#but that's a REALLY really really really high bar to clear

[isabel3710]

You know who is super underrated, Bruce, that's who! And I need to know why.

Like this man.... Gosh I love him so much. Out of all of the brothers I think Bruce is the most chill and here is a list of some of the reasons why.

1. He babied Branch the least.

I see him tossing Branch and the wet willy as him being more of an older brother verse seeing Branch as a baby. As for the 'last time I saw you, you were in diapers' comment, that seems more of a 'oh my gosh it's been so long and you've grown so much' comment. And unlike John Dory and Clay he didn't instantly turn to cooing at him like he was a toddler.

2. He loves his wife.

One of Bruce's first reactions to seeing his brothers again is to introduce them to his wife. And the one first things he tell them about Brandy is 'she is my soulmate.' He also asks her first if he can leave last minute instead of running off and asking for forgiveness later. The two of them clearly respect each other and work well together as business partners, parents, and spouses.

3. He's a good dad.

The entire time he's talking with his brothers Bruce is also managing his kids, talking with them and trying to help them out. It's clear to me that he juggles them and everything else pretty well, which means he's done it before. And given how many of them go to him to ask for help shows that the kids trust him and he's involved in their lives. He does get a bit overwhelmed but what parent doesn't?

4. He's nice to John Dory

When Branch and Clay first see John Dory after over two decades of being apart they greet him with anger and coldness. Bruce doesn't. Now, he doesn't hug John when they first reunite but I think that was because he spotted Branch first and was really excited to see his younger brother again. He does get upset at JD for bringing up the Perfect Family Harmony but Bruce didn't know the situation at first. And hearing about it again probably brought up some painful memories for him from his time in the band. And don't bring up the fight, that doesn't count. Emotions were high for everyone and they were all very stressed.

5. He agrees to save Floyd

This might seem like a low-bar but I promise I have a point! As I mentioned in my last point, hearing about the Harmony likely brought up a lot of painful memories for Bruce. And one of the first things he told his brothers was about how he was trying to put his band days behind him, I doubt Bruce wanted to to bring the band back together. He also had his family to think about, he can't just leave them at a drop of a hat! But as soon as he hears about Floyd his first thoughts is to think up solutions to save him. And when it's made clear that calling the authorities won't work, he agrees to help.

Alright, those are all my points! I could probably make more but I'd have to watch the movie again. But my original point still stands, Bruce is awesome and needs more love (and fics). Thank you all for coming to my Ted Talk.

This was fun! I should do these for some of the other characters.

[thegreatyin]

upon reflection several months later i have to admit. bg3 doesn't have the greatest story ever. but is it still really good and really enjoyable and really top tier? hell yeah brother

[pikkish]

I thought it was hilarious, at first, that everyone’s decided Doomguy is still the protagonist of MyHouse.wad. After all, it doesn’t really have much more to do with Doom than gmod has to do with Half-Life 2. But then I remembered, isn’t that a plot point of Doom II? Visiting the burnt out ruins of your hometown on your way to the portal to Hell? Why couldn’t Doomguy take a few minutes to have a nightmare of an emotional journey in a childhood friend’s home to come to terms with everyone and everything he ever loved being destroyed?

[milkweedman]

forcing myself to "eat protein" and "be responsible" after once again encountering a week long period of all my muscles hurt so bad and are so weak despite doing the same thing they always do assuming without checking that it was probably because im eating mostly coffee and plain untoasted bread in small quantities. and its not even a whey bread or 100% whole wheat, ive been trying to use up my bread flour/whole wheat blend (i dumped them in the bucket together, maybe on accident ? unclear) so its just that with whatever else i threw in. spent $6 on the only yogurt in the store that had at least 5 grams of protein per 1/4 cup, which is still very little, only to get home and finally google what the symptoms of protein deficiency are. they are not that. those are the symptoms of Who Fucking Knows, As Always

[larsnicklas]

we Need to Kill mark spector. and also seravalli while we’re at it

if i see them in victory plaza this round it's ON SIGHT!!!! tbh if i was a sign girlie (gn) i'd have a ♡ EURO SKILL GUYS ♡ sign with all the finns faces on it locked and loaded for game one. i'm not a sign girlie (gn) but somebody should do this probably

[incorrectskyrimquotes]

the thieves guild is found family and i think a huge reason theyre a fan favorite for that trope is they like. talk to each other. and to you.

