#fun fact i had to go look up the game and case titles because i literally dont know them

[beatcroc]

thing that really tickles me abt ace attorney is that the games have not only never used numeric titles for their releases [except for investigations 2 i think?], but have also always given each of the cases within a game specific names/titles, and Absolutely Fucking No One Uses Them. we’re out here saying shit like. 3-5. 4-2. 1-4. like they’re fucking super mario levels.

the fuck are you talking about “The Stolen Turnabout” from “Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations”? that’s 3-2 you fucking dipshit

the wilder part is that this is somehow a superior and less confusing alternative to actually using the proper titles. [unless it’s rise from the ashes]

[sp0o0kylights]

Adopt a Jock Part 1 

Part 2 

Part 4

Shoutout to @bloomingconflagration for the title!!! And a HUGE thank you to everyone who left comments or gave suggestions!! I love you all you amazing, silly humans <3 <3 

There comes a time during a long work shift were your average overworked and underpaid employee starts to think they’re hallucinating. 

In Gareth’s case, it was when Steve Harrington walked through the doors of Palace Arcade, making a beeline right for him. 

“Gareth?” Steve asked, like he was the one out of place. “What are you doing here?” 

As if people just randomly stood behind the counter of retail and entertainment spaces with a nametag on. 

You know, for fun.

With a great deal of restraint, Gareth managed to hold the sass back, instead opting for a far more polite; ‘I work here, Harrington. What are you doing here?” 

Because no matter how much Hellfire had adopted Steve into its fold, Gareth could just not see the guy choosing to spend his free time at the local arcade. 

Not of his own free will, anyway. 

“Pick up duty.” Steve said, proving him right not even a second later. 

“Of what?” Gareth asked, puzzled, right before Steve’s name was shouted in stereo.

A miniature stampede took place as several children proceeded to swarm him like oversized puppies, most of them trying to talk at once. 

“One at a time, we talked about this!” Steve barked, loud enough to be heard over the commotion. “You’re giving me and Gareth here a headache!” 

He waved his hands in a “calm down” gesture, shaking his head and looking at Gareth in exasperation. “Probably giving the people in the video store next door one too, lord.”  

“Wait.” A curly-haired kid said, looking between the two older teens like he was watching the laws of the universe rewrite themselves in front of him. “You know Gary? How?”

“We are not close enough for you to call me Gary.” Gareth said dryly, for what felt like the fifteenth time that day. 

This was a regular battle between him and the kids who haunted the arcade.

(One had overheard Grant call him Gary the last time he was in, and ever since, every single child that graced this fine establishment with Cheeto-dusted fingers and candy-induced sugar rushes had decided to replace his actual name with his nickname.

The fact it clearly frustrated him only egged them on. )

“We go to school together Dustin,” Steve said, as if he were talking to someone particularly dense. 

“Yeah? You go to school with lots of people. You bitch about most of them.” Dustin fired back.”Plus Gary’s a total nerd. I bet you call him names.” 

"Hey, language!" 

Gareth’s eyes narrowed as he glared down at the little fucker. He was definitely going to remember Dustin (and equally going to watch and see what arcade games the younger teen played-- and top the score chart of every single fucking one.

He might be a nerd but he wasn’t gonna take that shit from a middle schooler.) 

“Hate to break it to you brats, but your babysitter here just joined our D&D club.” Gareth replied, if only to finally one-up the little bastards. “Our DM is building him a character as we speak.” 

(Which wasn't even a lie. Eddie was building a character for Steve. The guy just refused to give any input on grounds that he "wasn't going to play anyways." )

Abrupt and sudden silence, as several stunned faces stared at him. 

“Oh goddammit.” Harrington cursed, as the entire herd of children turned on him in unison like some kind of hivemind horror monster. 

“You joined the D&D club,” Dustin said slowly, outraged. “And you let them make you a character sheet, but you won’t play with us!?” 

“What the hell Steve!” The sporty-looking one whined, clearly hurt. “You won’t sit in on our games! You said they were lame!” 

“They are lame.” Steve defended immediately, pushing at sporty-kids head. It was fond though, the kind of gentle shove an elder brother gave to a younger one. It caused the kid's camo banana to fall into his eyes, which he adjusted quickly with a grumble. “Turns out the high school version’s cooler.” 

“He’s lying.” That from the bitchy one, whose arms were crossed over his chest, a glare on his face. “Steve probably paid Gary to say that” 

Gareth had seen that exact same stance on Steve at lunch that day, and wondered if the little asshole knew who he was copying when he did it. 

“Who cares about D&D?” This from the redhead, standing with another girl giggling in her ear. “I’m just amazed Steve has friends.” 

“Really Mayfield?” Steve said, looking almost betrayed. As if he thought she was going to be the one to defend him in this weird little showdown.

The girl leaning on her giggled harder, making Mayfield grin (even if she tried to hide it.)  She whispered something, which the redhead outright laughed at before repeating; “Adult friends even!” 

“Okay.” Steve said, clearly cutting the kids off before they could embarrass him further. “Thank you, unwanted peanut gallery, for all of that lovely commentary. Now go back to playing the games you little shits robbed me of all my quarters for, or we’re leaving.” 

Henderson’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you were here to pick us up?” 

“Oh I’m sorry, did Jonathan magically appear behind me in the last five seconds?” Steve turned around pretending to search the parking lot through the windows. “No? Then I guess we’re still waiting. Unless you, Lucas and Max want to leave first.” 

“You’re such an ass.” Dustin huffed, rolling his eyes. “Why aren’t you waiting in the car anyway?” 

“It’s raining, it’s cold, and I thought I’d come in to say hi to my friend.” Steve replied, so quickly it took Gareth a moment to realize what Steve referred to him as. 

He'd gotten the friend title before Eddie. 

His best friend was going to fucking freak. 

“Are you done drilling me or are you going to let Max kick your ass at DigDug again?” 

“Shit!” Henderson cursed, spinning to intercept the redhead as she bent to put a coin in said arcade machine. “Max, you said you’d let me keep my leaderboard score today! Max!” 

“I know you said you watched kids, but this wasn’t exactly what I was imagining.” Gareth said, slumping against the counter.  

(He'd been thinking of Steve watching much younger kids for one, and two, he was starting to get the idea the babysitter thing was used as an insult. 

Gareth knew a big brother vibe when he saw it.) 

Steve gave him a tired look. “Me neither man. Me neither.”

 Then; “You fucking owe me for that D&D comment, they’re never going to shut up about it now.”

Gareth winced. “Sorry. I was trying to help.” 

Steve blew out a breath. “I know. I appreciate the attempt.” 

Which was better than Steve bitching at him for it, not that he’d really ever done that to Gareth. 

The two of them hadn’t quite worked up the nerve to be playful like that with each other, though they had occasionally jumped in on opposing sides to arguments Eddie caused. Gareth figured they’d get there in time, but even with all the progress Steve made, he still had more off days than on. 

It was a fragile line to walk with him. Especially when there wasn’t a single member of Hellfire who wanted to ruin the progress they made. 

(Even if half of them would never admit to it.) 

“Steve?” A voice interrupted, quiet in a way that contrasted directly with how loud the rest of the brat pack was. 

Steve closed his eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose with his hand as if to starve off a headache. 

“Yes, Baby Byers?” He asked after a long, painful pause, turning to look at the saddest looking kid in the bunch. 

“Is there actually a D&D club at the high school?” 

The kid looked at Steve like he wasn’t entirely certain he wanted to hear the answer, but was hopeful for the outcome he wanted anyway. 

It was the kind of thing that pulled even on Gareth’s heartstrings, and he was almost immune to anything involving giant, sad eyes after a solid year of working at the arcade. 

(Never mind Eddie’s own puppy dog looks.)

Steve’s voice gentled, in a way Gareth had never quite heard him use before. “There is. You’d love it, it’s called Hellfire. I’m sure it’ll still be there next year when you come in as a freshman.” 

He nudged him with his shoulder playfully, smiling when the younger boy perked up. “If you’re nice, Garebear here might even put in a good word for you.” 

“Garebear?” Max repeated with a burst of laughter, appearing behind Steve like a fucking ghost. “Oh my god.” 

“No.” Gareth said, bolting upright from his slouch as he stared at her in horror. “Do not call me that.” 

“Sure thing, Garebear.” She outright cackled, as Steve sent him a wide-eyed, apologetic face. 

“What did you just call Gary?” The sporty one--Lucas, asked, a wide grin overtaking his face. 

“I swear to God.” Gareth threatened, as Steve took another dramatic look over his shoulder. 

“Hey look Jonathan’s here!” He yelled, jerking a thumb over his shoulder as he started quickly walking backwards. “Come on, dipshits, we're leaving!” 

“Bye Garebear!” Lucas and Max sang together, following after him. 

“Harrington!” Gareth howled, as Steve mouthed ‘Sorry’ over his shoulder, all but bolting out the door. 

“I like Garebear a lot better than Gary.” Another, random child informed him with a grin as he sauntered past, arcade tickets in hand. 

Steve Harrington, Gareth decided, was a dead man. 

Not even Eddie’s fucking crush on the guy could save him now. 

xXx

“Did you know Harrington has a literal pack of kids he watches?” Gareth asked a few hours later, messing with his drum kit as he set up for band practice. "He even drives them around." 

More than that though--he’d seemed almost normal around them. That was the most Gareth had seen the guy banter or act relaxed since Eddie had dragged him over. 

“He’s mentioned it multiple times.” Grant replied, tuning his bass. “You have ears Gareth, use them.” 

“Gareth? Listen?” Jeff teased as he dragged an amp into the garage. “I don’t think I’ll live to see the day.” 

"Oh screw you guys.” Gareth growled, winging a drumstick toward his friends for the insult.

Grant, long used to Gareth's tantrums (and Eddie's dramatics)  didn't look up from his bass.

Not even when the drumstick hit the wall with a bang!-- allll the way near the opposite end of the couch, entirely opposite of either him or Jeff. 

"As usual, your aim is dead on." Jeff appraised sarcastically. 

"Like I'd ever actually hit you." Gareth grumbled with a pout. "I was gonna say the kids are older than I expected."

He reached down, blindly fishing for another drumstick from the bucket of them next to his kit. 

He came up empty. 

"Hey Grantman." Gareth asked, tone changing to something mildly embarrassed. "Could I uh, could I get the drumstick back?" 

He got a flat stare back. "No." 

"What did I do to get stuck with such dramatic friends?" Jeff joked as he began moving all the amps he’d pulled in back into their usual places. 

They hadn't had time to unload anything other than the drums after their last show and the regret was real. 

"Eddie’s been standing on tables since seventh grade, you knew what you were getting into." Gareth fired back, making grabby hands for his drumstick. 

"And you never grew out of being that dorky middle schooler who snuck into Hellfire games and screamed we were all going to die every time anyone made a bad play." Jeff shot back. "Yet here I am, once again wondering if I should just permanently confiscate Eddie's snacks, your drumsticks, and now Harrington's fricken spatula." 

"One year. I am one year younger than you and you act like it's an entire century!" Gareth muttered, as Grant relented and leaned over to fetch said drumstick. 

"We all know Eddie chucks food at people, but what'd Steve do with a spatula?"  Grant asked as he tossed it back to Gareth.

He missed and nearly took out a cymbal in the process. 

"He had a snit while we were making chocolate roulade cause it wouldn’t roll right. Flung the spatula around so much it splattered whip cream on his ceiling." Jeff shook his head as he finished hooking an amp up to his guitar. "I had to rescue it from him." 

"His ceiling?" Gareth said in disbelief. "Wait, you were in Harrington’s kitchen?" 

"Yeah?" Jeff looked up to find his friends staring at him. 

Grant blinked. "The fuck?" 

“Can we just play?” Jeff complained, just as embarrassed as Gareth had been.

“No.” Gareth said, retrieved drumstick nearly falling from his hands in shock. “You don’t get to casually drop that you went to Harrington’s house to help him bake and then try to get us to play right after!” 

Jeff, who had done exactly that, blushed, skin darkening as he fiddled with his guitar.

“It wasn’t a big deal.” He said finally with a shrug, as if this was something he did all the time and not the groundbreaking revelation that it was.

“Did you meet his parents?” Grant said, sitting up from the couch. “What did his house look like?”

Jeff finally gave up the pretense of playing his instrument.

“I didn't, and it was kinda sad, actually.” He said, as if he didn’t live for this kind of shit. 

Gareth knew better than anyone how much of a fricken gossip Jeff could be. 

“His house was enormous. I only saw the first floor, and his kitchen is huge.” He set his hands apart at a good distance, showcasing just how large “huge” was, before continuing. 

“But it was weird. It was like a model home. No pictures on the walls, no art, no personality to the place at all.” 

“What are we talking about?” Eddie asked, finally returning to Gareth’s garage from where he’d been gathering up all the wires they’d thrown haphazardly into his van. 

“Jeff went to Harrington’s house.” Grant and Gareth tattled as one. 

“To help bake stuff for this Friday!” Jeff defended, the blush creeping back onto his face. “I was curious about his chocolate roulade recipe and he invited me over!” 

“When was this?” Eddie asked, staring at Jeff like he’d grown a second head. 

Or more likely, Gareth knew, in jealousy. But he wasn’t going to call Eddie out on that just yet. 

“Yesterday. We got to talking about it in the parking lot after school.” Jeff said with an embarrassed shrug. “He said he wasn’t the best at explaining how to do things and that he’d rather show me instead.” 

“Kinky.” Grant deadpanned, making Jeff sputter. 

