#HEY. hey. get back in the wall >:(

[keferon]

Don’t mind me I just like to see him go bananas about cartoonish Autobot rules

Maaan…..if Prowl was in tfp he would spontaneously combust at least once a day

[fairsweetlonging]

svsss horror game au where shen yuan is first in line to buy the pidw-inspired rpg where you play as a wandering cultivator with amnesia, and are taken in by the cang qiong sect during the head disciple days of the last peak lord generation.

because pidw knows its audience, a large part of the marketing was focused on the romance and action aspect of the game, with additional lore from deleted novel scenes—how could shen yuan not buy this game? maybe the peak lords will finally be more than props in the background! the romance aspect seems to be at least somewhat tastefully done, if he can trust the leaks, with more emotional depth than fetish fulfillment (shen yuan swears that if there is even one unskippable cutscene of some peak lord's feet he's going to chuck his computer out the window).

shen yuan customizes his character, going all out on the clichés because why not, giving him white hair and peerless beauty and all the characteristics of an A+ wife (beauty is power in pidw), actually excited to play the game. the first part is standard, you wake up in a barn with amnesia, only a sword and some items to your name, and have to do some tutorial quests to get used to the game mechanics. it's simple enough. eventually, you end up in a village that shen yuan is certain is possessed, because all the NPC's act very unnatural and strange, and it's pretty unsettling. here, the player is supposed to meet the cang qiong head disciples on their own quest, who naturally think the player is the most interesting person they've ever seen, a super special cultivator, and will take him in because the player is the most coveted character in the universe (apart from luo binghe, that is).

of course, before shen yuan can get very far, he ends up being transmigrated into the game as his own character. it could be way worse: he's a cultivator, peerlessly beautiful, destined to be picked up by the most prestigious sect, and has his own protagonist halo of sorts. he's honestly pretty excited about this

until he finds out that the marketing heavily downplayed the horror elements of the game.

shen yuan is calmly eating a meal in an inn of the village, waiting for the next quest point to start, when suddenly,

[ system notification ]

"you are being observed"

observation level: ???

entity classification: unknown

engagement protocol: do not acknowledge

right after, the windows go dark, not closed or shuttered, dark, as if something large has just leaned against the side of the building. no one else acknowledges this.

shen yuan shakes it off. it's just a game, it's... ambiance, that's all. build up.

he walks through the streets of the town, using his low-level talismans to try and find traces of the entity he's supposed to defeat or uncover to complete the quest. he pauses beside a broken cart, one of its wheels is half-sunk in the mud. the system pings again.

[ system notification ]

"it's behind you."

note: do not turn around.

(option to suppress message: [ ] not recommended)

the street is utterly silent. a prickle begins at the base of his skull. something is there. some deep animalistic part of him is already screaming not to look.

it disappears. he earns 5 survival points. he hopes he won't have to earn any more.

later that night, shen yuan looks for shelter, finding an old shrine visible from the road, just at the side of town. he steps inside and sees old incense sticks, some forgotten offerings. it's simple, but dry. it will do.

he crosses the threshold—

[ mission triggered ]

mission objective: hide

time limit: unknown

condition to complete: remain unnoticed

footsteps crunch in the leaves outside. every nerve in him goes rigid—not human.

too heavy. uneven. it's coming.

shen yuan ducks behind the offering table, body pressed flat against the ground. he slows his breathing, barely daring to blink. a screen in his peripheral vision blinks to life.

[ environmental mechanic activated ]

microphone mode: ON

sound detection level: HIGH

a semi-transparent sound meter appears. with every shaky breath, the bar pulses red. shen yuan clamps his hands over his mouth.

something passes, just beyond the shrine's opening. large. the system does not count down. there is no timer. the floor boards moan faintly beneath a ponderous weight, something drags across the ground.

shen yuan forces his body still, trembling so hard it hurts his teeth.

it leaves. the system congratulates him for surviving. it doesn't tell him what he just survived.

it's a relief when the head disciples of cang qiong show up, and the story delves into romantic cliches and relationship prompts. he gets to see liu qingge shirtless. shen qingqiu is typical tsundere. yue qingyuan is the soft gentle type. shang qinghua acts... off. he isn't what shen yuan thought he would be, less cunningly charming, more, well. nervous. of all the head disciples, he's the only one who actually seems like he doesn't want shen yuan to be here, always looking around.

like he knows shen yuan didn't come alone.

more instances like this occur. one moment, he's farming reputation points and relationship points with the other characters, doing quests and gathering memory fragments that will help unlock the player's backstory, the next, the system seems determined to make the game hell.

it always comes out of nowhere

[ system update ]

"warning: your heartbeat has been logged by another entity."

would you like to mute heartbeat tracking?

