#I mean- I obviously didn't expect him to actually be evil since the game obviously wants him to be sympathetic

[multishipper-baby]

So Kokichi's organization are just... Clowns, huh.

[skaruresonic]

It's always "why doesn't Sonic kill Eggman" but never "why is Eggman evil"

You'd think that since Eggman is the center/cause of this entire thing in the first place there would be a bit more interest in investigating his desires and beliefs regarding the subject matter.

Idw's moral quandary focuses exclusively on Sonic's view of things while doing everything necessary to ignore the agency and thoughts of everyone else involved.

That's a dead giveaway of the real reason why they introduced this morality nonsense. The writers never cared about exploring each character and how they affect things. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the people in charge of idw sonic just wanted to make Sonic look bad.

There's also the added bonus of the comic continuously proving that its version of Sonic is wrong. It cannot be interpreted as anything other than a desire to make Sonic look like a moron.

Well, we do know he wants to build his Empire out of a sense of unchecked ego and entitlement, which is about the extent we can expect as far as motivation goes.

I feel like asking why Eggman is evil is still pretty unnecessary tbh. He doesn't particularly need a reason to do evil things, just as Sonic doesn't need a reason to want to help out a friend. They're the kind of larger-than-life characters for whom explanations tend to dilute. Deceptively simple on the surface, but powerfully resonant, you know what I mean?

---

You'd think that since Eggman is the center/cause of this entire thing in the first place there would be a bit more interest in investigating his desires and beliefs regarding the subject matter.

That would be a valid point had the spark that ignited this entire moral quandary not been an accident. Eggman gets knocked out and by pure happenstance becomes someone completely different. He could have just as easily begun cosplaying as Gerald or something. actually nvm, that sounds interesting

For some reason, Sonic takes this fluke to mean that Eggman is capable of being good, when in reality he should have learned the opposite lesson: that the evil madman is who Eggman is because it's who Eggman chooses to be when equipped with proper faculties and free will.

---

Idw's moral quandary focuses exclusively on Sonic's view of things while doing everything necessary to ignore the agency and thoughts of everyone else involved.

Because the book has protagonist-centered morality. Sonic doesn't win arguments because he's particularly right or even good at arguing his point, but because the plot needs people to kowtow to him.

You must agree with Sonic because he knows best... except when it's convenient for the plot to pretend it never espoused that attitude.

Again, if Sonic had some common sense, he'd have realized from his own personal experiences as Mr. Needlemouse that Eggman didn't choose to hang up his hat and become Mr. Tinker. Flynn could have made a parallel of it beyond a mere bookend, a real epiphany moment. But it goes nowhere because Flynn cannot provide a cogent answer to the question he raised; he has to deflect.

---

That's a dead giveaway of the real reason why they introduced this morality nonsense. The writers never cared about exploring each character and how they affect things. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the people in charge of idw sonic just wanted to make Sonic look bad.

They also wanted their work to appear deep(er than the games) without putting in the work needed to make it actually deep. Sneering obliquely at the games is enough to merit you applause.

It's funny too because I just read a ScreenRant article which contended that Eggman has ~pathetic flaws~ as a villain because... wait for it... Starline and co. called his methods "sloppy" in Bad Guys six or seven times. Starline called him out, so obviously we must take him at his word; never mind how much of a fuckup Starline is in his own right.

Dude, just because the characters say something doesn't necessarily make it true. Subtext! It's not just for novels!

And while I won't say the staff hate the games, they definitely give the impression that they look down on Sega!Sonic. Maybe they're not consciously aware that that's their vibe, but it's still the vibe they emit nevertheless. They just couch their sentiments in softer terms than would a regular fan.

---

There's also the added bonus of the comic continuously proving that its version of Sonic is wrong. It cannot be interpreted as anything other than a desire to make Sonic look like a moron.

Which is depressing, and not particularly inspirational for kids who so happen to pick up the book.

Really, the only target audience IDW could possibly be aiming at here are irony-poisoned millennials and Gen Zers. The reference pool is way too old for a younger audience, too niche for new fans, and too disdainful toward the games for people who want more games-flavored canon.

I can't imagine a ten-year-old picking up Bad Guys and slogging through Starline's monologues on ~the Sonic cycle~ because what the fuck is the duck man talking about. Or little Timmy who's just watched the latest Sonic film reading about the exciting adventures of puke-colored Clutch. Or little Susie, whose favorite characters are Amy and Cream, opening up an issue and seeing nothing but Lanolin's sneering face lol.

[ironbloodaika]

Happy Halloween 2023!

This is something long overdue. Even though I stopped posting my commissions on here that doesn't mean I've stopped getting them!

I've especially enjoyed getting Halloween commissions because those are really fun to conceive, order, and see made into reality. I've especially enjoyed getting them from Aeolus06 and he's never disappointed. Sadly due to me being between jobs I couldn't get any this year. :( That said I've decided to use this as an opportunity to show what I've got over the last few years and hopefully you'll love them as much as I do! :)

These first four are unique in that these were all from the same year (2020 to be exact). Since Aeo has a cool down period between commissions, I actually got these all done over a period of a few months. XD Took a lot of luck and prayer, but I got all the ideas I wanted done!

First one was probably the most complex, but was worth it because of how well it fit. Star, Marco, and Hekapoo from Star vs The Forces of Evil as AndrAIa, Matrix, and Older!AndrAIa from Reboot! Much like Matrix, Marco had a bit of age jumping that fit naturally (especially body types and eye scars). Plus Star and Hekapoo are shipped pretty hard with him so it was natural they dress as the different versions of Matrix's lady love.

Also, Fun Fact: Marco's scar/prosthetic eye is on the wrong side compared to his costume, but I felt it was better to ignore it than have Aeo flip the entire costume. XD

Next up we had some classic hotties from Canada, Lindsay and Courtney. Everyone with a pulse will know I'm a Courtney fan, so I'm always eager to give her some love. And while I'm not AS big on Lindsay, she's a fun character and I have some friends who love her too so I didn't mind them sharing the spotlight.

Obviously the theme/inspiration behind this pics conception is the fact Lindsay and Courtney pack the biggest T and A on the island respectively, so they needed some costumes to illustrate that. Thus we got Courtney as everyone's fave lady wrestler Rainbow Mika from Street Fighter and Lindsay as the boxing cheerleader Tiffany Lords from Rival Schools. Both ladies who kick ass and look good doing it! Give these ladies some love folks!

Another Fun Fact: This one took faster to do than I expected, mostly cause I didn't realize my refs were thigh high. In the end I feel it still looked good and didn't bother bringing it up. XD

Here's another cute couple and one I think deserves more love. Eclipsa Butterfly and Globgor are also from SVTFOE and honestly very sweet and adorable. While they're regarded as evil by less tolerant folk, they're honestly some of the sweetest characters you'll see on the show. I feel this is a nice contrast to their costumes, Sindel and Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat. I went with the MK9 versions of their outfits since they were both modern and simple. Didn't wanna be THAT guy who commissions SUPER complicated outfits. I'm not a sadist! While later games would retcon Sindel into being just as evil as Shao (something thankfully corrected in MK1) I still feel this outfit and character works for Eclipsa, even if she and her hubby are as far from evil as you can get. XD

Final pic of this year is another couples pic with Danny Fenton and Paulina Sanchez. I ship these two and take no shame in it. This was originally gonna just be Paulina as Phantom Girl from Legion of Superheroes since the name and colors matched Danny perfectly. But then I figured just having Paulina in costume wouldn't be fair, so I had him dress up as Timberwolf, since I recall them having a few moments in the cartoon. A cartoon, much like this pairing, is very underrated. XD

Now to 2021! This was a fun crossover and and me deciding to avoid "themes" and combining two character pin-ups in one! Once again we have Hekapoo and this year she's dressed up as Otedamako. Who's that? Only my fave Monster of the Day from Sailor Moon! :3 To her side with have a humanoid Rarity showing off her darkside as Martha from Helluva Boss! This one came from the animated opening in G5 that had Rarity showing off some spiky teeth and a crazy look in her eyes. IMMEDIATELY brought Martha too mind. All and all, very happy with how these two came out!

And now to the prior year of 2022. By this point Aeo started coloring the stream commissions and honestly, it was worth the price increase. Dude is a machine! If this one has a theme it's basically me taking the waifus of my close friends (Chill, Terrible, and Raccoon) and dressing them as other sexy waifus. From left to right we have Himiko Toga from My Hero Academia dressed as Harlequin, the Harley Quinn of the Gods and Monsters film. A very hot/underrated design for a VERY twisted take on the character. Toga makes it work! Front and center we have Wilhamena Mettle from OK K.O.! as Starfire, specifically the comic book version for obvious reasons. XD Finally we have Juri Han from Street Fighter dressed in the tight leathers of Penelope Spectra from Danny Phantom, specifically her second form. Lot of specifics in this piece. XD

Final Fun Fact: Was tempted to have Wilhamena as Star Canary, the fusion of Starfire and Black Canary from the Batman/Superman comic. Very hot design. XD

And a bit of a bonus! I ended up really helping out a new friend on deviantART back in 2020 and got to get a bit of art as a thank you. Courtesy of XJKenny we have Meteora Butterfly, daughter of Eclipsa and Globgor as Mileena. Also her MK9 design, this not only works for Meteora herself given her story, but also matches up with her parents' costumes as well!

Well that's everything I wanted to share this year! This has been a rough year for me personally and for the world as a whole. But I'm hoping we can turn things around a bit with what bit of the year we have left.

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay scared and stay safe! 👻 🎃

[doom-nerdo-666]

"Deconstructing" the Dark Lord

There's a lot of things to be said about this character.

The most i usually say is "it's a mix of things that could have been seperate" and there's a good reason: He's a character almost made special by the ingredients combined that define him.

And each idea that represents him lead to fans expect anything but the final result and i believe even id themselves have second thoughts about this character (You've probably heard the idea that he was supposed to have a dragon phase).

So this post of mine is both me explaining why some fans didn't like the Dark Lord, while also thinking out ideas that could've worked or appealed more to fans.

Even if some of these ideas don't make a lot of sense or "contradict lore", it's more about Doom "being epic" and how some concepts rank in a "cool factor" for a series like Doom (At least considering some fans).

MAJOR SPOILERS, even if this is Doom.

"EVIL DOOMGUY"

People expected a 1v1 style duel where you fight a "mirror/copy" of Doomguy and not a "retouched Marauder" (This specifically feels wrong in the era of the series where lore matters a bit more and there's a special focus around Doomguy's current state as the ultimate demon killer).

The explenation of him looking like Doomguy may not help: I forgot but i think it's a weird context that means Doomguy IS the actual copy even if not intentional (To fans, Doomguy's appeal is that he was a random guy that got into a whole mess and wasn't always special).

And i guess how Doomguy's face isn't faithfull enough in 3D yet, but i mentioned that in a previous post of mine.

Ideally, "Evil Doomguy" could be like this:

Make the armor like the Immora/Skullface/Cultist skins where it's a demonic version of the Praetor suit.

Give him an arsenal of different weapons that are bound to phases.

The phase weapon system means he could start with a weak pistol and shotgun, like he's growing his arsenal by phases.

His weapons (Shotguns, chaingun, rifle, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, Gauss/Ballista equivalent etc) would have somewhat unique/different alt fires/mods even if their primary fires are the same as the player's.

At the last phase, he'd obviously have a BFG9000 and a Crucible with its own melee attacks.

Even his Chainsaw has melee attacks.

He can also double jump and dash, while also having his own equipment launcher cannon.

He can glory kill nearby fodder enemies for resources: THIS right here is his weakness, because he can run out of resources and has to fight for them like Doomguy does, so it's like a window of opportunity to hit him back.

His health bar has his own animated face on the HUD, just to show how much of a Doomguy clone he is.

At some point, his helmet falls during combat and he shows his face.

Lore: Make him a creation by Hell that exists as a mix of both fear and hatred Hell has toward Doomguy.

Alt lore idea: Remember Doomguy's boss that was mentioned in the D1 manual? Maybe he ended up going through his own journey through Hell and became an "Anti-Slayer" (And then his shoulder equip launcher is like a snake creature).

Stage? Maybe something like a "deathmatch arena" you'd expect out of Quake 3 or something, since a simple large circular area won't be good enough.

