time showing up in public, because she was condemned. Maybe even attacked, for being """impure""" Ancient Dragon. And you know it would be, ironically, someone from Ancient Dragons Cult to do so because it is Fromsoft. (I also know Libra tried to offer her to "fix" it but she is too wise for this kind of tricks so she just put him in the ice cube and kicked him away each time fsdhfhds)

And Heolstor, who challenged Godfrey? Yeah, he for sure was against the Erdtree. He might have met these characters before, and fate brought them back together! I'd like to imagine how he avoided Adel eating him XD If Adula is of any indication, drakes might pledge loyalty to the one who defeats them in a combat but spares their life. Maris was never interested in anything before the Night, but maybe Heolstor was previously interested in them.

What I like here is that the grudge goes beyond how Marika and Godfrey just arrived and ruined everything fdshdshf It could be this way in his eyes, as he was literally just a guy, but these other characters are familiar with an even older history of having the grudge with the Elden Ring and Gold. Some are through generations and culture, some are personally! Nox were challenging it before Marika was even born, after all! Everything that by 'Gold' was thrown away got washed in the same spot and accumulated.

[benis-chillin]

IDW's Fang the Hunter and the failure of Neo-Classic Sonic

(In case you're stupid, this is an opinion piece made for discussion)

Greetings, boys and goyles. I'm Benis, otherwise known as Benis Chillin, Sonic lore enthusiast and fanfic writer. I say the latter part because I want people to know that I'm well aware that many of my criticisms are based in the fact that I'm a writer, and unlike most people, I try to run more by objective canon than my whims. I explain it more here.

And per those standards…The current state of Classic Sonic SUCKS.

Now, I am a Modern Sonic fan through and through. I LIKED the 4 main Classic games when I played through them, but Sonic Adventure was the one that truly hooked me in. The world established by that game, and the ones that followed, just have my interest more, and I would prefer things be made in service to THAT.

However, to the greater detriment of society, Sonic Generations happened, and Classic Sonic was reestablished as part of the brand after years of Modern Sonic being THE face of everything, with even collections of Classic games using Modern Sonic artwork. And with the environment of the internet in the 2010's, it's no surprise that they decided to let Classic be its own sort of "brand" with Sonic Mania(bleh)and Forces(less bleh).

But they had a fun spin on it: A split timeline.

As explained above, Classic Sonic was given his own little mini-continuity to run around in, which is actually a brilliant idea, from a brand perspective. Original Classic Sonic had the creative freedom to do whatever the heck he wanted to, since he was the main Sonic. However, new Classic material, or Neo-Classic material, as I shall now refer to it, if left in the main timeline, inherently has the “prequel” problem where things HAVE to have some kind of hook for it to really be worth having another branch of the brand available. I wouldn’t say EVERY brand has this problem, but even the most masterful uses of that format have to deal with the fact that the future is predetermined, and Neo-Classic Sonic material just does not have the leg room to work around that problem.

So, split the timeline, and just do whatever with it. It’s an AU, go nuts! Let a part of the brand reset and grow in a different way for that audience who isn’t into that Modern stuff!

And we had a promising enough start with the 30th anniversary comics! Full of interesting returns that you didn’t really see in the mainline books. Heck, we got an actual look at the design of Metal Knuckles, that was pretty rad!

Bark, Bean, and Fang also had an appearance that made their old Archie team somewhat canon, after they only appeared as illusions in Mania.  Sure, these characters were neat in the Archie comics, but getting a proper form of that in a continuity free of that Satam Stank was nice. This particular comic being a separate thing from my main love, while not diving into the weird stuff that would turn me off from it, inherently made the comic more interesting, even though I’m not much of a Classic Sonic fan.

And so this sentiment continued through the next specials, but something else began to shift on Sega’s side. The dumbassery of single timeline was stated to be the new status quo, and they started acting as such with new Sonic material.

Sonic Superstars came out, too, and my feelings on that are known. Now, after his appearance in the comics had been a bit of a treat, even if you didn't like him, Fang was in an official Sonic game again, with 3D renders to boot!

...But he was still the same jackass with barely any personality that he was before. Because Superstars was TRYING to be like 3&K with its storytelling, while lacking basically every element that made 3&K's storytelling work. Combine the lackluster story and music, both of which were caused by the idea of it being a Neo-Classic game, with the fact that the graphics were 3D, and now the question is being raised of, "Why wasn't this just a Modern Sonic game?" 

Cause from an outsider's perspective, it being a Neo-Classic game only served to hold it back in a ton of ways!

For example, the character of Trip. She seems well liked in the Sonic fanbase, but Sega's kinda funky with how they handle characters being both Classic and Modern. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, and Metal Sonic seem to be allowed to exist in both parts of the brand, but that's it. 

Knuckles Chaotix is said to be canon, but the Classic Chaotix are unlikely to appear anytime soon since Sonic Heroes soft-rebooted them. Mecha Sonic was allowed to appear in the Modern "Scrapnik Island" mini-series, but I suspect it's seen by Sega as a "modern reboot" rather than a character being allowed to co-exist between the two brands again. Heck, they didn't even have the guts to show the Classic versions of the characters during the flashbacks, even though logically, they were still referencing 3&K.

 So will Trip be allowed to appear in any meaningful way in the future? Probably not, the way things have been going.

So, if all Classic characters can only appear in Neo-Classic material, then the Neo-Classic material has to be as good as it can be, right?

