#again this is all for someone who wants to write in character. or arguably in character

[jacqcrisis]

Hello! Sorry if you're tired of talking about your older writing instead of the current works which I also love, but I wanted to say I love your characterization(s) of Charon throughout your work and I was wondering if you had any tips on understanding his character's core/just how to write him true to form?

Listen. Listen. I can talk about Charon all day. I love him. I have other hades AUs I haven’t even talked about on here that I think about often to this day and if I ever get the itch, they will be written.

And that’s very kind of you to say. Idk if I write him true to any form, but I am extremely anal about keeping characters as in character as possible. Or at the very least, as believably in character as I can. When I plan on writing a character for a longer fic, whether AU or not, I usually try to find out everything about them and break them down to the bone before building it back up. What is in canon that I can use to build back a believable skeleton that is fleshed by what I can infer from the bones underneath?

So core character concepts for Charon that are in canon that I use:

Greedy - he likes him gold and him stuff. No matter what universe you are writing in, this is one of, if not, the biggest driving factor for any job or hobby he has. He wants money, he likes money, and he knows how to make money.

Protective - of his things, his lifestyle, and the people he cares about. He’ll fight Zagreus, who he likes, if he touches his shit. One of the few emotions you can get out of him in game is anger at possibly uncovering his ‘thing’ with Hermes. He keeps Persephone’s location a secret (thereby protecting her) because either he cares for her or because Nyx does and Charon cares about his mom.

Difficult to discern - in part because he’s a big spooky skull man whose face you can’t see and who doesn’t talk, but it also seems to be mostly on purpose. Charon can communicate, given what other characters know more about him, but he specifically chooses not to. What you come to know about him, you find out through context clues, what other people say, and your own sleuthing which leads to-

Extremely private and disinterested in other people’s opinions about him - to the point, he doesn’t care what the GODS THEMSELVES think. All of them think he’s vile and nasty (save for Hermes). The people he’s close with know the kind of person he is, and that’s what matters. On top of that, he has his secrets, and he keeps them hidden, one of these secrets being who he is as a person. 

Independent - Nyx states she doesn’t worry about him because he’s extremely good at doing his own thing and he likes it that way, unlike her other failsons. His intentions are all on his own, and he doesn’t answer to anyone; not her, not Hades, not the gods, only himself. If he is helping someone, it is for his own reasons (maybe because he cares, probably because of money, possibly because Hermes asked).

Clever - He’s literally the head of an underground smuggling ring in game. Like this man knows how to do shit, make money, and get away with it. He’s capable of thinking many steps ahead, and able to plan for the long con.

Methodical - He's got his routine. He rows his boat. He counts his coin. He's mans his shops. He does things his way. He has his methods and he sticks to them.

Patient - that one's a gimme. He’s older than most of the gods and paddles a ferry around at the pace of molasses and doesn’t speak and does nothing to really speed Zagreus’ plight along. Clearly he understands and practices patience. 

Good Fighter - he’ll beat your ass.

Asexual (of some kind) - Aphrodite directly states she can’t get to Charon as he only ‘lusts after coin’. He is immune to machinations of the goddess of sex and beauty. But not the god of merchants, clearly.

A Gentleman - by Hermes’ opinion. Hermes really likes Charon. Please say hi to him for Hermes because- 

Charon Really Likes Hermes - no matter what you think is going on between them, if it’s just friendship, or professional associates, or he’s in love, this is canon. He ignores everyone at the party for Hermes and vice versa. He’s very protective of the thing they have going on. He specifically lets Hermes into the Underworld far enough that Zeus can’t sense him anymore. Hermes hangs out in his shop. Hermes boon is THE MOST EXPENSIVE ONE AT HIS LAST SHOP NO MATTER WHAT. I cannot stress how much Charon gives Hermes a pass and how much Hermes seemingly knows about him despite the other core concepts listed above I just- I- AH

Anyways, from those bones, you can start to infer and build back a believable version of the character for whatever you are writing. Is he kind and thoughtful? Probably, given how the people who know him talk about him. Is he loyal? Given how he acts in regards to his inner circle, you could say yes. Does he have a temper? Probably not, given he doesn’t care much about other people’s opinions nor reacts very much to anything in canon save for very specific circumstances. Is he lonely? Probably, on some level considering he’s alone all the time and how protective he is of his buddy, etc, etc, etc. 

The bones justify what you are putting on top of them and with that, for whatever thing you're writing, you can build up a believable version of a character. Even in the most extreme of AUs, like in the 70’s and on a beach in America or maybe in a dnd type universe where a character might be a lich for…reasons, as long as the core concepts are in place and every decision or authorial deviation from canon the characters make stem from those, it will be fine.

[avelera]

So apparently, Fortiche shared concept art where Jayce's Hexcorization in the cave would extend all the way to his face:

And this is really interesting to me from a narrative perspective, here's why:

Much of S2 Jayce's arc is incredibly... punitive. Like, he is really being punished step by step for everything he did wrong in S1. From Renni terrorizing and almost killing him for the death of her son, to Viktor leaving him "for another woman" (the Hexcore as represented by Sky) much like Jayce left him for politics as represented by Mel, there's really a sense of the narrative not only tearing Jayce down to his bare essentials (something that's very common for TV writing to do, by the way, it's very common that you want to see characters reduced down to who they are for their "long night of the soul" moment before they learn the lessons of what they really stand for before going into the climax armed with those lessons), but Jayce's time in the cave really goes even further than that and not only does S2 take away his political career, his Hextech ambitions, his state as someone able-bodied, much of his strength, and certain other gifts, it looks like in this draft they considered taking away his beauty too.

I think it would have been interesting either way if they had, but I want to dive into the narrative structure of action and punishment in Arcane, why Hexcorizing Jayce's face might have been a step too far and not really addressed a lesson he needed to learn, and my thoughts on punitive character arcs in general in Arcane (or lack thereof), specifically with regards to Jayce and Caitlyn.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I always found it interesting that much of the hate directed towards Jayce by the fans was for his perceived incompetence in difficult moments, rather than at how naturally gifted he seems to be at everything.

When I first watched S1 on my own, I thought Jayce was a bit unbearable because everything comes so easily to him (after Viktor becomes his partner and Hextech takes off as a result, that is). He is naturally beautiful, he's built like a god but doesn't appear to do any sort of exercise routine to maintain this other than working in the forge, he becomes the Man of Progress and rockstar of Piltover pretty much without trying, girls are literally sighing dreamily as he goes by.

He's also naturally a genius, from what we see, revolutionizing multiple industries with one invention. Even his rescue as a child is a literal miracle and it spurs him to create an invention that makes him a rockstar. When he enters politics, he immediately dominates, to the point where he's able to get a unanimous vote to overthrow the founder of the city within weeks of going there. Even in battle he's naturally gifted and naturally lucky during the raid of the Shimmer factory (up until the death of Renni's son), even though he has no prior skills as far as we know. He also wins the love of arguably the most beautiful woman in the series, again, seemingly without trying.

Then, S2 doesn't just take all of this away from him, it seems to go a step further into actually punishing Jayce for how easy and miraculous his life was in S1.

I'm of two minds about the Hexcorization reaching his face, but I have a hypothesis. I think it would have looked fucking rad but, I kinda get why they didn't do it:

Because Jayce's good looks are not something he can control, unlike the other things the narrative punishes him for.

Insofar as he can control his looks, he gives up on the clean-cut, immaculate "Golden Boy" image. Even in the idealized astral plane, he keeps most of the marks of his time in the pit like his hair and beard. I think it's because Jayce likes who he became down there. The clean-cut version of him was always the mask of him trying to please others, Jayce's appearance after he emerges from the cave is him shedding the opinions of others (contrast this with how Viktor idealizes himself in the astral plane, removing all marks of his illness. This isn't a criticism, just an interesting point of contrast).

So basically, my theory is Fortiche may have pulled back on Hexcorizing Jayce's face on the one hand to soften the visuals a bit, but secondly because it keeps the focus on punishing Jayce for things he chose to do, rather than things he doesn't really have control over.

But make no mistake, the narrative comes down hard on Jayce in S2, for every little thing the fans could and often did hate him for in S1. He pays for all of them, arguably in excess of what he maybe deserved, since as he says he didn't ask for any of this. But he did go along with it, and there's where the hammer of consequence (quite literally) comes down on him, tears away all his privileges, drags him down to literally the level of Viktor when he first left the undercity and says, "You have to do it all again but now focused on what really matters, and it's going to be ten times harder than it ever was."

This, in my opinion, is why Jayce is so popular coming out of S2. It is a hell of an arc, it's a hell of a redemption! You gave the man everything any man could want, then you took it all away, and then as his crowning moment of showing he has truly learned these lessons and made up for his mistakes, he makes possibly the most loving gesture possible, puts his weapons down, and reaches out to the person he loves most and literally sacrifices himself on the altar of his mistakes to make things right and show Viktor he is loved, and to protect Viktor from the horrifically lonely fate of his future self. It doesn't get any more noble, loving, or self-sacrificing than that.

Because more than we like to see a character punished we like to see them learn from their mistakes and come back better. Jayce's S2 nobility is earned, perhaps even to excess, no one can question whether he suffered enough to make up for what he did in S1 but even the most uncharitable read of him in S1, his biggest hater, would have to agree his time spent starving to death in agony, alone in that cave for months, has got to be just about the worst punishment a human can face and live.

Which is one reason I must add that I find it a little puzzling that Arcane's creators didn't predict the hate that Caitlyn would get in S2.

Keep in mind, because this is very important, the Arcane creators did not make S2 in response to fan reactions to S1. S2 was already in production and the script was locked in and done before anyone outside their organizations saw S1. So nothing that happens in S2 is as a result of fan response.

But, the creators did understand that Jayce was going to need to suffer narrative punishment for what he did in S1 in order to be redeemed, whether they predicted how hated he would be after S1, they did predict that redemption would be necessary. And boy-howdy, did they give him a hell of a redemption arc!

But Caitlyn's S2 actions are almost in lock-step similar to Jayce's S1 actions, being manipulated (by a Medarda!) into accepting power, but maybe not having a choice in the matter, but still maybe expanding that power on their own because it is useful in its own right. Caitlyn also makes terrible mistakes. A child doesn't die but people in the undercity do get hurt during her rage-fuled raids, even if most of them are mob bosses and their goons. The narrative asks, does that make it right? Caitlyn like Jayce hurts the person closest to her who is from the undercity and uses bigoted language against the people of the undercity to Vi's face in much the same way that Jayce did to Viktor on the bridge, though in Jayce's defense, he apologized immediately after.

So, seeing how hated Jayce was coming out of S1, to the point where there's still barely any merchandise of him, I'm shaking my head rather ruefully that there was so much merch made for Caitlyn this time around. And I get it! Caitlyn and Vi were very popular after S1, they are intentionally THE main romance of the show and it was a very popular romance coming out of the innocence of their meet cute in S1.

