#she is open to both possibilities

[grinnames]

RTV! Tour Start: Grinnames POV

Follow up to THIS POST

NEXT

@4thwallbreakerdraws2, here's my sona's reaction to the start of the Tour!

I had meant to keep this short. Alas, I got carried away.

Grinnames was still bubbling from having met SMG3. She could honestly leave now, and still be satisfied. She considered turning heel with style, bidding everyone good night, and walking out the door like a boss. But of course she wasn’t going to leave. That was against the rules, and there was still so much fun to be had here, and food to eat! Puzzlevision Studios was supposed to be full of magic, and she was not going to leave without experiencing the magic. 

However, this did not mean that she had some slight reservations about this place, and the man in charge. Which she dared not to voice, as now was not the time to be spitting hot takes. Hot takes such as the ones going on in her head, as she stared up at Mr. Puzzles greeting them on the balcony:

“Look at that fruitcake… he’s obviously up to something. I mean, just look at the way he was avoiding people’s touch! And his beautiful, beautiful, stupid eyes. That’s the look of a scheming schemer. He probably sits around staring at monitors and stalking people like a degenerate! And he probably looks pretty while doing it, so no one bats an eye!”

Very slight reservations.

She didn’t know why, but Mr. Puzzles made her feel… uneasy? Vigilant? Confused? She couldn’t explain it, but whenever her thoughts stayed on Mr. Puzzles for too long, she began to feel a slight anxiety, and the creeping sense that something wasn’t quite… right, about him.

Ever since the tour had been announced, she had come to notice a tiny voice at the back of her subconscious, whispering short, narrative quips on her life as she went about her waking hours. She had dismissed it as just another part of her inner-dialogue. But what made this voice distinct is that some of what it said were harsh but weirdly specific opinions directed at the TV-headed star. It may be very quiet, and she couldn't always make it out, but she had subconsciously caught onto a few words it repeated: RTV. Puzzles. Fraud. Careful. Remember. SMG3. Better.

Wasn’t she supposed to like Mr. Puzzles? Everyone else liked him, the whole world had joined his fanclub. And she wanted to join in the fun, after all she had no reason not to. Yet, she still caught herself having these traitorous thoughts. She had tried not to think of it.

It had made no sense before, and she dismissed her reservations as unfair and unfounded. She had never even met Mr. Puzzles anyway. But now that she was here, with a clear view of the owner of Puzzlevision, she wasn’t so sure anymore. At first, when she saw him greeting them all at the door, her heart skipped a beat with excitement. But now, the more she thought about him, and the longer he stood up on the Balcony, looking down at them, her heart rate ever-so-slightly climbed, and her ribbons began to stiffen and coil tighter around her waist. 

Grinnames had always seen Mr. Puzzles as a glamorous, entertaining, and confident figure, whenever she saw him on the covers of magazines and taking up space on her screens when sitting down to watch Puzzlevision. And although she admired his work and his bombastic persona, like most glamorous figures, she always scrutinized him. 

For most celebrities she saw, it was better to believe that they were only adopting a ready-made persona for entertainment, while hiding their real self, which was most definitely filled with quirks and flaws that would ultimately bring down their market value. And sometimes, they might even be terrible people. She would rather not put someone on a high, high pedestal, just to be let down. Everyone, to some degree, put on masks. She was no different. Celebrities just had more uses for their masks, and more consequences if their mask ever slipped.

Best case scenario, Mr. Puzzles could be just a regular old man that also just so happened to produce wonderful, well-crafted shows. Maybe he stubbed his toe on chairs, laughed about dumb things with his friends, and cried himself to sleep at least once. 

But Mr. Puzzles was also an authority figure. And she had very little faith in authority figures. She knew she was biased, but after what happened in [REDACTED], she told herself that she was very much justified in never believing in mortal kings, CEOs, and Minecraft Youtubers ever again. 