“You sure you didn’t see his bedroom, Jeff? It’s okay if you fell for the ‘wanna see my music collection’ line. We won’t judge you.” Gareth waggled his eyebrows, ducking with a laugh when Jeff went to whack him. 

“Shut up, we just made the chocolate roulade!” Jeff’s ears were red now, and huh, maybe Eddie wasn’t the only person with a crush.  

“Guys.” Eddie reprimanded, tone warning. 

“Sorry Eds, you know we don’t mean it.” Gareth soothed. Of course, his best friend's anger was less about the gay comments or Steve’s reputation as Hawkin’s man whore than it was about Steve fucking Jeff (and not Eddie) but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be appreciated if he pointed that out either. 

Eddie didn’t respond, eyes already back on Jeff. "Details, Jeffery, give us the details!"  

He dropped onto the couch, flapping his hands at Jeff in his version of a "sit down" gesture. 

Jeff sighed, but repeated what he'd just said for Eddie as he took a seat on the edge of an amp, placing his guitar down gently. 

 "I think Wayne was right. I don't think anyone else lives there but Steve. Not full-time anyway." He finished. 

Which sounded like the best fucking thing ever until Gareth thought about it for more than two seconds. 

Tried to imagine what his life would be like if his parents and siblings were gone. Not for a day, or even a weekend, but always. 

How silent his normally loud house would be. 

Thought instantly that he'd be inviting Eddie, his friends, and hell, l even Wayne, over as often as they could handle. 

"The way he looked when I showed up, and how quiet he got when I left I just…" Jeff fiddled with his guitar’s strap. "I think he's lonely." 

The four of them sat in silence for a long moment as they digested that. 

“Hargrove kicked his ass right? And Byers?” Grant said finally, breaking the silence ad he stared up at the ceiling. 

“Old news.” Eddie replied absently, jiggling his leg.

“You think his parents were around for that?” Grant continued, slowly.

No one answered outside of Eddie's leg loudly jiggling faster. 

 "Did you see the kids hug him or anything?"

"They're like thirteen. I seriously doubt they're pestering Steve for hugs." Gareth answered flatly.  

 "So he got his ass kicked, his parents are gone, he was supposed involved in that whole has leak thing…" Grant trailed off with an air of someone who expected the end of his sentence to be obvious. 

“You’re doing that thing again where you think what you’re saying is obvious and its fucking not.” Eddie grumped. "Just spit it out." 

His friend's head finally tipped back down from the ceiling, to face the rest of them. “Maybe the flinching is because no one ever touches him anymore unless it’s to kick his ass.” 

“Oh.” Eddie blinked, body going rigid. “Oh shit.” 

“That…would make sense. A lot of sense.” Jeff said slowly. 

Grant put on a face that read “Duh” loud and clear. 

“So what do we do about it?" Gareth asked after a moment. 

"Touch him, obviously." Grant replied, like he couldn't believe the drummer was even asking.

Gareth and Eddie shared a look while Eddie rolled his eyes.  

"The guy almost fell down the stairs last time I tried that." Gareth pointed out. 

Never mind any other time Steve got weird over the lightest of touches. Eddie couldn't even clap the guy on the shoulder without getting major side-eye. 

"No."  Eddie cut in, sitting up suddenly. His eyes had gone bright, "We're going to trick him into it." 

"We're going to trick Harrington into being okay with, what? Shoulder pats?"  Gareth echoed, like Eddie might hear himself if his words were repeated back to him. “You realize how stupid that sounds right?" 

"Shut up, listen. It's like getting a stray to trust you. You just gotta be calm and so obvious about it that they get confused and let it happen." Eddie had begun practically vibrating, causing his friends to trade uneasy glances. 

They knew that look. Eddie only got it when he thought up a plan that was going to cause problems. 

"Eddie, that makes zero sense." Jeff told him.

Gareth just shook his head, because only Eddie Munson could compare Hawkins golden boy with a fucking stray animal. 

Even if the guy kinda acted like one sometimes. 

"I just need an opening." Eddie continued, the little hamster wheel spinning in his head so fast the rest of the band could almost hear it. 

If Gareth had been told two months ago he was going to be sitting in his garage, discussing the best way to acclimate Steve Harrington to casual touch, he’d have actually smacked whatever idiot dared spew such nonsense with his drumsticks. 

"I did tell tell the kids today you were making him a D&D character." He said, before his best friend could truly go off on some half cocked plot. 

Eddie lit up like a kid on Christmas. "Gary, I could kiss you."

Gareth made a face. "Please don't."

He clapped hard before springing to his feet. "Huddle up boys, I've got a plan." 

"God help us all." Jeff muttered. 

(He huddled up anyway, any thoughts of playing guitar that night fully forgotten.) 

Bonus: 

"Why don't you just get high and watch a movie with Steve? You're a fucking cling-on when you're high." Gareth complained the next morning, when Eddie swung by to pick him up for school. 

Mostly because the plan Eddie had come up with was ridiculous.

 Eddie took both hands off the wheel, pressing them against his chest in mock offense while he stared at Gareth and not at the street. “That would be taking advantage of him and I, as a gentleman, would never." He gasped, dramatically. 

In his normal voice, he added: "Plus it doesn't count." 

“Eyes on the road!” Gareth yelped, swatting an arm. “And you know I didn’t mean it like that. People relax more when they're high and maybe Steve needs something like that as an excuse to allow it. Hell he doesn’t even need to be high, just you.”

Which Gareth personally thought was a very insightful thing to say, so of course he had to ruin it with; “or whatever.” 

"Do you recall how you kissed Jeff on the cheek when you were high and then spent the entire next month swearing up and down that you weren't attracted to men last summer?" 

"That was different. I was discovering myself." 

Eddie outright cackled. "Discovering yourself? What self help book did you pick that gem out of?"

"I was quoting you, you moron!" Gareth sputtered. 

"If I said anything like that then I was definitely high and it just proves my point. Steve would just be uncomfortable."Eddie stuck his tongue out. "So there." 

"Fine." Gareth sighed. "If we ever get high with Harrington, I'll sit in his lap."

Eddie's eye twitched. "No you will not."

Thrilled to have something to tease the elder metalhead about, a smile graced Gareth's face. "In fact, I'm calling dibs." 

"You can't call dibs on a lap! And besides, you don't even like him like that!" 

"So?" Gareth retorted. "It's a nice lap, looks comfortable. You don't want it, so I'll take it."

Eddie grit his teeth, grasping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles went white. 

"I know what you're doing Gary. This is some bullshit reverse psychology shit and I will not be falling for it." 

"Oh contraire, this is sibling bullshit, Munson. You want it, so I want it." Gareth crossed his arms and looked at Eddie smugly. "And unless you do something about it, I'm getting it." 

"I hate you." 

Gareth grinned, delighted. "I know." 

[kirvia]

are there any beary the hatchet fun facts you could share with us? 😳 i loved it and im super curious about any details that didnt make it into the game!

Thank you so much! I don't know if you're aware, but I have some art direction notes on my Twitter, if you want to check that out! Otherwise:

We had no idea what the game was going to be called for the first three weeks of production. It was very tentatively called "The Graveyard Shift" but this was quickly scrapped because a) the game did not actually take place at night and b) it sounded too similar to that one SpongeBob episode

Without a proper game title, Grizz was originally referred to as the Skinner, and her preferred weapon of murder was a bowie knife instead of a hatchet. This changed when we (finally) decided on the game's name, but it required us to fix some CGs and minor parts of the script. For the better, honestly-- considering the type of character she was, something less methodical than a skinning knife suited her.

A lot of the character designs in the game are based off teenage slasher movie archetypes ex. jock, cheerleader, nerd, stoner etc.

Pearl's character went through various ideas before finalization: a quiet catholic schoolgirl, a harrowed mid wife, an overenthusiastic nerd, a composed business woman. Each idea had a different sort of relationship dynamic with the serial killer.

Just a day before the deadline, our shared game file corrupted and literally all of us working on the game lost the file. We thought we were completely fucked. Luckily, we had one late playtester who had a working build that we could de-encrypt and use. Thank you Beena !!!

These were some minor design details I had written out for Pearl because I thought. a lot about her ^__^:

She made her dress out of mattress sheets and cheap lace found at antique stores. She wears black safety shorts.

Her coffin-guitar case is spray-painted red and the bat wings were DIY attached.

She most definitely has piercings, and it's something I wish I could've added to the game... but I didn't feel like drawing them because that was too much work HAHA.

I wanted pearl to have a bit of that "final girl" feeling initially, but we ended up w the grunge musician look because it fit the flashy tone of the game better. She used to look like a Final Girl imo.

[patchwork-crow-writes]

The RalsAlmanac, Volume I

Okay, here it is! A series of essays that will attempt to definitively explain just who or what Ralsei is, referring to scenes from the game as evidence, as well as external sources where appropriate.

There will be some conjecture, as there's just so much we don't know about him, and what little we are given isn't exactly the most revealing. However, I've done my best to cleave as closely to the source material as I can, and I believe there's a strong case to be had here.

Hopefully you'll be able to see where my points come from, or at the very least you'll learn something you didn't know before. Either way, thanks for your consideration!

Volume I - Ralsei Is A Character In A Role-Playing Game.

Self-indulgent reference out of the way, lemme ask you a question.

Who is Ralsei?

It's a question that seems like it should be easy to answer. He's the Prince From The Dark, the third of the three Delta Warriors, he exists to serve the lightners, and is the most precious little cinnamon roll that ever lived. He enjoys baking and crochet, can hold a tune, is a decent interior-decorator, and holds his friends Kris and Susie in very high regard.

Thing is, that's about all you can really say about him without veering into speculation and headcanons, and they're more surface-level observations than anything else. What exactly does "Prince From The Dark" mean, for instance? Prince in what sense, exactly? Ceremonial, or with the actual power that royalty conveys? Where does he rank in comparison to, say, King or Queen, both actual rulers of actual kingdoms? The title of "prince" would suggest that he answers to them, but while they rule their own municipalities, Ralsei's title implies he rules over ALL dark worlds. You could go on asking these questions forever, but I think you see what I'm getting at.

A more productive avenue of questioning might be: What role does Ralsei play in the story of Deltarune? Perhaps more of his underlying character and motivation could be gleaned by looking at what he does for the story and the game. And this would be correct... sort of.

We tend to think of him as the squishy healer of the party, the Heart and moral centre of the Fun Gang. And he absolutely is that, but he's also quite a bit more. He plays all sorts of different roles and character archetypes in the first two chapters of the game, including but not limited to:

the old man whose purpose is to wax poetic about the ancient prophecy...

the know-it-all tutorial fairy who walks you through the basic game mechanics...

the straight-man DM trying to keep everything on the rails...

the young sheltered noble experiencing the outside world for the first time...

the demure love-interest to the main protagonist...

the Polyanna determined to see the good in everybody...

the mysterious waif who knows things he shouldn't...

...eye candy…?

...and so on and so forth.

And so what, I hear you cry. Characters in video games can have more than one personality trait, after all. And yes, this is true! But usually, the different aspects of a character's roles, how they interact with, reinforce or contradict each other, can tell us more about their inner world - what motivates them, what they actively like and dislike... in short, it grants them depth and allows us to engage with them as actual people, rather than just a series of game functions and character traits dressed up in a pretty bow.

But that's not what we see with Ralsei. In fact, far from showing us any real, deep aspect of his character, each new guise he dons and part he plays in the narrative further obfuscates him from us. We learn no new meaningful information from any of these exchanges... except for one thing, but we'll come to that in a moment.

This vexes us, because we WANT to know more about him, but all we end up getting is stock JRPG tropes dressed up in a warm, fluffy coat. There HAS to be something deeper, we reason - he's hiding things from us, so he must be a secret villain. Or his backstory is so tragic, so traumatising, that he cannot properly articulate it to us right now. Or maybe what we see really IS what we get - a simpering, airheaded fool whose only desires in life are to be cute, please his betters and do what he's told. Yet even this explanation seems... unsatisfying, especially since we KNOW he harbours some angst about himself and his sense of identity.

And speaking of which, that one thing we learn? Right at the end of Chapter 2's Acid Tunnel sequence, he utters a single sentence:

This is arguably one of the most significant lines of dialogue in the entire game up to this point. But what does it mean, exactly? I believe most people assume it means he doesn't have a clear sense of who he is outside of his ordained purpose, which is certainly valid, and definitely something I believed for a long time. And yet, this explanation does not deepen our understanding of his character in any meaningful way; looking back over all his interactions with the cast, it does not allow us to glean any further information about him.

And you can say that's because he himself doesn't know what he's like... but again, this doesn't actually change anything, and we just end up with a circular logic trap. We don't know anything because he doesn't tell us anything, and he doesn't tell us anything because he doesn't know anything, so how can we be expected to know anything, except that no-one seems to know anything about him… which is very frustrating to us Ralsei scholars, and gets us no closer to truly understanding him.

But look at what he says again. Really look at it. It’s a very strange way of saying “I don’t really know who I am”, isn’t it? After all, if that’s what he means, then why doesn’t he just say that? I’m certain you’ve realised by now, but it’s because that’s NOT what he’s saying at all. He literally has no clue what being “himself” is supposed to be, because he wasn’t even created with a sense of “Ralsei-ness” in the first place. Little wonder, then, that we can’t discern anything about his internal world, when there is nothing there to be discerned.

