#It's not multiple iterations btw

[oifaaa]

Not an attack or anything but. You seem to talk about Talia semi-fondly? Forgive me if I'm wrong.

I'm a little funny about people being nice about her. Afterall, she is a literal rapist. Canonically. In multiple iterations.

I'm not semi fond of Talia I adore her she's an amazing character and I refuse to let one bad racist writing choice, which the writer themselves states was a mistake and is actually no longer Canon, change my opinion of her - I've said before it's okay to not like Talia but don't base your opinion of her on one racist retcon which every other shitty dc writer chose to jump on instead of focusing on her long complex and interesting history

[ponds-of-ink]

Okay, so I finally figured out how to get multiple layers on @glitchysquidd’s Aggie tonight. Too bad I really only did it for one drawing… and that drawing was Scraptrap in a tied-up apron that I decided on for kicks…

Also, I took an outfit request for Scraps and got two answers: Jumpsuit and Flower Crown. While I wasn’t able to finish, @angeygirl (I think?) was kind enough to color him in a little. :)

Thanks so much for having me, Squidd! It was a pleasure! :D

[jakowskis]

in-universe there is no reason why owen shoulda survived encountering carys in ep2. like obviously they just couldn't kill off a main character two eps in but within the show there is absolutely no reason why she woulda left him alive. only answer is he's trans

[jade-kyo]

Non-Red vs Blue fans guess the fake fact: results!

Find the og post here

Alright time to finally review the results! Correct answer is at the bottom of this post for those not interested in all of the results and explanations!

So the most highly voted option at 23% was Elijah Wood which I’m sorry to say is incorrect! Elijah Wood was a voice actor in the series. He played the role of Sigma! What this big name actor is doing in a random web series I have no idea but it’s still one of the wildest things to me.

Now the aspirin overdose comes in with 17.3% and got mentioned a lot in the notes and it is also incorrect. However I will admit to some poor wording on my part because it was actually an allergic reaction not an overdose. That’s a genuine oopsies on my part 😅

Florida sinking into the ocean gets a 10.1% and is also incorrect! The state of Florida does in fact sink into the ocean and it’s implied this was to cover up the disappearance of Agent Florida (who is also the guy who dies from the aspirin)

The gay guy, who’s name is Donut btw, becoming Jesus comes in with 8.3% and is in fact very real. He even walks on water. It was wild and tbh I barely remember it cause it’s from a season I dislike but it was too wild not to include.

With 7.2% I can say for sure that the giant killer robot is indeed dressed up in cute hats! Specifically a sombrero! Also the robots name is Freckles.

CPR for a bullet wound in the head gets 6.7% and is in fact considered effective medical care. Now I will say this later gets retconned and it turns out the guy didn’t actually get shot in the head the bullet just grazed him and his armor locked up making them all think he was dying- hence the choice of word being considered. The characters fully believe it but the CPR did not actually save him cause he wasn’t even hurt to begin with.

The crazy love triangle comes in with 4.7% and is also very canon and is exactly as it’s said. There’s literally just this insane love triangle for like two seasons- honestly the only love triangle plot I ever enjoyed.

With a solid 4% I can say that there is in fact canon mpreg! Hurray? Idk man this one’s exactly as it sounds. Dude got knocked up by an alien.

In last place with 2.5% of votes is the main character dying repeatedly. This is also incorrect. First off this guy is named Church which very funny on its own. Secondly it’s actually one of the first running jokes in the series how much this dude dies. Until it’s not a joke 🫠 also a few people pointed out RvB doesn’t have a main character and while I agree I felt it was simpler just to call Church the main character for this poll since it’s designed for people who haven’t seen RvB and I would argue that the majority of the narrative centers around Church even when he’s not there.

And now for the correct answer, coming in at third place with 16.1% is Caboose is god!

Now I will fully confess to being sneaky with this one. This is actually a joke made within the series but it is not true at all. Caboose is not actually god and the platypus is just that fucked up. I knew nothing I could come up with would be able to match the absurdity of this series so I decided to twist a few words so that way everything seemed equally fucked up.

And that concludes the poll! I will now leave you off with a few honorable mentions that did not make the Final Cut:

They have a Spanish speaking robot. None of them speak Spanish.

He’s a ghost but not actually a ghost but actually a highly advanced computer program

Woman has mega beef with an AI copy of her dead mom

The highly advanced computer program can’t aim for shit

The first 5 seasons were revealed to actually be a prolonged torture session

Dude chases his dead gf through multiple iteration of the same memory

Woman developed a sibling like bond with an AI copy of her extremely neglectful father

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Gay wrongs tournament, round 2 of the losers bracket

Propaganda:

For Vegas and Pete:

Evil babygirl & stealthily evil babyboy. Vegas, known committer of atrocities, and Pete, who didn't rise up the ranks of being a mafia bodyguard for nothing. Never forget how Pete brutally shot and killed his coworker who dared to shoot Vegas in front of him.

I mean. They both kill people all the time. They even have evil gay BDSM sex. It's all right there.

it's plainly obvious to anyone even looking in their direction how murder husbands they are. both have canonically killed multiple people, often on screen. Not to mention the onscreen scene of Vegas literally torturing someone. 

For Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu:

you've got the founder of the fantasy ancient Chinese CIA and the leader of what is essentially the mafia and then they're soulmates and in love. they're both willing to kill anyone who dares hurt the other while also just wanting a soft domestic life together

Zhou Zishu is an assassin and spymaster who put the current Emperor on the throne, and then quit his job by faking his death (kinda, hes still dying but not as fast as he was supposed to). Had done A Lot on his old job, including murdering children (more than one, and at least one of them in a way I can't even describe without several trigger warnings), exterminating whole families, war crimes (and i dont mean this in a buzzword way, i mean "organized a public execution of foreign diplomats during war time")… btw he doesn't feel particularly bad about any of this, because he believes it was necessary. Like he wouldn't do it for fun, but he thinks the ends (putting a good Emperor on the throne) justified the means (all of the atrocities). As a retiree, he definitely cut down on the amount of morally reprehensible murder, but not murder in general. He still routinely kills ppl, he just doesn't go out of his way to kill more. Wen Kexing, meanwhile, is the Ghost Valley Master - Ghost Valley being a place where the worst of criminals are exiled. Even in such a place, he has reputation as a complete lunatic, owed partially to the fact that he either skinned a man or fed him his own flesh or both at one point, and partially to him having a rule where he would kill anyone who came closer than 3 meters to him. But in truth, everything he'd done was to survive the Ghost Valley and eventually take revenge for his parents, who were brutally murdered when he was only nine. By the start of the novel's timeline, he put his plan in motion - the plan that would drown jianghu in blood, but also deliver poetic justice to all responsible for his parents' deaths, as well as all who'd commit the same crime given the chance. And these two men, these two murderers and schemers, meet - and unexpectedly, find in each other the person who /understands/. The person who is just as ruthless and whose hands are just as bloody, but also the person who knows standing at the top of the world is not worth it, who seeks the same freedom of leaving it all behind, and who is still, underneath it all, a human, with human heart seeking connection. So you have this couple who understand each other with barely a word, and who want the same things - who are so hungry for domesticity and for people they can just goof around with when all their lives they had to measure every step and word - but ALSO where one half a couple is like "i gotta go murder hundreds in revenge" and the other half is like "ok pick you up at 6". (This btw is why I'm submitting novel's iteration of the couple in particular. Show wenzhou with their ridiculous breakups over morality could Never.) Also they were both hiding who they are when they first met, and later flirted about having figured each other out. Finally, I'll leave you my favorite quote that just. perfectly sums up their relationship: "And just like that, they fell asleep in each other's arms, steeped in the smell of blood."

You’ve probably already had submissions for them but I’ll add on. One of them founded an assassin’s guild and killed a staggering number of people. His malewife is the leader of a sect of insane murderous outcasts, and he attained his position by proving to be the most crazy and murder happy of them all. Most of the plot involves him wandering around watching his schemes get more people killed. Together they adopt a kid that was only orphaned due to said scheming (oops). They’re terrible and I love them.

[raintailed]

rain rain rain rain how do you draw iterators and slugcats btw like all your gyus are so shaped its so fun to look at theyre just little guys...

i'm gonna start with slugcats! my old guide from 2023 is here.

Note: "slugcat" refers to multiple species (slugcats are in a species complex). It can be hard to differentiate slugcat species, since some are very similar and hybridization between them is common where their ranges overlap. The species that Monk and Survivor are members of is called the "common slugcat."

Slugcats are weird sorta-feline creatures that walk bipedally and have little hands. Their average height is 3'3" or about 1 meter tall.

Their basic body shape is a round head on top of a trapezoidal body. Their legs are digitigrade, they have human-like arms (that are often skinny lol), and their tails are thick and tapering. Slugcats also have retractable arms ig??? I have no idea how that would work

In terms of head shape, it's similar to a cat's, but with a somewhat taller forehead (bigger brain! more room for being Smart!). Slugcats usually have short muzzles, big eyes, and long ears.

Note: slugcat arms usually rest in front of the body (think meerkats) rather than to the sides like a human.

Uhhh I like giving slugcats dewlaps (rabbit dewlaps are a good reference)!

And for fat slugcats, fat is usually stored in the tail (and dewlap) first. So naturally my gourmand has a big tail and a big dewlap :]

And!! I like to think that some slugcats have fur, and some don't. Hairless slugcats are slimy; furred slugcats have oily, waterproof coats. Some shorthaired slugcats have smooth fur like otters and seals do.

TEEFS!!! Except technically, slugcats don't have teeth. Rather, they have sharp, jagged beaks (think cephalopods). Their beaks continually grow and they are self-sharpening. Because their beaks are really sharp, slugcat bites are always serious injuries.

The length of their "fangs" varies by species. Some carnivorous species have long fangs, for example.

And! They have bristly tongues like cats (and kinda like the radula of a gastropod).

For their paws, slugcats have 3-fingered hands and feet. Their claws vary; some individuals have blunt claws, some have sharp claws, others have retractable claws, etc.

The inner toe of a slugcat's foot is opposable, making it easy for them to grab onto poles with their feet. (Compare to scavengers, who mostly use their arms to climb.)

SLUPPIES!!!!!! (don't worry about the fluffy one, they're just eepy)

Slugpups have different proportions than adults! Including having a bigger head, chubbier body, etc. Fluffy slugpups can also be a bit scraggly like longhaired kittens are.

My slugcats are basically egg-laying marsupials. They lay eggs, store them in their pouch, and then the eggs hatch into itty bitty babies. The babies stay in the pouch, feeding on milk until they're big enough to venture outside.