[murky-galaxy]

Go_A released a new song and it's insane and I refuse to be normal about it

[mundanemiseries]

Despite everything, despite him absolutely being in a better place than he was in his young adulthood (not...a high bar to clear, admittedly). He'd be a liar if he said he was good.

Sure he's not actively on the precipice of imploding in on himself anymore, he's generally functional and to just about everyone he seemed alright.

He...honestly wasn't, feeling like he was constantly running on empty and more...aimlessly existing rather than anything that really meant anything to anyone. He's got dysfunctions he's slowly tried to force himself to get over, struggles with grasping and understanding his own emotions to the point he often got yelled at for it as a child, trouble socializing and struggling to interpret what others mean when the speak to him (and the unfortunate habit of jumping to the conclusion he's being some kind of bother/pest/etc). Academic struggles he never had supports for and just...pushed himself to "get over himself".

And he hides it behind himself, shoving the parts of him that he thinks people find "acceptable" to where it can be seen. In his mind his problems are simply not worth anyone else's time. The mindset of "other people have it worse" was drilled into him at an early age, something he still internalized when it came to himself and himself alone.

Maybe he "deserved" help when he was younger, when he was truly genuinely crumbling in on himself. Now? No, no...he was okay. He could manage, he has to it's not worth bothering anyone else.

[hikennosabo]

unfortunately, 90% of canon m/f ships in media, even if there's nothing actually wrong with how they're written, make me feel like my immune system is activating

[exeggcute]

gonna become one of those "this song saved my life <3" people but about wonder girl by sparks

[thegreatyin]

Do the Scoundrel's dreams have lots of cardgame motifs and the presence of a monkey

oh absolutely.

the scoundrel's nightmares are like. it is seated at a poker table. this is everything they've ever wanted. this is everything they've ever waited for. this is what their life has been building towards. they have no purpose or reason for existing other than this. its opponent lays down a dead man's hand. the opponent is a monkey. it is wretched and foolish and they are better than it could ever hope to be. it looks down. the cards are blank. they shuffle and draw and their hand comes up covered in blood holding an overripe fruit. the monkey looks them in the eyes and asks if they're worthy of this. they don't know. there's sun in their eyes and roses growing in their throat and they have absolutely no idea. there is a hollowness in its chest and they keep scratching at it and they come up empty and there is only stardust and they look up at the ceiling and they can't recognize their face in the mirror anymore. it picks at its skin. it comes up empty. this is everything they've ever wanted.

and it is seated at a poker table. there is no opponent. they sit alone in a field of flowers and their only prize is a single bloodstained fig and it is wretched and foolish and they are no better than they started.

and they sit there awhile. picking at the flowers. picking at their skin. staring at the stars. they feel hungry. it is peaceful. they feel hungry. they never let go of the fruit.

and then they wake up, drink seven bottles of wine, bully the doomed scientist, hold a railway board meeting to enact several hundred dozen labor law violations, break into a building, break out of jail for reasons entirely totally definitely unrelated to breaking into said building, and end their afternoon by diving directly into the nearest reflective surface to continue hunting birds for sport

[dramatic-dolphin]

btw i have a personal vendetta against makeup and i hate when it is ever portrayed positively or as a fun thing. yes i will be a hater until the day i die no i will not change my mind ❤

[automatic-midnight]

My biased, really unpopular take is that I think rit/su/maya is an objectively boring ship.

[nicastamatis]

season 8 of mafsuk is really wild bc the guy who was self-described "a bit of a tory" in the first episode is like. the nicest person there.

[deadsetobsessions]

Of all the places he could have been summoned to, Danny Phantom had never considered a private school’s bathroom to be one of them.

With glowing green skin, a shock of flickering flames for hair, and a suit made out of the spaces between collapsing stars, Danny stared down at the stupefied faces of Gotham Academy’s finest students. One of them had their face in their hands, having caught sight of him and undergoing all the stages of grief in but a moment.

They sat around a circle that he was appropriately impressed with considering the limited space they had to work with. Danny could see the empty stalls, some of which were adorned with drawings and writings that were left by the, no-doubt, extremely busy caretaker.

“Seriously, a bathroom?” Danny wrinkled his nose.

“Holy shit, that actually worked?” One of the kids blurted out, then slammed their hands on top of their mouth.