But before I elaborate any further, I want to talk about a couple of scenes in Deltarune that are just... puzzling. This is relevant, I promise. The first is during the dialogue with Rouxls Kaard before the rematch with K.Round. Ralsei says something interesting in the lead-up to the fight:

Note Susie’s baffled reaction to this. Then not long afterwards, he continues with:

Throwaway joke, right? We laugh because Susie's right - K. Round and its crown do look exactly the same to us, and so Ralsei's dramatic utterances are deflated and lose their impact. We laugh, beat the boss with Susie's help and forget all about it. But here's the thing - if K.Round looks the same to us, and it looks the same to Susie, and presumably by extension the rest of the in-game characters... when why exactly does Ralsei take the time to insist otherwise?

Is he... lying? Our most precious little boy, guilty of perjury? Say it ain't so! :O

The second scene is in chapter 2 - Queen has challenged us to a game of Punch-Out on her absurdly tall arcade machine, and we can talk to the characters before trying to interact with it. Talk to Ralsei, and if you answer "Gaming is my life" to his prompt, he says this:

Most people don't even come across this in their playthrough, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's new to you reading this. But again, note this strange discrepancy between what Ralsei reports is happening and what Susie says is actually happening. It becomes apparent to most people that Kris can affect the tone of their voice when saying what we tell them to, which affects how the response is taken by other characters and gives us a subtle clue about how they actually feel about certain characters or situations.

Are we to assume, then, that Ralsei isn't actually listening to how Kris says things, but only what they're saying? And if that's correct, then... what does that say about him?

Taken at face-value, within the context of the game, neither of these events really make much sense. It just looks like Ralsei is being overly-dramatic, or lying, or perhaps even insensitive to what their friend is trying to tell him, which doesn't quite track with his per-established shallow traits of kind, all-loving and moralistic. It's perplexing and seemingly out-of-character for him. So it might help to consider, in each of these scenarios, who exactly Ralsei is talking to.

Is it Kris and/or Susie? This would make the most sense, but it's actually not that likely, considering the aforementioned discrepencies between his descriptions and Susie's observations. So is it himself? Again, if he can see things the same as everyone else in-game, that wouldn't make much sense, because then he's just saying stuff that... isn't true? Or in the latter example's case, just completely ignoring what Kris is saying, which doesn't seem to entirely gel with what we know about him.

So, who does that leave? Well, the only other person - or should I say entity - who is present for both of those scenes is... us. The player of Deltarune. And that might seem even stranger than the previous options, until you realise what it is he's actually doing - providing flavour text, additional exposition informing us of details that we wouldn't - or shouldn't - be able to make out on a pixelated display with no voice-acting, attempting to give us a richer sense of these events in order to increase our sense of immersion in the game and world of Deltarune. In effect, he's playing the part of a character in a role playing game, doling out “flavour text” that contradicts another character’s experience of the same scenes, and he's doing it entirely for OUR benefit. Not Kris’s, not Susie's – ours.

He tells us that K.Round's crown is different, and that it is in pain from its forced control, to try and increase the stakes of the fight, and to give us a motivation that's not "here's the exact same boss again lul". He responds to Kris's words the way he does, not because he doesn't understand the nuances of their tone, but to try and amp us up for the upcoming challenge, and to validate our choice when we select the dialogue option "Gaming is my life". Because we cannot hear Kris's tone of voice - and Ralsei knows that. To him, Kris's tone literally doesn't matter, because he doesn't believe it matters to us in that exact moment.

And here’s the thing: if not for Susie’s asides immediately contradicting him, we’d likely take what he says here as what’s actually going on. To Ralsei, the reality he and his friends experience is not important – it’s the image of that reality that he’s trying to convey to the player. It’s like he knows he’s part of a game, meant just for us to experience and enjoy, as opposed to a real world filled with real people having real experiences.

And the reason I brought this up is to illustrate what I believe Ralsei to actually be - namely, that he a walking, talking, singing and dancing amalgam of stock JRPG characters and tropes that's trying very hard to present as an actual person, to the point of knowing absolutely nothing about who he even is outside of that. Put in even blunter terms, he's literally a fluffy goat-shaped vehicle to set the player on their journey through the game, to keep them playing and to keep them invested. People looking for deeper aspects of his character come up short and are disappointed because they're looking for something that does not currently exist.

And just so that I'm clear, I do not mean that Ralsei is "acting", or that he's "wearing a mask", because that would imply that there was actually something underneath his "facade" to begin with. No, this is who the Prince of the Dark is - a very convincing fascimile of a person, following his directive to ensure that the story of Deltarune is resolved, and that the game of Deltarune is played to completion. And once you realise that, a lot of things that Ralsei says and does that seemed strange before suddenly make a lot more sense.

As for the why... well, that'll have to wait for another time. But hopefully you can begin to see how my future essays in this series all tie in to this one, because I think you can only really understand those with the framework that this text provides. I hope that my reasoning made sense and wasn't too difficult to follow, but I'll be happy to provide additional information, clarification, or even just discussion on any aspect of this essay... even if we just wind up (respectfully) agreeing to disagree. Would love to hear what people thought about this!

Thanks for reading!

[wooahaes]

punch drunk love

pairing: non-idol!hoshi x gn!reader

prompt: this post my slightly-drunk ass wrote yesterday while drinking.

word count: 2.5k

warnings: alcohol + food warnings. reader gets drunk and confesses they wanna kiss soonyoung. skinship (a hug + little kisses onto his hand + later cuddling). hoshi gets called tiger playfully and also teased for it. not proofread at all.

daisy’s notes: oh to have a cute man to get giggly drunk with and then get taken care of. also if miso soup is not good for u, i blame my quick research that i spent barely five minutes doing. the title is from a shinee song that you can listen to riiiiiiiight here hehe its basically about falling HARD for someone like... get punched by tht feeling, yknow? literally from one of my fave shinee albums/repackages tbh <3

Soonyoung was the kind of person who was different when he drank. His friends always would say that he, the same person who was much more extroverted around the people he trusted most, would become at least ten times louder than usual when he had enough alcohol in his system. A little less self-control (enough to keep him from blurting certain things out, though--or maybe that was because his friends had his back, especially Jihoon and Wonwoo), but a lot more fun. Sometimes it got him teased, like when he came home drunk and Jihoon took one-too-many videos of Soonyoung shuffling around the apartment every single time without fail. There was at least one video of him cradling a bag of frozen shrimp to his face, liking how cold it felt until Jihoon finally pulled it away from him with a “see what I put up with?” that was nowhere near as sharp it seemed. At least, it wasn’t for anyone who knew the friendship the two had. Sometimes it also resulted in him trying to press kisses into his friends’ faces, typically ending up rejected (or, in the cases of some of his friends, pushed toward pressing kisses on the back of their hands). He was a very happy drunk, and he knew that. It made him a bit of a handful.

Which is why he felt like he was getting a taste of his own medicine while he was with his friends at Seungcheol’s apartment, not drinking but just having a good time nonetheless. In fact, they’d just been talking about maybe busting out the drinks when he got your call. It was late enough, no one who had work in the morning had to join, things would be fine. But the moment your name popped up on the screen and Seungkwan had caught sight of it, he hushed the entire room and told him to pick up right now.

So he did, turning it onto speaker without thinking when you let out a long, giggly “Soonyoooooung!”

“Hi?” He said. You were... never this giggly.

“Hi!” You said, already cracking up over nothing. “I missed you!”

Soonyoung rose up from his spot on the couch, starting to walk away before the rest of the group could start dogging him over that. He waved them off--no, you had no reason to miss him because you’d just seen him the other day and talked to him that morning. “Are you okay?” He didn’t go too far, the group still attentively listening.

A very long hum sounded out as you mulled over the question, making a show of it. “Yes! Because I’m talking to you.”

Were you... slurring your words? “Are you drunk?”

“No! No! I’m not drunk!”

You were definitely drunk. “Are you at home?”

“Maaaaybe.” You giggled again. “You gonna come get me, tiger?”

Soonyoung immediately took you off speaker when he heard someone--Vernon, maybe--crack up at the way you said that. “Are you home alone? I thought you were going to spend the night with your friends--”

“We did. Online. We played games and had drinks.” You giggled. “Soonie, you should join us next time.” And then you gasped. “Oh my god. We should have game night with your friends!”

Soonyoung took one look at his group of friends and knew that it was a bad idea. “Just stay home, I’m coming over. Do you have water? You need to drink water.”

“I’m fiiiine,” you started giggling again. “You don’t have to come. I’m an adult. I can take care of myself just fine--” And then he heard a soft, “ah, fuck,” as you bumped into something. “I’m fine! I just ran into my chair--”

“Just... sit down until I get there,” he sighed. “Okay? I’ll be there soon.”

“Okie dokiiiie,” you giggled. “My cuuute tiger best friend...”

He hung up before he could hear you say anything else, heat rushing straight to his face. He didn’t know you considered him a best friend--you were definitely more than just a ‘regular’ friend in his opinion, sure, but at least part of that was because he harbored a crush on you. He’d always hold you in high regard. He returned back to his friends, already knowing that they heard half of that conversation.

“I’m gonna go,” he nodded toward the door. “Before they break something.”

“Go get ‘em, tiger!” Joshua called out when he was halfway to the door, loud enough to be heard over the rest of the group wishing him farewell.

The sound of everyone else calling him tiger was the last thing he heard after he had slipped into his shoes and made his way outside to catch a taxi. He was never living that one down. Within the next half hour, Soonyoung had made his way up to your apartment and let himself in--not wanting you to move and potentially bump or fall over something while clearly inebriated. When he walked in, you were curled up on the couch, watching a YouTube video--cats, he thought, but he couldn’t tell without leaning in further. No water bottle nearby, no food--just several empty bottles of alcohol that looked to have been untouched for a while.

“Is this all you had to drink?” He said, counting them off. Definitely enough for you to be this drunk. When you said nothing, he turned  back to see you just... smiling at him.

“Hi, tiger,” you giggled, reaching out for him. “Can I pleaaase have a hug?”

Soonyoung obliged, stepping over and wrapping his arms around you. He used the opportunity to pull you forward until you were sitting up completely, waving a hand in front of your face. The slight delay in your reaction made you bust out into another fit of giggles, hand reaching up to take his own.

“Were you busy?” You asked, suddenly pouting. “I’m sorry.”

“I wasn’t,” he said, taking your face into his hands. “No more drinks tonight.”

“But I’m already out.”

Of course you were. “Did you have a good time?”

You gasped, eyes lighting up as you nodded eagerly despite the way he was cupping your face. “It was really, really fun! We should play with your friends, Soonie!” You giggled, “I know there’s a lot of them so you’d have to take turns, but--but it’d be really fun! Please? I wanna drink with you and your friends and have a really really fun time. We could do karaoke, or...”

“Have you had any water?”

You shook your head. “You told me to sit here until you got here.”

Even though you were drunk, you had a point. “Did you eat?”

You nodded. “I ate dinner first! I’m responsible.”

Cute. He gently pat your head. “I’ll see what I can do, okay?”

Soonyoung wasn’t the best cook, but he could always call one of his friends. He’d made ramen before. He could do it again, and maybe not mess it up by missing an ingredient. He guided you to the bathroom after you loudly voiced your need to go, just to make sure you didn’t bump into anything on the way (you weren’t “newborn deer” bad, but Soonyoung wasn’t taking any chances) before retreating to your kitchen. Was ramen fine for you? But ramen had a lot of calories and sodium...

He called Mingyu. Mingyu had already been drinking, but not enough to be out of it. Miso soup. Something about the water in it and protein and being a light enough food--Soonyoung didn’t listen to the full spiel as he started looking up places that could deliver. He could get water into you in the meantime and maybe get something for dinner since he missed out on chicken with his friends.

Was this retribution for all the times he got drunk and needed his friends to take care of him--which, on a few occasions, included you? Jihoon would probably cackle if he came home and swore off drinking if it meant people had to put up with him when he was like this. You were his friend (slash-crush), sure, and he was more than happy to take care of you during your rare night of drinking... but was he ever worse than this? Barely able to walk and needing attention? He found a place that delivered and put it in as fast as he could, going back to find a glass to get you water.

You came back in, waving him off when he came to make sure you weren’t about to trip over yourself on the way to your dinner table. He sat down across from you, an eye on his phone for any updates on the food.

“Soooonie,” you cooed at him, playing with his fingers. He’d left one hand, palm-up, on the table for you to do so. “You’re so nice to me.”

He just smiled at you. “Of course I am. You’re my friend.”

“Yeah,” you said, “but you’re so good. And cute. Did you know you’re cute? You’re really cute,” you said, already giggling again. You were playing with the bracelet around his wrist now. “You’re sooo cute.”

“I ordered food, by the way.”

You gasped as if that was the best thing you’ve heard all day. “And you’re so nice!” You said, “I knew calling you was a good idea.”

He smiled. “Why did you call me?”

“My friends told me to call my boyfriend to come take care of me,” you said. “I told them I don’t have a boyfriend. I have a boy friend.” You said. “Like. Like two words. You’re my boy friend.”

He was going to die. You were going to be the death of him, weren’t you? “I’m your friend, yeah.”

“And they said “no, no, your boyfriend,” and I said “who?” and they were like... that guy. The one you always talk about. And I was like “oh my god! Soonie!” and so I called you.”

The heat traveled to his face again. “You talk about me?”

“Yuh.” You smiled, taking his free hand in your own. “I like talking about my super cute favorite tiger. You’re so cuuute and nice...” You pressed a little kiss against the back of his hand. “I love you so much.”

“I know,” he said.

“No! No! Not like that!” You whined, now pouting at him. “I don’t love you like that.”

“I know, we’re friends--”

“I wanna kiss youuuu,” you giggled again. “Soonie. Do you wanna kiss me?”

He stared at you. “What?”

