#anyway this is lighthearted <3

[bad-science]

Everyone loves dark academia and cottagecore and themes of death and decay and being weird and mysterious until I have stray bones in my house and teeth on my shelf. Then I’m too weird for the weirdos. Too spooky for the so-called goths. You bitches can’t handle my bonus teeth

[mishapen-dear]

i love it when bad is very specifically a good roleplayer by giving other people good prompts. like casually bringing up wilbur now to tallulah. or when he put missa in the petting zoo. or all those times he Tormented the Lesbians so they could protect each other from him. its just so !!!! I love watching roleplayers be considerate of other roleplayers and gleefully hand over something they Know the other person's character can react to. i've seen cellbit do it, too (that time he handed his knife to bbh. oh my god). it's not a rare thing, and it's possible to be a good roleplayer without keeping that sort of considerate back and forth in mind, but its one of my favourite things to notice. foolish does it too, sometimes- i haven't watched him much, but i did take note of when he Made Sure to bring jaiden along with him on a cucurucho quest. and basically every interaction he had with bad when the eggs were missing. its just so so good

[seven-tastic]

lukerosa arts (SHOCKING I KNOW)

[jonahmagnus]

Reeves.... hes my favorite guy<3

[veggiecorner]

SKYWARD SWORD SKYWARD SWORD SKYWARD SWORD!!!

[glitterslag]

btw it's extremely important for sydcarmy to be silly together bc carmy's never had someone to do shenanigans with before

[picturejasper20]

That AU of Masters becoming Danny's school director/teacher instead of him becoming Amity Park's mayor is so cool. It would have been super funny Danny and the rest playing pranks on Vlad everyday and Vlad giving bad grades on Danny for the sake of messing with him. The two of them being the most passive agressive possible while they are in school and everyone else wondering what is going on.

[riddlerosehearts]

thinking about floyd and riddle spending their first halloween as a couple together... i think floyd absolutely loves how varied and lively all of the different halloween traditions he's learned about since coming to live on land are, and he wants to try out as many of them as he can each year. so when riddle tells him that his mother always made him stay in his room studying on halloween, and that the only halloween activities he's ever done were those that NRC students were required to participate in, floyd decides that the two of them are just going to have to spend the day doing everything they possibly can. riddle tries to say he's far too busy for such things, but floyd will not let it go and honestly riddle is only half-heartedly protesting anyway because he secretly did always dream of doing the things that other kids got to do on halloween, and maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal to take one day off and spend time with his boyfriend.

so, riddle never got to make jack-o-lanterns? floyd decides to "borrow" about half a dozen of the pumpkins jade and azul had bought for mostro lounge and takes them to riddle's dorm room. riddle is terrible at trying to carve them at first and floyd can't help but laugh at him a little, but since he knows it's not riddle's fault he's never gotten to do this before, he says he'll show him how to do it. unfortunately floyd isn't nearly as good as he thinks he is on account of having lived in the ocean for almost his whole life and now riddle gets to laugh right back at him. they probably both get the hang of it right as they're down to their last two pumpkins.

riddle never got to go trick-or-treating with his childhood friends? floyd texts trey and convinces him to get in touch with chenya as well so that they can all go together. when they approach the first house, in the costumes they had prepared for each of their school's halloween events, riddle starts to get nervous and asks if they aren't all a little too old to be doing this. floyd shoves several huge handfuls of candy from that person's bowl into his and riddle's pumpkin-shaped buckets and tells him it's not like there's any rule that says they can't, and besides, riddle is such a cute little goldfish that he practically looks like a kid in his costume anyway! chenya stifles a laugh while trey has to stop riddle from committing murder that night.

riddle's never gone to a haunted house before? floyd and chenya both think it would be hilarious to make him go to one, so they do. riddle absolutely hates it, but it honestly does make him happy to see everyone else enjoying it--even if floyd and chenya both keep trying to egg him and trey on and get them to go down creepy corridors and check around corners by themselves, and even if floyd keeps running off to different parts of the haunted house and then coming back and hugging or even lifting riddle from behind knowing full well that he'll get freaked out by it.

riddle never got to play the apple bobbing game that's traditional in the queendom of roses? turns out there's a place right by the haunted house where they can go to do it! predictably, floyd is great at it while riddle ends up drenched without getting any apples, but just giving it a try is more fun than riddle expected.

riddle's never gotten to make candy apples before? luckily, trey knows an amazing recipe as well as what combinations of toppings work the best, and he's willing to teach them both! riddle gets very confused at imprecise directions such as being told to use "a few" drops of food coloring on the syrup or to drizzle "a little" white chocolate over it, and keeps asking trey exactly how much he should use. floyd thinks this is adorable. he also thinks it's adorable when riddle tries to scold him for ignoring half of trey's directions and just doing whatever he thinks sounds good.