“Did you expect it not to?” Danny squinted at them, frowning. It’s Friday, so it’s not like he had much to do, but Danny would prefer it if his time wasn’t wasted.

“No- no, your… uh, highness?”

“All of that schooling and you’re still uneducated,” one of the other ones hissed at the red headed kid who spoke. It’s “Your Majesty.” He’s a king, idiot!”

That was a pretty solid burn but, “It’s actually just Phantom. Did you guys want something? I’m busy.”

He’s not busy, but who cares?

“Uh…” the kids exchanged glances. The one in the back sighed and spoke up. He adjusted his glasses.

“We’re sorry for bothering you, Phantom. You wouldn’t happen to have a solution for dimensional separation, would you?”

“Huh.” Danny tilted his head, face souring. “I hate dimensional issues. They’re the worst. Who’s causing them?”

“His name’s Klarion!” The one who slapped a hand across his mouth earlier piped up.

“Oh! The lords of chaos or whatever. Yeah, I can help, for a price.”

Danny is against unpaid labor. Extremely against it, considering his side gig is being a half-dead vigilante. Then again, are you really a vigilante if you’re not half dead on a regular basis?

“What do you want?” Despite the reluctance from earlier, it’s clear the one with the glasses made the big decisions in this weird friend group.

“… A hundred dollars.”

“That’s it? No stipulations?” When Danny nodded, the kid had a calculating expression. “Deal.” The teen said immediately. He pulled out cash and wow, Danny’s definitely in a place with a different tax bracket.

He snatched it. Nasty burger money!

“Deal’s a deal. Also, don’t ever summon me again, but if you do, don’t ever do it in a bathroom again. You kids are so weird.” Danny floated out of the circle, grinning sharply. He formed a small bird- he doesn’t know why, but it felt right- of ice and handed it to the kid with glasses. “There. Proof of the deal.”

With that, Danny disappeared. Private school kids were so fucking weird, but… Dash and his goons were probably worse. What’s a little ritualistic summoning in the face of teenagers?

——

“I leave you guys alone for ten minutes and you summon the king of the dead?” Robin narrowed his eyes at his teammates, traitors who had the good graces to look sheepish. “How could you?! I wanted to try, too!”

Kid Flash patted him on the shoulder, a granola bar appearing in his mouth now that the possible world ending terror disappeared. “Sorry, Rob. Maybe next time! Magic still isn’t real though.”

“I’m not doing this shit in a bathroom again,” Artemis rolled back to her feet. “He sounded like he was going to rip our bones out if we ever summoned him in a bathroom again.”

“Ugh…”

[justdiptych]

There's a scene in Fallout: New Vegas that I find really interesting in how it uses skill checks in dialogue. A merchant company, the Crimson Caravan, want to buy out one of their rivals, Cassidy Caravans, and they hire the player character to negotiate the deal. The player has likely already met the rival company's owner, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, by this point - in fact, it's entirely possible that she suggested they ask the Crimson Caravan for work in the first place.

Cass is propping up the bar at a truck stop on the border near the game's opening area. She's heard that her caravan has been destroyed in her absence - her employees killed and their wagons burned in an attack on the road - but she can't investigate because of a bureaucratic hold-up. The man in charge of the border post, Ranger Jackson, has halted all commercial traffic across the border because of dangers on the roads - wild animals, bandits, and enemy soldiers - that the authorities are struggling to get under control.

When the player brings the Crimson Caravan's offer to Cass, she refuses on principle. Her business may have effectively been destroyed, but she's too proud and too stubborn to sell her surname for any number of messes of pottage. Convincing her requires that the player employs one of either their Speech or Barter skills - there are two options for each, requiring either moderate or high investments of skill points. Skill and Barter are the game's two Charisma-based skills, and it's not uncommon for them to appear side-by-side like this, but here, they diverge in application.

The easier Speech option is simple - the player just reminds Cass that, if she sells the business, she won't be commercial traffic anymore, so she'll be able to get across the border. She's itching to get on the road again, so this convinces her. (She will ask the player to help Jackson clear the roads for the benefit of her fellow merchants, but this is a very simple quest that they likely already completed hours ago.)

The more challenging Speech check is to tell Cass that there's no way her business can survive, so it's her duty to do the merciful thing - shoot it in the head, bury it, and move on with her life. This, naturally, brings her close to socking the player in the jaw, but she sees the truth in it. She's been holding onto the forlorn hope that there might be something left to save, but she really has lost everything. This bypasses Jackson's quest - she just wants to walk out and not look back.

