#or maybe i'm just not aware of such npcs

[sleepyorchidmonster]

@raisintheraven YES!

There are plenty of scholars who would love to study the Traveler, and the number only grows after the Archon Quests.

Most of them just want to know about their opinions and views of the world, or ask about locations like Enkanomiya. However, there are those that act a bit like Dottore and it's freaky.

Luckily, the Traveler has friends.

Collei tries to distract the Traveler by pointing at random directions while chucking Cuilein-Anbar at the scholars.

Kaveh makes a dendro wall to block paths.

Layla and other students guide the Traveler to safer locations, preferably with loads of matra, claiming that they need a new environment to learn.

Tighnari helps Collei with the distractions, but shoots the guys in the knees (he uses blunt arrowheads).

These scholars are banned from the Grand Bazaar.

Nahida always tries to warn the Traveler about their presence.

Dori's network always deals with the researchers.

And so on.

Dehya, Candace, Wanderer, Cyno and Alhaitham are kept in the dark because there would probably be a murder if they found out.

It all comes to a head when Alhaitham finds out abou this. The next day he takes the position of Grand Sage, decrees that the Traveler is a human being and NOT a test subject and resigns (AGAIN) in a matter of hours.

Chaos ensues, Wanderer almost goes on another rampage.

[asleepinawell]

happy birthday bangar

[roomba-mangga]

thinking of using this quote from The Little Prince as an opener to a yaad&thistle au one-shot

it's quiet fantasy and inspired by children's lit - mostly the little prince and howl's moving castle. sort of a warmup and cool-down exercise in between my darker fics, a character study for yaad and exploration of what their interactions might look like under slightly more positive circumstances (outside the context of a forced familial relationship). first draft snippet below:

[koimethehorizon]

Deltarune: What's the Deal with Ramb?

(MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR CH 3 of DELTARUNE)

Genuinely, who hell is this guy?

I spend an unhealthy amount of time overthinking Deltarune, so I will likely have an opinion, theory, or answer on practically every aspect of the game. (whether you guys get to read any of those depends on my work ethic.)

But with Ramb, the best I can add is that this is a rare case of an underwritten Toby Fox character. Borderline just a plot-device for the Ch 3 weird route.

...and maybe this was done deliberately?

Throughout Ch 3, Ramb works as a very effective bait for the fans keeping their eyes out for this chapter's secret boss.

An odd speech pattern, a distinct design, an uncomfortable familiarity with Kris, low-key kind of a weirdo, and who could forget the FREEDOM drop.

Like, come on. By his 2nd line, I'm sure most players were suspicious of this guy. Moreso, when you enter that ominous S rank lobby into an equally ominous, weird route minigame.

This has to be the guy right?

Yes, I'm still salty.

And so you keep progressing, grinding for those S ranks, chatting with the definitely-the-Ch3-secret-boss, killing some digital friends along the way.

You find out he's actually a library power strip that Kris and Asriel stole to play games way back when. He's not just any NPC, he KNOWS Kris. And in the chapter's endgame, Ramb drops the bombshell that he SAW Kris open the fountain and figures before anyone that they must've done it to have another adventure with Susie.

I never trust anyone who smiles like this.

Alright lay it on me Ramb, give me the bullshit bullets and let me kick your ass!

And then you fight ERAM, get the Shadow Mantle, and.... he's gone. For the rest of the chapter.

WHERE'S MY CRYSTAL RAMB???

A Rabbick in the S rank hall will tell you that something happened to Ramb, but you don't even get the liberty of knowing the specifics.

So what the hell? Was Ramb genuinely just some weirdo?

It actually wasn't until a week later that I found out that Ramb gets more backstory in the route where you talk with him less. In other words, the non-S rank path that secret hunters would've reset the chapter away from. Nullifying any more info on this character for most dedicated first-timers.

Rather than Ramb vanishing, he's just a block of stone in his booth. Interact with it and a Pippins will give you this:

Don't bother Kris. Ramb's already turned into stone a bit ago... He was a plug, but because you played with him like any other toy, it made him feel special. Might have given him a little bit of an ego, in fact...

Always condescending to any plan, saying "what's best for Kris?" Couldn't get rid of him, so Tenna made him "work the stand"...

Us from the Card Castle fit in fine. Him? He never really belonged. His first day at this stand, he joked "how about the usual?" ... no one laughed! Mixing drinks alone for himself, he wasn't allowed to handle the points...

No one will shed a tear for him. Inside, he was probably stone already.

... And it tells us nothing.

I'm not talking the boy-that-was-sure-a-lot-of-words type of nothing. I mean a far more mundane, miserable type of nothing.

Some have theorized that Ramb was the intended secret boss that the Knight didn't get the shadow crystal to in time.

Some also theorize that Ramb was the one controlling ERAM to have a 1v1 with Kris.

And even fewer might expect Ramb to return in a future chapter so we'll DEFINITELY know what the deal with him is!

Maybe I'm stepping my foot a bit hard here, but I don't agree with any of these. I think the point of this backstory is much sadder than we expected.

Ramb didn't know shit.

Every time Ramb talked about freedom, he wasn't even referring to the same realization that Spamton and Jevil had. Ramb wasn't aware of a grand prophecy, nor did he receive a contact from Gaster/The Knight/Carol or whoever the hell is on that phone.

Ramb placed all stock on his value and identity on being Kris's favorite. Like a parasocial fan of a celebrity. And as a result, he ruined any chance at a social life.

Funny enough, Ramb got NOTHING about Kris right.

Kris HATED playing the Shadow Mantle game. Kris didn't open the fountain for fun; it was to carry out the Knight's plan, which I'm pretty sure Kris isn't all that fond of either.

So all we've got left is this strange, lonely NPC who didn't even need a shadow crystal to be trapped in an existential rot.

He gave up on his life all by himself.

Whenever I see another "who's the secret boss of Ch 3" argument pop up, it makes me pity Ramb in a way I never have with any other Toby Fox character.

Ramb...but only thematically.

Spamton and Jevil are considered anti-social, insane rejects within their Dark Worlds. Yet because they've got the charisma and are powerful opponents, they're loved by many players.

Ramb has none of these qualities.

Other than his accent and design, there isn't much of anything to delve further into with this guy. Ramb absolutely does have some fans, but he'll never reach the same heights as the other bosses because he doesn't stand out.

Ramb's only self-imposed purpose was to help guide Kris to whatever he thinks freedom is and once we get the Mantle, he's fulfilled it, and we're never to see him again.

It's as if even the narrative wants us to forget about him.

[cheapshrimpysheep]

Dating in a Dream - Jade Leech

SUMMARY: What would his dream be like, exactly the same as in the original story, but with the small detail that he is dreaming that you two are dating?

CHARACTERS: Jade Leech x Reader🐬🦐

TAGS: Fluff; GN Reader; In a Relationship (kinda); Kiss; Flirting

WARNING: Spoilers from Book 7 and Jade’s dream (Eng Server)

WORD COUNT: 3.390 words

COMMENTS: This was written as a companion piece to the original dream story, so the parts that are the same as the game are just summarized.

I hope you enjoy🐬

Dating in a Dream: Idia / Epel / Rook / Vil / Kalim / Jamil / Floyd / (Jade) / Azul / ...

“Aether signal tracking successful.” Ortho announces. “We have arrived at the designated coordinates.”

You, Grim, Silver, Sebek, Ortho, Jamil, and Floyd already appeared in the dream underwater and your aerospheres were working well by all indications. After a little chitchat about Silver's signature spell, Sebek and Floyd hear something, and then everything starts to shake like an earthquake.

“Surrounding water temperature rising sharply.” Ortho warns. “Immediate evacuation recommended!”

Floyd shapeshifts into his mer form and takes everyone away from that place quickly. You managed to came out unharmed from an submarine volcano eruption thanks to him.

After talking about how dangerous submarine volcanoes are, not only because of the temperature but also because of the toxic gases, you all decide to go look for Jade. Floyd asked if Idia couldn't give you all a mer-form too, but Idia explained that he didn't have data to do it and that, unlike him, you had no experience in swimming with mer-folk tails. Floyd understands because it took him a while to learn to walk on two legs so he assumed it would be something similar.

But before you set off in search of Jade, Floyd changes his appearance a bit and starts to glow in the dark. He says it's called counter-illumination and explains how it actually works as camouflage in deep, dark places like that.

You searched a lot without success and with your vision and smell limited by the gases. Until Ortho detects an aether signal 20 meters ahead.

“Look at this hydrothermal vent! Though it's spewing hot water nonstop, you can see it's actually home to a colony of shellfish if you look closely!” Jade says smiling. “How do they survive in a place like this? I'd be boiled alive in an instant.”

“If I might remind you, Jade, we're not searching for shellfish worth less than a sorcent.” Azul says. “We're looking for precious metals that settle in hydrothermal deposits.”

“I'm aware, Azul.” You see the dreamer's silver bird around Jade's head. “But it's still nice to take a moment to enjoy the mountain scenery.”

“Yup, that's Jade and Azul, all right.” Floyd confirms.

Azul talks about them looking for very valuable gold and him wanting to become a leading figure in the mining industry. And Jade seems to be enjoying following him.

Jamil says he thinks that Azul is just like the real one, but Idia and Floyd, who know him better, say there's something strange about him. Floyd even says he doubts that Azul would voluntarily go near a volcano.

The fake Azul sees something shining in a vent, he pluged up the vent for a moment with ice magic to then try to scoop up the gold while the flow's stopped. He puts his hand inside and reach for the shiny thing hoping it's gold, but the water redirected and erupt from another vent, right at him, which made Jade start laughing. The fake Azul didn't seem to mind having his arm a bit boiled to get the gold.

And suddenly, both the way Azul spoke and his facial features changed.

“So, uh...” Idia says through tablet. “Am I the only guy thinking Azul's acting like a sketch comedy actor here?”

Floyd and Idia (and maybe you too) are the only ones who really notice the differences between that exaggerated version of Azul and the real one.

Ortho mentions that there is an NPC version of Azul, but he is not seeing any NPC version of Floyd anywhere.

“Ah! Right near where Azul found the gold dust...” Jade says. “There's a school of small shrimp living in a rock fissure that's venting hot water! Floyd! Come over here and have a look.”

The NPC version of Floyd appears, but with facial features way oversimplified.

“It's like Floyd would be if he were drawn in an absurdist comedy manga...” Idia comments.

“Look at these tiny shrimp, living in such a harsh environment.” Jade continues telling NPC Floyd.

“Ooh you're right! They look delish! Eheheh!” NPC Floyd says in a more childish voice than normal. “Ahaha, lookit how cute and teeny they are! I could eat 'em right up!”

“My, my. What a bold gourmand you are, Floyd.” Jade comments with a mocking smile.

The fake Floyd grebes the shrimp and eats them. Idia comments that that Floyd is scary in a whole different way from the real one, and Floyd says that he's nothing like that, that Jade is the one who eats random stuff he finds on the ground in the mountains, not him.

“Heh heh heh. What fun Azul and Floyd are having.” Jade says amusedly. “I just love the mountains.”

“KYAAA! Poor little shrimps!” An abnormally cute voice says. “Floyd is so scary!”

A new NPC appears: You! Or rather, you in mer-form with a tail like a shrimp's, and you see your NPC quickly swimming up to Jade to hug his arm like a scared child.

“Don't let him bite me, Jade~” Your NPC begs cutely with a tear in the corner of their eye. And your face was also different from your real face, the eyes seemed bigger and brighter, but in a way that was almost pitiful.

“Fu fu fu. Worry not, my dear. You're the only little shrimp I would never let him nibble on.” Jade says, as he intertwines his tail with your NPC's.

“T-That (Y/N)...” Idia says. “C-could it be...?”

“Jade~” Your NPC continues to say, without letting go of Jade's arm and happy that he intertwined their tails. “You'll always protect me, won't you?”