riddle's never done a horror movie marathon before, or even seen any halloween movies in general? floyd insists that they marathon at least 3 movies together. after the experiences he had at the haunted house, riddle doesn't think he'll enjoy horror movies, but he tries to keep his cool throughout the first one anyway... which does not work out, because he really can't handle jumpscares or excessive gore. during the first movie they watch, floyd (who loves slasher films so much that he laughs and cheers every time the monster gets a kill) is happy to let his goldfishie cuddle up to him and grip onto his arm to keep himself from knocking the popcorn bowl onto the floor, but you know that once it's over riddle is getting teased relentlessly about how scared he was. floyd decides to be nice and put on something tamer for their next two movies, and riddle actually ends up really enjoying coraline and especially beetlejuice.

by the end of the night riddle realizes that they've stayed up way too late at night and a small part of him wants to scold floyd for keeping him up so late, insisting on having him do all of these silly activities and eat all of these terribly unhealthy snacks. another part of him wishes he could scold his mother for keeping him from doing any of these things as a kid, with his friends and the other kids in his hometown, the way you're supposed to do it... and another part of him still is just incredibly happy and grateful to floyd for finally giving him the chance.

[sepiamestus]

i love how you draw sigma sooooo much hes so <3333 you draw his hair so PRETTY and he looks so chill in that art you just posted . filled my soul with joy ur doing gods work

HFHGHGV THANK YOUUU 🩷🩷🩷🩷 i kinda gathered that after you rbed it 28 times

[jils-things]

eeeekk hi again everyoneee!!! i'm gonna allow myself today to post one art because i miss sharing my stuff on my blog :]]

red sprites: (x)

[torgawl]

i'm too mentally unwell for this (people shoving ragbros angst in my face at 10 am)

[solradguy]

Mr. Rad Guy, I've wanted to get your opinion on something for a while now, and finally snagged what I was looking for on twitter. I normally don't pay any of those transphobic Bridget discourse peddlers any mind, but they bring up her appearence in the canon pachinko game Vastege as supposed "proof" that Strive's story direction for her is a contradictory retcon. This game's plot takes place just three months before Xrd's, and they claim that through her voicelines she is still insisting sternly that she's a man and not to call her cute, but also that she STILL hasn't broken her village's superstition at this point in time. This is the only image they ever have as so-called evidence, so I wanted to see if you know if these lines are legitimately in the game, scrapped content, or made up altogether. I don't trust these lunatics as far as I can throw them when it comes to telling the whole truth 🤨

This screenshot is from same manuscript of dialog that is in the lore server archives and in the GG VXT archive pack that I compiled and uploaded to Archive.org. As far as I know, these lines were all used in the game and no unused lines have been (or even could be) datamined. Two of the lines here are highlighted so I'm assuming they're the ones these dorks are using to try to prove their point. I've translated them.

First line:

I want to break the village's rule/law*, and return to the village as a young man.

*In the official localizations I think they might translate this as "tradition" or "superstition" instead of rule or law.

"Young man" in that line is 男の子 (otokonoko). Do not let anyone convince you Bridget is using the other otokonoko there (男の娘；"young man with a feminine aesthetic"). They like to do that a lot, argue that it's the one that uses 娘.

Second line:

Cute is uncalled for... I'm a man.

In conclusion: Yes. Bridget is using almost 1:1 recycled dialog in Vastedge that she used in XX and the spinoffs. The Twitter grifters' Google Translating was correct this time.

Vastedge's plot may take place only 3 months before Xrd, but Vastedge itself came out in 2013—8 entire years before Strive released in 2021. A lot can change in 3 months in real life, but after almost a decade most people are entirely different altogether (wrt Daisuke and his plot decisions). Also it's a friggin pachislot machine lmfao Like, are people really expecting something as earth shattering as a character as irrelevant to the general plot like Bridget suddenly stopping all of the action to explore her identity on a slot machine? I have no patience for these people anymore. They're just stupid and arguing because they have no hobbies.

There's also the fact that Daisuke originally planned for Bridget to be a cis girl until the very last minute. So if anything her coming out in Strive was just returning to the starting concept. He mentions this in the interview in the back of Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000-2004. Translation by fairymisao.

