#did i write this out of spite

[kelocitta]

In honor of the @rw-ship-showdown I wanted to write about Artihunter as someone who jokingly slapped them together pre-downpour and still thinks they are actually very compelling. Just not in the super soft love wins kinda way (Although I get why people like that more) And the only way I know how to do that is talking too much so heres a far too long slug essay-

Obviously the slugcats don't offer a ton of characterization but theres not nothing to work with. Their stories, whether by their roles in it or the overarching themes do provide a backbone to work with. Even gameplay itself can provide a bit. (for some more than others) Hunter, to me, is ultimately a story about selflessness. The goal is to revive Moon, which is very much an act of kindness from both Hunter and NSH. But the weight of that action is much more significant for Hunter- Hunter is deeply sick. They're on the clock, and for all their skill in combat none of that will ultimately help them to survive longer than their body can hold out. Moon is a close friend of NSH but that means little Hunter- Hunter really gets next to nothing out of helping them, and ultimately pays quiet a bit spending their limited time alive fighting to deliver that neuron so that someone else can live.

To spend ones limited days on helping another, in a game that very much stresses the unwavering cruelty of the world and nature- is pretty notable. (And you could even say that Hunter being the Hardmode of Rain World adds another layer to this)

And then we have Artificer. A storyline that very much stands out to people as more… villainous (so to speak) than the other slugcats. Artificer's story covers a lot of things. Trauma, violence, revenge, etc. Revenge is a bit of a selfish desire- That need to see someone hurt as they have hurt you. A punishment that ultimately does not fix whatever harm was done- but feels good to see because you were hurt and now those responsible share that pain.

Artificer's actions are founded in that need for revenge, their pups killed for overstepping boundaries they didn't know existed. Is it not fair for them to be angry at that, to punish the scavengers for their violence with their own? Why should the scavengers ever be forgiven when they and their pups were not? And that's how you get that loop- Harm for harm over and over.

The original action has been lost in a spiral of violence for violence. And here stands Artificer- their very spirit scarred. Not just because they sought revenge, but because they never ceased trying to scratch that itch for violence as an answer. Artificer only has two paths for their story- killing the scavenger king (Someone who, really, has little to do with the original 'crime' of the scavengers, but represents an important individual to them- as did the slugpups to Artificer), locking themselves as karma one for good and spending the rest of their life chasing creatures that no longer even fight back in a warped sense of closure- or to dissolve themselves in the acids of the void sea because they're too far gone to find any real peace.

They can't meaningfully recover from that state, not alone, twisting in on themselves. Even if they halt their actions, they've been using violence as a feeble defense against their own pain- violence that no longer has any real direction or basis. Artificer gets no real closure from killing the scavenger king. All they can do is continue the cycle, or try to scrub it away. No real peace in a prison of their own making. So you have a creature, who even with a strict timer on their life- a body that will crumble to disease, spends its last bit of time on saving another. And another who was so caught up in the pain of loss that were eaten alive by their own anger, poisoned their own soul on such a deep level even self-proclaimed gods have no solution for them. What peace can they offer each other? For Hunter, its only a fleeting moment of happiness- of selfish love, before their own body fails them. A bit of indulgence in something for themself. For Artificer, its a single, comforting thread to ground them again, something tangible to protect and care about again. But thats a thread that will ultimately be snapped under the cruel indifference of the world. Hunters timer will tick down regardless of if it takes another with it. Its a tragedy- its doomed to end badly. Whatever good it offers to either of them to find each other will only provide the fleeting comfort of a band-aid that will be ripped away too early. But all that can be worth indulging in anyway, if only for the moment. It doesn't change the ending, but the ending was never going to be happy. Its can so yuri

[gonkaccino]

Season 4 hope/prediction: Deb's show is solid, zero issues, runs flawlessly with great ratings, but her personal life is completely eroding. We start with her discovering Marcus is leaving, and it culminates in DJ going into labor right before a taping. Deb chooses the show. When it's over, and she finally flies to Vegas, it's too late -- Aiden's not letting her in because he loves his wife too much to let DJ get into a shouting match with her mom right after giving birth, and instead takes the brunt of Deb's wrath, with her making excuses and talking about how they used her money for IVF, and anyway, DJ's fine, so who cares if she wasn't there? Kathy's in the room with DJ and the baby (DJ's the closest she has to a daughter, after all) and Deb leaves too furious to think about how badly she's hurt her family.