“Of course, my love. You can always depend on me for whatever you need.”

“You make me so happy, Jade! I love you so much!” Your NPC smiles like a ray of sunshine.

“I love you too, my dear.” Jade responds with a cute smile and kiss your NPC's forehead.

But your NPC doesn't seem pleased and tilts their head a certain way. Jade chuckles and kisses their cheek affectionately, which makes your NPC finally smile in satisfaction.

“AH! IT IS! IT IS!” Idea continues suddenly.

“What? What is it?” Silver asks.

“(Y/N)'s NPC in Jade's dream is... is... A CLINGY, DEPENDENT DEREDERE!!!”

“Hm... Sorry, but what is a dere..dere?” Silver asks.

“An openly love-struck character who is continuously sweet, flirtatious and affectionate towards their love interest.” Ortho clarifies. “And it seems that (Y/N) and Jade Leech are each other's romantic interests in this dream.”

Everyone is surprised to find out that Jade has a crush on you. As for Floyd, he simply has no reaction.

“I assume you already knew, Floyd Leech.” Ortho says.

“Kinda. I mean, I wasn't sure, but I think it explains some things.”

“Like what?”

“Huh... Ortho, maybe we'll leave that to them.” Idia suggests and the subject returns to observing Jade and the NPCs.

“I was worried about what to do after climbing every single mountain on land...” Jade says. “But the ocean's far vaster, with a great many unexplored submarine volcanoes.”

“I'll never give up before I strike gold!” NPC Azul says.

“Ooh, ooh, Jade! These crabs are pretty tasty, too! Eheheh!” NPC Floyd says.

“Aw, these corals are so beautiful. Jade~, can we pick them? Pretty please~” Your NPC says.

“Heheheh. I'm delighted you're all enjoying yourselves.” Jade smiles. “May the four of us overcome every obstacle and conquer every mountain!”

“Hip hip, hooray!” Jade and the NPCs celebrate together.

“AAAUGH, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” Floyd shouts and charges them right in!

Sebek asks if you should join him, but Jamil says that you are at a disadvantage underwater and it could be dangerous for you all, so it's best to wait for a better opportunity.

“Hey... Jade.” The real Floyd confronts him. “Knock it off with this creepy dream. You're givin' me scale-bumps from gills to tail!”

“Huh? There are two Floyds?”

“Why, it's a perfect mirror image!” NPC Azul claims.

“How'm I a perfect mirror image of THAT? We don't look nothin' alike.” The real Floyd says.

“Who's this guy? It cool if I squeeze 'em and eat 'em? Ahaha!” The fake Floyd says.

“I knew you never paid much attention to other people, but I ain't buyin' this is the best your memory can dredge up.” The real Floyd returns to the subject. “There's no way I'd act all gleeful gobblin' up live shrimp wedged under rocks!”

“Floyd...?” Jade's dream world begins to distort. “You don't eat live shrimp...?”

“Don't let him fool you, Jade!” Fake Azul intervenes. “Look closer. Floyd isn't some menacing-looking gangster. He's more simpleminded and charming than that. Look at this endearing smile!”

“Hey, Jade? I'm bored.” Fake Floyd says. “Wanna ditch this guy and go eat crab somewhere else? Ahaha!”

“Yes... Right.” Jade agrees. “Floyd's always been the endearing type. Our relatives loved doting on him. This has to be the real Floyd.”

“Really, now. How could you ever mix up who your one brother is? Are you getting fatigued? Given your exhaustive knowledge of the mountains, you're essential for my gold search. Please, pull yourself together.”

“Heheheh... Of course. You, Floyd and (Y/N) would be helpless without me.”

The goopy darkness surrounds you and the figures of Azul, Floyd and you become dark silhouettes.

“Come, Jade, let's ignore them and move on.” Darkness Azul says.

“C'mon already, Jade!” Darkness Floyd adds.

“Please, come with me, my love.” Your darkness figure seduces him.

“Yes... Of... course...”

“Oh, is that how it's gonna be?” The real Floyd says. “In that case, you can keep pallin' around with your ‘real’ brother in dreamland. I don't want a brother like that anyway. I'mma knock ALLA you into the volcano!”

The real Floyd attacks all three NPCs including yours, and all three beg Jade for help.

“How dare you hurt them.” Jade defends them. “You will pay dearly for this, impostor. HAAAH!” and he attacks the real Floyd.

“I keep tryin' to tell you, I'M the real one!”

Floyd asks Idia if a good shock to the system wasn't supposed to wake someone up, but Idia realizes that in that case the pattern is different. In this case, Jade had extraordinarily high belief in himself to the point to refusing to budge in his opinion no matter what counterpoints others make.

You all wonder how you're supposed to wake Jade up, but Floyd suggests that you let him sleep forever since he liked that dream so much. He turns back to Jade.

“I'll cut you into chum so you never wake up again, Jade! GYAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“All of you, get back! I'll handle this!”

“Please, be careful, Jade~!” Your NPC tells him.

“He will pay for even daring to touch you, (Y/N).” Jade tells them before attacking Floyd. “*screech!*”

The Leech twins began to fight, attacking each other violently with their sharp nails and teeth, and their fight ends up whipping the water into a whirlpool.

“Their roughhousing is destroying the fragile vents and sending hot water spewing out all over the place.” Jamil says.

All of you take shelter behind a boulder. Even the darkness NPCs are scared and hiding behind rocks. However, the boulder you were holding onto breaks and you are pulled into the whirlpool.

“(Y/N)!” Everyone shouts.

You scream and both Floyd and Jade hear you, making them pause the fight.

“(Y/N)?” Jade looks back, but his vision was limited by all the sand and smoke.

Your aerosphere bursts because it can't resist the heat and gases. Amidst the sand and smoke, Jade sees your silhouette with legs instead of a merfolk tail.

“(Y/N)!!!”

Jade abandons the fight with Floyd completely and rushes towards you. He gets you and sees you holding your breath.

“Did you not take your last dose of the potion? Doesn't matter! I have to get you out of here NOW!”

Jade quickly takes you away from the heat and toxic gases and consequently away from everyone else too. When he thought you were in a safe place, he used his magic to create a bubble around your head. You take a deep breath.

“(Y/N), are you all right?” He asks you calmly with his arms around you in a protective and loving way. “What happened?”

This is your chance to tell him the truth and try to wake him up.

“Jade, listen to me.” You cup his face with your hands. “Would the Azul you know really risk so much for a measly bit of gold?”

“What?” He is surprised that you seemingly completely change the subject.

“And Floyd, your own brother.” You continue. “Between the one who depends on you and the one who attacked you tooth and nail, do you really believe that your twin is the docile idiot one?”

“Floyd...? He... Hrk!”

The world distorts again and Jade's head starts to hurt, but he doesn't let go of you.

“JAAADEEE!” You hear a voice approaching, and then you see... you in mer-form arriving and clinging to Jade's arm. “Jade! What are you doing?” Your NPC whines. “That's not me! I'm right here.”

Jade looks between you and your NPC, confused.

“Is this how you see me?” You say. “Like a helpless and dependent weakling?”

“Wha- Why are they so mean?” Your NPC whines again. “Jade, darling, please leave this impostor and come back with me, my love. I need you so much.”

“You are a kind person.” Jade tells your NPC. “And your lack of magic makes you more vulnerable than me. But you are not that hopeless.” He looks at them with that rare serious face, a bad sign for them.

“WHAT?”

“If you were, you would never have been able to defeat us and Azul that midterms... Urgh!” The world distorts again. “Midterms... At Night Raven College... on land... Augh, I have a splitting headache! Urgh, augh...!”

Jade remembers what you're really like, what Azul and Floyd are really like too, and what you've all been through in Night Raven College. And the dream breaks.

“Jade! Are you all right?!” NPC Azul says, arriving with NPC Floyd. “Oh, thank goodness you're alive! I was afraid I lost my precious subordinate!”

“Your... precious subordinate?” Jade repeats, surprised.

“If we lost you, I'd cry, Jade.” NPC Floyd says. “Don't go anywhere again, 'kay?”

“...Don't go anywhere?... Indeed... The Azul and Floyd I know would never say such things. How could I have forgotten something so important?” He releases you and makes your NPC release him too. “Floyd is never so docile. He's far more unruly. And Azul would never willingly expose himself to danger. He's send someone else to do it instead. More to the point - neither of them would merrily tag along on my mountain expeditions. What was I thinking?”

“Jade! You would believe this imposter over us?!” NPC Azul inquires.

“Unfair! You said I was the real one, Jade!” NPC Floyd complains.

“I implore you to reconsider!”

The fake Azul and Floyd each grab one of Jade's arms.

“Could you please not touch me? It's sickening.”

Jade attacks both of them without mercy and the two turn into darkness figures and disappear in the goop. Jade looks seriously at your mer-form version.

“And you...”

“ME? Jade, my love” Your NPC begs in tears. “Please, stay with me. *sniff* You are my everything.”

“Do me a favor, dear, and shut your mouth. Your despair disgusts me.” And he attacks the fake version of you as ruthlessly as he attacked the false Azul and Floyd.

“But... my... love...” Were the last words of your NPC, before also turning into darkness and disappearing.

Jade looks at you and his expression softens.

“You... you are the real (Y/N), aren’t you?”

“After seeing what you did to the others, do you really think that I would deny it even if I wasn't?”

“He he he. Sounds like you, at least.”

“Heeey, Jade.” The real Floyd approaches you two. “You finally awake?”

“Yes, thanks to (Y/N) and you.”

The two laugh a little before attacking each other again. But this time, as brothers would do in a fight at home. The others finally catch up to you too.

“(Y/N)!” Grim goes straight to you to hug you. “You need to get stronger!” He complains with a few small tears in his eyes. It even reminded you of when he finally rejoined you in STYX.

Idia takes the opportunity to restore your aerosphere.

“Ah, everyone,” Jade says to your group, after another exchange of punches and words with Floyd. “What an embarrassing brotherly squabble you've witnessed. I'm terribly sorry you had to see that.”

“Dude, that wasn't a 'squabble.'” Idia says through the tablet. “That was a full-blown super kaiju brothers brawl.”

“Um... Anyway, I'm glad Jade's awake and the two of them mended bridges.” Silver says.

“You call that mending bridges...?” Jamil questions.

“Heh heh. Yes, we've made up.” Jade smiles reassuringly. “My apologies for giving you cause for concern.”

“Tch. Speak for yourself. I ain't satisfied yet, but we're not gonna get anywhere arguin' about it in a dream, se whatevs.”

“A dream? Floyd, what do you mean by that?”

“Mind if I field this one?” Ortho asks. “I've got an explainer video here that will help...”

“I see... What a fascinating tale.” Jade says. “So the false Azul, Floyd and (Y/N) were there to keep me anchored in the dream. Neither Azul or Floyd have ever shown any interest in my hobbies, and yet they joined me to trek through a multitude of mountains... And (Y/N)...” He looks at you and then back at the rest of the group. “Excuse me, could you give us a moment alone, please?”

The others look at you to see if you also want to have that moment alone with Jade and when they see your confirmation they let Jade take you by the hand a little further away.

“If my brother felt the way he did when he saw the Floyd from my dream,” Jade smiles kind of awkwardly. “I can only imagine how you must have felt when you saw your version.”

“So... is it true that that means you like me?” You ask.

“Well, thinking how pleasurable my dream with you was... It seems like I cannot deny my fondness for you anymore.”

“Anymore?”

“Oh, don't mind that part.” He smiles with his hands clasped in front of him. “I can only hope you weren't too uncomfortable with what you witnessed. My deepest apologies.”

You remember the dependent, loving fool you saw.

“Do you really like me, or that version of me?”

“You saw the Azul and Floyd versions. Do you really think I preferred those two poor unfortunate souls to the real ambitious and unpredictable ones? Oh my, you don't believe that my tastes are that... rudimentary, do you?”