Worst case scenario, her crack-headed theory was right, and being pretty was actually heavily correlated with being insanely suspicious. Before, it had just been a fun but unlikely possibility that she had laughed about and brushed off. But now that she had seen the star of Puzzlevision up close, she had more reasons to believe that maybe these suspicions she had about Puzzlevision were not so unreasonable after all.

The man before her oozed arrogance and shady vibes. He had to be a supervillain, the type that everyone loved because he was so unfairly handsome and charismatic. Plus he wore a cape. What kind of regular CEO presents himself like that? Not that she would judge him if he was a villain. It wasn’t like she didn’t have her own share of skeletons in the closet. And supervillains, even real-life ones, were cool as heck. 

But that could also mean that she was in actual real danger. And not all supervillains were cool. She could accept being taken down by a badass, powerful, handsome devil. But she refused to be taken down by a possible degenerate that stalked unsuspecting people on screens. That would be just too humiliating, and she was not taking her chances. 

She began to tap her foot in agitation. Her ribbons wound tighter, and the forked tendrils behind her were writhing at a quickening frequency. They were losing their soft, wavy shape, and instead curling into sharp, defensive angles, like bacon in a pan. 

Her thoughts raced faster. Her ribbons usually didn’t lie to her. They were the most trustworthy thing she knew, despite only being an extension of herself. They were especially sensitive to danger, even if she wasn’t completely aware of it. And if she really was in danger, she could not let the enemy know that she knew. 

 Grinnames shook her head, took a deep breath, and lightly clapped her cheeks. With all the subtlety she could muster, she slowly reached for, snatched up her ribbons and tried her best to smooth them out. After a moment, her ribbons went still, but still remained curled up into hooks at the ends, ready to strike a moment's notice.

“…So feel free to turn to Chris, Swagmaster or Lucian at all times.”

She snapped out of her spiraling thoughts by the mention of those names. She blinked in surprise and delight. Her old co-workers, Swag and Chris, were here?! She had to go say hello when she could! It was almost impossible to catch them nowadays, since they were constantly switching jobs! And to her small relief, this little wake-up call had calmed her down further. Just enough to look… normal. Her ribbons were no longer held at the ready, but were now unfurled and waving like gentle flags in the breeze at the sight of familiar faces. (And one new face between them, that was probably the one Mr. Puzzles called Lucian. She hoped that Swag and Chris weren’t too hard on the new blood. Perhaps they could be friends!)

She stole a glance up at RTV Mr. Puzzles. It seemed like he didn’t notice a thing, and was too busy wrapped up in his own voice as he introduced the available departments for the tour. She couldn’t help it as a grotesque, maniacal grin stretched across her face. She cackled under her breath. She let fun, intrusive, goblin thoughts overtake her brain, pushing her anxiety aside, and replacing it with cheek and cartoonish confidence.

“Stupid old man,” she chuckled to herself. “I have bamboozled you, ehe! You don’t see that I have fooled you with my master anxiety-calming techniques! Now that I have reasons to think you’re a creep, I won’t feel as bad if I mess with you later!”

She would keep her sneaking suspicions in the back of her mind. HOWEVER! She was not here to be an overthinking little weirdo, she was here to see everything and touch everything and eat everything, dammit! She would play along for now. With a regained spring in her step, she briskly walked forward to go join the rest of the tour guests in their vote. Sure, she had every right to be suspicious. She was sure of that now, and had accepted it. But that did not mean she had to worry. Everyone had secrets, and maybe he was a super cool villain. She could honestly actually like him if that were true.

Besides, he was just one old man. She had beaten worse than him with her eyes closed. If the worst came to pass, she would be ready, with a smile on her face. What could he possibly do to her?

To be continued...maybe...

