#and the character is the entire game ha...

[gobbogoo]

So after TADC's 5th episode, a lot of little details about the circumstances of the Circus have been revealed:

1. C&A has moved or been fully shut down for long enough that the building housing the Circus has been considered abandoned. For that to happen, you'd need a good 10 years of neglect, I'd say.

2. Pomni and Zooble both got trapped while exploring the abandoned C&A building. (Zooble is the second-newest, according to Gooseworx)

3. It's modern day out there, with Youtube and whatnot. Remembering that the Digital Circus is a late-90s era PC game, that means Kinger has probably been trapped in the Circus for around 25 years. For perspective, he's been in there for longer than Gangle, Jax, and Zooble have been ALIVE. No WONDER he's crazy!

4. This is further emphasized by the fact that nobody else knew about Kinger's wife. For that to happen, you'd need two degrees of separation from when she abstracted: both the people that knew her AND the people that knew OF her are gone. How many abstracted people have been entirely forgotten? How many people has Kinger seen lose themselves?

5. Caine's general looniness may not JUST be the result of him running non-stop for so long. The physical hardware hosting the Circus is likely starting to degrade after so much time. Eventually it WILL give out entirely, assuming it isn't being maintained. The fact that it's still receiving electricity despite the building supposedly being "abandoned" DOES imply someone is trying to maintain the circus, though!

6. If C&A is abandoned then nobody is maintaining the characters' physical bodies. The fact that nobody's died implies their consciousnesses are fully severed from their bodies. This also means that they probably CAN'T escape from the Circus, because they have no bodies to return to.

7. HOWEVER the fact that Pomni didn't mention seeing any decaying bodies when finding the headset implies they're either being moved, or there are many different headset that all lead to the Circus. Either way, it feels like someone on the outside is working to maintain the Circus's existence for some reason...

[neovid]

*Sweating at trying to narrow down his lifetime of obsessive gaming to just one* ...OK, I think it has to be City of Heroes: Homecoming. COH was one of the early MMOs, predating WoW. Which means it came from the era when MMOs still experimented instead of being variations on the mechanics of EQ/WoW. It's a superhero/villain game, so it's one of very few games to do buff/debuff and crowd control correctly. See, most games consider stunning a guy for half a second to be CC. CoH has CC along the lines of "confuse an entire army into attacking each other" or "petrify everyone in the room for a minute." Character appearances aren't dictated by what you loot or unlock. You just design what you want at character creation, with access to nearly every option in the game. The writing is also surprisingly gripping. The developers really cared about the genre, so story arcs run the gamut from typical crimefighting to "what do we do about these refugees from a dimension that's been destroyed" and "this is the most corrupt and cruel man on the planet, but he hasn't actually committed any crimes, what now?" It had the best community I've ever seen in an online game. Though since it was also my first online game, it set my expectations, and I assumed every game's community was like that. Man, was I in for decades of disappointment on that front. Also, it's one of the very few games to have player-created missions. Of course, many of those missions are designed for optimized XP, but there have been professional-caliber writers using the Mission Architect over the years.

Jim Butcher and Mercedes Lackey were dedicated CoH players, for instance.

Sadly, all the original Mission Architect data from the old days was lost in the big tragedy: Literally the day after an update to the beta test servers and previewing what was coming in the next major storyline, one of the head devs sent out the message, "When we got to work today, we were told we were all fired and the game is being shut down." Randomly pulling the plug on CoH and never giving us any answers why is a big part of certain people's eternal grudge against NCSoft. About seven years later, the server code for the game got out into the wild, and now we have the Homecoming servers, which has earned permission from the official rights-holders of CoH to continue hosting the game. CoH is now a fan-run nonprofit project, which still updates regularly, has a dedicated community, and is still awesome. I just wish the history of MMOs had been a bit different, and City of Heroes' mechanics had become the default for MMO design instead of WoW.

My dearest followers and mutuals and friends and lovers. I am going to extend one deadly serious question to you on this beautiful afternoon.

What is your #1 video game recommendation

[destinysbounty]

One thing I find unexpectedly fascinating about Monstrosity is that when you think about it, it'd really only work with Kai as the protagonist. And I don't just mean that because Rusty could only be awakened by a fire elemental, and without Rusty Kai would've died at the spooky death-siren lake - although that's definitely a part of the equation. What I mean is that Kai's specific personality was vital to not only his survival, but also to the retention of his humanity, and that likely wouldn't have been possible if almost any other character was swapped into his position.

Let me elaborate.

Although it's certainly true that not all timeskip scenarios were created equal, and that the Merge treated some people better than others (cough cough Cole), it's also worth noting that each character's experiences are heavily defined by their own unique personalities, strengths, and flaws. If you shuffled everyone around into different post-Merge outcomes, you'd have a vastly different story.

For example, Cole absolutely flourished in the Land of Lost Things, but not everyone would - Pixal in particular would really struggle there. She's normally someone who is always on her A-game so long as she has a goal to accomplish and a clear path towards doing so, and it's rare for her to face a lot of internal conflict over her motivations/ideals. But if you put her in a situation where she has to choose between leaving the Finders to reunite with her friends, or forsaking her friends to protect the Finders...I think that no matter which option she chose, she'd be deeply troubled by it, and would not cope with that conflict of interest nearly as well as Cole has.

Whereas Lloyd, if you placed him in the stasis pod instead of Pixal, would suffer just as greatly. As much as he struggled emotionally in his years of isolation in the monastery, I think it'd almost fuck him up even more to find out he slept through the Merge entirely - and has (in his eyes) failed to keep his team safe and intact. That they've had to fend for themselves without him around to do his job as the leader.

And so on and so forth. You get the general idea. (Honestly, it's kind of a fun thought exercise to explore how everyone would cope if they all got switched around into different scenarios. You should definitely try it!)

Of course, Monstrosity in particular is a fascinating case study of this. If you put any other ninja in this story, you'd get a drastically different one - and in a lot of fundamental ways, it just straight-up wouldn't work.

See, the core theme of the miniseries is about balancing ruthlessness and mercy, knowing when to fight and when to show compassion, and how to fight monsters without becoming a monster yourself. And honestly? Kai is arguably the only person on the team who could effectively navigate that balancing act.

On the one hand you have characters like Pixal, Nya, and Jay - characters who would most likely fall too far onto the ruthlessness side of things and lose themselves.

Pixal is a very determined person - as mentioned above, so long as she has a goal and an action plan, she isn't prone to giving up or losing hope. She will keep trudging along her chosen path until it is accomplished, never stopping to let anything slow her down. Sure, she'd definitely be haunted by her choices after the fact, but in the moment I don't think she'd ever let herself slow down long enough to introspect in that way. She's too busy getting back to her family to think deeply about the moral implications of her actions, or to reflect on who/what she's becoming. She'd definitely be haunted by her choices, sure, but that's not to imply she would ever meaningfully deconstruct or process those feelings at all. She is, of course, an alumni at the Zane Julien School of Processing Trauma.

Nya is similar to Pixal in a lot of ways, but she's also naturally a very ruthless person with a teensy bit of bloodlust to her (affectionate). She also has at least one canon instance of sacrificing her humanity to save her family. This isn't new to her. Daidan would tell her that she can't survive in a land of monsters without becoming a monster herself and she'd go "bet", then proceed to beat the shit out of anything that looks at her wrong. Not to mention that the weird death-siren lake would probably fuck her up in a lot of really complicated Seabound-related ways that I don't think she'll ever be ready or willing to unpack.

My placement of Jay on this side of the spectrum may face some scrutiny, but hear me out first. Although Jay acts very lighthearted and goofy in front of others, it's canon that this persona is a facade he wears to save face and hide how anxious he really feels. On some level, I would argue that Jay subconsciously self-sabotages whenever he's fighting in a group, deferring to the strength of others out of insecurity/codependency rather than trusting his own skill. But when he's on his own and has no audience left to perform for, we see Jay's full potential shine through - we see him be strong, and clever, and even a leader. And on rare occasions, usually when Nya or someone he loves is in danger, he can even be brutal. Jay would absolutely have an awful time in Monstrosity, don't get me wrong - but he'd also exhibit a level of competence and efficiency only ever seen during elimination seasons. And that same efficiency would be his downfall. Jay loves his family, he loves Nya, and he also really hates dying. I don't have a doubt in my mind that he would do whatever it takes to make it back to Nya, even if he's miserable the whole time.

Of course, that's not to say that the rest of the team has it any better. Just because Cole, Zane, and Lloyd tilt pretty far onto the "mercy" side of the spectrum, doesn't mean that's necessarily a good thing in this situation.