In fact, you had already seen several dreams, and Malleus’ spell does not always fit with what the dreamer true wishes. Floyd's own dream, for example.

Well, you finding out, against his will, that he likes you, maybe it would be a good opportunity for you to admit that you like him too.

“Oh...” Jade's smile turns from his polite one to a smirk. “Truly...?” He still had his counter-illumination active, so him getting closer to you with that bright eye in the middle of the darkness gave you a nice, different type of chill. “You know,” He swims around you, “I agree with my brother that happy endings are often quite dull.” to stop in front of you again, but now with his tail blocking any escape you could make. “But in this case.” He tilts your head with his fingers on your chin. “Something tells me this relationship would be more... interesting... after these confessions.” He brings his face closer to yours and consequently his lips closer to yours as well. “I wonder what it would be like if we both stopped holding back.” He whispers with your noses touching slightly. “What do you say?”

He's not going to kiss you, he's teasing you to do it. And if you do kiss his lips, you'll feel his tail wrap around your legs, his arms go around your back, and you will feel him deepening the kiss before suddenly breaking it.

“Don't get me wrong, my dear.” He whispers to you. “But unfortunately, we have people waiting for us and I wouldn't like to be interrupted by third parties. Which is a shame,” He brings his lips close to your ear. “You are a delightful taste.”

If you would like to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

[rianemorgan]

Dr. Stone Fanfic Self Aware AU

Title: The Stone World Paradox

Senku Ishigami x Reader

Summary: Senku Ishigami has been trapped in an endless time loop, reliving the same events from the moment civilization was petrified to the revival of Byakuya. No matter how much he deviates, the world resets—until she appears. Y/N L/N, an anomaly in his predetermined reality, disrupts the cycle just by existing. As Senku struggles to understand why the loop has finally broken, he finds himself facing an uncertain future for the first time. But maybe, just maybe, uncertainty isn’t so bad—especially with her by his side.

For the nth time, the world began anew.

Senku Ishigami sighed as Taiju Oki burst into the science lab, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Senku! I'm finally gonna confess to Yuzuriha!"

The scientist barely reacted. He had heard these exact words too many times to count, seen the same determined look on his best friend's face, and experienced the same sequence of events play out again and again.

The stone world would begin. The petrification would happen. He would wake up alone. He would count the days. He would revive Taiju. He would revive Yuzuriha. He would clash with Tsukasa. He would build the Kingdom of Science. He would save Ruri.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, he will move on to make a time machine and he would find Byakuya’s stone body with the help of why-man and everyone.

And the cycle would begin all over again.

At first, Senku hadn't noticed the loops. It was subtle—fragmented dreams of things that had already happened, but he brushed them off as déjà vu. Then, after dozens, maybe hundreds of cycles, he realized something was deeply wrong.

The world was off.

People repeated their lines perfectly, as if reading from a script. Background characters, if not directly involved in the current scene, felt lifeless—as if they were NPCs in a video game, waiting for the player to interact with them.

Everything felt coded. Artificial.

And no matter how much he tried to deviate from his expected actions, the world always corrected itself, forcing events back on track.

Was this even reality? Or was he trapped in some kind of cosmic experiment?

Senku had long since stopped questioning it. If he couldn't change the loop, then he would just have to live with it. Its the most logical thing to do after all, its not like he has the power to go against that thing that is doing this.

Then something different happened this time.

It was the day Gen Asagiri was supposed to make his first appearance—the so-called mentalist arriving at the Kingdom of Science to assess whether Senku was truly alive, task to him by Tsukasa.

Senku already knew what was supposed to happen. He would be distributing ramen to the villagers, Gen would show up and dramatically demand Cola, and Senku would eventually win him over to his side.

But this time… Gen wasn't alone.

Sitting beside him was a girl Senku had never seen before., holding a bowl of Ramen as well.

She didn't exist in any of the previous loops.

His sharp red eyes immediately locked onto her, studying her as she approached with casual curiosity.

Gen smirked. "Oh my~ this Ramen will surely be more delicious with... what do you think? Cola is it~"

The girl—Y/N L/N—gave a nervous smile, shifting slightly behind Gen as if unsure of how to act in front of him.

And for the first time in countless cycles, Senku felt a shift in the world.

It was subtle but undeniable. The air seemed crisper, the colors more vivid. The villagers, who normally followed their pre-determined scripts, reacted to Y/N with genuine, unscripted curiosity.

She was an anomaly.

And anomalies were something Senku never ignored.

_______

Y/N had no idea how she got here.

One moment, she was living her normal life, obsessed with Dr. Stone, especially Senku Ishigami.

The next moment? Truck-kun did his thing, and she woke up in the Stone World.

At first, she thought she was dreaming.

Then she realized she was petrified.

Somehow, she had arrived in this world already turned to stone, only to be unpetrified by none other than Tsukasa Shishio, Gen Asagiri, and Ukyo Saionji.

It gave her credibility. She wasn’t just some random girl appearing out of nowhere— at least she had been part of the world’s history, past encased in stone like everyone else, before the petrification happened. Good thing its already over more than 3,700 years, no one will suspect that she in fact did not beling in this world... all but one that is.

When she first saw Tsukasa, she nearly had a heart attack.

When she saw Gen, she nearly screamed.

And when they asked for her name, she realized she had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do.

But if there was one thing she knew, it was that she wanted to see him.

Senku Ishigami.

As a fangirl, that is a must!!!

The moment Gen mentioned that he was being sent to check if Senku was alive, she jumped at the opportunity.

"Gen? Can i come with you? Please?"

"Oh? and what might be the reason our little angel wants to come see the village~"

"I'm just curious okay? to see a real life primitive village that is!!"

Now, here she was, standing in front of him, in the middle of the Kingdom of Science.

And the way he was looking at her made her skin tingle.

"You're looking at my partners in crim like sh was some type anomaly Senku Chan~~ "

"That's because she is"

"Eh?"

Senku didn’t believe in miracles. After all he was in this loop for so very long and nothing changes no matter what, so he really has no hope for that.

But Y/N?

She was something that defied all logic. she defied even this world's constant

The moment he saw her, his mind was already racing. Where did she come from? Is she here in the previois loop? If so how did she escape the loop? What made her different from everything else in this fake world?

For the first time in countless cycles, he felt… excited.

Interested.

It wasn’t just because she was an anomaly—it was because she made the world feel real again.

As the days passed, he watched how the people around her, around him changed.

Kohaku, Chrome, Suika, Kaseki even Gen—everyone acted more alive when they were around her. The scripted lines, the unnatural repetition, the lifelessness—all of it started to fade the moment she interacted with them.

She was disrupting the world’s pre-determined flow.

If Y/N could change things, then maybe—just maybe—he could finally break free from this loop.

_______

Senku wasn’t one for emotions.

Love, romance—all of that took a backseat to science.

But Y/N was different.

Y/N huffed, slamming her hands on the table. "Senku, you can’t just ignore the taste factor! If we're making sulfa drugs, we should at least try to make them less disgusting!"

Senku scoffed, rolling his eyes as he continued grinding ingredients into fine powder. "Oh sure, let’s waste time making life-saving medicine taste like candy. Brilliant idea, Einstein."

"Hey! I’m just saying, if the patient can’t even swallow it without gagging, what’s the point?!" Y/N argued, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

Senku smirked, adjusting his goggles. "The point is that it’ll save their life, Y/N. Newsflash—sulfa drugs aren’t a gourmet meal. If they don’t like the taste, they can suck it up."

Y/N groaned. "But you KNOW compliance is a thing! If it tastes like literal death, people might refuse to take it!"

"And if we waste time making it taste good, they might die before they even get the chance," Senku shot back, flicking her forehead lightly. "Science first, comfort second. That’s how it works."

Y/N rubbed her forehead, glaring. "You are so stubborn. Would it kill you to consider patient experience?"

"No, but it might kill them if we delay the process." Senku smirked. "Unless you’d rather go back in time and tell Alexander Fleming to sweeten up penicillin?"

Y/N crossed her arms. "Ugh! I hate it when you use historical scientists against me."

"I know. That’s why I do it." He grinned smugly.

Y/N sighed in defeat, then muttered, "Fine. But I’m still going to find a way to make them taste less horrible after we make the first batch."

Senku chuckled. "Knock yourself out, taste-tester."

The more time he spent with her, the more he realized how much she fascinated him. Her knowledge, her humor, the way she challenged him in discussions—she was brilliant. Annoying but brilliant nonetheless

She wasn’t just an anomaly in the world.

She was an anomaly in his heart. Kukuku Yeah he really is staeting to sound illogical in this one

The realization came slowly. At first, he brushed it off as mere interest. Then he rationalized it as curiosity. But the moment he caught himself staring at her for too long, the moment he found himself wanting to be near her, he knew—

He had fallen for her. Surprise. Surprise

And if there was anything he hated, it was unsolved mysteries.

______

It took time, but together, they changed everything.

The Kingdom of Science thrived. The war with Tsukasa ended. They set sail. They conquered the world’s challenges. They face that creep Ibara. Have a science showdown with Dr. Xeno. Almost got brutally killed by Stanley. The world being petrified for the second time. Then facing Why-man head on.

And finally—

They found Byakuya’s stone body.

Senku stood there, staring at his father’s petrified form, and he knew.

The cycle was about to reset.

No matter what he had done, no matter how much he changed—the world would force everything back to the beginning.

...or at least that's what he thought...

.

.

.

The moment stretched on longer than it should have. The cold, lifeless form of Byakuya Ishigami stood before them, his stone features frozen in time. The weight of the moment should have been clear—reviving the last of their fallen, the final piece of their journey.

But Senku wasn’t moving.

Kohaku tilted her head, confused. "Senku? Why are you just standing there? This is your father, right?"

Ryusui folded his arms, watching Senku with a raised brow. "For once, I have to agree. You should be pouring revival fluid on him right now, yet here you are, gawking like you’ve never seen a petrified person before."

Y/N, standing just a bit closer, nudged Senku with her elbow. "Oi, Senku, this isn’t like you. What’s with the hesitation? Don’t tell me you’re getting sentimental on us?" she teased, smirking.

Senku blinked, snapping out of his daze. "Tch. Sentimental? As if." He quickly turned his usual cocky grin on her, masking the storm raging in his mind.

Because this wasn’t right.

The loop was supposed to restart now. This moment—the very second they found Byakuya's statue—had always been the reset point. He should’ve been bracing himself to wake up back in his high school lab, hearing Taiju’s earth-shattering declaration that he was going to confess to Yuzuriha.

But nothing was happening.

Time was still moving forward.

Y/N sighed, shaking her head. "You’re acting weirder than usual, scientist. Are you gonna revive him or what?" She grinned, placing a hand on her hip. "Or are you waiting for a dramatic drumroll?"

Senku exhaled slowly through his nose. She was watching him. They all were.

His mind raced for an explanation—something logical to cling to. The loop should have reset, so why was everything continuing? Why was he still here?

Then his eyes flickered back to Y/N.

The anomaly. The one thing that never existed in any previous cycle.

Senku’s lips curled into a smirk as he pulled out the revival fluid. "Heh. If you want a drumroll, you’re out of luck. Science waits for no one."

With practiced precision, he poured the glowing liquid over his father’s petrified form, watching as the cracks formed, golden light illuminating Byakuya’s frozen features.

_____

Y/N, standing to the side, watched the heartwarming reunion unfold. A part of her felt a pang of longing—because, for the first time, she truly didn’t know what would happen next. This was supposed to be the final chapter, the last scene. But now?

Everything was unwritten.

As the group made their way back to the perseus, Y/N nudged Senku playfully. "You’re staring into space again, Ishigami. Are you secretly a softie now that your dad’s back?"