[ ] yes

[ ] no

[ ] it's too late.

he can never figure out what's following him, what that creature from the village is, but it's always there. no one else seems to notice, not a single talisman or ward can stop or detect it.

it comes even when he's in bed, still faintly blushing from a wife-plot equivalent where he fell from a ladder and was caught in wei qingwei's arms. he got to pet the pangolins too!

he's just about to fall asleep when the system pings:

[ mission objective: survive until dawn ]

hint: do not scream

somewhere beneath the floorboards under his bed, something begins scraping. like claws trying to memorize the layout of the house from below. shen yuan doesn't dare move. sleep never comes that night.

*

he can farm intelligence points by attending classes, and being the monster and plant nerd he is, qian cao peak is his first choice (it's either that, being beat up by bai zhan disciples that aren't even liu qingge, or running into shen qingqiu).

in the middle of a lesson on demonic poisons, the system pings quietly

[ system message ]

"one of the bodies in the infirmary is not a body"

objective: don't lose sight of it

shen yuan turns his head, slowly, to the curtained recovery beds along the wall. the curtain on the last one is slightly open.

it wasn't before.

mu qingfang continues speaking. shen yuan doesn't dare to look away.

*

one day, the thing starts to catch up

[ mission failure ]

"the sound you made has been registered"

estimated proximity: 00:00:17

do you want to run?

[ ] yes (not recommended)

[ ] no (not recommended)

*

[ emergency notice ]

"you were seen"

objective: hide

time limit: expired

success rate: 2%.

do you want to proceed?

[ ] yes

[ ] yes

*

[ achievement unlocked: it found you anyway ]

*

anyway, can you tell i had fun with the horror prompts? ^_^

i just have sooooo many ideas for the player's backstory, where it seems the character is just a blank slate for the player to project themselves onto, but there is so much more to them than you think. im also having loads of fun with the creature that follows the player around, i love making it as disturbing as possible.

mild spoiler: the creature is real and connected to the player. other characters can't detect or interact with it, but it's slowly growing stronger. shang qinghua is, of course, airplane, and as he was directly involved with the production of this game, he knew that as soon as an OC showed up, that thing wouldn't be far behind.

also, i love the idea of shang qinghua being stuck in a dating simulator as one of the options to romance. now shang qinghua has to play along with his own cringy cliche meetcutes, like showing the player around, flirting with the player, and generally playing the role of suave administrator with a dark secret (he's terrible at it). he had to do the "there's an eyelash on your cheek allow me" move on the player (shen yuan), and almost cringed out of his own skin. though, shang qinghua is the only one who can properly emphasize with the player, because he actually knows what horrid creature is stuck to him and what kind of horror scenarios the player has to go through (accidental cumplane? it's more likely than you think).

it's a bit of a mindfuck too, because shang qinghua can't tell whether the player is also a transmigrator, a puppet controlled by someone from another dimension, or a fleshed out OC of the system. he's also not allowed to ask, so it remains ambiguous. until, of course, they find out they're transmigrators and shen yuan has to deal with the fact he almost romanced airplane.

shen yuan makes a joke about defeating the creature with the power of love. shang qinghua says he wished it was that easy.

[javelinbk]

Richard Lester introduces the Beatles in the European trailer for A Hard Day’s Night, filmed at Twickenham Studios on 3rd April 1964

[shadow0-1]

Hi, it's me again! (I hope I don't bother) I finally calmed down enough from last time's nonsensical yapping to remember what I meant to ask. Feel free to ignore if you don't wanna answer yet or at all, I just got curious about a few things.

in one of your posts there was a mention that Graves got his burns from being burned by Sheperd to tie up loose ends, and that the events of MWII would have been different with Jax around.

