#and from then on everything else was pretty obvious)

[syluses]

there was another wave of caleb drama on the bird app the other day about him not wanting to be ur gege at all which was lowkey super dumb bc its not true but now its making me think of an au where mc and caleb don't grow up together and meet as adults but caleb's still delusional and crazy enough to want to have that type of dynamic... like just irrationally mad that he isn't the one who raised u LMAO i always saw him as the type to just want to be your everything not Just a brother not Just a lover... it tickles my brain.. love and obsession so all-encompassing that he has to be everything in ur life

..Oh brother 😒 no pun intended. I agree with u tho nonnie 💯 Bro needs to be her everything, & if he isnt he feels worthless.

Prepare thyselfs

Alright, yall already know by know that im a big gege truther- however im perfectly fine with the people who wanna see caleb as the ‘childhood friend’- which the anglicized version essentially goes off on. Now i do believe those individuals dont see all of caleb’s unique little nuances- just because so much of them stem from the brotherly role he was ‘forced’ to fill for mc all throughout childhood- and i think they fail to recognize the paramount correlation it has to their ‘forbidden’ romance (which both he & mc ACKNOWLEDGE in the story; but ig they’re just whiting out the bits they dont wanna hear) but im not gonna flame ppl if they wanna see bro as the friends to lovers trope.

i dont agree with it, but its more or less okay with me bc i understand lots of ppl are icked out by the pseudo trope (reasonable) yet still want to appreciate xia yizhou in their own way— even if ignoring the original intention inevitably brings a certain distance to that for the lack of comprehension over his, well, ahem GEGEISM™️

The way some of them wanna DENY the asian/original canon tho is pretty insane ngl. Like homie u can still enjoy ur own (english localized) idea of caleb- but to try to erase the obvious gege/meimei implications of the chinese version is funny only because its just that stupid. Again im definitely not one of the ppl who’ll yell and shame others for not fucking with the gege vibes, but cmon… its pretty obvious that is in the canon.

And now im yapping at this point but as to whether or not caleb WANTS to be mc’s brother figure? ..Honestly i feel like that is complicated in itself, and i think the answer will vary from person to person. But for me i think its both a yes and a no. He definitely acts as her brother, thinks as her brother, regards himself as her brother. And the self awareness is absolutely there for him- as in he knows its wrong to romantically pine for mc because he truly does- in his own way- naturally see mc as his meimei as well, even if he tries to separate himself from it the more his yearning grows. I think calebs emotions revolving this are super complex. I can barely even put it into words.

He wants the full right, if u will, that the gege title grants him over her— the closeness, the responsibility, the bond— but it ultimately gets in the way when he stares at her in admiration for a little too long or leans a little too much into the fantasy of pretend girlfriend and boyfriend. Growing up, whenever he humored her and they played house, he never had to feign the part of ‘husband’ bc he already carried all that love with him. In a way, a lil piece of him kind of blames mc for ‘asserting’ the gege role on him, but he’s still just as guilty bc he happily gave in to it all throughout their growing up. He liked it, even, in those moments he could almost forget his own pathetic desires.

I truly do believe that caleb feels regretful over the brotherly role he operated under for just about all his life… But i also truly believe that he would have it no other way— the smallest idea of anybody else assuming that spot in her life makes him furious. Because again, he wants to take care of her, he wants to protect her, to bandage her scraped knees and hush away her tears, to cook breakfast lunch and dinner for her and have almost as much of a say in her life as gran does. (…past tense.) He wants the proximity, the domestic life with her, the casual closeness and again, the slight dominion the ‘brother’ role gives him over her.

Lets not forget that in all of this, for all his cheerful, reassuring smiles and easy quipping comments, that there’s a little worm in the back of caleb’s head that wants ultimate control over his meimei. and yes, even just in calling her his ‘meimei’— or her running face first into his strong arms bc she knows, as family, he’ll always have her back— some of that control is given. Its so hard to articulate this pls kill me. But i hope u know what i mean.

At the end of the day, for all his reservations about it- and the actual blame he lowkey tries to put on mc for it- Caleb does and always wanted to be her gege.

Because if he was never her gege, he’d be nothing. His responsibility over his meimei— his sister, his friend, his closest confidant and hopefully, one day, his wife— is frankly all that gives him purpose.

And yeah maybe he is a little crazy because of it... But he knows she loves him too, deep down. He knows her better than anybody else, after all. The same can be said about his love for her: nobody in this world could ever hold even a fraction of all that Caleb both internally & physically shoulders for her.

It’s as much of an ugly curse as it is a beautiful gift.

Duality my friends, duality

[purplishalien]

Finally finished with Bonnie's Bullworth ID thing. Okay first things first, yes those are stickers he put on his ID himself and second he's actually an oc I've had for a long time but I'm too lazy to make a new oc for every fandom I join. This is basically an AU (let's treat this as a window into his youth cuz in the early 2020s* he's an adult already), so as of this Bully AU he'll be treated with his respective canon to here and every other AUs I subject him too. *his canon timeline he's in his 20s

Bonnie is an eccentric one and believe it or not even odder than the residents of Bullworth: He's an exchange student from a different school from a different town known as Sunny Isles.

A Program was initiated that 1 student visits a school to experience how the school's curriculum is and if the program students think the school is good to be advertise to more foreign students looking for other school with the desired programs. AKA The Academy can get a lot of money and benefits.

Dr. Crabblesnitch accepted and personally picked out of 100 foreign exchange students that he felt Bonnie wouldn't be too out of place in Bullworth. (Spoilers he was kinda right)

He needed a place to stay, obvious answer was the boys dorm but he's a little bit of a clean freak and what he's seen from the Résumé he is not taking chances and begged his father to put him somewhere but there.

His family is very well off but not ultra rich as the preps are, still more money than the average bullworth student that's not a prep will never see. His father and Dr. Crabblesnitch had a bit of back and fourth but finally settled if they can convince Harrington estate to house him til his program ends.

Somehow they accepted him even though half of the house didn't want some outside commoner to invade their private abode but somehow he got in and now they have to reluctantly provide for the boy.

The moment he got into the school he wasn't fazed some students were trying to kill him, being the cheery freak he is nothing got passed him even when the Bullies were throwing slurs his way. Ngl it creeped some of them out he was so...resilient and odd even for Bullworth standards.

The Prefects were giving him a strong talk down over him not following dress-code, Ms. Denvers the most giving him the nastiest talk that he'll get in trouble if he keeps this up. They gave up after a few hours of not a single change of shame in Bonnie's giant brown eyes. (Dr. Crabblesnitch was letting it happen anyway cuz Bon's father paid double that his son is as comfortable as he can be.)

Bio class isn't his forte as he was a bit squeamish over anything once alive. Everything else he's okay with it.

Small stuff about his thing with some of cliques

Preps: Tad Spencer became his closest prep friend as this not-so-commoner commoner intrigued him. He mostly was amused to watch what antics Bonnie pulled out and pretty much just treated him as his window into the middleclass.

The other house members didn't care as much and mostly ignored him except Pinky who saw him as a new pet to the house, he reminded her of the little porcelain doll her mom bought her once during Christmas.

Pinky treated him just like a doll and put him in her old clothes or gave him all of her outdated accessories as "They were so 5 hours ago".

Spent most of his time in the Harrington House Botanical garden outside despite the rest of the preppies insulting him over becoming a second gardener if he keeps this up, he still sat behind the giant hydrangea's doing his homework besides the bugs.

Greasers: They're mostly hostile to any preppies but today they decided to ignore the new kid that isn't even heavily associated and is just being housed by these snobs.

Lola can't put the charms on him, noticing he's very not interested in girls. She is interested in what lip gloss shade he's using though.

Overall the same sentiment as the other students, a little odd but he's harmless.

Nerds: Oh no, they don't know what's coming especially when the new odd little guy does seem like a nerd like them.

Immediately accept him into their circle for games and nerd stuff, Bon is pretty good to all of them but he's got his eyes set on their nerd leader.

Earnest doesn't even noticed Bonnie's making everything in his power to get the nerd to noticed he wants him. Took the idiot two weeks realized someone actually digs him.

The ongoing game of "will Earnest fumbled this badly?" has now commence. (Okay I'm tired that's enough writing for my small brain can handle)

Bonus fun fact: in game he has his own visual glitch: the lace tassels in his winter outfit are an entirely separate texture but was coded poorly so he shows up in winter without them, making it a 10+ mystery until modders coded it back in.

Moodboard and memes that make me think of him 🍡🌷💕

[leupagus]

Honestly I think there needs to be more West Wing AUs that are set in a world where "The West Wing" TV show actually existed

So I was talking with etben and whetherwoman and basically incepted myself into this extremely dumb idea, because who doesn't love a good political AU (especially in the present moment tbh)

-

Samira's alarm went off at six. She’d set it the night before, giving herself an extra ninety minutes of sleep on the assumption that none of them would get to sleep before midnight watching the early returns rolling in, states lighting up in blue or red across the half-dozen TV screens set up in the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center's main ballroom. It had almost been a disappointment when the race was called by most networks at around 11:45, plastering pictures of the Vice President (now President-Elect) next to the 286 electoral votes that had cinched the race.

The victory speech had been short and sweet; Santos had written a longer one in the event they’d lost, but in her words, “All they want to know is that you’re grateful they voted for you and that you think America’s cool. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.” In light of that, pretty much everyone had gotten hammered right after the cameras were off — the campaign staff and  the President’s staff that had tagged along with them to Minneapolis. (Robby had probably gotten the drunkest out of all of them, the visible relief that after January 20th he’d never have to be president ever again more obvious than the smell of bourbon.) 

Samira wasn’t much of a drinker herself, but even she’d indulged last night. Judging by the headache blooming between her eyebrows as she squinted at her phone, over-indulged was probably a better term. Hence this hotel room, just three flights and two hallways from the ballroom that had held about 3,500 screaming Democrats the night before. It was pitch-black in here with the curtains drawn, and the brightness of her screen was almost nauseating until she turned it all the way down.

Her notifications were a complete mess, group chats and media pop-ups vying for attention alongside her mom and stepdad’s voicemails that were probably going to involve a lot of crying from her stepdad and stout assertions that she, Dr. Samira Mohan, Communications Director of the Abbot for America Campaign, had single-handedly won them the election from her mom.

She let the phone drop face-down on the mattress and burrowed her head further into the pillow. November in Minneapolis was no joke and even with the heater on, it was cozier in this bed, curled up against the warm body that was even now wrapping a half-asleep arm around her waist, murmuring— 

There was a loud knock on the door; not the tap-tap-tap of room service or even Parker’s chipper shave-and-a-haircut salute, but someone using their fist to pound at the door. “Dr. Mohan?”

Maks’s voice — the VP’s head of security, who had a fondness for Werther’s Originals and always had cat hair on his trousers. He didn’t sound very friendly at the moment, and Samira scrambled out of bed to answer the door, tripping over something invisible in the darkness and almost eating it on the doorknob before she managed to get it open.

“What is it?” she asked, breathless from the adrenaline and a sudden looming dread. “Is the Vice President—"

Maks’s expression was dubious. “That’s what we were lead to understand last night, ma’am,” he said, bafflingly. “The President would like to speak with him, however, and it seems like neither of you are answering your phones.”

“Neither of—" Samira stared at him for a long moment before she began to put things together: Maks’s presence, the thing she’d tripped over on the way to the door, the warm body in her bed.

The shirt she’s wearing with the words BEAT NAVY emblazoned on the front.

“Oh my God,” she breathed, and for the first time in five years she saw Maks almost smile.

“I told the President we’d be able to bring the VP up in ten minutes,” he said. “Think that’s enough time?”

“Oh my God,” Samira repeated, and closed the door.

