#The ripple effects are good

[royalarchivist]

Phil: There is a small delay– it's the same translations as the ones used for the– the ones on screen that you can turn off right now. Those ones with the plugin, only it's sending it to a browser source so I can pop it onto the screen. It's cool! I like it. I'm sad I can't customize it more when I'm offline. I have to like, do it when I'm live. So... there we go, nice little test.

Phil: If I add it fully, I'll add all the languages Chat, and then try and make them match. I guess I could probably figure it out on my alt.

I know there's been a lot of bad news this week, so I want to share something nice: Phil is thinking about adding subtitles on screen so that VOD watchers can still have access them.

[meta-squash]

lol @ series 1 jack being like "i demand your complete trust" *tells his team nothing, pretends to be a hero and doesn't allow them to see his vulnerability so then they hate him when he makes painful/unpleasant decisions, orders someone to do something and then gets angry when they do it, drops hints like mad about how he's different from 21st century humans but doesn't actually reveal anything making them question everything about him in secret, poorly manages his team's various individual breakdowns, kills or otherwise causes the death of at least one of every team member's lovers, goads and personally insults them all when they're all terrified and upset and then is surprised when they mutiny and kill him*

[dragon-tamer-1]

Happy birthday @shinechermont!

Drew your(and Ari's) girl Jing! She's such an adorable little girl. Hope your birthday is a great one, and it's so cool to have you as a friend. Especially in your enjoyment of my Aftermare stories and my other stuff. And I absolutely love your stories and characters, too. Thank you @ari-cuno for inviting me to do this, it was fun!

My schedule for this week was busy, so I was a bit worried that I wouldn't finish this on time, but here it is! Story I made up for this is that Ink decided to be a gremlin and have the zoomies while carrying Jing, and Nightmare and Error are not a fan of that. Mainly cause they're worried he's going to trip and accidentally hurt Jing, who is happily enjoying the antics. Error was the most taken off guard, despite knowing how Ink is, so he's partially blinded rn.

[blorbologist]

Okay, so 'X actually lives' AUs are not my thing (I'd rather see equal consequences to counterbalance the 'happy ending'), and this is especially true for Molly because Kingsley and Cad are both great, BUT-

During my M9 rewatch, when Fjord, Jester and Yasha are taken, Lorenzo is pleased that they hauled, and I quote, 'Two divine bloods and one half-beast'. Fjord is clearly the half-beast, and Yasha's obviously an aasimar, but that Jester is lumped with her as a divine blood caught my interest.

So tieflings are valuable, then.

I know literally the next line states that their cages are at capacity, but... Lorenzo could have hauled Molly's unconscious body into a cage if 'divine bloods' are that good a find. If a teenage aasimar could fetch 10k gold apiece in the Fire Plane (C1e75), I do wonder if it'd be more worth his while to haul away this prize. (Ofc aasimar prices could be inflated in that marketplace! But even 2k would be nothing to sniff at!)

As much as it pains my lil heart, because she IS my favorite... Beau is right there. A dirt-common human, and probably just as good an example to make Keg get the message.

Has anyone done this? It feels like such an easy shift for canon divergence that then opens up a huge door full of possibilities.

(Just consider the domino effect this would have. M9's disposition towards people/problems likely remain prickly, reduce the likelihood of them teaming up/trusting a lot of people down the linr. Maybe the extra bodies means someone is offloaded and sold earlier, not to be found in the Iron Shepherds' dungeons. What impact would Cad not being there to heal/rez at key moments have? How would Fjord's arc be deviated without his guidance? And Beau's, if she lives, without the impact Molly's death had on her? Aeor and Lucien would, of course, be completely different! Just! Think about it!)

[marc--chilton]

(mgv) it started as a joke but now if they're alone house will call chase 'wombat' as a nickname in affection rather than teasing

[2hoothoots]

I’m making a psychonauts age swap au, as one does, and my brain keeps deciding that lili raz and dogen are all in love and I’m pretty sure this is your fault

that's just how it happens!! these three have a memetic quality. they're a bit like cordyceps, to me

[kurokoros]

I've been seeing the "endeavor is the best written character in BNHA" take for a while and regardless of if that's true or not (because that's an opinion, not a fact) do the people saying this not think it's questionable or off-putting that the "best" written character is a middle aged man discovering after over two decades that neglecting, abusing, and overall traumatizing his wife and children is BAD and he wants to be a better person now???