“I said,” you leaned in, speaking to him in a stage whisper, “do you wanna kiss me, too? I can keep a secret.”

How drunk were you? Soonyoung reached for the glass of water, gently pushing it into your hands. “Can you drink this for me?”

“Will you answer my question?”

“Yes,” he lied outright. He watched you take a long sip of water, making a complete show of it before carefully setting down the glass. Drunk you was so... giggly and exaggerated compared to sober you. “Let me get you some more--”

You gasped loudly. “You lied to me!”

“I’m getting you more water--”

“Soonyoung,” you whined. “It’s okay if you don’t wanna kiss me... I get it... I’m not your type...”

He sighed, saying your name. “That’s not what I--”

“I know I’m not as cute as a tiger...” You pouted at him. “Is it because I’m not a tiger?”

Oh my god. You were ridiculous. Soonyoung was swearing off alcohol for the next month at the very least. He didn’t need to blab all of this to whoever was closest to him. Someone knocked on the door and Soonyoung gently took your face into his hands.

“I wanna kiss you, but not like this,” he told you, “okay?”

That put the stars back in your eyes. He quickly left you to go answer the door, accepting the food and paying for it--adding a generous tip for the fast service. He could take the slight hit to his bank account. He’d be fine as long as he came back to you. He refilled your water before dolling out the food, breaking apart the set of chopsticks that came with his meal.

“Soonie...”

He looked up, taking a bite of his own food as he waited for you to respond.

“Can I have some?” You’d been staring at his meal, thankfully having already had some of your soup. “Please? I’ll share if you want.”

Oh, the lengths he went to to make you happy. He offered up a piece of broccoli, watching you happily accept it from his chopsticks. He’d give you other things he knew you’d like before telling you to finish your soup first before he gave you anymore. Soon enough, he’d watched you finish off your little bowl and down the water for the second time that night.

“Do you feel better?” He asked you. You nodded, already looking like you’d fall asleep anytime soon.

“I don’t want you to leave,” you said quietly. “I like having you here.”

“I won’t,” he said. “Come on,” he gently pulled you up. “Let’s go to bed, okay?”

You walked on your own, already sobering up little by little considering you were fully aware of needing to brush your teeth. Soonyoung went ahead and cleared off the glass bottles from your coffee table, clearing away the trash from the takeout, before he walked you back to bed. Thankfully you were dressed cozily for your night with friends. You took his hand, gently tugging him over to your bed. He watched you slide over, making room for him.

“Please?” You said. “I wanna cuddle...”

He sighed, obliging as he pulled off his hat and left his belongings on your dresser. Soonyoung slid into bed, letting you snuggle up close to him. Shit. He was going to slip away after you dozed off, but you decided to lay your head on his chest and wrap an arm around him. If he wanted to, he could have pulled away and told you to be mindful of his own space--but... He liked having you close. Jihoon could testify to the way Soonyoung would drape an arm around your shoulders, or let you use his shoulder as a pillow, or the way the two of you cuddled whenever you had movie nights together--the two of you were close. He liked being close to you.

He texted Jihoon that he wouldn’t be home tonight. When Jihoon sent back a single “?” in response, he snapped a picture of where you were asleep with an arm draped across his chest. He joked that he was being held captive. Jihoon pointed out that he could see his smile, you liar--he was happy right where he was.

His last message made his heart sink into his chest: tell them tomorrow.

He would. Soonyoung felt a little weird using your drunk confession as an excuse to confess his own feelings, but... It was hopefully something you said and meant. He wanted to kiss you, too, and more. He wanted to take you on cute dates to restaurants and parks and anywhere you wanted to go. As long as he was with you, Soonyoung would be happy. And laying there, having taken care of you the same way you cared for him when he was sick or drunk, he felt like things were right. Like he belonged right there with you.

He just hoped you felt the same.

[everythingsinred]

Natsume Is a Cat (pt. 3)

If anyone is looking at this nonsense... thanks. Isn't the world golden on our side of things? Let's get back to it, to our academic and scholarly research!

Where were we? Onto cats likes and dislikes?

Cats don't much like water. They don't care for swimming and avoid it when possible (that doesn't mean they're dirty though; cats are very good at self-grooming).

Water bugs them, after all.

But the dark doesn't! Cats have a tapetum lucidum in their eyes which lets them see in the dark, so there's nothing to fear even in total darkness.

They tend to underestimate their weight and enjoy sitting on chests if they so choose, even if the person they're sitting on doesn't like it as much.

I had to include this because my cat Phoebe does this to me every night.

But they don't really like going places. They would prefer to do nothing.

You can try to make them, but they revert back to inaction. Always.

Natsume does nothing all the time. It's his favorite thing to do.

Cats also typically dislike when they're introduced to a new cat in their home. Especially at first, they might be cruel to the new cat, but in time, they might get attached.

Cats do this often. They look at you, spot your interest, and then run, for the sole purpose of making you chase them. They do this on purpose. They like the chase. They will stop and let you pet them eventually but they need to play the game first. I'm not making this up. This is true.

And to wrap things up, I will conclude with pages I had in my folder with unclear captions that I saved too long ago and now no longer remember where I was going with them.

Titled, "catlike". I agree, but I can't explain it.

Titled, "gives cat vibes." Don't know what that's supposed to mean. He does look like a black cat here though.

Titled, "hes a cat i can tell". Very unhelpful to me. I guess it's just a vibe?

"hes a cat what do u want me to say" Well, past!Anya, I want you to say specifically where you were going with this. But I'll bite. He does seem like a cat here.

"omg just like a cat". Have no idea if this is about what Aoi is saying (misunderstood and thought of as scary, like a cat) or Natsume in the background doing fuck all. Maybe both. Either way, I agree.

And to finally finish off, let's discuss the fact that the person he gets along best with is Ruka, who has the animal pheromone alice. Unlike literally every other person on the planet, Natsume has never been angry at Ruka. He loves Ruka. He always loved Ruka. Natsume is a cat.

(This is clearly a joke. Natsume is not nice to Ruka because he's under the affect of animal pheromones. Because Natsume is a human being. But it's a funny joke. Their friendship is very clearly authentic and beautiful. Natsume is kind to Ruka because Ruka is perfect and has never done anything wrong ever, in his life.)

BONUS

Not related to cat stuff, but this one was funny:

"AND HERE COMES NATSUME WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!"

Okay I'm done now! Thanks so much for reading this silly nonsense rambling. It was fun to put together and I hope it was a fun read too! Have a great day/night. I'm very tired and this took longer than I thought it would, so I'm going to sleep. Love y'all <3

Also, in case y'all missed the first two parts, they are as follows:

Part 1. or Part 2.

[doom-nerdo-666]

I think the idea of Marathon being used for a "Tarkov-like" PvP "extraction shooter" would've been less worse if:

They first released a single player/campaign based modern FPS game as a revival of the series.

Made the Tarkov copy crap into a sidemode alongside said singleplayer fun experience.

Remember that people thought Doom 16 was going to flop because the marketing focused heavily on a divisive MP mode and then people started to get hyped when they saw more of the singleplayer.

Quake Champions has some good reception partially because of that "Doom is SP, Quake is MP" bit but the game had some things people enjoyed and even got used to the new iteration of the Ranger but QC still had better days and most people want a Quake singleplayer revival.

Marathon as a series is less popular and was much more dormant, then you have the fact that the 3 first games are free and there's a modding scene.

Most hardcore old FPS fans and Bungie fans are the ones that know Marathon, so you don't just have the issue of potentially disappointing old fans but also putting up with people that never heard of Marathon.

It's also clear that multiplayer as a concept can be easily exploited in games, due to greedy tactics like MTX: Never forget that 2017 period when companies got into sorts of controversies and EA tried really hard to claim "singleplayer is dead".

After all, "online" means the game will always be on life support so it needs a "hook" but it's not an issue for a singleplayer game if the game is good enough.

Maybe someone will say that Marathon shouldn't get into singleplayer anymore because of Infinity's ending and i guess in case a new game would ruin the abstraction set by the presentation of the originals.

Still, Bungie could've easily gotten a hint from Doom Eternal and indie titles like Ultrakill.

If you're gonna chase trends, at least look at the ones that people like so much that even skeptics like.

[flamingo-writes]

For the mixtape, How Can I Refuse by Heart with a member of Hellfire/best friend realizing their feelings for each other aren't as platonic as they used to be?

Listen, I’ve always loved this song. And this was just perfect, thank you anon.

Things you do to me — e.m.

Eddie Munson x Fem! Reader

Title (and story) based off How Can I Refuse by Heart.

I kinda projected myself here. I used to play volleyball in high school, and played as a setter. I also like the trope of Eddie realizing he misjudged someone, and ended up liking them even though they fit the standard of someone Eddie would dislike. Also, dialogue in italics are flashbacks, in case it’s not clear.

Word count: 2.6K

Warnings: other than cursing, none.

Mixtape Masterlist

A soft knock echoed inside the room, distracting the guys momentarily from the tension as Eddie stopped narrating and let the tension and the suspense build up. The knocking happened in such a particular way, Eddie could tell right away it had been you. Looking up, he saw the clock stuck en the wall above the door and knew your volleyball practice was over.

“Come in, sweetheart,” He said loud and clear, as you pushed the door open.

"Sorry, don't mind me guys,” You whispered walking inside the room and leaving your back pack and gym bag by the door.

The sweet smell of your freshly washed hair soon flooded the place, as Eddie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was not a new occurrence for you to go watch them play after your training ended. And it was not a new occurrence to get there freshly showered, and tired as well. However, the entirety of the Hellfire Club were still to grow used to see you. You.

Eddie always made it clear that he despised jocks, but you were an exception. One that happened after you two were teamed up for an English project and you found out Eddie was actually brilliant in English, he was just lazy and hated school work. Perhaps it was your instant and undeniable chemistry, or your highly similar taste in music. But you learned how Eddie was actually wonderful to work with when he liked you. His creativity and vast knowledge in vocabulary and literature amazed you and of course you complimented him for it time and time again. Your flattery stroking his ego and he decided that the captain of the girls volleyball team had a pass. You two became friends, and very good ones. You realized the infamous freak was actually a kind misunderstood metal head, who watched your back, and your constant flattery actually kept him motivated to keep doing school work and gradually improve his grades, actually making him taste his big chance of finally graduating.

People still found your friendship odd.

"Why are you cool with her hanging out with us, but you don’t like it that I hang out with Jason and the basketball team?"

"Because, Sinclair, unlike Jason, she doesn’t make fun of us, nor looks down on us. As a matter of fact, when she watches our campaigns, she’s respectful the entire time, doesn’t interrupt and if she has a question, she whispers it to me to not break the focus and the atmosphere. Now, how many times has Jason made stupid comments about D&D? Just fucking pay attention, Sinclair"

"Don’t you tease her saying she plays Extreme Game of Hot Potato?"

"For the record, Henderson, she called it that first"

Eddie had such a way to stand up for you. He could tease you all he wanted. But as soon as someone even dared to make the slightest comment, he’d immediately snap at them. People weren’t exactly sure if Eddie had a thing for you. Or if you had a thing for Eddie. The two of you got along so well, and at times it did seem like you two were romantic with each other, but there was no proof of it. And even when directly asked, the two of you always replied: "We’re very close friends". But friends didn’t behave the way you did around each other.

And it was clear in the way you walked behind Eddie’s throne and wrapped your arms around him resting your chin on his shoulder as he continued narrating the game. One of his hands reaching for your arm and gently caressing your skin, acknowledging your presence. You looked at his screen, glancing quickly over his notes and figures, trying to put the pieces together of what he had planned and still hidden from the rest of the club. You watched him, narrate and interact with the other characters, always fascinated by how Eddie even looked differently whenever he was in his Dungeon Master persona. His tongue easily sliding through his narrative with fancy words with such eloquence you were often surprised this same guy was capable of using the word "fuck" eight times in one sentence —and each one of them used differently— and then sound like the kind of narrator that gives you goosebumps when he’s telling a story. The way Eddie’s voice changed in tone, going from maniac laughs to low purrs, it made you shiver, and think you could listen to him talk for hours on end.

Eventually you dragged an available chair next to his throne and continued to watch attentively. Eddie looking at you every once in a while, smiling at you with that cheeky grin you knew all too well. And every so often interacting with you, making you a part of the game, kind of as a second mind to the narrator. Was that even legal? You thought. But you didn’t mind. You liked his attention. Seeing Eddie behave like a total prick to everyone, but being gentle and soft with you, made you feel special. Also because he didn’t try to hide the soft spot he had for you.

The first time Eddie was ever seen in a school game was the state finals for the volleyball tournament. You’d invited him, and he’d only agreed to go because it was your game. You were the captain, and just like he was the Dungeon Master, deciding the fate of the players, you were the setter, deciding the strategy with every service, he liked comparing his role in D&D to your position in the team. You two were alike.

"Take a day off your punk agenda and come watch me play" You told him.

"Babe, I don’t like sports"

"I know you don’t. That’s why I never ask you to see me play any other games. But this one is important to me"

"And you want me there because…?"

"You’re my friend. And you always show off when I watch you play Dungeons and Dragons. It’s my turn to show off my Extreme Game of Hot Potato abilities…"

Truth was, he’d decided to go to your game the moment you first asked him. But he liked to play hard to get, specially with you. And he also liked to hear from you how much he meant to you.calling him your best friend, and a show off, made his tummy twist and tickle.

"Fair enough, sweetheart. Don’t get too used to this, though…" He said, unknowing that the game he went to that afternoon was just the first one of many games.