Well, that's where the Fang mini comes in.

Written by Ian Flynn, who has very much been showing how utterly stretched he is across so many Sonic projects lately(even if I would still regard him as a fairly decent writer, just...Has his limits), the Fang mini is the epitome of BORING! 

The basic story is that Fang and his gang are seeking out, "The eighth Chaos Emerald," visit a few people who tell him it doesn't exist, and then Eggman sends him to deal with the Hardboiled Heavies going rogue.

Along the way, Fang is just randomly a dick to his friends, and they end up abandoning his ass at the end because this comic is, for some reason, a direct prequel to Sonic Superstars, and we apparently needed an explanation of why they weren't there?

If my summary didn't sound that bad to you, it's because you don't have to go through the grueling wait that being an IDW Sonic fan entails.

Seriously, the wait between issues of IDW Sonic has become a real problem the past few years. Ever since the Metal Virus ended, the main book has had a massive problem with pacing. 

And sure, there are arcs and ideas I like there, I AM a fan, but not a lot HAPPENS in each issue compared to earlier in the book's run. Even re-reading them, the pace is oddly slow for a book about a fast character, and the issue especially persists here...On top of the main book being paused for a bit so THIS shit could come out.

(Current arc is doing better, though, so hope they keep that up)

Issues 1&2 are wasted with Fang harassing Sonic and Knuckles for a bit that, guess what? Goes nowhere! And then we briefly divert to Fang and co. in a watery old Eggbase so Eggman can capture them and actually get the plot going…3 issues into a 4-issue mini! Then, we finally get to the main event, where all will be revealed! And…

It's the Warp Topaz from the main book. The Hardboiled Heavies found it in a cave, where nobody ELSE knew it was, so it can't be the source of the 8th Chaos Emerald rumors.

Like I told ya, that went NOWHERE!

So they fight the bland-as-shit Heavies, Fang adds the Warp Topaz to his hover bike thing, and the airship is wrecked, leaving Sonic and Tails to have no idea what just happened, their involvement being a complete wash.

And our story ends with Bark and Bean rocketing off in little hovercars that just raise the question of why they didn't use those when Fang threatened to kick them off in Issue 2, since he has no say in whether or not they launch.

I actually managed to ask Ian Flynn about this on the Bumblekast, and this was his response:

Worth noting that the final issue has an additional editor that didn't work on the previous issues. Not saying EVERYONE'S blameless in this, but if I had to choose a weak point…

This mini-series encapsulates every little issue the Neo-Classic line has had since they officially eschewed split timeline.

 It feels the need to go out of its way to explain shit that doesn’t matter, like where Bark and Bean were during Superstars, Fang having the Warp Topaz, but not using it during Superstars creates a gaping plot hole that will not wash away, and it not going away at the end brings up a lot of timeline issues that I can only hope that Knuckles special resolves! 

In fact, why didn’t HE get the mini!?

Even in his Classic state, Knuckles has a LOT more to carry a story with! From the secrets of his island, to the mysteries of his people(which Adventure and the Frontiers promo animation hinted at), to even just doing his own treasure hunts! Heck, you could even pin him against both Fang’s crew and the HBH, and you’ve got enough of a banger to hold 4 action-packed issues right there! 

But no! Instead, we get a book that seems written to depend on the personalities of the protagonists…When said protagonists barely have any personality.

Like, let’s consider Team Chaotix from Sonic Heroes ALONE. Vector is the loud, bombastic leader with a love of music, and true detective skills, as showcased by him figuring out that their employer was Eggman on his own by Rail Canyon. Espio is the disciplined, if a bit full of himself, ninja, taking down the bad guys with stealth and precision, while also being somewhat melodramatic. And Charmy is the excitable ADHD kid of the group who may occasionally want to go off-track and play around in the giant casino area.

These characters are simple, yet so full of personality that you immediately like them(unless you’re a 2010’s YouTuber). THESE guys can hold a narrative.

By comparison, what do Fang’s gang have after 3 comic appearances and Sonic Superstars?

Fang is a hired goon who has goons, Bean is “funny” bomb man, and Bark is the silent strong guy with a soft spot.

That is really it.

And this was FINE back when they were still in “Sega forgot us” territory. Being obscure oddities that we would rarely get in stories actually did a lot of heavy lifting for their more limited personalities. Despite what the current writers seem to feel about such limits, judging by Silver and Blaze's current "vacations" in the main book, characters being rarer can actually endear you to them.

But now, these guys aren't really that rare. In fact, I’d say they’re about equal to Team Chaotix in terms of mass media exposure within the past 5 years, and they’re considerably lacking in comparison. 

Hell, even compared to the characters created RECENTLY in IDW and the Modern games, they're pretty lackluster. Yet I'm supposed to care about these assholes just as much as those guys?

Which, really, is how ALL of the Neo-Classic media feels these days.

Look, I get that Neo-Classic Sonic media doesn’t want to step on the toes of Modern Sonic. I do. But I really think it needs a good shake-up.

Quit treating it like it’s this special thing, because it isn’t anymore. Find a more solid identity for this branch of Sonic if you want it to survive, cause THIS doesn’t cut it anymore.

AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT TIMELINE SPLIT ESTABLISHED IN A MAINLINE GAME, DAMNIT! THERE’S A STORY IN UNDOING THAT! TELL IT, OR I WILL!