[californiatowhee]

Steve Rogers (616 edition) sketch for the color wheel (blue)

[seiwas]

i personally believe that deku is more likely to have vices than katsuki

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

The painful emphasis on Lloyd somehow being connected as the why the events of the story occur

This 14 year old really doesn’t know what’s coming for him and everyone he loves and cares about.

When Lloyd fully realizes the extent of it all: D:

When other people finally realize the extent of it all and constantly remind Lloyd about it: D’:

[mantisgodsdomain]

Propaganda time? Propaganda time.

Fun fact: Marigold occupies the specific niche of villain as many comic book supervillains - the more dark the setting, the more she can get away with, and the deadlier of a threat she becomes.

Bug Fables, being a fairly light-hearted RPG, sticks her in "secret boss with horrific implications" territory, where she's not necessarily too dark to disrupt the E for Everyone rating but thinking on the facts presented for more than a few minutes makes everything rapidly enter something adjacent to the horrible implications of Snakemouth Den.

In settings closer to grimdark, however, she could probably become an extremely significant villain fairly easily even while remaining on the backlines, putting multiple main characters into permanent benching, major identity crises, and forced-to-kill-a-friend situations even without having to directly show her face.

In case of a genre upset, she is very much the kind of character where literally all of her plots could be foiled with a well-placed Bugs Bunny reducing her to a comedy bit.

[cloudbattrolls]

Blindsided

Jikiro Takami & Jameth Abnale | Present Night | Ailaht Hive

Goh Tat Ailaht kept several luxurious hives on Alternia, each one well-furnished and maintained by a team of staff. When Viltau Espino had contacted him wishing to discuss his friendship with his descendant, he’d invited the indigo over to the one nearest his mansion without the slightest hesitation.

He had no idea how much the man actually hated him, nor that it was all a distraction for two other trolls to make their move.

—

“Jiji, you know I love that body of yours, but right now I have to admit it is a bit inconvenient that you are such a hefty boy.”

“Don’t love how cozy we are right now? I’m hurt.”

“Not particularly!”

The bickering voices, while silenced by magic to anyone nearby, belonged to a pair of trolls also hidden by it from sight. They were currently squeezing themselves into a small open window at the top of Goh Tat’s hive, levitating dozens of feet in the air by a third spell.

Jamie Abnale, to his frustration, had to be carried by his kismesis, and the window was almost too small for Jikiro Takami. Which meant it was difficult for the midblood’s thick arms to carry him through without jostling him or shoving him against the other man’s chest at an awkward angle.

Normally, the ink mage would’ve simply widened the window with magic, but the difficult part of this job wasn’t getting inside, or doing what they’d come for - it was leaving no trace.

If Goh Tat even suspected something was off, he could come for Viltau or Hazard alike.

Jikiro, however, was patient, and while his clothes were slightly ripped from his entry, he eased himself inside and had managed to not spill any of his dark teal blood. He gently set Jamie down, the kookaburra troll taking out his crutches again with relief.

The pair looked around the room they were in. Clean, well-kept, but it had a distinct feeling of not being lived in, the modernistic furniture and decorations all in too good of condition. It felt more like a display for a magazine than a real place.

“Feel a little bad for his staff getting caught in the crossfire.” Jikiro said, taking out his paper and ink pen to write with as he sat down in a plush black armchair. “They didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, who cares, Jiji? They’ll be fine, it’s not like we’re actually blinding anyone, not even this absolute bastard. I don’t know why we aren’t, but -“

“Because we’re already going behind Hazard’s back, dumbass. Plus, if we actually blind him, he’ll definitely suspect shit. Much easier to play off some minor damage as uh oh oops, goodbye psiionics.”

The blueblood had to snort at that one as he took out his own technological tools.

“Tragically, you make a point, roughly spoken as it is.”

“Somehow that doesn’t bother me because I’m not trying to win a fucking award for most pretentious sentences ever.” Retorted the tealblood.

The blueblood flipped him off, and both got to work.