The idea of a rival for Doomguy seems special when you consider factors like how the Marauder still had a limited arsenal, when D3 has a boss that was Doomguy's boss turned into a monster with the BFG9000, zombie soldiers always carrying familiar/ingame weapons etc.

Plus, "evil version of the protagonist" is popular in some other games as well, so it's like Doom lied about its own version of it.

(Scythe 2 screenshot taken from Doomwiki, since the wad includes an "evil marine" that the player faces; Speaking of which, Colorfull Hell had a boss called "Player 9" that replaces the Zombieman and it's a fake deathmatch player invading your game)

Also, remember “voodoo dolls” from the Doom engine? Imagine if Doomguy saw these strange copies of him before facing an “anti-Doomguy” and the player even had to avoid shooting these Doomguy clones because they’d cost Doomguy’s health as well (Because that’s technically why they’re called “voodoo dolls” to begin with and are how some WADs get to do weird things not even id themselves considered).

THE "DEVIL" OF DOOM

Because if it's not the Icon of Sin, maybe "the Devil" could have been a bigger creature, almost like planet size or even "Hell itself" if you assume that an infinite, reality defying, evil dimension can be its own living entity.

A “planet sized demon” could easily be Doom’s version of Junji Ito’s Remina, like something as a follow up to “Doomguy shoots the BFG10K on Mars to make a hole” and even a nod to TNT Revilution’s first skybox, but with for example an Icon of Sin head attached to Jupiter or something.

So depending on how "eldritch" and giant the "CEO of Hell" would be implied to be, i thought of a boss fight where you're "inside the beast" and combines level puzzle elements with combat.

Visually, it has a weird surreal aesthetic like all the weirdest parts of Hell combined and some new weird elements.

But there's a variety of weak points (Some shootable, others punchable, even some where you jump on top of them like that "Jumpable" enemy idea i wrote before) where the Player fights the beast they're inside in, while avoiding hazards and traps to stay alive.

Maybe there's special artifacts or items (Some unique to this fight) to keep the player closer to their goal.

In general, this idea is inspired by stuff like the classic IOS and Quake's Chthon and Shub fights where the level design is part of defeating the boss (Along with D2RPG having the VIOS or something).

Then there's the seemingly unused "6 archdemons".

Maybe we could even go with the idea that Hell has a lot more "dark lords" because humans will never truly comprehend who rules Hell, as if it was meant to confuse humans.

Meanwhile, John Romero's SIGIL ending text had the phrase "Baphomet was only doing Satan's bidding" and the episode made use of Christopher Lovell's pre-existing "Satanic" artwork.

Also, the “real Devil of Doom” could involve a “ultimate endgame” style level where reality is falling apart and you see different assets of Hell/Earth/Mars/Sentinel Prime/Urdak/etc fused and mixed, while the level has non-euclidean geometry and gravity attached to different surfaces and even the skybox shows different backgrounds fused, to indicate Hell messing up with reality.

ALSO GOD

I think people were already fine with The Father, even if not with the twist of him also being VEGA.

But to think Doomguy technically "kills God" because him and "Satan" were the same thing seems odd.

Maybe this also depends on how people feel about Urdak and whether or not Doom is getting "less Christian" even if the series never tapped that much into "accurate" Biblical references.

THE MECH SUIT

It's something that could have been a super heavy enemy at best, like if Immora's army had mech guys or even if 2016's Hell Guard made a comeback with a tech aesthetic (Yet again, something i wrote in a previous post).

Davoth wearing this armor doesn't really give the idea of being "on pair" with Doomguy.

It's weird because the mech itself makes him bigger than Doomguy but he only has few attacks.

THE NAME "DAVOTH"

The use of the name “Davoth” and one of the concept art knight designs of the Dark Lord could inspire a tall humanoid Immoran knight that references Goliath; So imagine if Immora had a 12 feet tall knight named Davoth and he could be a miniboss or something.

The name itself isn't bad and neither is that "metal heart" thing on his chest, even if it sounds like i'm talking about reusing them for something else.

CHARACTER AND MOTIVATION

Might be getting it wrong, but wasn't he mad that he didn't found immortality or something and that lead to him being betrayed by his own servants?

Because when you think of the idea of Hell, you'd think he could have been "Evil for the sake of it".

May seem weird for a series whose appeal is "badass space marine destroys the ultimate place of evil".

IMMORA

Also something i talked about before but:

The idea of "Hell's heart" being a city with humans seems weird for, again, the place of evil where bad people go where they die.

And the sci-fi aesthetic seems weird, not just because "they painted Urdak red" but because the original games already had an idea of "Hell tech".

(Again, flesh walls with stabbing metal pipes and giant skull with computers inside the sockets)

When you think about it, it's as if Hell only ever had technology just to mock humans; Something in a "God creates, Satan imitates" way.

Even the Cultist Base aesthetic could've worked to suit the "evil technology" idea.

It's part of why i thought 2016 making it that the UAC created cybernetic demons is weird: It might weaken Hell a bit and take away the weirdness that the classic games already presented.

Because even if Hell had armies and stuff that almost put them on the same level as UAC/Sentinel soldiers, it should still have a touch of "evil magic" or as if something was created from a spiteful nature.

Indicating that Hell has a 100% evil "personality" that cannot be reasoned with.

And also, like i said: D2016's multiplayer had cooler demonic armor sets and the Reaper weapon was done dirty when used by the Demonic Troopers.

I thought Immora would work more if it was a "paradise for sinners" where its soldiers were sinners and evil former humans that were more competent than other former humans because they were "rewarded".

Maybe a legit Satanic cult paradise, where its humans are those that betrayed mankind?

And the fact that there's "humans" in Immora could justify them as "evil copies/parodies", so you could make demons that look "humanoid" but are still weird.

WHAT ELSE

It's easy to see that The Ancient Gods shouldn't have been made under a year one season pass release contract.

But i wonder if even without those limitations, things would change that much.

Because Doom was never a "lore bound" series, which is why i think there's an "easy" solution to "bad lore ideas": Just having a new game do things differently, even if they "break lore".

Perhaps the fact we even think of "how to fix the Dark Lord" means there's a somewhat positive impact on the DL existing in general: A reminder that Doom is fun to reinterpret.

Whether it's for fun or because some fans weren't happy with certain things.

One can also see thing as "fans making Doom more epic than it actually is", even if it's not new/caused by new fans when older fans were always doing that too.

"What about the dragon idea?" Maybe make that a seperate monster/boss, even with some homage to the D3 Maledict or even Quake and Hexen or something.

FooSarr did an interesting video about a demonic Wintherin, but i already posted it before.

And semi-related but Bethesda artist Jonah Lobe drew a "demonic" version of the Doomslayer.

Perhaps a criticism is that it factors too much into certain D2016 aspects that made the demons "even more alien than in D3", though this is a prespective worth mentioning in a different post.

Honestly, it feels like there's a lot of ways you can go with "evil Doomguy"; Again, me talking about Doom's "true versatility" even if it's too easy to talk about it than anything actually being made.

At least the idea of Doomguy being put to rest after defeating the main bad guy isn't so bad and i guess his theme song wasn't bad either.

Could have said something about the "final fight" starring the Sentinel army and how Doomguy needed to go to Earth to use the gate to Divum or something but maybe for another post.

[odsont]

I tried to fight my inner demons as hard as I could but...

Why I think Wanderer would be a better archon then Kusanali

(By not a lore player, if you disagree with anything I say, please explain why, I would like to hear, trust me, I try as hard as I can to find at least one good thing about Nahida's character so if anyone has anything to say I would be so glad to hear it)

(Didn't mean to offend anyone)

(Unless you're Nahida)

So I come up with some reasons why Baladeer would be a perfect archon (based on personality, God criteria and official genshin writings and lore), why Kusanali is not supposed to be an archon at all (based on personality and archon criteria and on lore of other gods) and why having Lumine fighting sages and helping Wanderer to become a God would make the game and Nahida's character so much better (based on my opinion) and now I can't stop thinking about it

(Nahida is so selfish and noone knows it because of her acting like uwu anime cutie who cries for no reason all the time and saying that she likes hooman while girl literally manipulated her person just to make her believe in Nahida's views, used Katherine's body without her consent (and got it damaged, broke Katherine. (I care about her and her creator a lot, ok?) Saying that it's fine cuz she's a puppet (Katherine was showen as someone who's a living creature many times and even if she is just a souless puppet, she's still Sandrone's property), took away Scaramouche's gnosis with no hesitation even tho bro begged her not to (he was technically her enemy but taking away his heart was too personal, beating him up or anything wouldn't be.)

Listen..maybe I'm being too empathetic to a fictional charcater, but when she said she only kept Wanderer to use him, it was fine, if she killed him it was fine, but the moment when she talked about breaking his heart just to scare Dottore (she could've done the same with her gnosis, she wasn't about to actually break it anyway) really made me feel so so bad for him. Like I'm a bitch and I would bever do smth like that??

Another thing that people say is that "Scaramouche is evil" "he tried to take Sumeru away from Nahida" so is/did Barbatos?? Morax?? Ei even in her own quest was a bad guy (literally a part of Inadzuma quest was about Inadzuma needed someone more empathetic then Ei's puppet, oh, what a shame that Ei never made a puppet that was actually kind, understanding and incredibly good at politics/s)? Rukha too ig?? Archons are evil in one way or another, Scara said himself that their fight was an archon war (because Archons also fought each other for territories) And Nahida obviously lost (would have if traveler wasn't there).

We literally have 2 more canonical confirmations that Scara would be a good archon.

We saw how much he loved Haypasia and *cough cough*

"But those of this world who call such a being a "false deity" misunderstand the true meaning of the word. Shouki no Kami now understands countless things and shoulders unassailable might, and may be said to surpass mortals. If gods must love mortals, then Shouki no Kami, who grants failure in equal measure to humanity, loves them also. If gods must watch over humanity, then Shouki no Kami, who has borne witness to infinite love, hatred, partings, grudges, and maddening anger — thus does he watch over mortals".

Dide literally fits the "archon criteria" perfectly??? Nahida doesn't (expect for her loving her people but I already said why I disagree with that but I believe my point was too subjective to actually count it) I'm pretty sure I forgot some of my arguments but I'm too tired to write it anyway lol. In my personal opinion Sumeru would be better if we just fought Sages and then helped Wanderer become a good God, Nahida could be a better character since this way she would be allowed to be silly child

(I just realized interesting thing that both Nahida and Wanderer were created (most likely from irminsul) destined to be a God but not being able to achieve this at first, hey, maybe they both could be Gods, we got 100 updated about desert, no way a baby can handle it by her own + desert people were treated as less "human" then others for ages, Scaramouche would feel so much empathy towards them!

[thymelessink]

10 Characters From 10 Fandoms

Tagged by @walkwithursus (you're really providing me with these games XD)

Tagging: @a-n-n-i-m-i-a and @nanukanal and a whoever wants to do it!

Blackbeard (Our Flag Means Death): Well, we're hopefully still at the beginning of his journey, so...

The fact that he's a fearsome pirate who always longed to enjoy the soft things in life and fell in love with the rich man who showed him that it is okay to like soft and pretty things and then gave up everything to save that man? I mean come on, just thinking about it makes me want to hug him.

Scar (The Lion King): Okay, so...I don't like TLK. Not even as a child. I always thought the story is stupid (and yes, the whole Shakespeare subtext obviously went all over my head back then but as an adult it didn't make it any better for me) and I think I've only seen the movie fully once. But Scar, he's a different story. He's evil but he's eloquent, cunning and sarcastic. He makes the movie somewhat enjoyable and I don't care what he did, his death hurt me, even as a child.

The Joker (DC): Okay, I don't really know much about the DCU but Joker is a character I always come back to. No matter whether we're talking about Heath Ledger's Joker, Joaquin Phoenix' Joker, BTAS' Joker or Telltale's John Doe. He's so fucked up, but I love how many different sources give him a tragic backstory. And his absolute disregard for heteronormativity and his general queerness make him so interesting and I wish more people in the DCU would play with it and see the opportunity.

Gregory House (House, M.D.): I don't even remember how many years it's been since I watched House but that man stayed relevant throughout my life. And you're gonna see a pattern here when it comes to my favourite characters: He's harsh. He's sarcastic. He's an asshole. He says he doesn't care. But he does. He says he doesn't care if people leave him. But he does. He fakes his death to support his dying best friend. And I enjoy that he treats medical cases similar to how Holmes treats his cases. Obviously.