“So,” she heard from the direction of the bed (the king-size bed, she’d murmured in his ear last night, and he’d chuckled and said something about how he wasn’t much for kings but maybe he’d make an exception, his hand big and just a little sweaty as she linked her fingers with his). “Uh, good morning.”

“Oh my God,” she didn’t-quite-shriek, and slapped at the wall until the overhead light went on.

Jack — Vice President of the United States John Dickinson Abbot, now President-Elect of the United States — blinked at her from where he’d sat up. “You’ve said that a few times,” he ventured, swinging his legs over the side. “Usually you don’t invoke higher powers this early in the day.”

“That’s because you’ve never seen me this early in the day,” she hissed, going over to the small dresser attached to the desk and rummaging around for her clothes. She found some panties — the Patagonia ones she usually wore, not the lace thong she’d had on last night, premeditated, Jack had teased her as he’d pulled them off — and hopped around getting them on, almost tripping over the same goddamn thing she’d tripped over before.

It was Jack’s prosthetic, because of course it was.

“I have definitely seen you before six in the morning, doc,” he said, reaching for her — no, reaching for his leg, which she’d picked up rather than allow it to remain a hazard. “I’ve seen you before six in the morning this week.”

“Okay, yes, but you’ve never seen me before six in... this context.” She flapped her hands in the space between them to express the context, namely sleeping with her boss and the future President of the United States.

“Hard to believe Santos is our chief speechwriter and not you,” he observed, but she couldn’t help noticing his blush which — thanks to the fact that she was wearing his undershirt — she could see went all the way down his chest. She had the sudden urge to climb into his lap and press her lips against it, feel how hot his skin would be.

“How did Secret Service even let you stay here?” she demanded instead, finding a pair of slacks and hunching over to put them on. “Isn’t that kind of insane?”

“Extremely insane,” he agreed somberly as he put his prosthetic on with quick moves that revealed he’d been naked under the covers. She got another quick flash from last night, making fun of his Fruit of the Looms as they’d tumbled into bed, laughing and giddy and—

“Okay, whatever,” she said, trying to scrape all memory of last night out of her brain. “You need to get dressed and get out of here.”

Jack sighed and scrubbed at his face. “I was really hoping to get more respect after I’d won the election,” he said mournfully.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Samira snarled, wrestling Jack’s stupid undershirt off and throwing it at his head, “would you prefer Mister Vice President or Mister President-Elect when I tell you to get out of my room after our one-night stand?”

He looked up at her with a wounded expression, though his eyes did take a brief detour at her breasts until she scowled at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “One-night stand as in—"

“Oh, no,” she said firmly. “We are not doing this again.”

“Was it that bad?” he asked, wincing. “I know it’s been a while—"

She resisted the urge to stomp her foot. This guy was unbelievable. She should never have voted for him. “That’s not relevant!”

“…I meant for me,” he said evenly. He put his undershirt on and Samira grabbed her bra from where it had gotten flung over the TV, fastening it just as Jack’s head reappeared. “Aw,” he added glumly.

“It wasn’t bad,” she said, because she had never been able to resist Jack Abbot’s sad expression and really that fact alone should have warned her off this campaign from the start. “It was… really good. Great, actually."

“Gotta say, wasn’t expecting you to sound so annoyed about it,” Jack commented, and Samira would’ve explained exactly why she was so annoyed except Maks started banging on the door again and Samira really wasn’t in the mood to have to explain to President Rabinovitch why his Vice President and successor was taking so long to put his pants on.

"I could have been a doctor," she muttered, going over to the door.

"You are a doctor," Jack called after her.

"I mean a real doctor, with a stethoscope and whatever else it is they have," she snapped as she hauled the door open, remembering just after she did so that she hadn't yet put an actual shirt on.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY - Journal #8: Route 0 (Ending) Days 91-100. [MASSIVE SPOILERS]

//Man...what a ride this was.

//But all good things must come to an...end? Well, at least it's ONE end. We still have what is probably 100 more to go at this rate.

//Before I start, I have to be completely honest about something.

//After I got to day 100 of the first route (Route 0) I kind of started binge playing through my second playthrough. Truth me told, I wasn't feeling very well last weekend, and was stuck in bed for most of the day, so I spent pretty much the whole time playing Hundred Line.

//The way I've decided to do things is I'm going to change up the format of the journal's a little bit. From here on out, after this one, I will be covering the routes in full, and my highlights from each.

//I know that feels like a bit of a dramatic change, but the truth is after all this time, I don't want to write about my experiences with this game regularly. I just kinda want to play it.

//The reason I bring this up is because there's one or two things I learn in my second playthrough that reflect back on here. Meaning I might use terminology that people who are following along with me haven't experienced yet. It won't be much, just one or two names.

//But once again...

DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED/SEEN THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY. I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT VERY SPECIFIC PLOT POINTS AND MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE GAME.

//So let's get started:

DAY 91:

//So this day starts off really shit. Which is super on point for just how bad these last couple days get.

//These days are also very long and there's a lot to cover in each of them, just so you all know. I remember being super scared of what might happen during them, and as it turns out, I had a right to.

//Eito shows up first thing in the morning acting shifty. He has been for the last few days ever since the Supreme Commander showed up with the negotiation offer to surrender. He's clearly been mulling it over for a few days now, and gets everyone to gether in the War Room to deliver his take on the matter.

//Eito suggests that there's truth in what both sides told us, and that the thing inside the Defense Room is indeed, as the Supreme Commander said, a weapon that will wipe out all the Invaders on Earth. While also taking us with it.

//And everyone just...believes that.

//Okay?

//So ultimately, Eito says that the best course of action would be to surrender after all, and submit to our enemy. This sneaky bitch really started getting on my nerves at this point, but the worse part is that everyone believes him.

//But what really gave me the chills about this whole scene is that when Nozomi gives an impassioned speech about it, it gets turned around on her SO quick.

//Because, somehow, everyone found out that Nozomi was connected to Kamukura General Hospital. They now all know the full story, in that Nozomi was part of whatever project it was that caused us to be sent here.

//Even though the only person who knew about any of that stuff was Takumi. When she told him privately in her room.

//But of course, Takumi never told anyone. We would have seen it if he did. And he never let anything slip either that someone could have caught attention to.

//Now, obviously, the would-be traitor of the school; the one who's been causing all of this shit to happen in the first place, has to be behind this. But of all the sneaky, shitty things they've done, even comparing it to killing Hiruko and the prisoner, burning all our food, and everything else, this takes the absolute cake.

//If there was ever an obvious sign that Eito was the bastard behind this, it's now. It's been a long time since Nozomi told us that info, which means he's been HOLDING ONTO THAT for a WHILE. Why else would the truth come out right when it's most convinient for him? Ammunition against the would-be voice of reason in this situation.

//I have grown to absolutely adore Nozomi over this playthrough and a half. She is one of my favourite characters in this game because she's pretty much the perfect person. Every time something bad happens to her like this, it just crushes my soul.

//What makes it especially bad is she blames Takumi for blabbing about it; not that I blame her. Again, Takumi is innocent, but he's also the only possible person who could have done it.

//And what I hate about this part of the story is the more he tries to get to the bottom of it, the more everyone insists that he's the one who tattled.

//Like...okay, genuine thing here. As much as I do love this game, and as much as I do love this cast, there is one thing that I REALLY don't like about them, at least in this route.

//Collectively, they are all SO...FUCKING...STUPID!!!

//I get that Eito has presented himself as a swell guy so far, but the reason why we're all on edge is because the Supreme Commander told us that by the end of these 100 days, we'd all be dead anyway. That's genuinely all she said, and yet, immediately, we jump to the conclusion that humanity are going to wipe us out along with the rest of the Invaders once we're done.

//We have...NO! PROOF! that this is actually the case. It was literally a SUGGESTION, and threat from one of our WORST ENEMIES!

//And yeah, I get that there's not an awful lot of reason to trust the people on the Satellite, because we haven't heard from them, but...that then automatically means that the Invaders are RIGHT!?

//What really pissed me off is how this same mindset almost immediately turned everyone against Nozomi. Nozomi, who has been a voice of reason, a team player, the LITERAL HEALER, and NOTHING but NICE to EVERYONE since the very start!

//Meanwhile, the Invaders have mutilated, absorbed, and done unspeakable things to some of our friends, to the point where Moko is dead, and Ima is stuck in Sirei's body, and yet, when things hit the fan, we believe THEM!?

//The fact that Nozomi is connected to Kamukura Hospital simply SUGGESTS she's a traitor. The Invaders are EVIL!

//It doesn't make ANY sense that EVERYBODY turns on Nozomi like this. Especially Kurara, who is not only against her now, but is basically the RINGLEADER of the opposition! And when Nozomi starts struggling with her rejection symptoms, Kurara tells everyone to just sit back and let her suffer!

//Like, I love Kurara, but this was LOW! Even for HER.

//Maybe there's some explanation to how it works, but I find no logic in it. It makes me SO ANGRY.

//Especially because this is just a rumor, and not only IS it a rumor, but Takumi can't even find out where it started from. Everyone seems to have heard the truth from a completely different person, until it loops back around.

//Takumi even points it out to everyone, and yet NOBODY finds it even remotely suspicious. NO! It HAS to be Takumi! HE has to be the one who did it.

//So this is an absolutely shitty situation to start this final arc off with. Everyone is going to surrender to the Invaders, Nozomi has been seperated from the group, and her relationship with Takumi has been compromised, in one swift motion.

//Everything went to shit just like that.

DAY 92:

//Day 92 is the last day of Route 0 where you get Free Time.

//I don't know if this was intentional, but the only person I can hang out with in the morning is Darumi. I.e. the one person who doesn't really give much of a damn what's going on about all this. Everyone else is just very against Nozomi, and Takumi too to an extent.

//The day ends with another dream of Karua; our first one in a while. But strangely enough, we've already seen this dream.

//In fact, unless I'm misremembering, this is the first flashback to Karua we ever got in the game. It's the same flashback where we first see Karua's scar, and Takumi originally making the promise to protect her no matter what happens.

//Yeah, I think I know what this is leading up to...

DAY 93:

//Today starts off very interestingly, as the Tsukumo Twins show up to Takumi's door, and give him some very important information.

//To recall, during the earlier incident when Ima was captured by the Invaders and forcibly merged with one of them, his DNA was altered, allowing him to comprehend the Invaders’ language and, more significantly, their internal culture.

//Ima ended up using this ability to feed information to us from the other side, but he has kept a crucial secret that he's only now shared with Takumi.

//It turns out the Invader Commanders adhere to a deeply rooted religious code. This belief system governs their actions with unwavering rigidity.

//Among their most sacred doctrines is a strict prohibition: absorbing the Cryptoglobin of another life form is considered an unforgivable transgression, a taboo of the highest magnitude.

//This revelation casts recent events in a new and disturbing light.

//If the Invaders truly abide by their religious code, as Ima’s understanding suggests they do, then the deaths of the captured prisoner and Hiruko, whose bodies were found drained and mummified from Cryptoglobin extraction, could not have been caused by the Invaders.

//With this, Kako pieces together a chilling deduction: the perpetrator must be someone on the inside. Someone with access, knowledge, and the willingness to betray their own kind.

//In other words, there’s a traitor among us.

//COOL, IT ONLY TOOK IS 93 FUCKING DAYS!

//Again, the sheer stupidity of this cast to not think for a moment that there might be a troublemaker in the group really gets under my skin for no reason.

//At the very least, the twins don't think it's Takumi, which is why they confide in him.

//Shortly afterwards, Eito shows up at Takumi's door, and let me tell you, I was NOT happy to see him.

//But he shows up in the afternoon telling Takumi that they'll all be celebrating their "last night" since all of them have given up on fighting, and hope to end the war tomorrow.

//Kyoshika is somehow drunk off of soft drinks...