Cole is extremely community-oriented, and he is constantly making friends and forming meaningful connections everywhere he goes. With Chen's other prisoners, with Yang, with that not-so-random baby he found, with Krag, with the Upply, and now with the Finders. If Cole cannot find a community, he will create it. On the rare occasions that he is alone, it is usually a dire situation involving extremely poor mental health. When his isolation is self-inflicted, it's usually out of grief. And when circumstances forcibly isolate him....well, go rewatch DotD and MotO, and watch how Cole handles just a few hours of forced isolation from his family. I can't imagine he'd handle several weeks alone in the Land of Monsters without becoming completely unglued. Cole's biggest strength is his social sturdiness - not just as the rock his team relies on, but as the foundation upon which everyone he meets can cultivate a sense of community. But in isolation that strength becomes a double-edged sword, and I believe the brutal emptiness of the Land of Monsters would leave him in an even worse emotional state than Kai.

Zane is no stranger to being stranded in foreign realms, armed with nothing but the singular objective to return home. But I think he would be so paranoid about falling into old routines that he would overcompensate too far in the other direction, rendering him too soft to make it through the Land of Monsters in one piece. That's not to imply he was going to make it out in one piece to begin with, of course. This is Zane we're talking about. I'd be surprised if he goes three days without dying horribly in some way or another. Whether it's out of self-sacrifice or because he pulled punches where he shouldn't have and paid the price, that man is not lasting more than a week.

Lloyd...honestly, he's arguably the closest anyone gets to matching Kai's balance on this issue. The case could certainly be made that Lloyd would effectively replace Kai in Monstrosity...but idk, I personally don't buy it. If you ask me, I think he veers a bit too much into the "too afraid of being like his dad to let himself become a monster" spectrum. This would go one of two ways: 1) he goes the way of Zane and/or Cole, and over-softens himself out of paranoia; 2) he initially tries to over-soften himself, but everything gets to him until he eventually snaps and goes full Oni Mode. Personally, I've got my money on option 2.

The takeaway here isn't that any member of the team is inherently better or worse than the others, just that they all have particular strengths and weaknesses that serve them well in their given scenarios. But those scenarios would only work with them as the main character, and nowhere is that more apparent than with Monstrosity. Zane could never withstand Lloyd's years of isolation in the monastery, just like Jay would become an anxious mess if he had to be responsible for the Kragglings' civil war, just like Kai would absolutely have the worst time if he got stuck in the Administration, just like Nya would go stir-crazy in the Land of Lost Things.

Monstrosity is fundamentally a Kai storyline, down to its DNA. And I think that's part of why he comes across as so beautifully written in this miniseries. There is no aspect of it that you can separate from Kai without changing the fundamental core of the story itself. He's the only one on the team who could do something like this. The only one who could survive in the Land of Monsters without either dying horribly or losing himself along the way.

And idk, I just think that's neat.

[cheekytv]

no words mean something too - h. c. g. lewis MDNI you and harry have a... certain connection. most of the time the connection is physical and in absolute secret.

pairing: harry x f!reader genre: smut, and a bit, a hint of angsty stuff if you squint warnings: multiple sex scenes, p in v sex, unprotected sex, creampie, degradation (usage of words "whore", "slut", "fucktoy", "stupid", “useless“), lowkey dumbification, cum play, cum eating, masturbation (f), blowjobs, squirting, praise ("good girl"), dom!harry (even tho he isn't from the start and he breaks character once), sub!reader wc: 2.1 a/n: ... this is the filthiest thing i have put on this blog. before you ask, i am pretty sure i'll write a part two. enjoy.... i dedicate this to my gal @pretendyoucantseeme as it is my first ever harry smut. ily wifey.

it’s becoming a thing with you and harry. somewhat a habit. a habit that makes your life more difficult and exhilarating at the same time.

the first time it happens is when everyone is asleep at a big shoot in a warehouse. 

you feel him before you hear him. 

“you still up?” he whispers. his hard cock is pressing against your ass and you almost feel offended by it.

“what the fuck, harry?” you whisper back, looking at him over your shoulder. it's dark in the room, only the faint moonlight outside serving as a light source. and conveniently it’s cloaking harry in the most beautiful way. eyes dark, but still so perfectly blue. hair a mess. skin glowing. you swallow.

“look, i don’t know what’s going on but like- i could need some assistance.”

assistance in a room full of all of your friends at a sidemen shoot?! he must be out of his god damn mind!

well, so are you apparently because not even three minutes later, his cock is stuffed inside your pussy, his hand on your mouth while he ruts his hips against you, his own mouth pressed shut. 

fucking hell, he’s great at this. 

it annoys you that harry is good at sex, it truly does. good at just fucking you like a maniac under sheets, the sound thankfully getting drowned out by the layers of blankets on top of you.

“god, you’re tight. so fuuuuucking good, fuck.”

his voice is a sultry whisper in your ear and for whatever reason your pussy spasms and your orgasm hits you like a truck - all with eyes rolling back and desperate moans getting suppressed by only his massive hand on your mouth. it’s like he put a bloody spell on you.

“oh shit, oh shit, did you just cum? fuck, that’s so hot, o-oh f-fucking bloody hell!” harry cums inside you for the first time right then. 

it certainly wasn’t the last, though.

whatever is going on with you becomes something like a… blur after a while. any kind of event, a shoot, a party, a pub crawl or golf, no matter where you and harry get invited to separately, you somehow end up being together in at least… one way. it truly doesn’t matter, you and harry make it work every single time. 

a cramped bathroom stall, a room in an abandoned hostel, behind a not so abandoned five-star hotel at night, in a hot tub when anyone could walk back down to the yard. no matter what - harry and you end up fucking. 

and for some reason, no one has caught on yet. 

hide and seek is supposed to be a children’s game. harry and you have officially changed it to an 18 rated film. at least it’s in a bedroom this time. 

…

sure, in a closet inside a bedroom, but still a bedroom, right?

“fucking hell, how are you always this tight and wet for me, baby?”

your frontside is pressed against the cool wood of the narrow closet, your jeans and panties pooling at your ankles, harry’s cock outside his fly and briefs, buried inside your aching cunt.

“f-fuck me so good!” you cry pathetically. 

see, this is a thing that happened. harry has somehow gotten you to a point of patheticness and stupidity. with all the fucking you’ve been doing, the man has fucked you utterly and entirely stupid. when you’re with him you are nothing but a dumb slut, meant to be fucked by him and nothing else. hungry for his cum, hungry to cum.

“yeah, you like how i fuck you, my perfect little fucktoy.” harry is relentless. whispers the naughtiest things into your ear in the softest voice, all while his cock pounds into you like a sledgehammer. 

it’s quick and hard and everything you’ve ever wanted and a part of you fears you’ll never be able to have sex with anyone else ever again. harry fucks you exactly how you like it, treats you how you like it. the stupid seventh member of the sidemen had literally turned out to be the man of your wet dreams. 

“mhmm, n-nothing but your f-fucktoy, harry!” your drool is dripping down your chin, hands pushed against the wood and your orgasm comes closer with every pain strikingly good thrust of harry’s hips.

“i know that’s right, baby. come on, cum for me, show me how good i make you feel.”

when harry lewis tells you to cum, you do. it’s a spell, it must be a spell. a spell that has you climaxing around his cock in no time, pathetically crying his name and telling him over and over again to pump you full. 

and he delivers every time.

“good girl, such a good little whore for me, mhm, what’s that? want my cum in you? of course you do… stupid little slut, all you want is to be bred by me, isn’t that right?” 

he fucks you through your orgasm and when you whimper that, yes, all you want is to be his little breedable whore, he finally gives you what you need.

and no one ever ends up finding you in the closet together. 

you never really talk about it. what this is. he never questions it and so neither do you.

which makes it so strange when you get jealous over him flirting with some random girl you’ve never seen before. 

you down your vodka lime and turn to pour yourself another one. not to drink it, though, no, no. that would be too much of a normal thing to do. and right now, you are anything but normal. 

the contents of your cup end up on the girl’s shirt, your faux apology not fooling harry in the slightest. 

when the girl runs away, all embarrassed, harry smirks knowingly.

“oh, someone’s jealous then?” he says. you scoff.

“in your dreams. this was obviously an accident.” you roll your eyes at him. harry’s eyes darken.

“did you just roll your eyes at me, sweetheart?”

your pressed against the wall and you gasp when you feel his hands on your hips, digging into your flesh.

“harry, wha-,” 

“coming over here and spilling a drink on a girl i spoke to for five minutes like a jealous little brat, hm? and then rolling your eyes when i call you out? you wanna get in trouble, don’t you, baby?”

your thighs press together almost automatically. 

the sink isn’t comfortable to bend over but it’ll do. 

harry is drilling into you, cock hard and veiny, dragging along your walls. he’s hard and reckless and your hair is wrapped around his hand, holding you up and staring at yourself while he fucks you.

“look at you,” he spits, “look at this jealous useless whore, hm? scared i’ll find another cunt to pump full, baby?” he smirks wickedly and your pussy throbs around him, several whimpers escaping your throat. 

“pl-please!” you don’t even know what you’re begging for.