Marty McFly (Back to the Future): Of course, I like my 80s boy. Looks cute, street smart, is funny. He's a comfort character for sure. Also, if I had to name one character that evokes gender envy in me, he'd definitely number one.

Harry "Bunny" Manders (Raffles): The reverse Watson to the reverse Sherlock Holmes. He's adorkable, ends up as a criminal due to his own foolishness and Raffles' manipulation. He knows Raffles is sometimes annoyed with him, he wants to make himself useful but actually makes matters worse most of the time, but in an endearing way. He's incredibly loyal, will follow Raffles everywhere, even to war where he has to witness Raffles' death. It's basically a Sherlock Holmes AU but more gay because there's no way in hell Bunny doesn't love Raffles.

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad (Assassin's Creed): I was really thinking between him and Ezio because they both have amazing life stories. Assassin's Creed was probably the reason why I started playing more video games. If Altaïr's story wouldn't have been so interesting I wouldn't have stuck with it. Malik first making him see his wrongdoings, forgiving him later and becoming his best friend also plays a big part in the development of his character. But I love that they didn't make him perfect. In Revelation we see that he's still making stupid decisions that cost him dearly and he spent his life becoming a better person and a worthy mentor of the Brotherhood.

Sherlock Holmes: I mean what can I say...I don't even remember for how long I've loved Sherlock Holmes but there's a calmness in the face of danger about him that comforts me. He appears cold and calculating but he cares about the people around him. He also follows his own moral code, no matter what Scotland Yard expects of him. And he's my go-to character when I want to give a basic and famous example of asexuality to people.

The Doctor (Doctor Who): Do I have to decide for one? If so, I'd probably choose Nine. I only got into DW last year, although I always wanted to watch it because David Tennant was in it. Hilariously enough, it was Christopher Eccleston's Doctor who I became especially fond of. It's his harsh demeanor sometimes, a man who just came from war, but the joy he also displays sometimes (e.g. when everyone gets to live) and the way he, more than anyone else, needed a companion, Rose, made him very dear to me.

Tony Stark (Iron Man): Of course, who else. A man who was a weapons dealer and ended up giving up his life to restore half the universe. He has one of my favourite character growths. At no point is he perfect, he has weaknesses, he makes mistakes again and again and he knows that he seldom has the moral high ground. But he seems to love unconditionally. He forgives. And he gives life to beings that love him in return. He provides for the people he loves, deals with PTSD, makes the world a better place, all while keeping a smile on his face and having a smart remark in any situation.

[hellostarfleet]

hello i finished new vegas

wall of text thoughts. under read more bc sooooo many.

was kind of wishing by the end i'd known how much the game rewards rly picking and choosing what to make your stats... i didn't really appreciate this until i went from like 45 in energy weapons like this feels fine to 75 and was like I AM A PLASMA GOD!!!! so noted for next run (i did end with 100 in science and energy weapons I GOTTA be nosy and hack every terminal i see. or my courier will die.)

rly thought this about hour 5 but i wasn't expecting the legion to be so cartoonishly evil actually i knew they were bad but like. lol. CMON GUYS PUT SOMETHING BACK ON THE SHELF FOR OTHER BAD GUY FACTIONS... instead of the vipers/jackals/powder gangers/fiends just kind of being. free karma estate. (in retrospect i don't rly understand the point of karma as a system because after like level 5 i never even dipped to neutral karma. my courier was an angel. an angel who stole every cap, stimpak, box of ammo, and piece of scrap metal she could find from everyone and anyone in the greater mojave area. and killed. SO MANY PEOPLE.)

was kind of expecting the hoover dam battle to be like... bigger???? like just having more guys around. more chaotic. actually have a reason to go down into the hoover dam sublevels that they. built and modeled but i had no plot reason to go into and did wander into the first time i was there (mostly i was like "how much does this look like the real hoover dam" and then realized i don't really remember enough about the particulars of the interior to judge that kdjhdkdhdkj).

also maybe im just too much of a bioware kid but i also think it was kinda weird to not have all the little guys you recruited there but shrug. (also i wanted to see the superfortress. WHERE IS IT) anyway i did independent ending bc OBVIOUSLY the ncr has problems and OBVIOUSLY my courier could do better. i mean she has already almost single handedly solved every personnel and supply chain issue the NCR was having. she will definitely TOTALLYYYY set up some sort of council of local factions as soon as she's done having some portion of the securitrons clean up all the fucking rubble laying around in freeside bc it's bothering me. WHY HASN'T ANYONE EVER SO MUCH AS SWEPT MCCARRAN AIRPORT TERMINAL. i bet everyone would be slightly less miserable if you could walk down the street without the threat of tripping on rubble and impaling yourself on rebar. sorry what. you want local governance. citizen. pick up that can. then we'll talk.

anyway idk handwaving not storming through the legate's camp to the main part of the fort to get caesar with the securitrons was kind of weird. i wanna kill. which means i also apparently i missed my chance in life to kill vulpes. SAD. but i got to order yes man to throw a guy off the hoover dam. AND HE DID. so that ruled. (the duality of courier: last week she saved your president from assassination. this week she went hmm. i see. and tossed your top general off a dam.) also im sure yes man installing some updates to become more assertive will definitely not cause any issues. it's fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!!

ANYWAY despite all that i had a good time as evidenced by finishing it in the time i did oops. i had a good time. i actually didn't realize this game had a companion system i just thought it had a collection of pathetic men. which it does. but also i love having companions (although did get kind of tripped up on only being allowed to have one humanoid companion and one ed-e/rex. it was always ed-e btw bc rex was like continually under my feet im sorry boy.) i also travelled with boone for like 20 hours so it took me a while to realize like any other companion talks a lot more since im pretty sure stringing more than 3-5 words together causes him physical pain. i love that there's a scene for if you do give veronica a dress!!! i am still thinking about how hard arcade dissed me the first time i asked if he wanted to travel with my courier!!!!! i also asked if it could wait when i got his quest and he was like no actually im gonna keep talking and like. lmao. STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT THE ENCLAVE DOES I FEEL LIKE THE ANSWER IS JUST "GO PLAY FALLOUT 3"??? kind of like how visiting jacobstown was just "go play fallout 1 & or 2"

misc briefer thoughts ig:

WHY IS THERE A SNOWGLOBE IN SARAH'S VAULT 21 ROOM. HASN'T SHE LOST ENOUGH TO MR. HOUSE. i did not sell this snowglobe. please clap bc $$$.

loved exploring the vaults in that i hated exploring the vaults man. i think vault 11 wins for most fucked up and vault 34 wins for most times i thought "i fucking hate this" while i was there (but that's a personal problem bc feral ghouls. ueueuueueueueueue cries in a corner while arcade and ed-e shoot everything. nice moral dilemma at the end though. i saved the groundwater but oof. oughf.)

why do the options with dealing with the great khans suck so much lmaooo.... shoving ncr soldiers up against the wall for being like HA we showed theM CHASED THEM RIGHT OUT!! like girl no i told them to leave bc UR COMMANDING OFFICER SAID SHE'D USE THEM FOR CANON FODDER IF THEY ALLIED WITH THE NCR

also honestly same for all the dialogue about neslon bc sorry WHOOOOO kicked the legion out. bc it wasn't you guys it was boone and i doing a sidequest and then just going fuck it kill them all actually -

ok but speaking of NCR guys sorry to the misfits bc i did not have enough explosives to teach u how to explosives and then u all deserted and were hung. skill issue but sorry but skill issue -

because i had done all the vaults i. did finish most of the brotherhood quests ig and honestly was probably going to leave them alone except then i triggered veronica's quest and they wiped out that followers station so. hot take maybe you guys shouldn't have had like three terminals of kill everyone dead. also maybe don't preface yay we can leave again with thoughts on going at it with the ncr again imMEDIATELY what is wrong with you guys.

i feel like some other run im gonna go all in on punching and sneaking that sounds fun. or lead pipe run. i hope primm appreciated me liberating their big hotel in town and didn't think too hard about the piles of guys beat to death with a lead pipe.

the powder gangers and guys in vault 19 rly didn't do anything to me but if it will get me better epilogue slides. well i did get this gauss rifle too late in the game to really use it (ENERGY WEAPON SNIPER RIFLE. IDEAL WEAPON!!!)

i can't believe i have to pay $5 to experience mormons. actually is it even specifically mormon bible thumping or am i just assuming bc it's utah. anyway im gonna do it. but. lmao. (i was also surprised how much man on fire stuff was mentioned in the game proper since it is apparently dlc.)

is the ideal dlc order release order btw

[1800-omi]

when you overhear him say he’s dating you only to make his brother jealous.

characters: miya twins

warnings: female reader, swear words

notes: i didn’t proofread besties sorry if there’s any errors 😔👊🏼

Osamu was walking down the school hallways beside his best friend, Sunarin when the conversation came up. They had been talking about school, then from school, they started talking about classmates then from that the subject changed to partners and dating. When Rintarou found out about his friend, he was obviously happy for him, yet he couldn’t help but wonder why his friend suddenly got into a relationship when he hasn’t shown any interest in dating someone for months. So, he decided to ask.

“So,” he put both his hands behind his head, his elbows pointing up, “Why’d ya do it?”

“Huh?” Osamu looked up at him, “do what?”

“You started dating YN so suddenly. It just seems so out of character for you to do.” He replied, “Or maybe my question should be, how you started dating her? Pretty much every boy in school has had his eyes on her at one point.”

Osamu chuckled at the question. “Well, I’ve got my ways when it comes to flirting and all that. As for why I did it,” a smirk grew on his lips as he thought about it. “Alright, listen, I’m only tellin’ you this ‘cause you’re my best friend, okay?” Rintarou nodded, unsure of what to expect next. “I started dating her because I wanted to make Atsumu jealous. He brags to me about girls he meets all the time, about how much his fangirls love him. The best way I could get back to him is if I started dating the girl every guy around here wanted.”

Suna looked at his friend wide-eyed before letting out a laugh, “oh my God, you’re evil!”

The conversation had kept your boyfriend’s attention away from the fact that while he was talking, he was passing your class. Having just gotten back from your lunch break, you did not expect to be overhearing this conversation. You felt crushed, used. You were ready to open up to him, good thing that you never did. As Osamu and his friend disappeared into the school’s halls, you put your hand over the necklace your soon-to-be ex-boyfriend had given you and made a decision. You would not be suffering over an asshole, not this time, not again.

That afternoon, after all the classes were over, Osamu waited for you at the school gates so you two could walk home together. You met him at the school gates, just like you always do. You two went on about your usual conversations as you walked home, homework, exams, family, anything normal couples talk about. You two soon enough arrived at his house, you walked him to his doorstep and instead of giving him the usual kiss on the lips, you decided to speak up.

“Atsumu’s kind of annoying, isn’t he?” you smiled at your boyfriend, he let out a ‘huh’ in confusion before you proceeded. “He’s always bragging about how girls want him, doesn't it make you want to get back to him in some way?”

With that, a frown appeared on Osamu’s face. Realizing that there was no way he could get out of this situation and still get to call you his, he gave up. “Who told you?” a part of him thought Suna had informed you, then again, he was the only one who knew besides Osamu.

“Do you think I’m stupid, Osamu? Honestly, I’m curious. Just how long did you think you could use me for?”

Hearing your monotone voice made him remember just how much you had done for him during the time he was dating you. Hearing your tone made him realise how much he’d lost, made him realise why everyone wanted to be with you in the first place. Most of all, it made him remember why when he first saw you, for a moment, he fell for you too. “Listen, YN, maybe I can make it up–”

“Oh, fuck off! You won’t make up shit.” you grabbed the necklace he had gifted you and ripped it off your neck, throwing it on the grass of the Miya family’s front yard. “You’ll have to find someone else to play your games with because we’re done, Miya. Please don’t talk to me again.” You turned around, feeling as if the heaviest weight has been lift off your chest. You finally feel at ease as you walk out of Miya’s property and make your way home. That day you left Osamu at his doorstep, you left him feeling broken and full of regret. One might say you left him the way you first met him.

Atsumu had told you he would be going out with his teammate Ginjima that day, what you hadn’t had time to tell him is that you would be going out to the town too.