//And DARUMI IS DOING DRUGS!

//Amidst the, ahem..."celebrations," Nozomi enters the cafeteria to very grim reactions. She tries one more time to get everyone to snap out of it and remember what we're supposed to be fighting for. But nope. Everyone's already given up. They're just completely checked out.

//Eventually, Nozomi realizes there's no getting through to them, and accepts it. Not because she agrees, but because she knows she can't force people to care.

//Still, she makes it clear she's not backing down. She's going to keep fighting the Invaders, even if it means doing it alone. Despite being sick with her rejection symptoms all by herself, she's fine dying so long as she's dying for what she believes in.

//At the same time, she says she won’t mess with whatever deal the rest of us want to make with the Invaders. If we’re going for peace or trying to find a way home, she’s not going to get in the way.

//Nozomi is such an angel, honestly. This last part of the story, as well as what I've seen from her in my first route so far, has solidified her as the absolute best girl. I think she might even beat out Hiruko and Kurara for me now.

//I said it already, but in general, she is just incredibly admirable, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this frustrated with the main cast. They’ve been treating her like garbage lately, and she doesn’t deserve any of it.

//I love Nozomi. I know that the rest of the cast is scared and never really wanted this in the first place, but it somehow feels like she’s the only one actually acting like a reasonable human being.

//The day ends with Takumi going to bed, and the UFB shows up again. Unfortunately, it seems that time when he rescued us was a one and done, because I can't hear him anymore.

DAY 94:

//...Today is the day. Where ALL of it goes to shit.

//Before all that though, it took me a little while, but I finally noticed something about this. In the last few days, Sirei has been introducing himself with this screen of puppets of all of us. And even though I've seen it a few times at this point, for some reason, I only just now noticed that Nozomi isn't included in it.

//I mean, makes sense, but still, I'm ashamed of my own narrow-mindedness. You'd think I was a member of this game's cast.

//So the school alarm goes off, and we all meet up in the War Room, everyone except Nozomi. Eito claims he tried to talk her into joining us, but honestly, I’m not convinced. It feels like he didn’t even make the effort and just said he did to save face.

//Then we all suit up in our Class Armor just in case, and head outside to meet the Supreme Commander of the Invaders. Who begins her speech by removing her mask.

I didn’t catch it on my first run, but on my second playthrough after finishing the main game, I found out her name is V’ehxness (pronounced vesh-ness). By the way, that is not an easy name to spell, and it kills me every time.

//Also, the rest of the Invaders have similar names that are either difficult to spell, or they are pronounced a way that they reasonably shouldn't be. For example, the blimp commander that was dropping eggs is called Quenzelle, but his name is pronounced "quen-zel-uh."

//The only one who has a normal name is the character who the group took prisoner, who's real name is apparently Eva.

//This exchange made me laugh more than it should have. Even at her worst, Kurara contnues to be so entertaining and unhinged.

//And yeah, I do agree with Gaku. She would be hot if she wasn't so hopelessly evil, as we'll soon see.

//Ima mentions that taking off their masks is a huge deal for the Invaders. Much like the whole thing about not absorbing Hemoanima, it's a sacred taboo, and they only do it when they are surrendering. We saw Eva do the same thing earlier in the story.

//V’ehxness starts speaking, and Ima translates most of what she says. Then she pulls out what looks like an escape pod for us, basically offering a way off the planet and back to the Artificial Satellite.

//I feel like Takumi’s not falling for it. He’s finally using that one brain cell. That, or he's still just too worried about Nozomi.

//And hey? Guess what? IT WAS A FUCKING TRAP! BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WAS!

//The "escape pod" is actually a dome-shaped cage that neutralizes our Hemoanima powers, just like the ones they used in the school courtyard. It traps everyone inside, except Takumi. And just to make things worse, V’ehxness grabs Ima and takes him hostage.

//What makes all this even more shocking is that it completely goes against the Invaders’ taboos, so it's strange that V’ehxness would do this and break the sacred rules of her people...EXCEPT there's ONE thing that we never considered.

//V’ehxness sees herself ABOVE GOD. Or rather, her ultimate goal is to become the "new God of this world."

//Which, honestly? That’s such a bold character move, and a really clever way to go about this scene, as obvious as the trap was. Just setting up all these expectations for how the Invaders behave, then having their supreme leader break them out of a lust for power.

//And then, in true no turning back fashion, she kills Ima right after she’s done talking.

//I haven't seen enough of V’ehxness to call her a top-tier antagonist yet, obviously. Honestly, I'm not too crazy about her, but...that could very well change in the future.

//As much as I hate to admit it, I was pretty gutted that Ima ended up getting squashed. I finally started to like him a lot.

//But Ima's death, as sad as it made me, does not COMPARE to the next segment and the next character to fall.

//Even though she’s in no shape to fight, Nozomi shows up to save the rest of us from the trap. Everyone’s caught inside the pod, and here she is, charging in like a total badass, despite barely being able to stand.

//Deadass, Nozomi is the only person here who deserves to make it out of this alive…and of course, she’s probably not going to.

//Then comes the cutscene, and after that, the first round of the final battle kicks off, with just Takumi and Nozomi on the field. I figured out pretty quickly that I had to destroy the cage to free the others. That part was fine. But then I…kind of accidentally got Nozomi killed.

//Yeah...

//See, in every battle before this, when Nozomi "dies," she just retreats. Obviously, she can't be brought back with the Revive-O'-Matic, and it's always been more of a story thing than a gameplay thing. So I had her self-destruct, to heal both herself and Takumi, thinking she’d be fine.

//But...she died. And I lost the battle in the one round where you're not supposed to lose it.

//Whoops!

//Weirdly, it worked out in a way, though. On the redo, I got the 300% Voltage bonus, which let Takumi go nuclear with his ultimate moves and end the round super fast. So…silver lining?

//And then it happens. Exactly what I KNEW would happen, but I hate it all the same.

//Once the pod is finally destroyed, we get a brutal cutscene. V’ehxness appears behind Nozomi in a blink, full-on "nothing personal, kid" mode, and stabs her right through the back with that monstrous sword.

//I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO DIE AND I’M STILL SO ANGRY.

//Side note, I want to give an MASSIVE shoutout to Jay Rincon; Takumi's English Voice Actor here. He's been consistently great throughout this game, but he went to TOWN with this scene, and he nails the emotion here. Raw, frantic, and completely believable.

//Seriously, give this guy more roles. He, Christopher Ragland (Shouma), and obviously Elsie Lovelock (Kurara), are my absolute highlights of this game.

//While holding her, desperate to save her, Takumi lifts Nozomi’s shirt to stop the bleeding///only to freeze...

//Because there it is. A surgical scar across her midsection. One that looks EXACTLY like Karua’s.

//I KNEW it! I CALLED it! I FUCKING KNEW that the scar was gonna be what gave it away!

//So...yeah! Looks like Nozomi was Karua after all!

//But it’s not a triumphant reveal. It’s devastating. Because on the one hand, we still don’t know why she forgot him, or how Karua became Nozomi in the first place. And we don’t get answers, because Nozomi dies in Takumi's arms before she can explain anything.

//Other playthroughs I guess.

//But the real issue is that the one person Takumi has been fighting for since day one, the reason he endured all of this...just dies in his arms.

//And now she’s gone.

//The aftermath is just…rage. Pure, burning grief and RAGE. And it's EPIC!

//Takumi pulls himself together just enough to rally the others. And for the first time in 94 days, the Special Defense Unit is finally FULLY united. Not by hope, not by duty, but by shared loss and fury.

//Ima and Nozomi died right in front of us, and we couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. At this point, our fears, doubts, and personal agendas don’t matter anymore.

//All that’s left is REVENGE. The only thing we care about now is KILLING the FUCK out of these Invaders! Every last one of them!

//...But it ends up being weirdly more complicated than it should be.

//Out of nowhere, the smaller enemies that we have been battling throughout the game, suddenly begin to speak in fluent English. In real human words, not in twisted alien growls or screeches.

//Furthermore, they are not yelling threats. They're in tears. begging and pleading to be spared for combat. Some cry out for help like frightened kids. They should things like, "Where is my daughter?" and “Mommy!”

//This threw me off. I wasn't expecting it; I'm not sure how anyone could.

//Like Ima hinted earlier, the Commanders, like V’ehxness, are a separate species entirely from the grunts we’ve been mowing down. They're lab-grown and synthetic. But if that’s true…does this mean the foot soldiers aren’t aliens at all? Are they people? Humans, or something close, transformed into monsters and thrown into war as disposable weapons?

//Wouldn't put it past this game honestly.

//I actually don't like this. Like, in a meta way, I get what the game’s doing, but gameplay-wise, hearing them scream and cry like that while I’m trying to fight is more than a little distracting.

//Is there a setting to turn off the human voice lines? Because…yeesh. I mean I DOUBT it, but I'm telling you, that part sucked the enjoyment out of the final fight for me like a straw.

//The fight itself isn’t full of gimmicks or puzzles, it’s just brutal. I can’t even put my finger on what made it so hard. The enemies hit way harder than usual, and the pressure never lets up.

//It didn’t help that, mid-cutscene, the game decides to kill off my healer! Thanks for that!

//But that final cutscene? Worth it! Takumi loses it completely, and rushes the final boss, screaming like a FUCKING ANIMAL! He just snaps. The pain, the rage, everything comes pouring out as he drives his blade straight through V’ehxness!

//But then, something weird happens. By absorbing V’ehxness’s Cryptoglobin, which...he somehow was able to do through his sword instead of his Infuser, Takumi somehow gains the ability to understand the Invaders’ language.

//So for him, V’ehxness's dying words are in his own language.

//With this new power, he tries to get answers. But even on death’s doorstep, V’ehxness won’t give him much. She kind of just laughs at him and taunts him. Tells the group that killing her means nothing. That their fate is sealed, and what’s coming is worse than death.

//You know, that cliche villain bullshit.

//Also that we were pawns too, forced to fight in a war none of us wanted, and turned into weapons just to die meaninglessly, just like the monsters we've been fighting all along.

//And then… Kako absolutely snaps.

//She just watched her brother, someone she barely got back, get murdered right in front of her. There’s no mercy left in her. Once V’ehxness finishes talking, Kako goes full-on berserker and tears into her. She stabs her again, and again, and again, until there’s barely anything left.

//Yeah, you go girl!

//Again, of all the characters in this game that I felt bad for, because their life just SUCKED because of this war, it's Nozomi and Kako. And even to the end, those two were done the dirtiest by this game, no question.

//This final fight is also the first fight in the game where I didn't get an S-Rank finish.

//Not surprising, though. I was barely keeping my shit together, trying to plan everything out and figuring out who needed to go where. And again, when Nozomi is straight up taken out of the fight by being killed in the cutscene, the fights in this game just get that much harder.

DAY 95:

//It's a lie!

//That WASN'T the final boss! It's time for the ACTUAL final boss! God help me!

//The next day, after holding a quiet funeral for Nozomi and Ima, we all come to a conclusion, largely led by Eito, but we all ultimately agree to it. If we’re going to die here, we’re not doing it without answers.

//We’ve spent this whole time defending something in the Defense Room, this supposed weapon of mass destruction, without even knowing what it really is. So we decide it’s time to find out what’s behind the Defense Room door once and for all. Eito steps up to lead the charge, and we head to the Defense Room door, ready to smash it down with our Class Weapons.

//I took a moment to talk to everyone before I started the final assault. The mood’s heavy, as you very well might expect. Funny that losing Nozomi basically makes everything feel pointless and lonely. That's the true power of a heroine right there.

//Everyone also kind of admits that the trap WAS obvious; just that they didn’t want to see it. We were scared and clinging to any chance of peace, even if it meant ignoring Nozomi.