“shut the fuck up,” his other arm is wrapped around your waist, pushing you even harder against himself. “i’m gonna show you what happens to misbehaved sluts like you, yeah?” 

he fucks into you once, twice, cock vibrating with his nearing climax, only to pull out and spin you around, pushing you onto your knees and finally climaxing all over your face.

“fuuuuck, look at all that cum on your pretty face, shit, that’s so hot.” harry squirts another wave of cum onto your face, mouth hanging open. he kind of got lost in how much he enjoys seeing you full of his cum and forgot all about his role of the mean dominant man. adorable.

but now you’re covered in his seed and your own orgasm has never been further away. and harry isn’t moving.

“touch yourself.” he commands, back in his element and your eyes widen, cum dripping from your chin down to your cleavage. harry’s spent cock twitches at the sight. 

“what?” you stare at him.

“you heard me, darling. touch yourself. make yourself cum.”

your hand moves down. you don’t even really know how or why. but harry is the puppet master and you do whatever he says. kind of a… difficult situation if you think about it. not that you do. no, not when your fingers sink into your pussy, your legs spread and the cum slowly drying on your face. 

harry watches you in awe, how your fingers pump into your cunt over and over, how your hips chase the feeling, how his cum looks on your fucked out face. 

harry realises then he needs to make sure everyone knows you’re his. 

he just doesn’t know how to bring it up. 

“go on, love. cum for me.” 

there it is - the harry lewis spell. 

his words make you tumble over the edge, coming hard on your own fingers, his name like a prayer on your lips as you fuck yourself through it. 

he helps you get up and cleans your fingers by sucking them into his mouth hungrily. 

then, he leaves the bathroom first.

and after you’ve cleaned yourself off his essence, you follow suit.

once again, no one knows a thing.

everyone knows harry hates driving. 

but at one of the next sidemen shoots, he gets put in a duo with you and ends up driving. 

the production crew drives ahead and you and harry are alone in the car. 

he turns off the camera when you end up on a road in the middle of nowhere, the productions team car three cars ahead. 

your mouth is on his cock as he drives, his hand in your hair.

“yeah, baby, take it all, come on, know you can.” his head is leaning against the headrest, teeth sinking into his bottom teeth as you bop your head on his cock quickly.

your mouth is perfect around his cock, so fucking perfect. not as perfect as your pussy though. 

“gonna make me cum, darling. wanna swallow it all, don’t you?” he pushes your head down, concentrating on his surroundings to the best of his abilities all while thrusting up.

“take it- f-fucking take it, ch-choke on it, y-yeah like that…. f-fuck!”

after you swallow all of his load, you sit back up and turn the camera on again. 

he parks the car at the side of the road thirty minutes later when a crazy thunderstorm breaks out. the production team is already far ahead and you are now on his lap in the driver’s seat, bouncing on his cock like a woman starved. 

his head is in between your tits, sucking and licking on your skin while you fuck yourself on his cock at rapid speed.

“n-ngh, h-harry’s cock s-so big and go-good!” you are back to being a pathetic little slut and harry loves every second of it. his hands are on your ass, squeezing it tightly, smacking it every few seconds.

“yeah, baby, bounce on my cock, what a good girl.” he sucks your nipple into his mouth and you cry out, hands on his shoulders while you pick up the pace. 

for whatever reason, harry’s cock is your actual perfect fit. dragging it along your walls, having it hit your sweet spot over and over, it feels like a dream. a perfect wet dream. your sounds are borderline pornographic and you wonder if maybe you’ve chosen the wrong career. but then again, no one has ever made you sound like that. only harry.

“pl-please c-can i cum?!” you cry out just as harry finishes a beautiful purple mark on your right tit.

“such a good slut asking for permission. yes, darling, cum for me.” 

and that you do. you cum and you squirt all over his lap, his groans growing more worked up as he notices.

“fuck, i love it when you squirt, my own personal dirty little whore, fuck.” he grabs your waist with both hands now, holding you down as he fucks up into your, head thrown back. the wetness between your legs is absolute heaven. he fucks into you over and over, no control left whatsoever and finally climaxes, thick spurts of cum landing inside your spent pussy. you whine, nails digging into his shoulders, mouth hanging open and eyes are closed. he fucks you and him through your orgasms and you finally collapse on top of him, arms wrapped around his neck and head on his shoulder. 

his hands caress your back softly. 

your sweaty forehead leans against him, chest heaving. when you raise your head, your eyes and his meet. 

and then he kisses you. not like he does before you fuck. 

he has never kissed you after you’ve fucked. 

it’s sweet and soft and desperate and so telling. 

but neither of you says a word. 

neither of you tells. 

_________

taglist: @pretendyoucantseeme, @abbwhite08, @clarkeysbedchem, @liz140569, @clarkeyscvntymullet, @formulaal, @happyclifford, @wherethezoes-at join my taglist!

[xxhexwolfxx]

Figured on behalf of the new OM game being developed, what would be the moment that any of the brothers look at reader and said to themselves: "Yep... I'm going to marry this person."

𝓞𝓫𝓮𝔂 𝓜𝓮 𝓗𝓒𝓼

A/N: Thank you so much for requesting! I’m sorry it took so long, but I hope you enjoy! <3

DISCLAIMER: GN!Reader. No mentions of gender. Not proofread.

WARNINGS: None. Just pure fluff.

