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[oldsoul--newmachine]

Propaganda:

Marshal Hood: THE first Marshal of the Rangers. Ortega's mentor, a great hero, all around excellent guy. Also who doesn't love a hot tattooed man?

Shroud: What a woman, i'd let her telepathy vampire suck me to death.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Very excited to see where FHR romances go because 1. I only have two romances, a main one for the main body and a main one for the puppet- where the love and lives are so separate and yet the feelings are universally real; 2. I don't know that any romance will work out for Wicke and kind of can't envision an ending for him that includes a true love or lasting relationship. I want to see where these two relationships go and how they might intertwine, and treasure them while they last before ending up alone (in that sense) again.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Not sure what it says about me that I'm a Mortum (f) and Argent romancer and no other, and I voted for Argent yet I don't know that that relationship will work out... hm

Propaganda:

Dr Mortum (f): Round glasses, all oranges, mad scientist, a softie but mess with her and she will drop your ass!! Best Mad Scientist!! The inherent eroticism of being the crafter of your armor + your new identity. STYLISH mad scientist + also a loveable ADHD queen ( '"I know you have problems focusing on more than one thing at a time," you say, and this time there is a smile in return. A faint one, but it's there.' ch 20, good reveal). "The impossible is what I do".

WOMEN'S WRONGS!!! <3 has a kill count. ruthlessness and murder sexy.

let's hear it for #womeninSTEM!!!!!

Lady Argent: What is hotter than a woman with a sword(hand)? Nothing. She knows what she wants and she's going to get it. Literally bites your lip so hard you are injured you when you kiss. She demands you stop killing if you're a murderstep and kiss her but like!! THAT DIDNT EVEN STOP HER FROM KISSING YOUR HELMET?? ALSO JUST. KISSING A VILLAIN??? This woman has no fear.

Her mindscape has sharks. you like sharks, i like sharks. vote argent.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Propaganda:

Captain Blaze:

This man has been certified by Marshal Steel. Vincent ‘Hotman’ Marino is a bespoke sexyman among sexymen (gn).

This MAN is so INSECURE that it is IMPOSSIBLE to let him go unfucked!! He has been screwed many times! He is so sexy there is not ONE DAY where he has NOT been screwed!

By lack of (comparative) attention and fame!! (Ortega has STOLEN the title for LOS DIABLOS’ HOTTEST when they ARENT EVEN. A HOTHOT BOOST)

By job!! (He always gets the short end of the stick at the end of retribution!!)

He has literally been Screwed on a Pole! (Bespoken sexy!!) What a champ!

And to top it off:

He has known the sensual touch of a telepath! (Gripping his mind in an intimate CONNECTION so he may be CONSUMED by the fires of his own passion! And die)

To conclude: Blaze is very screwable. And as such, very sexy sexy

Ricardo Ortega:

Ricardo grows a grief mustache half out of guilt and half to avoid looking like his abusive asshole father and will shave it in a heartbeat if he thinks sidestep seriously doesn’t like it. He will drop the puppet in a split second if he thinks there’s a whisper of a chance of having something more with sidestep. If he’s suspicious of sidestep being a villain—but they come out as trans—his suspicion score plummets and he nearly breaks into tears over his guilt at assuming something bad about them. Again and again he comes to sidestep’s defense and believes in them.

He’s viciously, dangerously intelligent. He’s putting on five dozen masks a day because he’s desperate to appear correct for every situation he’s in. He’s desperate for people to never see who he is underneath, terrified that they’ll never want him for *him*.

He’s got giant stupid brown cow eyes, he’s tanned dark from the sun. Ortega’s the only character who can be six feet tall.

This man is so unhealthily devoted, obsessive, insane and gorgeous that there is a very firm reason every other sexy man (gn) is quaking and whining at him being included.

Vote Ricardo Ortega because if you genuinely want the sexy man (gn) truth, you already know who it is. Everything else is deluding yourself.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

The time has finally come.

Who - according to adoring tumblr fans - will be dubbed THE sexiest citizen of Los Diablos? There are five rounds and two brackets full of eligible bachelors who all have a chance of earning the title.

The first round will kick off for both brackets Saturday on April 20th and will last for a week before we move on to the next round. There will be a lot of polls that will be dispersed throughout the day.

Posts on this tournament will be tagged as #fhr sexyman tournament. This blog will try to reblog any other posts/art/propaganda we come across in this tag.

ROUND 1 MATCHUPS

edit: After it was brought to our attention that Nehal is in fact still very young she was pulled from the tournament, and after a democratic voting the public has put Elena Ortega up in the running for fhr tumblr sexyman! As a result we have updated the bracket.