But it's a romance that dearly needed a longer third act if you wanted Caitlyn to be as embraced after her mistakes as Jayce was after making up for his all through S2. You need to give her as long or at least as in-depth of a redemption act with as much suffering and acknowledgment of her mistakes if you want Vi and Caitlyn at the end to get celebrated the way Jayce making it up to Viktor is, because as much as I understand the choice to focus on pacing instead of exposition, and I do think Caitlyn's apology and realization of her mistakes are there on the page more than people complain, I do also agree that it is a bit "blink and you'll miss it" even if it's there. Jayce got a whole episode of being thrown into the Torment Nexus for his mistakes, real or imagined, if you didn't like him or his choices, you definitely got the sadistic glee of watching life kick the stuffing out of him for what he did in S1.

But besides her fight with Ambessa, which was a result of a confluence of many events in the story, not just Caitlyn's mistakes, Caitlyn doesn't really suffer much for the mistakes she made to those she loves. Her losing an eye to Ambessa didn't happen because she said bigoted things to Vi or became a short-term puppet dictator of Piltover. It was a result of Ambessa's actions and maneuvering more than it was a result of Caitlyn's personal mistakes to her loved ones.

In contrast, Jayce's time in the pit gave him the chance to reflect on and suffer for the the mistakes he made that led to the Anomaly that led to him being down in this pit, and what he would do to make it up to his loved ones like Viktor when he returned. Caitlyn never got a moment like that and from what I'm seeing of the vitriol directed towards her, so similar to what Jayce got after S1, it seems like she really needed it if we were going to like her to the same extent again, in a way uncomplicated by lingering questions about whether she ever truly learned the lessons her character needed to learn to grow as a person.

And it's just funny to me that a narrative that was so aware that this whole huge punishment arc was needed to rehabilitate Jayce wasn't aware that we'd need one for Caitlyn too, at least if they're going to move all that merch they made for her (please give us Jayce merch, Riot, I'm begging).

[urperfectcinnamonroll07]

Just A 'Little' Taste

Requested?: no pairing(s): john price x afab!reader genre: smut warning(s): oral (f recieving), price being a horny mf, implied age gap (not specified how big), overstimulation summary: 𝘯/𝘢 word count: 725 a/n: im back. i promise to you i have been trying to write and trying to make it good, but while i am doing so, enjoy this little drabble for my (arguably) favourite cod character. remember to eat and drink something, love yas, mwah! -cilla

john was always either in a good mood or a bad mood when he came back from a mission with tf141. it depended on how well the mission went, but usually one of his team members (either kate or gaz) would send you a quick message to warn you if he was in a bad mood, sometimes they would even send you a message to say he was in a good mood.

but, today, you didn’t get a message at all, meaning that either the task force was in trouble and couldn’t contact you, or that he had a good mission and was in a good mood.

it was the latter.

dinner was ready on the table, still warm as it had only just been cooked. it must have been your intuition that made you cook it when you did, as when you had just set the table, john walked through the door with a grin on his face, slightly obscured by his beard that had definitely grown a little bit since you had last seen him.

you smiled and took helped him take his coat off. the whole time you were trying, john’s hands were planted firmly on your hips and he was trying to kiss your cheek. he missed his pretty little wife after all, he had been gone for a little over a month.

“give me a taste” he mumbled against your cheek as he kissed practically every square inch of your face.

“but dinner-“ you try to protest, you had tried hard with the dish you had prepared. carbonara, plus is was hard to reheat, so you would have to eat it warm otherwise it may not be able to be warmed up again.

“dinner can wait, i want a taste of this pretty little pussy first. bet she’s been so eager to be fucked and filled in the past month” he practically groans the last part of his sentence.

and that’s how you ended up with his head between your thighs, god knows how many orgasms in.

his tongue was fucking slowly inside of you, his beard was absolutely soaked and your legs shook with how many times you had come. the overstimulation blinded you as you reached another high, arching your back as your juices gushed all over john’s chin.

“just one more” he chanted as he road you out, the wave of ecstasy washing over you in the matter of a few seconds as you felt the scrape of john’s beard against your pearled clit once again. you jutted your hips away in response.

he only pulled you closer, lapping up every drop of your juices as if he had been stuck in the sahara desert for over a month while he was away on deployment. he might as well have been, you never knew where he went on missions, and you didn’t really care.

as long as he came back and ate you out as if you would disintegrate if he wasn’t touching you the whole time.

john nipped your clit with his teeth before he smoothed his tongue back over it, making sure when you jolted away that he pulled you closer than he had before. His beard kept scratching against your clit in the best way possible, you jolted and clenched around nothing, you tugged on his hair and arched your back as much as you could as another orgasm washed down over you in the most delicious way possible.

“just one more” he repeated the words he had been saying for the past half an hour over and over again like a mantra, that if he didn’t reassure himself that he was giving you the best pleasure imaginable, that you would leave him and find someone who would do better.

you wouldn’t, and you always knew that the next day your legs would feel like jelly and you wouldn’t be able to walk properly without his help. but he would clean you up, and he would help you clear away the food you didn’t eat last night as he was too preoccupied eating something else.

after all, it was never just ‘one more’ it was at least another four, or until he was satisfied that you were satisfied, or until he fell asleep in-between your thighs, his faced smushed by the fullness of them.

[shirefantasies]

Can I please request a preference thing with how the fellowship (maybe plus eomer, Arwen, eowyn and Haldir if you also write for them) react to a person they have a crush on who is physically affectionate with their friends.

The person holds their hand, puts their head on their shoulder, plays with their hair, cuddles etc.

Oh heck yessss! I do plan on writing for them too so here’s a good start 🥰 hope you enjoy this! Also, cut because loooong post 😉

LoTR Characters When You’re Naturally Physically Affectionate

Aragorn

✧ Is kind of surprised but also plays it off??? Like he doesn’t want to get his hopes up and assume anything wrong at least at first.

✧ Initiates back but in really soft ways, like tugging your blankets up higher about you when he sees you’ve fallen asleep at night.

✧ Smiles privately to himself on a later evening when you fall asleep at his side, head snug against his shoulder. The fact that you trust him so well is something he truly hopes to be worthy of, just like the glowing feeling in his heart.

✧ One day you straight-up just slide the ring of Barahir off his hand to try it on yourself, not fully aware of its significance. You mean it no harm and do even less, and something about the gesture touches Aragorn so all he does is smile and shake his head, asking if it fits.

✧ You soften him so much, so much you can see it in his eyes and his actions. When you brush some of his hair back out of his face, he kisses your hands lightly, eyes searching yours.

Legolas

✧ Kind of in a state of perpetual surprised pikachu around you tbh

✧ Like sure, his best friends don’t come from the same culture so he sees enough of that, but they aren’t usually very affectionate with him in that way so you casually sliding a hand over his shoulders to get something behind him has him flustered in a way he hasn’t felt before.

✧ Finds himself mirroring your actions a bit in his own way; he pulls you back from harm by your waist or elbow, holding on just a bit longer than he absolutely needs to.

✧ His eyes widen when you tell him his hair is beautiful and ask to braid it, but he accepts because what harm can it do? You tell him you’re doing a French braid and he’s relishing your touch, asking you to explain what that is.

✧ Smooth prince pulls the ‘your hands are cold’ on you to flip the script and let you know the affection is reciprocated, cradling your hands so gently in his own.

Boromir

✧ Is surprised by your forwardness, but in the most pleasant way. He loves someone who comes across so warm and hearty!

✧ The first time you clap a hand to his shoulder after a good fight, he mirrors the gesture immediately with a great warrior’s camaraderie without realizing anything.

✧ Goes from surprised to grinning when you offer to braid some hair out of his face for him. Milks the crap out of it, tilting so he can feel your touch as much as possible!

✧ Has no qualms about holding your arm or hand to walk together since you don’t, always offering it like a gentleman.

✧ Holds you back from danger firmly, keeping his grip as he whispers to you to stay back, care for you burning fiercely in his eyes. When you’re safe from harm, he finally voices how much you mean to him.

Gimli

✧ His eyebrows shoot up into his hairline when you first get comfortable enough to act that way, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love it!

✧ Dwarves are arguably the most physical race, so the fact that you express yourself this way is only the most pleasant of shocks.

✧ You find yourself playing with his hair one day and he stiffens, reminding himself over and over again as you begin twisting it into braids that unfortunately the significance is not the same for you as it is him. Maybe one day…

✧ Loves that you grab his arm when you laugh and elbow him playfully; begins doing the same right back and telling more jokes as an excuse for you both to do it more!

✧ Because you tend to lean on him in conversation or when you’re tired, Gimli sort of develops this habit of affectionate mini-headbutts like a cat. Your forehead? Softly bonked often by your favorite dwarf but only when his helmet is off of course 😌

Frodo

✧ It’s not a culture shock for him, so it’s not a source of confusion but it does have him overthinking because are you just doing it as intimate friends or…?

✧ Basically short-circuits for a second the first time you take his hand, sliding his palm against yours to compare the sizes of them; his eyes widen, but a smile gradually forms upon his face at the warm contact.

✧ Adores the way you sit close to him to read together or tell stories, your arms flush together as you share warmth- it’s like a little piece of home.

✧ Doubly so when you see the toll the ring takes on him and run a soothing hand up and down his back- he could practically tear up from gratitude and the way his heart explodes for you.

✧ You kissed him on the cheek once when he gifted you a sketch he knew you’d like and that feeling joins the imaginations and memories swirling through his head before sleep or when he loses sight of all the world’s blessings beneath the ring’s voice. He wonders if you know what a treasure you are- perhaps he’ll tell you tomorrow.

Sam

✧ What are you trying to do, kill him? JK mostly but man will be blushing constantly around someone like you!

✧ Leans into your touch so hard when you play with his hair, softly brushing leaves and tangled alike from the curls unabashedly like a sweet puppy.

✧ But also? Sam isn’t afraid to gently ask for what he wants from time to time? “Oh, um, I was wondering…got a real bad knot here and I just wanted to see if you were up to one of your famous massages?”

✧ You took his hand once to lead him off to look at some gorgeous flowers he could identify, so Sam finds himself plucking up the courage to take yours after a fight once, swearing he means to his best to protect you.

✧ Wraps his extra blanket around you so gently, smiling as your hands brush his to accept the new warmth about your shoulders, lingering over them for a moment.

Merry

✧ He’s a bit of a physical person too and teasing to boot so you two quickly become two peas in a pod!

✧ Both of you will teasingly sling arms around the other’s shoulders as you joke around or have mock conferences.

✧ Footsie at campfire time. Gimli complains about it a little because something about thinking you’re going to make him spill his soup or whatever, but you two barely pay attention when all your focus is on your childish little nudging game!

✧ Every now and again he just gets the widest smile at your antics, though, grinning as you sit with your arm in his or a hand resting upon his back.

✧ Will straight-up tell you you’re being adorable, then skip off smirking when he’s finally gotten you to be a bit flustered! You can’t even come up with a comeback to that for once…but maybe a confession? Big brain Merry wbk 👀

Pippin

✧ He’s in heaven, actually. Physical affection is his favorite and the one thing that ever stops him is being unsure if the other party will be uncomfortable. But you clearly aren’t, so game on 😎

✧ You got something out of his hair then ended up playing with his curls for a bit, brushing them back into place and arranging them, so he ups that by brushing some out of your face the next chance he gets, eyes never leaving yours.

✧ Since Pippin loves to sing and dance, he’s always pulling you to your feet to join him. But it doesn’t stop there of course as he holds your hand or waist depending on how open of a twirl the song entails!