CHARACTERS: Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Satan, Beelzebub, and Belphegor.

~~~~~~~~~~

Lucifer:

 Lucifer never thought about marriage even when he got with you. Usually he’s too busy or just too tired to even think about proposing. It wasn’t because he didn’t think he would never marry you, it was just because he was extremely tired. That all changed one day when he developed a sickness. Low fever but it was obviously affecting him greatly. You immediately noticed, forcing him back to bed. During the entire day you stayed with him, even when the others wanted your attention. Cuddles, soup, and lots of water was given to Lucifer. During one of your cuddling sessions, you were asleep as he was looking at you. He was silently appreciating you, even thinking about your guys’ future. Right at this moment does he think, “I’m going to marry this person.”. 

Mammon:

There have been many different times Mammon actually thought about marriage. Usually, it ends with him just being so flustered he can’t look at you. There was this one particular day that really made it known Mammon wanted to marry you. Mammon got caught trying to scheme to make money, you weren’t part of it, but you were part of the punishment. Lucifer, who had enough of Mammon’s shit, decided to actually punish Mammon. There was taking his card away which Mammon was used to, but he didn’t expect being told that he couldn’t see you for an entire week. It was really hard on him, wanting to just be with you anytime he could. One night when he was laying alone in his bed, he heard his door open, and someone walk in. Thinking it was Lucifer checking on him, he turns around but is met with you. At first, he freaked out, thinking you could get in trouble before calming down when you joined him on the bed. After hours and hours of talking and giggling quietly with each other, you fell asleep. Mammon was already thinking of what ring he would get you.

Leviathan:

Levi never really thought about marrying you. Not because he didn’t want to marry you, no he really would love to call you, his spouse. It was because of his intense self-hatred. He would think of how you would leave him at the altar or maybe even someone would object, and you’d leave. Of course, you really wouldn’t but his anxiety got the best of him sometimes. One day his anxiety was the worst that it has been in a long time. Intrusive thoughts wracked his brain about how you didn’t actually love him and how you probably just spend time with him because you feel bad. After just an hour of him hiding away in his tub, his door opens with a soft voice asking if he was okay. He didn’t even look at you, which shows how bad he was today. You did what you knew would help him. You went inside his room and just laid down in the tub with him. It was quiet but it seemed like it was helping Levi a lot. After about a minute a soft thank you came from him as he looked at you and finally calmed down. During this moment he knew he was going to marry you, his anxiety be damned. 

Asmodeus:

Asmo knew from the start that you guys would get married. Compared to the others, he would let it be known. He adores you and you adore him so it’s natural he would be thinking of marriage. The thing that really pushed him into thinking about marriage was the day he was utterly and unfortunately upset. A famous magazine had canceled on him, telling Asmo they found a better option. It was unprofessional and quite frankly rude of them in Asmo’s mind. He moped and posted about it everywhere on social media. His fans defended Asmo but he still was upset. Until you came along. You saw his posts and knew a self-care night was in order. After some skin care and a pedicure, you decided to run a hot bath for the two of you. It was full of bubbles and some nice smelling candles were lit on the sides. As you two sat there with each other, talking just about anything. He couldn’t help but think about how beautiful you would be at the altar with him. 

Satan:

Satan sometimes, if very rarely thought of marriage. He would rather just spend time in the moment, and if the time comes then it comes. Satan prefers spending time with you when he can instead of thinking about what could happen in the future. Sometimes he does think about it though, especially when you do something like you did one day. He was hanging around the area that typically has the most cats. This time he noticed one of them didn’t look right and was limping. So he did what any cat lover would do. He brought it home and snuck it to your room. Satan couldn’t bring it to his room since Lucifer would immediately know. As you two took care of the little thing, he couldn’t help but think about your guys’ future. This is what he would want. You as his spouse while taking care of all the cats you’d adopted. Maybe after you two put the cat somewhere it can be comfortable did, he start looking for rings. 

Beelzebub:

Beel knew he would marry you when you cooked him a full spread dinner one night when he was suffering with thoughts of Lilith. It was just a given, especially with how you sat with him after in silence. There was another day that really pushed him into thinking of how the wedding would be. One night when Belphie was sleeping elsewhere, he couldn’t sleep. His mind was just full of Lilith. At first, he thought of going to see you, but he decided he couldn’t bother you when you looked so tired today. As he was about to turn onto his side to try and sleep, his door opened up and your soft voice filled the room about how Belphie got you because he felt Beel having a nightmare. At first, he was going to say he was fine, but the words couldn’t come out. Before he could even stop it, sobs escaped him. Immediately you wrapped your arms around him as he clung desperately to you. After what felt like hours, he finally calmed down. As you were gently talking to him and running your hand through his hair, he finally felt safe enough to sleep. Before he fully fell into his deep slumber, he thought of how he definitely was going to marry you. 

Belphegor:

Belphegor liked to tease you with talk of marriage. Telling you how amazing the wedding would be but of course you just thought he was joking. At first, he thought so too until one day. He was taking a nap or at least trying to. Although he controlled most people’s dreams it seemed like he couldn’t control his today. Constant nightmares plagued his sleep. He couldn’t even remember what they were, they just caused him to jerk awake, unable to calm down for a little bit. Then you walked in. It was like you got a sixth sense about this as you immediately just laid down with him, holding him close. As he tried to tease, you just shushed him and told him to sleep. Surprisingly, he listened today. He was exhausted just by existing so all it took was you running your hand through his hair for him to sleep. Before it happened though, he opened his eyes to look at you once more. When your eyes met did, he finally know he really wanted to marry you.

[trisockatops]

This still needs editing, but I also wrote a response to this post. I'm just posting it below, but it also has its own post here. Before I share it, I want to point out some other responses on the post, in case anybody is in search of aro stories to read.

@4bsurdcreature wrote a chilling piece here on this reblog, especially tackling the part of the prompt where other people act super invalidating of MC's feelings regarding what's happening.

@medicatedcountertop wrote something happier here on this reblog for those that need the happy ending about the object of affection having an extremely validating response.

My own story is a rather bittersweet take on this. I apologize for the tense switching. I was also originally planning on a much older MC, but I decided to submit this for a writing sub that was after a younger character. I also wrote like 2k words more than the limit. I am tempted to go back to this and try it out with my older MC and not worry about a word limit.

......................................................................................

Turning eighteen was supposed to be an exciting day. We were celebrating me making it to legal adulthood and the start of a new chapter in my life. I was going to have a small party with some family and friends at a local park with my favorite cake. My older relatives were going to give me cheesy, corny advice on how to be an adult and be true to myself. My friends were going to rib me and hype me up. I was going to eat up every single moment of it. Instead, the day I turned eighteen ended up being the worst day of my life. It was the day I fell in love.

His name is Wyatt Cardwell. He is friendly and always has a smile for anybody he meets. He plays soccer and nerdy card games. He does well in school. Any parent would feel good if he was the one their kid introduced as their date. Being on the taller side with sharp cheekbones and clear skin with his modern haircut also meant a good portion of the students did want to date him. If I were anybody but me, falling for Wyatt Cardwell would have been completely normal. Maybe even a rite of passage.

I, however, am - or thought I was - aromantic. I’ve never had anything I could even confuse for a crush before. More than that, I’ve never wanted to. I’d known since I was in fifth grade and cooties tag was a thing and my best friend Char always made our dolls get married regardless of how annoying I tried to make my character that I didn’t want any of that. Marriage was fine for boring old people like my parents, but I was never going to be boring or domestic like that. The next few years of comparing myself to my peers just cemented it for me. Sure, I was as interested in sex as the next horny teenager, but dating? It seemed to make people I previously respected into drooling mannequins who seemed to make their crush their entire personality.

Char and I had struggled when she started dating, and I didn’t. After months of passive-aggressive fighting, we walked away with the understanding that we simply liked different things and neither of those things was inherently wrong. We do our best to be respectful of these differences, but I’ve heard plenty from my parents, grandparents, random classmates, and even a teacher once. If I can come around and respect that others enjoy a seemingly repulsive activity, why can’t they at least respect my disinterest in it?

Yet here I am. I’ve fantasized about Wyatt before, of course. What’s happening now is different. Instead of the throbbing I’ve come to associate with being turned on, I have butterflies in my stomach. I always thought Char was pulling my leg on that one. Instead of imagining Wyatt stroking and licking me, I’m daydreaming about him carrying my books and casually draping his arm across my shoulder and walking me to my next class. I’ve even written and deleted a dozen meaningless, desperate messages to an account of his that I don’t even have added as a contact. It feels exactly like every movie where people fall in love. It feels exactly like what Char described to me. It’s been a mere day; it’s been like getting hit by a truck. One moment, everything was fine. The next: disaster.

My chest hurts. I feel like exploding. Even experiencing it for myself, I cannot fathom why Char likes this feeling. It feels so wrong, like a parasite has wormed its way into my brain and is taking me over, controlling me. I feel…violated. My hands itch to claw through my aching chest and rip my heart out and tear it into pieces. Instead, I dig my knuckles into my eyes and physically hold back the tears threatening to burst forth. My throat tightens. Great. A panic attack is impending.