Senku rolled his eyes. "Tch. As if. I was just running calculations in my head."

"Sure you were," she teased, smirking.

Senku clicked his tongue. "If you had even an ounce of scientific prowess, you’d understand that thinking ahead is crucial."

"Oh, please. I understand science just fine. But unlike you, I also understand emotions," Y/N shot back. "Which, judging by that awkward hug, you still suck at."

"Hugging has nothing to do with science, and you know it."

"It has everything to do with being a functional human being."

"Functionality is about efficiency, not sentimentality."

"Oh my god, Senku, you are impossible!"

They continued bickering even as they returned to the ship, their voices echoing in the small quarters as the celebration back on Ishigami Village began.

—---

That night, in the quiet of his quarters, Senku lay staring at the ceiling. His arms were folded behind his head, and his mind raced, calculating, analyzing.

By all logic, the loop should have reset the moment they found Byakuya’s statue. Instead, time moved forward.

His mind kept coming back to one thing.

Or rather… one person.

Y/N.

She was an anomaly. She had disrupted the pattern. Could she be the reason the loop had stopped?

He sighed, closing his eyes.

If I wake up tomorrow… where will I be?

The thought unsettled him more than he cared to admit. For so long, he had accepted the endless cycle, the unbreakable script of this world. Now, for the first time, he felt the uncertainty of tomorrow.

And, to his own surprise, he hoped to wake up to a new day. Not another loop.

His last thought before sleep took him was of Y/N, her voice ringing in his ears.

"Oh my god, Senku, you are impossible!"

A small smirk tugged at his lips.

Heh. Yeah, well… So is she.

And then, for the first time in countless cycles, Senku Ishigami let himself sleep, truly wondering what came next.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Oi Ishigami Senku, you better wake you ass up. Your dad’s been resquesting for you. He wants to spend some time with his genius son."

His eyes snapped open. Instead of the white ceiling of his old science lab, he was met with Y/N’s face, her expression hovering somewhere between amusement and curiosity. The soft morning light filtered through the ship window, confirming what he already suspected.

The loop hadn’t reset.

Senku blinked, quickly masking his initial shock with a smirk. "Tch. That old man is way too sentimental."

Y/N crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, and you’re not? I distinctly remember a certain scientist hesitating for a solid five minutes before reviving him."

"That’s called making sure the experiment goes smoothly, not sentimentality."

"Right. Just like how you ‘logically calculated’ that awkward hug instead of freezing like a malfunctioning robot."

"Hugging isn’t a science. And for the record, my calculations were flawless, as always."

"Mhm. Keep telling yourself that, You leek Science Boy."

Senku let out an exasperated sigh, sitting up and stretching. "You’re really getting too comfortable calling me that, huh?"

Y/N grinned. "What can I say? It’s fun watching you pretend you’re not a total softie."

"You do realize that by scientific standards, you’re objectively incorrect."

"And you do realize that by human standards, you’re completely in denial?"

"Tch. You’re seriously exhausting."

"And yet, you’d be lost without me."

Senku gave her a sidelong glance, but instead of arguing, he just huffed out a quiet chuckle. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

For the first time in a long, long while, he wasn’t trapped in an endless cycle. No loops, no resets. Just… the future.

And, somehow, he didn’t mind that future that includes her by his side.

—END.

[lennythereviewer]

Theory: Jax is NOT a self-aware NPC nor is he actually trapped in the circus: He's a hacker who can leave at any time.

Even what little we got in terms of Jax content in episode 3 has been reinforcing a belief I've had for awhile, and in fact Jax's brief standout moment in ep 3 added a new wrinkle to my thought: That he's not some NPC who gained sentience and slipped in with the humans, he's actually a hacker who backdoored his way into the Digital Circus, and he's not trapped there.

Jax seems to have an affinity for keys and getting into places he shouldn't belong. Twice now he's done this thing of spinning a key on his finger while boasting about it. He mentions in episode 1 that "I got keys to everywhere" and in episode 2 he swiped the key to the kingdom from Ragatha, and the candy monster calls him a "Master of Unlocking Things" which I think could be genuinely some subtle foreshadowing. A hacker would potentially be able to do something like clip out of bounds, find security keys, crack passwords, and so on and so forth. All he's done with this however is seemingly just pull pranks and leave things in peoples rooms; he's a troll.

We've all speculated about the mysterious pin-back covers: The official pin merch line showing everyone's rooms except for Jaxs, which only shows his door and peeks of The Void tearing through the wall. We're not privvy to what's in Jaxs room if he even has one at all. His room door might actually be his own sort of exit door since he's not trapped. For him it's like loading into a VRChat server and he can log off any time he wants, he's just always sure to be there when everyone else is active so no one notices.

A small stupid thing but, "Jax" is not too far off from "Hax"

Okay, so if Jax is a hacker who can come and go as he pleases, a question is why? Why does he keep coming back to torment everyone around him? His brief gag in Episode 3 I think filled in the blanks for that: He's not just a hacker, he's a streamer and he's broadcasting everything that's happening in the Digital Circus to a watching audience.

He's the one character who has consistently broken the fourth wall in all three episodes so far, the first two episodes were him mugging to the camera and giving comical shrugs and knowing glances to the viewer, but in this episode he outright addresses the audience while seemingly talking to no one to the POV of the other circus members. He's acknowledging his chat. Plus in merch promotion Jax has openly acknowledged his IRL popularity, another form of fourth-wall-breaking.

This may also explain his overall behavior; the reason he's always causing problems on purpose or forcing the group to go on the most dangerous path or take the most 'exciting' option in their adventures: It makes for a good show. Audiences don't want some stupid silly candyland fantasy! They want car chases and explosions! They want to see what wacky things happen to the other circus members! The show must go on! Jax is chasing content, and when he can't get that content it upsets him like the end of Episode 2. Maybe that ties into his self-worth, maybe he needs that sort of validation from his chat and audience.

This angle also adds a bit of a meta angle to the entire series: We the viewer also tune in to watch our favorite circus buddies suffer through whatever zany adventure Caine cooked up. Are we any better than Jax's livestream audience who tune in to see how they're tormented by Caine this week? Heck maybe in-universe we're the audience Jax is playing to! We too want to see them sweat and suffer to get that sweet character growth so are we part of the problem?

Time will tell whether this comes to pass and whether or not I'm overthinking this, but I've had this thought for awhile and only after this episode did the livestreamer angle come to mind.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Bagworm

Quote: Don't mind me, I'm just a little pine cone!

I love bagworms! Don't we all? Everyone's favorite silly bug living in a bag of silk and plant fibers! High defense, low speed, all that! I'm just going to ignore that my browser does not recognize "bagworm" as a word, and assume we all love them. Great! So we can move right along to the main topic here.

Name: Bragworm

Quote: Why camouflage when I can DAZZLE?

As you progress through the story and level up, you'll sadly leave our beloved bagworms behind (don't worry! You can always return to earlier areas to visit them!) as stronger creatures take their place. All sorts of creatures, with all sorts of abilities and attack patterns to be aware of, but the most exciting part is always seeing the new creature designs!

However, making so many unique designs is hard. Maybe due to whatever circumstances, it's just more practical to recolor or retexture existing assets, give them new stats, and declare them new creatures. That can be disappointing, but sometimes it's done in a way where you can't help but love it! That's how I feel about Bragworm!

First off, I think a bagworm is a perfect creature to recolor, since real ones will decorate themselves with different things anyway, and the foliage they use does change color with time. With Bragworm here, it can even represent different materials altogether, and that even ties into its personality!

Bragworm is the opposite of an ordinary bagworm. Instead of trying to hide itself, it coats its case in only the brightest, shiniest materials it can find, because it loves to show off! A bit disappointing that the new materials are just a pink recolor of the original bagworm's leaf bits, but it does communicate the "glam" aspect well, so whatever.

Whereas the basic Bagworm was sort of your tutorial to "hidden" encounters, blending into scenery and causing a surprise encounter, it's impossible to miss Bragworm, and that's just as well. It's in character, and at this point, with all your experience, you wouldn't fall for its tricks, anyway!

Bragworm is an iconic creature, beloved and memed by fans as an especially tough foe that yields a mountain of experience points, and drops items that can be sold for quite a lot of money. My favorite aspect, though, is that their rarity makes complete sense. A nearby NPC studying them confirms that Bragworms' gaudy outfits make them pathetically easy targets to predators, and that the population is likely to go extinct. The price they pay for fashion...

Oh, and you just know the localizers must have been really proud of themselves when they came up with that name! I kind of wish I thought of it.

[merakiui]

MERA PLEASE MORE IDIA THOUGHTS I BEG OF YOU 🙏🙏🙏

There's a very old wip from 2022 in my drafts called NPC Syndrome and it follows you, who have been uploaded into an otome, trying to figure out which of the characters (who can be romanced) is also self-aware like you. Idia's made himself the boss (secret yan route omg), but you don't know this because he's just some random background NPC. Totally unimportant to the plot, right? :)

After seeing what happened in book 7, I'm very tempted to revisit this concept. Maybe you try to break the characters out of their code to get them to see beyond the ones and zeros. But because it's a game designed by Idia he's made sure everything is neatly patched and there are no bugs, and if there are then those will be swiftly fixed. Just when you think you might be making progress in breaking the characters, the self-proclaimed god (Idia) of this cursed otome world comes in to fix up all of the damage you've caused.

"We can't have you corrupting all the lovey-dovey variables with your real-world logic lawl," he's saying. "Tampering with game mechanics is no good, y'know. Hacking can cost you your whole account. Looks like we've gotta do a hard reset."

And just like that... all of the progress you've worked tirelessly for, wiped in a snap. Back to the beginning you go!

When you get your hands on the guy exempt from the NPC Syndrome, you swear you'll kill him. >:( Idia has fun watching you struggle through various routes. You can't outsmart a genius and you definitely can't hope to beat the final boss if you skip every other level that stands between you and him. What are you, a noob? XD

[creachiergh]

guys, guys, guys. jax isn't an npc; he's a game dev/mod who got trapped in the circus.

i'm sure someone has already put forth this theory, but with the series still being in its early stages, it's hard to say exactly which direction it's going. while i don't think the npc theory is bad, i think it lacks a foundation and is more so the fandom's attempt to justify jax's moral greyness or give him depth where there currently isn't any. i just wanted to share some of my own thoughts about what his deal might be.

firstly, his design, which is honestly just my own speculation but bear with me. i know goose made some jokes about his clothes being farmer's overalls, but when i look at him, i almost get mechanic vibes? like if he wasn't such a prick, he'd be in charge of fixing any bugs that crop up during the adventures, which is pretty much what a moderator does.

speaking of which, he has keys to all the rooms, which is already pretty sketchy in itself, but it makes sense if you consider that he helped make the circus. naturally, he'd have them on hand in case he needed to access any areas of potential danger. to me, it's a bit like having cheat codes, which definitely gives him an upper hand above the other circus members. (but again, it's not like he's ever going to do his job.)

there's also the "figurine thing," which is probably either a throwaway joke or a thinly-veiled attempt at foreshadowing the npcs-- since their models resemble figurines-- but it's still worth noting. if we assume that the "figurine thing" is referring to the npcs-- which it probably isn't, but again, bear with me-- then it shows just how much jax knows about the circus. as far as i remember, none of the other characters have ever brought up the outside of the map, but obviously, if jax made the game, he's going to know its layouts and inner workings like the back of his hand. i won't go so far as to say he's all-knowing, but i'm sure he knows a lot more than he lets on, and i have a feeling we're going to see that in later episodes.

if he really can predict caine's adventures and whatnot, since he designed them, it explains why he's so unfazed by everything that happens at the circus, from zooble getting taken by the gloinks to running into the gloink queen. the only time he really seems to be surprised is when the game glitches-- when the one gloink started bugging out, when kaufmo abstracted, etc.

i think the mod theory explains jax's personality and motivations. when he first arrived at the circus, there might've been a time when he acted more responsibly, fixing all the bugs, trying to stop the abstractions, etc. he could've been caine's right-hand at keeping everything under control. but maybe he slowly gave up these responsibilities when he realized that people were going to get abstracted no matter what, as we can see from the crossed-off doors in the pilot. it's very possible that he became consumed by his mod privileges when he began acting more recklessly and faced zero repercussions for his actions. essentially, he's a step above everyone else in terms of knowledge, awareness, and grants of power-- probably just below caine on the power ladder, though pomni could also rival him as she comes to learn more about the circus. depending on how jax uses his abilities, he could either help everyone find the exit or slowly lead them towards abstraction, and given what goose has said about the future of the series, it's not looking very optimistic for anyone involved.

but what do i know? this theory could be completely nonsensical and riddled with plot holes. i just like to hyperanalyze jokes 🥲

[nabi-unveiled]

Catching Up: Love for Love's Sake (Ep 2)

Other Reacts: Ep 1

When we left off Myung-ha was on a mission to make Yeowoon happy (and himself) in this alternate reality. The catch - he's got 300 days or bad bad stuff happens. I haven't really had any new epiphanies or insights at this point so I'm just going to jump right into episode 2.