[miniagula]

the lovely thing abt Ragatha's predicament is that this is technically everything she wanted. pomni's getting along with EVERYONE and jax found someone he can be pleasantly candid with. but it's not her. pomni did what she couldn't and managed to break the ice AND GENUINELY SINCERELY CONNECT with the guy NO ONE CAN STAND without even trying, and jax's become friends with—not the person who's been trying to make nice with everyone from jump—but the woman they both barely know. and she should be happy abt this! as the self-assigned mediator this should be everything she's wanted for the others, but It Isn't and i just KNOW it's driving her mad

[robertphilip]

There's an awkward "first date" silence between them, the kind that suggests there isn't going to be a "second". Giselle tries her best to keep the conversation going.

[feng-shui71]

Wesker GET OUR OF RHE WAAAYYY jordan please come my way i’ll treat you better than that WHIRE MAN. Please just one chance i can provide for you better htan any man in the workd 😭😭😭 Lolease pleasw one chance

[deripmaver]

berserk is so often about very hurt people lashing out due to their trauma and hurting other people. this manifests often through structural oppression - ie religious persecution with farnese and misogyny with guts and griffith. what really separates the "good guys" (used loosely) versus the "bad guys" is less what they do, or have done, but the ways they try to reconcile with the people they've hurt afterwards if at all

spicy follow up: that is ALSO, ultimately, the fundamental difference between guts assaulting casca and griffith assaulting casca during the eclipse

[anerdssketchpileblr]

personally I think it would be really funny if Gabriel like. told Adrien that his mother was on a super secret vacation/went to live on a farm bc of course he would. And Adrien either believes him on this (of course he would), or just nods and smiles bc he thinks it's his father's wierd way of grieving.

[i-set-my-autism-on-fire]

Might make an edit of this idea later but for now:

Hijack Tangled AU: Hiccup as Rapunzel and Jack as Flynn. (Yes I already made a post like this, but with Jack as Rapunzel instead-)

I think you could really lean into the idea of the vikings doing everything in their power to find the Chiefs son, and use that to emphasize just how big of a deal his kidnapping/the villains power is. Probably start a war about it or something? Yeah, the movie made a big deal about Rapunzel's kidnapping, but we never got to see the extent of the searches or anything. The princess simply vanishes and they're kinda only shown to be like "Well shit. Guess we could perform summoning rituals with lanterns?" Even if we know the reaction was probably way more severe. Movie limitations that don't have to affect fanfiction >:3

Speaking of the lanterns- What if the vikings did something similar? Probably wouldn't be lanterns for several reasons (materials, dragons, whatever immediate environmental damage that could result, etc.) but it would still have to be visible from a distance. Perhaps his kidnapping prompts them to try taming dragons, and then they fly on the dragons with torches or something? IDK, I only just came up with this part while typing the post LMAO

There could also create some great comedy when the prince does return and he's a fucking walking fishbone with hair longer than any dragon they've ever seen- oh and also he brought a Winter Spirit with him so there's that too lmao

Not sure how Toothless fits into this idea, you could go for a cat sized dragon, or find a way for Toothless to still be a huge Night Fury while also preventing him and Hiccup from flying. You could have Jack be responsible for Toothless? If you want Jack to be human in the AU then Toothless could be how he was able to find Hiccup either because they are friends before or because Toothless did a Maximus and accidentally chased him into Hiccup's prison. Or Jack could still be a spirit/still have his powers, there's honestly a lot you can do with the AU-

So many possibilities, so much potential! If you wanna write something with this idea then please do and please either @ me or send me a link if you post it! (And if you have ideas for the AU but don't want to/can't write a fic for this, feel free to add onto this post!)

[a-flaming-idiot]

Why is "Heart Hunter" just Adrien, Marinette, and Kagami looking into the camera saying in perfect unison "If it weren't for Thomas Astruc's cowardice, we would be giving each other kisses on the cheek and cuddling back at Marinette's house." And just every time the camera leaves the akuma they're just being cute somewhere new?

[minnows-art-blog]

Some concept art for Sweetie Belle’s cutie mark! The top are more in line with canon and the bottom is more experimental!