//In hindsight, it’s clear that if her secret hadn’t been leaked, we probably would’ve listened. But someone made sure that didn’t happen. It's a clever mood that makes my teeth itch.

//Just as we’re about to break into the Defense Room, the Undying Flames Boy appears, not just speaking to Takumi anymore, but in front of the whole group.

//And now Takumi can actually hear him clearly for the first time.

//Honestly, why was it that only Takumi was the one who saw the boy? I know that he appeared in front of Tsubasa that one time, but why was every other time him seeking out Takumi? Because Takumi was the only one up at night? I doubt that.

//But we learn that apparently, the boy’s been inside the Defense Room the whole time. And now, thanks to the Cryptoglobin Takumi absorbed from V’ehxness, he’s able to "tune in" to the boy’s voice. No one else can hear him though, so Takumi has to translate.

//We start getting real answers.

//First off, the way the flame boy looks is not his actual appearance. It’s an avatar made from Cryptoglobin, same as his voice. His true body is what’s locked away behind the Defense Room door.

//On top of that, according to what he says, like the rest of the Special Defense Unit, he was brought to the school under the pretense of protecting humanity. But he was different. Due to some sort of genetic anomaly, he ended up with an incredibly rare and powerful form of Cryptoglobin. So powerful, in fact, that he can generate and control the Undying Flames. All of them, including the massive wall of fire surrounding the school.

//He’s been in the Defense Room this entire time, gathering and charging that power, stockpiling it for 100 days. According to him, when fully charged, the Undying Flames have enough destructive force to wipe out all life on Earth. Specifically the Invaders.

//Neither Sirei, nor anyone else, ever told him the real reason he was doing this. Like us, he was just following orders.

//Eito steps forward. Calm but serious, he asks the boy to open the door and let us see what’s inside. And the boy agrees.

//Looking back, it's really clever how this bit of dialogue managed to slip by me. Eito claims that he can't hear the boy, yet he still somehow knew that the boy's apparition wasn't his real body. Takumi even hesitates upon hearing it. But I didn't catch it. Takumi himself didn't really mention that part, at least, he didn't vocalise it.

//Inside, the air is dense with heat and silence. At the center of the chamber stands the so-called "superweapon." It’s a series of missiles lined up in a circular array, each one charged with the Undying Flames.

//The plan is to launch them across the globe to completely purge the planet of Invader life. It's a scorched-earth solution, the kind you don’t come back from.

//The boy, his avatar gone and speaking to Takumi purely through the cryptoglobin, explains everything. He’s been here for nearly 100 days, trapped inside a capsule at the heart of the room. Unable to move. Unable to speak. His body’s been hooked up to the system, and all it’s done is drain him. Every drop of his Cryptoglobin is siphoned away to power the missiles.

//It’s a fully automated process. Whatever he really is, he was manufactured to be a living fuel source. A weapon. Not even given a name.

//He tells us that the avatar he projected was the only way he could ever reach out, to try to be part of the Special Defense Unit. But until now, even that was limited. He couldn’t speak to anyone, not until Takumi absorbed V’ehxness’s Cryptoglobin and could finally resonate with his voice.

//He laments that he couldn't have talked to us all earlier. And it’s true. Looking back, he was trying to warn us. I mean, we knew that the whole time, but it's still kind of gutting to hear it.

//The real surprise here comes from when Takumi walks closer to the capsule, and peers in to see the boy's real body...

//Viva Reverie Voice: It was a BABY??

//Yeah, so, this is the real body of the Flame Boy. Barely more than a newborn, yet burdened with enough power to destroy the world, lmao.

//Shocking revelation, but before Takumi can even react, or even process the horror, everything explodes into chaos. A scythe whips through the air and slams into the side of the capsule.

//Takumi barely dodges it, then gets shoved down the steps by this unknown assailant. Who is it?

//Bro, who the fuck else?

//Congratulations Hundred Line. You have officially gained the Kodaka Krown for worst kept secret in any of these types of games.

//Eito walks up to the capsule like it’s nothing, slices it open, and straight-up kills the baby. Then he absorbs all of the Cryptoglobin for himself, making him superpowered.

//Now...I...Well...*sigh*...

//Okay...I'm just gonna level with you guys on something.

//When this game came out, I was trying to dodge spoilers like the matrix. But I admit that I knew this whole time that Eito would eventually betray everyone because I got spoiled on that very early on.

//Again, worst kept secret. Even among the fandom.

//So every time something happened in this game that actively went against what we were trying to do, I knew that Eito had to be somehow responsible for it. This was something I was made aware of accidentally very early on.

//HOWEVER!

//I think of all secrets in this game that I could have gotten spoiled on in advance, I'm glad it was this one. Because this game has so many secrets and plotpoints, that I can't be hit with ALL of them. The reason I'm glad that I figured this one out is because one: even though I knew Eito was evil, I didn't know how it was going to be revealed. I never saw the cutscene, I just got given that information.

//As long as the reveal was performed well, I think I would have been okay with it. And thankfully, the scene itself, and the way this final fight happens, is pretty damn masterful.

Two: Once again, Eito being a villain was as obvious to me BEFORE the game even came out. When you take the basic premise of Nagito Komaeda, and recreate his mannerisms into another character, Eito in this case, you can't expect me to NOT be sus of him. So even though I got spoiled, it was more of a confirmation of something that I had already figured out a long long time ago.

//The moment that shit started to happen internally, I knew that someone was up to shit, and he was the easiest person to point the finger at.

//And three: even though I knew that Eito was doing so much awful stuff, I never found out WHY. And now, I know. It's far from what I expected, but you know what? I fuck with it.

//He looks full-on evil now, holy hell.

//What I really love about this ensuing scene is that Eito is clearly tired of having to put up this friendly front for 95 days straight. So now that the full scope of his deviousness is revealed, he's just out confessing to EVERYTHING he did, in complete, total detail, even if it's unnecessary. For example, he explains that he was able to kill Sirei by taking him out in one hit, so even if Sirei blew him, he could be revived with the Revive-O'-Matic, while Sirei himself wouldn't be able to come back.

//Then he finally lays out his motive, and...yeah, it’s not what you’d expect. He’s not working for the Invaders, and he’s not trying to win the war for either side.

//He doesn't care if the Invader's win so long as humanity LOSES. For he wants humans to go extinct!

//Eito’s whole philosophy is based on this really dark, nihilistic worldview. He believes human beings are inherently cruel, selfish, and broken. That all of our conflicts, wars, and destruction, especially what we did to the Earth, prove we’re not worth existing. In his mind, the only moral thing left to do is wipe us out before we ruin anything else.

//It turns out Eito was born with some sort of rare cognitive disorder. The game doesn’t name it, but the way he describes it is messed up. He literally sees other people as monstrous, twisted things. He can’t stand the way humans look, nor can he bear the sound of human voices, and he’s hypersensitive to their scent. He’s been physically and mentally disgusted by everyone since birth.

//As a kid, he isolated himself and spent most of his time in the library, which he actually does mention earlier in the game. While hiding away, he read up on humanity’s history. But instead of finding hope or inspiration, all he saw was an endless cycle of violence, war, and suffering.

//It made him believe that his view of humans was the correct one, and that it was the world that was broken, not him.

//So by the time he arrived at Last Defense Academy, he saw it as the perfect chance. If he could stop the Special Defense Unit from winning, he could finally make sure humanity disappeared for good.

//He admits to everything. Most of it during the ensuing boss fight actually. Some people might not like it, but I am actually all for Eito going on a yap spree in his fight, because again, he’s just done pretending. He starts monologuing, going into full detail about everything he’s done, whether we need to hear it or not. It honestly feels like he’s relieved to finally be himself, as am I.

//He killed Sirei and Hiruko to cut us off from our guiding hands, sabotaged our food supply so we almost starved, knocked out Takumi and left him to die, freed Eva so she could kidnap Ima, then killed Eva once she’d done it, and most importantly of all, he started the rumor about Nozomi being an outsider to turn everyone against her.

//Turns out he was literally hiding under Takumi’s bed during the private convo with Nozomi and overheard the whole thing. That’s how he knew about her being from outside the group.

//I actually got the heebie jeebies by the way, from seeing this scene. This is the creepiest thing he does and it makes my skin crawl.

//And while Kurara and the others are understandably furious, Eito throws it back at them. He says all he did was spread the info. THEY were the ones who decided to stop trusting her and belittled her like they did. In his eyes, that just proves his point even more.

//And I do actually agree with him on this one. Eito just took advantage of what he believed humans were like, and these dumb motherfuckers proved him right.

//Also, all those scenes earlier in the game where Eito looked sick or had chest pain was just him having a full-blown visceral reaction to watching the others succeed. He was literally getting physically ill from seeing everyone work together and make progress.

//Now that he’s got the Undying Flame boy's Cryptoglobin inside of him, he’s done pretending. He’s sick of holding back. He wants to finish the job and kill every single one of us, just because he genuinely believes the world will be better off without people in it.

//And honestly, for how unhinged it is, the game does a pretty solid job making his logic feel internally consistent. He’s not a mustache-twirling villain. He’s just a guy who looked at humanity, didn’t like what he saw, and decided to end it.

//Much like Ultron, to be completely honest. At least Ultron from the MCU.

//So the boss fight...First of all, we can't talk about this final FINAL boss without talking about...the music...

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?

//What the hell kinda drugs was Takada on when he decided to pick this as the boss theme!?

//Eito’s boss theme is this insane track called “RUMBLE” by Paledusk, a pretty huge Japanese band. Apparently, they’re big enough now that they actually overtook Babymetal on the Apple Music metal charts, which is kind of wild considering how long Babymetal held that top spot.

//So yeah, pretty bold move by Kodaka and Takeda to use a song that current and chaotic for the final fight. But it weirdly fits.

//The song itself is all over the place, like genre whiplash in the best (and most confusing) way. It really hammers in the feeling that everything has gone off the rails.

//And honestly, that matches the fight itself perfectly, because the Eito boss battle is FUCKING BRUTAL! Like, GENUINELY hard.

//My ENTIRE party got wiped out except for Kurara, Yugamu, and Gaku. And Gaku basically kamikaze'd himself just to land the final hit. I’ve played a lot of tough fights in this game, but this one actually made me sweat bullets.

//Eito has total movement freedom on the battlefield; he just flies wherever he wants, no terrain restrictions at all. He hits a massive area, counterattacks every time you land a hit, and occasionally summons reinforcements to keep the pressure on. Plus, he can set parts of the map on fire, so stepping on those tiles deals constant damage.

//And since he absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin, his Specialist Skill has been powered up. A bunch of his attacks randomly inflict debuffs, which makes it harder to avoid damage or move out of dangerous areas. Basically, if you’re not planning carefully, he’ll grind your team down fast.

//The fight strategy is kind of the same as always. Take out the adds, whittle down the boss, keep your healer alive. But actually pulling that off is way harder here. He just has way more health and does a ton more damage. You’re basically in survival mode the whole time.

//Eventually, I did manage to take Eito down, but it doesn’t feel like a win.

//The moment he killed the baby powering the superweapon, the whole thing shut down permanently.

//What that basically means is that everything we've done, and everything we fought for, as well as Nozomi and the others' deaths have been completely, wholly meaningless. Right at the last hurdle, Eito screwed us all over, which means this pointless war has become just that. So much bloodshed, no longer for a reason.

//And to top it all off, Eito’s last words set up for something else, would you believe it. Apparently, once he absorbed the Prisoner’s Cryptoglobin earlier, like Takumi, he also gained the ability to understand the Invaders’ language. And he found something major out. But instead of telling us what he learned, he just dies with that knowledge, leaving us in the dark.

//So Takumi has no choice. He kills the guy who used to be his friend, absorbs Eito’s souped-up Cryptoglobin, and now carries the burden of everything that’s happened—along with whatever horrible truths still haven’t been revealed.