And then I do explode. I scream. I cry. I gasp. I heave. Nails dig into my scalp and yank my hair. My body contorts and writhes. My pain given physicality. I dissolve into hyperventilation for several minutes. The resulting lightheadedness finally forces me to stop, slow down, and breathe deeper and slower. I sob and tap my fingers against the ground, counting as I do. I gasp and wipe my eyes. My party is in an hour. I need to talk with Char first. I need someone who understands.

Char lives right down the street from me, and nobody thinks anything of me popping by to go spend time with her before we head to the park for my party. I knock sharply on her front door, which quickly swings open to reveal Char’s mom, Mrs. Lucy. “Happy birthday, dear!” Mrs. Lucy’s face splits into a grin when she sees me. “Charlotte is right upstairs, still getting ready.” She stands aside to give me room to enter.

“Thanks, Mrs. Lucy,” I reply, dragging a small grin out of the depths of my misery to spare for her. Mrs. Lucy is good people, and if I let on to her that I’m distraught, she’ll put everything aside to try and comfort me. Right now, all I want is Char. She’s the one I’ve talked to the most about all of this, and above all else, she’s my best friend. We used to call each other soulmates before we got too old and people started thinking that meant we were dating. Char has the best chance of anyone of helping me through this.

I slide past Mrs. Lucy and head towards Char’s bedroom. I’ve been known to spend a couple hours on an intense makeup look before, but most of what I do is fun and costume-y. Char regularly wears intensive makeup looks on the daily, though I know today is taking her longer than usual to look special for my party. I knock in rhythm on her door to announce myself and enter without waiting for a response. Char and I long ago agreed we were always welcome at each other’s places, no matter how late or inconvenient it might be. “Happy birthday, Ash-bash!” Char exclaims brightly, even with her head half-cocked to the side and her mascara brush never wavering.

I barely managed to close the door behind me before I said, “Char,” my voice wavering, and I see it in Char’s face in the mirror that we both know I’m going to cry, even as dried out as I am. Char is halfway off her bench and headed towards me before the tears fall. I crumple within myself and start to collapse to the ground, but Char catches me and guides me to her bed. Cradling my head and bringing it to her chest, she strokes my hair and whispers sweet nothings. “Oh, doodlebop,” she kisses the top of my head. “Growing up is scary, and it’s hardly worth crying over, but go on and let it out.”

Perhaps too wrung out from my panic attack, the tears subsided quickly. My chest is still tight and breathing hurts, but at least I can explain now. Not bothering to move from Char’s comforting embrace, I tell her, “something’s wrong,” my voice raspy.

“Hmm, what is it, my little cherry blossom?” her voice strong and steady, like I need.

“I think I -” I choke on the words. “I think I’m in love,” I spit the words out like the curse they are.

Char stills. Her hand stops stroking my head. Then her chest started shaking, and I shoot up in a panic, afraid something is wrong with her. She’s laughing? My eyebrows knit closer together, worry over my own situation dissipating. “Char?” I ask, searching her face for a clue.

“Oh, silly billy,” she says, smiling and cupping my cheek with her hand, thumb gently stroking my face. “Happy birthday! I didn’t think it would work so quickly. Oh, this is great! Of course you’re scared. This is new, and I didn’t have a chance to give you my card and explain. Ash, it’s okay. This is good, I promise. Here-” and she hops off the bed, rummaging in my present bag. She returns, holding out a bright blue card.

I take the card with numb fingers, uncomprehending. I’m having a breakdown over the entire disruption to my identity and worldview, and she was laughing? My vision was blurry. Unable to read it even if I wanted, I just stared owlishly at Char, card hanging in my still outstretched hand. She laughs again. “It’s all in there, but I suppose since you’re here, it’s just as easy for me to explain. This is probably better in private, anyway. I bought you love potion!” she squees, as if this is good news she’s gracing me with.

“You remember Moon Oracle? That magic shop I really loved, and I was so mad when they sold to new owners who decided to renovate it? I went in to hate-browse a couple of times, and it won me over. It’s actually so much better! I mean, Herbs and Crystals is a subjectively more terrible name, but the shop itself is legit now. The owner, Hestia, really knows her stuff, and it’s not just a shop to her. She practices real magic, and she helps customers to do the same and be safe about it.

“I talked to Hestia about you for a bit, and she helped me pick out a love potion! Don’t worry,” she smiles reassuringly, “it’s undirected, so it’s totally your own feelings still and completely ethical. Nobody is being coerced or compelled here. It’ll help you unlock your own feelings so you can know what it’s like. You don’t like to say it, but I know you feel left out and misunderstood a lot of the time, so now you don’t have to! I know this has been very sudden for you. It can be so confusing in the beginning. Just give yourself a minute to adjust, and you’ll see. Crushing is so fun, and now we can do it together!”

Time freezes. Nothing existed in that moment but Char’s brilliant smile and the knife-sharp pain in my heart. Bile slowly wormed its way up my throat. I stood up suddenly. “You did what?” I asked, voice small and helpless against my will. I wanted to be angry. All I could be was hurt. Char’s smile faltered. She blinks at me, confused. Vomit was forthcoming. Before she could say anything else, I whipped around and did my best to aim the puke for her little trashcan. I don’t think I succeeded. I didn’t care. Char places a hand on my shoulder, and I violently shrug it off. Unable to look at her, I run. She shouts after me. I don’t stop. I don’t even close the door to her house after me as I tear out of there, running anywhere. Running nowhere.

I end up at the library, librarians giving me concerned looks as I rush to the bathroom. Leaning over the toilet, I try to hurl again, for real this time. Nothing comes up. Giving up, I rinse my mouth out with sink water. After a look in the mirror, I splash water on the rest of my face and run wet fingers through my hair. Presentable enough. Hopefully no one would be able to look at me now and know immediately how pathetic I am. Thankfully, the young adult and adult sections don’t require me to pass by the librarians again. I head towards the young adult reading nook and collapse into a beanbag, drawing my knees in tight. Reading is out of the question, but the library is a safe and familiar space for me.

“Are you okay?” a concerned voice asks. A startlingly familiar concerned voice. Oh no. This is the exact opposite of what I need right now.

With dread, I peek out from over my knees and confirm my worst nightmare. Wyatt Cardwell, newfound and unwanted crush, is peering at me with worry. “I’m a very good listener,” he says, clearly just being kind. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want. But it’d be wrong of me to just sit here and watch you suffering and not even try to do anything about it. You can tell me to just leave you alone, but you don’t have to be alone if that’s not what you need right now.”

Butterflies knock about my stomach with such violence it’s a wonder I don’t vomit again right here and now. Of course he would be such a genuine person. If it had been anyone else or any other tone, I probably would have just told them to back off. I’d just been betrayed by the one person in the world I trusted the most. Nobody could blame me if I didn’t want to trust anyone right now. Something about Wyatt just screamed that he’d be safe to talk to. If anybody was going to care, it was going to be him. I loathed him with the passion of a thousand fiery suns then, but my hatred wasn’t enough to stop my traitorous mouth.

“I don’t know. It’s so ridiculous. I’m probably overreacting. But my friend did something I think is really terrible to me, and she doesn’t even understand that she hurt me.” My voice is raw. Speaking hurts. Wyatt leans in closer to hear me better. “You’re probably not gonna believe me. She bought me a love potion without my permission, and now I’m feeling all these…feelings I never thought I’d feel, and it’s…” The knife in my heart twists, sharp pain radiating outwards. My stomach is a hellish pit of endless suffering. My fingertips burn uncomfortably. It feels like I’ll never get enough air to live normally again. I close my eyes, unable to face the world. “I feel violated,” I admit, my voice giving out on the last word, leaving it practically unsaid. “And she’s so happy about it, and maybe I’m just an ungrateful brat.” The pain in my body throbs with every attempt to convince myself that I am the one in the wrong here. Maybe if I twist the knife enough, I will physically explode, and this can all be over, and I won’t feel anything but blissful nothingness.

Instead of making fun of me or scoffing or telling me love potions were obviously fake, Wyatt matches my somber attitude and said, “that’s awful. I’m so sorry.” The pain clenches and tightens its hold on my body again. I open my eyes to look at him. He looks pained for me. I hurt so bad, I don’t understand why I don’t drop over dead. “Is there anything we can do to end the love potion? It won’t fix your friendship, but it would fix one problem. And then maybe the rest would be more manageable.”

Why hadn’t I thought of that? Of course. This had been done to me, forced upon me without consent. Surely it could be undone. “Um, thanks,” I say. “Yeah. I should go try that.” He gives me a lopsided grin that makes my heart pitter-patter as I squeeze my hands into fists and then stretch them all the way open to try and dispel the tightness in them. I look away from him, unable to stand it anymore. Shaking my hands, I slowly stand. The noise of another beanbag alerts me to him standing, too. “You really don’t have to-” I try to tell him in a panic that he doesn’t need to keep helping. “You’re going through a lot right now, and it sucks to do that alone. I can help advocate for you if you need. Or I can just be moral support. But I’ll have your back either way, and I can make sure no one guilts you out of your feelings. Sometimes it’s easier to stand up for others than it is to stand up for ourselves. I’ve been there.”

It probably proves his point that I didn’t have the energy to argue. Not sure what else to do, I make for the library door. Wyatt detours to put the book he was reading on a library cart but otherwise walks with me in companionable silence. The sun outside is too bright and harsh, and I take a moment to gain my bearings. Where the library is my safe space, the magic shop is Char’s, and we met each other often either here or there. It was a couple blocks walk. More than I wanted to manage right now but also doable.

Oriented, I head down the street to the shop. “I know we know each other, “ Wyatt said, “but we’ve never really hung out before, so I hope you don’t mind if I awkwardly re-introduce myself. I’m Wyatt.”

After a beat, I respond. “I’m Ash.” Neither of us stick our hands out, and I am relieved. I am so physically on edge and emotionally worn down. I don’t think I could have stood the touch. “It’s my birthday,” I say unprompted and immediately want to die for admitting something so unimportant right now.

He whistles in sympathy. “All this on your birthday? That really sucks.” Was everything he did and said supposed to make me hurt? And people liked this feeling? My skin crawled. Wyatt didn’t offer any further smalltalk along the way, leaving me alone with my circling thoughts. It was pure habit that got me to our destination. Without fully realizing that we were there, I entered the shop and froze at the sound of the bell on the door.