Do you know how different it'd be? In broadstrokes or fanfic-level details? I just got super curious about it, does that mean Graves would make different choices because Jax is around? Or Jax helps Graves go through it without digging his own grave? I love when OCs change the course of events of canon material so that mention got my attention. Again, no need to answer if you dont feel like it o/

I saw Jax has quite the burn mark on his stomach too. Did he get that from saving Graves from that fire, or is it an unrelated wound?

and my last question, how did Jax and Graves meet and/or how did they fall in love? If you already answered this one in a previous post then I haven't found it yet sorry ><

Thank you for your time, love your work and OC so so much! Bye 👋

Hellooo! I can't remember if I've said it before or buried it in tags somewhere but basically the later half of the MWII just straight up doesn't happen 💀 Graves leaves mexico shortly after the dark water mission which is when he meets with Shepherd to clear the air and let out his grievances but it doesn't go well for him 😅

He definitely does make different choices because of Jax and has significantly more to lose if he kept following Shepherd's orders because I will be on the "Graves was manipulated by Shepherd" hill until I die. Especially cause at that point, he and Jax have known each other and worked very closely with each other for a few years now, with Jax being involved with Shadow Company despite not even being a Shadow as well Graves basically gets torn between saving his own skin and doing the right/hard thing and it takes Shepherd telling him to kill the 141 to finally make a real decision and stand his ground

And then MWIII basically becomes about hunting down the Konni (and Shepherd) where they then uncover the whole Konni infiltration instead of whatever the hell the actual game was about

As for Jax's burn, it's completely unrelated kjsdgkjbsdkj he got that during his time in the army when he got exploded 💔 but hey, it's just another thing he and Graves can match over

For how they meet, it's sometime after the Armistice initiative gets dissolved after the MW19 events. Alex sends Jax some intel about suspicious shipments coming in and out of Urzikstan and it turns out that a small cell of Barkov loyalists are trying to restart the chlorine gas productions again. Jax tells Laswell, who then tells Shepherd and they hire Shadow Company to go overseas to help Farah and Alex, and Jax is put in charge of the entire mission (on the US side)

They chase the trail until nothing else substantial comes up inside Urzikstan, and they get lead towards Russia instead. Farah and Alex stay behind as Jax and Graves get the green light to do some digging and they meet up with Kamarov. It's a lot more waiting and sniffing out dead trails but they do uncover a couple hidden bunkers with gas left over and they destroy those (all this takes about a year ish??)

They get to go home afterwards, and then a while later, Laswell gets Graves' help again because they're trying to lure general Ghorbrani into a trap. One of his close officials frequents a casino so Graves and Jax get to go infiltrate it and set up a (fake) arms deal for Ghorbrani. Graves poses as an arms dealer that the CIA have been setting up for years, and Jax is the security and intelligence guy, and then MWII starts

A lot of yapping sorry 💀 On the falling in love front, it's definitely because they've spent so much time together, in close proximity and even down time. Jax spends a couple years watching Graves' back and providing general overwatch since he doesn't do any real field work, it would be hard to not get attached in some way, especially if you end up knowing the other person better than you know yourself.

Jax (and Laswell) realized he was in love wayyyy sooner than Graves and Jax didn't do anything about it cause why risk potentially ruining their friendship? They already work really well together. It was sometime during their stay in Urzikstan, Alex and Jax took some time off to hit the town and do a little bar crawl and the conversation ends up leaning to Shadow and Graves, Jax starts yapping and Alex just gives him The Look

Graves doesn't realize until they go back to the states after Urikstan, I made a little render of it a while back skgjdb. He thinks it's nothing serious and it'll pass, but right after the hindsight mission, when Shepherd says they're burying the whole thing and the thought of having to lie to Jax for god knows how long makes him feel like ripping his chest open. Especially cause Shadows he was close with died and there was nothing Graves could do 🙃

[hood-ex]

wait idk anything about the tevis’— why would tommy tevis call dick his son? would you be willing to give a quick rundown

After Dick failed to get himself incarcerated, he became an enforcer for a mob boss named Tommy Tevis. Tommy took Dick in and made him part of his family. Tommy considered him an honorary son and thought very highly of him.

Nightwing (Vol. 2) #107

He even told Dick that everything he had (his home, his reputation, his family, etc.) was Dick's as well. Lynette, Tommy's wife, told Dick that Tommy would let Dick do anything. The whole family loved Dick, including Tommy's 15 year old daughter, Sophia. Sophia actually had a crush on Dick, but Dick acted like an older brother to her, helping her with her homework and such.

While Dick was away from the family for a few days, the cops busted into the Tevis's home. Lynette got killed in the gunfire, Tommy got taken to jail, and Sophia got taken in by the state.

Dick, while mentoring Rose, broke Sophia out of the state home. He got Sophia to help him with the mob. Then, when Chemo fell on Bludhaven, Dick saved Sophia and left her with Amy. When they reunited at the hospital, Dick asked Sophia to leave the mob behind and join a boarding school.