//Rest in piss, Yaoi Fangirls.

DAY 96:

//So yeah, these last 5 days are basically the wind down after all the shit. After Eito kills the baby powering the whole system, pretty much everything in the school shuts down. The Defense Room loses power, all of the O'-Matics shut off, and even the Undying Flames that were keeping the school sealed off just vanish.

//The entire facility basically goes dark, like all the tech and security stuff we relied on for 95 days is just offline now. So even if the Invaders don't kill us, our limited resources will.

DAY 97:

//Takumi is completely wrecked at this point. Nozomi, who he finally realized was actually Karua, the person he’s been trying to protect and reconnect with this whole time, is dead. Eito, one of the only people he thought he could rely on, also turned out to be manipulating everything and is now dead too.

//Basically, the two people who mattered most to Takumi are gone, and with them, so is any clear purpose or direction.

//His whole reason for fighting, surviving, and pushing forward was all tied to Nozomi/Karua. Now that she’s gone, and with Eito’s betrayal still fresh, Takumi is left standing in the ruins of everything, completely empty.

//It's like everything that gave his life meaning just got pulled out from under him, and all that’s left is this huge, aching void.

//This is really difficult to watch for someone who has grown to just love Takumi. I think he's a brilliant protagonist, despite what people say. Fundamentally flawed in all the places it matters, but someone strong enough to bear them.

//More on that in a bit though. Point is this sucks for him and I feel miserable.

DAY 98:

/FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK-!

//Okay, yeah, not gonna lie, this was a literal jumpscare for me. Just came out of nowhere and sent my nerves into hyperspace.

//When the scene happened, Takumi described his body getting really hot, and then all of a sudden, the undying flames appeared in his room, and I deadass thought that what was happening is Takumi was becoming the Undying Flames boy.

//In one of two ways. Either because he absorbed Eito who absorbed the baby, the power of the Undying Flames is now within him, which...is not TOO far off from what happened. But the other alternative was something I'd thought of for a while.

// @rpganon had a theory a while back that the UFB was an alternate version of Takumi. Takumi possesses a special ability that allows him to send his memories back to his past self, which explains the in-game retries and redos. He suspected that the UFB might be an iteration of Takumi who has experienced multiple time loops, returning to the past to warn the current Takumi about his future.

//I did think this was legit, but it seems like they're entirely seperate characters at this point. However, I really did think that maybe, this was where Takumi would transform into the UFB, and the timeline reset with HIM in the pod, and a NEW Takumi Sumino taking the place of the character.

//Ultimately, that's not what happens. But I will give them credit for coming up with something that interesting.

//Speaking of the UFB, he actually shows up again!

//Turns out, because Eito absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin and then Takumi absorbed EITO, that power is now inside TAKUMI. So now Takumi basically has all, or at least most, of the power the UFB had.

//This gives UFB just enough presence left to speak to Takumi one final time. And even though his real body was that of a baby, he says he’s actually the same age as the rest of the SDU. He just never physically aged because his body wasn’t strong enough to handle the insane amount of power he was born with. It’s like his body stopped growing to keep from being torn apart by his Cryptoglobin. A huge tradeoff for being born with that kind of power.

//Even with all his strength, he admits that he doesn’t really understand what Cryptoglobin or Hemoanima truly are. He just knows that he’s been stuck in the Defense Room his whole life, treated as more of a weapon than a person. He was mostly raised by Sirei, but even that was more like being managed than parented.

//Because of how unstable his power is, he couldn’t let anyone get close to him. He never had the chance to make friends or live like a normal kid. But then, he heard that a group of students, Takumi and the rest of the SDU, were brought to the school, and for the first time, he felt genuinely happy. He wanted to meet them. That’s why he created the flame avatar. He just wanted to be part of the group.

//So wait...You mean to tell me...

//That this guy was THE 16TH STUDENT HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THIS SCHOOL WATCH OUT FOR HIM!!!???

//Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

//Of course, Takumi didn’t know any of this and thought the flame avatar was some kind of enemy, so he was always wary. Takumi apologizes for that now.

//The UFB explains that, even though he couldn’t interact directly, he kept showing up to try and warn everyone of the danger. He wanted to help protect them. And even though the group had its share of drama and conflict, the way they still fought together to protect each other and push forward was something he envied. He thought it was beautiful.

//UFB is baby. Metaphorically as well as literally. I will burn my hand patting his head.

//At this point, Takumi completely breaks down, apologizing for everything—for the misunderstanding, for failing to protect the people who died, for all the loss they’ve endured. Classic Kodaka moment of the main character shouldering all the guilt at the end.

//But then UFB drops something heavy: he asks Takumi, if he had the chance to go back and redo all 100 days from the beginning, knowing what he knows now, would he take that opportunity?

//And that’s not just a hypothetical. Because now, with all the power he’s absorbed, Takumi CAN actually go back. The option to reset everything and try again is REAL.

//I have to give a MASSIVE kudos to Kodaka, because the way that he sets this up is REALLY CLEVER!

//Eito’s Specialist Skill is called Special Fortunetelling. Basically, every time he takes an action in combat, he gets a random effect. Most of the time, it's something like an attack boost, a shield, or, sometimes. he just gets fatigued instead. It’s a gamble-type ability, which is another Nagito connection I spotted early on.

//But once he absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin, that ability got a serious upgrade. Instead of giving him random buffs, it instead gave the party random debuffs during his boss fight.

//Now that Takumi has absorbed Eito, and by extension, the baby too, that power has carried over and changed his own Specialist Skill as well.

//Takumi’s original Specialist Skill is called Special Redo. It’s got two main functions in the game: "Retry," which lets you start a whole battle over from the beginning, and "Wave Reset," which lets you restart the current enemy wave if things are going badly. It’s basically a second-chance mechanic built into the story.

//But now that Takumi’s Cryptoglobin has been supercharged with all that insane power, the UFB suggests that he might actually be able to push that ability way further. Like, not just restarting a fight, but rewinding everything. All 100 days. A full reset.

//In other words, Takumi could potentially start the whole story over from Day 1, only this time with all the knowledge and power he has now. That means he might be able to prevent everything that went wrong, stop Eito before he betrays everyone, save Nozomi, Ima, and all the others, and maybe even avoid the war turning into such a pointless bloodbath.

//So yeah, Takumi’s "redo" ability has gone from a gameplay mechanic to a major story decision, giving him one last shot to fix everything.

//Absolute genius move when gameplay meets story like that. Although I will say, it's a bit awkward that the Specialist Skills haven't been mentioned to be canon to the story so far for this exact purpose. Or...maybe I missed it.

//But those are the final words of the UFB, as he disappears for good. Just when we were getting to know him too...

DAY 99:

//Takumi starts checking in with everyone who survived to see how they feel about the idea of resetting everything and starting the 100 days over.

//Takemaru, Kurara, Kyoshika, and Kako are all for it. They say if there’s even a chance of reaching a happier outcome, they’d be willing to go through it all again. They want to try and fix what was broken.

//On the other hand, Darumi, Tsubasa, Gaku, and Yugamu are just over it. They’ve been through so much trauma and loss that the idea of reliving any of it sounds exhausting. To them, it’s not worth it.

//Shouma’s kind of stuck in the middle, not really sure if it’s the right move or not. So in the end, it’s an even split.

//That alone makes the decision hard, but honestly, there are still so many unanswered questions. We never really found out what happened with Karua, or how exactly she became Nozomi. And we still don’t know what truth Eito discovered after understanding the Invaders’ language, since he died without ever telling us. That mystery alone feels like a good enough reason to try again.

//Personally, I’d want to redo everything, not just to save people, but to finally get some answers.

DAY 100:

//It's time...

//So, weirdly enough, even though the school's power was supposed to be down after the Undying Flame Boy died, the War Room randomly boots back up, and it looks like the “Omni-Directional Attack” is being activated.

//Which makes zero sense, because the weapon shouldn't even work anymore after Eito killed the baby. Graduation music starts playing over the speakers again, which I think is a great thematic touch.

//But OH MY GOD, did I get so pissed here!

//There’s been a freaking escape pod this whole time!

//An actual, functional escape pod!

//One more time...

//There...

//WAS

//A!

//FUCKING!!

//ESCAPE POD!!!

//NOZOMI got absolutely DRAGGED for wanting to escape, and turns out she was completely right! We all called her a traitor and she literally died over it! WE DIDN'T EVEN FUCKING BOTHER LOOKING FOR ANOTHER WAY OUT!

//At the very least, everyone looks SO guilt ridden over it, and they FUCKING SHOULD BE!

//Naturally, Takumi blames himself, but honestly, that’s not fair. He was the only one who believed in Nozomi from the beginning. The rest failed her—not the other way around.

//It’s actually kind of hard to accept how much everyone fought and suffered, only to realize they were their own worst enemy the whole time.

//But Takumi thinks back to what the UFB told him about jumping back to fix everything. To start anew and give everyone a happy ending they deserve.

//Then suddenly, I get to make a CHOICE!

//Except NO I DON'T LOOOOOOLL!

//Clearly it's setting up to my decision making in the future of this game, but this hasn’t happened since Day 0 at the very start of the game.

//Unfortunately, saying "no" does nothing. You can technically choose it, but the story doesn’t move forward unless you agree. You don't even get a funny bonus scene like the one with Sirei at the beginning of the game.

//So much for agency, but hey, at least I tried.

//It’s still really unclear what happens to everyone if we do go back in time. The current timeline could vanish, or it could split off and continue existing separately. The game doesn't really give a definitive answer, so I guess it's up to everyone who's playing.

Takumi ends up deciding not to go back to the satellite with the others. His reason for fighting is gone, and without her, he just can’t find a reason to keep going forward in this timeline.

//It’s honestly pretty heartbreaking. I had my moments of frustration with Takumi throughout the game, but seeing him come to terms with everything and still want to fix it...

//That hit hard.

//He watches the escape pod launch toward Earth with a little smile, knowing at least his friends are going to be okay.

//Then, he walks back to the courtyard and uses his Specialist Skill to jump back in time, ready to relive the 100 days and try again.

//But right after he disappears, the escape pod that left… comes back. There's just a walkie talkie inside. Takemaru and Tsubasa are calling in, saying there’s something wrong with the satellite. Something they didn’t expect.

//But Takumi’s already gone.

//That last moment is so ominous. Gave me chills, and is a GREAT setup for the future of this game.

CONCLUSION:

//And then the credits roll. I caught a few names I recognized, and apparently, the voice of the Undying Flame boy in Japanese is Daiki Yamashita. That’s Deku’s voice actor from My Hero Academia!

//I obviously don't play this game in Japanese, but I do like Daiki-kun. He's a very entertaining and enjoyable person.

//Also, a lot of the credits are blacked out, probably to keep major spoilers hidden.

//But...Yeah! That's the first of many endings of the Hundred Line!

//Such a wild ending. So many loose threads. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.

//Like I said already, the way that these journal's are going to be structured will be different from here on out. Up until now, I've been breaking down my gamplay throughout the days. But since we have so much to get through, I've decided that my posts about Hundred Line going forward will be about the routes themselves.

//I.e. instea of documenting things day by day, I'm going to keep a record of the highlights of each route and ending I get, and then talk about them in each post.

//I get that that's a pretty big switch up, and it means the endings will be posted more spaced out, but the thing is I really like this game. And I want to play it as much as possible. And the more I write about it, the less I play it.

//I'll make it work somehow, promise. But in the meantime, Route #0.

//I have a feeling that even with the 100 different endings, THIS ONE has the potential to be up there, because this first route was TOP NOTCH!

//The character development for everyone in this route alone was brilliant, the characterization was on point, the story was full of awesome twists and turns, and the ending was masterfully crafted and so bittersweet.