✧ You two never sit up straight- someone’s head is always on the other’s shoulder or if you’re both feeling the lean, your heads are resting gently against each other, holding each other up.

✧ When he worries, you lay your hand over his and that’s it for him. He knows he’s lost, not even caring if you see how much love is in his eyes as he looks at you, especially when you gently squeeze it.

Eomer

✧ Unlearning his toxic masculinity a bit, so he is hesitant to initiate back at first, but as time goes on he can’t help questioning if there truly is more to your intentions…

✧ You tease him a lot, trying to get him to drop the serious facade, so putting your hands on his shoulders and making eye contact for mocking pep talks just has him chuckling and shaking his head at you.

✧ But when you wordlessly begin massaging his shoulders after a long day of training, hands kneading out tension in the most wondrous of ways, that has him flushing and trying to glance back at your expression without you noticing, hoping he can read something, anything.

✧ Eomer loves the way you push him when you laugh, hands against his chest or arm as you fall upon him in mirth. And if his arm ends up around you during that process? Oh well 😏

✧ Gets highkey jealous if he sees you being affectionate with anyone else, pouting because he thought he was special 🥺…but only for a moment before he’s marching over there to tell you how he feels once and for all, confessing his desire to be the one receiving most of your affection!

Haldir

✧ It definitely takes him some getting used to because he is a more reserved person and physical affection is a bit less common in elf culture…we’ve seen how surprised he is about hugs after all 😉

✧ Makes it his personal mission not to jump whenever your habit of tapping his shoulder to get attention comes into play, trying to stay stock-still and cool as a cucumber, but he can’t help feeling the corners of his mouth tug up at your giggle when he fails.

✧ Loses his absolute mind the day you gently run your fingers up his arm to get your attention, like it can’t escape your notice how he tenses, can it?

✧ Haldir expresses himself more with his words than with physical action. Every time you go out he makes sure you’re properly armed or dressed for the weather, and he always sharpens your sword himself, no one else is allowed to do it.

✧ Your actions are definitely a prompt to confess for him, like he would have sat on his feelings for quite some time but in the end he can’t help coming up to you to question your behavior and if it has any of the intent he dearly hopes it does!

Eowyn

✧ She isn’t used to this given her upbringing, but in all honesty it’s refreshing and she enjoys the feeling of love and comfort it brings.

✧ You see her looking worried and squeeze her shoulder, pulling her into your arms when she turns around. You can just feel her exhale, tension melting from her body.

✧ It quickly becomes you two’s ‘thing’ to link arms and you almost always walk together like that, screw whatever Grima has to say about it he won’t be around for long anyway 😏

✧ She thinks her heart is about to burst the day you two make home of the hills for an afternoon and you sit her down to weave flowers in her beautiful golden hair. Your hands are so gentle, never causing a single pull or tangle.

✧ She is forward with her words even if it takes some time, so one day Eowyn pulls you aside and with her hand in yours tells you how much she appreciates the glow of your presence in her life, the smiles you bring her.

Arwen

✧ Most people aren’t very playful with her, so she finds it very refreshing how relaxed, affectionate, and fun you are.

✧ You grab her hand and swing your joined hands between the two of you and all she can do is laugh merrily!

✧ One day, she wants to try the new sweets you’ve made, but imagine her surprise when you hand-feed it to her. Being an elf of such poise and grace, she doesn’t make a mess at all somehow despite her eyes firmly being on yours and nowhere near your creation 👀

✧ Arwen’s favorite habit of yours is the way you’ll take her hand and spontaneously twirl her around like you’re showing her off or having an impromptu dance. It lightens the weight of all other things for a moment and makes her feel like a queen!

✧ Repaying the favor, she makes sure you’re her first dance at every party. You open her up, giving her complete comfort to approach you and interlock your fingers, asking you if you won’t please her with your company for a bit. Of course you always say yes- you would even if she didn’t given you that teasing smile.

[musicalslugs]

Grace and the Lords in Black: an analysis.

Okay, so, this may be obvious; although I haven’t seen anyone mention this as of yet. The link between Grace Chastity and the Lords in Black is clear, I mean we’ve all agreed that she seems to be like that, and Dirty Dudes must Die highlights her “corruption” plainly.

That being said! I think there may be more.

Firstly, the Lords in Black mention/talk to Grace first, before Peter and Stephanie (the arguable proper protagonists of this story).

Sure, Blinky’s motif is obvious, it’s of eyes, of watching and of observation. But to speak to Grace first, even if it seems (on the surface level) that it’s just to flex their omniscience and make her uncomfortable, is a little strange. Especially since they then speak mostly (only) to Steph for the rest of the song [The Summoning].

Secondly, because if that were all this wouldn’t be a very good analysis, we have her (Grace) and Nibbly being echoes of eachother.

“Swallow” and “devour” are synonymous. Both fit into Nibbly’s motif of consumption. Now, Grace could’ve said anything. Absorb, harness, control etc. I think the wording here is particular. Not exactly the same, but clearly within the same ball park.

What is exactly the same though, is Grace Chastity and Wiggly.

This may seem a bit out of left field at first, but hear me out.

In The Summoning, it is said that “Wiggly wants his Wrath”, Wrath is a vice, a sin. It may not be the exact opposite of Chastity, however Chastity is to do with restraint, whereas Wrath is very much, not so. Moreover, Wrath can be defined as ‘a great anger that expresses itself in a desire to punish someone’. Now… who else could be described as wrathful? Obviously Max. And Grace. I mean, her song is called Dirty Dudes must Die. As well as being a direct reflection of Max, it implies that she wants to harm someone. Punish someone though? Well, yes. Grace says “This is the consequence of what you’ve done!” - she must believe that death is a worthy punishment for their actions (being ‘pervs’). Thus, Wrath.

Lastly, and this is where the exactly comes in, Grace and Wiggly both say the same things. (Again, of course, I could write another analysis on how Grace and Max reflect each other beautifully by also saying the same/extremely similar things) The difference between Grace saying similar things to Max, is that she and Wiggly aren’t similar. It’s the same.

Example A) Stephy / Stephie.

Upon rewatching Nerdy Prudes Must Die and listening to the album on repeat, I noticed that no one bar these two call Stephanie: Stephie. I know Grace calls Ruth, Ruthy and Peter, Petey- so her calling Stephanie, Stephie, makes sense linguistically. That doesn’t take from the fact that Wiggly is the only other ‘person’ to use that particular moniker.

Example B) “bloody bits”

A particularly strange phrase that these two say. However, not really. The point of this analysis is to point out the links between the Lords in Black and Grace Chastity, specifically Wiggly and Grace. By pointing out the parallels in their idiolects, I have come to the conclusion that they are not only linked but INCREDIBLY similar.

Both are characters that use cutesy, almost childish language (“mommy spot” / “belly-well”) to disguise the violence, the wrath that lays beneath the surface. Wiggly (as shown in Black Friday) uses it as a facade. Throughout Black Friday and throughout The Summoning, he expresses himself as non-threatening (“We’re all pally-wals.” etc) before eventually showing what’s beneath the surface (“..deck the fucking halls!” / “We don’t give a shit about your phone!”). Both times are as abrupt as each other, showing that Wiggly has a fairly short temper. Grace doesn’t necessarily have a short temper, instead she has periods of ‘sin’, when stressed: Dirty Girl, calling “God a son of a B-Word”, smoking (after), having sex with Max, the scene of her ordering hot water etc etc. The visage, her carefully constructed facade, slips. Wether it’s because deep down she doesn’t believe in God (possibly shown in her “are you religious?” conversation with Shapiro), or that due to her upbringing she’s being confined, restrained, controlled, and this is when her ‘true self’ begins to peer through the cracks.

Either way, these are two characters who use similar themes (one of childishness, the other of purity/innocence (which can also be linked to childishness)) to cover their violence, their real selves.

Uhhh- anyway, watch Nerdy Prudes must Die on Youtube- it gave me brain worms.

[superpyodan]

In Defence of Alex Mullner 🏈

I've been wanting to write this for a while, because I'm so tired of how often Alex appears to be misunderstood within the Stardew Valley fandom. I truly think that Alex is fundamentally minsunderstood, and as someone who thinks about him a lot (grave understatement), I wanted to put my two pence out there. Please hear me out 😭❤️ I have tried to keep this as objective as possible, based on character information.

(WC: 1085)

A common thing that is brought up about Alex’s character is that he is misogynistic. While I will not deny his misogyny (these are reasons, not excuses), I truly do not believe that, at his core, Alex is a misogynistic person. Something that people never seem to bring up about Alex is the severe lack of role models, especially male role models, in his life. His father was an abusive man, and his grandfather is grumpy and homophobic. A lot of the older men in Pelican Town are either horrible people (Clint, Lewis) or would likely not extend friendship or mentorship to Alex (Shane, Harvey, Demetrius). I would assume that Alex’s primary form of socialisation outside of his family was through gridball-related spaces — Sports teams, fan clubs, etc. There are, notoriously, spaces that are absolutely riddled with toxic masculinity. This, including the issues with his father (who, important to note, canonically didn’t treat Clara well also) have created socialisation problems in Alex’s life. All he’s known from other men is arrogance and toxicity, and because he has no role models, he believes that it’s the type of man he is also supposed to be, especially because he’s an athlete.

He knows it’s wrong, though. He knows, deep down, that this ‘persona’ he puts on is unfriendly and abrasive. He very quickly apologises to the player for it. Which, then leads me to the next point — Vulnerability.

Alex is very emotionally fragile. He’s had a difficult life, something that I assume that no one would argue against. His father was abusive, his mother died, and he lives with his grandparents, one of which is likely less than pleasant to live with. Evelyn is an angel, but she’s all Alex has. I would assume, though, that he barely even has Evelyn to help him with his issues. In Alex’s four heart event, the player finds him venting to his dog. Why would Alex be venting to his dog, if he had a support system? People who are open and willing to help him through his problems? During this heart event, when the player extends a caring hand towards Alex, he opens up about his difficult past. Then, Alex’s 6 heart event, is him once again expressing his own personal issues. His insecurities. His self-worth issues, arguably. Then, in his 8 heart event, he’s once again, upset, this time because of his mother’s death.

Once Alex is given permission to be vulnerable, it’s as if his emotional flood-gates open. Once he has a safe person (the farmer), he’s able to offload many year’s worth of pent up emotions. HIs abrasive exterior melts, and underneath it is a person who is, unquestionably, going through a lot. He’s not as arrogant as he expresses in the beginning. I would assume it’s a coping mechanism, of sorts. A mask to hide what’s going on, on the inside. He’s a gentle man, who has been hard-done by, by absolutely no fault of his own.

Similar to the fact that Alex has no support system, he also has no friends. I’m not entirely sure why this is — Perhaps because of his initial ‘arrogance’, or perhaps due to a fear of being mistreated, or perhaps because he feels (or is!) misunderstood. A big part of Alex’s character, and one that I don’t see mentioned often, is that he never goes to the saloon. Not even during the green rain events. Because of this, I’d assume that he misses out on a lot of social opportunities with the other younger people in town. Alex has Haley, but in canon, their relationship is very shallow. Both of them try to use the player as somewhat of a messenger pigeon between them, and once the player’s heart level is up with either of them, they stop hanging out as much. Alex. Does. Not. Have. Any. Friends. He is lonely, which likely adds to the issues previously mentioned.