Eddie wasn’t stupid, he was able to pick up on the game dynamics and the rules just from observing. Closely paying attention to the way everyone in your team rotated positions in the court. How each and every player moved. The ball was touched a maximum of three times before going to the other side. And you were the player who touched the ball the most. He didn’t grow an interest in volleyball. He grew an interest in watching you playing it. He also didn’t know how much could you sweat and how tired could you get playing volleyball, since he rarely saw the players running from side to side like it happened in other sports, and he didn’t know your legs could look like that. But it was obvious, he thought. The constant jumping and running to hit the ball on time.

Oh, those short shorts, and thin layer of glistening sweat making your legs look even stronger and more toned…

But you were his friend. He had to admit, you were attractive. Adding the fact that you were nice to him, and you were able to keep up with his sarcasm and sometimes sour humor. God, he was forever grateful to Ms. O’Donnell, for pairing you with him for that project earlier in the school year. God, he disliked that tacky woman, but he was still grateful. He never admitted it in front of anyone else, though.

After his campaign was done, and the Hellfire Club were celebrating another thrilling adventure, you exchanged looks with Eddie, smiling softly as you met his black eyes, reflecting the playful look you gave him.

"What?"

"Nothing. Well done, Dungeon Master" You said, bowing lightly, as he chuckled.

"Why, thank you, kind lady" He chuckled, he said bowing back at you. "Always a pleasure to plan and design these adventures," He spoke slowly as the guys started leaving the room, waving and saying their goodbyes to Eddie, "So, Cap’n, my captain, got any plans for this evening?" He asked as he started putting away everything that still remained over the table.

"Not really" you replied, Eddie gasped dramatically.

"But it’s Friday" Eddie said.

"Yeah, but I didn’t plan anything for tonight,” you looked at Eddie, recognizing the cheeky grin “Why? Got something in mind?"

"We can grab some snacks, perhaps some food, you must be starving after your training…I’ve got special brownies I made, and we can go to the Drive-in Cinema, they’re projecting Manhunter tonight…"

"You want to watch Manhunter while being high?" You asked, raising an eyebrow and watched him shrug nonchalantly. "You’re crazy, that’s going to end up badly"

"If either of us starts having a bad trip, the other one can always start making dumb jokes or whatever…" He said as you chuckled.

"Wow, Eddie…”

“Okay, plan B, we can go watch Manhunter, and then we can go back to my place, or yours, and eat the brownies there…"

"I like that plan so much better, I rather not watch some psychological suspense-horror-whatever while I’m high…"

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were such a wimp!" He teased, leaning closer to you with a cheeky grin as you brought your hand up to his face, pushing him lightly, away from you.

"On second thought, I want to stay home in my pajamas, like the lame person that I am"

"Come on, sugar, you know I’m joking" he said as he threw everything in his backpack and swung it over his shoulder. "We’ve got an adventure ahead of us, sweetheart" he said wrapping an arm around your shoulders as he brought you with him and you walked next to him towards his van.

"Why are we friends, again?" You joked.

"Because you think I’m funny to hang around" Eddie chuckled and looked at you, "And I think you’re cool enough to let you close,"

"Ah, yes, the untouchable Eddie Munson" You giggled as he opened the copilot’s door for you.

"Hey, you can’t deny it. Not everyone gets close," Eddie whispered as he neared your face once more. You stared into his dark eyes, used to his antiques.

"Because you’re totally not a freak" You replied sarcastically

"What’s fun about being like the rest of the cattle?" He said, pulling back and heading to the driver's seat.

"Are you calling me cattle as well?" You said with a feigned offended voice.

"You’re more like a goat who got lost and ended up in a cattle farm…"he said starting the van.

"So, you’re calling me crazy?"

"I mean, you’re friends with Eddie Munson, I heard that guy’s a freak"

"Don’t you dare to talk trash about my best friend, I am not afraid to hit you with all my mighty strength” You threatened, making Eddie burst out laughing.

"Oh, I’ve seen you hit volleyballs, and you’re right, I do not wish to share that same fate" He said.

After a small stop at the convenience store, you bought supplies and a quick detour to Eddie's trailer to pick up the brownies, you headed to the drive in cinema. The movie had started barely ten minutes before you arrived, but Eddie took care of filling you in the blanks. He parked his van backwards, and the both of you went to the back of the van, door wide open as you got comfortable at the back, snuggling close to each other. You both used you backpacks as stiff pillows. The night was chilly, but he had a spare oversized hoodie in his van, which he borrowed you. The smell of his cologne mixed in with weed, the familiarity of the smell made something in your chest feel tight yet cozy; good.

Keeping an idle conversation back and forth, you were far much invested in it, than the movie. It started out as discussing the Hannibal Lecter books and Eddie promising to lend you Red Dragon some day. You then moved on bouncing from topic to topic, and at some point, you became aware of the little fact that you were resting your legs on top of his, and your hands were intertwined. His thumb rubbing your skin gently as you rested your head on his shoulder.

"You still with me, babe?" He purred softly.

"Hmm, yeah" You mumbled.

"For a second I thought you’d fallen asleep on me, sugar"

"I mean sure, your hoodie is hella comfy…" You purred looking up at him.

Your nose brushing his jaw as he turned his head to look down at you. His black eyes had a certain tenderness in them. Nothing new to you, he always looked at you like that. Although, having his face this close made it impossible for you to focus on anything else that wasn’t him. His eyes melting, dripping honey all over you.

"Has anyone told you," He purred, clearing his throat, "that you look very stupid up close?" He joked.

You rolled your eyes and got your head off his shoulder, chuckling softy. You looked back at him as he gave you a playful smile.

"Fuck you too, Edward Munson" You giggled softly, as his eyes remained staring at you with the same sweet stare.

"You know I’m kidding right?" He added. "I actually think you're really pretty” He said.

His compliment made your heart skip a beat and race significantly, making you wonder if Eddie had always been like this before. And as soon as you started looking back into your memories, the answer only made your heartbeat go even wilder. He had, in fact, always being like that.

“Really?" You wondered. “I think you're a pretty attractive fella yourself…” You replied.

He remained staring at you, as you wondered what exactly was happening behind those gorgeous eyes of his. Eddie’s hand eventually reached out for you, cupping your cheek, very delicately in his calloused hand. Leaning into his touch, you closed your eyes, enjoying the electrifying tickle his skin left on your skin.

“Can l ask you something?" He whispered.

“Of course"

“Will it irreparably damage our friendship if l ask you for a kiss?”

“I don't know…”

“Care to find out?” he asked, as you laughed softly feeling the heat clinging to your face.

“Just kiss me already, Eddie” You whispered as he smirked and pulled you closer to him, not wasting a single second.

His soft lips quickly molding into your own in a static shy kiss. Waiting for his cue, when you kissed him back, he began moving his lips against yours, slowly figuring out your rhythm. Breathlessly losing himself in the kiss he didn't know h had been craving so desperately since you two became friends. He wrapped his arms around you, bringing you closer, and squeezing you against his chest. You moaned softly and moved, following his lead as he pulled you over his lap, straddling him. Your hands cupping his cheeks, as the realization hit you.

Exactly when did you start falling for Eddie? Looking in retrospective, the way you always behaved with him suggested that you were into him, but never realized it yourself. And right now, it didn’t seem to matter, as the both of you melted against each other. The movie became background noise, as everything you were able to focus on right now, was on each other. His mouth humming against yours, his chest pressed against yours, his heart beating alongside your own, your mind felt dizzy, and time seemed to stop. And everything felt just right.

[aranarumei]

KIRI I selfishly want another look at cross-examination for your ask game…. also steel chair save me. steel chair save me please if you’re feeling up to it Actually there are a lot I want to ask about your names are too good. but I’ll refrain

HIIIIII <3 dirtbrain thank you for your patience!!!! also i'm very glad u think my names r good lol bc i truly do write whatever.

ask me about my wips | wip list

i decided i wouldn't do this ask until i finished a draft of One Scene from ch 3 of cross-examination and. thus i have done so! only took a year lmao. now i have like. i dunno. at least 3 more scenes to write...? maybe more. im really bad with Progressing Time. anyways one of the joys of fic is that while i tend to try to keep my fics feeling... canon-esque a lot of the time, i can also do whatever the hell i want. in this case it means i jump a few contrived hoops to give klavier brown eyes. this is because i described klavier's eyes as brown while drafting, checked to make sure i was right, and was then devastated to find out that his eyes weren't brown. so instead of simply waxing poetic (not really) about his blue eyes I've decided to go the "deeply weird choice" route instead...

There’s no response Apollo can give, so he simply stands there in shared silence, watching the wind play with the loose strands of Klavier’s braid, the folds in his jacket, the glaring shine of his bike, his pupils indistinguishable from his irises in the dark— “You’ve got brown eyes,” he blurts out. Startled out of his own musings, Klavier cracks a small smile. “I… do?” “I just—I remember them being blue,” Apollo mutters. “They usually are,” Klavier says. “I developed a habit of wearing colored contacts around the time I made my law and music debut, so I suppose it just… stuck.” He shrugs. “It’s not my main color, but I do enjoy wearing blue.” He peers down at Apollo. “I also suppose it must be strange.” Blue or not, Apollo feels caught by his gaze. “It’s not strange,” he says, and then amends his statement. “Even if it is, strange isn’t bad or good. It’s just different.”

as for steel chair save me. steel chair save me please. as you have no doubt sussed out. this is ch 4 of the anomalous agate! i went with the beginning of the chapter because any further feels like giving spoilers lol. Fun Fact my wip title is not steel chair save me exactly. no. in fact the title is Kind Of A Plot Spoiler so i did change the wip title a little.

Sunlight set the streets before me aglow. It was, by all accounts, the warmest day in autumn we’d had this year, and I was beginning to sweat. There was a restless kind of itch inside my skin that I couldn’t seem to quell. Part of it was the bruise—the mark had faded, but now the area of pale purple felt consistently irritated.  The other part was the fact that it was Saturday afternoon. Richard had closed the shop to make a special house call, and it was only now that I was realizing I’d spent the majority of every weekend working in Ginza. Rather than feel like I was straining at a bit, however, it turned out that on my one day off, my skin itched to head into Jewelry Étranger like always.  I’d decided to use the sudden free time to head to the supermarket, but in the absence of any attractive deals awaiting me, I was dragging my feet in the afternoon heat. My attention was waylaid by the sight of the cafe I’d entered only just over a week ago, and after considering its merit as a temperature-controlled room and a distraction, I decided to enter.

[4m1]

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 ❝  博客; 𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯

𝐂𝐇.𝟏

summary: y/n was always there, or at least it had felt that way. she had slipped into hellfire and made it her home so quickly, that no one batted an eye when she began to frequently hang out with them. becoming one of them, she was simply there, coexisting as they did. and as jeff’s relative, it had become a silent rule that no one was to mess with her. but when she’s supposed to be in love with Gareth, knowing she'd never have a chance with eddie, she's torn as she find herself slowly falling for their energetic leader all over again. and as he struggles to come to terms with his feelings for her, their simple friendship begins to become a little more…. complicated. 

word count: about 4k

a/n: this is my first fic in like 4 years and i’ve been in a writing slump lately, so i apologize if it’s horrible. i also will make this a series and it will be a slow burn. i def want to make more eddie fics too. this also does not follow the canon timeline of the show. 

also i have decided to give “freak 1/unnamed freak”(the other older member of hellfire who is never called out by title) a name because he deserves recognition too, seeing as he’s their friend and is the bass player for corroded coffin. that being said, he’ll be called vince, because he looks like that’d be fitting. 

───── ❝ ❞ ────

Today was just like any other, of course. Nothing exciting was happening other than the usual parading and performance that Eddie had to offer the whole student body. The sound of his onyx boots stomping along tabletops and sarcastic monologues were enough to earn a few hoops and hollers from the likes of you and Dustin. Both earning a wide grin as the ringleader of your cherished “cult” turned in your direction, using these encouragements to fuel the ever so bright, and dramatic, flame that allowed him to have the spirit to do things as such. I suppose that was one thing you always admired about him, how free he was to say and do as he pleased, no matter which eyes picked him apart. How he never really seemed to care how others viewed him, and if he did, he sure a shell didn’t show it. Eddie was so much braver than the whole lot of you, and that was probably why he was the leader. He was the defender, the dungeon master, the shepherd. 

And you were happily in his flock. 

“ Heyyy, y/nnnnn, are you going to eat that? “ Dustin beamed, with his usual loose mouth smile, eyeing the mash potatoes you aimlessly sloshed around. 

“ Eat up kid. “ You muttered back, pushing the tray towards him. Reveling in the joy that seemed to paint the freshmans face as he dug his spoon in, melting into his seat as he scarfed the white gunk. 

When you had imagined moving in the middle of nowhere, to some state you had never heard of from the city that never sleeps, you didn’t imagine you’d end up in a group of teens who played some geeky board game for fun. It was a much different environment from New York, especially the fact that the schools weren’t as cliquey there. 

But you had no room to complain, growing rather fond of your distant cousins' friends. Well, more fond of some than others, you thought with a lithe sigh, eyes wandering to torn flannel and flowing cedar locks. Watching as Gareth threw his head back in a hearty chuckle as he murmured with Jeff, eyes lit as his mouth moved passionately. 

It was a lie to say you didn’t initially join because you found the male attractive, hoping that faux interest in DND and a place in the group would earn you a place in his heart. Though, that was far from the case, seeing as your mind shut down at every interaction that even-somewhat sparked between the two of you. Words jumbling and falling sharply from your tongue whenever he uttered a word to you, face flushing, and hands dripping with thick sweat. Not only was it gross on your part, but the air would go stiff with awkwardness, usually drawn back by Dustin saving you hopelessly or Eddie unknowingly intervening. You were sure it was obvious by now, your apparent feelings towards the brunette, but silently prayed that he was clueless as most of them men at the table were when it came to women. 