//I didn't feel this way about Rain Code when it first came out. I do like Rain Code, but I don't like it as much as I like Danganronpa. This game on the other hand has the potential to shoot beyond those stars from this one route alone, especially because it gets me excited for all the other outcomes on this game.

//But that is the end of our first playthrough. My takeaways:

I love this game.

-Mod

[consumeroflemoans]

SVSSS tma entity assignment mayhaps?

On it o7

Shen Jiu: I initially considered Slaughter for him, but his violence isn’t unmotivated. So probably the Web for him.

Shen Yuan: he’s fun because you can take his character in so many directions. There’s obviously the Eye due to his knowledge of PIDW and all of the characters. There’s the Web and the sense that he’s being controlled by the system to follow a certain plot. There’s the Stranger because he replaced the original Shen Qingqiu and that caused everyone else to think he had been possessed- very much that uncanny valley feeling.

I think I’m going to go with Eye for him and Web for the System that’s influencing him.

Luo Bingge: the Desolation. He was so hurt and traumatized he destroyed the world and rebuilt it to cater to him. I like to think the Endless Abyss and Xin Mo are also manifestations of the Desolation

Luo Binghe: possibly also Desolation. But I think he’s a strong contender for the Lonely too. He nearly destroyed the world because he couldn’t bear to be cut off from the one person that cared for him

Liu Qingge: the Hunt is a pretty obvious choice for him

Yue Qingyuan: hear me out on the Corruption. It can manifest as unhealthy love and also every time he uses his power some of his life force is used with it. It’s not a typical manifestation of the Corruption but he’s still wasting away

Shang Qinghua: ‘the Web because he’s a spy and a schemer’ shut up smacks you with the Buried (this is a conversation with myself btw). The financial issues and the fear of everything crashing down around him fits him well

Mobei Jun: the Hunt. He was thrown into a kill or be killed world at the age of 5 when his uncle tried to kill him leaving him with cultivators. I think I might have said this before, but demons as a whole fit the Hunt pretty well

Tianlang Jun: the End. He has a lot of associations with death throughout the story and is the only one powerful enough to kill Luo Binghe. He doesn’t particularly care who dies after losing Su Xiyan and being ‘betrayed’ by her.

I also think he’s a strong contender for the Corruption after having both his mind and his body decay while imprisoned. Also his main weapon is his blood which eats away at the insides of anyone that ingests it

Zhuzhi Lang: the Corruption. The feeling of revulsion is strong with this one. His original form is so disgusting Tianlang Jun gave him another just so he wouldn’t have to look at him. This also absolutely manifests into his unhealthy love for Tianlang Jun

[logan-but-not]

Kris' relationship with the soul/player is a fascinating one.

Multiple people who are smarter than me have already gone into the intricacies of the constant fight for control between the both of us and how Kris really feels about everything going on. It's one of the most integral conflicts in all of Deltarune and it's also one of the most subdued.

What I find particularly interesting is how our control of Kris really doesn't seem to be noticed by people who have known them for years. Of the entirety of Home Town, there are only debatably three characters who can pick up that something is affecting Kris. Most obvious is, of course, Noelle. Considering the entire weird route only functions as it does by taking advantage of Kris and Noelle's estranged childhood relationship, it makes sense that she would piece together something eventually. There's also Susie, her most notable instance being after the Spamton fight where she can denote how Kris' reaction to it all can feel out of character, plus she has a habit of resisting player control anyway. And lastly, Toriel seems to notice something at the very least at the end of chapter 1, and considering she objectively knows Kris better than anyone besides maybe Asriel, I don't think it's a stretch to say that she would pick up on the player's influence (maybe Chapter 3 will confirm my suspicions). But aside from them, no one else can tell the difference. It just goes to show how closed off and reserved Kris has been for who knows how long. Until we came along.

It's funny. If you think about it, Kris and the Player are both extremely similar and polar opposites in a lot of ways. Both are thrust into a situation of which they have no control over. Both are attempting to defy their predestined fate and fight for control. Both have an enginmatic motive that's unknown from the other. And both have someone clearly pulling strings behind the curtains, manipulating events to put them into conflict. The two are connected for a reason. So much so that the only ones who can even tell the difference are Kris' closest friends and family.

But where we differ from Kris is two-fold, our approach to problem solving, and our autonomy. There's not much we know for certain about Kris, but what little we have seen is pretty telling. From how they brandish the knife, how they treat the soul itself, and how they outwardly fight against our influence, it's clear that (as of right now) they only view us as an affliction, a being that controls them against their will, an interloper pupeteering their body to force their way into their life, a parasite. They have no intentions of understanding us, or working with us, or giving us a chance to help them. They have one goal, to get rid of us.

Compare that to the player. For all intents and purposes, our goal is also to leave Kris, for whatever reason the narrative has. Maybe to find our original vessel, maybe to access something new, maybe just to see what will happen, or maybe we genuinely want to give Kris back their freedom because we care about them. But think about how we traverse the world. We treat like it's any other video game. We fight all the battles, we find all the items, we exhaust the dialogue, we find ever sercet. We explore every single possibility of changing our predestined fate, even if that means hurting the characters we care about. Where Kris has seemed to have cut themselves off from the rest of the world, we want to interact with every inch of it, and push it to its limits. And it's not out of any profound purpose or secret agenda, it's just our instincts as players of a video game. We want to see what will happen.

And that direct difference in freedom causes Kris and us to be opposed. Two wills fighting over a shared body. One, the rightful owner, the other, an inquisitive and curious intruder. And no matter what we do, actions we take, relationships we mend, battles we win, choices we make... some regard of that perception will always be true.

And that's really is what it's all about, isn't it? Freedom. That's why Kris refuses to understand or communicate with us. Because no reason we can give them will ever justify us controlling them, even if it's a valid one. The kid clearly has already a pretty tumultuous life. Between their brother leaving, the divorce of their parents, an unexplained tragedy relating to Dess, bullying at the hands of Susie, and the mere fact that they are a human orphan in a predominantly monster community, so much pain and strife has happened to Kris that was out of their control. And now, from what must be a sick joke from the Angel itself, the one thing they felt they had autonomy over is stripped away. They're acting in ways that aren't them, saying things they wouldn't say, and potentially even hurting the only people they still cared about. And to them, that is unforgivable.

And for me personally, I hate it. I've been referring to the player as a collective for most of this post, but if I could get personal for a second, I hate that I have to control Kris. I don't want to take away their will. I was thrown into this situation with no say just like Kris was, and I'm trying to do everything to help them. But even if I make all the good choices, do everything I possibly can to make sure that Kris, and this world, are in the best state they can be in, it won't change the simple fact that I have to control them to do it. It makes the mere act of turning on the game a guilt inducing nightmare.

And you may respond with that by saying: "then just don't play the game, and leave Kris in peace". But the thing is, I WANT to keep playing. I want to explore more dark worlds, I want to meet more characters, I want to learn more lore, I want to win more battles, and I want to help more friends. And here's the other thing, the world can't continue without me. If I left the game, the world wouldn't just immediately fix itself, and Kris wouldn't get their autonomy back. At worst, in narrative, the roaring would happen, and everyone would die, and at best, the world is just brought to a stasis, waiting for the player to continue. Every game needs a player.

So... I will continue playing. I will keep controlling Kris for as long as I have to. I will explore every option, however benevolent or destructive. I will fulfill my roles or defy them. I will conclude whatever narrative this game has laid out for me, as it's hero or as it's doom. Because I love this world, and I want to save it and everyone in it, including Kris. And whether or not Kris comes to terms with that fact, unfortunately, doesn't matter. I will proceed, for the sake of this world, and for my own curiosity. And if Kris forever hates me for it, then I can accept that.

I'll be their villain, if it means I have a chance I can save them.

[holylustration]

My thoughts about my Tumblr under the cut. What do the kids say these days? Something something, rent lowering gun shots?

I started this side-Tumblr account as a medium to think through my stories, establish accountability for myself by posting WIPs and snippets, as well as share cool moodboard ideas and art created for or from my fanfics. After meeting other folks on Twitter and Discord, that struck me as a bit egocentric, because why wouldn't I want to share the stuff of my talented friends, too? And then I started to reblog other content that I liked that was on-brand with my theme, which is Rogue Trader fanfic and fanart.

Blog history out of the way, let's talk about content. On my little blog, you are just not going to see a lot of head canons or meta-critiques. If you want my takes, go read my fanfics, otherwise, I'm not going to risk yucking on someone else's yum. And I've seen the raging head canon debates! I don't want that on my pretty fanfic and fanart, sometimes memey, Tumblr. That isn't what I want in my space.

As for what takes up that space, well, there's no right, special privilege, or entitlement as to what I post or reblog. I love the stuff my friends make and I love the stuff that people I don't know make that my friends reblog. But even then, not everything makes the cut.

Not getting a reblog, like, or follow, or being unfollowed, is not a personal slight or an attack. I have been on Tumblr since the early oughts and I am mystified that this is the new peception. There could be any number of reasons why I don't do the Thing - you've got content that's already similar to a lot of other stuff I follow and I've got too much of it already and need to trim it down; maybe you have headcanons and ideas that I don't want to read (but that does NOT mean that I don't support your right to have them, let's make that clear); maybe you post a lot of Other Fandom content that I'm not in or into; maybe you format your posts in ways that are unreadable; maybe its all of the above and I don't know you enough to give you a pass about it; or maybe there's just so much content on my dash that I missed your great post that a mutual reblogged. Please don't take it personally. I don't take it personally when someone doesn't follow me or reblog my stuff - I'm not owed anything by anyone and I can't force anyone to like my stuff. I can't be the only one who understands that others, like me, are but one person and can only engage with so much content in their day, whether that's fanfic, Tumblr, or anything else. Maybe that isn't obvious though.

And, again, this my blog, and I'm allowed to do what I want with it within Tumblr's terms of service. I owe no explanation to anyone, but now you've all now gotten to peer behind the veil. Understand that I curate my Tumblr experience to avoid using the block button.

"But Holy," you cry, "The Rogue Trader tags are filled with things that you should be engaging with. You need to look there!"

First, should is such an ugly word. I don't get paid to be in fandom. I'm not a public figure. I'm not an Owlcat employee. I'm not a Games Workshop writer. I'm an old, married woman with a fulltime job and a commute who writes fanfiction for her own enjoyment when she gets a spare minute. You can't make me do anything, and if you tried, then you'd know that making my Tumblr experience a chore makes it unfun and so I will leave and go elsewhere. You'll still get the fanfic, but no sneaky peekies or commissioned fanart - you'll have to wait for it to get posted to Ao3.

Second, I learned in the early days of the Rogue Trader fandom to stay out of the tags, and I very much have continued to adhere to that practice. In the days of yore, the tags were filled with nothing but negativity and insults (sometimes hurled directly at me for my fanfic(s)!), and that's not changed all that much in recent months, though now there are new targets (good for me, bad for everyone else). So, I'm not in the tags. I never will be in the tags. I won't see anything you post unless I'm tagged in it or someone I follow reblogs it and it's on my feed when I'm browsing.

And, honestly, those early fandom experiences and some of these recent ones have only served to make me increasingly wary of folks I don't know who occupy space in those very same tags. I challenge anyone to remain warm and open when you've had folks faking drama for their own self-image and messaging you for months to kill yourself, while others threaten to find where you live and do the job that your own cowardly hand won't. :) There are crazy, obsessive, and out of touch people in the world, and I will always protect myself and those I love first. That includes protecting the content on my dash and how I choose to use and interact with Tumblr (and other social media) for my own safety and sanity. If you think that's selfish, you know how to unfollow me.