When pups are too big for the pouch, they ride on their parent's head or back. They also begin the process of weaning around this time, since by then they've started growing a sharp beak (i guess before that, their beak is dull and too small to self-sharpen?).

Note: some slugcat species are unisex and others are trioecious (having male, female, and hermaphrodite individuals).

For expressions, ears are important!!

Neutral: ears relaxed. The relaxed position varies by individual; some slugcats have their ears rest slightly tilted back, for example.

Alert/interested: ears perked up.

Angry: ears pinned back. Very angry slugcats have their ears positioned so they're almost in line with the top of the head.

Afraid: ears pinned down (sometimes slightly to the sides, too).

Sad: ears droop to the sides.

Slugcats mostly use their tails for balance, but they're used for some emotes too.

Upwards-curled tail is an excited or enthusiastic hello! Kinda like how some cats raise their tail when they see their human.

When upset, annoyed, or grumpy, slugcats may thump their tail against the ground (kinda like how rabbits stomp).

Some slugcats wag their tails when playing or excited. This isn't a universal thing, though.

Slugcats with fur may puff up their tail when startled or scared. They may also puff their tail when excited or playing, too.

[scrufflesksunnide]

The 3 slugcats I relate way too much with on a personal level

Ventish art/destress

I relate to these 3 a lot for multiple reasons

For survivor it's being lost in a world where you feel separated from everyone, lost in a cruel world and wanting to find an answer to where to go from here. An answer that leads you down a path of desperation. That's why I prefer oe ending over the ascension ending because oe feels like your trying again even if you lost almost everything and have to start from square 1... Still better than giving up.

For enot it's the fact that their campaign is so bullshit and is brutal yet despite that, taking it into perspective, jokes aside, enot is genuinely a fucking Chad for going through hell and back NOT TO GET BANGED and have SEX, but to find LOVE, someone TO love so they don't feel alone. Enot would willingly treat someone right and even if yeah they are a lil flawed, I think they have a lot of potential for a character that's supposed to be a joke, I completely relate to that determination despite the near impossible odds.

For saint it's not cycles, or trying to break out of a cycle which is what I see people commonly view Saint, but to not let go. Not let go of a world where you have so much good left to do. In canon, I don't think Saint is evil or rebellious at ALL. it doesn't make sense for them to be that, evil aus aside (which btw I do not mind at all they are completely fun to concept on, but in terms of canon just, nah that ain't it) Saint was purposed to ascend others and to help them. All the iterators are rotting (not literally) but they are slowly going to be deactivated due to no ancients being there to actually support them, might as well give them a proper resting place. The only time a slugcat goes AGAINST the player and takes control of their own actions is Saint and for a good reason, because they don't want to let go knowing they have so much more to offer. That's why they go back, that's why they ascend the void worm, because it's not your choice to choose their ending, it's their's.

I relate to these 3 a lot and I genuinely love them so much.

[lisimcpisi]

omg you guys Bumblebee is such an underrated movie and I do not see as much hype for it as it should get

I specifically wanna talk about the scene where Charlie and Bumblebee meet for the first time because ohhh man does it give the warm fuzzies

I never really got into the bayverse movies mostly cuz of the amount of action and violence that I was never a fan of. I always gravitated more towards the story/character-based aspects of TF. So having such an intimate scene between Charlie and Bee hit all the right notes for me

For one thing, it's so jarring, but in a kinda good way, to see Bumblebee's drastic change in personality and demeanor. In the opening scene on Cybertron (which is so badass btw), Bumblebee is this snarky, skilled badass warrior, and despite losing his voicebox and having multiple injuries, he's still able to completely annihilate Blitzwing on Earth. And then here, we see that same bot but with lost puppy energy. He's scared, hides away from Charlie, with the biggest adorable eyes in the world. He doesn't even try to run away and like smash a wall through the garage. He just stays backed up in the corner, watching Charlie.

literally everything that happens once Bumblebee leans into Charlie's hand is so fucking adorable and sweet. Charlie just speaking to bee with the most gentle, calming voice so she won't scare him. Bee just staring at Charlie, whether out of fascination or just being glad this new creature won't hurt him.

AND CHAR GIVING BEE HIS NAME AHHHH I love how Bee just shakes his head when Charlie asks what his name is. He legit just doesn't know if he had a name at all or if he was nameless to begin with (well technically he was just referred to as B-127 but thats not a real name). And the way he just curls up and looks away in embarassment because he can't answer her. It's kinda sad to have an iteration of Bee where he visibly struggles to communicate. Because in the movies and Cyberverse Bee has his radio, and in tf Prime and rescue bots he can still talk through his beeping morse code thing and the bots can understand him fine. But here, he can just produce small whirring and buzzing sounds, and can only communicate through physical gestures and you can kinda see him using his mouth plate thingy to mimic what he wants to say, like when he says "You" when asking who Charlie is. So it's obvious why he's so happy whenever Charlie manages to understand him.

I love the way he perks up when Charlie decides his name. You can almost kinda hear him say "Bumblebee?" through his whirring sounds. And the final shot with Charlie and bee just looking at each other through the garage window is so beautiful as the score wells up. You can tell that despite what Bee has lost, he's glad to have a friend who gave him a home and a name.