I try my best to focus my eyes and force my mind to concentrate on the present. “Do you need a moment?” Wyatt offers at the same time a high pitched, customer service voice shouts to welcome us into the store. Reality jolts into sharp focus. I grit my teeth and head for the counter.

Anger roils in me like a storm. I knew Char. I loved Char. It was so hard to be mad with her, especially when she thought she was helping. I didn’t know this person. Her, I could hate. I stormed up to her, slamming my hands down on the counter so hard that I winced. “So you just go around ruining people’s lives?”

“Sweetie, if a spell didn’t turn out as desired, it’s no reason to get violent with me.” Her fake smile frays at the edges. “You can explain what’s wrong to me like a big girl or you can get out. I will not tolerate being disrespected.”

“First of all, they-” Wyatt puts such stress on my pronouns that I snap out of my anger for an instant. I’m so used to being misgendered by everyone outside my immediate circle. “-are not the one being disrespectful here. How about you take a minute to actually listen to them first before you automatically blame them?” He’s angry but speaking calmly and evenly. The shopkeep’s smile strains even further as he smiles back at her, unwilling to back down. She nods curtly.

“How can you find it rude for someone to slap a countertop, an object that has no feelings and can’t feel hurt, but you’re perfectly fine putting unwitting people under love potions against their will or knowledge?”

Just like Char, the woman’s smile slowly morphs to genuine. “You must be Ash! Char is such a sweet girl. She had endless good things to say about you, you know. You should be off thanking her, not here haranguing me, but these things can be a bit of a shock in the beginning, so I can excuse a bit of theatrics.” Wyatt takes a sharp breath.

“Thanking her for manipulating my emotions and forcing me to experience something I never asked or wanted to experience?”

The owner’s smile becomes practiced and fake once again. “Whatever you think, I don’t deal in unethical magics. The love potion we created for you was generalized. Whoever you developed feelings for is completely dependent on you. The spell merely enhances feelings that may already exist. Besides that,” she waves her hand dismissively, “they’re just feelings. No one is forcing you to act on them if you don’t want. Feelings fade, that’s what they do. If you weren’t so determined to be a victim, you could sit back and enjoy these feelings as you’re meant to. Perhaps you’ll even find this has unlocked something you’ve clearly been repressing, and you’ll move through life with more freedom to let yourself feel your feelings instead of being so afraid of them.”

Humiliation burns across my face. I heave a breath but can’t dredge up any words. Is it even worth it?

Wyatt must think so. “Claiming something is ethical doesn’t actually make it so. Forcing feelings on someone because you think that’s how they should feel is rude at best and manipulation at worst. You didn’t talk to the person who would actually be impacted by your actions, and if you’d pay attention to anybody but yourself for more than two seconds, you could easily see that your actions did do harm. That hurt is real regardless of your intent. Furthermore, I can’t think of a better word than pretentious to claim that you could possibly know what someone else wants better than they do. To stand here lecturing anybody on how they should feel about anything is the height of selfishness. But since it’s clear you have no intent on bothering to listen to someone you hurt, how about we skip the debate and you can at least provide a basic level of customer service and tell us how to break the spell.”

She clucks her tongue and shakes her head in disappointment. “The young always think they know everything,” she mutters. “Fine. Let me check my notes. I will warn you now that since neither of you were the paying customer, there’s absolutely no refund.” I only shake in rage in response. This woman is someone Char looks up to? Upon her return, the owner announces, “the effects are temporary, so there is no way to end them. They will end naturally on their own once the spell loses power. Everybody is different. It may last for a week or a month. Magic is as fickle as the humans who wield it.” She shrugs, uncaring. “If there isn’t anything else I can do for you, I welcome you to leave my shop.” With a great deal of disdain, she adds, “and have a blessed day.”

I yearn for a quippy comeback. None comes as I leave without a word. Unable to stand being anywhere near the shop, I keep walking. Although he keeps trying to comfort me, I eventually manage a good-bye to Wyatt, who offers his socials if I want to talk. Unsure what else to do but follow my plans for the day, I head to my party.

My family is at the park finishing up some decorations, but I’d still beat any friends to the party. With the distraction of pretending everything’s fine, I feel minimally more put together. Zoe, Riley, and Finn all beat Char to the party. It helps to temper things for when Char arrives with subdued cheer, side eyeing me like I’m a wild animal who might bolt. Maybe that was a fair assessment considering earlier. Thanks to the party, we don’t have to be alone together. Unfortunately, when you’ve got the kind of attached-at-the-hip friendship as Char and I have, everyone can tell when you’re upset with each other. Instead of lingering, everyone dips out together, coming up with convenient excuses to give Char and I space for a talk I really wasn’t ready to have yet.

“Ash, I’m sorry,” Char says sheepishly, sitting at the table we’d eaten my cake at. She was saying it because she loved me, not because she understood how she’d hurt me. The heartache I’d managed to push away returns full force. It’s worse than no apology at all.

“I know,” I say, wanting nothing more than to accept the apology. I knew Char didn’t understand me anymore than I understood her, but I thought she’d accepted me like I accepted her. “I don’t know if I can trust you any more,” I admit. At the blatant hurt that flashes across her face, I continue, “I want to. But I don’t know if I can. You played with my feelings, Char. You didn’t ask me or think about how it would make me feel. You only thought about how it would make you feel. That hurts. I’m sorry, but I’ve had a pretty miserable day, and I don’t think I can start to forgive you until this spell has worn off, and I’m sure that I’m feeling my own feelings again, and not just something that somebody else wants me to feel.”

Tears gather at the edges of Char’s eyes. “Okay,” she says curtly. I have no idea if she’s mad at me or herself. “You contact me when you’re ready, I guess,” she says, extricating herself from the table, and swiftly walking towards home.

My heart freezes and shatters into pieces finally. “I’m sorry, Char,” I whisper to the wind. Just like she hadn’t chased after me, I didn’t chase after her. I sat there for another hour or so feeling sorry for myself and not wanting to face my family, before I dragged myself home and collapsed into bed. The last thing I thought before falling into a deep sleep was being mad that even though she’d been awful, something the shopkeep said made sense. Just because I felt something didn’t mean I had to act on it. I wasn’t suddenly alloromantic. I didn’t have to date or feel good about this crush. My reaction was my own, even if these feelings weren’t.

The next couple of months brings many changes. I am unlucky with the love potion, and my crush persists for a little over a month. Neither Char or I reach out to each other in that time, and our friendship drifts. My parents and even Char’s parents talk to us both separately, and our mutual friends try their own subtle poking, but neither of us open up about what happened, and nobody but us can fix our relationship.

Wyatt was somehow the hardest to avoid, maybe because he was the only one besides Char who knew what happened. For the duration of my crush, I keep my space. The feelings clear nearly as suddenly as they appeared, and it was like the stark relief of rescue from drowning. The fog I’d been living in instantly cleared, and though there were lingering feelings of betrayal, I finally felt like myself again. After that, I didn’t mind Wyatt’s company so much. We began developing a real friendship and ONLY a friendship. When he responded to my coming out with “I thought so! I did some research after that day in the library, and ended up reading about aromanticism”, I knew I had a friend who truly accepted me. Char and I started talking again recently. I’m not sure our friendship will ever fully recover, but now I know that life goes on. Bad things happen sometimes, whether coincidentally or deliberately, but that’s not the end. Good can still come after bad.

"Aro/Ace person gets given a love potion" story but instead of them being immune or whatever, it DOES work, and they realize IMMEDIATELY that they've been fed a love potion because this feeling is so wrong and foreign but everyone keeps laughing off the idea of it being a love potion because "they were probably just a late bloomer" or "no, you just finally found the right person!" and it's just a horror story about how no one believes them even though they know, they KNOW this isn't right and they can't stand it.

[dastardly-dyke]

I just watched episode 5 of the amazing digital circus and I haven’t seen anyone say theories that quite match mine about Ragatha and Jax so far, so here’s mine:

Spoilers for episode 5 of The Amazing Digital Circus below:

I loved this episode and I was hyped to see more depth brought to Jax and Ragatha. Having said that I’m so curious about the implications of Ragatha’s attitude the entire episode? She mentioned that Jax doesn’t have friends “anymore.”

People keep mentioning that it could be Ragatha is Jax’s ex friend and that’s why she keeps behaving strangely, but I don’t think so necessarily? During the intermission we saw Ajax run past an abstracted character’s door in a similar style to his own character design, so I think he had a friend who abstracted.

We also had Agatha describe her controlling and explosive mother in her real life, and describe her need to be perfect during her softball game. My theory is that when she gets upset seeing Pomni go off with Jax it’s not because she’s jealous because Jax is her old friend, (though it could be) I think it’s because she has an extreme desire to be needed and relied on. She doesn’t feel like she’s particularly close to any of the other members of the circus outside of being a sort of older sister/mother/mentor figure at times, so seeing everyone walk off without her seems to set her off. She needs to feel needed. She can’t see herself just being a friend, she has to be relied on for everything, to feel like she’s in control to an extent to be comfortable.

Meanwhile Jax is definitely super fucked up and pushing everyone away as a way to make the traumas he’s experiencing seem less real (hence why he’s always saying he doesn’t get why they all take this place so seriously, especially when something bad happens). I think he’s quite literally trying to keep himself sane, and this episode bumped him to my second favorite under Kinger so far.

That’s just my thoughts though lol

[olgasaysso]

Is Maomao an unreliable narrator or are the fans jumping to conculsions?

I've noticed that the fandom has been discussing Maomao being an unreliable narrator and people are giving Lakan as an example, how she made us hate him when he's actually not bad.

We assumed that because she wasn't raised by him and because she hates him, he must have done something completly unforgivable and must be a bad father.

The reason she actually hates him is because of how he is with everyone other than her.