Jikiro put up a sensor ward, just in case, then took out a spell he’d written ahead of time and did a magical scan of the hive. This way, they’d know exactly where Jamie would have to send his little robots for total coverage over the electrical system. The things would then melt away into basic molecules after they were activated later, leaving no trace.

His spell worked in tandem with one of Jamie’s own devices, turning magical information into numbers and units on the screen. The blueblood grinned as he used the information to type his own commands -

“Shit.” Said Jikiro suddenly. “Someone’s coming - put the stuff away.”

Jamie cursed in Gaelige but did so as Jikiro stowed his own supplies, and the tealblood picked up his spade again, ready to flee in case they had to. They were still invisible, at least, nor could their voices be heard, but if someone bumped into them…

An oliveblood woman walked in, talking into an earpiece.

“No, ma’am, I didn’t see or hear anything on the feed, but the presence alarm was still tripped…the room does seem empty…it might’ve just been a bug or something, you know how sensitive they are.”

Jikiro cursed quietly. He and Jamie had surveyed Goh Tat’s security measures with magic before they came over, but they hadn’t realized the asshole could detect literal physical bodies leaving or entering. What was the trigger? Body temp? Motion? It clearly wasn’t size, if a goddamn bug could set them off.

Huh. If that was the case…

Jikiro silently willed a dragonfly into existence - thank god he’d drunk a decent amount of ink before he came. It wouldn’t last as long as a spoken spell would, especially given how much focus it took to sustain it, but maybe it would make the greenblood leave.

The olive saw it as it flitted in and out of the window, as if it was a real bug from outside, and went ‘ah.’

“Definitely a bug, ma’am. I’ll get rid of it and come back down.”

What? Oh, for fuck’s sake - 

Jikiro made the dragonfly go right for her face so she wouldn’t try to cross over to the window, and the olive yelled before he let her catch and ‘kill’ it, additionally glad he’d been practicing his illusions with Velour. It was a quick and sloppy one, but luckily the woman wrapped up the false corpse in a wad of tissues and threw it in a trashcan, looking quite shaken.

Then she finally turned around and left.

Jikiro waited a few moments to make sure the woman was gone, then put Jamie back down.

“She wouldn’t last a second against the artifice.” Jamie snickered, sitting back down and taking his crutches out again.

“I don’t recall you beating it up either.” Jikiro muttered.

“It ambushed me.” Jamie grumbled.

“Me too, dipshit, and I still got off a spell on it.”

“Oh, shut your wretched trap, Jiji.”

The tealblood smirked at his kismesis but got back to work, pulling out the spell he’d written beforehand to both physically damage Goh Tat’s eyes and remove his ability to see the future.

Despite Izanam’s bullshit, the ink maker still found it difficult to imagine having someone like her around on-planet all the time. That was even worse. At least Izanam hadn’t cared who he was friends with; only who he dated. Which had still been fucking stupid with how far she took it, but he could kind of get it.

From what little Hazard had said, Goh Tat was worse, and even harder to counter given his ability.

Thank god the cerulean actor didn’t know anything about magic.

Still, they had to make this look like a completely normal technological failure, or he might suspect intentional sabotage, and then he’d immediately blame Hazard. 

Jamie projected a map of where he was sending his robots in the hive, commanding them as they spread out and took their places. Jikiro nodded in thanks, using it to make final adjustments to his spell. 

No matter where Goh Tat was when the sabotage hit, the spell would target him, hidden in the actual burst of light that would happen as Jamie made the system go haywire for just a few moments until the emergency shutdowns kicked in. 

It was almost like the spell he’d used to take down Gliese, Jikiro realized, smiling at the thought.

They’d made it look like a wiring mishap, a tiny flaw in the design that had slowly grown worse over the sweeps. True, they were banking on the blueblood not being an expert in electrical systems, but somehow they didn’t think he’d be looking carefully enough - or have anyone who could - to tell that it was entirely fabricated.

It wouldn’t trigger now - that would be too suspicious, with Viltau still present. Nor would they leave at the same time he did, just in case. Jikiro had set up a temporary portal not far away so they could return to the Takami estate easily once they were done.

Then the tealblood cursed, his sensor ward tripping right as he was finishing up casting the spell based on Jamie’s projection.