[mqole]

hbjhkgvhj ok here are uh. some character designs i did abt a year ago

these are all based on the incredible @kayzero's fic zero win game, which is a rewrite of ztd with akane as the protagonist, and it has possibly THE BEST characterization of akane ive ever read- listen just. just go read it you will be enriched i promise.

im not putting an image description bc i dont know where to start (sorry!!) BUT ill put a bunch of character design notes below the cut for people who are insane like me <3333

ok first of all. i know when i sent these to kay the other day they said there were some details canon to zwg that i missed (akane's lil hoodie pocket, aoi wearing white to contrast junpei's black (which is SO inspired btw.)) so just. PRETEND those are there bc i forgor <3

i spent the most time on sigma, phi, akane, junpei and aoi just because they've had multiple iterations of designs. it was fun to take bits and pieces from each version of them, so thats why they get a feature page

you can see a lot of my little pink notes with criticisms of the ztd designs there. in general, i really dont like the ztd designs, they all feel unnaturally bland to me (although thats probably also the artstyle).

most people whove looked into the colour symbolism in zero escape are probably familiar with the whole red/blue thing: that is, theyre colours representing the morphogenetic field. akane and aoi are the most obvious examples of this. 'aka' means red, and 'ao' means blue. in the first nonary game, akane and clover wear red - the colour for transmitters - and aoi and light wear blue, the colour for recievers. in 999 proper, akane wears purple, to symbolise how she can recieve AND transmit, while junpei wears red and blue by themselves. you can do a whole analysis of these colours and i will not put it here thats a whole SEPERATE post

anyway! the actual designs!! i'll start with sigma. i wanted to reconcile his vlr design with zero ii's design, and initially i planned on giving him a coat, but it didnt really have a nice silhouette, so i ditched that idea. instead, i turned his jumpsuit from vlr into a polo shirt - much like what he has in ztd - and gave him some zero-y accessories: the white turtleneck, the belt and the gloves all come from zero's design. once id included the white turtleneck, making the pants white felt really logical. in character design, its generally best to limit the palette of colours as much as you can, so it was a good excuse to reuse a colour while also paying homage to his ztd design. i also cut his hair bc hes a scientist and he'd do that.

phi's design is a lot more like her vlr one than her ztd design. the blue coat was her hallmark accessory, and im shocked that they ditched it for ztd, so i gave it back - along with her boots and hair accessory. i kept her pants and glasses from ztd, as well as the way the bottom of her shirt is tucked into her pants. they just have a much nicer silhouette to me. between my first pass of colours and my second pass, phi's colours changed the most - i realised i had too many blue guys in the lineup, and wanted to make the colours stand out individually. so i leaned into phi's orange-ness. giving her hair accessory, pants and boots an orange hue instead of a blue one, as well as shifting her coat to a more teal colour really helped make those colours pop.

AKANE MY BESTIE!!!! her design was probably the one i had the most fun with. i basically just took her ztd design and purpled it. I did want to include some more details though - her neck scarf was in both her 999 AND vlr design, so it felt wrong not to include it. i also added some gold highlights to her design, just to complement the purple - her boots are also toned yellow, so it felt fitting. the cut of her sleeves, as well as her hair, felt really natural: i gave her the side ponytail from ztd, while letting more of her hair fall to the side to retain her silhouette from 999. i stole the sleeves wholesale from vlr akane, but can you blame me. look at that robe. its so pretty.

overall i have mixed feelings on ztd junpei as a character, but i think his darker turn is at the very least a fun direction to take him. I do like the jacket he has in his concept art. IT SURE WOULD BE NICE IF THE MODEL ALSO HAD A JACKET. his design went relatively unchanged overall, i basically just retoned his hair, gave him a button-up instead of a t-shirt, and puffered his jacket. the red and blue from his vest in 999 is reused here, but in darker, more muted tones. you can see in the corner of the drawing i played around with swapping the red and blue, but the red focus felt too edgy for junpei. the blue also pops really nicely against his dark clothes, so i kept it.

anyone who has spoken to me for more than ten seconds will know how insane i am about aoi kurashiki i mean come on my name is santa. i think a lot about his two designs: that of the first nonary game and in 999. in the first nonary game he wears a blue scarf, harkening to his role as a reciever, but in 999 he wears monochrome. my personal interpretation of this is that his 999 fit was him purposefully disguising his connection to the morphogenetic field. so post-999, since he doesnt have to worry about that, i gave him his blue back!!! his general fit is the same- his pants and shoes are artistry so obviously i kept those, and i ended up making the rest of his look black to contrast his 999 design. if i were to redesign him now wearing white, id probably go a different direction altogether. that third little drawing ive included has some test outfits for him, carlos, and maria, but i never really went anywhere with them. also i gave him dark roots to show his relation to akane a bit more. and also because i like projecting my roots always grow back SO fast

that brings us to the 4 characters introduced after vlr: carlos, mira, diana, and... maria??? yeah like i said go read zero win game. do it. maria is such a fun character. she was, coincidentally, ALSO the only character where i had to design someone from scratch. you can see i fiddled a little with colour palettes, trying to figure out how to give every character a unique look. diana and carlos' designs actually go almost unchanged here- i think dianas design in particular is actually pretty great, and works as a nice foil to luna in vlr. carlos is just kind of normal. he can have his silly polo shirt.

miras ztd design is. ugh ok look its FINE but i hate the boobie designs in zero escape because they always feel like they were designed seperately from the character. mira in zwg is still a sussy baka, but she's a lot more cordial- i enjoyed seeing her more as a snake lying in the grass. I ended up giving her green because its a fun colour to give characters who youre meant to distrust. SO MANY TIMES reading zwg i was like "oh maybe mira's chill - oh wait maybe shes not - oh wait maybe shes chill again" and i love her for that honestly. she still gets boobies because i love women but i gave her a fun little long sleeved corset top. the amount of skin she shows directly correlates to the amount you should trust her (i am only half joking.)