[pickaropoprocks]

Fighting battles that have ABSOLUTELY been seen before (wanting to restart my Animal Crossing New Leaf town so I can begin the game from scratch and as myself as I am now vs. not wanting to restart my town because nostalgia and I'd miss my villagers)

[rmbunnie]

I’m not even a Jackieshauna ride or die like that and now that shauna like has a non-Jackie girlfriend this has thankfully died out, but the early-era takes like “they’re both straight because we HAVE a canon gay couple already, so they’re clearly comfortable having lgbt rep it’s just not Jackie or Shauna. if they wanted them to be gay they’d say so.” are so insanely silly. Like Taivan? Very very cute, love them! But we’re out here talking about it as if the only thing preventing characters from stepping onto the screen in the first minute of the first episode with a pride flag pin visible, waving directly to the camera, and saying “hello, I’m a lesbian woman who is comfortable with my identity and dating another woman” is queer censorship. Like hate to break it to you, but sometimes, people like characters to have stories. And the thing with stories is that sometimes they’re more fun… when all of the information isn’t given to you cleanly and neatly in the first episode! Sometimes… bear with me… certain stories mean the characters CANT be openly identifying as queer from the starting line! I honestly don't really see how it could be possible to write a relationship centered around queer repression and have both characters happily out of the closet. Anyways even if Jackieshauna secretly hated each other entirely and completely from birth and they hate each other non-subtextually for ever and ever, Shauna still kissed a woman and Jackie still hasn’t shown any genuine interest in a single man that wasn’t for the sake of keeping up her desire of normality and left her immensely unsatisfied after, and that’s just how the story goes I fear!

[de-richet]

LOVE UR IDEA!:3 It reminded me of Marina from finger. When I was drawing butch Louis I was imagining more a comedic scenario; she is a woman and considers herself as one, but bc of her style choices and the way she talks and handles herself, she is perceived as a man. Maybe she's still Louis or Louise but Louis just for short. Everybody at the mansion think of her as a man and address her as one and when she tries to correct them smth happens and she gets interrupted 😔 She has to go thru a majority of the game like that. Maybe not in all in-game scenarios it would work (like the first question is that why everybody thinks that Sarah has a son while they only heard about a daughter), but it would've been funny

OOOOOOOOH I SEE it would be pretty funny ngl, to make so many awkward conversational moments in a game where we already have them, but a running bit where there's Louise trying to object to someone about being called a man and at best it's untimely and at worst she gets a "Logic: Failure" and the person she's talking to says "that's pretty funny, anyway" and she's still taken for a man......................tragic 😔

[mortalscience]

Law and Order Criminal Intent - 1x05 - Jones Deakins: You can kick it over to the 1-5. Eames: Why? We got time for this. Deakins: Chief of detectives… needs a couple of bodies for the Mayor's Drug Task Force. Okay, I should know better. But it's a good opportunity. Eames: (waves Deakins off) Deakins: Suit yourself. (he leaves) Eames: (to Bobby) You like this case, too. Goren: Yeah, I like Angie. The captain's right, the task force is a good way for you to get noticed. Eames: I didn't take this job to get noticed.

[randomnameless]

Land 1 done!

Without crossing the bridge to get rekt'd by the final boss and trigger a bad ending, of course :p

I know the game puts more emphasis on gameplay than on characters, unlike, say, FE 8x2, but damn if every little situation you recruit random characters makes me think of past FE events in different titles and it just... fits? Somehow?

Like, evil empire has trouble conquering a party of Cornia, but behold! A mysterious plague pops up, that is totally not tied to the shady as fuck necromancer who works with the evil empire and says it'd be annoying if people find a cure.

So we have some guy and his army of cleric wearing plague doctor masks trying to find a cure by, uh, experimenting/working on people who already caught the plague, even accepting to work with the evil empire because curing the plague is more important, right?

Ends justify means yadda yadda... save for the part I earlier mentionned, that it is heavily implied the evil empire is the one who created that plague to begin with!

Now, imagine in a FE game if, in the background, we had to rescue people or hear about people being afflicted by a strange and unknown disease... and if that disease was engineered by people for a further motive...