He walked around the town’s shopping centre with a bubble tea cup in his hand, looking around the various stores. “Did ya know YN actually loves this place?” By the tone of Atsumu voice, it was clear to Gin that Atsumu was about to start another one of his annoying rants. “She always likes coming here with me. She says she likes the atmosphere. It’s classic girl stuff, I guess. Shopping and all that.”

“I don’t blame her, to be honest. There’s some really cool stuff ‘round here.” Ginjima replied, hoping that he would end Atsumu rant like that.

“I guess. She’s kinda annoying sometimes, always dragging me around to do stuff with her. I mean, I didn’t even start dating her because of me, y’know?”

Ginjima looked at Atsumu, what the fuck was he talking about? “No, I don’t know, Atsumu.”

“Oh, well, I actually started dating her because Osamu has a crush on her.” He admitted it so shamelessly as if it was the most normal thing in the world to say, as if he did it every day. Gin didn’t know what to focus on, the fact Atsumu’s playing with this girl or the fact he’s hurting his twin brother’s feelings with it.

“Atsumu, you fucking–”

Ginjima was interrupted by your voice, you had greeted Atsumu and him as you grabbed Atsumu’s arm, smiling up at him. He wasn’t sure where you came from, whereas Atsumu, on the other hand, could recall you had been behind them and they hadn’t noticed until you talked to them.

Atsumu wasn’t sure whether you had heard what he said about you. His heart was beating a little quicker as he opened his mouth to reply. “H-Hey Yn! I didn’t know you’d be here!”

“Yeah, sorry about that! I forgot to tell you, babe.” You kept on smiling, putting Atsumu at ease. He let out a sigh out of relief, convinced you hadn’t heard them. “What were you two talking about?” You continued.

Before Atsumu could say anything, Ginjima answered for him, “Osamu has a crush apparently. Atsumu decided to tell me his secret like the horrible brother he is.” Gin wasn’t entirely sure why he decided to lie to you, but he wasn’t going to pass on an opportunity to blackmail Atsumu, was he?

“Don’t say than Gin! ‘Tsumu is a great brother and boyfriend!” you exclaimed, making Atsumu even more convinced that you hadn't heard him.

And with that, the went on continued normally. The three of you wandered around the shopping centre before eventually deciding to split up, leaving you and Atsumu to walk home together. He had invited you over to his house, saying he's home alone this weekend. As you entered the house and sat on the couch there was an uncomfortable silence between the two of you. After your boyfriend sat next to you, you finally spoke up about what had been bothering you ever since you saw him at that mall.

“You know that you’re an asshole, right, Atsumu?” he turned his gaze at you, surprised. “Do you have any idea–”

Feeling the need to make up an excuse, Atsumu interrupted you. “Listen, babe–”

“Don’t fucking interrupt me!” you slightly started raising your voice, “You know, I’m glad that you got to go around and tell all your friends about how much of a player you are! While I was busy being called a slut and a whore for dating you!”

“What? Who the fuck was calling you a whore?”

“Your fucking fangirls, Atsumu,” you said his name with such disgust in your voice, and he noticed. “And you would've fucking known if you ever cared enough to listen. I guess I don't blame you for never listening, then again, I was just a little game so that your brother would get jealous.”

“YN, hear me out here, ”

“No, Atsumu, there is nothing for me to hear. We’re done, we’re over.” You weren't sure whether there was anything else to say to him, you didn't want to argue with him either.

“Fuck you, Atsumu Miya,” you said as you got up and stormed out the door.

At that moment, Atsumu had just shaken his head and continued about his day normally. He knew you would found out eventually, so he has promised himself he wouldn't become attached to you. What he didn't know is that he has broken that promise the second you had first kissed his lips, every time he saw you walking down the hallways at school he felt his heart slightly ache, as if it was becoming smaller. When he saw you blushing as his twin brother confessed to you under the big cherry blossom tree at the school’s backyard, he felt the same feeling. Now when he sees you holding his brother's hand, he still feels the same, hurt, aching, and as if his regret is ready to drown him.

reblogs are appreciated <3

[cherubchoirs]

i had a sudden impulse to write a rank 8 confidant w su akira. mostly for...the whole "i really do hate you" thing w goro in canon, and trying to tackle that with this au, and complex feelings being a Thing and this akira specifically having to deal with those. i think itd be interesting if he made that confession bc the way i understand him at least. he does very much have Feelings For goro but. there is still contemptment bc akechi wouldnt understand him in the slightest, along with the fact hes the leader of the phantom thieves, who are fighting back against what hes working for...while im going to be writing my own take on it, i wanted to know ur opinions on it?

- @trans-sword-boyfriend

ooooh this is really interesting!! AND it got really long so uuuhhhh read more!!

 i've thought a bit about their rank 8 since it's such a pivotal point for their relationship, and i think it would play out in a similar fashion to canon with a few differences. sc au akira's facade is meant to be the opposite of goro's detective prince persona, where he's awkward, blunt, and just plain bad at conversation; likewise, he isn't nearly as upfront with the rival angle as goro is in canon and frankly he didn't enter their relationship with that in mind. however, you're right in that he develops feelings of love, jealousy, admiration, and resentment over the course of their bond due to watching just how well goro succeeds in yaldabaoth's game. the immediate cause is of course worry over whether goro might actually win, meaning that yaldabaoth won't recreate the world and all of akira's hopes are pinned on that, he has no plan b. but second to that is a deep, seething anger over just how good goro is, how akira's skill in the metaverse came from torturous experimentation and years of performing mental shutdowns, yet goro, with just a few bumbling months under his belt, is set to outperform him. 

so despite akira's relatively lowkey facade, i still like to think he challenges goro to a match. it's not something goro doesn't expect, by then knowing that akira isn't on their side and that he must have much more power than he ever let on, but i think this is the first real glimpse he gets into the depths of akira's rage. he drops the act a little as well, obviously privy to all of the information the phantom thieves have, but it's all left unsaid. there's tension, goro knowing and akira knowing he knows, but his anger isn't the way goro's is in canon. akira's is quiet, nihilistic and despairing, and as they fight, as goro begins to overpower him, that anger becomes more like a black hole, yet he doesn't fall in. akira's hatred is nearly bottomless, but seeing how hard goro has worked, how far he has come, and how, in that moment, they seem to understand each other, akira can't help but feel some kind of hope. he had given up on a better life a long time ago, written off all humans as incalculably evil or endlessly apathetic, yet goro is neither of those things. he gives everything he has, uses his intelligence, his courage, all of his talent toward the good of others, he sweats and bleeds for it when he has no need to engage. and so the end of their fight leaves him in an emotional state he hasn't felt before, in a confused mix of that deep hatred but with something he can't place (a feeling of how yaldabaoth can be wrong, is wrong, how goro can connect with him and how his loneliness is an incomplete thing now...but he can't possibly unpack all that in the moment). 

so the conversation that follows is halting, akira trying to maintain his monotonous rhythm but not fully able to with the shift in his foundation...but even if he feels something so profound for goro, even if he feels like he never has before, there’s an unrelenting anguish in how he sees that goro will surpass him. it needles him horribly, it tears apart an already broken heart, because the one thing akira had in all his agony was power. he grew up without a name or a family, he knows nothing but being a lab rat, the one “friend” he has in the world incomprehensible, abusive, untouchable. and now goro, with his friends, with his school, with his life that will go right back to normal after this year is up, has that power too.

and that just hurts.

it hurts in a way he can’t even articulate, so what else can he say but “i hate you”? it stings even more to love goro like everyone else seems to, to be captivated by him when he contributes twofold to his misery and is surrounded already by those far more desirable than akira. he hates goro for possibly ruining his one chance at a better life, hates him for bearing his hardships like they’re nothing, hates him for being so utterly talented that the metaverse is his after only a few short months, hates him for making him fall in love with someone so out of reach for every reason conceivable. akira, from then on, needs to win in order for his life to mean something, anything. he fought his way through hell all this time, and his sunk cost fallacy won’t let him change his path now. so he hates him, he lays it bear and goro knows in a sense it’s true. he doesn’t have all the pieces yet, but the confession is the first time goro thinks akira may be beyond his reach...but to him that only means he needs to reach out his hand further

[thewidowsghost]

Daughter of the Sea - Chapter 1

So, I started this on my Wattpad, and if figured I'd just put it on here! Just tell me if you want me to add you to the taglist!

Percy's POV

My name is Percy Jackson.

I am twelve years old. I'm a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York, and my sister, (Y/n), taking online schooling at home.

Am I a troubled kid?

Yeah. You could say that.

I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course, I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that...Well, you get the idea.

On this trip, I was determined to be good.

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwiches that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumble.

Grover tries to calm me down. "I'm okay. I like peanut butter -" He dodges another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." I start to get up, but Grover pulls me back to my seat.

"You're already on probation," he reminds me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Mr. Brunner leads the museum tour.

He rides up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blows my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.

He gathers us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and starts telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

Mr. Brunner keeps talking about Greek funeral art.

Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickers something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turn around and say, "Will you shut up?"

It comes out louder than I meant it to.

The whole group laughs. Mr. Brunner stops his story. "Mr. Jackson," he says, "did you have a comment?"

My face is totally red, I think. I answer, "No, sir."

Mr. Brunner points to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I look at the carving, and feel a flush of relief, because I actually recognize it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner says, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because..."

"Well..." I rack my brain to remember. (Y/n) would have known the answer. She was nuts for this kind of stuff. "Kronos was the king god, and —"

"God?" Mr. Brunner asks.

"Titan," I correct myself. "And...he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eeew!" says one of the girls behind me.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continue, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbles to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner says, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover mutters.

"Shut up," Nancy hisses, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

I think about his question, and shrug. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looks disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifts off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."

I knew that was coming.

I tell Grover to keep going; then I turn toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go—intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner tells me.

"About the Titans?"

'"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"What you learn from me," he says, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."

I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, swordpoint against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

I mumble something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner takes one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.

He tells me to go outside and eat my lunch.

The class gathers on the front steps of the museum, where we can watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

Overhead, a huge storm is brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figure maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.

Nobody else seems to notice, though. Some of the guys are pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit is trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds isn't seeing a thing.

Grover and I sit on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius, not like (Y/n). She seems to know everything."

Grover doesn't say anything for a while. Then, when I think he is going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he asks, "Can I have your apple?"

I don't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.

I watch the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and think about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sit. I hadn't seen her or my sister since Christmas. I want so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. Mom and (Y/n) would hug me and be glad to see me, but Mom would be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I couldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.

I am about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appears in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumps her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grins at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles are orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

I try to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I am so mad my mind went blank. A wave roars in my ears.

I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy is sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

I don't know what they were talking about. All I know is that I was in trouble again.

As soon as Mrs. Dodds is sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turns on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"

"I know," I grumble. "A month erasing workbooks." That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds says.

"Wait!" Grover yelps. "It was me. I pushed her."

I stare at him, stunned. I can't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.

She glares at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she says.

"But—"

"You—will—stay—here."

Grover looks at me desperately.

"It's okay, man," I tell him. "Thanks for trying."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barks at me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirks. I give her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turn to face Mrs. Dodds, but she isn't there. She is standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

How'd she get there so fast?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

I wasn't so sure. I go after Mrs. Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I glance back at Grover. He is looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner is absorbed in his novel.

I look back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She is now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

Okay, I think. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.

But apparently, that wasn't the plan.

I follow her deeper into the museum. When I finally catch up to her, we are back in the Greek and Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery is empty.

Mrs. Dodds stands with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She is making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.

Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she says.

I do the safe thing. I reply, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugs on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

The look in her eyes is beyond mad. It was evil.

She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I say, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shakes the building.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she's talking about.

All I can think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.

"Well?" she demands.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

"Your time is up," she hisses.

Then the weirdest thing happens. Her eyes begin to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretch, turning into talons. Her jacket melts into large, leathery wings. She isn't human. She is a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

Then things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheels his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouts and tosses the pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunges at me.

With a yelp, I dodge and feel talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatch the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hits my hand, it isn;t a pen anymore. It is a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always uses on tournament day.

Mrs. Dodds spins towards me with a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees are jelly. My hands are shaking so bad I almost drop the sword.

She snarl, "Die, honey!" And she flies straight at me.

Absolute terror runs through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swing the sword.

The metal blade hits her shoulder and passes clean through her body as if she was made of water. Hisss!