i wont talk about diana because honestly the only change i made was giving her a little blue strip at the bottom of her skirt, but i'll talk about maria and carlos together. carlos i kept as a little pink boy because i love him and i love pink and listen its my character design ill do what i want. maria in ztd AND in zwg experiences reverie syndrome, which is connected to the morphogenetic field. her and carlos' designs both incorporate red and blue again- (just realised diana also has red and blue. pretend that was intentional) -to show their connection to the field. yes yes i know its pink but listen its red enough. like aoi, i gave maria and carlos both different iterations of their designs. i'm less sold on carlos', but i did actually like the baggier, heavy designs for maria. with those ones she looks more depressed than she does wearing overalls, so im calling that a win. maria's was the design i was least satisfied with overall, but hey i did these like a year and a half ago and ive gotten much better since then soo.

if youve read this far this is once again a reminder to read zero win game by kayzero on ao3

[spideywillandmjwheeler]

For the artist: are you planning on including other Stranger Things characters in this? Of so, then how? I know this is Byler-centric, but I would love to see the others as well! Btw I absolutely love the concept of Spider-Will🥰

yes!! because we're taking inspiration from multiple iterations of spider-man, the roles other characters play in the story are very flexible and aren't one-for-one matches to particular characters. that being said, el is gonna be featured as spider-el (because i'm a sucker for willel wonder twins content), who goes on to the superhero big leagues ala mcu spidey, while will remains the friendly neighborhood spider-man! here's a sketch of her design so far😳

we also have jonathan as head of photography at the bugle and nancy and/or robin having a role similar to yuri in the ps4 game! other characters to come as we solidify them :D thanks for the ask!

-@cherbearsz

[ottiliere]

oh my goodness your dios.. what a delight to see someone so fully invested in phantom blood dio wow. i am very happy. i love your 3D dios. really makes me want to sculpt him as well

Do it... clay is cheap bake it in the oven paint with 10 dollar set of acrylics your life will never be better. I adore phantom blood Dio so very much... years ago saw someone coin the term “phantom blood purist” and it's so funny I think about it literally every time I enter a Dio cycle. There are many aspects that go into this preference of course, and upon a great amount of time pondering i can say confidently that this is because mainly that:

1) I love history (especially the fin de siècle) and I love thinking about him in relation to Victorian values/etiquette/sociology in general... there's something so special about a society that enabled such a gross disparity of wealth&poverty while being so inherently pretentious that its asinine etiquette rules would completely elude you unless you were raised in an aristocratic family or had access to etiquette books. Dio absolutely read a great amount of these before going to the Joestar mansion btw, even before his father snuffed it I think. God help him he would not be doomed to look like a slovenly ill-bred gamin if and when he needed to manipulate the upper classes. I really can't think of a way for him to have developed these skills enough to outclass Jonathan otherwise. god and like thinking about him as a barrister too with his profligate fashion sense you just KNOW he gets drawn that way into all of the court sketches that go in all the newspapers since everyone loved to read about crime and there were a million papers for this in England alone... he'd get caricatured so bad sometimes and he is NOT happy about this.

2) You can probably tell from my indifference to the rest of the parts (except sbr; I call this the "diego rule") that I'm not the biggest fan of fantastical elements and I'm much more interested in interpersonal conflict/relationships in general... PB is extremely unique to the rest of the series because for five WHOLE chapters absolutely nothing abnormal happens and we just get to see Dio harassing Jonathan and his girlfriend until Jonathan snaps and humiliates him so bad in beating him up that he makes Dio cry. and then Dio kills his dog. Like it's literally just some impoverished child abuse victim bullying a spoiled rich kid who wanted to be his friend because lalala sunshine daisies only knows what "poverty" is from reading Oliver Twist and has no conceptual understanding of what the real-world implications of that are. That was the character development that needed multiple chapters to develop it's so fucking awesome. like yeah I'd read an entire novel of just this alone happening and how it impacts their relationship as adults no vampirism needed. I reread "dio the invader" so frequently I'm surprised the spine of my jojonium copy isn't cracked at the exact endpoint of it. I just adore him interacting with Jonathan so much it's hard to remove him from that… that's his FOIL... all the stories (some "AUs") I make with Dio involve the way he and Jonathan gravitate each other to some degree. we get the clearest view of who he is in the face of someone who is the polar opposite of himself. 🤯

2) This iteration of him is the closest degree of separation he has from his "humanity" (childhood), thus

3) I find him to be the most interesting, endearing, etc., version of him walking around, given that... well. behaviors stem from somewhere... the thematic & active severance of himself from a species he is fundamentally incapable of connecting with due to the way he adapted to help him tolerate his childhood... from his point of view I can't imagine that there is one convincing reason for him to continue being human after given the opportunity to deviate from it (despite likely still being inebriated when he vamped himself — very much an impulsive decision since he had, what, an hour or two to think that through? drunk?). If everyone's underneath him, yes, after the fact the choice seems extremely fitting. Maybe he'll cultivate a vast swathe of worshippers and disciples that obey his every command. Maybe he'll rule the world. And then, maybe, he will start to feel genuinely content for the first time in his life. But probably not. That's the drawback of having something fundamentally missing from within you.