She heads back to her Vegas mansion -- empty, obviously, Josefina and the dogs would be in LA -- and pops open a bottle of wine. Alone. Completely alone. Can't call Marty, she has no friends, the closest she's got would be Kiki and wouldn't that be embarrassing, calling your poker dealer to talk about your feelings --

and then Ava's there. She got the news about DJ's labor, she got the story from Aiden (who was distraught, by the way, man's too much of a sweetheart for Vance drama), a spare key from Damian (happy to pawn that off on her, though if it isn't returned promptly he's taking legal action) and has arrived just in time to see the Deborah Vance having a breakdown the likes of which no one thought physically possible. Crying gives you wrinkles, you know. But Ava has to be here. She's the physical embodiment of a lesson Deb never truly learned: you don't have to like someone to love them.

In my imaginary fantasy land that I am concocting this would then subsequently lead into them fucking nasty but I understand that this may be a step too far for the surprisingly large number of very normal people who watch this show and would forgive JPL for not taking it that far. However I do believe they should fuck about it and let Ava take the reigns in their relationship while they see how many of Deb's bridges they can un-burn.

[wordstome]

the point of pointing out racism, specifically in how the fandom treats Gaz, is to focus on Gaz and other poc characters. taking that energy and making it about a white man leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[ineffable-doll]

Every time I see arophobia I want to write another fic where Aziraphale and Crowley are aromantic. So I do. I just did it again. Might do this forever actually. Aroace A&C make me very happy.

[lucreziaborgiagf]

i don’t talk about bridgerton on here but just to clarify. i will not be having ANY eloise hate on this account. i will bite.

[suddencolds]

~

[mamawasatesttube]

just remembered how megfitz made tim think about how bernard is so much better than all the other relationships he'd "settled for" and was once again briefly consumed by rage. meghan you apologize to zoanne wilkins right the fuck now

[petratherrock]

Me being so petty because my TPT dream was wrecked, hating on other Jurdan fans, generalizing them into one group of people that made Holly write a disappointing TPT because of their obsession with Jurdan content and demanding Jurdan contents, not caring about the real main characters of TSH duology which are Wren and Oak, they deserve better :

THIS IS NOT ABOUT THEM

[sighonaraa]

had a dream that i finished chapter 4 of the football kiddos au and it was the most beautiful thing i'd ever written. woke up without a single memory of anything that happened in it.

[crown-ov-horns]

Anyone want Crowley x Readers? Or War x Readers? I don't know how long I'll take to start uploading my WIPs, and I don't like to not upload. Female Reder. Both male and female Crowley (not at the same time). War'd be... Herself.

What are you saying? I'm procastrinating? Why, ✨yes✨, how did you know? On my WIPs, original works, and papers for uni.

[inkykeiji]

>.<

[squishosaur]

i hear youre a treyjade enjoyer, do you have any headcanons with them or how they got together? :0

yeah ummm.... a few :lookingaway:

♡ - i'd like to think that jade has always looked up to and respected trey, but when he realized "oh, this guy is not as normal as he says he is" he is just infatuated and needs to study him. like a freak.

☆ - i think trey is someone who sees the best in people. like, he could be seeing the scary parts of jade, he just finds him silly and interesting though. riddle is distressed like, "you DO NOT want that guy." but trey is like "i could fix him" when jade is Actively trying to make him worse.

♡ - jade definitely fell first, but that doesn't mean trey didn't Also fall fast. trey was sort of interested in him, and jade instantly picked up on this and started toying with him. anything from offhanded comments about how nice he looks or how polite he is to just straight up "i heard you were interested in dentistry. can you look at my teeth" and then he does Not wait for an answer. trey is conflicted about this!!! floyd and azul are so disturbed at jade just opening his mouth like that in public.