Mrs. Dodds was a sandcastle in a power fan. She explodes into yellow powder, vaporizing on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes are still watching me.

I'm alone.

There is a ballpoint pen in my hand.

Mr. Brunner isn't there. Nobody is there but me.

My hands are still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I walk back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover is sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit is still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she sees me, she says, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

I answer, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

I blink. We don't have a teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I ask Nancy what she is talking about.

She just rolls her eyes and turns away.

I ask Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

"Who?" he asks, but he pauses first and he wouldn't look at me, so I figure he was messing with me.

"Not funny, man," I tell him. "This is serious."

Thunder booms overhead.

I see Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book as if he'd never moved.

I go over to him.

He looks up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."

I had Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I ask, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stares blankly at me, "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

He frowns and sits forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"

Word Count: 3159 words

So yeah, this is the first chapter of this book.

Not much (Y/n) yet, but we'll get there.

Love y'all!              Kaitlynn ❤️😍

[alexis-medina]

Dissecting: Edens Zero Ch. 150-154

Rebecca vs Lyra

In this episode of Kakegurui...wait, my bad....In this card game with Rebecca and Lyra it's basically like strip poker but further than that...you'll lose body parts. Lyra's ether gear is manipulating cards so of course she would have the advantage in this game. But, Rebecca became smart like Yumeko and realized the truth on how to overcome the game by turning it against Lyra whilst revealing she's a cheater in front of a live studio audience.

Rebecca would possibly lose her legs if she didn't figure out the game was rigged (hence the world #? she leaped to). I was surprised to see Noah there...Like I said I still don't trust him. I feel he's an evil mf. Though, we do get a cute Shicca moment - I agree that grown-up Shiki was hot af. *_* Let's hope she doesn't reach that future or else she can't leap again.

Weisz vs Nasseh

We knew what the result would be for this fight. Obviously, if you're in anything or surrounded by anything that is made with technology, Weisz can fuck you up. And that's what he did with Nasseh. But, it seems like on this mission everyone is reaching overdrive. We got Homura, Weisz, who's next?!? Watch it be Jinn or Kleene LOL....👀👀👀

Lowkey digging Weisz' overdrive. I think I read somewhere that the design of his overdrive was censored a bit? Hope that doesn't happen in the anime but we shall see. I'm actually a little surprised that Oceans 6 doesn't use overdrive? They were kinda hyped up to be the best defense in the Aoi Cosmos but if they can't use overdrive then there's probably villains or minions much stronger than them in other cosmos. It would be cool to see some intense overdrive fights. I really like it when the fights are hard on the protagonists and they find a clever way to defeat them (if you know what I mean). I mean once in a while a protagonist can defeat a villain because they're born stronger or because they trained to become strong. Though, it does make me think about my theory with Shiki and Rebecca (as the main characters) - How far do their ether gear powers go? What happens if they push it to the limit? Will the result be Rebecca disintegrating in/with time or will Shiki's heart fall into the abyss from the weight of the gravity ether? Time will only tell and that time oracle Xiaomei will not reveal anything to us unfortunately...😩 But, she does give us hints...👀 (IYKYK)

Jinn + Kleene vs Callum + Lyra

Jinn and Kleene fly in to save the day. Though, that was a pretty quick entrance. Were they just chillin on the roof waiting? Wasn't Kleene fighting with Oasis? Since Kleene's ether gear is wind snatch, is she able to seal anything even Lyra's card explosions in her wind so it wouldn't damage her?

Looks like Callum and Jinn knew each other in the past. I wonder where Kleene was or what she was doing while Callum and Jinn were training at the Skymech Dojo? Did Jinn teach her how to use wind ether? Callum and Jinn/Kleene have similar last names...Steelford vs Rutherford. WE'RE ALL FORD'S HERE APPARENTLY!

BUT HOLY SHIT!!! Callum pulled an Acnologia and destroyed the left side of Jinn's torso. Ngl Callum's ether gear was confusing to understand at first cause I was like, "does he turn things to mist? If he touches you does an explosion follow after?" Though, I didn't get it when Callum left a handprint on Shiki's face? Was he disguised as fog in order to initiate the opening attack against Shiki...kinda like a...NINJA!! I guess that was to emphasize his ether gear. Honestly, his ether gear is still a little confusing...Is it carburetor? Is it mist? Is it fog?? Can he also use other Skymech elements like wind? Hmm questions, questions. Back to Callum using empire ether...How much of Jinn's body is human? Will this kill him? Is he able to survive? I don't want Jinn to die. 🥺

Relationships

Shicca

When Rebecca jumps to an alternate future, my heart leaps when Shiki gave her a hug to comfort her. BUT HOT DAMN, gotta say this again, older Shiki LOOKS GOOOOD. Even miss Rebecca agreed. You've got good taste ;)

Cremura/Creedmura/Homureed/Homreed

It's a bitch to write out multiple names for this ship. The ship name will be announced soon as declared by me. 👑

BUT AHHHHHHH! The ship is continuing to sail further. Lowkey wasn't expecting Homura to see Creed but I AIN'T MAD. Both of them blushing AHHHHHH...I can't!! Creed looks so proud when Homura declares she wants to protect the Robots from the All-Link System and defeat Shura. Ch. 152 is a contender for Top 10 Favorite EZ Chapters ngl. I humbly request that Homura and Creed go on a date after they defeat Shura. MY BLUSHING BABIES 🤪💕

[well-shit-im-a-morosexual-now]

I don't have much to say about the rest of the S3 lessons, but I do have things to say about S4 of Obey Me.

Personally, I think that S4 should focus primarily on the angels (Simeon, Luke, Michael, Raphael, etc.), feature the side characters (Solomon, Barbatos, Diavolo), possibly introduce Solomon's first apprentice and maybe in Hard Mode you can check up on the brothers (you should know who the HOL brothers are).

I have a few reasons for this (in no real order :):

Reading the lesson summaries that you (and others) have provided, it seems like Mike and Raph- along with the Celestial Realm- will be important this season. So, wouldn't be a waste not to show them off?

The side characters need development. This is a perfect opportunity for some.

Simeon and Luke were standing for a longer period than the brothers, so it would make sense for them to show up again.

Simeon was talking to some angel (probably Raphael) at the end of S3. The game should obviously expand on that.

*Diavolo runs a hotel chain in the Human World, so it would make sense to see him again. And because Barbatos follows right behind him...

Solomon's first apprentice needs to be explored. What happened between them?

*The brothers should take a back seat in this season, since they're always there. No offense to them, but I need a break.

New character interactions is would be fun. To me, the best character interaction would be between Dia & Mike. Would they hate each other because of Lucifer? Would they get along? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

It could show off/expand upon the Celestial Realm, a chance for more lore and theories.

It could finally give insight into Simeon's past- which is always a good thing. (Same for everyone else.)

Now that the list is out of the way, here are some miscellaneous things that I couldn't fit on the list (also an clarification for 5 & 7. They explanations will also have an asterix at the beginning of them:):

*I don't expect Diavolo and Barbatos to show up that often, but I think that they should appear in at least 1-2 chapters.

*I also don't mind the brothers showing up, but I am worried that if they appear prominently, they might over take the season.

I kinda want the Lillith plotline/point to come back. I definitely wish it was executed better, but I do want to see the reaction from the angels (Mike and Raph basically).

I hope Solomon's apprentice was a girl. There's just too many guys here, we need a little diversity.

I would hate it if they didn't give us character designs for Michael and Raphael, though I would find it funny.

Well, I think I'm done for now. Do you agree, disagree? Do you like the color coding, should I keep doing it? Basically, I just want your thoughts on this.

Goodbye for now,

Lesson 42 Anon

Hii!!! I basically agree with everything you just said but I'll go into more detail on it with your points:

- I do 100% believe S4 should be a new character/angel focused season. I think I said so in the lesson 60 summary too that it'd make sense and be interesting to meet the angels and get their side of the story without the brothers' interference (the angels give me HEAVY morally grey characters who think they're wholly in the right vibes and I love it) + there's still a lot of Simeon and Solomon backstory to explore!

- The way S3 ended and how much of it was anyway about the angels I definitely think S4 will expand on it and introduce them

- And I think it'll possibly start right after S3 ends? I mean Raphael's here now and Solomon wants to start properly training MC so why not. And there's no other reason to leave Simeon and Luke behind than to start it up with them in the centre

- ALSO!!! ANDISJSHSKS "RAPH" given what they've showed of him he seems like the type of person to take HEAVY offense to that

- S3 did end with Raphael. Simeon called him by name.

- As much as I do want to see more Diavolo and find out more about his and more importantly Barbatos' backstories I don't think they'll turn up much? Or at least not until the last few lessons cause he left saying he had important personal issues to take care of back in the devildom

- I genuinely thought they would be shown in S3 after Solomon mentioned them and yeah damn I wanna know more about them. Also I just saw the Solomon UR+ animation card from months ago today - I definitely want to know whose grave he was leaving flowers at

- As much as I want an angel focused season the amount of withdrawal I'd go through without the brothers is insane. I'm heavily invested in them but at least for now their arcs are at a place that can be paused - they all got together to help Beel, a lot of Satan & Lucifer's + Belphie & Diavolo's issues have been resolved. I do want to know more about Lucifer's fear though and how he met the rest of the brothers (since they already told us Beel's story)

- With what they've said I kinda see Michael & Raphael being parallels to Diavolo & Lucifer, respectively. The somewhat childish boss and the long suffering right hand. I can see Diavolo wanting to like Michael purely because he wants to make proper peace with the Celestial Realm but also being somewhat internally pissed with him given how protective Diavolo is of the brothers and I can see Michael being sweet and friendly in return despite the fact that given everything Michael has said about demons, even in current times, he would probably be looking down on Diavolo for being 'wicked' and 'evil'. Basically I imagine them having the same kinda passive-aggressively polite relationship that Diavolo and Simeon had in S2 but somehow even less friendly

- Yes!!! Like I said the Celestial Realm gives heavy morally grey vibes and I want that to be explored more. I also need Luke's realisation that the Celestial Realm isn't always right to continue

- I have SO many Lilith HCs and I desperately need them to talk about her more. Like I understand why she's a sore topic and that Lucifer never even told them about her room in the HoL depite the fact that they've probably lived there for thousands of years and she does get brought up a bit in Belphie's fear but I need more. I also want them to explore why Belphie was so insistent with blaming the humans for Lilith's death when it was the angels that killed her, I gave my theories behind it in one of the summaries but I really need more solid answers

- I've always wanted more girls (or any girls really) and the way I was disappointed that we never got to see Lilith (I mean I understand that some players would HC her to look like their MC even though she died thousands of years before MC and they probably wouldn't share a resemblance but still) but I never considered Solomon's apprentice was a girl and I dunno why.. OKAY BUT CONSIDER GIRLS AS NEW LIS!!!!!

- I definitely think they would, it would make no sense if they didn't after how much they were hyped up and I might actually scream if they don't get designs. That being said I have very clear ideas of them in my head and I'm gonna hate having to part with them

DO NOT GET RID OF THE COLOUR CODING! IT'S PART OF YOUR IDENTITY NOW! OWN IT!

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: How did you feel about Marta's initial hatred of Colette? Like when she got upset with Colette for what happened to her mom and pushed her, did you hate Marta for that? I'll admit, it wasn't right for Marta to do so. I got upset seeing that despite liking Marta. But wasn't it because she (& Emil) didn't know the true events of the last game? P.S. This is compleatly unrelated to Marta, but like with her issue with Colette, were you also mad at Emil for his initial hatred of Lloyd?