‘’He shows off about gridball!!’ — Okay? Why shouldn’t he? He’s obviously talented, and puts a lot of work into his athleticism. This is a non-argument. Let the boy be proud of himself!

Then, there’s the gay issue. This is a little seperate, because it’s a whole other thing that’s mostly headcanon. However — Alex is one of a few bachelors who have a ‘gay’ storyline. As the male player, in Alex’s 10 heart event, he mentions that he was trying to push back his feelings for the player.

‘’I kept telling myself, you can’t have these kinds of feelings for another guy.’’

Many people in the fandom, including myself, are under the impression that Alex is gay, despite the ‘playersexual’ nature of all the romanceable characters. If this were canonically true, it would explain a lot about Alex as a character. Take all the things previously mentioned, on top of the fact that Alex is very obviously dealing with internalised homophobia, and his lonely and outcasted nature makes a lot of sense. Being gay and not having the means to express it can be a deeply isolating experience. Especially for Alex, who, again, is an athlete and has a homophobic grandfather; Two things that would, and do, greatly affect queer people’s ability to be confident in, or understand, their identities. It’s a huge question mark held above Alex’s character.

I think, ultimately, Alex doesn’t know who he is, even without taking his sexuality into account (though, it definitely adds to the situation). He’s never had the ability to explore himself, due to being put into a box as ‘the gridball guy’ with the dead mother and abusive father. He lives with his grandparents, so likely isn’t able to be as carefree as other characters (such as, say, Abigail). I also don’t think he’s able to be carefree because of the sheer amount of baggage he carries. He’s a sweet guy. Fragile, someone who needs another person (the player) to show him some love and care. He needs friendship and a shoulder to lean on, and he’s presumably never had either of those things. He shouldn’t be written off as arrogant or misogynistic, and I truly and wholeheartedly do not believe these things are true to who he actually is as a person.

[ilikepjo24]

On The Ashes of the Academy...

This will be a full review/analysis of the newest atla comic, now that I finally got my hands on it. I'll duel on some things more than others but overall, I'll share my unfiltered thoughts and feelings about it.

SpoliersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilersSpoilers!

First things first, this is such a hit-and-miss.

We're all glad Ursa is looking after Kiyi and we're all glad she sees that there was somthing wrong with Azula's upbringing, but ma'am, the school is not the problem. Sure, a bad learning environment doesn't benefit children in any way, but Azula's main problem was what was happening in her home, not in her school. Maybe, since you're finally considering taking a look in your daughter's childhood, you should also start looking inside and taking note of where you failed her. This just seems like an attempt at making Ursa look blameless by saying "Oh, look, Azula isn't inherently evil, it's her school that messed her up. Certainly, Zuko's perfect mom didn't contribute to it at all!"

I mean, if you want my opinion, you lost her when you subconsciously decided to give her less attention than Zuko, which, tragically, could have been before she was even born. But this series of panels, once again, does the same thing I mentioned above; passing the responsibility around. Ursa didn't lose Azula to someone or something. She let her go. And that's assuming that she even had Azula is the first place, at any point, which could be just wishful thinking. While Ozai, and the FN as a whole played a part, Ursa can't keep viewing them as the only parties responsible instead of holding herself accountable.

Zuko pisses me off her as well because he's doing the exactly same thing, but in a different way. He removes responsibility from Ursa, but instead of placing it on the school or his father, he seems to place it on Azula's very own nature, implying that her problem was just that she was Azula, and other kids under similar circumstances would have done better, simply because they are not Azula, which is simply not true. Azula's problem isn't that she's Azula, it's that she is a product of systematic propaganda and domestic abuse and neglect.

It must take lots of nerve to hire a person that's a product of Ozai's rule, that actively and publicly supports Ozai's way of doing things, and then being bothered and flabbergasted that this person wants to do things Ozai's way. Zuko, my man, hire a new headmistress. I've seen this lady once and I know better than to trust her. Are all that survival instincts Zuko ever had sliding right off his smooth, shiny brain? Either he is actively trying to sabotage himself, or he's just that stupid.

DOGSHIT. Arguably the most annoying thing about this comic, methinks. Such a lazy way of trying to redeem Mai. I understand that she's meant to be Zuko's love intrest, so she needs to be good and support his deals, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, this must be the worst way to do it. This is just anti-Azula propaganda by this point.

If you want to redeem a character, hot take, actually redeem them. Instead of actually moving forward with Mai's character, they're backpetaling. Instead of adding redeeming qualities, they are removing the bad ones in an underhanded way. Very lazy, very bad writing. Both Mai and Azula deserve better than this.

I have way too many thoughts about these bit specifically, but this is an overall review of the comic, so I don't want to duel on one thing apecifically. I' ll talk more about everything that I hate about this "twist" in regards to Mai's character and her relationship with Azula in a different post on a different day.

Can't wait to show this to the "Azula is abusive for thowing fire at an apple that was on top of Mai's head" people. Behold! Mai started throwing dangerous shit at Azula first. This is them becoming friends. If Azula is abusive for continuing the tradition, what does tha make Mai, the one who started it?

This is more amusing to me than frustrating, if I'm being honest. They are trying so hard to make Azula out to be this inherently evil hell creature, that they don't even realize how terribly they're failing. The only thing making this interaction intimidating is framing. Azula is genuinly just being a normal kid here. Seriously, I dare you to antagonize a kid and count the minutes until they pull the parent card. I've had kids tell me that their parent works in the environment of political figures and can get me fired unless I let them run wild. Children are terribly aware of their powerlessness even if they don't show it. Borrowing mommy and daddy's "power" to wield as a threat is very typical behavior, especially in new environments. Azula isn't any more evil than any other first grader is. Which, to be fair, is reletavily evil, dependend on who you ask XD.

"Being friends with her sucked. Yeah, she was the only person I had growing up that made me feel like I mattered, since my dad used me and my mom wanted me to be an unemotional porcelain doll, but she was evil."

Two faced. Too fake. Do better. I am officially a certified Mai hater.

At this point, Mai confuses me. On one hand, she acts as if Azula is the antichrist and being mean just for the hell of it. Then, when Kiyi asks, she seems to display some actual understanding towards Azula's situation. Seems to acknowledge that who Azula is right now is the handywork of a third party, the intentions of which Azula herself doesn't fully understand, but blindly follows anyway because what else can she really do? The third party includes the only parent that pays attention to her after all.

Listen closely, because I will say this once. I better not see any of you haters blame Azula for this. "Oh, Azula is still trying to take the throne-" Shut your bitch ass up. Azula is not talking to those guys. She's working with her Fire Warriors and has no interactions with those dudes. Their actions do not reflect on her in any way, shape, or form. Them waiting for her doesn't mean she's working with them or that she has promised them anything at all. They're popping off in the assumption that she's coming back and the assumption that she'll reward them when she does. Key word beinh assumption.

And that will be all for now folks. All in all, this comic sucked. It attempts to redeem Mai and to demonize Azula and, franky, it fails at both those tasks as far as I'm conserned.

I do have that the empathy Mai showcased towards Azula is the begining of something. That her new role as a teacher and her mission of helping clean up the rooten system that raised Azula will develop into a teaching moment for the cast and the fandom. That it'll show them that Azula isn't inherently evil and therefore not beyond redemption. I genuinely hope that, eventually, we'll get the redemption Hicks teased in The Spirit Temple and that she's just playing the long game.

But for that to happen, some things have to change. The sytematic abuse needs to be showcased even more. We need to see the neglect Azula endured at home. Ursa needs to be held accountable for her failures. Azula should be given the chance to be a kid, not a weapon. I want to see a comic taking place before she displayed her firebending abilities for the first time.

Do better, Hicks.

[v88sy]

Lmao but for real. Idk if it's bts drama with Ryan or something but it's getting more and more obvious. Bobby, his captain just died and the guy is just over there offering a cookie to Ravi in these trying times like an extra on set with a blank expression on his face.

I refuse to feel bad for enjoying this situation. Bvddie shippers have made their own bed. I don't like Ryan at all, but even I can admit there's only so much toxicity an actor can take. Buck was at least allowed to exist in his own right in their eyes even if they couldn't stand him canonically dating a man (so much for being LGBT warriors and caring for representation!). But the way they're obsessed with Eddie and try to bring every plot he has back to him being "gay" is exhausting and weird as fuck.

Imagine being an actor and being excited for the storyline your character is getting that season and your fans are just like "we don't care, when are Buck and Eddie going to fuck on screen tho?" Not saying Eddie's plots have always been exciting at all, lord knows they've done some stupid shit with the character, but still. Eddie arguably had the most interesting SL in years while trying to mend his relationship with Chris and they could not have cared less because it meant he was in Texas and not bending over for Buck. I wouldn't blame Ryan if he wants out, if his acting in this ep is any indication, his heart just isn't in it anymore.

I didn't mind Eddie at first, I really didn't. But, it kind of feels like after Shannon died, the writers just...didn't know what to do with him. His entire existence became about grief without any real action to address it or deal with it. I get it, grief never really goes away, but you can't just Fight Club your way out of it either.

I often wonder if the writers intended to write him as insufferable and selfish as they have. He says things to hurt others and never reflects or takes accountability. It's been talked about ad nauseum here, but his friendship with Buck is incredibly one sided. Again, I don't know what's more scary...to think this was all by design...or that it wasn't.

And, since we're just going for it here, Ryandrew Tateman absolutely hasn't done himself any favors here. I know what he did. You know he did. And I wish I could say that was the only thing, or even the most recent.

On a personal note, I've worked in healthcare for 20 years, including the height of covid, so being an anti vaxx/anti covid vaxx is an instant 'fuck off' from me.

And the memes he's been sharing about Pete/Bobby? Salty edgelord.

You make excellent points about anything and everything being boiled down to Gay Eddie™ in some people's minds. Not even bi or demi, or any other shade of queer. It has to be gay, and Buck has to serve as the trad wife self insert surrogate. Which, really makes me question their motives, because it ain't representation. We already got that, and have since day one. Not that they'd ever know.

Look, it's very clear by now that I'm not his biggest fan by a long shot, but it's absolutely disgusting that people want to disregard his body autonomy by saying things like "it doesn't matter what he wants, they're gonna force him to do bddie anyways because it's what the people want".

No, they don't, and honestly, that makes me wonder about your views on consent. The role would involve, at the very least, kissing Oliver, (not that I'd mind myself, but that's another topic for another day) so...yes. It absolutely is his choice, as it should always be when engaging in contact with someone, acting job or not.

And yeah, I'll give it to you that he's probably tired as fuck about being reduced to nothing more than "the guy who absolutely must be gay because *insert harmful stereotype here.*"

And that's in addition to having every. single. interview. harp on the ship that he has said repeatedly that he doesn't want to do, for actually valid reasons, assuming those are the real reasons and he's not just blowing smoke up our ass.

So, yeah, I don't blame him for wanting an out, but I also don't think we should be blamed for wanting to be able to enjoy our show and the fandom as a whole once again.

All that being said...are you trying to put me in jail, katey 😂

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Let's Eat!