8x2? Nah.

We also have quests where people are fighting for the evil empire who is occupying their land because they believe as long as they obey their people won't be put to the sword...

(I watched my bro play the final chapter, we know how it ends lol)

Not!Cyril fighting against bandits, finding and helping a witch fend off people who are trying to "catch her" - we even get a flimsy excuse for a bikini attire in the process and an answer to the "why do i use spells to rejuvenate myself in a sexy body? It's because I won't be able to move as fast as I can now if I was a crone" other flimsy excuse, etc etc.

Now it's time to enter the land of fucked up siblings relationship (sure Virginia is Alain's cousin - who looks like his mom - and can end up with him, but this is not the kind of Jugdralian stuff I had in mind) and let me tell you, all those plot bunnies I had in Jugdral about Lester believing he was going to become Lord of Jungby all of his life, only to have his role/throne snatched before his eyes by a bum who's apparently his cousin and can use the legendary shiny bow of legend is... basically Drakengard (Drakenhold in english?), but up to eleven.

Ah, and it wouldn't be a post from me if I don't find a way to rant about the localisation lol

Josef, upon meeting Virginia, basically goes in the audio "it's been a long time since I last saw you". In the english version?

Like what are you implying Josef, she wasn't a princess when you saw her last time or didn't have the "standing" fit for a princess?

Besides, I hope the release of the october book won't blow a hole in the Josef's "you were a teenager when we last met" by releasing character ages, but that's not really that important.

This however

Alain greets his long lost cousin, nothing wrong here right?

Well, in the JP audio, he calls her with the "hime" suffix, showing as much deference as Josef, who is a retainer of the royal family. Virginia doesn't use any suffix because that's her, but in Alain's various support convos, we learn that he had to learn and to behave like a proper noble after escaping from his castle 7 years ago, and all this noble/formal stuff is something he doesn't use with his commoner friends.

Ergo, this minor thing here is important, especially in the Drakengard themes : siblings/relatives used to be close, but reuniting after a long period of time or several life changing events, they are changed and even if they want and try to, cannot be as close as they once were.

[anthromimicry]

[mirchloe]

augustus believed that because he had directly impacted his kids with his continuous anti-psychic vitriol (based off what *he* believed would protect them due to the falsehoods implanted in his mind), so by giving frazie the space she needs, stating (to raz, at least) he'll be ready for her when she needs to talk about her being psychic is great! he's swung open the door to new possibilities for himself and his family, and more importantly, his psychic children. witnessing the depths of how his conduct caused raz such strife, resulting in the warped version of himself being a destructive force in raz's mind, was a necessary shock. he's going straight to leaping instead of baby steps, trying to incorporate the positive aspects of being a psychic to his whole family, especially for frazie, who felt compelled to hide her abilities.

the irony is that it's not what frazie needs. frazie was once like raz. she was once open with her powers, but as she's older, she later conformed to her father's wishes. she hid her powers. she internalized her shame about being a psychic, going as far as lashing out at raz for being ashamed of being an aquato. diversion and internalization were her tactics from dealing with being a psychic, as hearing her father's rhetoric, her mother saying all families had secrets, listening to nona's stories, and the consistent warnings about how psychics caused them to die in water, it's a deep scar on her psyche. i think what's nice is that she *isn't* ready to contend with her psychic half, that she can't go to her father, or have that deep connect that he has with raz. she's an outlier because for her, i think she needs augustus to come to frazie first. by giving frazie the opportunity to speak with augustus about everything, for someone like frazie, who hid for so long, she needs his guidance first, for him to come to her. i'm sure there was behind the scenes excitement with augustus, hoping to live it up as a psychic as they traversed to the motherlobe, but it might have been met with wariness from frazie (and dion, donatella, and nona - nona in the case that she wants her family to stay away from the water). he wouldn't want to push her, so deciding to put the ball in her court was probably the best in the moment, but for the long run, i think augustus has to make the strides to meet frazie beyond the middle by encouraging and reassuring her.