By voting in any of the polls you are agreeing to keep this event civil, there will be no tolerating any kind of bullying about other peoples tastes. You can campaign in favor of whom you choose and 'propaganda' is encouraged in reblogs/replies/tags as well as the #fhr sexyman tournament tag itself.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

[Rubs hands together]. I only have one villain name and one MC just with varying paths. It actually took me quite a long time to come up with a villain name after a series of placeholders. My MC's villain persona is merely called "a citizen". It's what I type into the box when asked. In dialogue and description, that means the villain is always repeatedly recognized and affirmed to be a member of society. That's MC's trick in plain sight. They never got to be accepted, to be a real person, to show their face except as anyone in a crowd. So now they live up to and defy that potential. They'll be just another nameless faceless citizen, but they demand to be truly acknowledged as one. In a way there is no villain name, only a villain description, the most important description of all. Man I was stoked to finally come up with it. A little more backstory: I was inspired by the adopted theme song! It's "I Love You Citizen", a song that began as a contronym statement (something with two opposite meanings). The extended version begins with a quote from Yevgeny Zamyatin's (never read this author) We, a novel "that describes a future world under intense totalitarian rule, where people’s behaviors are based on logic and formulas. The protagonist becomes involved with... [bringing] down the totalitarian government." The quote goes thusly: "There isn't any miracle... I'm leaving. These are my last lines. Farewell to you, my unknown, to whom, when I came down with 'soul,' I revealed all of myself, right down to the last pulverized screw, the last busted spring... I'm leaving." I heard this precisely as the villain speaking to the Farm. The song is in something of a robotic tone, meant to be from the perspective of some inhuman system overseeing society, whose love toward this mere citizen is an arbitrary, empty falsehood. It's from an album focused around discovering oneself and the inevitability and acceptance of self-destruction in order for recreation to follow, a lot like Rebirth. All in all it was perfect.

What is a villain without a proper name?

Hero and villain names convey a lot about who they are, what their goals can be, what their powers are like.

A difficult decision, what is the name of your sidestep?

if you let the public decide please look for the related poll that will be reblogged/attached to this poll.

For those with multiple sidesteps please pick your 'main' sidestep or your favorite sidestep for the purpose of this poll - but feel free to tell us about the rest in the tags/replies!

Sidestep and Heartbreak have been included as the most common unique names because they have special dialogue tags.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

heeeyyyy new Revelations demo rocks, even more than the first one I'm just saying. Hype is real <3 spoilers in tags

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Hi o/ I was reading your Retribution guide (seriously, amazing work and I can't thank you enough for doing it) and noticed this question: "Whether these limits mean it is possible for other stats, i.e. clues, to go above 100 or into the negative, I’m unsure." Just in case you're still wondering: it is in fact possible! Stats have no upper/lower limit unless special code (as with scar and suit_wear) is added to enforce them, so clue stats can and do reach those values.

Thank you. I plan the same for Revelations. Oh, to finally have that answered. I've not dabbled in creating anything using choicescript; this is good to know. Probably quite handy in the future if stat checks are anything to go by. I still advise to keep track of everything for that reason.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Dating Ortega as Sidestep and Puppet at the same time is the funniest thing i have ever seen. You are Ortega’s partner. You are Ortega’s sidepiece. He is lying to you. You are lying to him. No matter who he choose it would be always right choice because he would choose you. No matter who he chooses it would always be the wrong choice because he wouldn't choose you. He is cheating because it's another person. He is not cheating because it's still you. He is using you. You are using him.  Its both extremely funny situation and extremely concerning.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

There's so much more to say but... yeah. Equally interesting metatextual implications on my end doing a main run that manipulates time and space specifically to piss Ortega off (secret hatred, staying high villainy but deemed innocent, etc) I can't wait to see how that could come crashing down in an epic way, if the guilty + evil Retribution ending is anything to go by (especially because Ortega will react the same regardless of romantic connection). I hope for a voluntary villain reveal wherein Wicke is in a better place than you know... bedridden.

ok losing my FUCKING mind this song is. this is chargestep to a fucking T im so.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

It is a fun angle- I guess not so obvious when not provoking Ortega in some way (and me, I certainly try very hard to lol) One of the important things about different POVs on Ortega that I don't really see noted is that out of all ROs Ortega is the only one that comes close to being a very different person, being shaped by the MC- I don't mean just character development within MC's range of influence like, say, Herald, but being fundamentally wildly different in some ways based on the MC. Like if you treat Ortega like a wholesome well-intentioned person, that's what you get. If you treat her like an overbearing nuisance, that's what you get. Could you imagine the same being true for Mortum? And we see in this example it's not necessarily just projecting an opinion, it manifests in text. Ortega tries to be respectful; but as we can see so far, a revealed Sidestep who isn't a killer would never garnish even near the same reaction from Ortega as one who is. It's an almost singular factor that determines whether Ortega is going to have respectful boundaries about it or totally toss aside Sidestep's every word professing their truth. Compare that to Argent's response to a non killer vs killer Sidestep- she's much more predictable and consistent, and her responses are more dictated by herself. Inability to separate one's motivations and decisions from, or control them being dictated by, one's desires or expectations of another person IS a trait of a toxic relationship. It's just not as clearly present when Sidestep is in-line with Ortega's desires and expectations. So I find it compelling and revealing to break them, not just for the juicy storyline as is, but to see Ortega's gnarly potential (tbh it almost feels like controlling not just Sidestep but Ortega through Sidestep, which is very cool, inherently toxic in-text, and metatextually adds something to the themes of telepathy and mind control. Also, it's really REALLY cool to have that power over the narrative of someone who is always trying to have power over yours).