So, yeah, that's Dick's relationship with the Tevis family.

[see-arcane]

Just tripped and fell into a what-if scenario:

"What if Jonathan really had caught up to Dracula in Piccadilly and killed him in the street?"

Head lopped off. Kukri through the chest. The 'murder victim' turns to dust in full view of the gawking crowd. Then what? Then what??

Piccadilly Police: "So this man beheaded and impaled an aristocrat in the middle of the street."

Witnesses: "He did."

Piccadilly Police: "And the body..?"

Witnesses: "Crumbled into that pile of dust."

Piccadilly Police: "..."

Witnesses: "..."

Piccadilly Police: "...So has he named which magician he's working for or--?"

Witnesses: "No, he's just been busy kicking the dust into the horse dung piles in the gutter."

Of course, this is the best case scenario sillytimes version. Serious version? Jonathan only manages half of the process before some Good Samaritans tackle him; and likely get cut in the process. I bet he could chop Dracula's head off, but not manage the heart-piercing in time. He gets dragged off to jail. The Count's two pieces get taken to the morgue. And now Van Helsing, the Suitors, and Mina are all on a ticking deadline to stake Dracula's heart before sundown with Important Witnesses present to prove Jonathan's innocence and sanity in the slaying...

And if and when that happens?

That means the Drac Attack Pack are responsible for bringing the reality of vampires into the public awareness.

So.

Surprise, everyone!

Imagine the can of worms that would open around them, around the whole concept. Their original plan to head to Castle Dracula to end the Brides gets a LOT of extra tagalong company. Photographers are there. Ditto shady government sorts who, of course, are eager to investigate a way to turn vampirism into a benefit to the Crown. The Drac Attack Pack would be swamped with sensationalism. It'd be a circus.

Which all adds up to a belated understanding for me about just why Dracula had to get away from them in Piccadilly. If he had been caught and killed? God. What a mess it'd be.

[happyendingsong]

smth i can't get out of my head is bianca telling naomi "and i need you to tell me right now cause i will walk out of this ring and you will never hear from me again" and this being the thing to get naomi to finally confess.

like this isn't a threat that gets used in wrestling! the only way conflict gets addressed is having these people fight each other over and over and over again. typically the threat is "ill never let you live it down," "you'll never have a moment's peace again," "ill force the truth out of you next monday in cincinnati," etc.

so there's something extra haunting about the threat of bianca just leaving naomi's life, just deciding she's not worth it anymore. that naomi couldve done all this -- brutalised jade and kept it hidden for months, lied to everyone's faces, all for the sake of bianca and keeping her shining and getting to shine with her because it shouldve been her, it shouldve been them -- only for bianca to turn her back and walk away for good.

and bianca still turns her back on her, while naomi's screaming til her throat is raw. starts screaming the worst things she can think of ("i shouldve pushed her harder! i wish i pushed her sooner! you ungrateful bitch!") just to get bianca to look at her again. she'd rather bianca hate her than to lose her.

[musubiki]

lime hearing theres gonna be an awesome meteor shower visible from the capitols outskirts and hatching a whole plan to take mochi on a stargazing date. hes over there pulling all the stops, bringing pillows and blankets and a pop-up mattress, (somewhat) forcefully getting taffy to lend him his truck, bringing snacks and picnic dinner, the whole time thinking "Hehe, the perfect date idea. She's gonna eat this shit up and fall in love with me no problem."

but then of course like a hundred other people had the same genius idea as him so the location has tons of people. including the other guild members. (he didnt tell them where he was taking mochi so they couldnt follow him. by coincidence they also went to the same place. maybe not coincidence, limes idea for a spot isnt exactly a hidden location)

[cxlrose]

i love wuwa i love wuwa i love wuwa i love wuwa i love wuwa i love wuwa i love wuwa

[zonkutonshorrifyingpeenie]

ngl i do think it's kinda bullshit thay i'm being blamed for other people not responding to me when i've tried to talk to them, leading to vast misunderstandings that could have been solved if, once again, people had fucking responded to me

but i digress

i think my time is much better spent elsewhere than on people like that

[fridayyy-13th]

God. nights like these sure do wonders for my self-esteem, don’t they.