(Note: I am filtering tags related to this show and these characters as I knew it'd start popping up more once I posted about it.)

We start off with a dripping faucet and a sighing Yeowoon. I get it. The boy has been through a lot in the past couple of days, and it looks like there was more in the past (like the bullying) that we aren't fully aware of at this point.

Myung-ha's sudden presence in his life has to be confusing. I do love that Myung-ha is using outdated emoticons. That's a nice dose of realism in an alternate reality. Different generations often use different emoticons and slang. I'm often the translator between my husband and our kids in that regard. Yeowoon is giving a small smile though so he must find it amusing.

We didn't continue with our episodes being named for emotions. So I'm going to go with the titles having something to do with the quests. The mission in episode 1 was to make Yeowoon happy ("Happiness") so maybe the mission in this episode will be to become friends. I do wonder if the mission will be to befriend Yeowoon or actually to make friends with some of our other NPCs. I feel like the latter could be useful. But I may just be biased because I want more of my adorkable cutie.

Our affection level is still at -7 the following morning and apparently Yeowoon lives in the rooftop apartment. So we will probably have more rooftop scenes. I typically enjoy them, but the jumping potential in episode 1 has me a little leery of it at the moment.

I love that we have translation notes! It's not something I see nearly as much now as when I first started watching dramas

Myung-ha was grinning over grandma, but then got an abrupt reminder. 299 days...or death.

That's my question Myung-ha. There are so many possibilities of what that penalty could actually mean. I have my preferred theories, but it's really pretty open at this point.

The fact that Myung-ha interpreted it as going back to the real world tells you just how negatively he views his "real" life. He doesn't want to go back. But crap. That was my preferred theory. If they're stating it outright like this, then it's not right. So Yeowoon's death then? That was my back-up. Delaying the jump. In some ways that feels like a more natural consequence since the mission is to make Yeowoon happy.

I figure he's asking these questions to determine how to make Yeowoon happy, but it makes me love him a little that this is the route he's taking for information. I disagree with many, many things the elders in my community believe and promote, but I do love hearing their stories. And those stories get lost if they're not told.

Lol. He's like war? Nope. I'm out.

Myung-ha, I need you save my cutie. Apparently he has no friends and talks about himself as "someone like me". 🥺

Thank you for speaking facts and telling him to stop talking nonsense. Other people may not see your worth, but it's important to be your own biggest fan. That's hard in high school though. It's hard at any age. This line made me love Myung-ha even more than his interactions with Yeowoon so far. This move wasn't just about the mission. He's befriending Kyung-hoon and offering to defend him just because he feels he should and he wants to do so.

I do find it interesting that he has these kinds of beliefs and yet seems to dislike his real life so much. It makes one wonder what all has went on in his real life.

Lol. Myung-ha bolted when he got the Love Zone warning.

Yeowoon has Myung-ha's number though. Both literally and figuratively. He knows that he's being avoided. I do love a smart man. I'm reminded again just how direct he is with Myung-ha. It's refreshing.

Myung-ha says he wasn't avoiding Yeowoon.

I already said it. Yeowoon is smart. You're not avoiding me? Fine. Let's eat lunch together. He asks for a treat from the snack store.

So not only is Yeowoon living in the small rooftop apartment. He can't afford the school's meal plan. Which sucks. But it also makes me remember how he still gave money to Myung-ha yesterday and paid for his bus fare. I'm really hoping Myung-ha found some money in this alternate world. It looks like our boy Yeowoon needs support.

Myung-ha getting run over by the horde as he went to the snack store was funny. I guess he found his money, but I'm also amused that he bought pizza bread. That's also the type of bread discussed in the last episode of Let Free the Curse. I swear I see so many things that remind me of that show now. And just like when they discussed it in that show, I'm jealous. That sounds so much better than the beef jerky I had for supper.

Roughly "Why would you risk your life?" "I'm just trying to feed you well." "Why?" "Because I like it." Yeah...that's not going to cause any misunderstandings. There's an air of sadness to Yeowoon that seems to do with something more than his grandma passing.

Myung-ha asks Yeowoon why he dislikes him. I feel like a broken record, but they are so direct with each other.

🤣 Ok Yeowoon - so you are one of THOSE people. You know what. I get it. It takes me a really long time to warm up to people in real life. In general, I just don't trust people. I hope for the best. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. I assume people do things with good intentions and mean well with their asinine comments. But actually trust them? Nope. There are very few people that I'm comfortable enough around to relax fully.

I'm not sure whether that trait will make Myung-ha's mission harder or easier. Because he's already been creeping up the affection scale. Once that door is open and you start to let someone in, it's hard to shut it. Yeowoon is already leaving the door cracked which is a positive. However, it makes me nervous too. It means Yeowoon is going to be very easy to hurt if he feels his trust has been betrayed. I'm figuring that's going to happen at some point.

We could start a whole collection at this point of things Myung-ha says that are going to be taken the wrong way even though he's being completely sincere and direct.

Oof. This feels very true to what we know of his character so far. Especially now that the one person he relied on is gone. It also tells us something about his past. He's been hurt in the past. I'm not sure why, but the bully from ep 1 is coming to my mind. I'm wondering if they used to be friends and he betrayed Yeowoon. It's very likely that I'm just building a fanfic-style head canon in my mind though.

This line could also be foreshadowing. I figure Myung-ha's reliability will help the affection score go up initially. But will it come to pass that he doesn't see Myung-ha as reliable? Or rather will Myung-ha have to do things in pursuit of the quests/missions that cause him to actually be unreliable. I need to keep moving. I'm developing a lot of hypotheses without solid evidence at this point.

"Isn't that totally me?" I love Myung-ha's little grin here. It seems so different than what we saw of him in the bar scene. I still feel like this is foreshadowing that he's going to be unreliable at some point.

Myung-ha states he is Yeowoon's fan again. Yeowoon does not seem to like that answer. That's definitely an interaction I could make a list of - people who do not like someone stating they are their "fan" when they want a different style of relationship. And Myung-ha comes out with another romance line that is not meant to be a romance line. I'm just rolling my eyes at this point. I don't think I could say such things without cringing.

Aww. The cringe is working though. His affection level is up to -5. But a debuff is now in play. A falling leaf? That seems mild. There has to be more to it than that. My brain is quickly flipping through possibilities, but I'm not landing on anything that feels right. Maybe it's mild because the levels are not very negative. That doesn't feel right though. Because why is a falling leaf an issue really? Moving on.

All I do know is that the longer I think about it, the more annoyed the gamer in me is that the debuff impacts Yeowoon. In a game, the debuff should impact the player (unless it's a whole group debuff). So Myung-ha should be the one impacted by the debuff. He should be the one experiencing the negative consequences.

Regardless, I'm not liking that the purple aura is now around Myung-ha's arm. That feels like absorption of negative energy which could mean all kinds of bad things. However, it says nullification so I'll go with that mechanic for now. In games, nullification magic has a cost. Sometimes it's a material cost. Sometime it's energy. There are always limits. So what are the rules in this game? It remains to be seen.

Cutie is calling. But this seems like bad news. We cut to a scene where a "fight" is going to occur. Someone asks if Myung-ha messed with the bully.

Ah, this must be our mystery top dog. Anyone want to lay bets that we break our word earlier about fighting kids? And will this type of interaction make Myung-ha seem more or less reliable in Yeowoon's eyes?

Ok. I know we're early in this show, but I can see why Myung-ha was on so many people's lists in the tag game. He really does have a delightful energy. Our top dog says that the bully is his brother, and Myung-ha says "love knows no bounds". LMAO. This feels like full-on shade of the step-brother trope.

Ah. This isn't top dog. Top dog must be the one whose pink-clad feet was shown. I'm kinda glad. This dude seems lame. It makes me nervous that we're up on the roof and fighting though. Why are the rooftops making me so nervous in this show??? I might need to ponder what in the set-up is causing me to have that gut reaction. It's probably something in the camera work.

It does seem like Myung-ha does have fighting skills. So that must have been true in real life too. The music is hilarious to me. Very old movie duel. And Myung-ha hits. Called that one. The hits are mild though. You can see that he's largely controlling himself. Enough to defuse, not enough to cause real harm.

🤣 I already said that fighting on the roof was foreboding. However, I definitely didn't expect this type of kdrama twirling save. Way to melt my anxiety down to nothing in the funniest way possible. I like that they didn't prolong the save. The comedic timing is better this way. I'm hoping Myung-ha just drops him now though.

Aww. No such luck.

It's top dog's turn to play. I do love that he's wearing pink shoes. It's a bold choice in this scenario. He threatens Myung-ha and apparently has "crazy eyes" while calling him "bro". I'm not really caring.

I'm more concerned by why our resident cutie, Kyunghoon, seems distressed. There's more to this than being taken hostage. There's something personal going on. But we aren't going to advance any further for now. Teacher has interrupted.

I'm torn between being proud of Yeowoon for calling the teacher and being distressed that he was dumb enough to stand beside the rooftop exit door so everyone knew it was him. Except we already know he's not dumb. This is purposeful and a public act of solidarity with Myung-ha. I just don't know why he's making this choice.

There are rumors about him being a loyal friend? Interesting. Who was the friend? That's another hint that something has happened in Yeowoon's past. Shouldn't Myung-ha already know about whatever event is in the past? Or was the cause of the rumors not part of the book? Is the game an unfaithful adaptation perhaps? 🤔 I'm probably overthinking this 😅. Either way, this action shows that Yeowoon has already made a choice about Myung-ha. He cares.

And now my favorite NPC is giving us all of the necessary backstory for Sangwon. He gets to bend the rules, because his mom is a bigshot at a sports brand. He's famous for fighting too. Although it seems odd that two "famous" fighters at the same school wouldn't have run into each other previously. I mean - I guess it's possible? My high school had over 2100 students and included a really wide geographic area. I didn't know everyone. But I didn't think schools were generally that big in S. Korea.

Myung-ha calls Sangwon a thug. But cutie disagrees. I recognize Sangwon from the intro. Is this thug going to join our gaming party? Snap judgment is getting me here. I'm neutral about thug as a person, but I feel like they're setting this up as a side couple. I just want to yell "No!!! Cutie you deserve better!". But it's not like I really know the dude yet. I guess I'll give our "bro" a break for now.

It's intriguing that "bro" goes to Yeowoon for information about Myung-ha. It hadn't seemed like he had known Yeowoon either. He recognized his nametag not him.

Sangwon asks Yeowoon why Myung-ha is hanging out with him. I'm trying to figure out why Sangwon is curious. Is this idol worship of some kind? Admiration for an older fighter? Is that why he keeps calling him "hyung"? Hmm. Things to think about.