Honestly, Marta being mad at Colette is one of the more realistic parts of the story. Marta doesn't know Colette as anything more than a sort of celebrity before DotNW starts. Like, IDK, if Miley Cyrus or someone went on some sort of global tour and allegedly pressed a button that shot a missile directly at my house which killed my mom on impact, I'd probably be pretty mad too. All things considered, Marta shoving Colette and storming off is a LOT tamer than Emil actively trying to fight Lloyd, but then again Emil thinks Lloyd himself killed his parents. Marta is aware that Colette's responsibility for her mother is a little less direct. She knows Colette didn't, like, kill her mom on purpose where as Emil thinks Lloyd very much did stab his parents deliberately. I think, more than anything, Marta is upset that Colette admits it because she loses some justification for her anger. If Colette had instead said "No, you don't understand, it wasn't me." or "I didn't mean to do that." Marta probably would have been less angry, but also probably would have been, like, unbearably righteously cocky about taking her feelings out on Colette instead. Because Colette admits blame, even when we know it was an accident, Marta loses some of the justification she had for being mad at Colette because the story Marta always told herself about Colette was that she was a coward who ran away from her responsibility as Chosen, and her cowardice is part of why the Giant Kharlan Tree was able to go rampant. Colette taking the blame is not cowardice. She didn't try to deflect blame. She just said "Yeah, I'm the reason the Tree Destroyed Palmacosta. I'm sorry." That breaks some of the narrative Marta has told herself. Colette isn't the irresponsible brat Marta had imagined and had gotten mad at over the years. And that makes it harder for Marta to hate her but it also makes her angry because her narrative of righteous anger over hating the coward that got her mother killed doesn't get closure right away. All in all, I think that part of Marta's ark was very good, and the fact that she can forge a friendship with Colette and actually get to know her is a great thing that I wish had gotten more attention in the game. Emil has sort of the opposite journey. He sees his "parents" on the ground and they put the blame on Lloyd. Whether Emil fabricates the memories, absorbs some of the REAL Emil's memories, or just pieces things together in Luin, he KNOWS Lloyd is a hero to many people, especially the people of Luin. And that veneration of this guy, without question, is entirely incongruent with what he "knows" about the massacre at Palmacosta. His parents, the people he trusts most, or the people he tells himself he should trust most about that night, TOLD HIM Lloyd did it. But everyone in Luin expects him to worship the ground Lloyd walks on. So the fact that he's expected to worship a person he believes to be a murderer fuels a hatred he already holds for a person he believes killed his parents. So when he finally DOES meet Lloyd and Lloyd dismissively just goes "Not again with Palmacosta," Emil just sort of... snaps. Because this reads as heartless, dismissive, and smug since Emil doesn't know the real Lloyd. To Emil this is basically Lloyd confirming that not only was he at Palmacosta, but he DOESN'T CARE. Obviously, Emil is misunderstanding, but that's what he hears. So not only does this "confirm" to him that Lloyd is just as bad as he thought, but he ALSO feels like Lloyd is evil enough that he essentially tricked everyone in Luin into worshipping him, which is a source of alienation and abuse for Emil because, well, no one in Luin likes Emil because he just hates Lloyd for what they think is at best a misunderstanding and at worst "Lloyd probably killed his parents because they did something wrong." So Marta gets mad with Colette because she's nothing like the monster she'd made up in her mind, and that removes a form of closure she expected once she finally got to confront Colette. Emil gets mad at Lloyd because he seems to confirm himself

to be exactly the kind of monster Emil feared he was. Both of these are very real and very valid reasons to be angry. Not valid reasons to lash out, but valid reasons to FEEL UPSET. So, yeah, Emil should probably not be seeking revenge, even if it was justified and he could prove Lloyd is a murderer because, like, vigilante justice usually ends badly and Richter is a prime example of that. And even if it didn't hurt Colette, Marta shouldn't have shoved her. But their reactions are very human, and that, in my opinion, is good writing. It obviously doesn't make them the best role models because you can't just go around shoving and/or trying to kill everyone you think has done you some wrong, real or imagined, but their reactions are very visceral and very human. How the characters experience and express their emotions is one of the most well-written aspects of the game and I actually like it a lot. Given what Emil and Marta knew or thought they knew about events in the past game is honestly really great and one of the reasons I liked the game so much and why I think a lot of people hated DOTNW. What some people see as retconning or trying to twist the past is just a very real facet of human memory and switching perspectives. If you had never played the first Symphonia, you would also believe that Lloyd and Colette were bad people because Marta and Emil think that they are. You're led to believe the same things Emil and Marta are because you get the same information they do about the past. So I think for some people, the fact that the sequel dared to challenge the events of its predecessor didn't sit well because "They're writing Lloyd and Colette wrong! They're not bad people!" For me that was the best part. "Okay, either the entire last game was a lie and we were playing as villains the whole time like Baten Kaitos or something or THAT guy at the beginning wasn't Lloyd. I wonder who's impersonating Lloyd or what we missed in the last story that explains this." For me I was EXCITED that "Maybe the last game lied to me! Maybe there's a deeper darker secret. Or maybe this time WE'RE the bad guys?!" There were so many ways that Symphonia could still be canon without DotNW also being wrong." But I think a lot of people took the first few chapters of the game as an insult because "Lloyd would never do that, this is character assassination and completely destroying the canon of the first game" and stopped playing before finding out WHY it was like that. What I saw clearly as this story being told from another perspective other players saw as the new game lying to them or the new game trying to tell them the old game was lying to them. Challenging the previous narrative even slightly was seen as a betrayal of the truth. And I think that's a real shame because the first few chapters of the game are a great lesson in how a change in perspective, putting yourself in someone else's shoes, can change what the truth actually is. Even the most righteous hero can be the villain in someone else's story. And even though Emil and Marta reconcile with Lloyd and Colette in the end, I honestly wouldn't have minded if, like, they WERE the bad guys. I wouldn't have minded if Emil and Marta were the bad guys. Somehow I think some of the people that didn't like DotNW have just a very fragile objectivist sense of what it means to be good, and having that challenged was so offputting they started to hate the game because how dare the game question for one single second if good can be evil and evil can be good?! Personally I found this all very fascinating and it made me love DotNW more, the same way I loved Baten Kaitos. Now I kind of want to do a video essay on this...

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 4 for the first time. Random thoughts.

I never said anything about it before but I love Shadow Weaver's DCAU Batman eyes. They're so expressive.

Episode 1: Okay...I wasn't expecting Catra to do that. I mean, it makes sense. If she has leverage over Hordak then she's basically in charge of the Horde and that's what she's wanted (or at least believes she wants) since episode 1. It's an aspect that made her a good antagonist, that she's not blind to the evil of the Horde, she just doesn't care as long as she herself is secure. Which naturally begs the question, when the rebellion and the princesses are crushed, when the Horde is on top, when Adora is dead, when Catra finally has everything she's ever wanted...will she actually finally be happy? Somehow, I have my doubts.

I definitely feel for Glimmer in this. When you go through as big a loss as she did you need to be able to feel and vent if you're ever going to get through it. It doesn't have to be right away but everyone doing everything in their power to avoid the topic entirely can make you feel like you're going crazy. It'a especially bad for her since it unintentionally makes it feel like everyone is acting like it doesn't matter that Angela is gone when it clearly means everything to Glimmer.

Episode 2: I actually had a potted cactus plant once. Accidentally forgot about it and left it outside for an entire winter. Once the snow was gone the cactus looked like it had melted.

I kind of want to see what an interaction between Double Trouble and Clayface from the Harley Quinn animated series would look like. I'm guess Catra was just testing how good Double Trouble was as a doppelganger because it doesn't seem like she did anything while Adora was being distracted, though I suppose that could be a reveal in a later episode.

Not much to say except that I love how buff Huntara is while still clearly being a woman. Like, women can have a variety of different body types, as this series and Steven Universe show, and Huntara's build isn't just, like, Bow's body with lipstick and ponytail and the animators calling it a day. No, she looks like a freakin' jacked adult woman.

Episode 3: I didn't figure out the Flutterina = Double Trouble twist until a minute before it was revealed, so good job there. Before that I was wondering if Flutterina was some fan's original character where they won some contest where their OC got to be in the show for an episode. She was giving off some weird self-insert vibes. That twist made it all work though. It's honestly not a bad plan. Shapeshifters haven't really been a thing in the series before now so there's no reason to suspect it. Even if they did they'd probably be expecting it by way of magic or technology, while Double Trouble's seems to be a natural ability.

I like that even though Bow is definitely the goofier one of the trio he is still consistently shown as competent. That's never in question. He was very heroic and reassuring to the villagers this episode. I get why those kids idolize him so much.

Catra's having guilt over what she did with the portal and to Entrapta and her response is basically to just double-down. She doesn't know any other way to be. Not going to lie, I am kind of hoping we get another moment in the show where Adora just completely overwhelms Catra with the sheer power of She-Ra. I'm not saying like brutalize her or anything but just something where Catra is made to realize just how powerful Adora is and that she could just destroy Catra if she had a mind to do so.

Episode 4: Well, I was saying I wanted Adora to do it but I guess I don't mind Glimmer being the one to get some good shots in on Catra. Like I predicted, Shadow Weaver's moving in to become her teacher like she was with her father. Honestly I like that that was more Adora's problem than Glimmer using her as bait, which she seemed to get over pretty quick. Yeah, it was kind of a heartless thing to do but it was an understandable tactic and she clearly outright told Adora that she did it and why afterwards, which at least means she's still being honest.

It occurs to me that Glimmer and Catra may be the ones running parallel right now. Both are basically leading their respective sides of the war. They both have lost someone very important to them. And both are trusting someone they probably shouldn't. Both even have outfits that've been updated in the intro. The difference is Glimmer's just trying to deal with a bad situation while Catra's is entirely self-inflicted.

Minor thing but I like Glimmer's new outfit this season. I'm sure this is the intention but it makes her look older and more mature. A little more muscular in some shots too.

Episode 5: Heart of Etheria project. No idea what that is but assumedly whoever's a part of it doesn't like Light Hope and Mara being friends. Sounds like it's very much interested in She-Ra being just a warrior, and perhaps a tool, for the greater good. It does make me wonder though how much Light Hope remember from when she was rebooting. Even if she deleted the Mara memory she could potentially still have the memory of her and Adora watching the Mara memory, as well as Adora asking to be her friend.

Episode 6: Yep. Scorpia; definitely favorite supporting character. There is something kind of funny about her whole "Scorpions are loyal" line when you remember the story about the Frog and the Scorpion, where it stings the frog despite it meaning death for itself as well simply because that is its nature. But finally we're having someone go save Entrapta, and I can only assume at some point Scorpia's going to access the power of the Black Garnet.

The parallels between Catra and Hordak are definitely at their max here with that speech of hers to him. She's basically trying to convince herself that she doesn't need anyone, the timing of which is appropriate since she just drove away Scorpia and now truly doesn't have anyone. Not that I blame Scorpia, obviously. Like Adora before her, however good you believe someone can be and that you can help them, at some point you just have to cut the toxic people out of your life. You have the right to be happy too.

And man, Bow is just the best. He saw something was wrong between Adora and Glimmer and defused the situation like (snap) that, pushing them to talk like any sane person would.

Episode 7: I'm sure it is just because I've seen way too many TV shows and movies (both animated and live action) that don't do it but it is just such a relief to have a show where the characters just TALK and LISTEN to each other. It doesn't solve all their issues but they're at least not being stupid and freakin' petty. It helps the drama feel a lot less forced and contrived.

Episode 8: A little bit of amusement in Bow thinking at first that Glimmer and Adora didn't even notice he was gone despite them coming to his rescue very shortly afterwards, given Catra is only now realizing Scorpia has left and assumedly she did so a while ago. Bow and Sea Hawk hadn't been gone for that long so it's not unreasonable Glimmer and Adora wouldn't be worried about their absence (Bow was literally talking about "me time" when they last saw him), while Catra is only noticing Scorpia's absence now and it was because she wanted something. Like Scorpia said, she's a bad friend.

Kind of ironic given that a lot of Catra's issues are the direct result of Shadow Weaver giving her very little love growing up but it does seem this tough love is probably what'll get through to Catra the best. She might finally stop making bad decisions and lashing out if she's forced to live with the consequences of them, like Adora told her last season.

Glimmer gets a bit of slack from me since she suffered through a huge loss, that being her mother, and then was immediately thrown into being queen right after. It'd be hard for anyone to be 100% on their game and well-adjusted in a situation like that, and I buy that she was on some level resentful of Adora for coming back instead of her mother, even if unintentionally so. What definitely helps is that Glimmer very clearly and immediately regretted what she said to Adora. Like Catra she's lashing out but unlike Catra Glimmer recognizes some of the damage she's doing and knows, at least in this case, that she went too far.

Episode 9: Now that I can see the design in color I definitely prefer Mara's She-Ra with pants to Adora's She-Ra with shorts. Honestly, while the differences are pretty minor, I do think Mara's She-Ra design is overall a lot better than Adora's. Sharper shoulder guards. Bigger cape (especially the cape, I love capes). I don't know, there's just a lot that clicks with it and I wouldn't mind Adora getting a similar outfit later.