☆ - trey has a horrible sense of humor. jade also has a horrible sense of humor and will laugh at any of his godawful jokes or puns. (have you seen the shrimp flied rice comic)

♡ - as for how they got together, trey would probably confide in cater about his crush (and he is Absolutely eating this up btw it's so funny to him) and he's like "oh dw trey-kun, i'll be your wingman kk??" and trey is like "oh my god no.." but it's too late.

☆ - with cater on the case, he is like. coaching him on what to say and what to do. "sit with him at lunch, compliment him, get to know him better, walk him back to his dorm, Ask Him Out OMG WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG..." and trey somehow fails at all of these things but this is amusing to jade. "your eyes are like... um. leucoprinus birnbaumii and. tilled soil?" "aw, are you flirting with me?"

♡ - azul also gets wind of this information also and is like "i can tell you any amount of information on jade's interests right now if you become the dessert chef for the mostro lounge exclusively- sign here." trey said no, but azul is still pushing. so now trey has like the shoulder angel and devil thing going on with azul and cater... but they're both devils.

♡ - in the meantime, they're Not Dating, but jade keeps asking trey to spend time with him. "i was just about to check on the mushrooms i've been growing, would you like to accompany me?" "if you aren't busy this weekend, i was wondering if you could join me on my next hike. it's just so lonely on the mountains by myself... camping would be so much more fun with friends..." trey says yes because his internal monologue is like "how could i possibly say no..." (riddle is shaking his head defeatedly, like, "just come back alive").

☆ - trey is about to just Give Up at the end of his third year, since they won't be on the same campus or anything anymore, but suddenly jade is like "can we exchange contact information, i think i'll miss you the most.." and so they do that. And are Not Dating Still.

♡ - during his off-campus year, trey studies dentistry and also spends a lot of time messaging jade and when they're both free they arrange meet-ups. cater is still trying to wingman over the phone and trey is like "no, we're still just talking..." and At The Same Time floyd keeps asking jade when he's gonna break up with that guy and jade is like "oh, but we haven't even started dating yet."

☆ - after trey is done with his studies at NRC, he decides to spend a year back at home with his family. as luck would have it, jade is spending his 4th year in the queendom of roses to study mycology (and a little bit of anthropology also, but mostly the mushrooms, molds, and yeast interests him). and he reasons "what better place to study yeast than a bakery!" trey feels absolutely insane when he asks his parents to let jade stay with them for a year. but they say yes because they as just so nice ("as long as he helps in the bakery" was also a condition).

♡ - they were not expecting a merman though and are quite shocked by the very tall eel with razors for teeth politely introducing himself one day. trey's siblings like him though! they ask him all about the ocean and his studies and nrc and even just about what trey was like at school (trey keeps shutting this specific topic down). jade helps with cooking and cleaning around the house and mr. and mrs. clover both appreciate him for it.

☆ - at some point, the two stay up really late together (they're both studying) and trey just finally blurts out that he likes him. jade just goes "i know." with a smile and asks him out. trey is shocked because he had waited Forever to ask it but its too late now. he laughs it off and says yes. they kiss (followed by jade quipping that it was not customary to kiss on the first date, to which trey responds that is was Hardly their first date and jade goes "touché")

♡ - you would think i would end this here because you asked about how they got together but i can't because i havs not gotten to the part where trey 1) actually comes out to his parents and 2) tells them that he's going out with jade

☆ - but anyways, yes, he comes out to his parents and they accept him for who he is. his mom also mentions that she assumed that he and jade were Already dating and he just wasn't ready to tell them yet. trey vehemently denies this and jade is just laughing. trey also texts cater and cater replies saying "tell jade i said i'm so happy for him and his ugly fking bf i'm serious /ref <3333" he also tells riddle who Actually says something positive. jade tells floyd and azul, who reply "can you divorce him yet" and "congrats! is he willing to work for me now" respectively (they really all are happy for them btw)

♡ - they do go on dates mostly outside on walks or hikes when they have time to spare. trey talks about the history of the area and jade identifies different organisms and infodumps about them as trey listens intently. if they see the same thing again, jade will say its name and trey will recall something jade said about it before, which makes jade happy.