The Barter options approach things differently - from the Speech options, and from each other. The more challenging one involves making some sport of the offer, challenging Cass to a drinking contest. The player has to supply the booze, and they run the risk of getting embarrassingly drunk if their Endurance stat is too low, but, either way, this will impress Cass enough that she'll sign the contract.

The easier Barter option, though, is, I think, the most interesting. It requires the player to sweeten the deal with their own money - a not insubstantial amount of it, in fact. Cass is still hesitant, though, which allows the player to make a very interesting point. With the money from the Crimson Caravan plus the player's contribution, she'd have enough to restart her business - buy new animals and equipment, hire a new crew, start trading again.

Further, the player can point out that the Crimson Caravan are unlikely to continue using the 'Cassidy Caravans' name after buying it. They're only buying her out to try to monopolise local trade, after all. If they don't use the name, they'll forfeit their rights to it - meaning that Cass can, as she puts it, take their money, give them nothing, and go back to running her business as if the attack never happened.

Cass, naturally, accepts this offer, though she's staggered that the player is so willing to sell out their employers to help her like this. (The player needn't feel any moral misgivings about doing so. A little investigation reveals that the attack on Cass's business was actually engineered by the Crimson Caravan themselves, in collusion with a crime family, in a conspiracy to wipe out their competition.)

I think this entire interaction represents how well New Vegas uses skill checks. Barter, in RPGs, is often a very barebones skill. Its use is letting the player earn more and spend less - as part of an equation determining shop prices, or in dialogue options that boil down to asking for money. It's not uncommon for Speech to be the skill of the peaceful, benevolent diplomat, while Barter is for common mercenaries.

Here, though, the Barter options actually cost more than their Speech equivalents. The player ends up out of pocket for a sizable chunk of change or at least a lot of booze. Instead, the Barter skill represents the character's understanding of common business practices and relevant laws. It allows them to convince Cass to accept a deal by finding a loophole that benefits her more than if she refused.

The equivalent Speech options, meanwhile, are effectively free, but do involve making Cass feel that little bit worse. They emphasise what she's lost, how trapped she is by her circumstances, and convince her to give up and let the Crimson Caravan win. In the long run, this doesn't make a real difference - once she leaves the outpost, she and the player can discover the conspiracy and get their revenge either way - but I think the choice does let the player say something about their character.

Part of the brilliance of this game is how little details, like Cass being stuck at the outpost, tie into other details all across the story. Caravan traffic is halted, in part, because deathclaws have nested near the roads to the north. They've nested there because the local quarry has ceased operations - the noise caused by the digging and blasting had previously scared them off.

The quarry closed down because escaped convicts raided it and stole the workers' stash of mining explosives. The convicts escaped because the government was using them for forced labour on the railroads, and foolishly entrusted them with enough dynamite to stage an uprising, seize control of the prison, and turn it into a fortress and a base of operations for banditry.

Similarly, the threads of Cass's story spread outwards, ultimately affecting the entire future of New California. When she learns that the Crimson Caravan and their allies killed her friends, Cass is furious. She wants to march over there and beat the snot out of the people responsible. The player can convince her to instead settle things legally - get proof of their crimes, pass them on to Ranger Jackson, and hope the justice system gets revenge for her.

If Cass does things her way, the criminals pay with their lives, but their bosses end up better off for it. With their regional execs murdered, the trading companies can claim that the government isn't doing enough to protect them - so, they don't have to support the government's interests, either. They withdraw trade, demand special treatment, and end up making their shortfall everyone's problem.

If the legal option is pursued, though, the evidence becomes blackmail material. The government has the trading companies over a barrel, and that lets them pass stricter trade laws. Given the choice of accepting regulation or facing criminal investigation, the crooked execs choose to stay out of jail. Those responsible for the murders technically avoid justice, but their hopes of a monopoly are dashed - and their superiors are unlikely to be pleased with them having hurt long-term profits so badly.

Cass's story is political and economical all the way through. It's about the influence of wealth on government, and the fundamental injustices of the carceral system. It's about revenge, and reform, and how to hit people where it hurts - their bottom line. And it's about how, sometimes, skills in an RPG aren't about making numbers go up - they're about how a character understands the world around them, and how they can apply that understanding to help someone out of a jam, or help reshape the trade lines of a whole nation.