ok losing my FUCKING mind this song is. this is chargestep to a fucking T im so.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Ugghh this is what makes a good story, something so multifaceted it's approachable from any angle. If you're Sidestep, it's beyond insulting, or at least hurtful. If you're Ortega, you're scared and confused, and if you're outside it you could say almost anything. It'd be more explanatory to say what's the worst imo is the complete inability to accept that Sidestep could be evil, which in turn causes that display of painful disrespect. It's the worst because it's one of the blatant displays of Ortega in general having obsessive ideas about Sidestep that are mismatched with Sidestep's lived truth; essentially denying someone who's worked very hard to gain power over their own narrative... power over their own narrative. You could essentially rephrase "I will only respect what you are if I respect what you do" as "I refuse to let you to dictate your own narrative instead of me!"- it doesn't really come down to Ortega being a bigot against Re-Genes or not, but Ortega being overbearing in Sidestep's life. And Sidestep more or less hates that, for obvious reasons. I really read FHR from Sidestep's perspective and did come away from that feeling for them in a way that's like, "You don't get to run over me to decide what I am or am not, right when you find out what I truly am!" Regardless of the reason, being overbearing about their being a Re-Gene (a people who are entirely controlled) and their free decisions... definitely sucks. [FYI you have to have either caused a massacre or openly killed without remorse and displayed above 30% villainy to get the imposter ending. When I say "evil enough", it's written into the code. But those are the requirements. Killing like with Argent is definitely the make or break factor.]

ok losing my FUCKING mind this song is. this is chargestep to a fucking T im so.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Hahahaha that last tag is on point. But also consider Sidestep was locked away again for years, leaving Ortega left as the central figure in the limelight, able to openly talk and mourn instead of being stuck in a lab. That doesn't make Sidestep less the main character but certainly Ortega the main character above ground for those years. It's interesting you cite the funeral incident. Things start to stand out if you look for faults, but- I've always thought that the worst Ortega's ever done is something that's actually determinable. If you MC crash and are fully found out, and if you're not too evil, Ortega will be apologetic and view being a Re-Gene as having no weight on identity or the relationship. But if you are too evil, Ortega leans into preconceived Re-Gene biases and refuses to believe you're anything but an imposter. Usually I am not one to begrudge a character for mere potential, but it really reads as "Upon this discovery, I'm only going to respect what you are if I also respect what you do." which is completely unfair and reprehensible from someone that for all intents and purposes is at least a trusted ally. Nevermind if Ortega has the bare minimum effort to say Re-Genes are human. When I first blindly played the guilty crash ending, I got the "Re-Gene imposter" response, and my jaw dropped. I lost some respect for Ortega after that.

ok losing my FUCKING mind this song is. this is chargestep to a fucking T im so.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

I recommend a non-Ortega centric run for everyone just to get an idea of the story fresh and disengaged from a side character (technically deuteragonist). I should probably try the reverse. I personally find the whole "Chargestep" relationship more compelling when harboring a secret hatred the whole time, just waiting for a moment of confession. It is very in character to rival Ortega for trying too little, too hard, and being too bad at being too good. It's a way to explore the toxicities of wanting to save someone who didn't want to be saved, but not from the perspective of the savior. Unstoppable force vs immovable object. I love the ability to focus on "the ick" vibe Ortega can produce over the heart-stricken vibe. I love the ability to focus on that angle and tell Ortega to seriously f off, eventually in my case (once again, Wicke is only pretending to be friendly specifically with Ortega, it's why he likes Argent for being more dry about how overbearing Ortega can be)

ok losing my FUCKING mind this song is. this is chargestep to a fucking T im so.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

Ikr and for me, my canon FHR run I aim for is somewhere along the lines of the Count's success- going completely and powerfully under the radar of everyone on the hit list until their world suddenly comes crashing down. It doesn't help the tragedy that my canon run ALSO includes being a staunch Ortega rival, which in this Chargestep analogy would be like if out of ALL people, the Count decided to turn around and hurt Mercedes the most- for doing nothing and for loving him. Which is kind of exactly why Wicke (my mc) hates Ortega.

ok losing my FUCKING mind this song is. this is chargestep to a fucking T im so.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

I have my suspicions and tin foiling about the regenerator but I'm curious what other folks plans are. And how much they will change when it comes up in book.

[oldsoul--newmachine]

I could say this about any fanart of her but genuinely I love her (defrosting) ice queen energy captured in her image

lady argent sketch thing idk