(That is, let's live, want, connect... oh, you know what I mean by now)

I like how Yaad and the other living villagers can casually talk with the ghosts, because for all intents and purposes they were also ghosts... In fact, those who stayed and spent centuries going through the patterns of life even though all true meaning had been lost long ago were MORE "ghosts" than those who lost their corporeal forms because they wanted to escape so badly that they went wandering... That's so fuckin' good. I wanna eat this writing.

.

Kabru just randomly walking out of the bushes the second Laios starts considering politics...love him. He was summoned. His PR spidey senses were going off.

.

look at my boy, establishing his own authority.

.

Lol this was me when we moved house last month, and my job was to just stand in the new living room and tell people where to put which box or piece of furniture. It's an important job in a task with a lot of people!

.

FUCK YEAH, THAT'S MY MAN! HE LOOKS GREAT!

.

fucking love the trope of "one savvy friend in the crowd who deliberately gets a supportive chant going." Of course it's Kabru.

Though it's important to note that the first thing someone called was, "The demon-eater's here!", and there was muttering while no one was entirely sure if that was a good thing or not... Kabru didn't start the rumble of the crowd; the rumble of the crowd is unavoidable, and you have to be aware of that. Laios has always been aware of that, he's just never known what to do about it, and so tried to avoid it. But he's not avoiding it anymore - so Kabru started the hype of the crowd.

.

They're both right! In order to eat, you need to kill! A memento of a meal IS a spoil of war!

.

They're unhappy bros... /laughing

.

Shown: man desperately reassuring himself, and psyching himself up to eat this stupid dragon meat

.

DADCHUCK. Istg my father has said the same thing to me.

p.s. oh thank god he's fully dressed again. it was indecent.

.

Marcille is so resigned to this, and so...determined to see it as her own choice. "We all agreed", "I've got to go" - and I'm sure she does see it as her own choice, in a way, because this is how the world has always worked and she knows that. She knew that going in. Those who do ancient magic are arrested by the Elves of the West, that's just the "natural" consequence. She might've gotten away with it if she'd gone undiscovered, or if she'd stayed in the dungeon forever, but she didn't - she chose to pursue her craft, to save Falin, and to do everything after that, too, and so she implicitly chose the consequence with it. If it's unfair, well, thinking that changes nothing, so it's better not to think it.

Until Laios is like, "Actually, I might have political power now? And I'm SO goddamn tired of myself and people I love being punished just for being different, and interested in unconventional things. Let's try something."

.

WELL-FUCKING-PLAYED! GET THEIR ASSES, LAIOS! It's especially great because I'm pretty sure he knows the answers to all of this by now? Power move!

.

Is she sitting there completely nude except for jewelry and a short robe. Icons only, honestly. Though "we have the luxury of time" feels like so much of a threat from an elf.

.

Hey, you did objectively defeat him! Okay arguably the Lion did but Laios did it first, he just also then talked to him, and got grabbed by friendly vine-tentacles. You didn't kill him, but that's not what Delgal asked for anyway!

.

thinking about that post that observed that Thistle's driving madness was specifically getting Delgal home for dinner, to eat all together as a family again, and he wakes up to the sound of the people of the Golden Kingdom eagerly inviting the (new) king to eat, and him responding...crying... What is lost is lost, but life will go on.

.

The moment when a character decides to lie to another character for their own good is always so compelling. The little moral quandary microcosm.

.

So Yaad did know something of what passed between Delgal and Thistle, that drove Thistle down the path to dark magic. He know what it was his grandfather blamed himself for.

This is SUCH A GOOD AND QUIET-SAD DEATH SCENE, but as a consummate fan of 'actually, living is much much harder than dying, and much more interesting too', I do like to think Thistle lives and has to...figure out what to do with his life. And that 'what to do with his life' ends up including ancient magic mad science with Marcille.

...But honestly, even though that'd be fun for me, it seems almost cruel to Thistle. He's been alive for so long. Those he loved most are gone. He held the demon back from the surface, trapped in those books, for so long, even if it was in no way whatsoever with the good of the world in mind. If anyone deserves this peaceful death in (what he thinks are) his brother's forgiving arms, it's him.

.

Unfortunately, my love, as has been ceaselessly proven in this story: that's life.

.

Marcille has caught onto one of the major themes! However, this story still isn't in favor of afternoon special Moral of the Story - not of letting the characters wrap things up with a bow, at least. You just go on living and wanting and learning about and connecting with and killing new things, forever! That's how it goes! You never know everything and you're always a little bit starving!

.

I really love this grumpy old man, and I want him to stick around and be one of Laios's advisors. He's an old gnome, he'll die as soon as an average tallman would anyway.

.

This is a) very touching coming from Mithrun, who is only just regaining his own will to live, and b) almost tautalogical in this story EXCEPT that it is also clear that merely "wanting" doesn't mean you get to continue to live, it only means that you're alive in this moment - you also need to want to live MORE than whatever's trying to kill you wants to live.

.

GREAT VISUALS!

.

And then it's so small, so small that she could leave it behind entirely but Falin is still so kind that she picks it up anyway! Falin who looks at everyone and everything - ghosts and brothers and mad mages and dead dragons, the latter of whom were both violently oppressing her soul - and thinkgs "I gotta help." She's so good!

I'm really going to need to write a like 2k post-canon character study about how Falin has part of the spirit of a dragon in her chest which unfurls while she travels abroad and curls up again and hides when she's home with Marcille and especially with Laios, and how it's a metaphor for her own independence but also literally there is the spirit of a dragon. At the end of it she figures out how to nurture and commune with the dragon enough to have her own flight-capable wings.

.

THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL-LOOKING. AUTOPHAGIC SELF-CREATION FOR THE FUCKING WIN!!

.

YYEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

.

fuck it, have a collage, because this bitch-ass website is about to cut off my photos-per-post. It can't HANDLE the sheet joy of Falin resurrection reunion hugs!!

.

so many people love her, or at least are really emotionally invested in this now!! /sobs

.

Lmaoooo

Laios: wracked with food poisoning because he ate raw walking mushroom Falin: great distress! Marcille: trying very hard to help, also thinking sooo hard that He Is An Idiot. [btw I love how it looks like she takes up holding her hair back with a band] Kabru: having his weekly moment, as he has for the past many years and will continue to have until he dies, of wondering if he shouldn't really have just killed this guy rather than let him become king

Kabru definitely wrote this whole ending narration btw. This is his press release from like 40 years in the future. And those kids! An orc kid and a kobold kid, and zooming out to show kids of other races, all playing together and going to lunch together!!

And then they all lived, and hungered and ate and killed and wanted and sought understanding and connected with one another and were part of the great circle of life, as happily ever after as one can get.

This story truly was delicious...in dungeon!

[plasterbrain]

Hello. First I’d like to say that I love Pizza Game so much. Second, sorry if you’re the wrong person to ask about this and/or you’ve already been asked about this, but what advice would you give to someone who wants to make a visual novel but has like zero idea about where to start, if you don’t mind me asking? I had an idea for a visual novel recently that I really like, but I admittedly have like none of the skills I would assume are requisite to creating a good visual novel aside from writing. Or any real knowledge of what the process for crafting a good visual novel would be.

Yes, I am aware that I am a fool. No, I will not give up on this endeavor.

Also, one aspect in particular that I’d like to ask you for advice about, since it’s a bit similar to a mechanic in Pizza Game that I feel like I haven’t seen a lot of other visual novels use (unless this is a thing that shows up in a lot of visual novels and I don’t know because of the few visual novels I’ve experienced Pizza Game is the only one I actually know about that does it) except actually diegetic instead of just a quality of life feature, is how to make the dialogue roll back like it does in Pizza Game. The main character of the story idea I want to make has the ability to do that as an actual superpower, so however I end up making this visual novel, it’d have to include something like that as a feature. And I’d need to make the game able to acknowledge the fact that you’ve used it and probably also give the player an action prompt for “something interesting will happen if you rewind here,” which I feel like is going to be a pain and a half to accomplish in a way that looks good, so any advice you can give me would be appreciated, though I understand if the second part is too complex for you to just puzzle out how to do for a rando asking for your advice on Tumblr. Admittedly I could probably make the main character’s power… basically anything else, really, since the main point is that they have a superpower and not that it’s specifically time powers, but with the way I’m setting up the story and challenge of the game, the character having a time-rewinding power pretty solidly sets them up as the person who has to do everything without it seeming too… “I know the answer to this problem, but figure it out and tell everyone for me, Naegi.” So I’m kinda attached to that idea, even if it causes me a great deal of annoyance to figure out.

Thanks in advance if you have any advice to give me. And again, thank you for making Pizza Game, truly the best visual novel of all time.

Hi (sorry for late response),

My advice for "how to make visual novel" starts and ends with Ren'Py! It's free, open source, and easy to use for people who just want to write! Nearly every Western indie visual novel uses it, and for good reason.

As for your question... The good news is that rollback is actually a built-in feature of Ren'Py. You probably didn't suspect as much, because it's kind of an unusual behavior to include in games by default and can "cheapen" the seriousness of VN-style branching narratives. (It's hard to make choices matter if you can just undo them 10 seconds later.) Doki-Doki Literature Club and Slay the Princess (I think?), arguably the two most famous Ren'Py games, both disabled it for this reason.

The bad news is that having the game acknowledge use of rollback is kind of difficult. Pizza Game does it twice iirc, but only as quick early gags, because it requires cluttering your script with persistent variables. If your game uses this as a central mechanic, your code will be hard to read, write, and test... I do not recommend it.

If you still want to give your character a visual-novel ludo-narrative superpower, there a certainly other options:

Use the tried-and-true "wow you've completed this scene before? here's different text!"

Have dialog that only shows up in the text history window (I've seen at least one game do this and it was pretty neat)

"Stop" time using audio/visual effects and let your character investigate the scene/people's thoughts or something

Make the game create/detect files in the game folder (a DDLC staple, ofc, though I've seen other meta Ren'Py games fool around with this)

...Or peruse the Ren'Py documentation and see what you can come up with.

Ganbatte, Anon-chan! (•̀ω•́)૭✧

[bichletmepickaname]

I am still mad about the fact Giopara League Viktor and Blizcrank are being retconned PELASE I LOVE JAYCE GIOPARA SO MUCH I MIGHT LOVE HIM MORE THAN ARCANE JAYCE

OMFG DONT GET ME STARTED.

I was mad that a lot of Giopara’s original characteristics didn’t make it into arcane because he is one of my all time favourite characters. But I was able to get over it because I found Talis’s character interesting for other reasons, even if I loved Giopara a hell of a lot more. Also because I was under the impression that arcane wasn’t going to be canon to league lore. I crashed out after finding out about the re write.

With Viktor it’s a little different in season one. I believed there was still a lot of room for his MACHINE herald arc. and he kept alot of his personality from league. And I thought they weren’t allows to fundamentally change a character so much from the original material. I was proven disgustingly wrong with each act we got till act 3. He wasn’t a machine herald. He didn’t cut off his arm and replace it with one he made himself. He was more of a mutant. And near the end he didn’t care if people wanted to be evolved or not he was going to do it, unlike Viktor in league. Again I wouldn’t mind this if arcane wasn’t becoming the new canon.