Maomao cannot stand this man because he uses people like pawns in a game and doesn't care about them, and not because he doesn't care about her.

That's such an important part of the story and their relationship and yet I don't see anyone talking about it.

She was raised by Luomen, one of the most selfless people in the entire story. She fell in love in Jinshi, another one of the most selfless characters.

In the Light Novels while Jinshi is working himself to death and sleeping less than 3 hours a night trying to make a change or at least keep everything from falling apart, Lakan walks around and when he's not creeping on Maomaos work, he's tormenting Jinshi or sleeping, he accidentally poisons himself with his own saliva.

Of course Maomao is disgusted by him.

That girl cannot bring herself to walk away from an injustice. She always gets involved, even if it won't benefit her. She is drawn into helping people and she's one of the most hardworking characters.

When Maomao and Jinshi work day and night for the benefit of others, Lakan mostly sleeps, annoys them and never does anything that doesn't benefit him.

[yyaiyere]

I feel like Frozen and Wreck it Ralph dont deserve to be in this mix tbh.

Frozen, because while I get the worry of having the sisters separate after they’ve been apart for so long, its not like they are just completely out of each others lives. Elsa visits Anna often and they still have family game nights along with the fact that we are getting a 3rd movie which will most likely strengthen their relationship with each other. The sisters are not completely separated from each other and we have plenty of more adventures for them in the upcoming future.

As for Wreck it Ralph, while I don’t remember much from either movies as I haven’t watched them in a while, I do remember how attached Ralph felt towards Vanelope to the point where it got really creepy… It felt like Disney forgot Ralph is a grown man and Vanelope is a child so having Ralph be so overly attached to her just did not come off right at all from my viewing. I think it was also just a full on character assassination because I don’t recall Ralph acting this way in the first movie? If anything it was justified to separate those two when it came to Ralph Breaks the Internet.

The only film that deserves this treatment the most is honestly the Lilo and Stitch remake because of the fact that it just completely takes away the entire message of the original film. All to create a sloppy live action film to feed to kids so Disney has an excuse to make a quick buck. They completely ruined the meaning of ohana means family just to separate the two sisters and use the excuse of Nani being able to go to college to take away from the fact that the original Nani would never give away Lilo to CPS. I feel like thats a lot different from Elsa making Anna queen and fulfilling her duties as the fifth spirit because at least in their film it has purpose and not a cheap copout.

I just see this opinion a lot and wanted to comment my thoughts on it but I can definitely see where people are coming from. Except for Wreck it Ralph, I feel like that is a genuine stretch tbh.

Frozen: After years of longing I am finally reunited with my sister whom I love.

Frozen II: Bye.

Wreck-It Ralph: After years of abuse and neglect I've made a friend who admires and respects me.

Ralph Breaks The Internet: Bye.

Lilo and Stitch: After years of struggle and trauma I've made friends who admire and respect me and I can stay united with my sister whom I love.

Lilo and Stitch (2025): Bye.

Disney, do you have something you need to talk about? Any issues? Anything at all?

[hyephyep]

i love that okami has a literal prophesised chosen one, and he's entirely background for our real main characters. the first arc centers around how being the chosen one's grandson stifled susano and robbed him of the chance to develop his own identity, leading him to make the rash decision that kickstarts the whole plot. nagi is just set dressing. we don't even find out there was a prophecy at all until ages later, right at the end of the game—and that moment's entirely about waka. ammy trusting waka and having full faith in his prophecy bolstered him during one of the worst days of his life, thus giving him the strength to face the next two hundred years of hard work. once again, nagi's role is service to some other character's arc.

i like that the chosen one is just a piece of a greater story. things did not start with him, nor did they end with him.

[crimsonphantasmagoria]

It's really bizarre to me that people think that the relationship between Rook and Solas is compelling (in particular, more compelling than his relationship with other characters) because, at least in my opinion, it's about the most static and surface level relationship he's ever shown to have.

For a start, there's absolutely no variation in what your relationship with him can be. Yes, you can 'exchange verbal blows' with him or some other options at the start, but that doesn't actually change anything beyond the game referencing that once in a later conversation. Compare that to the sheer difference between his responses to a low approval Inquisitor and a high approval Inquisitor: the difference in tone is consistant and significant. Not to mention that it's explicit within the text that a high approval Inquisitor actually changes Solas’s mind about the modern world without actively trying to do so, while a low approval Inquisitor fails to do so. Though of course, low approval Inquisitor was retconned out of Veilguard. But with Rook, the course of the relationship is 100% set until literally the ending decision. He will always trap Rook, he will always express remorse about it, he will always help, and he will always betray them again. The game will always declare that you've earned the Dread Wolf's respect, although I'd argue the text suggests this is a lie. Your choices as a player don't affect him until the very last choice of the game. Even doing all the quests to unlock the redemption ending don't change anything about Solas himself, it's all about Rook and Mythal’s perspectives being changed.

So, what about the set path of the game, does that pathway cause any major character growth on Solas’s part? No. Solas has plainly already expressed regret about the harm his plans will do prior to Veilguard, so it's not like any of that was caused by Rook. Solas’s worldview and beliefs are entirely static up until the very very end choice. You have around 10 conversations with him, I think? The only one that truly affects him is the last one. We're not even talking about, say, Saren from Mass Effect, where if you consistently pick the paragon dialogue options, he can break through the Reaper indictrination he's under. Instead, in order to truly affect Solas’s views, Rook has to turn the conversation over to other characters who have actually had a real effect on him.

Honestly, I think the people who say they find the relationship compelling are actually saying they like that kind of dialogue, the kind of combative banter between the characters, and honestly I can't blame them. Everyone has their preferences, and those dialogue sequences are by far the best in the entire game (although I'd argue that bar is not terribly high). But I really can't call the relationship compelling, because a relationship where neither party has a meaningful effect on the world view of the other just is honestly just a nothing relationship within the realm of fiction to me.

[interact-if]

Pride Month Feature #1: Grey Swan Birds of a Rose

As part of Pride Month, interact-IF will be interviewing LGBTQ+ authors and featuring their games! We are planning a line-up of approximately ~10 interviews, kickstarted by our first author, @reinekes-fox!

Game: Grey Swan — Birds of a Rose (Play Demo)

Tags: dark academia, drama, angst

Synopsis: Born and raised in a cult there is not much but the norm to follow, when outsiders are allowed in and bring with them such weird concepts like "bisexuality" and "mental illness", will you stay in the golden cage of the Divine Flock or break free?

Author: Aaron (@reinekes-fox)

About me: Been writing since I am 12 and… somehow never stopped! I put a big focus on platonic routes, the struggle in a world focused on romance (and in the cult setting on traditional gender roles as well) , since I am aroace :)

Read on for an awesome interview about the hydra-like nature of branching IFs, friendships being given just as much importance as romance routes, and a really intriguing pride month book rec!

Big thanks again to Aaron for taking time to do this. Read on for the interview!

Tell me more about yourself!

So I write since pretty much my entire life. But the first time I had to write something for school, Irefused. Funnily enough, it was about a talking bird trying to convince a child to let them out of a cage. I am currently also writing a traditional book!

2. Can you tell me a bit about what you’re working on right now and your journey into interactive fiction?

My main focus is on the first entry of my Grey Swan series: Birds of a Rose! I stumbled upon Choice of Games a couple years back (I still remember Choice of the Dragon without scrolling down), and finally decided to write out of the best reason: spite. Because the WIPs I liked kept being abandoned so I told myself I would do better! To this day, two years later, I am proud that I achieved that.

3. What are some of the most rewarding or challenging aspects of writing Interactive Fiction for you?

My most rewarding and challenging aspect is the branching, I describe it like a Hydra. It is easily the most challenging aspect (I have an entire file for it, just so that I don't forget any of that) and the most rewarding as I love to see my story grow in ways that don't feel forced.

4. How do you go about portraying queer characters, queer experiences, or queer storylines in your IF?

Now my story is very, very dark and even cishet people in it do get a fair amount of angst and drama, so most routes do focus on: finding a place in society, trying to either break down who you are to fit in or to look for a more accepting place elsewhere (even if it means leaving most you knew and loved behind)!

Otherwise I simply portray them as characters with needs and wants first, before they are queer. I also put a special focus on friendships (aro and ace routes counting towards that), since so often those are seen as lesser than romantic routes!

5. Any books, music, movies etc. you’re obsessed with at the moment, or which changed your life (or perspectives on something)?

Now, this also fits the pride month! The book Songbirds of Valnon by L.S. Baird.

It is so beautiful I had to stop and almost cry multiple times. It literally changed how I approach worldbuilding and I will always add a bit of it in all of my works. I can only recommend it, it is very much the opposite of my stories (it isn't nearly as dark for example), so if you want: badass disability rep, choir boys with magic, holy soldiers and a really awesome world, check it out! (She has also written other books, but, turns out writing yourself limits the time one can spend reading which is a shame!)

6. If you were to say one thing to your readers, other authors, and/or the interactive fiction community: what would it be?

Give feedback. Most often IF authors work full time, study full time, have an actual private life. I sacrifice most of my free time since two years to work on BoaR, and while I don’t regret it, it can feel very disheartening to not receive feedback for my work (on top of my actual work) and (like any creative person) it makes me immensely happy seeing it recognised.

---- Stay tuned for Pride Month Interview Feature #2 and #3 coming up this weekend!

[agentnoun]

I had another reblog of this where I was kinda flippant, but I thought it might be fun to actually write down what I think about this sort of faux-archaic writing and how I think it can be effectively used.