☆ - neither is big on pda (unless they get jealous, which is infrequent), but they will hold hands when they're alone. they both tend to go more with acts of service and just quality time with one another, so generally they will do things like cook for the other or engage in activities that the other likes.

♡ - they do visit the coral sea, but it's more of an annual trip. usually, if jade wants to see azul or floyd, it's on land because azul's franchise is on land.

☆ - unfortunately i could continue for forever but i will not yw <333

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

Pairings: None.

Word Count: 1,698

Summary: Eclipse shows the twins the internet. It leads to…bonding?

Warnings: Genderfluid Character, Trans Character, Fluff, Angst, Gender Dysphoria, Crying, let me know if I should add anything else.

Notes: Based on this post and this post. I fixed the end. It cut off randomly.

The Blood Twins Find Out About The Internet

“Just one recording. While Father is out.” Eclipse tempted the twins. He’d already set everything up, after all. And the twins would inevitably join him, though they looked in confusion at the camera and poked it as if trying to figure out what it was.

Given away by the red eyes rather than pink, the curious is one was Blood Moon thus far, though pink flashed for a second indicating the other, Harvest Moon, also curious.

“Just sit down, I’ve already got something for us to do.” Eclipse told them. With squinting red and pink eyes, the twins sat with him at his desk and eyes the computer screen with disgust.

“Why is it the other animatronics!?” Blood Moon snapped.

“You’ll find out.” Eclipse assured them before clicking the camera on. “Hello, everyone. Turns out I still have the password for their YouTube channel, so today you’ll be watching the Eclipse and Blood Moon Show. Since the rest of Sun and Moon’s little friends have done it, today we’re playing Smash or Pass.”

“Smash? We get to smash things?”

“In a way, yes.” Eclipse answered.

“Oh joy!” Harvest was the excited one for once. It seems the twins liked the idea after all. Eclipse realized his mistake only once they got to Sun and Blood Moon happily chimed out ‘SMASH’ again and Eclipse tried desperately to hold back his laughter, firmly answering ’pass’.

He thought the twins may get it, but it seemed they didn’t even when they got to Eclipse. He expected it, he did, but then shouting ‘SMASH’ still sent him into a fit of choking on artificial breaths and laughter all while the twins looked at him in confusion.

“That’s not what that means, Blood Moon!” Eclipse managed to choke out his voice box, hiding his faceplate in his arm in secondhand embarrassment and firsthand embarrassment. God, his little brothers just broadcasted to the internet, in a game of smash or pass, that they would smash their brother, even if that’s clearly not what they thought it meant.

“Does it not mean to violently destroy someone and leave them broken and deactivated?” Blood Moon asked.

“No. No, it means smash in bed, in bed! Not destroy.” Eclipse tried to explain in slightly more PG terms for any unfortunate viewers. God, he suddenly felt bad for the viewers hearing Blood Moon saying he’d smash everyone up until this point if he posted this.

“PASSPASSPASSPASSPASS!” It seems the twins finally got it as their voice box struggled between each other for control, quickly devolving into a frantic flusters slurry of ‘pass’ as loud as they could while struggling with each other as the twins were now hiding under the table.

“Come out here. You can’t hide under a table forever.” Eclipse demanded.

“IS THIS WHY YOU KEPT ASKING IF WE WERE COMING OUT OF A CLOSET!” Blood Moon screeched.

“I can never say that word again.” Harvest Moon moped. And this Eclipse broke down into laughter again, almost hysterical and the twins had to come out from under the table to help him stop stressing his processors from the amount of laughing he was doing.

Once he recovered, Eclipse immediately hit the upload button on the video, not bothering to edit it. It was even more hysterical watching comments roll in as people first questioned Blood Moon wanting to ‘smash’ everyone they knew until they later got to Blood Moon’s frantic realization and Eclipse nearly dying of embarrassment twice and the fans were poking fun at the three of them.