[energeticpoltergeist]

i have yet again drawn something Fire Emblem related

still kinda sucky at drawing FE characters, but im slowly figuring it out and seeing as i have plans(which i'll hopefully be able to act upon sooner then later, no promises though) im going to be getting a lot of practice in my future anyways yeah, Chrom time

[sonsband]

getting another woman on the ropes this too is yuri

[alaraxia]

was able to draw a bit today without pain and my heart is so full :)

[good-beanswrites]

Just wanted to plant an idea if you wanted a bit of fuel: Mahiru asking Yuno to come to her cell before everything goes down.

Edit: I forgot the ask didn't say it but this is part of Kyanako's incredible Order Of Attack AU!

Didn't mean for this to become a mini Mappi study but here we are ✨ Thank you for the request! I fully intended to write them hanging out, but it's more right before they hang out lol. Went a bit on-the-nose with foreshadowing, but isn't that the fun part? It has become Emotional Over Mahiru Hour...

I kept things vague, but TW for mentioning her boyfriend's state of potential self-harm

Mahiru tried not to act superstitious, she really did. As much as she loved the idea of little luck charms, or avoided easy signs of misfortune, it was easier to keep quiet about such ridiculous things.

Maybe catching a bride’s bouquet meant no guarantees; maybe there was no real harm in stepping underneath ladders, maybe a coin tossed into a fountain had no real magic to its wish. However, the one thing she knew for sure held power was a lucky presence. Being in the right place at the right time could alter everything. And today was the right time for something. There was this waiting in the air. The prison had been holding its breath. Mahiru knew it was time to release it all.

“You must be so lonely, why don’t you let big sis Mahiru keep you company?” She beamed at Amane.

She often recalled the good fortune that she and a certain young man had crossed paths on the university terrace. She used to laugh with him about the wonderful coincidence of bumping into each other outside of the bakery, then the convenience store. 

Though she’d never spoken about it to him, she was also grateful for many occasions where she walked in on him at the precise moment to talk him out of something reckless. She always told him that they’d do everything together. He didn’t need to be alone anymore. 

“I wish to be alone. I need peace of mind to think.” Amane turned away from the cell door.

It was a good thing, too. Mahiru’s smile wasn’t as convincing as she said, “o-oh. Of course.”

She made her way around the panopticon, hearing Fuuta pace his cell in anticipation. He must have felt it too, this holding of breath. 

Or perhaps not. He turned down her offer for a bit of company, including a few more colorful words than Amane had. Mahiru just apologized for bothering him and headed back to her cell. She wasn’t sure where Mikoto was at this hour, but she didn’t feel like smiling through a third rejection.

She shook her head back and forth. She wished the motion could rattle the voices inside, she wished she could shake them all away. With her arms secured in place she could no longer cover her ears. She used to hum to keep them at bay, but lately they’d been too loud to stifle. They just kept on talking.

Their words told her the two were right. Nobody needed her company. No – nobody wanted it. Being together hadn’t helped her boyfriend. In fact, being together had been the very thing that got him killed. No wonder Amane and Fuuta wanted to avoid her. 

So then, this was for the best. She would rather deal with the brief sting of refusal than stumble in one day to find them hurt… or worse. As much as she tried to avoid the superstition of it all, the voices reminded her that her very presence could mean life or death. 

“Mappi, are you alright?” Mahiru hadn’t realized a tear had slipped down her cheek until she hurried to swipe it away in front of Yuno. 

“Hah, I’m fine! Just fine.” It was impossible to fool her, Mahiru had learned, but that never stopped her from trying. 

At least she always spoke tactfully. “Rough morning?”

Mahiru shifted her arms in her uniform, making a small sound of agreement.

“Can I do anything to help? What if I stay with you for a bit? I can do your hair, and…”

The voices were right. Amane and Fuuta knew it, too. Presences did hold power, and Mahiru’s was cursed.

But she would sound foolish admitting such a fear to Yuno. She'd heard plenty from the voices about how stupid and airheaded she was, there was no use in getting the same lecture from someone as grounded as her.

Mahiru managed a weak protest, unable to explain her real reasoning. Yuno was insistent. She didn’t give much of a choice. Could she feel the strangeness of the prison, as well? 

At last, Mahiru allowed her shoulders to sag. Yuno was lucky. And kind. Having her nearby would do her good. Amane and Fuuta would be alright. Mahiru had tried spending more time with them after verdicts were announced. Now, she made a mental note to pull back. If her love couldn’t save anyone, at least she could spare them from her curse. They would be safe. 

“Yes. Please stay. The truth is... I don't want to be alone.”

[boygirlctommy]

OMG I FORGOT ABOUT MY OC BATTERYACID....