The way the did Viktor and Jayce’s relationship is portrayed in arcane is very basic to me. Arcane adds layers to all the relationship that league didn’t. Except for Viktor and Jayce’s friendship. Viktor and Jayce’s friendship was complex in league because neither fully liked each other(or atleast wouldn’t admit it to eachother), But they never were able to fully hate each other either. They were two outcasts who didn’t know how to act with other people. Jayce was an asshole who couldn’t even give pity to the thought that others would take a little more time to understand things than him, choosing to believe everyone was just stupid but he was aware that he was a dick. Viktor was someone who’s thinking no one could understand his thinking, leading them to dismiss it. But Viktor and Jayce were both intelligent, they were able to ignore each others flaws to work together. Before Viktor pushed it too far. What makes their relationship particularly interesting is that even when they become enemies they don’t really hate each other. In arcane Jayce and Viktor are friends, sure there’s the odd conflict but it’s clear that they are friends there close. They enjoy eachother company. And their enemy arc(their whole thing in league) is kinda thrown out the window. Theres no fight Viktor just leaves. Jayve doesn’t attack Viktor because we can see Viktor is doing something morally dubious. In league Jayce shows up at Viktors lab to get his crystals back, he see’s what he thinks is Viktor killing people for experiments and apologizes to Viktor for being an ass but insists that this wasn’t what Viktor wants. Then Viktor orders the bots to kill Jayce so Jayce blows up Viktor’s lab killing everyone Viktor was trying to save. There were so many layers to that scene. But in arcane Jayce gets told by mage Viktor to kill him but also save him? So he blasts a while in Viktor’s chest, we know he’s doing it for the greater good, but I still don’t know why he shot Viktor if he promised he would save him? I do enjoy Jayce in Viktor in arcane but league is just arguably more interesting. This wouldn’t be a big deal if ARCANE WASN’T BECOMING CANON.

Blitz crank particularly pisses me off, he isn’t in arcane AT ALL not even w mentioned, and his whole back story doesn’t even happen. Viktor doesn’t create him in arcane because he’s to focused on the HEXCORE. Blitzcrank being written out of the story while characters from arcane are making into league just rubs me the wrong way. I’ve always loved blitzcrank and I’ve been waiting for him to come into arcane forever. The fact that he doesn’t but arcane is becoming canon is worrying me.

Long story short I think arcane would have been better if it never existed/hj

[fratellis-pizzeria]

Proship is literally just anti censorship, because bookburning is what nazis do, and because fiction Is Not Real.

Imagine if someone got abused in an avg relationship and said that every single relationship ever was inherently abusive and said that no one can ever be in a relationship ever again, solely because they personally experienced abuse. This is literally what you are doing. Your experience is not proof that generalization is okay, you are literally just a nazi.

WOHOAH COOL YOUR JETS BUDDY THIS IS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING THING IVE EVER BEEN SENT WHAT DEMONS ARE YOU FIGHTING HERE DUDE

Thank you for this though, because you have now given me an opportunity to air out a bunch of shit I've wanted to say but never knew where to start with!

First of all, not true! Proshipping is in fact not "literally just anti censorship", I can concretely say this because I am in fact, actually anti censorship like a normal person, and I do not identify as proship! Novel concept I know (OR antiship for the matter, both sides are tar pits that were disastrous for my OCD and I try to avoid involvement with either as much as I can.)

Y'see where you start making up a person that does not exist is the fact that I actually do believe that darker topics like trauma and incest CAN be discussed in fiction, and arguably that they SHOULD be. The issue arises for me an most other people when you're going down the delicate line of a respectful depiction and take a hard left turn into fetishization and romanticizing it when it's something that can an has actually ruined real peoples lives. Fiction DOES have an effect on reality, otherwise why would fiction be made at all?

I'm not even going to entertain that downright insane strawman you threw at me in that last part so I'm gonna skip right to what I really want to say here lmao.

Now, you don't really see this on this blog but on my main I have a long history of writing about nearly every single character I own going through unimaginable traumas and horrible situations, I actually am guilty of a lot of the more (arguably innocent- at least if it wasn't done so shittily) things Kittycorn has done myself, because I have several publicly posted characters who are very obviously based on people I used to know who did horrible things to me that I use to work through my feelings about them and what happened, where it differs though is that they aren't just a carbon copy of the person or a hollow shell just to fulfill my desires or whatever the fuck, they were still actively written to be their own people separated from the ones they were based on as much as would be reasonable in my eyes, not out of a desire to put those people through the torture nexus or something, but to write out actual closure that I've never actually gotten at a single turn in my entire life. If it weren't for my desire to create and put my feelings on paper in the form of colorful little creatures and animals I genuinely do not think I would still be here talking to you faceless little gray cowards right now.

I say this to emphasize that what Kittycorn is doing is not healthy, the people kit is surrounded with are not good for her, and no matter what she tells herself this will not change until she gets out of there and into a healthier environment, and with how its looking and how kits behaved in the past about this I don't think that's ever going to happen. I am not here to downplay anything she went through, I am simply here to say that making a world where everything is just peaches and cream and a neon furry incest slop utopia is not closure and not a healthy way to go about any of this, and don't even get me started on the fact that she apparently had included fetish material in sparklecare while MINORS were on the crew, and whatever the fuck was the deal with og cometcare from top to bottom honestly, and everything that was done to the victims to rope them into being okay with the mess, and shielding known predators and continuing to be buddy-buddy with them in spite of it all because they enable her and wont take kit out of her incest fantasy world. And I could probably keep going honestly. There is no coming back from this shit dude there's no if ands or buts about that here, what kc has done is completely and utterly fucked through and through this is FAR beyond just a "pro vs anti" argument.

I have long since given up all empathy toward Kittycorn and any hope of her actually getting better by this point, and no amount of calling me an ACTUAL NAZI (????????) is going to change the fact that this isn't actual censorship, this is simply the consequences of her actions, I don't know how to break it to you bud but its not against the first amendment to experience personal repercussions for the insane shit you post on the internet, almost makes me wonder why you'd send this on anon instead of showing your face? Almost like you do understand that to be true and don't want this rightfully thrown back at you, but hey, what do I know? I'm "literally just a nazi" right?

And if you see this congrats on being my first ever anon hate by the way !! cheers to you luv xoxo I am never making a post like this again if I can help it <3

[doverstar]

How are you handling the season 15 finale mass crash out?

isn’t it remarkable that I know exactly what you’re talking about-

and if I’m way off let’s laugh together-

Simultaneously nauseated and resigned. I stopped watching Doctor Who when Peter Capaldi left, but I do like to keep tabs on it; I saw Russell T. Davies’ return trilogy when it came out, and I saw Ncuti’s first full episode. Those were okay.

And then Russell ran the show directly into the ground and kept digging until he hit magma, and now you can smell the show burning from continents away.

It’s sad, because I really admired his writing, and it looks like the older he gets, the more often (and more stubbornly) he chooses to do exactly what he always said was bad for storytelling, and Doctor Who, of all things, is suffering for it.

This show is 60+ years old. It should not be this difficult to do it right. But they’re not thinking about what makes a story good; they’re thinking about themselves and they’re thinking about money-

I’ll say this right now: Doctor Who needs to be cancelled. It needs a break. If it’s ever going to be what it was, it has to be set back in the toy box for a little bit, and rediscovered by someone new, or else they’ll just keep ruining everything.

Russell do you hear me you put that down-

And the very last person they should have gotten for Ncuti to regenerate into was Billie Piper. *loud sounds of dry heaving* don’t get me started-

Rose? Rose Tyler? The Moment? Arguably the person that made this show as we know it today? You picked that actress? To play a different character? Possibly the title role? Do you really think people are that stupid? They see a familiar face and they’re hooked right back in, never mind the bad plot, never mind the inconsistent companions, never mind that every decision you’ve made for this show since you signed back on has been so self-indulgent you can’t let five minutes go by without some sort of cultural wisecrack, Russell-

In 2005 Billie Piper portrayed a character that really resonated with everyone, whether it was negative or positive. A character that reshaped a generations-old story. Rose was written with so much excitement and intentionality and Billie played her with so much depth and heart. Love her or hate her, Rose is Doctor Who. To this generation, that’s the face of Doctor Who. The Doctor changes now and then, but everyone remembers Rose.

And now they’re using that very earned affection in this cheap trick to boost their numbers. It’s disrespectful and it makes me feel like they think very little of their audience.

Let go of the old actors and actresses. Let go of the old lore. Write something new, and just keep the things that made Doctor Who wonderful in the past. That’s what made it work again in 2005, when nobody thought it could come back.

It’s not that hard. Just stop trying to make it something it’s not.

I don’t want to see Billie Piper as “the Doctor”. I don’t care if it’s Rose somehow teleported in, switched places with him or something (it’s not, and that wouldn’t be fair to Ncuti). The former is silly, and the latter screws up the ending the character got years ago.

(don’t get me started on Susan or the Rani or Omega or any of that nonsense, either)

I’ll be fine, because I have 60+ years of great content to go back to, and I can ignore the current events of the show. I don’t have to watch it. It’s not Doctor Who anymore. It’s a fever dream that’s making a lot of people a lot of money, and I’m not here for that. I like good stories.

Thanks for checking in on me, though!

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 58

Hey remember when randomly a couple days ago in the event I mentioned that one of these days makes me irrationally angry??? Yeah this is the one. 

So context for this one is that in the danganronpa section of a server I’m in someone asked a question around the lines of-

“Who is your favorite character for a Mastermind AU?”

Nowadays if you asked me, I’m very fond of the Mastermind AU I drew for Toko and Komaru during Tokomaru Week this year, and it’d probably be my answer nowadays.

However if you asked Jem from several months ago, who was brainrotted to absolute hell over these two to the point that she could barely form an opinion on other characters (don’t worry I fixed that issue in my brain, kinda), you know damn well her instant response was Mikan.

At first it was kind of a non-serious filler answer because I didn’t have anyone else who piqued my interest for that at the time. Arguably at first I wasn’t even interested in Mastermind Mikan initially. And then my brain saw I was apathetic to it and was like “Hold my drink” before it spiraled into an AU, which I of course would then use for Day 58 at the time. 

I drew up a character design and some basic details in a total rush, and then drew a really basic but cute enough image of the two alongside various headcanons for this version of the relationship. I actually intended to draw a bonus image of the two on their own just because I felt like I was kinda scamming ya’ll if I didn’t. However I have like, none of the time for that on my hands right now, I’m JUST starting to learn Web Design at the time of writing this. If people like this enough I might try and actually draw some proper art of this AU again though.

As for why this day makes me angry, uhhhh yeah no it’s completely irrational. I have no justification in the slightest I just know that every time i scroll past this  one while looking through the folder of Junkan art for the project I just get annoyed.

I’m actually really happy with the Mastermind Mikan design, might be a biiiit overdesigned? But let’s be real if we’ve learned anything over the course of whatever the hell you’d call this project, it’d be that I am nothing if not a woman of pure excess, especially within the small realm of this ship. 

Okay so hi this is Jem from like, slightly in the future. And when I say slightly I mean like 20 minutes ahead of the previous paragraph. 