quick note about my own biases here: I think there exist no hard and fast rules for writing. everything is contextual. anything that could be Bad Writing in one context can be Good Writing in another--even if that Bad Writing is bad in 99 out of 100 situations, there's still that 1, and sometimes taking formal or tonal risks can give your work a really distinct identity (and sometimes it falls apart entirely but that's why it's a risk!).

so let's say you really like when language Goes Hard like this and you want to know how to make it work. here are some questions you can ask yourself to get a general idea. you still won't actually know until you try it and maybe until you get some feedback from readers/editors, but this can get you started.

let's use this monologue from Final Fantasy XII as an example:

does it fit in your world at all? does it make sense for anyone in your world to use language this way? would anyone deliver a monologue like this, or write something like this? there can be multiple reasons it would make sense. for example, maybe the whole work has this sort of heightened tone and isn't going for realism (this is the version that's really tough to pull off). or maybe this type of language makes sense for certain people in the world. this is the case for FFXII above: aristocratic characters, especially those from the Archadian Empire, often use this "elevated" pseudo-archaic speech, so by the time you reach this scene, this kind of language doesn't come out of nowhere. (you also see similar language from non-Archadian aristocratic sources, such as Marquis Ondore's memoir that serves as occasional narration.)

does it make sense for this specific character to speak this way? we sort of covered this in the above bullet. for Judge Bergan, a high-ranking member of an elite group whose very word is law in Archadian society, it definitely does, but if, say, Vaan or Penelo started to bust out a monologue like this, it would be jarring (in a way that would be funny but also wreck the tone). the more colloquial, modern mode used by the commoner characters, or those who have abandoned their aristocratic origins (like Balthier), fits those characters better than the faux-archaic language used by the Judge Magisters.

does it fit the scene? in the scene above, Bergan is trying to intimidate the heroes while proclaiming his liege's right to rule. he is also, crucially, fucking losing his shit due to having mind-altering magic stones bound to his skeleton. so yeah, I'd say an over-the-top monologue makes perfect sense here. but on top of that, it's a dramatic scene that comes after a tense walk through a ruined refugee camp, an exclamation point punctuating a demonstration of Archadian brutality. Bergan speaking this way makes sense in this context, but it might not in others. if he went on like this to some random guy on the street in the middle of the day it would again risk crossing over into the comical.

and here's the big one: does it even make sense? like, the actual words? one of the biggest problems with this elevated prose that tries to Go Hard is that, well, a lot of modern writers don't actually know how this kind of grammar works, or how to use the archaic words that sound really cool. for my fellow Ivalice fans, this is sort of my problem with the FFT War of the Lions translation--I think it's less successful at using this type of archaic, elevated prose than Alexander O. Smith's work in games like Vagrant Story and FFXII. Smith understands English grammar, both contemporary and archaic, well enough that he can play with it and bend it to create monologues like this one. even if it would be reasonable for language like this to be used in a work, all of that falls apart if the actual sentences are confusing or outright nonsense. another way to say this is that you should make sure to understand the grammar you're bending before you bend it.

(also a note on the last bullet: Final Fantasy XII's original Japanese script is not faux-archaic like this. it's something that Smith and the rest of the FFXII English localization team added, and that Yasumi Matsuno, the game's original director, likes quite a bit. if you're wondering why I credited Smith with this type of prose here and not the original Japanese writers, that's why.)

[bygonearchive]

Self aware anaxa (or any of the amphoreus cast at this point), and how he'd likely have a very different experience becoming aware post 3.2 has been all I can think about recently. This is more of a warm-up/ drabble with the idea before I flesh it out more. Just trying to find a way I feel comfortable writing him at the moment.

Masterlist

He was dead, that much he could be sure of. His plan to fuse his soul with the titan Cerces to become the titan in the next cycle was successful; he had felt his body dissolve and had dropped the core flame into the vortex of Genesis. 

So, how was he here? 

No matter, as the demised scholar Anaxagoras, time is the only thing preventing him from knowing the truth. 

Ultimately, every time he made any progress in finding out what was happening some other odd trait about his current predicament made itself aware. It started small, music playing as he was going about amphoreus, the area around him pausing here and there, barely noticeable.

Then the events started to escalate, he discovered that he couldn't speak to anyone. In fact, whenever he went to try he had the intriguing yet infuriating feeling of being absent from reality for the conversation made itself apparent, the sensation of not being in full control of his body at times eventually growing to all of the time and then there was the fight against Aquila. 

That seemed to act as the catalyst for these strange phenomena, as everything intensified afterwards. Shortly after the conclusion of the fight… 

He was no longer on Amphoreus. 

He didn't have control of his body, fights were taking turns, chests were littered behind puzzles, it was like he was skipping around in time and visiting events and battles that should have long since passed. 

It was as if someone was playing a game.

It was as if someone was playing a game.

And suddenly that hypothesis made sense. Rooting itself in the professor's mind, all he needed now was proof. Proof that there was a player. Then he could work on a method to make himself real, to gain power over his new reality. This new truth. 

Naturally, he met or rather interacted with you, shortly after this revelation. It didn't immediately click that you were the player, the person for whom he was essentially a glorified puppet, but it did in time. 

He didn't intend to fall for you. 

Of course, he hadn’t yet, no matter how purely logical he tries to be. Well. Don’t romance and reason go hand in hand, he shouldn’t feel ashamed to embrace such feelings. 

Try as he might, he couldn’t catch your attention no matter what actions he took. Triggering voice lines where and when he shouldn’t be able to; wrenching control back for the briefest of moments; sneaking extra rewards into your inbox, no jades of course, he couldn’t be too obvious for his safety; and even sending more in game messages than he was scripted with, given half of them are obscured behind anonymous icons. All for nought as you simply dismissed it all as glitches or simply lag from whatever device you were using to run it. 

It drove him insane. Bit by bit, denial after denial of his existence, you weren't questioning any of it. But fine. That's fine. He'll just have to work harder. 

The actions he takes get more prominent, more daring. It's not a simple matter of clueing you into it anymore, he has to prove his existence to you now. It's not something the professor is entirely used to, usually proving his own theorems to himself, others are rarely worth his time. 

One day he decides to clear out the rest of the team you'd assigned him to, hoping that if you logged in to him and only him then something might finally register. It succeeds in a way, gaining him a panicked logout from you when you noticed how every character other than Anaxagoras was knocked out. 

Progress. 

Small, but there. Tangible, real. He'd make you fall for - see him, in time. 

It’s no longer something in short supply now that he'd already fulfilled his position in the plot.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Toby Fox is fucking crazy.

Usually with sequential videogames what happens is a company makes the first game, it's a hit, they make the second game, it's a hit, and then they go "oh shit, guess we have to make it a Trilogy and have the third game be a Grand Epic Finale", and then the third game is ass and they spend the entire fourth game either undoing their mistake or soft rebooting the series.

Toby has committed to making SEVEN GAMES, each with new variations to gameplay, dozens of new funny characters, entirely new soundtracks composed by himself, new backgrounds, dozens of paths, three thousand lines of dialogue, and at least two characters arcs and two major bosses.

He is aimimg to accomplish more with each chapter's release than AAA publishers can accomplish with a ten year development cycle. And he's already done it four times.

[yuurei20]

In addition to their pajamas/loungewear, how many details have come up in game about the characters clothing preferences or styles and/or potential outfits the students have worn outside of NRC? A few examples or instances come to mind, but I feel like I could be forgetting or missing others. Thanks!

Hello hello! Thank you for this question! 👔

This turned into a much bigger project that I had thought ^^ Starting with Riddle! (as always, if something seems to be confused or missing please do let me know!! Always happy to update with the most relevant and accurate information ♪)

Summary: ・Riddle owns nothing less formal than "smart casual" ・Riddle has been told by his parents to never be without a necktie ・Riddle is uncomfortable wearing clothes casually (re: leaving the collar of his shirt unbuttoned) ・Riddle went shopping for clothes of the formality he is accustomed to in more casual fabrics, together with Ace and Cater

Riddle has an entire conversation with Rook about his outside-of-NRC clothing in his platinum vignette, where he explains that he does not own anything less formal than “smart casual” as his parents have told him that he is never to be without a necktie.

When meeting up with Equestrian Club members for a visit to Foothill Town to purchase club equipment he surprised everyone by dressing in his gym uniform, as he simply did not own any other easy-to-move-in clothing.

Not wanting to make others uncomfortable with his fashion choices, Riddle explains that he went to Cater and Ace for assistance, who recommended that he try dressing down his existing wardrobe by going without a necktie and leaving a top button undone on his shirts.

Riddle explains, however, that he felt uneasy about going without a properly fastened collar. Instead of wearing his existing clothes in a more casual manner, Riddle went with them into town to purchase clothing to his tastes in more casual fabric (Rook gives the examples of linen and sweat fabric) and with a more casual fit. 

As of the platinum vignette conversation it seems that Riddle has not yet had the opportunity to wear his new clothes, but he intends to do so at the next opportunity.

Riddle has a voice line complimenting the elaborate embroidery of his masquerade outfit, and may have an eye for quality.

He describes his belly shirt of the Stitch event as “an appalling way to wear a shirt," so such a style is possibly not a part of his usual wardrobe.

Riddle says that he keeps his hair short and would cut his hair himself when he first enrolled at NRC, but Cater did not want him to ("for some reason") so now he goes to barber in town (Jamil: "You should probably thank Cater for that").