Madam Razz definitely had a Yoda feel this episode. I was very much expecting her to start wacking Mara with a stick over the sugar like Yoda did with R2. Though while that was Yoda acting crazy, for Razz it's because she experiences time out of order, and I don't think I've ever seen that concept taken to this extent, or at least done this way before. There are characters like River Song from Doctor Who, Professor Paradox from Ben 10, or even the Reverse-Flash who interact with other characters in time out of order but those characters are still on a linear path from their own perspective, even when travelling through time. Razz is just bouncing around her own timeline, seemingly not even any real reason or cause to it like Subaru from Re:Zero. Clearly she's not just remembering things oddly because her talk about things of the present are heard by people in the past and have an effect. I wonder if maybe the reason why is because Razz was at ground zero of Mara's actions and this is a side-effect of pulling Etheria away from the rest of the universe.

Bringing more Star Wars into this, it basically sounds like the Heart of Etheria project has turned Etheria into a magic Starkiller Base; storing power that'll be unleashed to destroy whole planets. And jeez, I think this was the first time I really felt creeped out by Light Hope when she was talking to Mara.

I'm looking forward to seeing what it means that the First Ones only made the sword and that Etheria made She-Ra. If that's the case, why is only the sword able to bring out the She-Ra form? Is it like MCU Thor's hammer and the weapon was just meant to help him control the power he already had? Or is what we think is She-Ra not actually She-Ra and that form that Adora and Mara take is just a stand-in for the real thing?

Episode 10: It didn't even occur to me until now but Double Trouble's capture is another blow to Catra's circle of "friends" too. They were at least able to make her laugh. One less person for her to talk to and just...really just distract her from her thoughts.

It's a good dilemma this episode presents about what to do with the Heart of Etheria. The safest and probably best option is to just dismantle it, like Adora and Bow want, since it could easily lead to the destruction of the entire planet if it goes off. Not the mention there's so little they know about it and what it was intended for and the one person who can potentially tell them, Light Hope, they were warned not to trust. But it's not hard to understand where Glimmer is coming from in wanting to use that power to fight the Horde. They're already losing the war and now she knows Hordak Prime and his FAR more powerful forces are on the way. Tapping into the Heart is a huge risk but she's not seeing any other paths for the rebels to win. It's a really good dilemma, with good arguments presented from both sides, and I buy this widening the schism between Adora and Glimmer.

Episode 11: I have mixed feelings on King Micah still being alive. On the one hand there's a lot of good potential interactions we can now have with him, primarily between Glimmer and Shadow Weaver, and he is a fun character. But on the other I can't help but wonder if this kind of lessens the impact of what Angela gave up to overcome the false reality. Part of what made it so emotional was that she had to accept the person she loved was dead and not coming back...except now we see that he wasn't dead and now he is coming back. Yeah, their family lost out on years together and that does still carry some emotional weight but I was already also half-expecting Angela to come back later in the series because she's stuck between dimensions, meaning there's a chance she could still be alive. If both Glimmer's parents come back then that really feels like it takes a lot of weight out of her story. But I guess we'll see what happens.

Also, why did the Horde exile him to Beast Island? Why not just kill him?!

Episode 12: So the Horde exiles Micah to Beast Island instead of killing him. The First Ones protect their secrets by sending their bad tech to Beast Island. Does no one know how to just destroy things in this world?

Ohhh, I am so looking forward to next episode. While it's debatable whether Glimmer should be going through with her plan she is at least being smart with how she's going about it. Double Trouble was being paid by Catra to work for the Horde, not out of any sense of loyalty. Glimmer has the resources of Bright Moon at her disposal so it's reasonable she could pay them more to switch sides. Double Trouble was very good at sabotaging even a group as tight-nit as the heroes, so Hordak and Catra are probably easy pickings with all their issues.

Episode 13: ....WELL THAT AIN'T GOOD!

I'll admit, I had a little bit of an unintended laugh. After all we've heard about Horde Prime, like this shadowy all-powerful monster, I wasn't expecting the fabulous flowing dreadlocks and smoothness. Credit where it's due, man has charisma and charm, which goes a long way in helping your big evil world conqueror not be a very flat character, because it's doubtful he's going to have the same kind of sympathetic motivation as Hordak or complexity as Catra to keep him elevated.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Double Trouble kicking at Catra while she's down. Adora and Scorpia were honest but they never wanted to hurt Catra. Not so much with Double Trouble and they just shove reality into her face. Everyone leaves Catra because of Catra. She's the common factor. It's her fault and no one else's. Again, I don't know for certain if Adora and Catra get together at the end (Catra would have a LOT to make amends for regardless) but Double Trouble was definitely implying Catra had feelings for her with the way they put Catra's hand on "Adora's" cheek while talking about how she left her.

I like that we see Glimmer's plan actually working at first. The princesses get a massive power boost and decimate the Horde forces. But the minute it starts going wrong she immediately admits Adora was right and she tries to stop the energy flow. I imagine having her there with Catra was intentional by the writers. Despite some parallels, Glimmer can actually accept her failures and work to try and fix things. Unlike Catra, she didn't blame Adora for things going wrong.

So the sword allows the First Ones to control She-Ra and the energy she'd be absorbing from the planet. Assumedly that means there are at least some parts to She-Ra that have nothing to do with the First Ones and thus maybe Adora can still use some of those powers without the sword.

Season 4 verdict: Yeah, the show keeps getting better, though I will admit last season's finale had me more emotional, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison given everything that happened in that finale vs. this one. This is definitely the series hitting its darkest hour, where it feels like EVERYONE lost. Not just the rebels but the Horde as well. The sword and Light Hope are gone and She-Ra (for now) along with them. Glimmer and Catra are basically prisoners. Hordak's probably going to have his personality stripped away. The Fright Zone is in ruins. The only one who's gained anything is Prime.

Really looking forward to what the final season has in store, especially since there seems to be the implication that Catra just saved Glimmer's life.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o1j5gk/going_in_blind_watching_season_4_for_the_first/

[fortunatelyhauntedblackcherry]

Moonshine - A Beetlejuice Fanfiction 05

Warning: Swearing, mention of mental illness, Beetlejuice being smut and creepy... As always.

Ari was sitting on the side of her bed, head in her palms, breathing heavily.

- Either you are telling the truth or I'm going crazy. Or I'm tripping. Even though I don't do drugs. - Beetlejuice rolled his eyes. He was standing before her, with his hands crossed across his chest. His hair was in a light green shade with some light pink streaks in it.

- As I said previously, down in the living room you idiots, on purpose, bought a haunted house. - Ari looked up and nodded sarcastically. He was right, after all. - Seriously, what did you think, that you'll get unicorns?!

- Ghosts! - shouted Ari in a muffled voice. She didn't want her sisters to hear that she was talking to herself... But the hissing and scratching of Minerva before the door surely made a helping white-noise.

- Well I'm the leveled-up version of those suckers. - said Beetlejuice proudly and sat down next to Ari. - You might say I'm the ghost with the most! - the girl chuckled.

- Okay, if you really are the improved version of a ghost... - she shrugged - ...prove it!

- EEEEEH! - out of a sudden Beetlejuice imitated the sound of a siren which made Ari jump a bit. - Can't do that.

- Why?

- I can't interact with the human world. Only ghosts can do that. I can posess electronics and appear as smoke in mirrors, max. - Ari stood up and went to her full-size mirror.

- SHOW MEEEE! - she said in an excited voice. Even though she would really loved to talk to a demon, she thought this action would prove the fact that it's just her consciousness playing games with her and that she had to see a psychiatrist again, but a slightly human-shaped, green-ish white-ish smoke-shape appeared behind her and her lights started twitching.

- Helloouuu... - whispered Beetlejuice into her ear in a funny voice which didn't make her jump at all... No, it actually made her giggle. Beetlejuice raised his eyebrows. That was a first. Someone actually liked his jokes and funny voices. Weird.

- Ohmygodsthisissocool! - Ari was talking very fast and in a very high-pitched voice. She acted like a little girl, excited for her Christmas present. That made Beetlejuice smile. Nobody was that happy for him... Like... Ever. Ari turned around to where the voice came from the last time. - Gee I can't believe I am actually talking to a spectre. What are you doing normally? Just float around the house? Also, most of the time why do you sound like you just swallowed a cheese grater? - she stopped for a moment and continued in a more serious voice. - Also why do I hear you exactly? That bugs me a bit... to be honest.

- First: yeah, mostly I just follow you guys everywhere I can, floating around you. Watching. - he lowered his voice, his lips could almost touch Ari's ear. - I know. Very creepy. - Ari shivered like something just ran across her back. She hated being followed. She had bad experiences with that in the past. She noted to herself that she had to tell this demon not to do that oh so silently. - Second: you can't ask why does somebody sound like that, Karen! - he said sarcastically then went back to normal voice. - Also I'm dead, rotting, lower your expectations to that. Third: I have no idea but it's gonna be so much fun! - now he sounded like a child. He started to run around Ari in circles and clap little claps while he was talking. - It surely is interesting, but eh, who cares, the important thing is that now we can talk properly! And you can answer! And you can sing the songs I request! And react to my lewd comments! And we could have sleepovers and shit since now I can come in! - he changed into a more seductive tone and leaned closer to Ari. - Obviously R rated sleepovers cause I am a very sexual handsome being who you could totally not resist. - the girl blushed a little which made Beetlejuice even more horny than usual. But since he knew he couldn't do anything with her at the moment, he changed back to normal voice. - By the way I like what you did with the room, seeing it for the first time and I am shooketh how many stuff here is relating to the whole being dead thing. Babes, you have a problem. A cherishable, cute problem, but still a problem. - Ari laughed. Very loudly.

No surprise Beetlejuice liked her room. Although she followed her own path, she really liked the whole (kind of mainstream by now) witchy-gothic aesthetic and since horror was her sweet spot since she was a child, she had to decorate her bedroom in a certain way. Starting from the chandelier, which was basically a huge glowing pumpkin with wrought-iron tendrils all over it, the color of the ceiling changed from light orange to a pretty pumpkin colour, then continuing on the walls it slowly turned into a dark coppery reddish-orange. The hardwood floor was fully covered in soft grey carpet with little bats on it. There was a fake bat-skeleton, a fake raven-skeleton and little felted dolls in the form of the three witches from Hocus Pocus hanging from the chandelier. To the right of her door (which, by the way, was painted dark grey and had a "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc" plaque on it), there was a big, wall-to-wall cabinet painted black with a full-size mirror on the right, and a dressing table in the middle embedded in it. Her makeup brushes and eyeshadows were already scattered around it 'cause she was messy. To the left of her door there was a shelf in the shape of the triple moon, with horror-movie figurines, crystals, Funko Pops and random skulls on it. Around it, family photos. Next to that, in the corner, there was a black, coffin-shaped shoe cabinet with pumpkin-coloured insides and leds in it, and with a sign that said "Dracula" on top of it. On the opposite wall, below the window there was Ari's sewing-corner with 2 sewing machines on the table. On the wall, opposing the wall-to-wall cabinet there was a ram skull, engraved with Edgar Allan Poe's s silhouette, with huge black horns curling backwards. Under it, on the wrought-iron bed there was a blanket with the bride of Frankenstein painted on it, and many pillows. On the two sides of the bed, there were little "nightstands" which were basically cages. One worked as a cat-prison for Minerva, padded with a soft mattress, with a night-lamp grabbed by a zombie hand on top of it. The other held Ari's favourite books, and had a little altar on it for her "weird witchcraftsy shit", as Rei said many times before. In front of the bed there was a black chest, filled with random pieces of fabric and patterns for clothes, the top of it covered in soft black and white striped velvet. Next to that, there were 2 Paris dolls, one on each side.

- Thanks, I am the breathing, living version of Halloween. - she sat down before her dressing table, looking directly into the mirror so she could see the shape of the demon again. - And... Yeah, please stop the creeping around. At least when you come into a room where I'm at, just whistle or something so I could know that you're there. - she turned around, facing the middle of the room and blinked sweetly. - Please? - Beetlejuice sighed with resignation. He couldn't say no to those pretty, living eyes.