But if, for whatever reason, you WANT my attention, if you just know in your heart of hearts that we are DESTINED to be mutuals and besties, and you're not willing to wait for the Introverted stray cat in me to warm up and trust you of her own volition, then please just send me a DM. Make a comment on a post. At me in an ask challenge or something. I do eventually notice! And we probably will become besties and mutuals. And if we don't hit it off, well, that's life, we move on and there're no hard feelings.

But without reaching out, don't assume that I'm in some tower brushing my hair and ignoring you. You're giving me (and my hair) way too much credit.

[urmomsgnocchi]

buck realizes he loves eddie first and distances himself immediately because he can't risk making super straight guy eddie diaz uncomfortable and pushing him away. (of course he doesn't see that he's pushing him away to avoid pushing him away bc anxious buck doesn't think very much.)

enter buck 1.0...2.0? 1.2? idk its #letbuckfuck time and its the only thing that (kinda) takes his mind off of how much he loves eddie, so boy does he fuck. he shows up to shifts with hickeys all over his neck, hungover. he blows eddie (and sometimes chris) off to go on "dates" with random people off of dating apps. it's anyone at first but eventually he finds himself hooking up with people with dark hair and big brown eyes, maybe a couple inches shorter than buck, but strong arms, big hands, hands he can maybe pretend are someone else's... it's not on purpose, but eventually elena, marco, joaquin, start to look like eddie, sound like him, feel like him, as much as they need to for buck to not throw himself at eddie's feet and ruin their friendship.

meanwhile eddie is freaking out. he never met buck 1.0, and he doesn't really like him. buck is out of it at work because he clearly isn't sleeping as much as he should be, even though he has his own bedroom at his new apartment that he insisted he needed (eddie said he'd take the couch until they figured out a better solution.) he's hungover half the time and comes in covered in these bruises that eddie knows are hickeys but can't even bring himself to think about as anything so intimate. he knows about buck 1.0 but he also knows how hard buck worked to change, so he can't understand why he went back now? he's obsessing over it, trying to reach out and connect how they used to, check in on him, but buck blows him off and then, like clockwork, shows up almost late to work the next day with even more hicke- bruises.

when buck shows up to a shift late, dropped off by some rando, tanned, muscled up pretty boy in a muscle tank, who kisses him on the cheek and squeezes his hip in a way that has every single muscle in eddie's body tensing, they reach a breaking point.

eddie goes somewhere he's never gone before, to maddie's house, with two bottles of wine and movie tickets for chim and jee. he sits down, shaky, and tells maddie all about buck's dangerous and reckless behavior. tells her how confused he is, how he can't pinpoint a trigger. he came back, chris came back, sure the house was a little cramped but things were good, they were happy. maddie reaches for eddie's hand and he realizes he's tearing up a little. maddie knows what it's like to worry about buck, she doesn't hold back. he grips her hand when she tells him about tommy, about how buck fucked him in his house, his room. that must be it he decides, tommy was the catalyst. but maddie keeps going, "eddie he-he said something to him, tommy did...it really messed with buck's head-he didn't know how to process it...he said you were competition eddie. that he and buck couldn't be together because buck loves you." eddie's heart swells and drops and everything clicks into place. "I think he's trying to put some space between you sweetie, he mentioned that he didn't want to look like he's pining after his straight best friend..." she says it apologetically, almost at a whisper, she's nervous, telling someone else's secret.

but eddie's brain is somewhere else. of course buck loves him, and of course he loves buck, it's always been them. it's so clear and obvious now. why leaving buck was so painful, and why buck lashed out before eddie left. buck's place in chris's life, in eddie's home, it made sense, it was easy, natural. he doesn't know where to go from here, his whole world is crumbling, he doesn't know who he is anymore, he loves a man, it changes so much. it also changes nothing, he loves buck, he still misses him, and he's worried about him, that's his priority and it snaps him back to maddie's kitchen and her hands on his. he thanks her, hugs her in a way he never has before, like family, and rushes out the door. he's on autopilot until he finds himself at buck's new front door.

meanwhile buck is on his knees in the middle of his kitchen, hands deftly undoing the buttons on tonight's eddie stand-in's jeans. he's so focused on both imagining that the body he's slowly exposing is eddie's and trying his absolute best to not whine eddie's name around another man's dick (again) that he misses the sound of the key he gave chris for emergencies turning in his front door. the front door that leads directly to buck's kitchen. he doesn't miss the sound of confusion as he's pulled off of his date by the guy buck assured him wasn't his husband, even though the pictures on the fridge and entryway walls all feature him and some kid. he watches in shock as eddie shoves the man's wallet and shirt into his chest and drags him to the open door with a clipped that's enough buddy, say goodnight.

suddenly eddie's hand is on buck's chin, gently guiding buck to look up at him from where he's still kneeling, shocked, on his own kitchen floor. his other hand going to buck's curls, both their eyes shining, clearly both a little lost.

"no more of that, yeah? you don't need that anymore." buck nods softly, bleary eyed and clearly drunker than eddie anticipated.

they'll talk in the morning, there's too much they both need to say. too much for tipsy buck to process so eddie pulls him up, walks him to bed, and curls up next to him like they used to during covid, before things got so messy.

"missed you," "missed you too," in the dark, spoken to the ceiling, the wall, as they lay next to each other. that magnetic pull, which they now both recognize as more than platonic, setting in.

buck doesn't say anything when eddie scoots closer and wraps an arm around buck's waist from behind, and eddie says nothing when buck reaches down to hold eddie's hand tight to his body. when he thinks buck has drifted off he nuzzles his face down into buck's hair, kissing the top of his head, and whispers "I think I love you, buck."

buck is just barely awake, lazy smile spreading across his face as he finally lets himself feel the love he's been so scared to let take over.

[ajarofbees]

I had to really think about this one! good questions!!

FIORE THORNE

D'Meta was really exciting for me for a first Warden playthrough because!! Wow!! Character reactivity! Rook sensing the Blight behind the walls but still getting the same shock because it's so much and so much worse than we've seen before. Getting a unique third choice with the mayor—that carries on to Lavendel! Cool! Which is to say, I didn't pay a lot of thought as to what Fiore-would-do-as-himself and was actually pressing the Fun New Buttons that showed up. But sometimes accidents make for interesting ways to expand characterization!

Which is a bit of a preamble to say that Fiore—impulsive, reckless, good natured and quick to defend people while also being a bit naive of the complexities of the world and anger that fizzles out quickly—does recruit the Mayor for the Wardens. Part of it is believeing in the best of people, ever optimistic as he is…. and part of it is getting excited he gets to do another Cool Warden Thing: he's conscripting for the Wardens! He's sending someone to Weisshaupt! Just like stories about Cool And Noble Yet Tragic Wardens do. Just give him this, everything is going to suck for the next few months.

Illario, and the Crows as a whole, are a little bit of a tricky subject for Fiore since he kind of… relies on Lucanis (who he likes and is his friend) as a point of how to judge them, kind of skimming over some fairly glaring red flags with a sort of "Well, Lucanis and Teia (and Viago I guess) are pretty cool, and Treviso is under military occupation so maybe they've got a point…?" type of shrug. Very much in line with his idealization of the Inquisitor and the Wardens. Fiore's playthrough also wound up with Treviso being saved (heard the words 'the Blight will get into the canals' and reacted on instinct), so in the end Illario was set free. Probably a really surprising outcome from Illario, who mostly saw Fiore as a very excited fluffy chick hanging out with all the Crows.

Solas ends up on his less forgiving end, though I have the feeling that even if Fiore didn't romance Lace, he still would've landed on actual rage when facing the Dread Wolf rather than anything else. The whole Titans thing involving someone he loved just pushed it along. He even found Mythal's fragmant before Tearstone! He got her help peacefully! He went through the Blood of Arlathan starting to think maybe Solas still has a little piece of him that will talk it out! And then… well, and then Tearstone and the Regret Prison happen. And (albeit I haven't actually gotten through Tearstone) on top of that? Fiore loved and trusted Lace so much he choose her to lead the other team.

I know I touched on his feelings about Cyrian in the Bellara week RIH but it's one of the points that shows how young Fiore really is, being lost how to try and help Bellara at the beginning—it's almost a relief when there's suddenly demons to fight, because he knows how to do that! Fiore takes cues from how Bellara feels about this (it's her brother after all), but does try to steer her away from spiraling in his own awkward fashion. If Cyrian survived, I think Fiore would support a more merciful option, but would make it clear to him that Fiore would be keeping an eye on him.

On a whole, Fiore's idea of justice in the beginning is very much colored by his idealization of the Wardens and the Inquisitor. He's not totally naive but it's pretty obvious he bases a lot of things on ideals rather than experience (he is in his early 20s so that's really to be expected). Despite his shield-slinging, he's always kept in mind trying to help and protect people, so any ideas of justice will be based on that, and only grow from there as he learns from the rest of the VG. Probably because of that and his own view of himself as a shield, he's more likely to get actually angry when someone else is threatened rather than him—see the whole Solas thing right above.

However, even with his Warden idolizing and Inquisitor fanboying, he's not unaware of how forces can work to dispense (or enforce) justice. He was a city elf in southern Thedas! Half of the Free Marches decided to try and kill everyone in Wycome before the Inquisitor put a stop to it! There was a Circle in Wycome, even if he never personally interacted with it he would have known about it! (which honestly might explain why he's so into the Wardens/Inquisition, being supposedly outside groups that (supposedly) choose to do good.) He's willing to work with sanctioned sources during the game, those that we can—the Mourn Watch in the Necropolis and Rana in Minrathous, with the Crows in a very muddy middle—but reserves his judgment until he sees things for himself, or at least gets assurances from those he trusts.

Other fun details I didn't have the juice to really expand on:

Another one for the "left the Mayor to die" club. Vehris, despite their quietness and general oddities, cares just as much about their fellow Veil Jumpers as Bellara does even if they don't always show it. They don't regret it or even spare it much thought after the fact, except for commiserating with Bellara about not being able to save anyone there. Which, of course, makes the later reveal of the Mayor's transformation into a Darkspawn a gut punch.

Looking at Cyrian's situation they would be sympathetic, especially with their friendship with Bellara, but also uncomfortable with how they can clearly see after Anaris is taken care of (and even more in the hypothetical where Cyrian survived) how almost relatable his fall was. A very "you are not immune to propaganda" realization, beyond the surface-level "of course I would never fall for something like that!" (said by someone who absolutely would fall for something if the situation was right). If there was a choice about a surviving Cyrian's fate, they would definitely lean towards something more merciful/working to redeem himself, even if it brought them into conflict with other Veil Jumpers.

Hakiem absolutely left the Mayor to die. There's revenge in that choice, and there's also the casual ruthlessness that comes with being a pirate. Sure, he doesn't really have a personal stake in all this beyond the "I'm one of the idiots that live here and Thedas is were all my stuff is" but he's got enough morals to be horrified at what happened to the village. Of course, a rather seemingly simple choice of "play stupid games win stupid prizes" with a pirate comes back to bite them all in the ass but who could have seen that coming.

Hakiem totally pulled the trickery ending, it's all too perfect for him—the cleverness aspect rather than brute force, the pulling one over a far too proud asshole… it's all good. If he made an elaborate rude hand gesture while Solas was fading away, that's between the two of them.

Cvetka also pulled a Warden Conscription on the Mayor, although her's was way more pragmatic and thinking more about future consequences—at the very least, the Wardens were a good place to keep an eye on him so he doesn't cause any further trouble. Actual redemption was more of a neat side effect than anything else.

She offered, mostly jokingly since she knows Lucanis wouldn't agree, to send Illario to the Wardens, if only for the reaction it gets from the rest of the Crows.

Dorothea, being in tune with the fade and respectful of spirits, does convince Mythal's fragment for aid and is able to convince Solas with that to willingly go into the Fade. Though she was temped to hit him a bit more.