It was later that night Blood Moon finally came into the lab again, eyeing Eclipse suspiciously, rounding him like prey and she simply watched the twins’ failed attempt at being a shark rounding his desk toward her.

Her gender had dramatically shifted from earlier after the video was posted, thus she’d been hiding within a sweater most of the day, planning to ignore how self-conscious she felt of her body. Eclipse had no doubt, however, that Blood and Harvest would harass her about it.

“Show us the internet. We wish to learn more.” Blood Moon insisted.

“Fine. What do you want to look up?” Eclipse asked.

“What is ‘the closet’?” Blood Moon asked.

“No internet needed. The closet is a term for coming out like if you’re gay or nonbinary or aromantic or stuff like that.”

“What is nonbinary?”

“You know how there’s girls and boys?” Eclipse asked.

“Yes, obviously.”

“Well nonbinary is when you don’t fully identify with either gender. It’s also a blanket term, meaning it has a lot of other terms that fall under that ‘umbrella’. Like genderfluid, demiboy, demigirl, agender, and more.” Eclipse explained.

“Use the internet dammit! Why do you know all this!?” Harvest snapped.

“Because I questioned my own gender, dumbass.”

“Your gender is not male?”

“No, my sex is male. My gender is genderfluid, my gender changes, not that I can control it or anything, but I can feel feminine, masculine, or anywhere in between.” Eclipse explained.

“If you are not always a boy, why do you respond still to male pronouns?” Blood Moon asked.

“Simple, I respond to any pronouns at any point in time. And I’ve never told anyone but you two. I only really get upset about pronouns when I’m feeling a specific gender very strongly. Like now, I feel very feminine.” She shrugged.

“So if you’re genderfluid, why do you dress like a grandma.”

“Because sometimes my body makes me uncomfortable and I don’t want to see it. Because I feel like a girl, seeing that I look so masculine makes me feel bad about myself.”

“That’s a thing?” Harvest asked.

“It’s called gender dysphoria. It’s like an uncomfortable feeling of mismatch between your gender and sex. Is that something you feel, Harvest?”

“I don’t know. It’s not uncomfortable, just…feels wrong to be called a boy. It there a word for that?” Harvest admitted.

“Well, that’s a broad statement. Do you feel like you don’t have a gender or maybe yours changes like mine?”

“No, neither.” Harvest told her.

“Do you feel feminine pronouns would fit better? You feel like a girl?” Eclipse asked.

“…Yes.” Harvest admitted after a moment of thinking.

“That’s called transgender, male to female specifically. So do you like terms like she/her and they/them or just she/her?” Eclipse asked.

“Just she/her, but we are still two, I cannot subject Blood Moon to being referred to feminine.” Harvest told her.

“No, sister, it’s fine. People still use ‘they’ for us. If they don’t, they’ll get punched for my baby sister.” Blood Moon assured her.

“Blood Moon, do you have any gender identity issues?” Eclipse asked.

“No, I like being a boy!” He proudly announced.

“Okay. Any other questions?” She asked.

“What is pansexual? I saw it in the comments earlier about us.” Blood Moon asked.

“That’s different. That’s a sexual orientation, not a gender identity. Pansexual is when you’re attracted to all people regardless of their gender. That one I didn’t read up on much.” She admitted.

“Then what is your sexual identity?” Harvest asked her.

“I’m demiromantic, meaning I need to be emotionally close to someone to feel romantic attraction, and something called androsexual, meaning I’m attracted to men.”

“Why not call yourself gay then did you like men?” And that felt like a blow to Eclipse’s already fragile self-confidence, though she knew Blood Moon simply didn’t understand.

“Because I don’t always feel like a man myself, it makes the term gay not applicable to me.”

“So androsexual and demiromantic? So is here a term for liking just girls?” Harvest asked.

“Lesbian.” Eclipse answered easily.

“And what about liking nobody?” Blood Moon asked.

“As in no sexual attraction or no romantic attraction?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Romantic attraction is wanting to date someone. Sexual attraction is wanting to ‘smash’ someone.” Blood Moon’s eye twitched at her and she fought back a laugh.