- If your pets even let me near you, then okay. Your stupid cat always hisses at me and won't let me come into your room... I mean I could float above her but I'm legitimately afraid for my afterlife around her, it's weird, I don't get it either. And your actually scary dog... I'm not even sure that's a dog, that looks like a wolf, so yeah, that mongrel almost ripped my arm off last week! You have to convience them that I'm not trying to hurt you! -  begged Beetlejuice. - I could only come up with you now cause I was faster than those suckers. - Ari stood up and went to the door where Minerva was still scratching the door into pieces.

- You know in many ancient cultures, dogs and cats were considered as guardians of the underworld or bodyguards for their owners against demons. For example in the Aztec religion, dogs were associated with Xolotl, the god of death. Or in Egypt cats were used as protectors against evil spirits.

- Thanks for the history lesson, miss-know-it-all. - said Beetlejuice sarcastically with a snort. Ari rolled her eyes.

- So I suppose they can see you, right?

- Yeah... I thought I'd use them to get you guys' attention but... - he stretched his arms out in Ari's direction. - ...I have you!

Ari smiled. She was still not sure he was not malevolent like those spirits from The Conjuring, but he didn't feel like someone with a super evil plan going down.

- You know maybe they just love me and want to protect me. - she sat back on her chair. - You know, Sirius is a tamascan, a guarddog, a wolf-type. He looks like he could rip you in half but actually he's a sweetheart. Yeah, his teeth are sharp as needles but he only uses them to chew up his toys. - Ari shrugged. - He doesn't even know how enormous he is. He looks very fierce and heisty but mostly he just sits on people's laps. - Beetlejuice floated right next to the girl again. He was so close Ari could feel that icy coldness on her skin again.

- You should sit on MY lap. - he said in an arousing voice. Ari looked the way the voice came from.

- Shut up. - she said in a sharp voice. BJ rolled his eyes and went a bit further. - Minerva would totally kill you though. She should be a very social breed, but she basically hates everybody and wants to kill everything that moves. So yeah, beware of the claws. They hurt more than you can imagine. - Ari held up one of her hands with a huge scratchmark on it. Beetlejuice chuckled.

- I don't feel pain.

- Oh you'd feel that, trust me!

Ari looked at her clock. It was almost 2 in the afternoon.

- Oh shit, man, I gotta go to work. First day, I can't be late. - she went to her bed and started to pack her sheet music rapidly into a red bag. Beetlejuice walked up to her and with hope in his eyes and fully green hair, he asked:

- Before you go... Can't you... Say my name 3 times? - Ari looked at his way with a raised eyebrow.

- Why do you want me to do that?

- Cause that would lift me out of this weird alternate state and I could roam earth while being seen! Now I can't leave this house but once being summoned, I could! And I haven't been out since literal decades! - he sounded so desperate. - Please don't make me beg... I will... I just... Okay you know what, I'm begging. - he threw himself on his knees and tried to grab Ari's trousers, but his hands went right through them. - I'm just so sick and tired of being invisible! - Ari made a weird little sound of shock.

- I don't even know your name, and you seriously think I would let you roam free? I just met ya...

- PLEASE! JUST DO IT!!! I WOULD DO ANYTHING, SCARE ANYONE, JUST PLEASE SAY IT! I SWEAR I'LL LEAVE SOON AFTER!!! - he was nearly crying, his hair started to turn into fully purple. Ari was thinking about her options. She could either let a wild entity roam free, or have someone murder her father or one of her exes and then just leave. That sounded good.

- That's a flattering offer so... Kay, what's your name then?

Beetlejuice stuttered.

- I... - he sighed. - I can't say it. - he said with total hopelessness in his voice and tears in his eyes. He sounded so miserable. Ari squatted down to him. She didn't even know, but she was looking straight into Beetlejuice's eyes. Her warm smile made him feel a bit better, but he was still miserable.

- Then how could I help you, Bug? - he stayed silent. That nickname actually sounded cute. - Yeah, I heard you munching on them. So let's stick with that name until I find out why do I hear you and what is your actual name, shall we? - she would've just pat his head if she could see him. He sounded so alone. She knew exactly how that felt.

- Kay. - said BJ in a repressed voice as he viped his tears and nose in his jacket. Ari wrinkled her nose at his direction, snapped up her bag and headed for the door. Beetlejuice got up quickly and floated before her, if nothing would've happened. - Wait, what am I supposed to do while you're gone? - Ari shrugged her shoulders.

- I don't know, haunt my sisters' electronics? Find out if they can interact with you too? - there was no answer so she just waved goodbye. - I'll be back at 11-ish. - and with that, she went to work.

But Beetlejuice was still there. He rubbed his hands maniacally and talked to himself in a very evil, raspy way.

- Oh I would love to do that. Of course, I might have to get a little... Mean... I might have to get a little... Nasty... But if you want me to act like a demon... Then I'll be a demon 😈

[punkscowardschampions]

Chloé & James

Chloé: Could you sink any lower Chloé: you literally could not James: is that seriously all you've got to say to me? Chloé: Really, what could I possibly say to you Chloé: you're too young to have a midlife crisis but too old to be dating a child James: the children are fine, let's start there, since you haven't asked Chloé: I'm not interested in exchanging pleasantries Chloé: what the hell do you think you're playing at? Chloé: That girl, that family James: it's not a polite inquiry about the weather in Tuscany, it's an update on the children and their wellbeing James: Jay hasn't properly settled back into school but that's hardly surprising given the circumstances Chloé: Yes, it's hardly surprising when you're too busy trying to get into the pants of some 17 year old James: the girls come first, they always have Chloé: Oh please Chloé: how could you possibly think this was appropriate Chloé: to ever bring them around... that James: I don't think you're one to talk about inappropriate behaviour around the children, to be honest Chloé: Ask her if I've ever brought any man around James: I'm not parading her around them, nor have I ever Chloé: Likely story Chloé: if I know, it's clearly not a well-kept secret, James James: It's not a secret at all any more, but I've far from moved her in James: as far as Jay is concerned, we're friends Chloé: I told you you'd regret all of this Chloé: but my God, do you have no idea how much James: Chloé, please don't start with threats Chloé: We're beyond threats Chloé: it's all happened James: meaning what? Chloé: Meaning remember you started this James: we both know that simply isn't true Chloé: I'd check your little friend isn't in on it Chloé: that family is serious levels of messed up, I wouldn't be surprised James: so now you've progressed to conspiracy theories? James: your vendetta against that entire family has never interested me, okay? Chloé: The conspiracy was getting you to believe you were Jay's dad when McKenna turned out to be a freak James: please don't do this again Chloé: I'm not lying Chloé: I've lied to you about it until now Chloé: well actually, I tried to tell you countless times but you refuse to listen James: as far as scapegoats go, you'd be wiser to pick someone you've actually slept well James: with* Chloé: Ask him Chloé: I tried to get him to step up and then he dropped the cousin fucker bomb Chloé: I almost didn't believe it, but who would risk their entire reputation like that James: Everyone knows they've been together since before Jay was born Chloé: He was so wasted Chloé: and they'd had an argument or something, idk Chloé: he was blathering James: stop it James: this is a new low Chloé: your dates didn't even add up Chloé: not 'til I made them Chloé: I know she's not yours, I know I was already pregnant when we slept together James: say what you want, a DNA test will tell the truth James: she's mine whether or not that's ceased to be convenient for you Chloé: It will Chloé: and I'm telling McKenna Chloé: obviously, it had to be you when he ruined everything but I'm out of it now Chloé: and you two can fight amongst yourselves for all I care James: you're unbelievable Chloé: You'll believe it Chloé: See where her loyalties lie then James: this isn't a game, Chloé James: it's Jay's life, our daughter's life Chloé: She'll be fine Chloé: whoever she ends up with James: she doesn't know him & neither do you Chloé: He has kids Chloé: however inbred Chloé: it's not like he's a serial killer Chloé: he has money James: who are you? I thought I at least had some fucking idea, once Chloé: That was your mistake Chloé: you never had me Chloé: and the idea that you ever thought you were trying? Chloé: tragic, actually James: I don't want you & I never have James: I want Jay Chloé: That's not up to me Chloé: I've done my side of the divorce Chloé: if it's any consolation, I've relinquished my control over them and given it to you Chloé: so he can't just take her James: he can if he's her father, he'll have the same rights I've always insisted to you that I have Chloé: Don't be ridiculous Chloé: they take into account behaviour Chloé: his incest and absence will do him no favours, he might get his own taken from him James: he couldn't behave any other way towards her when he didn't know about any of this Chloé: Fight his case for him then, James Chloé: God, I forgot how pathetic you were Chloé: almost Chloé: what hope do you have if you're going to behave like this James: what about Matty, do you not have any other potential fathers for her? Chloé: Doesn't hurt to test them both Chloé: but no Chloé: I think she's yours Chloé: there was no one else at the time because I was trying James: trying James: scheming is closer to what you mean Chloé: Be thankful I gave you her Chloé: you could end up with nothing here if not Chloé: I always knew that James: can you hear yourself? you're trying to take everything from me & expecting me to react with good grace Chloé: Can you hear yourself Chloé: when have I ever treated you like anything but shit Chloé: let's be honest about the situation now that it is finally and thankfully over James: I could care less how you treat me or have ever, don't do this to her Chloé: You can't forget, now you know Chloé: it'll eat away at you James: if you tell Buster, he won't James: then it really is over Chloé: Why should I not? James: because I'll do anything James: there has to be something you want Chloé: Hmm James: think it over, I'm not going anywhere Chloé: No, you've got nothing of use for me Chloé: sorry James: Chloé, please Chloé: Stop James: no Chloé: This is just embarrassing now Chloé: I need to tell the truth Chloé: to set me free James: you needed to tell the truth 6 years ago James: it isn't about you now James: you know how much this will fuck her up, think about what everything with your real dad did to you Chloé: I'm doing it now James: she's happy here, you don't have to Chloé: I don't care Chloé: I just Chloé: don't James: why do you hate them so much, more than you care about your own daughter? Chloé: She ruined my life Chloé: Jay did Chloé: and she's his Chloé: and I only had Tilly to keep this charade going, which was as big a mistake James: so now you have to ruin everyone else's? James: it's not going to make you feel any different Chloé: I'm telling the truth Chloé: then there's nothing connecting me to any of you James: you're still her mother & Matilda's Chloé: Only biologically Chloé: it's a different form, I don't know Chloé: but I'm giving them up James: I don't believe that you want either of them to hate you, whatever you say Chloé: Believe what you like Chloé: I'm not coming back Chloé: and I truly don't care what either of them think James: if you truly didn't care you'd leave her with me James: you want to hurt all of us James: & if all of this is because Buster didn't reciprocate your crush, then truly, you're the only one who's pathetic Chloé: Does that seem likely? Chloé: Of course I don't care if your lives are ruined Chloé: none of you deserve any happiness Chloé: and why should it be up to me to provide it Chloé: I'm clearing my conscience and cutting ties, it's simple and my mind is made up James: you haven't got a conscience James: dress it up however you like, this is nothing but a final fuck you, because you haven't grown up & you're still that messed up teenager James: if Ava had a different last name you wouldn't be doing this Chloé: He deserves it as much as you Chloé: perhaps moreso James: why because he fell in love with someone other than you? Chloé: He ruined my life first Chloé: I should've done it then Chloé: but it'll be worse now James: no he didn't, he was drunk & upset & you took advantage of that James: he didn't make you keep Jay or marry me Chloé: I already told you keeping her was a mistake Chloé: what would you like me to do, timetravel? James: I don't consider her a mistake, so no James: us & everything that happened afterwards, yes, but none of that was her fault Chloé: Good for you Chloé: This is tiresome, I've said all I need to say to you James: you need to take responsibility for what you've done & the choices you've made & stop blaming her Chloé: You can't make me love her Chloé: deal with that, James James: I don't care if you never see her again, I'd actually prefer it, I'm trying to make you stop using her Chloé: I'm not James: just let me get a test done before you drag him into it Chloé: I can't trust you James: to do what's right by Jay? yes you can James: if I'm really not her father, she deserves to know that Chloé: Ugh, I need this over now Chloé: that'll take ages Chloé: you'll have to tell him James: she's 6, you can't rush it Chloé: I'm doing this today so that's your problem Chloé: I know already Chloé: so if you don't tell him as soon as you get your little test back Chloé: I will James: you're actually evil, there's no talking to you Chloé: I have no desire to speak to you Chloé: now or ever again Chloé: goodbye, James