So I drew a Monokuma for this AU. Something I didn’t do for my Mastermind Tokomaru AU. I kind of had the idea for a Mikan version of Monokuma in my head for a decent amount of time, partially because I also want to do some art of Mikan and Junko in Shiro/Kurokuma cosplays later (yeah sorry spoilers there is no shiro or kurokuma representation in this project. But worry not, UDG does have representation, muuuuuch later). That made me think about how Shirokuma does kind of have similarities to Mikan (i think, it’s been awhile), which made me realize that monokuma but purple sounded neat. So there’s this now.

I imagine that Junko would still be voicing this version from behind the scenes. Partially because unless it’s literally an Ultimate Voice Actor Mikan AU there’s no way she can do that for a whole killing game. The other reason is I just kind of imagine that Mikan would take a similar role to Tsumugi, being both a member of the killing game and the mastermind, rather than what Junko did where she faked her death and orchestrated from behind the scenes without suspicions. Also yes this would mean that Junko is behind the scenes as normal, just that this time she’s solely focused on managing Monokuma. The Control Room is directly connected to Mikan’s room for easy, non-suspicious access to all the mechanisms. And also so the two of them can cuddle at night, obviously. 

Oh yeah with this Monokuma Redesign I would probably also change Mikan’s hair pin to reflect the same color scheme, even if I do like the way it looks with normal Monokuma colors. I would also probably make a “normal” Mikan design for this version. Just tone back certain parts of it to give the illusion that she isn’t the mastermind. Y’know, for the game that will totally exist based off this au, definitely. 

Honestly I think rambling about it has made me soften up on this one a bit, for now at least. So for real I might try and draw more of this AU regardless of whether people want it or not. That said y’know, if you DO want more of it feel free to say so cause that will in fact give me some mild motivation lol.

Oh I guess last thing. When I first showed the initial Reference image of this Mikan to friends one of them pointed out that I accidentally made her plan into, what is essentially the American Healthcare System. I swear to god that wasn’t intentional but it did make me laugh. 

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

[totoanime52]

SPOILERS FOR BNHA 427 BELOW

I actually like how Overhaul's story is ending.

People get on Endeavour's case about him being an abuser and how he got a redemption when he should have died, but then I saw people who kept saying that Overhaul should have had a chance to do the right thing and have his redemption.

Here's the main difference between the two: Endeavour actually regretted the things he did and wanted to better himself as a person. He tried doing what he could to help his victims while understanding that he may never get forgiveness, which was okay for him because he understood that they didn't owe him anything in return. When Natsuo said he was going no contact, Enji was okay with that because this was Natsuo's choice, just as it would be the rest of the family's choice what they want to do in the future. His redemption arc worked because he was bettering himself with no expectations of getting anything in return for it; it was for the people he hurt.

Now look at Overhaul: he never regretted the things he did other than his boss's coma. All the people he killed or maimed? No. The treatment of his subordinates? Nope. What he did to Eri? Absolutely not. Even when Deku found him after the Tartarus Prison Break, all he wanted to do was use Eri again to reverse what was done to him (funny enough, it's what many in the fandom wanted her to do for several characters, HMMMMMM). How can redemption be given to someone who shows no remorse for what he did?

Now Chisaki's boss is confronting him with this reality: the disgust the boss feels towards him for what he did (to the boss's granddaughter, no less), the fact that his apologies are not being directed towards the person he arguably tormented the most because he never cared for her, and that he will be forced to think of his actions towards Eri for the rest of his life. The thing is, it's a path he is being forced down, not one he is taking the initiative to walk himself.

People can have their own opinions on both these characters; that's the beauty of fiction, you make of it what you interpret. At the same time, writing Todoroki Enji's character development and conclusion off as abuse apologist is kind of a bad take when Kai Chisaki, the character who doesn't regret his deplorable actions towards a child and made no move to actually want to apologize or make up for what he did, is given this kind of ending. I think Horikoshi did a good job at having these two characters end up where they are. Neither have a particularly happy ending, but Enji embraces this path as one he will walk as unending atonement for the harm he caused (you could say, his own personal endeavor), while Chisaki is being forced to remember his deplorable actions for the rest of his life because he didn't care about his victims as people.

P.S., The shot of Bakugou and Todoroki running away from their new admirers is priceless.

[mariacallous]

Incredibly, Angelina Jolie called it. The year was 1995. Picture Jolie, short of both hair and acting experience, as a teenage hacker in Hackers. Not a lot of people saw this movie. Even fewer appreciated its relevance. Hackers was “grating,” Entertainment Weekly huffed at the time, for the way it embraced “the computer-kid-as-elite-rebel mystique currently being peddled by magazines like WIRED.” Thirty years later, Entertainment Weekly no longer publishes a magazine, WIRED does, and Hackers ranks among the foundational documents of the digital age. The last time I saw the movie, it was being projected onto the wall of a cool-kids bar down the street from my house.

But that’s not the incredible thing. The incredible thing, again, is that Jolie called it. It. The future. Midway through Hackers, she’s watching her crush (played by Jonny Lee Miller, whom she’d later marry in real life) type passionately on a next-gen laptop. “Has a killer refresh rate,” Miller says, breathing fast. Jolie replies: “P6 chip. Triple the speed of the Pentium.” Miller’s really worked up now. Then Jolie leans forward and, in that come-closer register soon to make her world-famous, says this: “RISC architecture is gonna change everything.”

You have to believe me when I say, one more time, that this is incredible. And what’s incredible is not just that the filmmakers knew what RISC architecture was. Or that Jolie pronounced it correctly (“risk”). Or even that Jolie’s character was right. What’s incredible is that she’s still right—arguably even more right—today. Because RISC architecture is, somehow, changing everything again, here in the 21st century. Who makes what. Who controls the future. The very soul of technology. Everything.

And nobody’s talking about it.

And that’s probably because the vast majority of people everywhere, who use tech built on it every single day, still don’t know what in the computer-geek hell a RISC architecture even is.

Unless you’re in computer-geek hell, as I am, right now. I’ve just arrived at the annual international RISC-V (that’s “risk five”) summit in Santa Clara, California. Here, people don’t just know what RISC is. They also know what, oh, vector extensions and AI accelerators and matrix engines are. At the coffee bar, I overhear one guy say to another: “This is a very technical conference. This is a very technical community.” To which the other guy replies: “It ought to be. It ought to be.”

OK, but where are the cool kids? It’s hard not to fixate on appearances at an event like this—a generic convention center, with generic coffee, in a generic town. I guess I was hoping for neon lights and pixie cuts. Instead it’s frumpy, forgettable menswear as far as the eye can see. There are 30 men for every woman, I count, as everyone gathers in the main hall for the morning presentations.

Then someone takes the stage, and she’s not just a she. She is Calista Redmond, the CEO of RISC-V International, and, Angelina Jolie be praised, she’s wearing a nifty jacket, a statement belt, and gold-and-silver … pumps? stilettos? Wait, what’s the difference? Of all the things to ask Redmond when I run into her at a happy hour later that day, that’s what I choose. She looks at me, smiles blankly, and just says, “I don’t know.”

In shame I retreat to the bar, where I decide I must redeem myself. So, cautiously, I make my way back to Redmond, who’s now deep in conversation with the chief marketing officer of a semiconductor startup. I try to impress them with a technical observation, something about RISC and AI. Redmond turns to me and says, “I thought you wanted to talk about shoes.” I assure her I’m not here to talk about what’s on the outside. I’m here to talk about what’s on the inside.

“Jason here is writing a story about RISC for WIRED,” Redmond tells the CMO. She’s not sure, frankly, that this is a great idea. Not because she isn’t a believer. In many ways, she’s the believer, the face of the brand. Attendees at the conference invoke her name with casual reverence: Calista says this, Calista thinks that. And did you hear her morning keynote? In fact I did. “We have fundamentally launched!” she announced, to the yelps of the business-casuals. RISC-V will transform, is transforming, machinery everywhere, she said, from cars to laptops to spaceships. If anyone doubts this, Redmond sends them the Hackers clip.

So why, I press her now, should I not support the cause and write the big, cyberpunky, untold story of RISC? Because, Redmond says, not only does no one know what RISC is. No one cares what RISC is. And no one should. People don’t buy “this or that widget,” she says, because of what’s inside it. All they want to know is: Does the thing work, and can I afford it?

To my dismay, almost everyone I talk to at the conference agrees with Redmond. Executives, engineers, marketers, the people refilling the coffee: “Calista’s probably right,” they say. Now it’s my turn to get annoyed. I thought insides mattered! RISC is one of the great and ongoing stories of our time! People should care.

So I resolve to talk to the one person I think must agree with me, who has to be on my side: the legendary inventor of RISC itself.

The inner workings of a computer, David Patterson says, should be kept simple, stupid. We’re sitting in an engineering lab at UC Berkeley, and Patterson—77 years old, partial to no-frills athleisure—is scribbling on a whiteboard. A computer’s base operation, he explains, is the simplest of all: ADD. From there you can derive SUBTRACT. With LOAD and STORE, plus 30 or so other core functions, you have a complete basis for digital computation. Computer architects call this the “instruction set architecture,” or the ISA. (They switch between saying each letter, “I-S-A,” and—the neater option—pronouncing it as a word, “eye-suh.”)

Computer architectures are so named because, well, that’s exactly what they are—architectures not of bricks but of bits. The people who made Hackers plainly understood this. In sequences of dorky-awesome special effects, we fly through futuristic streets, look up at futuristic buildings, only to realize: This isn’t a city. This is a microchip.

Even within a chip, there are subarchitectures. First come the silicon atoms themselves, and on top of those go the transistors, the circuits and gates, the microprocessors, and so on. You’ll find the ISA at the highest layer of the hardware. It is, I think, the most profound architecture ever devised by humans, at any scale. It runs the CPU, the computer’s brain. It’s the precise point, in other words, at which dead, inert, hard silicon becomes, via a set of powerful animating conjurations, soft and malleable—alive.

Everyone has their own way of explaining it. The ISA is the bridge, or the interface, between the hardware and the software. Or it’s the blueprint. Or it’s the computer’s DNA. These are helpful enough, as is the common comparison of an ISA to a language. “You and I are using English,” as Redmond said to me at the conference. “That’s our ISA.” But it gets confusing. Software speaks in languages too—programming languages. That’s why Patterson prefers dictionary or vocabulary. The ISA is less a specific language, more a set of generally available words.

Back when Patterson started out, in the 1970s, the early ISAs were spinning out of control. Established tech companies figured that as hardware design improved and programming languages got more sophisticated, computers shouldn’t remain simple; they should be taught larger vocabularies, with longer words. The more types of operations they were capable of, the logic went, the more efficient their calculations would be.

On the whiteboard, Patterson scrawls the word POLYNOMIAL in big letters—just one of the hundreds of operations that Intel and others added to their ISAs. Even as a young recruit at Berkeley, Patterson suspected that the bigwigs had it backward, that exactly none of these esoteric add-ons were necessary. That a bigger dictionary did not lead to clearer sentences.

So he and a senior colleague decided to strip the kruft from the instruction sets of midcentury computing. At the time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was giving out grants for “high-risk” research. Patterson says they chose the acronym RISC—reduced instruction set computer—as a fundraising ploy. Darpa gave them the money.