4) He lacks a certain type of introspective awareness that 100 years alone in a box might enable him to develop... he's very animalistic to me and possesses a precarious/immature/nonexistent grasp on his emotions just given the fact that he exhibits enraged outbursts from perceived ego wounds (in both childhood and adulthood) + struggles with alcoholism due to an incapacity to self-soothe any sort of negative emotion that makes it past the self-aggrandizing filter he can't help but see life through; he really isn't in conscious control of anything happening inside of him despite needing control over everything and everyone so he can get exactly what he wants, and deserves, always. PB paints a very dim and pathetic view of his character by allowing us to see when he's most "vulnerable", which is the thing he likely hates being the most, so getting to see scenes where he's walking around publicly intoxicated and disparaging himself for acting like his father (implied: again), who he hates, and attacking men with a wine bottle for evoking the concept of his mother, who he also kind of hates but lacks the cognizant cogency to dissolve whatever cognitive dissonance is causing this mental incongruence, rules. he rules

tl;dr SDC dio is "iconic" but I feel like he misses a lot of the charm he had in part one, removed from the context of the society that had such rigid social boundaries and rules of decorum, in addition to his maladaptive approach to interpersonal relationships, his substance abuse issues, his humbling foil... he's too "cool" for me. In the end SDC dio is simply not my Dio... he is someone else's Dio. And that's okay.

[bitsbug]

good evening rainworld community. look at my ocs NOW

YOU CAN ASK THEM QUESTIONS BTW. please do I’ve been marinating them for months. finely cured.

multiple paragraphs introducing each under the cut !

Curtains Drawn Over Bone - he/him

The first of my iterators, and frankly the most developed. Curtains is incredibly young for an iterator, made at the tail end of the last generation, and was subject to some.. negligent planning during his construction. He was placed in an area of dubious rain quality and worse ground stability; the conditions were considered acceptable back then, but millions of cycles later that's no longer the case.

 Despite this glaring issue, he's been handling it better than you'd expect. Having recognized the long-term affects of his placement early on, Curtains took an interest in maintenance and optimization in order to survive, completely disregarding the Great Problem. He's broken some taboos in the process, and surprisingly didn't contract rot while doing it. His efforts have paid off with a suite of purposed organisms and a significantly more advanced, upgraded facility.

 Some things would be impossible to address, though. Despite his best efforts, erosion and earthquakes now threaten to topple his can; something he's scrambling to fix.

 Curtains is generally regarded as a finicky, flighty person by his group. He's a recluse and a workaholic, driven by some desperate ferver to avoid the worst. When he does appear in chatrooms, he seems constantly wound up, often vanishing as quickly as he arrives. He was like this long before his current situation. But do not mistake his nervousness for ineptitude, because Curtains is very meticulous and dedicated in his endeavors, backed by his thorough understanding of iterator anatomy and a genuine passion for his work.

Twenty Taken in Vain - they/them

The only iterator in this damn group who isn't a social recluse. Built in the golden age of the Ancients, a time of prosperity and uneventfulness, TTiv found their place in the bustling global communities of their kin. They're of the belief that research is best done collaboratively, and constructed their workflow around this frame.

But, really, they never much cared for that work or their purpose. Devoting themself to tireless research for something likely impossible just wasn't a good use of time, nor did they find the process very interesting, so they sought to fulfill their life in less desolate ways. As much as a sentient, static building is able to, at least.

In particular, Twenty Taken in Vain pursues a variety of art forms! There's a critical lack of artwork made with iterators in mind (While interesting to discuss, most Ancient books can be read in less than a second for example), so they seek to fill that gap. Their main passion is literature, but they do dabble in many other subjects, such as digital painting, textile weaving, 'false memory' qualia fabrication, and DMing a tabletop roleplaying game for their local group.

Their social proclivities haven't served them well in recent years, because the global communications decay has left them more isolated than ever before. Losing contact with multiple close friends has drained them of motivation, and made them fearful of losing those they do have left. Imagine like, depression but on a supercomputer scale.

In personality, TTiv is as chatty as you'd expect of them, but without the energy associated with extroversion. Their charisma is carried in their nonchalance and humor, with an undertone of snarkiness - only occasionally with any bite to it. They're adaptable as well, without a fixation on one subject and a willingness to introspect. Since the comm failure, they've become a lot quieter and more irritable, stress they've barely kept under wraps.

Anxiety Practice - it/xe

Polite and inoffensive, AP is an easily overlooked iterator. It appears frequently in chatrooms, but always in the shadow of its kin, and rarely draws attention to itself. Despite this demeanor, xe certainly aren't shy or nervous - that's already taken by Curtains - xe just prefer xer distance and privacy.

 As it currently stands, Anxiety is the only member of its group actively working on the Great Problem. It prefers exploring more unorthodox theories for ascension, with a fixation on Karma flowers and their properties. As part of its experiments, its created a few.. curious organisms hybridized with the flower. It also collaborates closely with Distant Humming for information on the grander Cycle and general advice. Thus far, it's made a few fascinating discoveries, but predictibly no breakthroughs on the Triple Affirmative. Oh also, sometimes xe put karma-affecting drug cocktails into xer water intake. normal iterator behavior i promise.

 Even at xer most comfortable and nonchalant, AP keeps an aloof, almost stoic nature. Chronically icy cool, xe seem incapable of expressing anything besides calm indifference. This isn't true, of course, xer composure is just nothing to scoff at. It even uses its reputation for comedy at times, usually through deadpan delivery or 'breaking character'.