Dietlinde fought Solas in the end, because that's what a warrior of the Mourn Watch does. It's a nice straight line from A to B, and sure if her sister was there maybe she would have seen about convincing him with Mytha's help but Dorothea is not around! So Dietlinde does what she knows works best: just like the warring undead nobles, sometimes the best solution involves beating the shit out of an asshole until they admit defeat. She's even dutiful enough to only take a little joy in kicking the Dread Wolf's ass.

Bacchus told Lucanis to imprison Illario, since he wasn't going to kill him (and ol' Bacchus has always been a bit soft on Crows he likes), considering the whole nature of Crow internal politics. Sure, Katarina made a big show of naming Lucanis as First Talon with Teia and Viago's support, but that base of power can pretty easily fall apart as the past has shown. It's better at put up a good front from the straight, ol' Bacchus says, than let some weaknesses show when you can't afford it.

Dionysus is, as you probably would expect from a Crow that enjoys being a Crow (morality twinges aside), will make some pretty harsh choices and not really regret them—leaving the Mayor to die? Well, should've done a better job selling everyone out if he didn't want that. Illario? Imprison him if you're not gonna' kill him, there's consequences for your actions, should've done a better job of taking the First Talon seat. Solas? To quote Lucanis' own revenge plan: "It involves knives."

Rook Intro Hour: Justice

Good morning! I'm sorry this one is so late in the day ;-; I've been very busy! But I do think that VG as a whole is very concerned with this subject, so I hope everyone finds the topic interesting!

How it works: I ask you a question or questions about your Rook(s) and you answer it/them however you want! You don't have to answer all the questions, and you don't have to worry about length. The easiest way for me to keep track of everyone is for you to reblog this post and add your answer, although you can also mention me in a separate post, if you want! You can do this whenever you want, and I’ll reblog it + add some comments! There’s no time limit— if you want to do the older ones, they are collected here! (The post is updated on Fridays!)

*Please be aware that if you rb RIH to a community WITHOUT rbing to your blog first, I CANNOT rb and comment. If you want me to comment, please put the post on YOUR BLOG first. Thanks!

Today's Question(s): What did Rook do to the mayor of D'Meta's Crossing? To Illario? To Solas? If Cyrian had survived, what would Rook have thought was the just thing to do in his situation? What do they think justice looks like for someone who has wronged other people? If someone wronged them, would they have a different opinion? Do they prefer to work with officially sanctioned sources to dispense justice?

Have fun, and be creative!

[yume-fanfare]

happy halloween! the cast from fist of idol: togenkyo have reunited again to bring us...... a horror movie?!

[tecnestheim962]

I need more RG in my feed and less of literally everything else, the brain worms are seeking food and all they’re finding is stress and isolation

[tishafanclub]

I feel like I recognize your art style from somewhere... Did you make art for any other Fandoms before Dandy's World?

thats very flattering <3 the only other fandom that i've posted fanart for somewhat consistently would probably be mouthwashing! i had few posts do relatively well on tumblr/twitter, though that was back in, like, october?? and it definitely wasnt to the same degree as i am now with dandy's world LOL

[atangledfate]

Her eyes looked so distant and lost and almost vulnerable for a second. She had all this power but under all the quips and those wicked teeth she was really just as lost as Kit was. Her worry for the little guy was really weighing on her something fierce. Despite what she might say or the face she put on Surge was in territory she knew nothing about. How could she? she wasn't made for kindness or caring --- She was a War Machine, and in that she was excelled beyond what anyone could imagine! but right here? right now? in this situation? she had no tools for this battle...

The nudge seemed to make her stiffen up as if she might throw him off the balcony for daring to touch her! but that was just the program in her head seeing everything as a threat. It wasn't easy just letting him and charmette went against all the shit in her head, but maybe that's why she did let them in. Because she was through listening to his voice screaming at her all the time.

" Eh, well ... He's changed since he met her... for the better. I mean you know before Charmette came along... he was pretty obsessed with making me happy beyond everything else... now? He's grown alot. Thinks about stuff differently... i know he's worried about it... but i think its good... but he won't listen to me--- chaos knows i've tried "

She sighed and relaxed her grip from the steel rail leaving it bent and deformed from when she tensed up. A reminded that she might look dainty but under that fur was a killer.

" Yea... and we nearly got her killed...got to cocky for 1 tick and shit hit the fan... she'd be better off anywhere else. I dunno why she wants to be around us... well no i know why--- She has a crush on Kit... its obvious, but i dun think he understands that... i feel like she's just gonna get hurt before its over..."

================================================

Feeling her touch was such a calming sensation despite how lost and scared he was feeling. A sensation he rarely knew a least not in such an overpowering way. It was hard for him to calm down, to stop shaking yet feeling her so close, the way they touched it seemed to sap away that feeling only to replace it by something else. A Warm and calming feeling that made him feel safe and almost content. He didn't like it and yet he wanted to feel more of it all at once.

when He felt his senses return and his world calm once more. The rain in the room ebbing away to a stop. He finally pulled himself back and rubbed his cheek as if to hide the flush that had filled them. He still did not understand his emotions and that struggle to comprehend them was a battle he didn't think he could win.

Her words made his ears twitch slightly as he tried to process what she was saying. A feeling, an override that couldn't be removed. An emotion that built over time and grew stronger through that connection. Her hand touching his and the feeling of her heart thumping in time with his own. It was a strange feeling that made his cheeks burn a little brighter.

" Love? "

He spoke the word yet it held almost no meaning to him, but giving a name to these emotions. It almost felt as if it helped bring his world back into focus. She was however implying that they had grown fond of one another beyond simple friendship or, alliances. Love was something he didn't really have any data on, nor did he believe he was designed to handle such a powerful emotion.

" Medications? I didn't realize... if i'm honest, Starline use to give me a cocktail of drugs to help control my emotions and keep me stable. I always though it was meant to suppress my potential... but i'm starting to think it was to keep my mind from lashing out with irrational thoughts... to stablize the chaos in my head--- But with his death i have no idea what he gave me and ... over time i've started to become more erratic and less rational... i fear these outbursts may get worse..."

He fidgeted as he admitted that his own mental instability might well be related to not knowing what Starline was drugging him with.

" I do not know if simply being there for one another will be enough to fight off the hormones developing in our bodies. Or the emotions swirling in our heads... but i suppose denying these feelings wouldn't help either... i just wish the out of control thoughts would stop... i wish the voices in my head would stop... sometimes they are so loud i can't think..."

He whispered as he held the side of his head as if his head hurt him, as if the mental trauma he suffered was a real physical thing he endured. Starline's program still raged inside of him and he might never be free of it...

But at least now maybe... he had someone besides surge to confide in...

A Monster? Did he even know what a real monster was like? How awful they could be? She was made to be what she was and always saw herself as just that. A Monster, a Beast, A living weapon made to crush the heroes and replace then. She wanted so much to be more then what she was yet the idea of being a monster? It just didn't appeal to her... she loathed that idea.

" I mean... What are gods but petty bitches, willing to hurt mortals... Gods are just as much monsters as the monsters themselves. Ain't much difference... i bet them gods in legend were really awful people deep down... "

she only knew what she saw in video games and not much else.

" Eh dun matter, i'm me... an i dun wanna be no one else--- i guess i'm good with that "

Her eyes glanced back at the door as they made there way outside. There was no point hanging around, those two had to work this out on there own. Kit was obviously in love, an emotion he didn't understand and he was really struggling with it. They didn't have any context for those kinds of feelings. They were built for war, and love had no place there. She was lucky that Starline left her with her emotions so she had a better handle on them. But Kit was like a newborn struggling to walk for the first time. Being overwhelmed with all these emotions and she didn't know how to help him.

" Obvious to you maybe... But he and I... we lost all our memories... everything we know is only what Starline gave us. Lots of stuff makes sense to others and makes none to us... dunno if i'd be able to grasp love either... i just dunno what to do for him... i know he's teeterin' on the edge right now... Shit i ain't equipped to deal with it neither... "

She admitted as she pushed the door closed behind them and leaned on the railing that looked out over the town below.

" Nobody will ever know what Kit an i went through... dun think anyone should ever find out neither. You know Starline created dozens of us... whole labs filled with pods... but Kit an i were the only ones to survive... well was someone else but i think Starline put her down cause she just disappeared one day..."

She was obviously very worried for Kit, so much so that she was willing to admit alot to someone she barely knew. her fingers gripped that railing and it bent under her frustration at it all. Maybe it was just good to talk to someone who wasn't in her database and she didn't wanna strangle just looking at them.

" I know he's hurtin' an i just wish i knew what to do fer him..."

==============================================

He was so very close to a full on panic attack, as his mind was running at high speed. His breathing coming so fast that it was hard to actually catch his breath. He felt like he might pass out right there! Like the world was spinning around him! for a moment he was sure he'd pass out! but then he felt her weight against him and his body went tense at the initial contact. He wasn't use to being touched and his program shouted danger into his mind! yet he knew that wasn't true... she'd never hurt him.

As odd as it was her touch seemed to calm him as he felt his body shaking from his own panic. He slid down with her to his knees, as his shaking hands slid around her. He leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes as he just let himself breath. The rain slowed to a stop, and for a moment there was this calm stillness in the room. His mind still tumbling and yet slowly he caught himself and just wanted her to hold him. Why was that? He shouldn't want this and yet... it was very calming...

Breath, Count, Breath, nothing else but the soft breathing and her warmth... it felt an eternity before he felt calm enough to speak again.

" Why... does all of this... feel better when i'm with you? Why does it all make more sense... i don't... i don't know why i feel this way.... i just... i just want things to make sense again... "

He took a deep breath and let his eyes open and focus on hers.

" tell me... what is this feeling... what emotion is this..."

[crossdressingdeath]

Y'know, thinking about how much of the fandom totally fails to recognize that half-truths and lies by omission are in fact still lying makes me think about the Crows. Because the thing is, nothing in DAV actually contradicts what we've seen previously? Or at least not in ways that can't be easily explained by the fact that it's been twenty years in-universe since Zevran described what his training under the lowest of the eight Talons as a no-name fledgling probably a decade before that was like and we're currently hanging out with higher-ranked Talons and their immediate family in the base of a known reformer and if we're playing a Crow we're playing one who's blatantly favoured by two Talons. I suspect a lot of people miss that "the Crows don't do anything particularly bad in front of Rook" doesn't mean "DAV made the Crows nothing but heroes and freedom fighters and removed all the bad things they do". Like they kind of are freedom fighters at the moment what with how they're fighting to free Treviso from occupation (because protecting Antiva and by extension trying to remove the occupying army and at least making sure they can't do things like y'know gas the city is in fact part of their job and yes I do need to point that out every time the matter comes up because people taking Ivenci's claims at face value makes me despair for the state of critical thinking in this fandom), that's a job they are doing and it does make them look better regardless of why they're doing it, but I think maybe Bioware expected us to grasp that the Crows currently having the more or less noble goal of removing an occupying army, being polite to the outsiders they're working with—even if you're playing de Riva and have Lucanis in your party there's gonna be a non-Crow present—and keeping the messiness behind closed doors because it isn't the Veilguard's business doesn't mean they're suddenly saints. And in terms of the Crows not sharing the exact details of the bad things they're doing... if you're going to complain about Viago, Teia and Lucanis not talking about the Crows' darkest aspects in front of outsiders you'd better get just as pissy about Davrin, Antoine and Evka casually telling Rook the sort of Warden secrets Duncan killed to keep in DAO and the latter two allowing people to go through the Joining to save them from blight without forcing them to become Wardens, because those are the exact same level of retcon (by which to be clear I mean not a retcon at all because things change and individuals make different choices).

[isfjmel-phleg]

🙄

[danthropologie]

always funny 2 me when i go on a blocking spree and my follower count goes down. what were u doing here 🤨