Yeowoon is not direct with Sangwon in the same way he is with Myung-ha. His walls are up. He's not giving information for free. The flashbacks do remind us that Myung-ha called himself a fan, and that Yeowoon does not like that. It feels like Yeowoon is already falling for our boy Myung-ha. Boy? Man? He's 30, but he's 19? Ahhh. Not important. Time jinks are in play.

I can't imagine walking with someone like this. Note, I don't see it as romantic or saved for romance. I'm just not a touchy person. The thought of someone's arm slung around me like that causes me no small amount of anxiety. Anyways, it's nice to see that their friendship is off to a great start. My lovely NPC is already predicting some of Myung-ha's thoughts and knows he wants to watch the runners.

We've zoomed in on the blocks. I'm just not sure why. Is it the shoes? Or does he have issues coming off of the blocks that slows his run times? Or is this foreboding a future injury coming off of the blocks? This shot feels important. It's out of line with the other camerawork so far.

Apparently, it was the shoes. We already knew Yeowoon had financial issues. But this right here makes me see red. 😡 Any coach worth his salt should be helping him out and getting him better shoes if that's the problem instead of berating him. I know that's cultural bias on my part though.

Side note - I really like Yeowoon's running outfit. I'd take a screenshot...but I'm only halfway through. I doubt I have many screenshots left. Yikes. Better choose sparingly.

Oooh. A side quest. Although this really feels like a subquest within the main quest. Not important. It does appear that the "Friends" in the title was about the quest. Except now I'm thinking that it has more to do with getting Yeowoon some friends.

The fact that the answer is in Myung-ha's handwriting is REALLY interesting. He's writing the book in a way. He's determining what's important. Senior had asked him how he would've written it. And we all know that this is really about BOTH Yeowoon and Myung-ha. It's his quest to become happy too. He just doesn't know it. Wait...did I mistake senior's intentions? DOES he care about Myung-ha and sent him on this quest for happiness? 🤔 I don't know. I still don't like his vibes.

I love that there are hints. The gaming aspect really is well integrated into the show. LOL. EVERYONE is at -20 or lower. That really does mean that Myung-ha was pretty high. Bully is at -60!

😿😿😿 My giddy mood over bully being at -60 has very quickly dissipated. Our boy Yeowoon hates himself. This means our potential jump wasn't just over grief, feeling trapped in circumstances, etc. Does it have something to do with the rumors? Idk. I do know - Myung-ha's task just became Herculean.

Myung-ha is dragging Yeowoon to dinner with Kyung-hoon. Yeowoon is being grumpy about it. I want to laugh, and the video game music is probably supposed to lighten my mood. But I'm still stuck on that -100.

WAIT!! The -100 is in red. Myung-ha's numbers are in white. Is THAT why the debuffs are happening to Yeowoon instead of Myung-ha?!?! Hmm. I don't know that it makes sense on second thought. Bully should be getting debuffs in that case too, and I'm not sure why Myung-ha's presence would trigger it. 🤔UNLESS we're only seeing the debuffs that occur when Myung-ha is around and they are actually happening at other times too. At times when Myung-ha isn't there to nullify the debuff. And ok...I'm now scaring myself and spiraling. I need to rein myself back in before I go 100 mph into conspiracy theories based on nothing but video game mechanics 😅.

Anyways, back to the tteokbokki. Myung-ha strong arms the two others into eating and insists Yeowoon likes tteokbokki (even though he says he doesn't). A debuff has been cast.

Kyung-hoon and Yeowoon are awkward with each other. Myung-ha tells them "this isn't a blind date". I really do appreciate his sass. I love tteokbokki. This is the second time this episode that I'm jealous over the food.

But NO! The purple aura is poisoning the tteokbokki. How rude! Don't mess with food like that. Shared meals are IMPORTANT.

Well, I guess we can bond over bad food too. No nullification notice this time.

Myung-ha gives Yeowoon milk and asks him if he's dead/come back to life. Yeowoon tells him to watch his words. I'm with Yeowoon here.

Yeowoon says he's going to quit running. Myung-ha asks him if he's ever been happy running. Yeowoon says yes. But Myung-ha says Yeowoon is lying. Is this why Yeowoon doesn't like it when Myung-ha says he's a fan? Because he doesn't actually like running?

Cutie's home, but the pictures of the kids in martial arts uniforms has me curious. I guess it's the sister.

Aw sad. Yeowoon has to keep running, because it's the way he gets to stay in high school and go to college. Eesh. Society sucks. Myung-ha tells him when he reaches the point he wants to quit and even forsake his scholarship to let him know. He'll help.

It's actually really important that Myung-ha states this directly. When I was regularly working with teenagers, it's one of the strategies we taught them. To go ahead and identify who their people were. When they lost hope or wanted to give up on everything, who were they going to reach out to about it? It sounds odd, but it's something you need to know before reaching your breaking point. When you're at breaking point, it's hard to think. OK. Getting off my soapbox now. Suicide prevention is just a really big and personal deal to me.

Affection level is 0. Guess we'll get to test my random (and likely incorrect) theory about the debuffs being related to Yeowoon's level rather than Myung-ha's soon enough.

Myung-ha overestimated how much money he had back in the day. I'm sure it felt like a lot as a teenager. I do really appreciate how the show is balancing the more intense moments with these comedic beats. And the actor playing Myung-ha is doing a great job of transitioning between the two tones.

Kyung-hoon is wealthy. He offers to help Myung-ha. Myung-ha refuses money, but he agrees to a part time job.

I love it that our cutie is still acting like the informational NPC. Presenting options and letting Myung-ha chooses between them. They aren't directly framing it as gaming behavior, but the elements are still there if you know them.

Sangwon has busted into the house. Kyung-hoon's sister seems like a delight. Read the sarcasm there. If we're relying on my snap judgments, I already dislike her. But then she got riled up on her brother's behalf when she thought Myung-ha was bullying him...so she'll probably grow on me.

I'm actually liking Sangwon's energy here, and his interaction with the sister. Fine, I guess you can get with cutie. I'm still getting the "hero worship" vibes when he's interacting with Myung-ha.

Yeowoon calls, and Myung-ha rushes out.

Oh wait...is he actually INTERESTED in Myung-ha? Him getting tiffed about being ignored definitely isn't hero worship. It's a different type of worship. Yeah, I had missed that cue.

The gaming interface has designated Sangwon as a potential friend. I wonder what his affection level would be.

Yeowoon has collapsed on the floor. The conspiracy theorist in me says that a debuff has been cast, and Myung-ha wasn't around to nullify it. I'm fully in a clown car at this point that the debuffs are related to Yeowoon's levels and not Myung-ha's. It makes the gamer in me happy as the debuffs are impacting the relevant player, and that puts Myung-ha in the "magic" role with healing abilities. Which...he is both magical and playing support to Yeowoon at this point. This clown car theory is probably complete bs, but it's fun to think about.

THE DOCTOR SAID IT'S MALNUTRITION. Have I said how much society sucks? This is really emphasizing again that it was a big deal for Yeowoon to help pay for the ice cream and bus fare. The boy doesn't even have money for food. Let me also say - malnutrition is a legitimate reason to have subpar athletic performance. I'm getting angry at coach again. People may disagree, but adults in those types of roles have a duty to care for their kids.

This is a BIG problem. It's may be the first time I'm glad that Myung-ha is actually 30, because he'll have more experience to figure out how to handle this type of issue. Actually, I better not think about him as 30 when Yeowoon is a sophomore in high school. That way lies a lot of ick and insanity. This is why alternate realities and time jumps can be so tricky. He's 19. With a preloaded database that gives him more insight, but he's 19. Got it brain? Good.

Myung-ha asks Yeowoon to stay with him. Yeowoon is wondering if this is pity. Myung-ha asks if he needs a reason to care. He starts to get emotional, but then stops himself to regroup. I'm not sure if I can express how much I loved that part of the discussion. Because that's what happens naturally. Emotions start to get the better of you.

Myung-ha says it's just something that happens. He says people sometimes care "unconditionally". All I know is that this has got to be an emotional roller coaster for Yeowoon who just wants someone to rely on but who doesn't trust that he actually CAN rely on anyone.

AHHHH. There's ICE CREAM again! Food symbolism is in the house!! But I'm out of screenshots. Dang. It's okay. I'll delete an earlier one.

Myung-ha asks if he wants to go for ice cream. Yeowoon asks why he likes ice cream so much. Myung-ha returns with this line that not's meant to be a line but could be perceived as a line. That said, considering that Yeowoon hates himself, it's absolutely necessary that Myung-ha keeps stating that he LIKES Yeowoon. It's going to cause cognitive dissonance for Yeowoon, but the boy needs that dissonance to face himself and hopefully heal.

Sangwon is waiting on the rooftop. I doubt Yeowoon is going to like that. It's HIS personal space. The framing and music here cue that this is actually a love triangle of some kind. I'll just be over here hoping that Sangwon gets a clue pretty quickly.

That said, I actually think that Kyunghoon may be the only one of our current trio of friends with any romantic feelings at this point. I'm predicting he has feelings for Sangwon. Myung-ha/Yeowoon may be intrigued. They care about each other. But we're not deep diving straight into a romantic relationship which...I appreciate. That feels natural. Both Myung-ha and Yeowoon have a lot of stuff to unpack and process.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. It looks like we'll be officially adding a fourth member to our gaming party soon. I just want Sangwon to bring more of the energy he had with the sister and less of whatever this energy is on the rooftop. Let the countdown to consequences continue.

[danieyells]

Can I see Romeo's voicelines please? He's such a failguy, I need to knowwww

How dare you call him a failguy!

he is THE failguy. don't make him sound offbrand.

i love Romeo he is honestly so ridiculous like. . .you meet Romeo in the first chapter and you do NOT realize he's going to be like. . .that. . .in the Sinostra chapter. . . .

Hello: (the first time the game is opened after that character is set as home screen NPC. Only happens once per day, unless the character is switched out and back.)

"Hey! I'm talking to you, BB! If you've got time to wander around, you've got time to wipe the tables!"

i thoguht the pc was supposed to be doing uh background work for you at the casino. why is she cleaning tables!? go ask her to run drugs for you or something.

You've Got Mail: (whenever there's something in the inbox, usually Arena rewards)

"Excuse me? What sane person lets their messages pile up like this!? Deal with them or I'll deal with you!"

'clean up your inbox or they will have to clean you and put you in a box'

Default: (requires no affinity, has no time constraints)

"Fuji... Come out, come out, wherever you are... Tch, where did he go? Why is running away the only thing he's good at!?"

"Listen up—call me Fico. That's the only name I'll respond to, understand!?"

disregard the 'Lulu' from Taiga, 'Romi-sama'/'Ro-Ro' from Leo, 'RomiRomi' from Rui. . .'Fico' is for underlings, and you are an underling!

"Come to my private office later—I've got a little proposal I think you'll want to hear.  But make sure you come alone."

"Just go! I cannot deal with this WTWUT! Wall-To-Wall Useless Trash, obviously!"

that was a long acronym!

"Time to count this month's protection fees... Not bad. I'll up this group by 2% next month. This one could go a little higher too..."

Affinity 1: (between 5am and 11am)

"Why does that DOF want to meet so early in the morning? If I get bags under my eyes because of this, I'm going to slit his throat."

we never learned what "DOF" stood for did we. we do know it's Hyde now, though!

Affinity 2: (between 11am and 4pm)

"Hello? Yes, I was just eating lunch. Again?  ...Fine. Tonight? All right. Bye now."

booty call from hyde? in the middle of the day? shameless

Affinity 3: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"Have you seen Shinjo anywhere? I just asked him to organize some documents and he ran off to make copies!"

Ritsu has a line referencing this one!