Distant Humming - she/Her

An anomaly in existence, the first iterator to almost reach ascension. Distant Humming became an echo by her own hand, using heavy adjustments to her retaining wall and filter pumps to essentially bathe her facility in void fluid, solving the issue of her kinds' distributed conscience by just addressing all of it. at once.

 Her subsequent failed ascension left her systems broken and mutated in impossible ways, but she functions nonetheless in her ethereal, undying state. The warping irreparably affected her memory and personality though; she considers herself a different person from the Humming before.

 Despite her uncanny nature and haunting appearance, Distant Humming is a surprisingly amiable person, if vague or foreboding at times. Her detached state of existence allows her the breathing room to appreciate the world for what it is, and insight into the Cycle that'd be impossible to gain from within it. She's happy to share her observations with anyone who'd listen.

 About once a year, Humming's karmic cycle aligns with that of her local group, affording her a limited time to speak with them. She appears totally non-existent outside this period.

THAT’S ALL BYEEE

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Is it okay to ask how the rest of the 5ds cast is doing ij not-kansas? I love seeing your takes on how characters would work on it!

YESS totally cool to ask! AND, WELL. TECHNICALLY. THERE ARE SOMETIMES, MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF THE 5DS CAST ON THE TABLE depending on the day/the context/etc :,) see when i started the college AU it was just for gx, as we know, and I thought it'd be funny to slip other ygo characters in for fun, and at the time i was like "it'd be funny to have the 5ds characters there but theyre just like. in their 30s just in the background, chilling," because i wasnt especially invested in them yet/straight up thought i was gonna think 5ds was 'just ok' <---CLUELESS. 😐

Anyway so the 'main' version of the 5ds cast really are just some cool thirtysomethingish year old biker friends. Yusei and Crow both work at a local car repair shop (same auto shop where Syrus and Anna both work as receptionists lol); they and Jack and Kalin are from Satellite, Kansas (real shithole of town)! Crow does a bunch of volunteer work working with LGBT kids and teens, and also is a frequent participant in the Not-Lawrence Queer Birding Group's meetups. Yusei goes to protests and keeps a bunch of shitty project cars on his front lawn and it rules. Akiza works at the Home Depot Garden Center. Jack and Carly live together and Carly runs a blog that is moderately ("moderately") successful :^) Jack works here

with this guy

i go back and forth with leo and luna... with this iteration of the team i picture them late teens-early 20sish, leo also works at Home Depot and Luna is a vet tech ❤

but also SOMETIMES if im thinking about my pizza AU just as its own standalone thing, then there's slightly different version of team 5ds on the field, a little younger, mid-late 20s-ish--I think in that version of the setting I was playing around with making Jack a food critic?? Which is still VERY funny imo. And the twins are kids that live in the rich neighborhood Aporia used to live in (and where he accidentally hit Leo with his car.) (LEO WAS FINE. FOR THE RECORD.) But then sometimes also I'll just have Bruno go deliver pizzas to the auto shop and hit it off with 33 year old Yusei or whatever. IT'S VERY LOOSEY GOOSEY SORRY DHFGFG. MEOW WOLF TYPE RULES pizza AU is simultaniously it's own dimension and also a core component of the not-lawrence not-kansas dimension (really absolutely obsessed with Not-Kansas too btw)

regardless of which versions i happen to be thinking about kalin nonetheless has fucked off to Dodge City, Kansas to repent for probably almost killing a cop. Dodge City is probably the most soul sucking cowboy themed town i have ever been too it's a pretty good Crashtown equivalent 🏜

[pookapufferfish]

WHICH ITERATOR / SLUGCAT WOULD YOU TRUST TO BE YOUR PARENT THE MOST IMO

LTTM IS ULTIMATE MUM, AND GOURMAND IF THEY'RE NOT AVALIBLE DEF YOUR HUMANIOD HUNTER

hkjadshjkfdhkfa

honestly I think gourm wins everytime. here are multiple drawings I have done of gourm being a very good parent figure

(btw gourm is just a family friend to surv and monk,just saying because I know some people think they are parent and child)

dfkjhjkfd hunter is a good parent figue too probably if he wasn't so scared that she would hurt anyone. I need to redraw my anthro hunter lol...

as for iterators, yeah moon would be as good a parent as she can. Moon is very nice :)

if I had to pick a wild pick I might choose spearmaster, I think it would be very kind and nice to others. just very scary looking.

anthro scug jumpscare!!

the parent figures

[once-delight]

@nicocoisanerd

Re: Withers’ “cake”. Behold!

But I can’t believe you let Gale blow himself up! Yes, the boy has a death wish, but that does not mean WE SHOULD SUPPORT IT!!

btw, when you have played through every iteration of the ending, and still have a hankering for your BG3 fix, I can hardily recommend Dragon Age: Origins, if you haven’t played it already.

yes, the graphics are outdated, but BG3 is very much it’s spiritual successor, with gathering your allies, romancing companions, saving the world, quirky side characters and quests, complex char roleplay (if you so wish, with numerous races, classes, background and specs which influence gameplay and interactions), deep lore and very fun battle tactics, which you can choose to involve light programming of your companions thru if/then statements. it’s a mechanic I absolutely love and haven’t seen anywhere else.