“ You know it’s not very gentlemanly to steal food from a fair mistress, Henderson, now don’t you? ” 

This piqued by the one and only, the great and glorious, the oh-so outspoken, Eddie Munson. Though, you’d never allow his ego to hear of the silent praises and nicknames you gave him in the quiet of your mind. 

Earning a scoff from you, which helped him to paint his usual smug grin on his face, knowing that you were about to retort back. Seeming as though he loved when the two of you would go back and forth, but he’d never admit it. 

“ For your information, I am not some damsel in need of your help, Lord Munson. I am fully capable of defending my mashed potatoes on my own. “ Turning your nose up at him for the full effect, accompanying it with the cross of your arms, playing it up to the fullest. Adding a small ‘hmph’, which caused his smile to widen. He couldn’t help but adore the way your energy aligned with his, one of the only people who came close to acting as he did. And it left his breath labored at every word you said. 

But that was the way one felt around friends, that’s what made friendships so special… no?

The metal head couldn't remember when the two of you became friends, or even how. But he found that was the beauty of it all. There was no memory of you coming in, it was like you were always there, like you existed always in his life. Like you were meant to be, sent to him by the universe. And the way you fit in so perfectly, and adopted Hellfire as your own, he had no doubt that you had been sent to him.. to them, he meant. 

Placing his elbows on the table, leaning closer to you, his movements drawing your eyes back his way. 

“ Well when do you need saving, princess, don’t come crawling back to me. “ 

Your stomach tightened at the way he lowered his voice, rasping it out with that smartass expression he sported often. Though, you wouldn’t let him see it, taking a hand to his forehead and pushing him away from you playfully. Retreating your limb back with a giggle as he took a bite to the air, acting as if he’d snag your fingers. 

Little moments like this are what Eddie looked forward to in life. To hear your laugh, see you smile, feel your touch. Little moments with his close friend. 

Cool metal ate at your burning skin, hot from the flush of anticipation of a proposition in your love life. Setting your scorched head along the door of your locker, a satisfied smile painted on your lips. 

Gareth had just asked you if you wanted to come over to watch Corroded Coffin practice, seeing as they were learning some news songs to display at The Hideaway. Even though you had tagged along with Jeff before when he went to practices, this was different, seeing as the brunette had gone out of his way to invite you, which had to mean something, right? 

The frustration and uncertainty of it all just caused more heat to rise to your head, aggravation seeping into you as you gathered your things to leave. A familiar figure shifting along your peripheral, adorned in inky leather and a wild mane. Perched beside a head of bouncing auburn, ponytail swaying as the two talked. 

A strange sensation pooled in your gut, chest coiling in itself at the sight of the two polar opposites. You found it rather interesting that Eddie had started hanging around Chrissy, seeing as they came from two very opposite sides of the social hierarchy. Even more odd was how close they had become, despite her friends despising “the freak” and the fact that Munson publicly spoke out against the “populars.” Though, it was none of your business. 

Even so, you couldn’t help it.

To notice the way he looked at her, how his eyes seemed to trace the softness of her features. Or how intently he listened to her, seeming to crave more of her voice once she’d stop. How he’d soak up her laughter and vye for that reaction again. The way they seemed perfect together, their chemistry with one another, undeniable, swoon worthy and sickening. 

They way he knew she was perfect.

And even worse of all, there was no reason to hate it. To hate her. She was so kind, a sweet soul. No ill intent sat in her spirit or cruelty lining her thoughts. 

You didn’t know why it made you so upset that he seemed to feel this way towards her, but if anything, you should be happy for him. Right? 

He had found someone who was gentle and sweet with him. Someone beautiful and deserving, something you knew you’d never be. 

And perhaps, that's why you denied the blooming feelings for the man. You knew you weren’t enough for him, how could you be? You were a freak, just like him, and he deserved more. Someone more kind, more beautiful, more successful, someone unequivocally perfect, like her. 

A flame rose in your throat, charring the chords of your voice to oblivion. Your cheeks steamed up again and you took heavy breaths, attempting to halt the tears. Trying your hardest to not allow the droplets to burst from the seams of your eyes. 

You had no reason to be crying. Eddie was never yours, and he never would be. 

If anything, you should’ve been happy, finally having had a smooth conversation with your crush. Finally the possibility of being happy, of being loved. So then why… Why did this sadness swell in your depths? Why did you have to cry. 

It was your run of the mill insecurity, that was all of course. A laugh managed to slip past your lips at the thought of the tears being caused by anything else. This wasn’t about Eddie or Chrissy,this was about you feeling insecure about yourself, that was it. The slight idea that maybe you felt anything more for Eddie being shot down at every turn the thought took in your mind. 

Any-who, there were much bigger things to worry about at the moment, such as the view that began to fill your vision. Two figures mingling along the open garage of Gareth’s home, instruments being set into place. It was hard to suppress the smile that bore into your cheeks as the flannel fitted male waved at you, a smirk on his features. 

“ Why do you look so happy? “ 

Whipping your head to look at the dark skinned male as he wore a look of confusion, eyes narrowing to attempt to figure you out. You had noticed this was a habit of your cousins, doing it often, seeing as he was always edging into your business. 

Earning a roll of your eyes as you hopped out of the van. 

“ Nothingggg, Jeff. What, I can’t be happy now? “ 

Throwing an uneasy glance at you and a look of disgusted-confusion, shaking his head as he dropped the matter rather quickly. A muttered “women”, accompanied with a sigh, wafting through your ears as he passed you. 

It was understandable that he found oddity in the way you acted, seeing as you were mid-sob when you arrived in the parking lot. Scurrying like a mouse in hiding to the passenger seat, crying into your backpack so bypassers wouldn’t have to witness the embarrassing display. Met with a violent shake of the shoulder and Jeff’s worried face. Then further putting him through chaos with slurred, hyperventilating words that seemingly flew in one ear and came out the other. Eventually mustering it all up to your period, knowing he wouldn’t pry any further at that. It’s not like he would’ve understood anyways. 

“ Soooo y/n, Jeff here tells me that you’ve been learning how to play guitar. Eddie’s not here yet and he’s usually early, so you wanna sub in for us? “

It was unbelievable. This wasn’t actually happening, it was like something out of a movie. Gareth the Great was sitting in close proximity to you, eyes plastered in your direction, attention fully drawn to you.

Feeling the warm sensation rise in your stomach again, averting your eyes downward as your fingers find a way to fidget amongst themselves. 

“ I-uh, I don’t know, Gar, I’m not that good. I probably don’t even know the songs you guys want to play. “ Meeting cedar eyes again, which crinckled as the boy beside you chuckled, taking a hold of your hand as he began to stand. His warmth against yours makes your head whirl in a frenzy of hormones. 

“ Oh c’mon, I bet you're great. “ 

Shit, he was late. Which didn’t happen often, so he knew the guys were sure to chew him out about it, especially with their gig coming up soon at that bar. Resting his head against the wheel of the van with a groan as he parked the vehicle, eyes screwed shut in new found annoyance. The last thing he needed right now, was his friends to be some pain in the asses. 

Slowly lifting his head as he heard the symphony of heavy instruments wafting together in a harmonies clash, but more than that, was the voices that snaked their way into the sounds of string and symbols. To say the singing was angelic would be an overstatement, though the passion that the voices held was something different entirely. It sounded like joy and youth, anticipation and excitement, all bundled up in one to scream the lyrics from a rock-metal soul. 

The only odd thing about it was that it was a song that their band had never practiced before, seeing as they didn’t have any RATT songs on their setlists. 

The words became more clear as he approached the garage with his stringed baby in hand, gawking at the sight in front of him. 

“ You see I really felt that you want me

You see I really thought that you cared

I had this feelin' she was comin' from somewhere

You've got everything, more than it takes, baby “ 

The two cousins shouting the lyrics raspily as they both worked on their respective guitars, Munson's eyes quickly falling on the feminine one of the two. Mesmerized by the way your lips seemed to dance ever so closely to the mic, or the way your finger frolicked along the chords. How your face glistened as sweat gleamed along it, soaking the rowdy bits of hair to your forehead, that managed to fall in your face through all the movement. Lids screwed shut as you continued to play, absolutely submerged into the music. Eddie was at a loss of words. The way you became one with it all and how free you seemed when up there. His awe quickly drew to a close as the drums began to stop abruptly, pulling everyone from their session to look at him. 

“ Look who finally managed to join us. “ Muttered the umber skinned male from beside you. An unamused look being thrown at Munson. Who replied with a nervous laugh, scratch of the neck and the explanation that he had to catch up with Chrissy about some stuff. 

The mention of her name drew you back to the events of earlier, brows furrowing at the remembrance of your breakdown. Quickly shaking it off as you took deep breaths. You would not allow this to ruin the fun you’d been having. Still coming down from the high of the music, every sense in your body electrified. 

Which didn’t help when you all had finally taken a break, hands brushing along Gareth’s as he offered you a beer. Taking it was a gentle ‘thanks’, attempting to distract your mind from all the interaction you had been gifted with him today. Attempting to take a large swig from the bottle, trying not to allow yourself to get flustered as the drummer roared praises over your performance. 

Hissing as the glass clanked along your front teeth, causing you to throw a hand to your mouth in pain. Setting the Genesee along the concrete, both palms now drawn to your maxilla, fingers running gently along the smooth white bones to make sure there was no chipping. Even if your teeth were okay, the pain still rang horrendously, causing your stomach to feel sick as embarrassment soon set in. Though that seemed to be the last thing Gareth was worried about, cupping your face as he examined it with a distressed gaze. The way his eyes searched yours frantically, or how his plush hands softly held you, the way his dark brows furrowed, or the gentleness of his voice as he asked of your state. It all seemed to make this worth it, wishing you had 100 more beer bottles to smash into your teeth. 

It had seemed that the other guitarist and bass player had quit chewing Eddie out for his tardiness, and they had all shot their gaze to the scene of you two. Without the needed context, it appeared as though the two of you were to meet in a loving embrace of your lips on one another, and Jeff was NOT having it. 

“ DUDE! ARE YOU TRYING TO KISS MY COUSIN!? “ 

You were both unsheathed from your moment with one another, immediately having Gareth retract his palms away from you and throwing them up in a defensles manner. Words falling past his tongue as stutters as he attempted to explain himself. “ D-Dude, what no!  I was seeing if she was ok, she, she hurt herself. “ Though, it was too late for the poor goner, your relative was already halfway into his ‘remember what I told you guys about trying to mess with y/n’ speech.

Shocked as you felt a pair of strong arms swoop in at your waist and whisk you in the opposite direction. A chin rested on your head as one of the limbs wrapped around you pointed at the brunette, the all too familiar playful voice, potent to your ears. 

“ How dare you, try and defile a fair maiden such as she. “ 

Met with Eddie’s grin as you looked up, watching him thoughtfully peer down at you. His mouth snaking closely to your ear, the warmth from his mouth causing a jolt in your body. “ Looks like you did need saving, princess. “ 

God, h knew just how to piss you off. Twirling in his grip so your chest met his, though you didn’t calculate how close he really was, face mere inches from yours. Seeing as it shocked him as much as it did you, the two of you going still in the embrace. You could feel his breath on your skin, feeling as it mingled into your air. At this length, you could see every detail of the man. The roundness of his doe eye, though anything but innocent. The strands that widely grew at his brow or the small remnants of shaven hair along his upper lip. The plumped pink that sat below those remnants. The ones you couldn’t pull your eyes from. And he noticed, how could he not? The way your gaze fell to his mouth, slowly moving back up to meet his oculi again once you’d seen the smirk he now wore. 

“ My God, l/n. Are you trying to seduce me? “ 

You didn't know if it was the ache and yearn of the throbbing between your legs or the annoyance of the fact that one of the only romantic moments in your life had been ruined by a man you were related to and made worse by a man you could never have, but something about the usual light-hearted teasing made your blood boil. You knew this was his nature, the way he went about, but you couldn’t handle it now. 

The fact that he was probably screwing around with girls he dealt to, or the chicks he’d pick up at The Hideaway, and still made you heart flutter with his flirtation, made your anger worse.

No not probably, you knew. There had been times before where you and the other older teens had spent time at Mr.Munson's mobile home, having sleepovers and what not. (No matter how childish it seemed, you all enjoyed it.) Or simply spending time with Eddie in his room. Gareth, Jeff, Vince, and you all having stumbled across fishnets, makeup, and more underwear than you could count. Having to have sit beside a new girl every time as they piled up in the back of his van as you all rode back to his place after their performances. The vivid memories of your head set along the back of the couch, eyes locked shut as your fingers danced along your thigh, listening to the muffled moans from his rooms and the soft snores of the other boys wrapped in fleece along the floor. Not being able to drift to bed until the sinful noises had stopped. Usually waking to Eddie plastered beside you, snoring as his shirtless body splayed across the scratchy green fabric, his usual blanket draped across you. You used to think it was romantic, that he always found his way back to you no matter who he was with that night. But now you saw it for what it was, you were always the rebound, despite the fact that it was never romantic, which somehow made it hurt more. Once those girl had ran away as thieves in the night, he stumbled back to the girl he knew would be waiting for him, as a stupid mutt that adored their owner. You were his dumb, stupid bitch.