(27)---The character Bridget, introduced in Guilty Gear XX, looks like a girl but is actually a boy, right? What was your intention in deciding on creating this kind of character? Ishiwatari: The creation of Bridget as a boy happened at the very last second; during development I was drawing him as purely a girl. It's just that when there is a need to give a worldly backbone (to the game), in order for me to try to not forget each character, and in order to revive the character, I give them my very heart. As a result, the creation of Bridget as actually a boy instead of a girl was because I thought he could become my alter ego. [...]

It's also important to note that Vastedge was the first thing ASW made for Guilty Gear after getting the full rights to the IP back from Sega after the Sega-Sammy merger in 2011 (which they had started to lose a bit before Overture's release in 2004). They were absolutely more focused on making something that would generate income and looked flashy than they were a compelling cinematic experience.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Mmm, yes, the Phineas and Ferb Marvel crossover episodes were better than Infinity War and Endgame.

[angelumcaedis]

durge/astarion drabble: so, that exboyfriend.

(She/her drow dark urge, named Dahmira. Mild fantasies of violence. Past Durgetash. Mostly cuddling.)

“I didn’t like how he looked at me. Through me. Like he knew me, intimately.”

“Like an old lover?”

She gripped the pillow to her chest harder, dusky purple cheeks taking a deeper hue.

Astarion grinned teasingly at her. “It was hard not to notice, darling. He wasn’t exactly hiding it.”

“I don’t… know him. Not as who I am now,” she started. “But there’s a sense of recognition, almost…” she trailed off, cheeks flushing even more.

Gods, she was adorable when she was flustered, Astarion thought to himself.

“Almost what, darling?” He spoke softly, as though to a frightened animal, even as he leaned in closer, narrowing the gap between them. His grin widened just enough for his fangs to be on display. Dahmira instinctively leaned back, gaze still downcast and distant.

Voice low, almost a whisper, she replied. “Like my body knows him. Remembers him.”

Astarion took her face gently in his hand, thumb caressing her cheek. She met his gaze with wide eyes, breath caught in her throat.

“Would you like me to help you forget?”

“I… erm…” If possible, Dahmira was flushing even more purple than before.

“Seems I won’t have to try too hard if you’ve already forgotten the basics of speech.”

Astarion aptly dodged what was to be a face full of pillow as Dahmira swung at him. “You are an absolute menace, you know that, right?”

The vampire giggled, grabbing the pillow and yanking hard, pulling the unsuspecting drow on top of him as he sat back onto his veritable nest of cushions.

“Darling, I am nothing if not genuine in this offer,” he settled his hands on her hips as she came to rest in his lap. “Believe me when I say I would thoroughly enjoy making you forget every syllable of the so-called archduke’s name.”

The drow curled her hands around his wrists, hesitating. They still hadn’t crossed - well, re-crossed - certain boundaries since their commitment to trying ‘something real’. She searched his face, nose scrunched as she tried to read his expression.

Astarion gave her hips a reassuring squeeze. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was offering was something he was ready for, but he didn’t like seeing her so rattled. He wanted to reassure her that he didn’t judge her for what she did before they met. Gods, when he thought about it, if she hadn’t been that evil bastard, he would still be under Cazador’s thumb.

“We don’t have to do anything. I’m happy just to be here with you,” she said.

That something in Astarion’s chest warmed. She was always so concerned about him.

“I know. But,” he said, dropping the flirty demeanor for a deeper tone, “I didn’t appreciate how he looked at you either, darling,” he growled. “That privilege is mine alone.”

“Astarion…” Dahmira sighed, resting her forehead against his shoulder. “If I don’t kill you first, you might just be the death of me.”

“Only little deaths, we hope.”

“Astarion.”

“You are far too fun to tease, darling.”

The drow sighed in exasperation at her beloved. “I’m glad you’re having fun.”

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Astarion purred as he slid his hands up from her hips to her waist, rucking up her shirt on his way. His hands were cool against her skin, sending a shiver down her spine.

Her hands caught his, moving them back to settle at her hips. “I… I don’t know… not right now,” she said. “Could you maybe just… just hold me.”

If his heart had been beating, it might have skipped. “My sweet, there is nothing I would like more.”

Astarion held her tight as she drifted off into her usual fitful trance. As his own mind wandered, he imagined how it might feel to peel Enver Gortash’s smirk right off his face.

The thought warmed him to his cold, undead core.

[wulfhalls]

.

[dolores-slay]

This is a pet peeve but it's kinda annoying when important character moments in videogames are locked behind romances no matter how close of a friendship your PC can have with them. I understand why they make it so but it's so deeply unrelatable to me as I would entrust my true name and soul stone to friends and am friendship's strongest soldier and I'll always think a bit less of such character arcs SUE ME.