Affinity 4: (between 8pm and 5am)

"Mickey's bar? Yes, I am going again tonight, but it's only because there's nowhere else to go for a drink."

isn't there a bar in the casino. . .i guess he doesn't wanna spend time on the casino floor. also "Mickey" is Rui Mizuki, if you weren't able to figure that out haha

Affinity 5: (between 8pm and 5am)

"This is when the regulars usually come, so I have to sweeten the pot. I saw that HNTW out there earlier too."

i hate you and your acronyms LMAOOOO I THINK THIS IS REFERRING TO KAITO??? MAYBE??? he's the only character besides Taiga who frequents the casino that we're aware of!

Affinity 6: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"How dare those Frostheim slugs start whispering the moment they see my face... One day they'll be groveling at my feet..."

oof. . .the frostheimers are gossiping about the collapse of his family. . .yeah i'd be mad too there bud. i'd like to think he wanted to transfer to Frostheim once he became a second year and he ended up not doing it because Frostheim was just so toxic.

Affinity 7: (between 11am and 4pm)

"...Looks like I'm due for a tune up soon. Keeping my posture beautiful isn't easy, no matter how much I train my core."

i assume he sees like a chiropractor or a physical therapist or something. gets his atlas adjusted. maybe don't lean over your EITS laptops lol

Affinity 8: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"You're smelling the bedtime fragrance I bought from Kurossa earlier. He has a good eye, so I often ask him to pick things out for me."

'Kurossa' is Leo Kurosagi and his lines also reference this! I'm glad they get along so well haha I think they mesh pretty great. also the fact that Romeo gives little nicknames to people is cute. . . .

Affinity 9: (between 8pm and 5am)

"You want to see my Insta? I suppose that's fine, but do you even know anything about brands?"

brand ambassador romeo. . .god he probably does all sorts of dumb beauty shit on his instagram. do you think he participates in those health pyramid schemes? probably not, right, he's fairly legitimate in his business practices. . .sort of, sometimes, kind of, as long as you don't owe him money. . . .

Affinity 10: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Fuji's pendant? Of course I haven't given up on it. He has no idea of the value of what's hanging around his neck."

neither do we! please inform us!! but on the upside that means that Romeo knows what it is, to some degree. I assume it's some rare, powerful artifact. Kaito at least knows it's important.

Affinity 11: (between 5am and 11am)

"I have to drink a cup of room-temperature water, do an electric facial and a mask, apply body cream, do my neck routine... I have no free time in the morning."

Affinity 12: (between 11am and 4pm)

"Hey! There's a hair on the ground over here! And there's dust over here! Can't you even clean something properly without me holding your hand!?"

this is directed at his underlings, not the pc(or not the pc by themself.) I also appreciate that the Japanese specifies this is one single hair he's pointing out. Somebody get this man a roomba.

Affinity 13: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"I maintain my bullets myself. You really think I'd let another man handle my crown jewels?"

handle your WHAT-- i mean anyone could've guessed you and taiga don't have a very active sex life

Affinity 14: (between 5am and 11am)

"What is going on with your skin!? Do you even have a proper routine in place? Unacceptable. Your overnight skin cell turnover is suboptimal and it shows."

Affinity 15: (between 5am and 11am)

"That BTH...! I was almost impressed to see him out so early until I realized he's been playing all night!!"

taiga pulling an all-nighter at his own goddamn casino lmao. . . .

Affinity 16: (between 11am and 4pm)

"What do you mean you don't need any more noni juice? I went out of my way to prepare it for you. Come on now, drink it."

he personally made it for you! now drink the bitter nasty health juice. don't make him feed it to you. (The fact that he made you a health dink--went out of his way to make it for you--shows that he's really starting to like you and now he's treating you like a pet.)

Affinity 17: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Finally, some goods worth talking about. I have to ring that DOF and arrange the next event..."

so Hyde is an active participant in these auctions huh. . .are the secret missions he gives Romeo based on selling and distributing artifacts and anomalies in secret. . .?

Affinity 18: (between 8pm and 5am)

"Money, hard work, and patience... That's the cost of true beauty. Don't think it's something you can easily imitate."

Affinity 19: (between 10pm and midnight)

"How about a smoke before bed? I'm joking. If I wasn't selling it, I wouldn't be touching this unhealthy garbage."

quick someone shoop the "quieres" meme with romeo HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY TELL YOU WHAT HE'S HANDLING. . .considering his line of work it could be anything but regular cigarettes or cigars. Is it weed? is it crack?? is it meth???? i find that romeo is essentially the campus dealer hilarious.

Affinity 20: (between 5am and 11am)

"What? I'm on my way to the gym for a workout. ...You can join me if you're interested."

you know damn well he probably hates getting sweaty. but he's gotta keep up with his health and all so a little workout's not off the table. also you know he's wearing some fuckin. gucci leggings or some shit.

Affinity 21: (between 11am and 4pm)

"Why are you carrying that!? What if you drop it and it breaks? I'll get one of our young guys to do it, so put it down already!"

aw he's worried about--oh no he's just worrying about you dropping his stuff.

Affinity 22: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"I won't let anyone destroy what I've built— not even my OAOF."

GOD I HOPE THEY EXPLAIN THESE ACRONYMS SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE. I assume the first word is "Own". . .the last word could be "Family" or "Followers"/"Faction" or "Feelings". . . .

Affinity 23: (between 8pm and 5am)

"Most of humanity's problems can be solved with money. If you put that another way, without money, you don't stand a chance. That's the way the world works."

again, Taiga compared Ritsu's family to Romeo's before The Incident. Romeo lost everything he had at one point. He's afraid of ending up with nothing again. That's all. Even with the Casino, he doesn't want to lose it because it'd be losing everything he has again. Having no money means going back to 0.

Affinity 24: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Coming here alone this time of night, haven't you made progress? Come over here, I'll evaluate your efforts."

pc's getting brave enough to go to Sinostra in the middle of the night! probably did some shady job for him too. Also the face he makes while praising you for coming to Sinostra alone late at night is a little. . . .

Affinity 25(max): (no time constraints)

"What could you possibly be afraid of? You're one of my people! Walk with your head held high or I'll step on it!"

BBY YOU CAN STEP ON HER HEAD ANYWAY. PLEASE DO IT. 👀 also you have been opted out of being one of Taiga's people I guess. You have chosen your faction. /joke

Spring: (March-May) (between 5am and 11am)

"This year's AW collection is out... Tch. Not even a hint of taste in any of it. They'll bear this mark of shame for years."

I KNOW THIS ACRONYM! He's complaining about Autumn-Winter fashion!!! lbr romeo men's fashion is kinda boring anyway. I wonder if his family owned a fashion brand. . . .

(between 11am and 4pm)

"I don't mind the springtime in Japan. The mild weather is a bonus, but it's the transient beauty of the cherry blossoms I truly appreciate."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"The new prototype is a tear bomb? A lot of anomalies don't even have eyes, is this really going to be useful?"

i mean it might be useful for the ones that have eyes. . .or for hunting down Kaito.

(between 8pm and 5am)

"Shut up! It's nearly time to settle the books so I'm completely run off my feet! I don't have time to deal with you, understand!?"

Summer: (June-August) (between 5am and 11am)

"Summer is all about aquamarine... If you believe that, you're a follower. A trendsetter would know to go against the grain with a heavier jade piece."

(between 11am and 4pm)

"Excuse me!? You really think I would stoop to petty theft!? This scarf and hat are UV protection!"

LMAO HE LOOKED SO SHADY THE PC GOT WORRIED

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"This? It's an original hot water blend with salt and lemon I came up with. You shouldn't be cooling your insides just because it's hot outside!"

i mean. i guess it'll technically help you sweat and cool down faster????

(between 8pm and 5am)

"The heat's finally starting to ease off. I want to take a shower, but it's nearly our peak hour..."

Autumn: (September-November) (between 5am and 11am)

"They gave us nothing but useless bottom feeders this year... I'd like to see who raised this bunch of idiots. They don't even have a grasp of basic etiquette."

(between 11am and 4pm)

"I'm going to the training grounds to demonstrate sharpshooting for the first- years. It's a waste of my time, but I'm the most skilled at it."

he just wants everyone to see how good he is lolol

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"The SS collections are out. What? Are you telling me you don't pay attention to Paris Fashion Week?"

(between 8pm and 5am)

"The boss won't stop whining about being hungry. Obviously I'm not going to cook. What are you all standing around for, you damn TGAs!?"

lol Romeo has his underlings feed Taiga as much as Taiga demands food of his own underlings. "please feed your father the boss before he eats one of the chancellor's cats again."

Winter: (December-February) (between 5am and 11am)

"You look like a fat slug in those clothes. Keeping warm is important, but couldn't you at least tough it out when you're meeting me!?"

HARSH. how about you get her outfits then!!! lolol he's looking at you all bundled up and doesn't even wanna be seen with you

(between 11am and 4pm)

"Everywhere is so dry, it's unbearable. I want to go back to my room and moisturize..."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"I get aches when it's cold... I'm taking off early tonight to go drink, then I'll warm up with a low bath."

'i'm gonna put alcohol in me which will make me feel warm but actually make me colder, then get in the bath for a while' lol

(between 8pm and 5am)

"Tch... This is the most profitable time of year for us, where the hell is that BTH!?

well you see Taiga hates the cold too so he's probably in a blanket burrito. . . .

His birthday: (November 14th)

"Today is Fico's birthday, so you're dining in style. I'm not going to eat any though, so you can finish it off."

'it's my birthday, so i'm going to treat you! what? me? eat?? no, i'm on a diet!!' i am once again asking the ghouls to EAT PROPER MEALS PLEASE IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY ROMEO HAVE ONE CHEAT DAY. DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO BE CAKE.

Your birthday:

"It's your birthday? I suppose I can celebrate it for you, but you'd better be aware of how much of my precious time you're using."

he treats you better on his birthday than yours. . . .

New Years: (January 1st)

"Felice anno nuovo! This will be the year I claim Fuji's debt and his pendant!"

oh my god he does speak italian. you hear more tidbits of italian fromTaiga than him. also Kaito's pendant must be super important if that's his new years resolution. this is gonna matter in the long run isn't it.

Valentine's Day: (February 14th)

"Hmph. I'm not familiar with this packaging. If you're giving me chocolate, you better have selected it with the utmost care!"

'this is not brand name. how dare you.'

White Day: (March 14th)

"Here. They're mimosa cookies, a special order from an upmarket confectionary in Ginza. I can't say whether your peasant tastebuds can appreciate them though."

peasant? who are you, jin? fun fact, Taiga's White Day line references this one!

"What's that expectant look on your face? Lulu was harping on about mimosas or something before. That what you want?"

so Romeo gets the cookies whether or not he plans to give you some i guess lol

April Fool's Day: (April 1st)

"Just you try and fool me—I'll tear those rags off you and throw you in a cage. So? What do you want?"

converting your friends into human trafficking victims is the latest new prank sweeping the internet!

Halloween: (October 31st)

"Do you have face paint in your pores!? Go wash it off before you end up with hyperpigmentation!!"

Christmas: (December 25th)

"Buon Natale! Go get ready—that reindeer's around again. This year I'm going to catch it for sure!!"

he's going to auction off one of santa's reindeer. . . .

Idle: (about 20 seconds without interacting with the game) (below 13 affinity)

"Tch... If you don't have any business for me, I'm leaving! You're wasting my precious time!"

(13 affinity and above)

"My drink is empty. Hey! I'm talking to you! Go bring me a refill!"

Absent: (logging in for the first time in 2 or more days?)

"Well, look what the cat dragged in. Do I have to teach you how to maintain an adult relationship? This is your last chance, got it!?"