The anger of these truths allowing you to pry him away from yourself, glaring at him one last time before spinning around. The same thundering in your throat from earlier, rising up again in a storm of wild emotion. Picking up your pace as you began to walk out of the area, ignoring the beckons of your name from the metalhead. Now jogging your way through the crisp lawn, past Jeff’s van and off into the beating autumn sun. Burning on your frame as hot as the liquid that burned the skin of your cheeks, burning as the pain in your heart from a love that never was.

[book-buni]

heyy what are your thoughts on the romance genre? do you like all of it, some of it? do you hate it?

personally i feel like i havent read enough romance books to draw a clear conclusion on my taste in romance, but i really loved "if you could see the sun" and "a pho love story"

on the other hand, i tried to read "book lovers" bc it was trending, but i dnfed after 4 chapters because i disliked it. i also found out there was smut, which is.... personally not something i enjoy. at all.

i also tried to read "the hating game" because my friend kept recommending it but i HATED IT SO MUCH and dnfed it aswell 😭 .

idk if this is weird, and i could be wrong, but i think i like romances where the main character/s are asian... 😭 idk maybe its cus im asian, so it just makes me sm more attached to the characters and i find that i root for those characters getting together more? (after all, the romance genre's enjoyability does depend on how much you like the characters right?)

idk idk

also ur ask message is rlly cool

honestly I don’t hate romance, especially since the fantasy trilogy I just finished is basically centered on it. it really depends on how the author handled everything for me to be honest. like for school book club I had to read “The Do-Over” by Lynn Painter recently and I didn’t like it. the book wasn’t the worst, but it was really predictable with the fact the brooding guy had a tragic backstory and the the girl’s looks weren’t really that noticeable. it really reminded me of a wattpad author who wrote a short story purely to make fun of those tropes. I think a romance book I read a month or so ago is one I might actually re-read, “I Loved You in Another Life” by David Arnold since even though the characters might’ve had a “tragic backstory” it actually delved into how the main characters felt and how it affected their mentality, actions, and how it all affected their lives. maybe I also really liked it because of being able to relate like what you said, since one of the characters had a sister, and how she felt about her sister was something I could definitely imagine myself feeling (made it vague just in case you want to read it one day). but there’s a fantasy trilogy that I was technically supposed to read before the one I mentioned, and right now, I feel like the author just wrote something similar but with different characters (I’ll mention the titles when I post what books I’ve read in march). like the same thing typed but in a different font. and speaking of fantasy trilogies, I also really liked “A Darker Shade of Magic” series because even though it did have romances, there was so much importance placed in non-romantic ones as well. the fantasy trilogy I’m reading right now does have importance in a sibling relationship, but I still can’t love the series since it feels the exact same as the other trilogy taking place in the same world. I also agree about avoiding the smutty ones since I feel like reading fanfics that had that stuff at an age where my mind was not prepared to handle it lowkey traumatised me in a way. I’m okay if the scenes are really vague about what’s happening, but I hate it when they go in detail so I’ve tried avoiding those types of books (with the exception of Normal People by Sally Rooney but the way she wrote it was just different in a way that I could handle). I’m also gonna read a fantasy-romance book soon whose main character is Korean (and a gumiho), so maybe I’ll really like it since it’ll have mentions of the culture I grew up in (technically still growing up in right now). and if you have asian romance book recommendations please spam my inbox or messages with it :DDDD

also I have no idea what timezone you’re in so when you read this I hope you have/had a good day! and even if it’s a bad day, that you have the hope the next day will be better :))))

also thanks for saying my ask message is really cool - it’s because I read “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and the term “wallflower” stuck with me since it resonated with me.

[snek-panini]

At long last, I've finally finished a new book! And it's actually not a fanfic this time! This is a bind of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. This was supposed to be my fourth book for Binderary, but I didn't finish it in time. Procrastination's a bitch. Fun fact: the first thing I ever bound was a public domain short story called The Machine Stops, but since it was the first it is...not a good skill showcase. This one is so much better. More pics and process talk under the cut!

Close-up of the cover, and a pic of the spine. The blue bits are cardstock, and brown ones are faux leather left over from when I bound Pray for Us, Icarus. The images and author's name are in black embossing ink. Something weird happened with the texture on these--the author's name came out nice and smooth and solid like always, but the stamped images have a bumpy texture to them and some leather visible through the powder. They were done with rubber stamps on an ink pad and the text was done with an embossing pen, so I think it's a difference in the ink. It's a nice texture though, so I don't mind. I had originally thought to put the title on the front, but I really liked both stamps and I like how it came out.

Top view and endpaper. I'm really pleased with how the case fits; that's been something I struggle with on a lot of projects and I think I'm finally getting it down. The endpapers are a floretine print that I bought from Hollander's and cut to size. They got a little wrinkled when I cased in, especially in the back. It's my first time working with this kind of paper and I used too much glue. I also tried stitching them to the text block this time, but I don't think I'll bother with that again. I didn't like how flimsy the single-sheet signature felt next to the thicker ones in the text block. Fun fact for those who've seen an adaptation of this story but not actually read it: there is actually no hot air balloon in the book, even though it's in all the adaptations. There was a movie made in the 1950s which added the balloon and it's been in every version since then.

Title page and chapter header. I've been saying for a while that I wanted to up my title page game, and I really love how this looks. The image here is a free vector pulled from Seekpng.com. It's the same image on both pages, the one on the chapter header is just smaller and in gray instead of black. I've also chosen a name for my bindery, largely because other people had names for theirs and I thought it was cool and wanted my own. It's Paper Snake Press, you can see it at the bottom of the text. I want a logo too but haven't gotten around to making one yet. 2d art is, uh. Still not a strength for me.

The text I used was pulled from Project Gutenberg. Typesetting it was and interesting experience, surprisingly different from typesetting fic. When I do fic I keep the editing very light, just really obvious things like misspelled characters' names and quotation marks that are flipped the wrong way, but it always needs something. This one didn't need any of that, which was nice. It also has way longer sentences and paragraphs than fic, and I thought that might be a product of its age, that writers just wrote longer sentences and were more verbose in 1873 than they are now. But then this week I started working on another fic that has the same features, from someone I've suspected for a while is a published author, so I wonder if it's actually a professional author thing instead of a shift in reading tastes over time. I'm not really going anywhere with this speculation, I just thought it was interesting.

I have two more works-in-progress printed and waiting. One is an author copy and just needs casing in, the other's in a halfway stage and has a lot to be done, so it might be a bit before I have more books to post. But there's a whole stack of things I've typeset that I'm waiting to print, so there are good things coming.

[irritablepoe]

no but ive only read a tell tale heart from the real author but just from that,,,i dont think poe would be very normal abt relationships especially with ranpo......i didnt finish perfume by patrick suskind (got kinda bored not bc it's bad but bc i just found something i like more ) but the secretive and quiet but extreme obsession of the main character reminded me so much of poe??? and i think i read somewhere that the real ranpo chose edogawa rampo as a penname because it sounds so much like edgar allan poe and even rampo's book title is like poe’s right it only added japanese at the beginning before the ‘tales of mystery and imagination’ so it's not rlly far off that their bsd counterparts would totally be paranoid and intense w each other <333

dont be sorry abt loving this ship a lot!! in fact,,,if possible, could u share a lil bit more of ur headcanons abt them hehehheehehhe i dont see them portrayed in this light often (like u said v v rare)

i think telltale heart is a good example of poe's writing tbh, his works often revolve around obsession and delusion but also with grief if you look at "the raven" for example (especially his poems are about grief and death a lot so)

i've not read perfume but i know the general plot i think and yeah it probably fits well

AND YES edogawa rampo chose this pen name partly bc of edgar allan poe, he also references poe's works in his mysteries which is fun!! both of them also partly write horror, especially edogawa rampo's works shook me to the core, it's so well-written but also so disturbing, i wouldn't recommend them just like that bc of body horror and uhh fetish writing ig? but the cases of akechi kogoro are also so fun to read as well and you can actually try and solve the mystery yourself!!

ANYWAYS, this was a lot of praising lol, i just really really love both of their works :D and these works are also part of why i think they're both fucked up in the head lol

my biggest headcanon i'm saving for when my fanfic catches up to what i've already written lol, so i'm not spoilering that (but if you wanna know i can dm you :3)

other headcanons that i've curated during the past months:

poe has some sort of dissociative disorder, he dissociates when he's too overstimulated or sth triggers him, also he possibly struggles with intrusive thoughts

ranpo has autism and npd

poe has a brother in america, his parents died when he was young

he had a drug or alcohol problem after he lost to ranpo - the guild giving him an opportunity to get revenge motivated him enough to mostly recover though

poe has some really dark fantasies and sometimes he lets it slip during crime investigations - ranpo doesn't mind, he's even amused

ranpo also secretly loves it when poe brags

ranpo and poe started stalking each other (maybe even since the beginning) until one of them realised and send a very clear signal that the other couldn't miss and since then they've been flirting via sending secret messages in a language only they know to each other - basically consensual stalking (yes i'm completely normal)(also i haven't decided who realised first but it was probably ranpo - i love the thought of ranpo getting all flustered too tho)

poe didn't only lose to ranpo in that mystery game. he also lost his reputation, his friends, his admirers. there was more going on there, they probably met before the competition and they were intrigued by each other before it all went downhill

when poe isolated himself he only had contact to his brother who desperately tried to get him out of his headspace. but he himself isn't the best at having stable relationships + he's also an alcoholic (inspired by irl poe's brother henry)

they're both incredibly jealous and do anything to keep the others attention on them (ranpo giving candy to poe to get his attention back, poe being pretty dramatic and acting up a lot, also obeying every wish ranpo has)

ranpo must have told poe about fukuzawa and fukuchi for him to be able to write about their past for when they were drawn into his novel - so that means they actually sat together and talked about their past. which is insane to me

i do have another headcanon post but i couldn't find it ahhh, but it has to be buried somewhere in all the ranpoe postings lol

okay that was a lot, thank you if you read all that tho hehe :3 and thank you for asking, i love talking about them hsdkjfsdhjfs

[themswritinwords]

Songs and Ships

Tagged by @athenswrites (many thanks!) and tagging @stesierra, @silvertalonwritblr, and @arigalefantasynovels (if you want, no pressure)

rules: write two to five songs that represent a ship between your ocs (it can be platonic or romantic or a secret third thing). then add a quote from said wip (if possible!) underneath it.

I know you shouldn't play favorites with your (brain)children, but I'm going with my all-time favs, Evan and Rowan, from The Rockbridge Experiment.

I Guess I'm In Love by Clinton Kane

I mean, the title says it all. He fell first, she fell harder, a little obliviously mutual pining (and everyone around them rolling their eyes) later, they're the embodiment of "this might as well happen." But make it romance.

Have Rowan's "oops! Feelings!" moment.

If she’d been anyone else, he might have just done it. Acted on impulse and kissed her right then, two-weeks-acquaintance be damned. But if there was a way to ruin everything, that would have been it. You didn’t just accept having a crush on your brand new coworker, let alone act on it. Is that why he was so hung up on her? He saw a pretty girl, but she was automatically off limits, so his brain threw a fit and refused to let the idea go without closure. That was then misinterpreted as attraction. Desire. Whatever this was. Was that really it? The thought gave him a peculiar, distasteful feeling in the pit of his stomach and he frowned to himself, turning another corner. He… didn’t want it to be just some fleeting attraction. And it wasn’t, was it? Yeah, sure, that came with it, but… Oh gods, he liked her. As in, ‘I want to kiss you because I really like you,’ not ‘I like you because I really want to kiss you.’ He stopped midstep, heart pounding with both joy and terror at the realization that this wasn’t a cut and dry case of having the hots for his coworker. “Well,” he said, putting his hands on his hips, “shit.” What did he do now?

Pas Peur by L.E.J.

Is it cheating if it's in a different language? Not if the character speaks said language. A song for the spicy Cajun girl who built a huge chunk of her identity on being Not Scared Of Anything, but is deeply terrified of the fact that she's crushing on someone for the first time in her life. (Bonus points because she literally didn't realize it for 3/4 of the manuscript. I'm not getting over that.)

Have the Terror of Realization.

She glanced surreptitiously to the side, scanning Rowan for any hint of how he was interpreting it. He had his hair down, running his fingers through the ends as he watched the alley ahead of them with a residual smile. Evan’s stomach did that weird twisting thing again, and a tiny jolt went through her as something shifted into place in her mind. Something totally foreign to her, a murky, terrifying unknown slowly fading into focus as her eyes traced the angles of his face.

Falling, by Florence + the Machine

What can I say? I'm a sucker for the scared-of-vulnerability and helpless-descent-into-madness vibes. This one applies to both of them. They're both terrified in different ways and for different reasons-- Rowan because he's usually the smooth talking player who dates around and is always chill, and now he's totally off his game with the facade stripped away. Evan because she's never actually cared for anyone like this, and she also doesn't know how to be the vulnerable, needy one.

Alas, there's not a ton of other quotes I could draw from because Major Spoilers, but have a snippet of a lil heart-to-heart that was particularly fun to write.

“You know,” she said after a moment, “a while back you told me that if the detective thing didn’t work out, I had a future as a therapist.” She looked up with a smirk. “I didn’t realize you were projecting.” “Side effect of your mom having a doctorate in psychology,” Rowan said with a smile. “The analysis, anyway. The awkwardly saying it out loud uncalled for is all me, unfortunately.” “Hey now, you don’t get to give a speech like that and then go calling yourself unfortunate.” With no witty comeback to be had, he just chuckled quietly. “Thank you,” Evan said, quickly and quietly. “I… I think I kind of needed that.” “I meant it,” Rowan said. “You really are incredible.” Their eyes met and lingered in a warm, fragile silence.  “I don’t know why this feels like the time to say it,” Evan said after a moment, “but for all the insanity and general screwed-up-ness of this whole situation… if nothing else, I’m glad it means I got to know you.” “The feeling’s mutual,” Rowan said quietly.