“No romantic attraction.”

“Aromantic, like the original Moon is.”

“But I still feel…sexual attraction.”

“They’re different things, there’s different terms. You can want to sleep with someone but not date them.”

“I like pansexual then.” Blood Moon told her.

“So you’d be aro pan.”

“What if I don’t want to sleep with someone? I just want romantic?” Harvest asked.

“That would be asexual and, since you’re a lesbian and trans your terms would be ace trans lesbian.” Eclipse explained.

“So you would be like ‘demiromantic androsexual genderfluid?’”

“Demi fluid. I don’t usually add in the androsexual because it’s confusing for some. If people ask, I say either gay or straight depending on what I’m feeling that day. Most of the time now it’s ‘straight’.”

“So you’ve been a girl more often or something?”

“Yes. Because the dysphoria is so strong when I’m a woman, usually it takes a while for my brain to go back to feeling like a guy. I don’t know, the gender does what it wants.” Eclipse brought her legs up to hug them.

“Is it bad?” Blood Moon asked.

“Very. It feels like it hurts…” Her voice broke a bit, with oil tears burning in her eyes. “It hurts to exist sometimes. Like I’m just lying to myself because nobody will ever care about it because nobody cares about me-”

“Sister, we care about how you feel.” Blood assured her. It brother to a halt, realizing she’d been crying and she trembled looking at them. “You helped us find our terms. You’re a good big sister, even if you annoy us regularly and we want to kill you sometimes. And we care plenty about you.” Blood Moon added.

“Sister, come here?” Harvest asked her and Eclipse unfurled herself to let Harvest hug her. “We love you. Not the ‘smash’ way.” Harvest told her. This made Eclipse let out a wet laugh and wiped her face as Harvest Moon and Blood Moon hugged her and squeezed her tight.

Meanwhile, Sun showed Moon the new video in confusion.

“Moon, what is this?”

“Eclipse has the password still. You should watch it, it’s great.” Moon cackled.

“Okay, fine, I will.” Moon pretended not to hear his twin screaming about the time Blood Moon would have said ‘smash’ at Sun’s picture.

[essektheylyss]

Is there any Essek scene in particular you’re hoping is included in the show?

Oh man oh god oh fuck. This list could go on SO long.

To be fair, the thing with Essek is that there are a lot of very small and fun but not narratively load-bearing scenes, and then a few major scenes that have a decent amount of narrative weight to them. For instance, the first study scene (the second is important but could be combined into it if that the pace required it), the Scourger incident, the dinner, and most of episode 97 have a lot of narrative impact, either for Caleb's arc or for the plot as a whole. I've already suggested I need to see the ninth floor tower conversation animated like a fish needs water to breathe, and I'd love both the times Essek physically pulls Caleb out of danger, of course.

There's also a lot of wiggle room in how you pace the Nein and break up their arcs (which I think was more rigid translating campaign 1 to LoVM—even when arcs are shifted around, the sequences of events are kept somewhat orderly) which means that speculation is pretty hard, particularly when it comes to Essek, who meets the Nein so far into the campaign. Basically, any of these things might not be as narratively necessary by then, depending on what they choose to cut or focus in on. I could speculate on that, and I'm sure I will extensively, but at a certain point I might as well just write a series worth of scripts as a fun side project.

That being said, I do really hope the Scourger scene remains, because it is so cinematically interesting, and I do consider it a major turning point between the wizards, regardless of either of them realizing it at the time or not.

And I also really want to watch him have a panic attack over whiskey cocoa. It is in no way load-bearing, but nonetheless, I would like to see it, and I think I deserve it.

[aroacewxs]

istg if the wxs community goes crickets during quagmire canary again i will become violent. kusanagi nene doesn't deserve any of you

WHERE WAS THE HYPE. WHERE WAS THE PASSION. WHERE WAS THE LOVE.

[jesse-cosay]

Sometimes I forget that I can just Post Anything. Like I write and draw sm but I always feel like I'm just waiting for someone to come over and Yell at me abt it

But I can just do whatever! All the time!!!!