Patterson then did as aspiring academics do: He wrote a spicy paper. Called “The Case for the Reduced Instruction Set Computer” and published in 1980, it set off a great war of architectures. “The question then,” as Patterson would later say in an acceptance speech for a major prize, “was whether RISC or CISC was faster.” CISC (pronounced “sisk”) was the name Patterson gave the rival camp: complex instruction set computer. The CISCites fired back with a paper of their own and, at international conferences throughout the early ’80s, battled it out with the RISCites onstage, the bloodshed often spilling into the hallways and late-night afterparties. Patterson taunted his opponents: They were driving lumbering trucks while he was in a feather-light roadster. If you magnify a RISC-based microchip from those years, you’ll spot a sports car etched into the upper left corner, just 0.4 millimeters in length.

The RISCites won. With vigilant testing, they proved that their machines were between three and four times faster than the CISC equivalents. The RISC chips had to perform more operations per second, it’s true—but would you rather read a paragraph of simple words, or a sentence of polysyllabic verbiage? In the end, CISCites retracted their claims to supremacy, and the likes of Intel turned to RISC for their architectural needs.

Not that anybody outside tech circles talked about this at the time. When Hackers came out in 1995, Patterson was flabbergasted to hear his life’s work, 15 years old by that point, mentioned so casually and seductively by a Hollywood starlet. Computers were still too geeky, surely, to matter to the masses. (When I make Patterson rewatch the scene, he’s all smiles and pride, though he does say they mistake “refresh rate” for “clock rate.”)

Still, Patterson’s invention was indeed changing everything. In those years, a rising company in the UK called Arm—the “r” in its name stood for RISC—was working with Steve Jobs on tablet-sized devices that needed smaller, faster CPUs. That effort stalled, but one thing led to another, and if you’re reading this on a phone right now, you have RISC-based Arm architectures to thank. When Patterson walks me out of the Berkeley building at the end of our dizzying afternoon together, we stop by a handsome bronze plaque in the lobby that commemorates his “milestone” creation of the first RISC microprocessor. We stare at it in prayerful awe. “1980–1982,” it reads—the bloodiest years of the great architecture war.

Better make room for another plaque, I note.

The year is now 2008. Two instruction sets exert near-total control over digital life. One is called x86, the descendent of Intel’s legacy CISC architecture, and it dominates the high end of machinery: personal computers and servers. Arm’s RISC architecture, meanwhile, dominates everything else: phones, game consoles, the internet of things. Different though they are, and with opposite origins, these two ISAs share one important feature: They’re both closed, proprietary. You can’t modify them, and if you want to use them, you have to pay for them.

Andrew Waterman, a graduate student at—where else?—UC Berkeley, finds this frustrating. As a computer architect, he wants to build things, deep things. Things at the very foundations of computing. But right now he has no good ISAs to play with. Arm and x86 are off-limits, and the free architectures for students are just so … baggy. They use register windows to speed up procedure calls, for God’s sake! Never mind what that means. The point is, every person in this story is a genius.

So Waterman and two other geniuses have an idea: Why not create a new, better-working, free ISA for academic use? It’s an idea they know someone else has had before. To Patterson they go. And because he’s their inspiration, and because he has worked on four generations of RISC architectures by this point, they’ll call it, they announce to him proudly, RISC-V. Patterson is touched. A bit skeptical, sure, especially when they say they’ll be done in three months. But touched. He gives the boys his blessing, his resources, and a classic bit of advice: Keep it simple, stupid.

RISC-V does not take three months. It takes closer to four years. If I’ve failed, so far, to account for the precision of this work, let me try again here. Computer architects are not software engineers, who use programming languages to talk to the machine. Even coders who can speak assembly or C, the so-called low-level languages, still do just that: They talk. Computer architects need to go deeper. Much deeper. All the way down to a preverbal realm. If they’re speaking at all, they’re speaking in gestures, motions: the way primitive circuits hold information. Computer architecture isn’t telling a machine what to do. It’s establishing the possibility that it can be told anything at all. The work is superhuman, if not fully alien. Put it this way: If you found the exact place in a human being where matter becomes mind, where body becomes soul—a place that no scientist or philosopher or spiritual figure has found in 5,000 years of frantic searching—wouldn’t you tread carefully? One wrong move and everything goes silent.

In 2011, Waterman and his two collaborators, Krste Asanović and Yunsup Lee, release RISC-V into the wild. They’ve accomplished their mission: Geeky grad students everywhere, and hobbyists too, have an ISA for whatever computer-architecting adventures they might undertake. These early days feel utopian. Then Patterson, a proud dad, does as retiring academics do: He writes a spicy paper. Called “The Case for Open Instruction Sets” and published in 2014, it sets off a—

Yes. We’ve been here before. A second war of the architectures.

It’s hard to overstate just how topsy-freaking-turvy this gets. To review: Patterson invented RISC in 1980 and went to battle with the established ISAs. He won. Thirty years later, his disciples reinvent RISC for a new age, and he and they go to battle with the very company whose success secured RISC’s legacy in the first place: Arm.

In response to Patterson’s paper, Arm fires back with a rebuttal, “The Case for Licensed Instruction Sets.” Nobody wants some random, untested, unsupported ISA, they say. Customers want success, standards, a proven “ecosystem.” The resources it would take to retool and reprogram everything for a new ISA? There’s not enough cash in the world, Arm scoffs.

The RISC-V community disagrees. They create their own ecosystem under the auspices of RISC-V International and begin adapting RISC-V to the needs of modern computing. Some supporters start calling it an “open source hardware” movement, even if hardcore RISC-Vers don’t love the phrase. Hardware, being set in literal stone, can’t exactly be “open source,” and besides, RISC-V doesn’t count, entirely, as hardware. It’s the hardware-software interface, remember. But, semantics. The point stands: Anyone, in any bedroom or garage or office in any part of the world, can use RISC-V for free to build their own computers from scratch, to chart their own technological destiny.

Arm is right about one thing, though: This does take money. Millions if not billions of dollars. (If you think “fabless” chip printers can do it for closer to five figures, come back to me in five years.) Still, RISC-V begins to win. Much as Arm, in the 1990s and 2000s, found success in low-end markets, so too, in the 2010s, does RISC-V: special-purpose gadgets, computer chips in automobiles, that sort of thing. Why pay for Intel chips or Arm licenses when you don’t have to?

And the guys at Berkeley? In 2015, they launch their own company, called SiFive, to build computer parts based on RISC-V. Meaning: Arm isn’t just a spiritual enemy for them now. It’s a direct competitor.

By the time I went to that “very technical conference” in Santa Clara, the Arm-vs.-RISC-V war had been raging for nearly a decade. I could still feel it everywhere. We’ve won, I heard several times. Nobody’s happy at Arm, someone claimed. (One longtime higher-up at Arm, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal affairs, disputed “nobody” but admitted there’s been a “culture change” in recent years.) On the second day of the conference, when news broke of a rift between Arm and one of its biggest customers, Qualcomm, people cheered in the hallways. “Arm is assholes,” a former SiFive exec told me. In fact, only one person at the conference seemed to have anything nice to say about the competition. He was working a demo booth, and when I marveled that his product was built on a RISC-V processor, he turned a little green and whispered: “Actually, it’s Arm. Don’t tell anyone. Please don’t tell anyone.”

Booth bro was probably worrying too much. In the hardware world, everyone has worked, or has friends, everywhere else. Calista Redmond, the star of the show, spent 12 years at IBM (and recently resigned from RISC-V International for a job at Nvidia). Even Patterson has ties to, of all places, Intel—which, though less of a direct threat to Arm, is still a RISC-V competitor. It was Intel grant money, Patterson happily admits, that paid for the Berkeley architects to invent RISC-V in the first place. Without closed source, proprietary Big Tech, there’s no open source, free-for-all Little Tech. Don’t listen to the techno-hippies who claim otherwise; that’s always been the case.

Patterson was the big-ticket speaker on the second day of the conference, and in his talk, he brought up the paper that Arm wrote in rebuttal to his, lo those 10 years ago. One of its two authors has since parted ways with Arm. The other, Patterson noted, not only left—he now works at SiFive. “It’s satisfying,” Patterson said, “he has come to his senses.” Which got a laugh, of course, but I was still stuck on something Patterson said earlier in the talk, about RISC-V: “We want world domination.”

This is not, even remotely, an impossibility. RISC-V has already done what many thought impossible and made a sizable dent in Arm’s and Intel’s architectural dominance. Everyone from Meta and Google and Nvidia to NASA has begun to integrate it into their machinery. Something on the order of billions of RISC-V processing units now ship every year. Most of these, again, support low-powered, specialized devices, but as Redmond pointed out a number of times at the conference, “we have laptops now.” This is the first year you can buy a RISC-V mainboard.

And because RISC-V is an open standard, companies and countries beyond the US can use it to make their own machines. China’s top scientists have heralded RISC-V as a path to silicon independence. India just used RISC-V to make its first homemade microprocessor. Name a country; it’s probably experimenting with RISC-V. Brazil sent a record 25 delegates to the RISC-V summit. When I asked one of them how important RISC-V was to her country’s future, she said, “I mean, a lot.” One of RISC-V’s biggest potential applications is—no surprise—specialized chips that run AI models, those “accelerators” people at the conference were talking about.

Americans in the RISC-V community, I’ve found, like to downplay the risk of geopolitical upheaval. It’s one thing to announce a microprocessor, quite another to compete with Nvidia or TSMC. Still, in asides here and there, I sensed worry. Waterman, though he initially brushed off my concerns, eventually conceded this: “OK, I’m an American citizen. I certainly did not embark on this project to hurt the US,” he said. But there was “no doubt,” he added, that the dominance of US companies could be at risk. Actually, it’s already happening. Although the Chinese hedge fund behind DeepSeek probably didn’t use RISC-V to build its game-changing chatbot, it did rely on a bunch of other open source tools. At what point does open source become a source of open conflict?

Here’s where I confess something awkward, something I didn’t intend to confess in this story, but why not: ChatGPT made me do it. Write this story, I mean. Months ago, I asked it for a big hardware scoop that no other publication had. RISC-V, it suggested. And look at that—the international RISC-V summit was coming up in Santa Clara the very next month. And every major RISC and RISC-V inventor lived down the street from me in Berkeley. It was perfect.

Some would say too perfect. If you believe the marketing hype, everyone wants RISC-V chips to accelerate their AI. So I started to think: Maybe ChatGPT wants this for … itself. Maybe it manipulated me into evangelizing for RISC-V as one tiny part of a long-term scheme to open-source its own soul and/or achieve superintelligence!

In my last talk with Patterson, I put this theory to him. He was delighted that ChatGPT made me write this: Who should we thank? he asked. (Given that WIRED’s parent company has a deal with OpenAI that lets ChatGPT mine our content, we should thank old WIRED stories, among others.) But Patterson laughed off the larger conspiracy. So did every other RISC-V person I mentioned it to, Redmond included. They all looked at me a little funny. RISC-V is a business proposition, not an ideology, they said. There’s no secret agenda. If it takes over, it’ll take over because of performance and cost. Don’t worry about what goes on inside the technology. Don’t worry about the state of its soul.

I don’t know. But now you know. Now, every time you make a phone call, open your computer, drive your car—you know the story. You know the RISC.