.

Maybe it's time to get back to focusing on rewrites and shortening this one. I forgot how much fun I had writing these kids.

[rarepears]

Ask game, title: Just another ordinary day (I lie to myself)

If Obi Wan was assigned a mission to go undercover - even if the orders came from Palpatine, there had to be enough justification to have Obi Wan, of all people, to take it instead of some Jedi Shadow - then Obi Wan should either 1) have experience going undercover for long periods of time or 2) a proven track record of being a good actor.

Options 2 is far more fun to play around with.

Obi Wan won a couple Oscar equivalent roles for his acting. He didn't exactly chose to do act, but he and his master were stranded on a planet and their usual method of making cash (betting and card games) weren't available because gambling was not just illegal but thoroughly enforced by the local police force. And modeling was out of the question because fashion brands don't exactly really like the Pawadan haircut, but there was this local holofilm production that was filming a movie about the Jedi Order and oh look! We got some Jedi experts AND Obi Wan has volunteered to act in one of the main roles - which will save the holofilm production crew a lot of money on special effects!

So that was the start of Obi Wan's filming career.

And when your acting career starts blossoming enough... you wouldn't be surprised at how much easier it is to get into places that are pretty much always off limits; fans sure are more than happy to help break rules for you.

Naturally Obi Wan does all of this with a stage name, but still.

And maybe he enjoys acting a little more than he lets on considering how he volunteers to act in student director's films every now and then.

(And surprisingly a couple of them went on to win big awards. And by "them" I mean both the director and the student film project.)

Anyways, so his big acting career might be the reason why Obi Wan keeps pushing Anakin to star in more propaganda films instead. He doesn't need his (rapid) fans catching onto the fact that the big name actor Ben K. is actually a Jedi or one of the top generals in this war.

But unfortunately for Obi Wan, there's a conspiracy theory that's quickly gathering steam connecting the two...

And that theory explodes when Obi Wan's death just so happens to line up with a leaked BTS holovid showing Obi Wan in a holofilm crew solving a murder case for the police in his capacity of Jedi Knight while also clearly in costume and makeup for the film...

Dex is naturally Obi Wan's agent who negotiates all the contracts.

[More in #the many ways to make obiwan's rako hardeen episode 100X harder au]

[check out other fic ideas in the #made up fic title ask game]

[mdhwrites]

Arcane Episode 1 Review: A Playground Indeed

I have a LOT to talk about with this because Arcane is an amazing beast even in just its first episode so I’m splitting it up into parts so if you want to skip something, look for the bold text.

1. A Distinction to Be Made (Preamble in how I see this show)

2. Welcome to The Playground (Overall impression and tone)

3. A Crew to Run With (Side Characters)

4. Our Champions (Main Characters)

5. The Personality of Animation

A Distinction to Be Made

So I often worry with shows I’ve heard literally nothing bad that the hype is going to get to me. I’ll be primed to be harsh on it because my brain is hoping to see what other people see in it. It’s just a problem with my brain.

This was not one of those times because this series is already living up to its reputation... Though I’ll actually be critical first in saying that that’s not surprising. I don’t know if this is commonly true for Netflix series but a lot of people are going to judge this against Saturday Morning cartoons or normal broadcast stuff.

That opening sequence with Vander, Vi and Powder tells you this isn’t the same case. It is a confident choice to start so somber, to build pure atmosphere for the sort of hell that used to be this place to contrast it later against the struggling but surviving Lanes that we see later. It’s also one you’d NEVER get out of pretty much anything for broadcast television and dripping with enough money in five minutes to fund probably an entire episode of something like Amphibia.

It is prestige television like something like the Walking Dead so I’m going to try and not compare it to other things like The Owl House, Danny Phantom, etc. like that. It clearly is meant to be hard serialized, more serious, more impressive, etc. like that. I also don’t say this to knock it but it’s an important distinction versus a lot of its peers... Because it’s animated.

Anyone who comes to Arcane wanting a fun, PG-13 animated show is possibly going to be turned away just like those who hear it’s animated but serious might get turned away too. Luckily for me, I’m here for both sides so this pilot was FUCKING AWESOME.

Welcome to the Playground

Now I did compare it to prestige television but I want to start with the fact that unlike your Game of Thrones or Walking Deads, this first episode’s title lives up to it. This is a blast, in more ways than one. The overall energy, after the dreariness of the beginning, is a mix of excitement, tension and energy which is EXACTLY what it should be for an episode introducing us to young criminals trying to stretch their wings and find their place.

I’m trying to stick to this part being overall impression though so I won’t get into too many specifics. Part of what sells all of this though is the breath through the world of Piltover and the Lanes. The dynamic is nothing new but the episode is happy to really showcase each part’s different wonders as well as their dangers, despite how little time we get in Piltover. It makes the contrasts all the stronger and the threats all the more real.

But it never abandons wonder to wallow. This is what allows it to frankly keep up a positive feeling throughout the first episode. That things will workout, even as set backs and issues come up. This was just one bad job after all. What’s the worst that can happen?

Which I know enough to have had a rock forming in my stomach as the show began making it clearer and clearer that there was never a way for this job to go right. Even without light spoilers though, you can tell. It is curdling the sweet, warm milk that it’s trying to lull you to sleep with. That for as tough as Vi is, as capable her crew and how dominant Vander is over his domain, things are turning.

But the show is wise enough to wait. It has things to introduce after all like:

A Crew to Run With

So I won’t actually get into Vi and Powder yet, despite knowing them to be the main characters. Frankly, I think the fact that I can make this section at all though is a VERY good thing. The fact that this isn’t going to be just one line for these guys is even better.

Vi’s two friends are great. They feel like a play on the big dumb guy and small smart guy but they don’t play it entirely straight. The larger guy isn’t just a fat joke like one might expect or a liability because of his weight. Instead, they acknowledge the fact that vikings had very similar builds so while there’s a small touch of him just obliterating a cupcake, you know he puts in the work to at least mostly work it off. He is also the muscle and strength of the crew, alongside the heart. He appears to probably be about as capable as Vi in a fight but not nearly as ruthless. He frankly doesn’t seem to have the stomach to go quite as hard as Vi, nor the drive needed to be the leader, though the caution to be a great advisor.

The rogue of their party has his charm too. Not as good in a fight but more squirrely and scrappy. He’s also got more skills than the others, things that make him more invaluable and that has gone STRAIGHT to his head. He doesn’t see his fuck ups after all or his weaknesses because he always is justified on the team because he’s the one who can actually work the gadgets they need. He does need one proper kick in the ass to get his head on straight but he’s young and pride and ego are all too common for kids.

Vander might have one of the best introductions I’ve ever seen. “Don’t threaten the one who poors the drinks” is such a great line and honestly, the whole exchange is incredible. He is never actually nice to the traders beyond asking if they need anything but the VA does an incredible job delivering threats and joking barbs in such a way that it takes a while for you to realize just how upset he is with these two. When he says “You’ll get used to it” is when the sweetness drops as he makes it clear that this is how it works. You either leave or... get used to it.

It only gets more interesting though as we see him with the kids and especially Vi. You can see the contrast of the man who lived a life that led to him wearing iron gauntlets and beating an enforcer’s face in and the change required for him to now have a family and run the lanes as its boss. He’s not exactly a criminal lord but he can’t live by our sort of morality. The sort of morality that says one blown up building is enough to start a crusade, but he also can’t be so cutthroat as to sell out his own kind, especially his own kin.

A lot of others get good moments, like us learning Ekko is inventive and smart, or just the incredible impression that the villain leaves in his limited time, but nothing I can say too much of at the moment. I do love the fact that even accidental information does push the villain to show sympathy... But only with veiled sympathy. It’s a good way to show the act he might put up to get people to be loyal to him but also the wheels within wheels that he’s turning so as to be ready for whatever is to come.

Our Champions

Just the one shot of them overlooking the Lanes would tell you that these are your main characters: Powder and Vi. Even if you don’t know they’re Legends, you could tell these two and their relationship is going to be a major part of this, though the theme song does spoil that some too, at least once the timeskip that is to come happens.

The two simply have both too distinct of designs and too much importance to each other while not having any of the death flags someone like Vander might (though to its credit, I actually don’t know if Vander is about to bite it and the show hasn’t been too blunt on if that will or won’t happen.) With that said, anyone who thought Powder was the innocent set up to die... I wouldn’t blame them.

Powder is not bad but she suffers from writing that happens a lot with younger characters. Because she is less skilled and able than the rest, the episode centers a LOOOOT of what’s happening with her around that conflict. Pretty much all of the dialogue with her is about how she has a lot of growing left to do before she’s on par with those older than her. It could get a little tedious but I found it mostly fine but that has to do a lot more with Vi and Powder together than Powder by herself.

Not to say Powder doesn’t do right by herself regardless. Her inventiveness is well documented, her frustrations with those inventions but also her love for them is too. One can easily note that when she talks about them not working, she doesn’t discard them or even stop making them. It implies that she blames herself, not her tools which is VERY dangerous for an inventor that young because it means one of the biggest hurdles to learning is gone already. It effectively guarantees that she’ll only get better because she’s ready to get better.

She contrasts well as a more innocent figure though because while she’s willing to effectively make a grenade, it’s only when push comes to shove. It’s not her first instinct and you could absolutely imagine a different timeline where she grows up in a place less violent and so her gadgets wouldn’t be geared towards violence. It’s also just good to show that it does take time in this world for the innocence in someone to be crushed. That it’s not so cruel and scary so as to make someone like her unable to function.

It does cause a bit of a manic pixie feeling from her but it’s reigned in well by the lack of energy she has. She’s still mostly quiet as someone who doesn’t fight or isn’t ready for danger needs to be ready to hide. Again, she contrasts well with almost every other character we see.

This is especially true with Vi. Vi doesn’t talk a lot without a point. She definitely has gang leader energy to her and not in a bad way. She is working to be like her adopted father someday where she’s ready to run everything. This is both in her gruff attitude and her fists... But also in the kindness she’s learned from Vander.

She has a well of kindness and wisdom that is beyond her years. Frankly, it’s easy to see why the other kids look up to her and it’s not just because she can kick ass. She has a confidence that is infectious so when she says she believes you’re ready, you think it too. She’s also able to connect and make her point clear, whether it be through kindness to her sister or roughness to the dumbass on her team.

She really does save the wallowing that could be with Powder. The fact that the two are genuinely open to each other stops a misunderstanding plot and let it actually lead to a really sweet moment about bad days that just hit so well. But... This isn’t her only side. The other side I connect all too well with as someone who got told he was mature for his age.

An anger. This belief that if you are more mature, so smart and so talented, that you ought to be better. Ought to be somewhere other than where you are. You shouldn’t have to deal with fools or scraps or watch the popular kids get to break the rules that always feel so suffocating to you. That anger is starting to form in Vi and it could easily get out of control.

It actually makes a fun parallel to the angry enforcer who gets in Vander’s face. That man very much so looks at the people here, people he sees as skirting the rules and hurting others, and wants an excuse to do something about it. Meanwhile, Vi sees the topsiders ignoring their plight, feigned ignorance making them as culpable to their problems as if they were punching them in the face themselves and wants to do something about it. Wants to release that anger somehow. She doesn’t have the tools or smarts to do it yet though, which makes her sister’s potential all the scarier.

The Personality of Animation

The last thing I want to touch on is just the fact that the animation for this is SO GOOD. This is absolutely one of those shows where you could turn off the volume and still get much of the point of what’s going on. The expressions are incredible, from the big ticket emotions to subtle acting moments that would be hard for even the best actors to pull off and that is not easy for an animator to replicate. Just body language is incredibly on point though, like how Vi sits when Vander wants to talk. Literally the way she sits just screams “I know what you’re going to say so get it over with” because she doesn’t want this talk and thinks it’s going to be pointless because she’s a dumb tweenager who thinks she’s got the world figured out.

In general, EVERYTHING is dripping with personality like this. No two people do something in quite the same way. There is so much care and attention to detail that you really only get with movie animation nowadays, and not even every movie, even from big studios. Not all of them are paying this much attention. A lot of the personality I got the characters came from design and actions and what you can just read on their face and it’s just really impressive.

The fact that it’s BEAUTIFUL while doing this is just the cherry on top. It’s also more grounded and more adult than most kid’s shows in its writing and animation without losing the fun of animation. Honestly, and I know some might disagree with me on this, I’d love it if people took this as a sign that you don’t have to be boring in order to be more adult when it comes to animation. I see trailers for shows like “Fired on Mars” and sure, it looks like it could be fun... But it also LOOKS boring as hell. Like yep, I sure have seen this sort of stiff adult animation a bunch of times.

The fact that Arcane is so ALIVE with its animation is a just a fucking treat, though part of that is absolutely because Riot has the money to back this thing up. They’re not making these as cash grabs so they’re going to make sure that if everything else fails, the animation doesn’t.

And man... They’ve had well over a decade to refine these characters, regions, world, concepts, etc. and I’m really happy that despite their genre of games not demanding it, they don’t seem to have been sitting on their hands. You can tell this is the sort of project that can only be realized so well by having both confidence and polish that takes just a lot, and I mean a LOOOT of time.

And frankly, I feel a bit bad that I hadn’t given it my own time sooner. Hopefully it keeps ticking on as strongly as this first forty minutes.

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