That fucking oliveblood. If he tried to scare her off with a bug again, it would be a little suspicious.

No, they had to get out of here, and they had no time to struggle with the window.

“Jamie. She’s coming back. Curl into a ball and put your crutches away.“

The bespectacled cobalt squinted at him as he shut down his device and shoved it in his sylladex, then did as Jikiro said.

“This better not be - ”

Jikiro scooped up the skinny bird troll with both hands, as he’d done so many times, throwing him out the window right as the oliveblood came in and he spoke the same levitation spell they’d used to get in, going right after him.

He covered the breeze from his movement with a breeze from outside, and made it out seconds before the oliveblood shut the window and locked it.

Fuck. He’d left a few strands of fabric from his clothing behind on the edges. Barely noticeable, but…

No, wait. She was leaving. She didn’t seem to have seen them.

Jikiro snapped his fingers and the black fabric disappeared, then went to get Jamie.

The kookaburra troll looked quite startled to be floating in midair, flailing as he tried to avoid looking at the ground.

“Jiji! Never do that again!”

He laughed softly as he took the yelling blueblood in his arms once more, then descended to the ground slowly and gently.

“Promise it won’t become a habit, freckles.”

“If we do another heist, I’m upgrading my crutches.” He sniffed. “Enough of this being carried business.”

“Don’t think Vil has anything else planned for us, I wouldn’t sweat it.”

“Remind me why we did this again?” The cobalt grumbled as he put his crutches back on and the two began to walk toward the temporary portal.

The ink maker looked into the engineer’s two-tone blue eyes.

“You know why.”

They both looked back at the opulent hive, thinking of the man inside it, and what he had done to his descendant. How he misused his abilities to spy on Hazard and beat him bloody.

“I do.” Jamie said quietly, rubbing the spot on his arm that had once been turned pitch-black, back when his kismesis had trapped a deadly poison there to postpone his death at Izanam’s hands.

“I certainly do.”

[navree]

i say this as someone who felt the show had good bones, someone who, like grrm, has liked some of the changes they've made in this show like helaena's dragon dreaming and aegon's fatherhood and rhaenicent (i'm a big ole rhaenicent shipper y'all know that) and adding in the lore about aegon the conqueror also having targaryen prophetic abilities, but this is just spot on. this is the exact same thing i was talking about when discussing how cutting nettles makes all these problems for how the tory moves on going forward. f&b isn't crafted like a narrative but it is still fiction, grrm chose certain pieces based on what would make the best story. and some of the changes the show made create a weaker story (b&c is incredibly weaker both in the immediate deed and its aftermath/effect on the audience than if they had been faithful to the book description, for example), and more drastically, are making the sequence of events that has to come in the next two seasons borderline nonsensical. and that is a problem that should be called out, because it's not book purism, it's recognizing subpar writing.

[mutopians]

new ripple effect chapter let's go !!! things are going DOWN in dublith

and if THAT doesn't convince you to check out the chapter, here's a fun excerpt from part of it:

Julius gave a stretch.  "Well," he said, "now that that's taken care of, we should head back into the bar. Bido, you can come too." Bido perked up at that. Al watched his tail swish behind him almost with the same excitement as a dog. When they finally neared the bar, Ulchi suddenly called out from the entrance.  "Boss!" Ulchi said. "There's a state alchemist here to see you!" Julius went very, very still.  Al watched as his expression shifted into something incredibly dark, followed by something incredibly…Al couldn't put his finger on it. It was almost protective, but there was something else to it. Something he was missing.  "I'm not going to let them take what's mine," he said, voice low. He readjusted the bottom of his gloves, pulling them so they were as far up on his hand as they could possibly go. He turned back to the others.  "Martel, Dolcetto, you're with me," he said. "Roa, you stay here. Bido, you know where to go. And Alphonse…" He paused.  "Go with Bido," Julius said. 

that's you, hopefully running to the chapter to check out what's going on over in dublith

[meyerlansky]

also ftr. there's a difference between "i'm harassing the writers/directors/whoever over a decision i didn't like" [bad, fucking obviously] and "i don't think a show should be renewed after a weak season" [value-neutral whether other people agree or not]

[spearxwind]

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