If you want something newer, I am currently playing Divinity 2, the last Larian RPG, and is also enjoying it very much. Though there have been some significant QOL improvements in BG3 (multiple inventory selection, less annoying crafting, waaaayy more appealing character models, ability to recruit more than 3 companions - there’s six origins chars, and you can only choose 3 of them as companions per playthrough unless you use mods - and hence miss a chunk of story) the writing, humour, and quest design and gameplay is still very much in vein of BG3! A whole new world to get lost in.

Just skip Divinity 1. It was probably good for it’s time, but after BG3 it is VERY immature and clunky in comparison. I put in a solid 10 hours before I realized I didn’t care about the characters, story and wasn’t having fun.

BG3 and Divinity 2 is miiiiiles above! (But BG3 is miles above anything, and the best game I’ve ever played). Anyways, if you know this already, nevermind. And there’s always the Durge playthrough!

[a-substantial-trash-pile]

id be so interested in learning abt ur hlvrai2 idea...

ough ok sorry i’m about to brain dump my unformulated unorganized ideas all over this post (tysm for the ask btw). i don’t expect anyone to read all this, but it’s nice to actually write all the ideas down. WARNING long ass post under cut 👇

so like as i rambled about in this post, essentially the science team is stuck in an endlessly looping simulation that was made as an early test of black mesa’s virtual reality/ai tech. it’s built a lot like a game because that format makes it easier to run tests over and over.

anyways, hlvrai happens, they beat benrey, they go to chuck e cheese. but the party is also a cover for gman to temporarily isolate the science team in a little mini pocket simulation as he tries to fix whatever-the-hell is wrong with the main test one. except he fails.

hlvrai2 starts with gordon waking up on the tram, playing this game to test this cool vr tech for black mesa. except gordon is not excited this time. in fact gordon is freaking out because he remembers everything from the previous loop and he is wondering WHY he’s back here. why isn’t the test over. also he only got to eat 1 slice of pizza at chuck e cheese before everything blacked out so that sucks too.

gordon’s not the only one who remembers the last loop. everyone else who aren’t just random npcs also remember. before it was just tommy, gman, sunkist, and benrey who retained memories of previous loops. tommy and gman because their job is to keep the simulation intact, sunkist because tommy made her like that, and benry because he’s an anomaly (human consciousness and alien program/virus thing melded into one). in benry’s case, the memories are more jumbled and muddled in his head. so things don’t make a lot of sense for them.

anyway my idea is that this new loop that they’re in is even more screwed up than the last one. like the seams are really breaking and shit’s getting through. enemies that never appeared in any iteration before are appearing now. sections of the map have either moved or are missing entirely. there are new places too that don’t exactly look like they belong (bubby opens a closet door to reveal a forest, “what the hell is this narnia shit”). it’s super obvious that their world isn’t “real” and coomer, bubby, and darnold have to come to terms with the fact that they’re ai. although maybe bubby not so much because honestly xe doesn’t really give a shit about having a crisis over it (“I’m already a test tube baby—what difference does it make”). but bubby, like the others, would like to escape these endless loops. so that becomes the team’s main goal: find a way out. oh, and find gman too because he’s been missing ever since the loop restarted and tommy doesn’t know where the hell he is and it’s kind of concerning.

darnold joins the science team because he also remembers the last loop and wow this whole situation is just really messed up i guess i HAVE to go on a epic quest now dang. she takes up the healer role with her potions (not a huge fan of the violence), plus he just tends to fret over others in general. benrey rejoins the science team, which of course leads to tension that has to be worked out. now that benry isn’t coded as the antagonist/final boss anymore, he doesn’t have malicious intentions, but they’re still a little shit. they feels bad about what they did but doesn’t really know how to express it other than riling up gordon. though things get better between gordon and benrey as the adventure progresses and they have to save each other’s asses multiple times. he even says sorry eventually.

sooo i don’t exactly know how they break out yet, but they will stop the loops and escape into the actual main simulation of reality, the one that irl black mesa made to preserve humanity. the science team’s simulation was one of the tests that helped black mesa build the main simulation except nobody thought to stop running that test program—hence why the team’s been looping all this time. but yeah i’m still thinking about how it all ends. and also what the heck i want to do with forzen. i think i want him to be similar to be an ai that a piece of alien virus/coding latched onto. i think the alien virus/code used to be bigger and more intact before irl black mesa began messing with the alien tech, then it got fractured off into pieces that eventually found things in the system to latch onto, which is why forzen’s like “we used to be best friends” to benry. because technically there’s a part of them that used to be part of a bigger thing. idk. i think i want forzen to play a bit of an antagonist role, but not as a really bad one or anything. he’s just misguided. and maybe confused. let’s be real he doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

gman is missing because he’s dealing with his “Employers.” aka the super advanced hivemind ai that helps keep everything running in the background. they think the test simulation isn’t worth having around anymore because it’s becoming more trouble than it’s worth and they think gman isn’t able to handle it, so they’re stepping in. they aren’t the reason the test simulation is breaking down—the deterioration just got their attention. gman’s trying to either convince them to NOT erase it all or just stall them long enough in hopes that the science team figure a way out before the hammer comes down.

i was thinking who the main antagonist WOULD be, but maybe there doesn’t actually need to be one. it’s mostly the science team vs the test simulation. i guess the Employers could be seen as the main antagonist, but they’re just doing what they think is best to keep everything running smoothly.

ok that’s it im going to stop i’ve drained my brain resources. if anyone’s actually read all the way through, wow. thanks for slogging through my ramblings. :’)