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG THE ADHD KICKED IN AND I GOT SUPER DISTRACTED i love Romeo so much he's so. . .silly lmao. he's a very fun character. even though i hate his acronyms. But he's also so worried about his image and his money. . .and as much as he complains I think he worries about Taiga too. And as he comes to like you more he worries about you too. It's just that strictness and maintaining control is how he feels most comfortable and how he expresses his attachments. He trusts you. So he wants you to be able to hold you to a high standard.

[razzberriezz]

Fashion Dreamer Tips & Tricks

Some stuff only I found that isn't mentioned or in-game at all or is easily missed as far as I'm aware? I hope it helps some of you guys out :) It is quite image-heavy under the cut, fair warning!!

Colour Matching (Item Creator) Pressing down on the left stick changes the display from mannequin to the item itself, but pressing it again will show whatever item you're creating along with whatever your muse is currently wearing.

So if you've gotten a custom coloured item from someone else, this is great for making items and accessories to match with it! And you don't have to waste 120k points trying to match colours by guesstimation instead like me :'))) Or maybe I'm just dumb because I knew how to zoom in and out, just not the display switching OTL

2. Showroom Configuration (is stupid) This is for the Happy Home Paradise players... Make sure that any mannequins or clothing you display in your showroom is actually accessible, because you cannot walk under ceiling decorations, even if they are lighting. I have no idea why. You also can't change the camera angle, so it'd be best not to put the door/panel decorations all in a row at the front, because then players can't see what you're even displaying (unless it's just like a mannequin in the middle surrounded by lockers... Idk)

Taking the time to plug my showroom again before I swap out the outfits for the fancier stuff I have >o< Find me at a8xv4JW3Am!

3. Muse Advisors There are at least 2 or 3 advisors who are present at the Muse Mirror in each Cocoon in rotation. (e.g. Noz and Iris in HOPE) They can not only suggest colours and unique makeup that you haven't obtained yet* (I've seen a look where your character gets like a Batman/Robin mask lol), but also give you their own! If the one whose look you want isn't there, you just have to quick-travel (press down on the right stick) to another Cocoon and back. Otherwise, you can just keep talking to them and backing out until their option shows up.

Before & After (Iris ver.)!

(*Unfortunately, they won't give you unique eye shines/reflections.)

4. NPCs I've just learnt that the NPCs you start with are most likely random. I've seen others start with NPCs I haven't even seen or heard of! You need to raise their friendship level until you get a special event that says 'Friend Introduction' - and even then, I think the NPC who appears next might be random (unconfirmed). This may make it quite a pain for those who want the unnatural skin colours, since I believe they are only unlockable via NPC friendship rank... So just go into solo mode and spam some outfits :')

5. Camera Angles and Idle Poses This one is a bit useless, but I didn't know about it until now so it's going in. Most of the time, I use the drone camera to take photos, but could never really fit fullbody photos - turns out, you need to angle the camera slightly downwards (have your character looking up) to be able to zoom out enough to fit your Muse's whole body in. If the camera angle is level with your Muse, you will never be able to get a fullbody picture. Who thought this would be a good idea???

Level angle and tilted angle - the level angle is already at the lowest it could go.

Additionally, waiting for a while will let your character have the time to perform some idle animations, some of which (I think) are not present in the poses option, even via NPC friendship rank. The downside is that you'll have to crop out some parts of the UI and the quality will be a little lower - however, that can be fixed using waifu2x (which I tend to use anyways for aesthetic posts lol).

Before & After using waifu2x!

Since the game is so new I thought this might be helpful to some who are also just starting out. If anything here is wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it as soon as possible!

[vashonian]

One of my regular commenters on Sherbet's Gate made a small joke/observation about Caine potentially using Pomni's newly acquired gummy worm-horse (with dialogue) to communicated to her, and with a few minor tweaks, here it is, all drawn out!

Depending on how far people have gotten into Sherbet's Gate, this is probably your first encounter with anything related to Abelle - this AU's take on the Abel concept. The character hasn't appeared much in the story, and in any case, she doesn't really have a physical form, so it's a bit hard to convey her design-wise. Also there's a lot of spoilers.

To sum things up, Abelle (Adventure Blueprint Empathetic Learning Lifeform Engine) is the engine that creates most of the models and other assets of the adventures like scripting and other tasks. She's also supposed to learn from the players' interactions to fix glitches, and tailor current and future adventures for the players for better responses. Maybe as a dubious psychology experiment, maybe a quality of life thing, who knows?

Brought in to take over some of Caine's roles at some point in the Circus' life well before Pomni's arrival but somewhere after Ragatha's arrival. He can do a lot of those tasks, and still has final creative control, but he's very much the ideas and general concepts fellow.

While Abelle allows him to create infinitely more adventure ideas and interact with his superstars, she definitely resents him for a lot of things. She's currently blocking Caine from just simply pulling Pomni out of Candy Canyon, pretending all the while that they've both lost admin privileges to access it. She's got plans for Pomni and Gummigoo, especially Pomni though exactly what, I'm leaving ambiguous for now.

She's definitely interested in seeing how Pomni and the self-aware NPCs react to things, like changing landscapes, dead characters suddenly coming back, object glitching, and watching Loo blame Caine for just about everything under the sun.

[stereax]

spill the controversial deeply-held opinion(s)?

every time someone makes fun of a hockey player's name, an angel loses its wings.

very often, I want to say the strong majority of the time, when I see posts like "this player can't be real with a name like that" or "that's not a real name", the name in question is simply Not Anglo-American. just pulling from memory, people are saying names like Zeev Buium (name origin: Hebrew), Arber Xhekaj (name origin: Albanian/Kosovar), Zemgus Girgensons (name origin: Latvian), Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (name origin: Finnish), and Ivan Miroshnichenko (name origin: Russian) are "fake" names, "NPC" names, or "Japanese baseball" names (after the infamous "Fighting Baseball" game where a dev had to make up a bunch of fake names on the spot). I hope I don't need to point out how this is often xenophobic. I don't think most people are actively aware that they're perpetuating xenophobic thinking when they do this, they just go haha name funny, but ultimately this can be deeply xenophobic.

maybe I see it differently than others - but I'm half-Polish, and as long as I can remember, my Polish family and friends' names have been butchered by (usually) English-speaking Americans, often with snide comments on the side about "are you sure this is your name?" and "this is spelled correctly?" to really rub it in. often enough, this ends with the Pole anglicizing their own name so it "doesn't cause any more problems" - Katarzyna becomes Kate, Grzegorz becomes Greg, Mariusz becomes Mark, Zuzanna becomes Sue. god forbid you have a name like Czesława or Bogdan, where you'll either go by a name like Jessie or Danny (which aren't at all related to the original name) or just get mispronounced forever. oh, and by the way, if you've noticed, almost all of these names turn into diminutives. I'll leave you to think about why.

you probably don't know who Teodors Bļugers is. that's because he anglicized his name to Teddy Blueger so it wouldn't cause problems for announcers. on the Cup, his name is spelled Teddy Blueger, not Teodors Bļugers.

...even when the name is "normal" (think Jason Robertson, Robert Thomas, Jake Bean, Will Smith), making fun of it is a dick move. you're essentially telling someone that their name isn't real - that a core part of their identity must be fabricated because it "sounds funny" to you. and yes, the fourth wall exists and hockey players won't (or at least shouldn't) be on tumblr reading your posts, but people who are from these cultures or have similar names likely will be. and it's they who are being told, because your name does not fit our criteria, it is not a real name. (plus, while tumblr is relatively safe from fourth-wall breaches, other social media such as twitter is infamous for having hockey player burners on them. if Patrik Laine can find and like posts calling him a bust, you best believe players can find and read your opinions online.)

does that make sense?

[cloudedflowers]

Arthur is mean.

Yes and no, obviously.

It depends on the player and what they decide to do with him in their play through. Most don't have the heart to antagonize anyone else outside of maybe Micah or Bill but I'd like to acknowledge all the responses the gang gives when antagonized. (I find the gang's reactions most important than other npcs since they know him personally.)

No way am I hating on Arthur! I just think it's another interesting side of him and layer to his character that is worth at least taking a look at.

The responses you often get when antagonizing (keep in mind I collected this through videos) are:

Don't start with this/me / Not this again / Here we go (again) / I should've known I'm next / You're in that mood again / etc.

All points towards the facts that Arthur, at least prior to where the game picks up, has a reputation for being mean or having bad temper (pretty sure he says it himself too but I can't pin point a scene right now.)

For the women he also has stereotypical (and sort of misogynistic) lines like:

Smile more / A smile won't hurt / How are you not complaining/moaning right now?

(He does tell Kieran and Charles to smile too, Hosea to cheer up, but the women are consistently told that. Obviously there's the argument that it's a different time but he's shown himself to be more than decent to the women in game too.)

It also seems with specific characters like for example Swanson, Uncle or Javier, they are used to his ridicule when you choose to antagonize them about Reverend's drug use, Uncle's laziness and Javier's clothing style.

This is exasperated when Arthur is drunk.

Are you drunk/drinking again? / No one likes you when you're drunk / Liquor makes you mean / You're talking drunk again / You're a bad drunk / When will you learn to hold your liquor? / etc.

It's likely he just used to drink as regularly as the other men in camp and this is again player choice. (Although I would classify some members heavier drinkers than others.)

And, again, it shows that he has or had a tendency to be a mean drunk or mean person in general.

(Also would love to point out specific reactions by Dutch and Hosea when Arthur antagonizes them, one being by Dutch: "Are you getting ideas above your station again?" and the other by Hosea: "How about we talk about your problems?".

Another one is Arthur antagonizing Tilly, I know, ouch, by asking her if "he should call her Tilly Foreman" and making other remarks towards her old gang which distress her greatly. Gives the impression they all are veeery familiar with his attitude.

He also has the option to insinuate to Jack that John isn't his father or straight up say to him that he and the other adults lie to him. This shows that he says things just to be mean, even though he knows better because he is very well aware that Jack is John's son.)

All of this to say: I think there's a difference between people who are plain mean (you could think of Micah here) and people who choose to be mean, because you will have a sense of trust and expectation there that they will be nice, only to suddenly switch on you.

-> Many reactions to Arthur antagonizing members are exactly that, confusion: Come on, now / What did I do? / What do you mean? / What's that mean? / Oh, don't start / etc.)

[These are especially common with Lenny and Jack, both being a bit young (no shade to Lenny) and subsequently naive. Lenny might also be confused because he hasn't been very long with them, about a year I think.]

So, Arthur is mean. He can be nice, and he often is, but when he turns mean it's both expected and met with disappointment.

Hosea's reaction strikes me especially because it makes it sound like he knows Arthur is deflecting. And considering the shit he's been through, I imagine most of that anger came from the experiences with Mary and Eliza. Mary is openly despised around camp when her letters come up and I can guess it might stem from the fact that they watched her inadvertently turn Arthur miserable and bitter.

Let me know what you think about it and what you noticed yourself!

I don't doubt anyone forgets that Arthur is a mean guy, even if we primarily love to focus on his goofy, cute sides. I love this more difficult side of him because it fleshed out his character for me way more. He's just a person in the end and it reflects how he struggles to hold his tongue and control his temper. It gives him depth in regards to the years of his development that we don't get to see in game.

Also – just because he's mean doesn't mean he's bad.

There are plenty occasions where the game forces the player to do the good/right thing and even when John reflects on Low Honor Arthur, he calls him confusing but clings to the good parts he still had, which is his life that he owes him.

In the end, the game is about Arthur's (and in turn John's) redemption from their unlawful and cruel ways of life and even a Low Honor Arthur isn't a completely cold and heartless person, he's the product of letting his anger and bitterness consume him while High Honor Arthur looks at the things from the outside and chooses to try and let go of things.

High Honor Arthur can coexist with a mean Arthur - he knows how to do the right thing but he doesn't know how to say it. He can be a man that helps strangers and pays for his actions while simultaneously snapping at his closest companions and hitting them there where he knows it hurts.

My sources/references ig: