#here. take it. i give up with this readmore thing. enjoy

[scallioncreamcheesebagel]

Best Anime of Autumn 2024

🎣 1. Negative Positive Angler (NegaPosi Angler)

After a failed suicide attempt, college student and gambling addict Sasaki learns that death is swiftly coming nonetheless, when he's diagnosed with brain cancer and given two years to live. This is the immediate opening to an anime about fishing.

This is a masterfully done subject anime. Taking a character who has lost everything and has no joy in his life, and letting him learn to find community and healing through fishing, makes fishing synonymous with community and healing. Sasaki is painfully relatable in his depression, but the show never gets too dark, balancing the line between heavy moments and comedic moments perfectly.

In addition to the incredible story, its art, animation, and sound design are all beautiful--no wonder, considering this comes from Studio Nut (Deca-Dence). I will always trust them to make a fantastic original anime, and with no source material to look ahead in, I can't wait to see what comes next!

Genre: Drama

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Tsuritama, Welcome to the NHK, the Tanaka episode of Odd Taxi

Gay?: Only if you squint and believe (which I do), but it's an original so you never know

⚠️ CW: Attempted suicide, setting-typical fish gutting

Negative Positive Angler can be watched on Crunchyroll!

Rest of the list under the readmore!

🍓 2. Acro Trip

LET'S GET SILLY. Chizuko is a girl with one singular, obsessive interest in her life: Berry Blossom, her town's local magical girl. Every day, she watches clips of her on the news while shoujo romance sparkles flit around her head in delight.

However, there's one problem: the town's local villain, Chrome, is a bit of a pathetic loser who can't come up with an evil plan to save his life, let alone execute one. This robs Berry Blossom of the opportunity to have awesome fights! When Chizuko finds Chrome beat-up after a routine ass-kicking by her hero, Chrome decides this random teenager's sharp intellect is exactly what he needs to make up for his lack of anything of the sort and recruits her to his side.

There is maybe one brain cell shared throughout this main cast. Magical girl parodies are often hit-or-miss, and this one is all hit, clearly shining with love for the genre. While the girls and their parasocial lesbianisms are great, Chrome is my favorite part of the show. His overdramatic loserishness gives off similar energy as Megamind, James from Team Rocket, or Reigen Arakata. Here's a clip of him getting hit in the head with a can. If you like that sort of thing OR magical girls in any capacity, you'll have a great time with this one.

Genre: Comedy, Magical girl

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Machikado Mazoku, Precure, the Team Rocket parts of Pokemon

Gay?: VERY. Chizuko is a dangerous little lesbian.

CW: None

Acro Trip can be watched on Crunchyroll!

🌌 3. Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite)

Set in a fictionalized version of 15th century Poland, Orb follows astronomers in their attempts to prove heliocentrism or die trying. Rafal is a young boy raised in the Catholic church with two passions: astronomy and theology. When he meets a branded heretic who introduces him to the breakthrough idea that the earth rotates and revolves, he cannot get it out of his head, leading him down a dangerous path.

This is not a simplistic "religion vs. science" story: All the characters in this show are religious, and ascribe their beliefs as being God's true design. Each character has complex motivations and philosophies that drive the story. With production by Madhouse (Frieren, Monster, Death Note, Hunter x Hunter), you know this will be consistently high-quality all the way through its 2-cour run.

Do not look up anything about this anime before watching it.

Genre: Historical drama

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Vinland Saga, To Your Eternity, Kino's Journey

Gay?: These guys have enough problems to deal with just saying the planets revolve around the sun, you want them to be gay too?

⚠️ CW: Religious persecution (main theme), torture, gore, suicide

Orb can be watched on Netflix!

😈 4. Demon Lord 2099 (Maou 2099)

Demon Lord Veltol once ruled his whole kingdom, leading armies to victory with confidence and charisma until the day he was slain by a valiant hero. But Veltol is immortal, his return is promised in 500 years' time, and he is a patient man.

When Veltol wakes to brightly-colored advertisements shining from the sides of skyscapers, he learns the world has changed more than he could have imagined during his slumber. His world has fused with an exotic land called 'Earth' in a dimensional disaster, and in the time since, magic and science have worked together to progress things into an unimaginably confusing capitalist, dystopian hellscape. His powers, which had once been nearly unrivaled, falter in comparison to the average person's tech-infused magic in the modern world, and his last remaining loyal servant only has her tiny studio apartment to offer him. Having no citizenship, he can't even get a normal job to try and make it in this new society.

Faced with these barriers and desperately needing to restore his base of believers in order to rise to his former glory: Veltol does the only logical thing: he becomes a twitch streamer.

Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy, Comedy

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Ya Boy Kongming, The Devil is a Part-Timer, Mayonaka Punch

Gay?: Not this one

CW: None

Demon Lord 2099 can be watched on Crunchyroll!

🍄 5. Kinokoinu Mushroom Pup (Kinoko Inu)

Hotaru is thrown into a depressive spiral when his pet dog dies. Unable to write or even muster any sort of charisma for fan events, he holes himself up in his house to stare at the shrine he's made for his beloved companion, the only family he had left.

It's then that the mushroom growing in his backyard, sensing his despair, unexplainably transforms into a dog-like creature. While at first he thinks of Kinoko as something to take care of, Kinoko does much the same for him, in its own peculiar way.

The first episode of this one made me cry a little. It's equal parts sweet and sad, and if you have ever lost a pet, it'll hit hard.

Genre: Iyashikei

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Poco's Udon World, Barakamon, She and Her Cat: Everything Flows

Gay?: Yes! One of the main characters is a gay mushroom researcher in love with the protagonist, and he has awesome hair.

⚠️ CW: Pet death (main theme)

Kinokoinu Mushroom Pup can be watched on Crunchyroll!

💰 6. Trillion Game

This one's probably the biggest surprise of the season for me. Before it aired, I thought it sounded really stupid in a bad way. As it turned out, it's really stupid in an AMAZING way. Haru, self-proclaimed 'most selfish man in the world', is unparalleled in his charisma and people skills (take this at face value despite the actual content of his demeanor). After recruiting a pet hacker to do all the booksmart shit for him, the two of them set out with the goal of earning ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. Because if you have one trillion dollars, you can do anything and have anything. It becomes increasingly ridiculous with each passing scene, and never fails to entertain.

Also made by Madhouse, Trillion Game features a unique art style many don't care for but I personally adore. It's based on a manga written by the author of Dr. Stone. If you want some so-stupid-it's-good stuff to laugh your ass off to, this is for you.

Genre: Comedy (I'm like 80% sure it's on purpose?)

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Great Pretender (if it was stupid), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (if it was about business majors without magic powers), Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto

Gay?: if it was i think i'd have to name this anime of the year

CW: None

Trillion Game can be watched on Crunchyroll!

💖 7. How I Attended an All-Guys Mixer (Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi)

Three guys show up to a triple first date with some girls from their college, only to find three incredibly handsome men in their place. Alas, that's only what it appears to be on the surface: the truth is, their dates all work at a crossdressing host club, and they didn't have time to change out of their work attire. This will become a pattern for them, in this cute little romcom about three men discovering their bisexuality.

Episode 1 had me kind of on the fence, making repetitive jokes about the basic premise, but later episodes really drew me in and got me invested in these relationships and their development. Suo in particular, the dark-haired character in the center over there, is the absolute star of the show, taking delight in every step she gets her love interest to take toward discovering himself.

Genre: Romantic comedy

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Ouran High School Host Club, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, that sort of thing but with adults

Gay?: Aggressively bisexual

⚠️ CW: Episode 1 has a few mildly homophobic and transphobic jokes, the kind you'd expect in this sort of thing, but they get it all out of their system early. Someone is kissed on the forehead after passing out drunk.

How I Attended an All-Guys Mixer can be watched on Hidive!

🪦 Sequel of the season: Re:Zero Season 3

Usually I don't give a whole main spot to sequels, but Re:Zero is one of the greatest to ever do it, so it gets one. Unlike the rest of the shows on this list, all of which have 3 or 4 episodes out, Re:Zero is cresting 50. And it's worth catching up on, if you have any kind of penchant for horror-thrillers. Some of the best character development I've seen in anything ever can be found in here, and you don't want to miss it.

Genre: Horror-Thriller, High fantasy

You may like this one if you enjoyed: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Higurashi: When They Cry, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Gay?: Season 3 has side lesbians

⚠️ CW: Gore, torture, suicide, the works. Over and over and over.

Re:Zero can be watched on Crunchyroll!

Honorable Mentions

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. is a slice of life magical girl anime about a recent college graduate who begins working for a magical girl company. One of the only anime about adult magical girls I've ever seen! Best for those really into the magical girl genre. (Amazon)

Neko Oji is a cute little short-form (2 minutes an episode) anime about a middle-aged man who transforms into a kitten and gets adopted by his boss. (Fansubbed)

Yakuza Fiancé is a ridiculously melodramatic, toxic drama-romance about the yandere grandchildren of yakuza members making each other worse. (Crunchyroll). CW: sexual harassment

Uzumaki episode 1 is worth a watch if you like horror. Treat it as a standalone TV special and ignore the rest of the series. (Hulu, Max, Adult Swim). CW: body horror, gore

That's all I've got for the season! Let's see how many of these make it to my top anime of the year post come January :)

[puzzleglum]

(This post doesn't take long to read, but the comic screenshots are kinda big, so I'll provide a readmore anyhow. Please enjoy some spontaneous meta!)

I was just rereading and taking notes, to prepare for writing my deeper thoughts on how the Jekyll and Hyde heart-to-heart might go. And this panel stood out to me:

It stood out to me because...Hyde, here and now, in this white void, has to do the EXACT OPPOSITE of telling Jekyll to give up, give in, surrender, stop fighting, and so forth. He must convince him to keep going, keep living, despite everything that's happened.

Remember what Jekyll said, when he gave up and decided to bury himself?

To surrender to the void, at last?

"What you've always told me to do. I'm giving up."

I must say, it's the truth. Hyde HAS always told Jekyll to give in, and let Hyde take over control. There are so many examples of this that I could make a list out of it. But in the interest of brevity, I'll just share my favorite example, because of how hard it hits:

"Soon you'll learn that it's so much easier to just surrender, to sink down into that deep, quiet place in our mind until it's all over!"

This white void, an abyss at the bottom of their mind, is NOT what Hyde was talking about, by the way. He was talking about this:

But isn't it funny, that Hyde told Jekyll to sink down into their mind, and eventually, he did?

And it was the worst thing ever, for Hyde. Jekyll gave him just what he wanted, in the most bleakly ironic, and emotionally cutting way possible. He abandoned him to the wolves.

So of course Jekyll thinks Hyde must have given up, if he's joined him in the abyss. But no, it's the opposite. Hyde is here to bring them both back to the waking world.

Let's hope he succeeds, because convincing Jekyll sure isn't going to be easy. But if you ask me...Hyde is ready to try. :)

[toskarin]

A question of curiosity - assuming you play them due to your involvement with a bunch of them, what are your favourite kinds of characters (be it mechanically or narratively) to play in TTRPGS? And do you have any associated anecdotes to go with them?

courtesy readmore

mechanically kinda depends on what's on the menu, but if it's combat-focused, I personally really enjoy characters who "deny" things

not really the kind of character who I'd ever expect a GM to put in their element on purpose (I usually make a conscious effort to remind the GM of things I'm capable of so that I don't trample on any fun setpieces) but definitely the kind of character who modifies objectives just by being in play. I also like magic-users in concept, but that's more of a flavour thing

I think that's reflected a good bit in the kind of narrative play I enjoy, too. when I make a character, I prefer to do it with the rest of the party in mind, less to make the character "compatible" and more to make them sharply contrast in ways that encourage the other characters to have moments where they can reaffirm who they are (both in narrative and out of narrative)

there's a fine balance to strike here. on one end of things, you risk yes-manning so hard that the party quickly becomes a problem solving engine with a single striking surface. on the other end of the things, you risk being The Chaotic Neutral Guy

the space in the middle there represents the characters that people often want to regularly interact with, but rarely want to play. the sort of character who isn't actively disruptive, but raises a lot of red flags when they suddenly show enthusiastic agreement for what you're doing. the kind of character you almost need a diminished sense of discomfort to play without getting in your own feelings about

I adore playing characters who are catered to find plot hooks in other players' characters and tug them just enough to pull them to the surface

most parties have characters who disagree on things that aren't easily resolved. that's always fun, but (because people courteously tend to avoid conflict) it's very rare for those conflicts to come up without GM prompting, and "create productive conflict between two characters without leaving out the rest of the characters or starting a fight between players" is often an equally uncomfortable situation for a GM

lots of fun directions to take it!

have an arc that would benefit from a character taking charge but their player doesn't feel comfortable just Doing That? it helps to have someone else try to take charge who obviously should not be allowed, just to get everyone behind the alternative

have someone with a pure heart who doesn't really get to show that in a party of players who don't want to be mean? maybe someone who's a little more morally-compromised could give them a window for explaining what they actually believe

have a character who's part of some mysterious cult that nobody else is going to find the time to look into? the party could benefit from having a nosy character to justify cracking open that backstory

GM needs to fuck something up to remind the party of how dangerous things are? why not add to the mood by showing what your often-cold character looks like when something manages to actually upset them

[WARNING: DOING ANY OF THIS WALKS THE PRECARIOUSLY THIN LINE BETWEEN BEING COMPELLING AND BEING ANNOYING]

observant readers (well, those who have followed for a while) might have noticed I periodically go on rants about the much-maligned "evil character in a good party" and how both sides of the argument represent a communication and courtesy breakdown. that also very much ties into this sort of thing. I won't go over Tolerable Villainy 101 again, but you get the idea

distilled, I like playing the sort of thoroughly worldly bastards who often end up important in their own right, but mostly on accident, by virtue of being important to what makes other characters compelling

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Wanted to ask, is Eridan's relationship with his dad ok? Like when Eridan was learning how to use his harpoon gun he seemed very much distressed and not enjoying any of it

The only real canon characterization we have of seahorsedad is that the version of him that's Cronus's lusus is "stern, fatherly" and that he ditches Cronus for Hussie, although that last one is mostly just a Bit so I don't really count it as characterization. He's also willing to go along with Eridan "doing something ridiculous," though, again, that's kind of a Bit and it's unclear how canon that is.

((cw for abuse and stuff beneath the readmore))

As such, pretty much anything I say is going to be pure extrapolation that serves my characterization of Eridan, and I can't really back it up with hard textual evidence. But, personally, I think Eridan believes his relationship with his lusus is "good" in the way that many children growing up beneath strict, emotionally neglectful, and even outright abusive parents do.

We know that Eridan has very few friends. He doesn't even really talk to half the people in their group chat, and according to Feferi, he's never spent more than a few days underwater, total, in his whole life. Add onto that that lusus murder (and, by extension, the culling of the orphaned troll) has been his duty long enough that he describes it is "the only thing i evver did," I think it's a reasonable assumption to make that he also has no IRL friends, aside from Feferi.

And to give an idea of how old Eridan was when he started having to murder lusii, here's how old Vriska was when she was expected to start feeding spidermom:

This, and the fact that Dualscar was called "Orphaner" because the job of feeding Gl'bgolyb was his even into adulthood (as he lived before the Summoner's rebellion and the removal of adult trolls from Alternia), and the fact that no one, including Feferi, ever shows any gratitude towards Eridan for performing the job, supports the idea that feeding Gl'bgolyb has always been a violet blood's responsibility. After all, Feferi makes overtures about not being better than other trolls, but she sure does revel in being royalty when she can get away with it. It'd be in character for her to not be particularly grateful to Eridan because she sees lusus murder as fundamentally being his responsibility, especially if he started when they were both REALLY young.

In other words, Eridan was expected to start murdering lusii (and by extension, other trolls) from the moment he was old enough to do so, which, judging by how old Vriska was when she started killing trolls for Spidermom, is not very old at all.

Also, given the lifespan of violet bloods, it's entirely possible - and my personal belief - that Seahorsedad was Dualscar's lusus as well as Eridan's. Even without that being the case, since it was always Eridan's job to hunt and kill lusii, the biggest possible culprit for inducting him into his role would be his lusus.

And let's be clear, I think the fact that having to murder lusii/trolls is the biggest culprit for what's fucked Eridan up the most. The pressure of having the safety of the entire race on his shoulders, the fear of Gl'bgolyb and what happens if he ever fails, and the guilt of taking lives (which we do know Eridan thinks about) have left him with genuine struggles caring about other people, a nasty martyr complex (which isn't unjustified), extremely unstable and negative emotions, shattered interpersonal relationships, and a deep, nihilistic sense of resignation towards his place in society. The latter has directly led to him attempting to embrace that place by tricking himself into thinking he believes in hemocasteist, sea dweller supremacy rhetoric - which his actions contradict - because, without the game's intervention, he had no other options available for him but to become a key figure in the imperial army, continue murdering other sapient creatures until he died, and watch all his few friends die before him, either when they got culled, killed on the battlefield, or purely dropped dead of old age.

And, like... a parent who does that to their child, even if we assume the absolute best (that Seahorsedad does genuinely care about Eridan), can't possibly have a fully healthy relationship with said child. And I think it's not unreasonable to assume that the best is not what's happening between Eridan and Seahorsedad, because Eridan's psychological profile is so fucked up that I highly doubt he was receiving much, if any, actual affection or support from his lusus. Personally, I think his lusus was "stern and fatherly" in the worst possible way - high expectations, no emotional warmth, and complete disregard for Eridan's psychological well-being, as long as he was producing adequate results.

Because Eridan craves attention, and has very little distinction between good and bad attention. He's naive and trusting to a fault, hardly ever suspects anybody of lying to him, and has basically no social skills. These all say to me that Seahorsedad is just, like... not giving him any emotional attention at ALL.

And poor Eridan is just 13 years old - still too young to fully realize how poorly he's being treated by people who are supposed to care about him. Like, yeah, he's completely obnoxious and exhausting to talk to, and you can't really blame Feferi or Kanaya for being sick of listening to him, but at the same time, some of the shit they do to him as a result is honestly just mean. Like Kanaya is just actually bullying him- training him up to be a wizard as a joke, shitting on him behind his back with Rose, making fun of him to his face - and yet:

He's just that fucking desperate for people to care about him and support him; I can't help but think he's just not getting that at home, you know?

So I think if you asked Eridan, he'd say that his relationship with his lusus was good, and that his lusus was proud and noble and stoic, and absolutely a great custodian, and there were no problems at all.

But I think if you were to dig deeper into their relationship, you'd start to hear worrying things like that Eridan never got to celebrate Twelfth Perigrees, and was instead dragged out to go lusus hunting because it was particularly easy to do so on that day. Or that his lusus had to pull the trigger FOR him the first time they ever went hunting, because his own hands were shaking too hard. Or that he'd be locked out of the hive every time he cried, until he stopped crying altogether. Or that he thinks he's never been sick a day in his life because he was never allowed to have an off day and not go hunting and now he's just used to ignoring any and all symptoms. So on and so forth.

He reacts EXTREMELY POORLY to Feferi saying she feels like she needed to look after him - more poorly than to the initial news that she was trying to break up with him:

And I think that's because weakness was punished in his household growing up. He wasn't allowed to be weak - he was nobility, royalty. He had duties, responsibilities. If he faltered, their whole race died. And when you consider the fact that "you have to kill things for the good of everyone you care about, all the time, constantly," is the abject lesson that's been hammered into him since he was old enough to walk and talk, the fact that he's so incredibly fucking adamant about murdering angels starts to be a little... sad. He's just stuck in that mindset. He doesn't know how to escape it.

So... yeah. In summary: his relationship with his dad is great!

[mandiemegatron]

Why kill off the reader in the second part of losing the war? I was expecting Kidd or Killer to get hurt or something but killing the reader? Tell us you don't care about your readers without telling us you don't care about your readers. Who the fuck kills off the READER? Take the L and maybe stop acting like your writing is better than it actually is.

*deep breath*

Okay.

I've received a handful of anons similar to this one and I didn't think I'd have to come on here to break down my ideas and give reasons as to why I wrote something the way I did, but clearly some people are pretty pressed over my choices for Just Come Home. Everything under the readmore so I don't clog up people's dash.

Let's break this down one point at a time. So firstly, my choice to kill off the Reader was actually a last-minute decision while finishing it off. My original idea was reader never forgives Kid and decides to fight Kid and Killer instead, losing and being left for dead (for Law to find), but decided, why not even more hurt? More pain and more anguish, as I was asked to put Kid through via some askers/anons. I found the best way to do that, was to kill off the reader. Have them make amends only to have that ripped from Kids hands and destroyed with a simple flick of the wrist, and honestly, the fact that I had myself in tears while writing it gave me the motivation to continue with that idea.

I also wanted to delve into trying my hand at Law who felt backed into a wall and decided to spill blood, all for the sake of having an upper hand, and if that meant he had to off the reader to keep that upper hand, then so be it. I wanted to write something different from my usual angst, something a little more devastating and I feel like I hit that mark pretty damn close. Truly, I'm sorry you feel differently about it.

Secondly, don't you EVER come into my inbox and point fingers, saying I don't care about my readers. Buddy, I probably care TOO MUCH about my readers, about what they think and about how they feel when reading my writing. This is incredibly hurtful for you to come up here and essentially scream in my face that this isn't good enough. I need you to understand that if you dont enjoy something, that means it wasn't written for YOU. Not everything you come across is going to be to your taste and it's insanely self-centered and entitled of you to come in here and tell me I don't give a fuck about my readers because YOU thought it was stupid. It feels like you're taking this a little personally and I don't understand why.

Lastly, i don't sit here and brag about my writing. In fact, I feel like I stay pretty quiet other than some self reblogs of things I've written when I'm feeling that certain blorbo. It's confusing and again, hurtful, for you to come in here and essentially tell me to shut the fuck up... on my own blog. That's some strange activities there, buddy. I think you maybe need to log off for a bit, go sit in nature and do some deep breathing because this is crossing the line over to chronically online. Please go outside for a bit. Please revise your manners and remember the golden rule. You don't have to be religious for you to understand "treat others the way you want to be treated".

Do better.

[sillydeimos]

I love your take on jeb. He would be the pettiest, most cryptic tsundere on the block. Especially in his love life.

But i do kind wonder how jeb would end up in a relationship with hank at all. Hank seems like he wouldn't try deciphering jeb at all. If jeb wasn't the one person capable of reliably killing hank, well, jeb would be long dead.

Headcanons for how jeb and hank start their relationship?

i've been waiting for someone to ask me this for 10 years

and to be fair my stance of jeb being a petty little bitch isn't unsubstantial, he does do many petty bitchy things in canon. he had an entire note prepared announcing that he was quitting and just slapped it onto a wall before angrily leaving. that's the bitchiest little move anyone could ever pull.

anyways. let's get into the two emotionally unresponsive freaks. apologies if this gets long that's why it's under the readmore. better skip this post cuz this one SUCKS! disclaimer i'm an idiot

so... while it might not look like it at first, hank does enjoy fighting with jeb, or at the very least, fucking with him. i think he likes the reactions he gets out of him. i see a lot of people just say hank like hates him and despises him and i think that is true and obviously canon, but in the words of krinkels: 'i don't think he has hate in his head for anyone' (paraphrased)

*does a little wave that pisses you off*

i think it's more that he gets very annoyed with how jeb is and doesn't trust him.

ANYWAYS, MY HEADCANONS:

-it's definitely not a traditional way of starting a relationship, i'd say there'd be no confessions but jeb is kind of addicted to never shutting the fuck up. he's uber confrontational, so if he starts feeling a certain way, he'll probably tell hank when he deems it necessary.

as for hank's side, he definitely thinks jeb is very annoying and needs to shut up for once, but there's also something about him he can't really place. he thinks he's a good fighter for one, and he respects that, which means a lot if hank actually respects someone. he rarely gives anyone credit...but the man is good with the sword what can he say.

and like. as much as they could theoretically get along, hank is very aware of christoff's motivations and patterns, he doesn't want to aid christoff in whatever stupid plans he has, nor does he want to be a follower, so i think he would make that very clear to christoff like hey. i'm not a pawn for you. which ofc jeb is like 'i don't treat anyone like a pawn, how could you even give such a assumptive, baseless accusation' and hanks like *gestures to sheriff and hofnarr*

basically it's a very slowburn kind of romance, the worst kind especially with these fucking two. don't get me wrong i don't think they're the traditional kind of romance at all they're definitely not holding hands while skipping down the road together but also like.

could either of them ever be in a traditional kind of relationship? like i think it's just like...a relationship that would work for them, and only them. don't let anyone else know what you two got going on here

hank's not gonna cater to his bullshit and christoff is just gonna have to learn how to deal with that because he can't just get rid of his feelings no matter how hard he tries. and hank, annoyingly, can't figure out which part of the brain he has to stab to get rid of his feelings. he's trying to use brain diagrams from doc's lab but they're confusing to read :/

they both don't give a fuck about romance, and they're not really even into the idea of them but they both look at each other with a mutual feeling of 'i feel a strong intense attraction to you so much to the point where i want to kill you, go into the other place, and then permanently kill your s3lf so that you're dead forever and i was the one to do it. let's make out.'

TLDR: their relationship just kind of happens overtime, probably with christoff initiating it and hank is just kind of like oh we're doing this now. okay.

........OR MAYBE I'M WRONG WHO KNOWS! haha. um. heyyyy. thanks for reading.

[thatfriendlyanon]

Title: From The Nest Fandom: The Deep Green Author: @thatfriendlyanon Content Warning: Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Major Character Death Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Hopeful Ending Some Context: the previous test subject mentioned is Icarus :> transcription under the readmore

From The Nest A Deep Green Short Story

Once upon a time, a tall tower stood in the middle of a forest. The townspeople had no need to go near it, but since you could see it in the distance over the treetops, they would tell stories about it in the evenings when the hearth was warm. Rumors from longer ago said a cloister of monks lived there, so that is what the townspeople agreed to believe. The Brothers of the Tower gave smiles and coins to the townspeople when they came into the village to buy goods. They were quiet and kept to themselves. Everyone holds some suspicion for those who live apart, of course, but these brothers harmed no one so the townspeople had nothing for which to complain. Besides, the townspeople enjoyed the coins. Their warm hearths and fireside stories kept their imaginations occupied. Besides, no one likes a person who pries.

I. You are a test subject. You are the second try. You do not have a voice, you do not have a body, you do not have a name.

II. You wake up and commit a sin of omission. You ascend the stairs and commit a sin of omission. Your brothers are warm and amiable and kind. They pass you their laughter like a cup for you to share. If you keep your eyes on their faces, you do not need to watch the work of their hands. If you keep your feet off the landing, you do not need to step in the blood pooling under the door.

III. You want them to stop. You want them to stop. You want them to stop.

IV. You take a sip of the cup they pass and commit a sin of omission. You swallow their fellowship and commit a sin of omission. You take a breath and commit a sin of omission. You go to bed and commit a sin of omission. You wake up to confess and repent and commit more.

V. Do not fight. Do not resist. Keep your eyes shut and make no sound if you want them to touch you as little as possible, if you want them to do their work and leave. Fighting makes it worse. You know this. You know this. Keep your eyes shut. The backs of your eyelids turn golden from their candles, like the sun at dusk when it squeezes a single slice of light through the bricks where a window used to be. Keep your eyes shut. It hurts less if you pretend you’re dreaming. You know this. The gold of your eyelids shifts as their candles flicker. Do not fight. Do not make a sound. Keep your eyes shut. Keep playing make-believe.

There was something strange, once, the townspeople admitted. One day, a great bird flew over the town, straight from the forest and headed towards the sun. It looked like both a bird and a girl, as her dress flapped like a flag in the wind. But of course, it was high and the sun was bright and one’s imagination is a strange thing. Of course it was just a bird. Of course the tower in the forest was still standing, still harmless, still simply some peculiar people’s home.

VI. Nothing has been the same since she escaped. Before, you could convince yourself this was excusable, simply for the greater good. You made her favorite food and conducted tests with a steady hand. Your brothers used coaxing to win her over, to soothe her fears. And you joined them, of course, because she was a beautiful specimen. So much promise, so much wonder at what could come from your discoveries. That’s what the Watcher said, what the Welcomer assured you when you first arrived with your talents to give. The world could become a better place. She would forgive you, of course, once all was achieved.

VII. There was another, before you. Maybe that is why your room has bricks where a window used to be, why they always lock the door behind them when they come four times a day. They do not speak her name, but when you overhear their mutterings, you know she was here. Someone older than you. Braver, maybe. Stronger, definitely. Someone strong enough to leave.

VIII. The new one is different. And the brothers are different too. Their patience is short and their hands are violent. Gone is affection as a tool for compliance. They use fists and threats instead. But each sin of omission lodges itself in your throat until you are gagging on your meals and waking up halfway through the night unable to swallow, unable to breathe.

So you begin your tiny acts of resistance.

IX. One of the brothers is kinder than the rest. He waits for the others to finish their tests, stands in the corner with his clipboard and brown hair tinged orange by the sunbeam through the brickwork, and approaches you only when the others clean their needles and leave. You keep your eyes shut, you do not move, you wait for the cold and the pain and the fear. But he does not have any needles, only a clipboard and a pencil and a roll of bandages in his pocket. They are soft and white and smell like warm air in spring. When he wraps them around your arms and shoulders, he doesn’t say a word. His hands are gentle and take their time. He picks up all the feathers you’ve shed and puts them in his pocket. You wonder if, by hiding in there with the gauze and the pencil, they will start to smell like spring too.

X. When did this one get so young? When did she get so small, so silent, so utterly expressionless as the brothers’ tests grew more and more severe? You try to tell them she needs sunlight, she needs blankets, that she is still partly human after all. But the brothers start eyeing you differently. The cup of fellowship they pass from lip to lip begins to skip your own. They talk more often when you are walking away than when you are sitting beside them. And when you enter, their whispered words die away.

You do not mind their dwindling friendship, to be honest. Less conversations means your sins of omission are fewer and farther between. Your pencil on the clipboard and the gauze in your pocket push the sins away too. The feathers in your pocket smell like pus, and the subject’s––the child’s––room smells like it too, rank and thick and spoiling. So you keep the bandages always at the ready, and begin slipping vials of disinfectant from the storage cases when the other brothers are too busy whispering behind your back to see.

The children of the town swapped their own stories as they played in the streets and just beyond the outskirts. The older ones spun tales of torture and bone-eating men. The younger ones whispered about a girl with long hair and an unloving mother, like they had read in their bedtime storybooks with the painted illustrations. All of them obeyed their parents: do not go into the woods, do not go near the tower. It was always best to stay away from strangers, just to be safe. So they stayed on the paths near their houses, only strayed to the very edge of the woods just to collect acorns and get a better view of the tower’s turrets. They would always run home before curiosity could grip on too strong.

XI. He brings more gauze, and sweet-tasting tablets that melt on your tongue. His hands continue to stay gentle, even when you struggle to move your wings when he asks. He hums under his breath as he works. He sings you lullabies when you clamp your eyelids shut, when he touches the sores along your back and your muscles shudder in response. He tells you about the sun and the seasons and the sky. His voice falls over you like a blanket, coarse but comforting, thin but weighty enough to keep you warm.

XII. You wash her wings and clean the pus out from between the coverts and massage her spasming muscles. You keep bringing fresh bandages for the infected wounds. The other brothers mutter that you’re wasting your time. They call her TS2 as if that will distance themselves from the danger of attachment. They don’t know the name you’ve given her. They don’t know the number of feathers scattered across the floor. They don’t even know the color of her eyes.

XIII. Your wings have grown heavier and clumsy. When the brothers come to conduct their experiments, you try to obey their commands, but the muscles of your shoulders don’t want to follow your mind’s orders. It takes so much effort to lift your wings from the stone floor, to spread them out at their full span. You obey and keep your eyes shut and wait for them to leave.

XIV. The brothers’ whispers are louder than whispers now. They note missing ointments when they restock the shelves. You do not stop your acts of resistance. You wait for the Watcher to take notice; you dread the moment he will.

XV. The brothers come more often now. You can’t open your eyes even if you wanted to. Your eyelids are too heavy. The black of their backs is better than the golden light the brothers bring. They pull at your wings when you can’t lift them yourself. They bring more needles, more cold liquid pushed into your bloodstream, more sputtering candles that keep dragging you back from the darkness that holds you when they’re gone.

XVI. Suddenly you realize you’re running out of time. Either you break your sacred pacts and stop it all for good, or she dies. Another failed experiment, discarded as a third is begun. The Watcher requests an audience with you. The Waiter and the Welcomer are there as well. They know. They know. You’re running out of time.

The parents of the town tell their children not to ask questions. The parents do not ask questions either, when the brothers come to the market to buy more glass bottles and sell soft down-pillows in return. The townspeople trade reams of paper for sharpened quill pens. They smile at the brothers. They go back to their own homes. They do not ask questions. No one likes a person who pries.

XVII. You are so tired. Hands shake you awake and you know you should obey, should respond, quickly before they resort to more than just shaking, but you are so tired.

XVIII. She is thin enough to scoop up in your arms without effort. When did she grow so light, so small? Her wings crumple in on themselves, fold in unnatural directions as you hold her against your chest. You nestle your face into her red-tinged hair for just a moment––more than you should spare––to whisper an apology and a reassurance and a promise, though her shut eyes and blank expression make you wonder if she can even hear.

XIX. Your wings ache, but you barely notice. The soft blanket of his voice wraps around your tired, muffled mind. You haven’t opened your eyes in a long time.

XX. The Watcher is coming. The brothers have called him, you know, because you hear their shouts far below. The sound of boots on stairs curls upwards like smoke.

You know the distance from the stairwell to the exit. You know how many steps there are between you and the brothers, you and the exit, you and the floor. If you can get down to the supply-room, you know what items could easily go up in flame.

XXI. I need you, little one. I’m sorry, but I need you, just for one thing. It’s his voice, pressed against your ear but still so far away. I know you can do it. I know you’re strong.

XXII. Your hands shake as you help her unfold her wings. You know, you know, you’ve run out of time. She is so small, so pale, but despite it all, the tests have been working. When stretched out wide, her wings are almost twice her size, jet black with streaks of orange along the secondaries. You rub the muscles. You smooth out the feathers. You tuck her head under your chin and clutch her body to your chest. You look down the center of the spiral staircase. You jump.

XXIII. A sudden wind hits your face. It pushes against your back and tosses your tangled hair in the air like a flickering candle’s flame. You’re falling and you might be terrified if you could manage to feel something but the wind shoves itself against the undersides of your wings as if it wants to stop your fall. His heartbeat pounds in your ears. He tells you to be strong for just a moment longer, to keep your wings spread as wide as you can, so you do your best to obey.

XXIV. It is far from graceful, but your bones do not shatter when you reach the stone floor far below. You hastily help her close her wings against her shaking sides. Her eyes are open now, but they just stare over your shoulder, flitting and unfocused. The brothers are halfway up the stairs. It will take them four minutes to turn around and run back down. It will take you two minutes to make it to the supply room, break the bottles of steroids and sedatives, and toss a candle on the liquid to set it ablaze. It will take her three minutes to make it out the door.

XXV. He is telling you something, your face cupped in his hands, though your mind is too cloudy to hear. You can’t keep your eyes on his face, can’t keep your eyes on anything without having it go all blurry and faint. He gives you a hug. And then he shoves you, hard.

XXVI. Go, go, go. Go until you can’t run anymore. Follow the sun. Follow the sun until you find the town. They’ll help you. I love you, Skye. Now go. The brothers are one minute from the base of the stairs. You curse the Watcher and the Waiter and the Welcomer in the same breath that you pray to Something for her to be kept safe. The exit is closed but not locked, you know from the way evening sunlight spills from the crack in the door. So you push her as hard as you can in its direction before you run to the bottles on the wall.

XXVII. You stumble into the door and your weight swings it open, where daylight crashes over you like a wave and leaves you blind. The sun is the warmest thing in the world, warmer than his voice or the blankets he gave you or the candles he lit when he collected all your feathers from the floor. You keep stumbling forward––blackness and sunspots dance across your eyes like the candles used to dance across your eyelids. Only your eyes are wide open this time as you keep stumbling, scrambling, running, like he told you to do.

XXVIII. You fling a match into the pool of drugs and broken glass. She’s made it beyond the door. The brothers are thirty seconds away, slipping on the spill, reaching for you and screaming. You shut your eyes as the match makes contact and your world explodes.

Once upon a time, a tower collapsed in the middle of a forest. Stone crumbled and wooden stairs burst into flames. There must have been an accident, the townspeople murmured among themselves, what a shame. While they were still swapping rumors, a child emerged from the woods, hazel eyes wide and staring. The plain shift-dress she wore was stained with dirt and blood. But the strangest thing was the wings that sprouted from her back, trailing along behind her as she stumbled into the street. She looked at the townspeople and they looked at her, their eyes nearly as wide as her own, until hers slid shut and she fell like a shot bird to the ground.

XIX. When you finally wake, you are lying on a small cot in a thatch-roofed room. A woman leans over you. The cloth on your forehead feels almost as soft as the bandages he used to use. Hello there. Her voice sounds nothing like his, except for the way it creeps up gently to your ears like it doesn’t want to intrude. Don’t worry. You’re safe now. You’re going to be okay.

[andreabandrea]

The AndreaBandrea UTY post

I need some place to put my Undertale Yellow (UTY for short) thoughts & criticism, and this is my blog, so I might as well put them here. If you don't want to see constructive criticism about Undertale Yellow, don't click below the readmore!

Pretty much everyone I talk to really likes this game, and honestly, I'm really sad that I don't like it more. I like some parts of it quite a bit! But I have mixed feelings about other parts-- I think the writing and characterization could have been a little more impactful than they were, and I’ll be discussing that here. I don’t want to just rag on this game without expressing suggestions and parts that I do like in more detail, so those will be covered as well. 

I also want to add a disclaimer that I don't have negative feelings towards the development team or fans of this game in the slightest. I have nothing but respect for the creators of Undertale Yellow. This project was obviously a massive undertaking with a lot of love behind it, and I'm glad to see that it's found success and a community of people who do enjoy it. 

The reason I’m writing this post is that, again, I liked parts of this game and wish I enjoyed it more. If I didn’t like it at all, I just wouldn’t engage with it at all anymore. I also haven’t really seen any other people expressing constructive criticism on the game’s writing, so it’s felt more important for me to express these thoughts, be heard, and see if others feel the same way. 

The Good

I'll start off with the things I like. The art, the animation, and the music are all fantastic. I was very impressed by the battle backgrounds and the little touches, like the way Clover runs. Clover doing things like reaching for other’s hands, giving fistbumps, drawing their weapon, changing their expression at times-- they feel very dynamic and fun to play as.

The music is really catchy and fun. I love the iterations on the battle theme-- Snowdin’s battle theme having bells, for example. 

I also had fun with most of the fights in the game! I liked the unique mechanics that came into play (e.g. the lasso in North Star's battle). I think that changing the way Clover attacks compared to Frisk feels organic and fun. 

I also love the mail system. Ever since you could deliver and receive letters in Paper Mario 64, I’ve been hooked on mail as a storytelling system in video games. I think the letters you receive are interesting and clever, and it’s a great way to keep past characters relevant in lieu of a cell phone. 

I’m going to be discussing criticism of the characters later, so I’m going to take a moment to talk a little about things I liked about them. I really like Martlet’s optimism and belief in humans. Starlo made me laugh quite a few times and the Feisty Five have a great dynamic with each other. A lot of the background characters in the game are fun-- I like the one who serves you at the Honeydew Resort. The fact that you can go back to these vendors later on and get four new topics to talk about is fantastic and makes the world feel a lot more alive. 

The Slightly Less-Good (and more disclaimers)

The writing is where the game falls short for me-- and it’s sad for me, because the writing is the heart of Undertale. I don’t think that the writing is bad by any means! I like the characters and story well enough, but- again- I just wish that I liked them more. I’ll try to incorporate suggestions so this isn’t just a total downer post without anything backing it up. 

I want to express something about the ‘suggestions’ that I’ll be offering after the criticism. I know that Undertale Yellow  is now out, and the team isn’t going to go back and change it now, and that’s totally fine. I don’t want to make it sound as if the team should change Undertale Yellow just because I have some reservations about it. I’m just one fan out of many. In the very off chance that a member of the Undertale Yellow development team is reading this--

First of all, hi! 

Second of all, I know that changing major parts of Undertale Yellow at this point is very unrealistic, and I wouldn’t want you to. If anything, I’m honored you’re reading my ramblings at all. I’d be touched if you’d be willing to take some of my words to heart as you move onto your next creative projects.

The reason I’m including suggestions, therefore, isn’t because I think that the team should or must make these changes, but because I don’t want to just sound excessively negative about this game without offering a little feedback. 

I don’t presume that my criticism and suggestions are objectively correct or better than what the Undertale Yellow team created. This is my personal blog, and these are my personal rambly thoughts about Undertale Yellow. The reason I’m including so many disclaimers is because I’ve gotten into discourse before due to poorly thought-out posts about Undertale, and I hope to avoid that this time. I don’t want to just not post something on my own blog, though, because I’m afraid it could be misconstrued or possibly upset somebody. So, I’m trying to discuss this as carefully as I can. 

As one final disclaimer, I'll say that I know that it was more likely than not that I'd be at least a little disappointed by Undertale Yellow. The original Undertale was a very important game for me, and very little could reach that standard. (I think this is one reason why Toby decided to do Deltarune, a sort of AU/spinoff rather than a full-on "Undertale 2", and I respect that decision.) 

I also think that quite a bit of my criticism is subjective-- several of the characters didn't fully click with me and several of the jokes just didn't land for me, personally. More people than you might think just didn’t connect with the regular Undertale, either. I’ll be talking a little about my subjective opinion on characters, but I’ll try to explain why I feel the way I do rather than just say, “XYZ character sucks because they’re lame, moving on.” 

With that said, the post. I’ll be addressing my criticisms from smallest to largest. To begin, I’ll recap the plot of UTY to better analyze aspects that I do and don’t quite like. Spoilers abound.

Undertale Yellow Plot Recap!!!!

The central story of UTY, to my memory and understanding, is as follows:

In the past, a fallen human being went on a rampage in Snowdin and hurt Kanako, the daughter of Chujin, a former royal scientist and monster who happens to be a boss monster. Dalv, an unrelated monster, was also hurt in this incident and sealed himself away in the Ruins in a self-imposed isolation. Chujin’s family (presumably him or Kanako, but not Ceroba, as she doesn’t recognize Dalv) felt bad about this and left him corn from Starlo’s farm as a gift. But, when Chujin died, the corn gifts stopped coming. 

Stepping back a bit, after the incident, Chujin developed a deep hatred for humanity. He invented a security robot called Axis and told it to go kill the human. Axis did this (and we will return to this later). Chujin kept the soul (at least, for a time) to experiment on.

At some point in this, Axis failed to impress Asgore and Chujin was fired as the royal scientist. At some point as well, he began to teach Martlet how to build puzzles. Martlet got a job in the royal guard and Chujin disapproved because humans are very dangerous.  

Due to experimenting on his own boss monster soul in an attempt to find a way to turn regular monsters into boss monsters so that monsterkind could potentially stand up to the threat of humanity, Chujin wound up very ill and then passed away. He left video tapes to his wife, Ceroba, asking her to finish his research. However, he asked her to leave Kanako out of this so she could live a normal life. 

Ceroba agreed to finish this research, but Kanako found out about it and asked to be experimented on because she, like her father, has the power of a boss monster. Ceroba agreed to experiment on her, which injured Kanako and caused her to ‘fall down’. Ceroba sent the near-death Kanako to Dr. Alphys, the new royal scientist, who was collecting ‘fallen down’ monsters for her own experiments with determination. 

Plot summary over. I’ll take a closer look at some of these aspects going forward.

UTY Plot Criticism

I don’t feel like this is a bad story, necessarily. With that said, it doesn’t feel quite as tied together as Undertale’s story does, and I think certain aspects don’t land. 

First, I feel that the majority of the plot elements about Chujin & Kanako get dumped on you at the last minute. You might be thinking that the story about Chara & Asriel is also dumped on you at the last minute-- and to an extent, this is true. You do get a massive amount of information regarding their story near the end of the game, in the True Lab.

However, Chara & Asriel's story is a massive part of the narrative from the very beginning. You meet 'Asriel' (Flowey) in the very beginning of the game. Toriel is in the Ruins due to the fallout of Chara & Asriel's deaths. Asgore and the monsters are trying to kill Frisk and steal their soul because of this, and the royal guard has taken it up as their mission. Sans is aware of an anomaly that will end everything (implied to be the player), and he would have 'killed Frisk where they stand' had he not made a promise to Toriel. And so on.

I’ll be reviewing criticism of the game’s plot in sections themed around each major character. I will be discussing suggestions about each character in their respective section here, as I discuss things I didn’t quite like about each character, my suggestions are intrinsically tied to why I didn’t quite like them. 

Dalv

The connections between characters and the Chujin & Kanako plot feel a bit tenuous to me. Similarly to Toriel, Dalv is in a self-imposed isolation in the Ruins due to a major incident in his past. He fears humans due to the attack he suffered in Snowdin, and he suffers loneliness  after losing his friend (who left him corn). When he sees Clover, he wonders if this is “some sort of haunting” (implying he knows that the human who attacked him was killed). 

In the pacifist route, Clover can prove to Dalv that not all humans are evil and Dalv can move out and learn how to trust people again. This becomes a recurring theme-- Clover, pure of heart, proving to monsters that humanity isn’t that bad after all. 

However, Dalv then disappears from the story. His motivation is to basically be left alone, but once you prove to him that humanity isn’t so bad, his role in the story is essentially complete.

I feel that, by comparison, Toriel’s motivation is more active-- to protect humans who fall down from Asgore. It’s this motivation that drives her to return at the end of the true pacifist route and ultimately make the true ending of Undertale possible.

Dalv’s passiveness makes him a weaker character to me. Now that you’ve proven that you’re his friend and humanity isn’t so bad, I would have liked to have seen him take an active motivation to protect his friend or help them in some way. We don’t have to copy Undertale beat for beat and have him dramatically save Clover from Asgore or anything, but it would have been nice to see him vouch for Clover in some way at some point. 

Now, for the final time, I know that UTY is released and major changes aren’t likely. Some of my suggestions are “I would have liked to see this, but this change would require redoing the entire game,” which I don’t think should or could be done at this stage. This is just daydreaming and- if I’m praising myself highly- potential considerations for the devs’ future works (and the works of any other creatives who are reading this). 

With this proposed major change to Dalv’s character out of the way, I’ll suggest instead the most minimal possible change that I would like to see, so my suggestions don’t feel entirely like just daydreaming. 

I really like how Dalv sends Clover a letter about his moving out to Snowdin. This is active of him in terms of motivation-- Clover is his friend and he wants to keep in touch with his friend. I’d be absolutely thrilled to see a little bit of extra dialogue for him in an update. After you go back to Snowdin and see him, I think the dialogue he already has is totally fine! But, I’d be really happy if he’d take initiative and tell Clover a little more about his experience with the past human, or invite them to rely on him, too. 

Martlet

Martlet felt… a bit restrained in terms of her writing, to me. I think that one aspect of Undertale’s writing is that it’s not afraid to go over the top. Papyrus isn’t just silly, he wears a costume every day and cartoon eyes pop out of his head when he’s surprised. Undyne isn’t just determined, she aspires to be a badass anime heroine. I like Martlet just fine, but she never had a moment where she really stood out to me in this way. 

Martlet’s defining traits are that she likes puzzles, she loves reading and abiding by the rules of the royal guard, and she believes in humanity and wants to help Clover. As I said before, I really like this optimism and belief. I’d like to see more of it. 

Near the end of the true pacifist route, Martlet says that she was taught in the royal guard that humans are scary, but Clover proved to her that humans are kind. This felt very abrupt to me at the time-- we know that Chujin disapproved of her joining the royal guard due to his own trauma, but Martlet had no personal involvement in the last human’s violent actions. 

Martlet doesn’t seem to have any reason to dislike humans more than any other monster. We learn in her diary that she essentially joined the royal guard out of a desire to help people and build puzzles, and also because she needed a job. 

If she’s just supposed to be a representative of the average monster and their feelings toward humanity, and her growing to like Clover is meant to represent how all of monsterkind could grow to like humankind, that would be one thing-- but I think that she specifically is meant to represent a person who wholeheartedly believes that humans can be good and that humans and monsters can live in harmony. In the no mercy route, she repeatedly pleads to Clover to do better, that they don’t have to act this way, that she wants to help them. That’s not the response of the average monster, who fights Clover or tries to flee from them. 

I believe the intention is that Chujin & Martlet represent either end of an ideology axis (no pun intended). Chujin believes all humans are evil no matter what, but Martlet believes that humans can choose to be good. But why does she choose to believe in humans other than a sense of personal optimism? 

I would have liked to have seen some defining event that made Martlet choose to believe in the goodness of humanity. I would have liked to have her being kind and optimistic to a fault be more of a defining trait-- to have that go over the top in an Undertale-style way. A lot of her interactions with other characters just personally weren’t very memorable to me. 

Martlet spends a lot of the game sidelined. She loses you in the Mines. She gets thrown in jail in the Wild East. She has to go back to Snowdin once you're freed. Yes, she's there for you in the true pacifist route, but she's otherwise pretty absent through the neutral/true pacifist routes.

I recognize that the main characters in Undertale can be absent after you leave their respective sections of the game. However, you're able to call Papyrus & Undyne as much as you want, and you get a major hang-out (or “date”) with each of them and Alphys which gives time to expand on their backstory and character arc. Martlet doesn't get that. We even get a little bit of time to hang out with Dalv after we become his friend, but Martlet shoves us on a boat and hurries us to the next area as soon as we beat her. And sure, we get to talk to her on the boat, but it’s just a bit of silly dialogue-- it doesn’t really expand on her character. It feels like a missed opportunity. 

So, yes, my major suggestion on her would be to zoom in more on her belief in you and let her be a liiiiitle sillier and more over the top, and give more opportunity for Clover to hang out with her. 

At this stage, however? In this proposed minor ‘dialogue update’, I’d be really excited to see a little something more from her. Maybe a letter? She does send you one, but only in the neutral route to tell you to meet her on top of the apartments. It would be a good opportunity to either let her be silly or explain a bit about when she came to want to believe in humans-- or both, ideally. 

Starlo

I honestly have very little to say on Starlo. He seems to be the fan favorite, and I did find his section fun! Ultimately, though, he's just kind of… there? I mean, he's on the periphery of Ceroba's (and Chujin and Kanako’s) story because he's her childhood friend (and his family grew the corn that Chujin gives to Dalv), and yes, he later on reminds her that she can still choose to be a better person because he also almost killed Clover! However, every monster in the game almost killed Clover.

There’s nothing wrong with having a silly character who wears a costume and isn’t a major player in the plot. I feel like Starlo is similar to Papyrus in this way. But Papyrus isn’t just a goofball, he’s the monster in Undertale who believes unerringly in Frisk & the player’s ability to do better because he firmly believes that you can make anything happen if you just try. This belief helps elevate Papyrus from comic relief to an actual rounded character. 

I don’t feel like Starlo has any sort of strong conviction like that. We do learn that he wants to bring hope to the Underground by roleplaying as a sheriff in the Wild East town, giving them a slice of (supposed) surface life. I think this is fine, but I’d like to see a bit more of it. In the no mercy route, he does bravely stand against you because he’s a sheriff and it’s his job to bring justice to murderers like Clover. 

My expectation when I first met him, a fellow cowboy (gender-neutral), was that he’d have his own ideas about justice. I expected that he would clash with Clover about these ideals, and neither of them would be quite right or wrong-- and this would prove that justice can’t be measured mathematically, and one outcome can’t be applied to all situations. 

But, he’s not at all bad the way he is. He has a lot of fans, after all. The minor change I’d suggest now that the game is out is that I’d be interested in learning why the cowboy aesthetic specifically appealed to him. Maybe a diary in his room explaining that Westerns are the epitome of ‘justice’ to him? I’d like to see a peek into the motivation that transformed an ordinary farm boy into someone who could bravely stand against a murderous human. 

Ceroba

I’ll be honest. I want to like Ceroba, but I don’t.

I understand that there's an attempt to mirror Asgore in that the war against humanity, in general, has taken Ceroba's partner and her child from her-- and ultimately, Clover forgives her and helps her learn how to move on. It's about letting go, just like Undertale. I get that. But Ceroba’s story doesn't land for me, personally. In order to talk about Ceroba, I need to talk about her husband, Chujin, because Ceroba spends so much of the story acting out Chujin's will. 

Whereas monsters in Undertale do attempt to kill Frisk and steal their soul, and Asgore has killed other children before, it's framed in a very 'video game' violence sort of way (again, Undertale has these meta elements). Ultimately, in the True Pacifist route, none of Frisk's deaths have stuck, and Asgore's actions- while reprehensible- allowed for Asriel to break the barrier once and for all.

Chujin, in the video tapes he leaves for Ceroba, implies that Axis’s murder of the human- presumably a child, like Clover and Frisk- was very violent and bloody. It feels a tiny step beyond the 'video game violence' aspect, for me. While it’s shown that Chujin regrets this, it still doesn’t change the way that this violence is expressed in the game. 

Instead of giving the human’s soul right to Asgore to bring monsterkind closer to freedom, Chujin- who has already been fired by Asgore, I should add- chooses to keep the soul and experiment with it.

This is very selfish, even though he has good intentions. He’s told nobody else about his experiments with his soul at this point- not even his wife- and Asgore has told him to cease all activities as the royal scientist. 

While monsters do want Frisk's soul for their own selfish reasons, they notably do not butcher them violently, succeed in this, and still try to get painted with the same quirky and fun brush that the other characters get. 

After Chujin dies, he leaves detailed instructions for his wife to continue his work-- and although he says "don't involve Kanako", he leaves her all the tools she would need to experiment on Kanako, and notably, no other way to finish his work except to experiment on Kanako.

As I said, Kanako finds out about this and asks to be experimented on. And while she does give consent, she is a child. I cannot stress this enough-- she is a child who just lost her father and is still wracked by grief. Kanako is a child who cannot possibly know what she is consenting to. 

Ceroba chooses to experiment on Kanako and more or less kills her. And then she chooses to send her 'fallen down' daughter to Alphys's experiment, despite the fact that Kanako presumably has some sort of trace of human soul/determination left in her-- which could have compromised Alphys's work as well.

Let's return to how I said that Ceroba is a mirror for Asgore. She's made so many mistakes and it's cost her her family and she can't stop now or it will all be for nothing. She's done horrible things, just like Asgore.

But the difference is that Asgore is the king of monsterkind. Asgore has no desire to kill human beings. He declared war on humanity in a fit of anger and grief, but the Underground had lost hope due to the loss of Chara & Asriel. Believing that Asgore could gather seven human souls and free them all brought hope back to the Underground.

His actions, while wrong, are selfless-- and much less explicitly violent and more 'cartoon violence'-like. Chujin & Ceroba have the well-being of monsterkind as their own pure intentions, but their actions are far more selfish and violent. Axis, Chujin’s creation, massacred a human being. Yet we're still expected to find them silly and fun and relatable-- it just feels unusual.

I’m not someone who hates nuance or morally gray characters. One reason I’m so sad that I don’t quite like Ceroba is that I love morally gray women. It’s just that we’re not allowed to really dislike Chujin or Ceroba for what they’ve done, and instead we’re supposed to see Ceroba- and Axis- as silly and relatable like the rest of the characters. 

Immediately after Ceroba’s boss battle, instead of processing what just happened to a greater extent, Clover chooses to sacrifice their soul for monsterkind. 

I understand that the intention is that Ceroba's grief and Chujin's desperation to protect monsters from humanity contributed to Clover's decision to sacrifice their soul. However, the idea is- to me- abrupt. Ultimately, too, Clover's decision is just as much about how much they love their friends (and how it's impossible for them to hide out in the Underground forever) as it is about Ceroba and her family.

Chara & Asriel’s deaths, Asgore’s war on humanity, the war of humans and monsters-- these elements impact every part of Frisk’s journey. But Chujin and Ceroba’s actions, while impactful on Martlet and Dalv to varying extents, are only part of Clover’s journey. And Chujin and Ceroba did awful things for this comparatively minor impact on the plot. 

EDIT: Further analysis about how Ceroba doesn't have a lot of agency and spends a lot of the plot just acting out Chujin's will, as well as the inconsistency in her characterization (and feelings about sacrificing Clover and the well-being of Kanako), with input from @carlyraejepsans. Thank you!

I would have liked to have seen a bit more from Ceroba without any influence from Chujin- maybe an interaction explaining her relationship with Martlet and an additional conversation about Martlet’s nearly unwavering belief in humans vs Ceroba’s inherited grudge against humanity- but I don’t know where this would fit in. Adding more time for Clover to process Ceroba’s boss fight before sacrificing their soul might throw off the pacing. 

In general, though, Ceroba's boss fight- while flashy and fun- ultimately feels pointless with how little she learns from it and how quickly she changes her stance on using Clover's soul for the benefit of monsterkind, and what will happen to monsters after they break the barrier. To quote @carlyraejepsans in the ask linked above:

In addition, it's like the writing didn't want to commit to her delusions and little character development. She feels that her daughter is alive and thinks she can save her—wait no that was a lie—wait it wasn't. The moment she's defeated she goes "Agh, what was I thinking!" out loud (which is already a questionable writing choice imo but i digress), and recognizes that sacrificing Clover for her plans is horrible... and then 5 seconds later Clover chooses to sacrifice themself to break the barrier and whoops nevermind she's suddenly the one getting the others onboard with the idea... wait. didn't she say she was making the serum because the humans would've only slaughtered them again if they broke the barrier? oh wait wasn't that also chujin again? whoops.

I would have felt better if there were more room to view Chujin and Ceroba in a critical light (and time to view Ceroba outside of just being a mom and wife). I can’t think of any ‘minor’ suggestion that wouldn’t require a lot of editing. 

Axis…

And... okay. Let's talk about Axis real quick.

I want to give the dev team the benefit of the doubt, but I need to point out that this security robot's name is "Axis 014." If you don't know what I mean by pointing this out, I'll just say that both of these terms are nazi dog whistles and allow you to look up the specifics.

I recognize that, by this point, it’s too late to change his name. I’d at least be grateful if the team would acknowledge this and confirm that they aren’t nazis. 

Axis’s name makes his actions far worse in retrospect. He, as a security robot wants to kill a child, but he isn't able to anymore because his programming has changed. So, as a legal loophole, he forces them to hold 'a weapon' (a trash can lid) so he can justifiably kill them. This is the same robot that brutalized and murdered a human being in the past at Chujin's behest.

It feels tone deaf and ultimately the one thing I’d just outright call bad about UTY. I don’t think it was intentionally done this way, but I don't like that we're supposed to find this nazi-aesthetic police brutality robot "quirky and relatable" like the Undertale cast. In the true pacifist ending, he falls in love with a robot made out of a trash can and his eyes turn into cartoon hearts and etc. It’s even more jarring than viewing Chujin & Ceroba in a fun/relatable way. 

In the no mercy route, Axis will defend himself and claim that his programming forced him to kill the human and he didn't want to. This "just following orders" defense feels weak to me as well, personally. Axis clearly delights in harming humans, going out of his way to try to kill Clover. But also, Axis spends a significant amount of the game displaying a very similar amount of free will to the other characters. He’s not just a janitor robot that sweeps back and forth. 

He’s a nearly sentient being-- and the fact that there are these nearly sentient robots makes Alphys’s accomplishment of creating “a robot with a soul” (at least, so she claims-- Mettaton is only the ghost in a machine) much less impactful to me, personally. Yes, Asgore thinks that Chujin failed in creating a sentient robot, and so it’s impressive that Alphys supposedly did it. But I don’t know why Asgore wouldn’t be more skeptical of Alphys’s accomplishment after Chujin failed more than eight times and set fire to his flowers. 

I think that Axis is ultimately a missed opportunity to make a really villainous character. This concept that he disobeys his programming- used as sort of a parallel for law, as a security robot- to attack Clover could have been explored to further the ‘justice’ theme. He doesn’t write his programming (the laws), he just carries it out (violently enforces the laws). 

The ‘minor’ suggestion I’d make, though, is to just acknowledge the name. 

Undertale & Meta Elements

Now, we’ll be addressing my largest criticisms-- the omission of meta elements and the way Flowey is written.

Undertale Yellow never quite stopped feeling like a fan game to me. And it is, of course-- but I think that it feels as if it tries so hard to be Undertale (in the writing style, the humor, etc) that it fails to forge an identity of its own, and that holds it back from being just a fangame to a fangame that succeeds in expanding on the original creative work. 

At the same time, although UTY tries to feel like Undertale, I don’t think it captures certain elements that make Undertale be Undertale. 

Whereas Undertale was ultimately about video games as a medium and the normalization of violence in them, UTY doesn’t have this level of metatextual commentary. UTY does have a running theme of 'justice'-- and I don’t think this is bad! After all, if Undertale already said all there was to say about video games and violence, why retread that path? I respect that UTY knows its limits and simply focuses on justice as a concept instead.

At the same time, Undertale isn’t just an RPG about mercy-- it’s an RPG about RPGs. The fact that you can talk to and spare enemies isn’t just a quirk of the game, it’s what the game is about. This is one thing that makes Undertale great that UTY doesn’t focus on.  

UTY doesn’t completely ignore these elements, of course. Flowey takes over resetting for you, and you do have three distinct paths based on whether or not you kill enemies-- the ‘true pacifist’ path, the ‘neutral’ path, and the ‘no mercy’ path (I will not be calling it the ‘genocide’ route, especially in light of recent world events). Through whether or not you choose to kill enemies, the theme of ‘justice’ is explored-- who is Clover seeking justice for? In the true pacifist route, Clover seeks justice for the monsters, while in the no mercy route, Clover seeks justice for the fallen humans before them. 

However, Flowey taking over the mechanics of saving and resetting for you makes concept of ‘the player’ obsolete. I recognize that not everyone in the Undertale/Deltarune fandom quite enjoys the concept of 'the player' and the meta elements of these games due to the fact that there can be implications that playing Deltarune (as an example, which ups the meta elements quite a bit) can actively hurt Kris and make their world a worse place. However, Deltarune isn’t a complete work and we don’t know this for certain. Additionally, I feel as if at least acknowledging Toby's intentions are important to analyzing the work, no matter what one's personal feelings are about them.

The Importance of the Player

The presence of you, the player, is important in Undertale. Frisk is a subversion of the 'blank slate protagonist' trope. You think that you're able to name them and control them, but in the True Pacifist route, Frisk begins to act on their own (they walk slowly in some parts of the True Lab because they're presumably afraid, etc). In the end, you realize that Frisk is their own person with their own name, and you as the player have to let go-- when Frisk & the monsters go to the surface, Flowey (a mirror of the player themselves) urges you to let them go. Don't treat this as a game anymore-- don't replay and wring out any last drops of content you can. You enjoyed it, now move on.

But many players want to see the No Mercy route because it’s the last thing they haven’t done in the game, and they don’t want to let go. And that's where the role of you, the player, becomes undeniable in the game's story. What is the No Mercy route except playing a 'typical' RPG in the way it's meant to be played? You grind to become stronger, killing every enemy that stands in your way. And when you've killed all the monsters and become as strong as you can be, you've won.

Many players didn't do this because they hate the characters in Undertale and want to hurt them-- if they hate them, they likely just wouldn't play the game. Many players did it because they like the characters in Undertale, and wanted to see what would happen. They couldn't stop playing. And this is exactly what Sans means in his dialogue during his boss battle-- to paraphrase, "you think that because you can, that means you have to."

This is one of the ways that Flowey is a mirror of the player. Flowey didn't start killing out of malicious intent, but because he had become so bored and isolated that he just "had to see what happens".

Chara's role at the very end of the No Mercy route is to call you out directly for this. They tell you that their power was yours. Their words were very misconstrued by fans for a long time, and they themselves wound up as a scapegoat for the No Mercy route-- but ultimately, there's no reason for Chara or Frisk to kill every monster in the Underground. The only reason is because of you, personally. You want to see what would happen. You want to grind and play it like a typical RPG.

They call you out for this if you don't want to delete the game world at the end. Why go back to that world that you've already destroyed? Why play nice with the monsters that you just massacred because you can?

Why am I talking about this at such length? Because I believe that ‘the player’ and how they interact with the world of Undertale is important. Characters lampshade the UI and battle mechanics often-- Flowey talking about the world as a game and ‘saving’ and ‘loading’, Papyrus telling you to “press C to open the dating HUD”, Sans explaining ‘LV’ and ‘EXP’, and so on.

This is my personal opinion, and I recognize this is very nitpicky, but I feel that not acknowledging this or adding to these meta elements in some way makes UTY weaker for me. 

Flowey’s Role in UTY

Flowey essentially saves and resets for you because he's bored, and he wants to use Clover as a tool to access Asgore’s five stored human souls. His role as a mirror for the player becomes him essentially just acting as a stand-in for the player. While this in itself can invite self-reflection, I think that the execution of his role is a little awkward. 

We learn at the end of the neutral route that Flowey has already reset the timeline hundreds of times by the time we first start playing the game. According to him, Clover always ends up at a dead end (they choose to stay in the Underground for the rest of their life) or they die (and they can’t reset of their own power). Thus, Flowey chose to set Clover on an alternate path by sabotaging a lever in the Ruins, which made them fall into the Dark Ruins and meet Dalv.

Flowey then tries to kill Clover and absorb their soul because they, again, hit a dead end. Yet he gives up on it after a while because Clover won’t stop fighting back, and he thinks he can just reset and try again anyway. 

At the end of the true pacifist route, Clover instead opts to sacrifice their soul willingly to Asgore & monsterkind. Flowey comments that he could just reset (and you still can, if you want to play again), but Clover “earned their rest” and he calls them a friend. 

This progression from “Clover is a tool that Flowey is using to access the 5 human souls” to “Clover is a friend and Flowey willingly lets them die and stay dead” feels undeserved and underdeveloped to me. 

"But, Andrea," you might say, "Flowey went from trying to kill Frisk as Omega/Photoshop Flowey to hugging Frisk as Asriel really quickly too!"

Yes, but in that short time, Frisk and Flowey/Asriel had a Whole Thing where Frisk 'saved' him like everyone else and he learned he needs to let go, too. It was a short time, but it was a poignant time. By contrast, Flowey is pretty much absent throughout most of UTY's true pacifist route. Sure, you could easily say that he just got bored of Clover and gave up-- but that, too, doesn’t feel quite right to me. 

I really hate to say this, but I feel that Flowey’s writing in UTY cheapens the original Undertale for me, which is why this is one of my major criticisms of the game. 

Flowey's entire character arc in Undertale is about how he was stuck with the same places and same people for an endless amount of resets. In my opinion, the limited amount of places and characters for him to interact with in Undertale only adds to how trapped he is (and the Underground being so small really strengthens the concept of "there's overpopulation and the monsters are running out of time to find a solution/earn their freedom" that we see in the game, but I digress).

So when something finally changes and he meets Frisk, it's deeply impactful to him. Finally, someone new to play with! Finally, potential for change! Even though Flowey admits that, even if Chara came back, there's a great chance that he couldn't really love them due to his lack of soul, just experiencing something new for the first time in ages is as close to love as he can possibly get. So Flowey:

Starts to believe that Frisk is Chara, this person he ‘loves’ or wants to love, or some manifestation of Chara. 

Refuses to let Frisk go, even if that means- when Asriel has the power of seven human souls- just resetting the Undertale timeline over and over instead of going to the surface or doing anything else.

For Flowey to have gone through everything that he does in UTY- all these new places, all these new people, Clover included- weakens this, in my opinion. And sure, there's very heavily implied to be lots of places that Frisk doesn't explore and people they don't meet-- 99% of New Home and its residents, for instance. But Clover themselves is the real problem for me.

No matter how many times Flowey reset with Clover, I really struggle to believe that he would get bored of a human being that easily. He even said that Clover's actions and choices would sometimes change from reset to reset, and he only recently learned how dramatically he could alter their path by sabotaging that lever in the Ruins. Clover isn't a static being-- and even if they were, they're at least a new static being.

And although we learn in the neutral route that Flowey can't really absorb Clover's soul because they fight back too much, I can't believe that would stop Flowey so easily. What about at the end of the pacifist route, where Clover has given it up willingly and it's being transported in a little jar? Clover’s body is separated from the soul, now-- could Clover still fight back?

Or, what about if Flowey tried to kill them as soon as they entered the Ruins? Or, what if Flowey played nice the entire route and then at the end tried to convince Clover that if they sacrificed their soul, he would take it to Asgore for them? With access to full control of the timeline, I don't think Flowey would give up on this. We learn in Undertale how painful it is for him to be soulless and how desperate he is to access power so that things will change.

For Flowey to acknowledge Clover as a 'friend'- maybe even a true person, not just a compilation of dialogue- suggests character growth. It suggests remorse for his resets that he isn't capable of having and doesn't have until the events of Undertale. I just don't feel like it’s earned. 

Flowey is, of course, an unreliable narrator. 

At the end of the no mercy route of UTY, Flowey expresses that he never saw Clover as a friend-- he only enjoyed watching them die over and over again. It should be noted that this was said while under extreme duress (Clover is LV 20 by this point and has killed everyone save for Asgore), and this route isn’t canon in the way that the neutral and pacifist routes are. 

With that said, if we agree that Flowey can’t feel love as a soulless being, then I could argue that this is about as much of a ‘friend’ as anyone could be. This is how he wanted to keep Frisk (“Chara”, in his mind) for eternity when he had the six human souls + the entirety of monsterkinds’ souls-- just watch them try over and over again, for eternity. 

Why am I contradicting myself? Because, let’s suppose that Flowey doesn’t mean Clover is a ‘friend’ in the traditional sense- that they earned his respect and he cares for them in some way- but Clover is a new toy that he got bored with and gave up on. I feel like this, too, makes Undertale a little weaker. 

If Flowey did have some type of positive regard for Clover, but was willing to let them go, then it feels- to me- like Frisk’s role in his story isn’t that significant. Frisk helped him learn how to let go and move on, but Flowey has already demonstrated being capable of this. The circumstances are different- if Flowey gives up at the end of Undertale’s true pacifist route, it’s over for real, whereas if he gives up at the end of UTY, he can just wait for another human to fall- but I feel like the core feeling is the same. Flowey, by the start of Undertale, doesn’t strike me as someone who’s capable of letting go. 

So, how would I have changed this?

I recognize that- again- Undertale already made these points about video games and violence, and Flowey has his entire character arc in that game. For Flowey to have more of an arc in this game would potentially make this game no longer line up with canon Undertale or weaken Undertale further. And why retread old ground that Undertale already talked about?

I respect the decision to tell a self-contained story, but the meta commentary about video games in Undertale is so significant for me that I personally would have liked to see a bit more of it in Undertale Yellow. I also recognize how much of my criticism of Flowey’s writing in UTY is subjective. It feels unrealistic for me, his arc feels abrupt for me, it makes Undertale less poignant for me. 

A lot of people love his inclusion in this game, and it’s very novel to see Flowey as a friend throughout most of UTY and hear his snarky commentary on demand rather than having him as an enemy who’s absent through most of the game, as he is in Undertale. 

The Flowey Suggestions

First, I’ll be honest. I know this is not and has never been possible, but my easiest solution to the dilemma of Flowey’s lack of a character arc- and the lack of an ability to give him a character arc- would have been to just remove him from UTY. 

I think that Flowey’s inclusion in the story of the yellow soul human and his role saving and loading could have been interesting. It goes against certain story elements implied in Undertale, and popular fan theories-- and I don’t mind that, if something meaningful is done with it. But, I feel as if Flowey’s relationship to Clover isn’t impactful enough to justify including him. 

To clarify on ‘implied story elements’ and ‘popular fan theories’: 

While I might be misremembering, I thought that it was implied in Undertale that Flowey came into being after Asgore had already collected six human souls, and that a significant amount of time had passed since the last human had fallen down. 

I won’t go into it at length because this post is long enough and I, again, am not an Undertale expert. With that said, it’s also implied that all human souls are capable of saving/loading/resetting in the Underground. If you make Frisk tell Asgore that he killed them before, he just nods as if he’s used to it-- and he’s the one character who we know has killed humans before.

Now, how did Asgore successfully kill beings that can just reset the game whenever they die? Well, Sans faces the same dilemma in Undertale’s no mercy route. There’s no way that he can permanently defeat you, the player, who is a real being. Therefore, the way he ‘wins’ is by infuriating you enough with his difficult boss fight until you give up and stop playing Undertale (or, at least, reset and make better choices). 

Think about all the times you’ve played a game, got stuck on a hard boss, and never played it again. While it’s not ‘canon’ to the story- giving up on your copy of Mario doesn’t mean Bowser really wins- functionally, giving up on a game means that the story ends for you. This is how I believe Asgore captured the six human souls, even if they were also capable of resetting like Frisk is-- he fought them until they gave up.

Humans all are said to have great amounts of ‘determination’, not just red soul bearers. We don’t even know what trait the red soul exemplifies. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s determination itself. 

The bottom line is that I don’t think it would be unrealistic for Clover to be able to save/load/reset on their own, or for Flowey to not exist yet during the time they fell down. 

But, I get it, Flowey was in UTY’s demo that has been out for seven years. He’s in the trailers. He couldn’t be removed at any part of development, and he sure as hell can’t be removed now. 

My second suggestion would have been to zoom in on him, instead. While the prequel is about Clover, the yellow soul human, I would have liked to see it be about Flowey in a significant way. I kept hoping for Clover to have an opportunity to ask Flowey at some point, “why are you helping me, anyway?”.

This is my personal interpretation, but I’ve come to believe that Flowey thinks that the reason he’s stuck as a flower is that it’s a punishment. Because he, as Asriel, refused to fight back, he failed Chara, and now they’re dead. Now he’s stuck as a rinky-dink flower with no soul, he can’t love his former family, and he can’t stop playing this game. 

In the no mercy route of Undertale, Flowey feels very much like he’s trying to appeal to Frisk- the person he believes is Chara- in a way like a younger sibling trying to impress an older sibling. He says he’s impressed by how you killed everyone. He helps solves puzzles so you won’t have to slow down. He brags to you about how he’s also a heartless killer. 

Notably, he talks about his past. He tells ‘Chara’ that he was afraid to start killing, at first. He said he wouldn’t enjoy it, but he just had to know what would happen.

Then, Flowey laughs and says that you (Chara) know how liberating it is to be this way-- to kill people and shape their fates. He ‘recognizes’ Frisk as being actually Chara because of how they killed everyone in the Ruins. 

But we have no indication that Chara was a violent or evil person in their life. I believe that Flowey is partially projecting and partially recognizes Chara because, in the last moments of their life, they were telling him to kill. He always knew that Chara hated humanity and wanted power to better the position of monsterkind. This is why Flowey brags about how he has a plan to get the human souls, and once they do so, they can go to the surface and “finish what [they] started.” 

To Flowey, in my opinion, killing people isn’t just about seeing what happens. It’s about trying to understand and appease Chara and doing what he thinks he should have done all that time ago, as Asriel. 

I bring this up because I think that I would have liked to have seen this be explored in Undertale Yellow. Flowey is still a very misunderstood character today due to being an unreliable narrator. I believe that a lot of Flowey misinterpretations are due to taking him at face value-- hearing him say that he’s an unfeeling, manipulative, patient killer and agreeing with him.

But Flowey contradicts himself at several points. He gives up his “catch these friendliness pellets” trick after you dodging just a few times. These aren’t the makings of a perfect manipulative killer, but an impatient child. That’s who Flowey is at his core-- a child. 

I recognize that, again, if Flowey told all of his tragic backstory to Clover and they became true friends, this wouldn’t fit with canon Undertale and his actions in that game. Flowey and Asriel distance themselves from each other, and it wouldn’t make sense for Flowey to tell this to Clover-- especially if he just views them as a tool to use and play with. 

I think, however, it wouldn’t have been impossible for Clover to have learned this information about Flowey in a way that could still be canon compliant with Undertale itself. Hypothetically, maybe the “hopes and dreams” statue in the UG Apartments near the Core could have sparked intrigue in Flowey. 

Maybe analysis of Flowey could have come up during his neutral route boss fight-- after all, Clover appears to peek into the minds of Ceroba and Martlet during the true pacifist and no mercy run boss fights, respectively. We already get a little of this- Clover has to run through a hallway of flowers in Flowey’s boss fight, and we hear sad and scared dialogue that’s presumably from a past version of Flowey himself. However, it’s not necessarily new and doesn’t quite add to Flowey’s character in my personal opinion.

I feel that including Flowey’s story more in some way would justify having Flowey in the game, and knowing the history of Asriel & Chara could factor into Clover’s decision to give up their soul for the sake of monsterkind. Chara, too, sacrificed themselves willingly, after all. 

I don’t have a ‘realistic suggestion’ that could be implemented with a dialogue update because these suggestions are so vast-- and, ultimately, very personal and subjective. I have very strong feelings about Flowey.

Meta Elements of Undertale 

In Undertale, you’re asked when you should or shouldn’t fight. As a pacifist, you can get through the Ruins without killing anyone. Flowey will then ask you what you would do if you met a relentless killer. Would you betray your morals and fight? Or would you give up and let yourself die?

Undertale is the friendly RPG where nobody has to die. While you have to kill Asgore at least once to do the neutral route, and you do have to fight back against Omega/Photoshop Flowey to end his battle, the game ultimately posits that there never is a good time to fight. You don’t beat Omega Flowey by being stronger than him, you do it by appealing to the souls and allowing them to rebel. You don’t beat God of Hyperdeath Asriel Dreemurr by beating him up, you do it by saving your friends- him included. The game, again, is about an inversion of the necessity of violence in video games to me.

I would have been interested in seeing an exploration of when it is necessary to fight, and this could be done through the lens of ‘justice’. Would Clover fight if it brought them closer to justice (on a pacifist route)? Is it morally correct to kill one person if it saves thousands? 

Sparing someone is always the correct option in Undertale. In that way, the true route is quite linear-- there’s one solution that works for everyone. What if there were situations in UTY in which there is no single correct option that works for everyone? What if Clover were placed in situations in which they had to act as arbiter and decide between two outcomes and what is right? It could have been like how they get forced to solve the trolley problem in the Wild East, but with consequences. 

Adding to putting a ‘twist’ on the elements that Undertale introduces with its combat system-- what if sparing someone ultimately enabled them to keep hurting others? What if fighting to weaken someone was the correct solution for once? These inversions could have built on the meta elements of Undertale, and I think that it would make Clover’s decision to sacrifice themselves to bring justice to monsterkind more poignant to me.

Again, I have no ‘realistic’ suggestion for this in the full release of UTY. I think that the plot about justice alone isn’t bad, but I would have been happy to see it tie into the gameplay a little more. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, I think that UTY tries too hard to be Undertale without iterating on the aspects that made Undertale memorable. The characters feel like they fail to pop or relate to the game’s story in meaningful ways, and to me, the main story isn’t executed as well as it could have been (and far darker than the main Undertale in ways that don’t feel as if they’re handled sensitively). 

I will say, again, that this project is very impressive in scope, and I applaud the dev team for finishing it and releasing it. I recognize that a lot of my distaste is subjective, and creating another Undertale is a fool's errand considering the acclaim that Undertale got. I recognize one final time that my suggestions are just daydreaming, and this game has already found a lot of success-- which I think it deserves.

I tend to criticize a lot of media I like, which might sound contradictory to some, but it makes perfect sense to me. If I don’t like something, I won’t engage with it. I think that the original Undertale has its flaws, too. At the end of the day, I like UTY, but no media is perfect. This is how I think it could have been better, and I hope that I think other creatives who want to make Undertale fanworks (or any creative works, for that matter) will take these thoughts into consideration.

Thanks for reading.

[signalterminated]

teeth of god comic spoilers below, just getting out my thoughts. do NOT click this readmore if you haven't read it yet.

pacing wise, this comic is an absolute mess. i see each intended story beat but the art style itself makes the pages hard to follow, which is not a knock against the artists themselves. they're very, very talented, and i'm unsure what directions they were given for the layouts here and how much freedom they had in that regard.

it's also entirely devoid of text beyond incredibly hard to read notes from the director. if this was a creative decision, it was a bad choice, because it's the only context we're given for anything that's happening. handwritten notes are fine but i was struggling to squint to make out anything legible. if this is vessel's handwriting, then dude. ask a friend to write these for you please lol

there was also a surprising integration here with alex tillbrook's creatures from TMBTE but they have taken some massive artistic liberties with their designs. i don't know why, if this was on purpose or due to a licensing issue (which would be odd because it's all under the Sleep Token IP?), but it was something i noticed and found a bit odd. that being said, the chokehold creature looks fucking adorable in this comic with his smiley sun face lol, i appreciated that change

the problem i'm finding with it as a whole is that the action happens at a frantic breakneck pace and doesn't leave much space for a reader to actually take in what's happening. i'm having to go back and doublecheck that i'm reading the panels in the right order. there were a couple of pages that actually did this, setting up environment to let you see the before and after the lunar anomaly broke through, which i appreciated.

and again. the actual quality of the writing and the art here is great. that isn't the issue at all. it's more of an organizational thing and a coherency thing, which makes sense if anyone working on this project has less experience in composing an entire graphic novel.

though despite that pacing problem, i was able to mostly understand the primary story beats and they more or less confirmed my suspicions: this new life on earth isn't innately hostile all the time, and in fact one of the soldiers pats a mutated doggie on the head for being a good boy. these new life forms are embroiled in their own scuffles, their own wars, and are struggling to define their identities with the life they've been gifted.

i had an inkling from the getgo that this is the direction vessel wanted to take with the comic -- fear not of just death, but of a life past death that leaves you unrecognizable, and alone, and confused. permanently altered by what horrors you've seen. it's on the nose in that regard but it's a concept that i'm also fascinated by and enamored with in cosmic horror.

and in that way i feel even more attached to vessel as a creator because i feel like mentally we're teasing at the same spheres of the genre. there's a panel near the end of the director literally embracing the reaper figure (that i've been calling eden), accepting union with the very entity that has wiped away humanity as we knew it.

the final notes from the not!director are almost painfully hard to read but they give the largest clues of all towards how vessel views sleep as a god in this fictional narrative he's cooked up and i very much enjoy how he's chosen to approach it. the writing itself veers into this stream of consciousness back and forth, a mental pingpong between the director and the entity that's merged itself with him, which is just chef's kiss to me.

also, this is speculation at best, but i think it might be hinting that vessel WAS the director before sleep joined with him? i'm not entirely sure. there were cultists wearing face masks which i think is the most confusing part of this whole thing. why are they not transformed and instead helping the lunar anomaly? they have superhuman senses and can fight armed men in blindfolds like something out of daredevil. the whole thing feels VERY 90's in terms of its presentation, which isn't a bad thing. it's just funny to see how retro its whole look is lol

all in all, i really like this comic, despite being as flawed as it is. i think the concepts sleep token is exploring here are a nice, refreshing take on invasive eldritch forces: there's a desperation and loneliness in the unknown, and it toes the line between romantic and horrific in that regard. it's the epitome of transcendental horror.

[helloarchivist]

Hii! How are you? I wanted to ask if you could share some of your personal headcanons about shanks, i love that man soo much and i feel that i found my people on your blog

Awwww man hello!!! M8 first and foremost thank you so much for this message, this is gonna sustain me for literally ever probably. I love Shanks so dearly too, he's so easy to adore it's crazy ; u ; I'm so honored that you feel like you've found community here I'm just rambling about him and reblogging people that do words better than I do ; uuuuu ;

Here are some thoughts!!! They're not in any like particular order, just me tryin to retrieve something actually coherent out of the centrifuge I have him in in my mind lmfaoooo. I'm gonna put it under a readmore after the second one bc it got a lil long.

I think this one is pretty popular but it's also really important to me, but I do think that man is the sweetest, sappiest loverboy to ever be. He's so affectionate and indulgent and if he's in love with you, he's all-in 1000000% in love with you, really revels in everything you are separately and everything you've made together.

I think he's really, REALLY good at things. Cards, guitar before he lost his arm, honestly I think he is gifted and burdened with being able to pick up and become proficient with anything he takes any great interest in. That's fun for him to a degree, and would have made childhood REALLY fun, but he's sort of learned that it's hard to have fun with people and enjoy card games and whatnot if he wins every time and dominates the board. So he kicks his feet back and cheats casually and poorly at cards and plays slight of hand tricks and acts like a dork because he WANTS to have fun with his crew and his friends and the people he cares for. He's come to value losing for a joke and a laugh over winning just for the sake of it.

I think he pays a lot more attention to things than he gets credit for, and is a lot more emotionally aware and intelligent than he gives the impression of being. Part of how Shanks operates is in this kind of carefree ambient role, even in situations he feels a great deal of investment in. He'll stand back, and act silly, and play a little scatterbrained and flighty because it's a lot safer for everyone if that's how he acts. Plus, I think he's had to spend so much time sublimating his own personal wants and needs that he sort of lets situations dictate how much of his real feelings and vulnerabilities get involved. There's just too much at stake to act without careful consideration and responsibility, at least that's how he seems to me.

I think he's pretty decently well-read, though I think this one's pretty against the grain for popular fanon with him lmfao. He's a Yonko, and he's chosen the like kingmaker/steward/diplomat route as such. He has to travel around, he diffuses situations, he has to be able to communicate with people and understand the situations he's walking into, so like. I do think he has some understanding of philosophy and history (given his travels with Roger probably to a degree that'd likely be forbidden if it was well-known about), I think he knows several languages, I think he's able to keep conversation and find common ground through things like music and literature and things like that.

Steering back into less like somber-serious waters I also think he's soooooooooooooooooooo clingy (affectionate). Definitely with his significant other but platonically too, I think he drapes his lanky body all over people and rolls around and lays in laps and wants scritches, he's very affectionate and he loves affection in return!!!

Okay I'm gonna stop here for now, I could ramble about that man for literally ever. I have no idea if this is what you were asking for but if not, lemme know and I can answer from a different direction!!

[bird-likes-to-fandom]

why do you dislike michie? /genuinely curious

cracks my knuckles. I'm so glad you asked, dear anon!

First and foremost, I want to say that I'm big on "do what you want forever" when it comes to fandom, even if I hate a certain ship. Just because I post about hating something (because it's my opinion and I can also do what I want forever), doesn't mean I'm gonna police or attack people who love it. I have like 4 or 5 mutuals who like michie! I'm completely fine with others liking it, it's just not my thing and since you asked, I'm gonna tell you why.

Hello! If you're going through the npmd tag and reblogging this post, please reblog the version with the readmore. I meant to put one here the first time and apparently forgot! I'm sorry.

I've tagged this post with "anti michie" for tag blocking purposes.

I don't understand it at all. Max is a vicious, vicious bully, who terrorizes Richie and his friends for literally no fucking reason. He's constantly on a power trip and he enjoys it, and no matter what his home life is like, I don't think that justifies his actions. It doesn't justify his actions. The entire school lives in fear of him, the entire school has physically or emotionally felt his wrath, even his so called "friends", Kyle and Jason. Hell, Richie says he used to not be able to even open his locker out of fear. If Max hadn't died, and if he had genuinely worked on himself, the absolute MOST I could see between him and Richie is a shaky acquaintanceship. I don't think anyone would want ANYTHING to do with him for a very long time, once they knew it was safe to not suck up to him.

I don't understand how people can watch the Nerdy Prudes Must Die song and scene and think it's mutual-love relationship material. Richie's death is genuinely haunting, even only the parts we see of it. Richie is sobbing, begging for his life, and Max taunts him, and you think that's fluffy? And reminder - we don't actually see Richie's real death. We see Max about to strike and laugh maniacally before the lights go black, but at the beginning Bailey says Richie was purple-nurpled and swirlied to death. At the beginning and in Richie's death scene, we hear Max calling out for him, toying with him like predator and prey.

A lot of people make ghost Max out to be nothing that he is in canon, a lot of people make him a goofy guy who is just mildly annoyed by Richie's and Ruth's ghosts. And while canon Max has his funny and silly moments, it's important to remember his actual character and what he represents - a figurative and literal monster. In fanon, people erase all of Max's bad traits, which is what his entire character is meant to be. He's not some dumb himbo, he's a bully. He's meant to represent a real thing that hurts and even kills real people. It's a disservice to take that from him.

I've seen certain Michie works put emphasis on Richie being the one to forgive Max, and not Max taking the long road to work on himself, when in reality it is NEVER on the victim to forgive their abuser. Even if Max works on himself and redeems himself to the best of his ability, even if he gives Richie the most sincere apology in the multiverse, Richie does not have to forgive him. He does not owe him that. And I don't think Richie would forgive him, at least not for a long, long time.

And also, if you want to ship Richie with someone who needs a little redemption, Jason Jepson is right there, and it's a way more probable ship than Michie ever has the capacity of being.

[azuremliam]

Last Poll was a draw again! I got the wind knocked outta my sails when it concluded, but finally here's Cole and Bille!

Ironically two of the hatchlings that take a lot after their parents

Underneath the readmore is text from the drawings

Cole

[Where do you work out? Cole: 100% happily and serious "At the library!"]

Cole pursues her dream of becoming a Cosmic Archivist at this point in her life. She interns at various world's libraries, and has a place of her own on a planet that's sole focus is collecting and cataloguing data.

She gets so caught up in her studying and recording that she's one of the few grown up hatchlings that forget to catch up with Liam and Scarab.

Tera is the one who reminds Cole to visit from time to time, since they frequent the planet she stays on to look at Cosmic Being's records.

[Her "default" face is still her more Lizard's self. She just makes a big effort on appearing more human like for "convivence".]

[And because Cole always thought it'd be fun to be more humanoid- after seeing Liam return to their original form for the first time.]

[She doesn't use it much, but she also has a mask.]

Bille

[His mask shares similarities to Cole's slightly with the center eye always remaining exposed.]

Bille has been pursuing his dream of becoming a Crystal Architect along with his siblings, Merid and Maxi. The three of them returned to Scarab's homeworld to apprentice under their grandparents.

He's been chosen as the favorite child out of the three by Deargadaol's standards anyways. Caeruleus is strict with all three of the siblings.

Occasionally he pops on by Liam's dimension to show of new crystal structures he's created and even give his parents new furniture and what not.

[Bille and Scarab can go on and on for hours on end about crystal capabilities and functions. Sometimes he even calls Scarab to get his opinion on ow he should go about making things.]

[This happens with Liam too, though they can't provide too much input. Occasionally questions of their own spur on new creative ideas for him. Liam enjoys just hearing their kid enjoy what they do.]

[Bille learned how to transform a more "normal" homeworld face that everyone has there. Scarab was surprised when he revealed it to him.]

[Bille has a room in the Tree Stump house all to himself, its full of his crystal creations. He's given many crystal art and such to Lipan, who has a collection of his work.]

[salty-dracon]

My thoughts on the Hundred Line demo

First, and most important question: Did I enjoy it? My answer is, YES!!! ABSOLUTELY YES!!!! I am beyond hooked. This game's got its claws in me. I've got theories cookin', man!

And yes, the EN dub is fine. In fact, I'm very excited to hear more from it!

Under the readmore are further details about the demo and my thoughts on them. Please note that this contains major demo spoilers, and I ask that if you comment, you avoid dropping any information about leaks. Thank you for reading!

First, let's talk presentation- encompassing art style, music, and engine quirks.

I think the presentation is superb. The visual novel engine carries over some quirks from Danganronpa V3 such as having the protagonist's expression on display when they're speaking, which was one of the best things about that game and Rain Code. Not only that, but they allow movement to the side and use interesting angles to display different features of each room, while billboarding the sprites around. That's so freaking cool, and it gives the illusion of having the characters in the room around you as you're looking around, not looking like paper dolls. The art style is predictably a little more grey and mechanical than the colorful psycho-pop DR1 and DR2 and psycho-cool DRV3 and cyberpunky Rain Code. I mean, they're in an army base. That's to be expected. I think it does well to set the tone for the game.

The more colorful floors felt a bit lacking in some respects, and I disliked the sidescrolling. It didn't work for Rain Code either, and I'm curious as to why they went with this format instead of the usual DR Open World wandering. Maybe otherwise you can get stuck between the rooftop micro-habs? Or maybe there will be a horror scene later on which will require you to walk through the halls while bodies line the floor?

The music is very similar to Danganronpa, but I can't complain. DR music is almost 100% bangers, and the battle theme is original. And also a banger. TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO-

Voice Acting

This may be controversial of me, but I like it. (Same guy who loved Triangle Strategy's dub, btw.) First, we do have some big names in here from games like Metaphor ReFantazio and various Fangans. And yes, I think of the ones we've seen, they're really good! I'd say every issue I had with the voice acting was just caused by poor voice direction. But I'm not going to let it hamper my enjoyment of the game, no matter how many assholes yell at me on stream about it. Shoutout in particular to Sirei's voice! It sounded just like an army sergeant with a little bit of Cave Johnson thrown in, and the lines were read with so much pomp and personality! Also shoutout to Darumi, Takemaru, and Hiruko, who we saw a lot of in the demo, and whose performances were all full of personality. I kept comparing Darumi to Jinx from League of Legends (not Arcane- important distinction). It helps tremendously that the localization was written so buttery smooth that every VA could take it in stride.

Oh yeah, localization. It's 10/10. That's it.

Characters

I've been following the marketing since the beginning, so I've already come to adore this cast. Everyone's a standout in their own way, but some of them defied my expectations in interesting ways.

Eito is supposedly a sickly boy who gave me Major Sus Vibes on account of his weapon being a scythe and that one CG with Takumi- you know the one. People in my circle are calling it Komahina 2 But They Actually Do It This Time. Oh god. Anyway, Eito standing up and calling out Sirei, and proving to be unpopular enough with Hiruko in the mix? I didn't expect him to be the first one to get into interpersonal drama! He seems so reasonable and so nice, but I know that facade is going to be crushed later on- I strongly suspect he'll develop some kind of one-sided obsession with either Takumi, or based on his moveset, justice and group unity, and cull anyone who poses a threat to those things. Which is to say, he's my favorite and I hope Takumi keeps interacting with him!

Hiruko was long thought of as the group's first obstacle to achieving any level of unity, and I'm definitely seeing that here with the way she threatens the others and treats them as worthless unless they're fighting with her. Girl, you may be strong, but you have 0 range- you'd get swarmed by the real baddies if you didn't have the rest of us with you! I don't see any attempt at humor with her yet- which is good, I'd hate to have that illusion shattered so early.

Darumi and Takemaru, as Takumi's first allies, are wonderful! We saw a lot of Takemaru's personality on display- he's weird, but honorable. Same with Darumi. She talks a lot of trash and acts pretty scary, but she's not just a character made to mimic a Danganronpa fan. She seems fun- and moreso, that she cares about the others enough to help them out in a pinch like with Eito's rescue.

If there are two members of the cast that may get annoying, Gaku is one and Shouma is another. WRT Gaku, this is just my own past talking but I hate characters that play Oppression Olympics to win. That being said, they asked us not to write him off as he's very kind when he locks in. As for Shouma, I just hate characters who have 1 line of dialogue followed by 2 lines of self-deprecation. But I trust the team's character writing. I trust they'll do both of them justice.

As for characters that just suck, it is so much fun watching Ima suck. Like, please stop making your sister so uncomfortable, dude, but depending on how far you go, we'll be cheering even louder when Kako hits you with a brick. (Also, not the worst guy I've ever seen in a Danganronpalike. That one goes to a certain sexist Italian Catholic.)

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of these guys.

Gameplay

It would help if there were a clearer aggro mechanic. I don't fully remember which character had a taunt move in the first place, but it would help if I knew anyway. Otherwise, I find the gameplay super interesting, with lots of opportunity for potential strategies. Paying attention to the movement, range, attack, armor, AOE capability, etc.. of each character will be very fun in a game that's mostly mooks with one big tough boss at the end. AOE characters aren't the best in games like Fire Emblem, you know? So to be able to wipe out enemies quickly feels powerful, a bit like Unicorn Overlord.

I still feel bad about having to kill the scrunklies for enemy reasons, but they revive anyway.... won't be that bad, right? Right?

That "Finishing Blow" sequence? THAT WAS FUCKING CRAZY!!! I didn't think this game would have PVP, but GOD DAMN!!! (Can't wait for the inevitable "Shouma, you're behind on EXP, go kill the commander" moment.)

Anyway, can't wait to play Tsubasa and hit people with my car. I know we have some ideas of movesets for characters that weren't in the demo like Yugamu and Kurara, but... Tsubasa Hit and Run. Please.

I wonder what the school stats will be used for.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of board game mechanics... I was actually hoping for some brassy-sounding penis music to fit the funny looking character sprites. Didn't get that...

And most importantly, plot!

As a fan of Danganronpa, Akudama Drive, Rain Code, Zero Escape, and AI The Somnium Files, I like to think that I know enough about both Kodaka and Uchikoshi to know what the markers and cinchers are.

In three words, I am hooked.

This plot so far is very Kodaka, but I see some Uchikoshi on the horizon and sprinkled here and there, especially with the potential way they might handle 100 endings. Identity issues are very Uchikoshi, for instance, and I'm wondering if Takumi switched bodies with the ghost boy somehow.

We had our Danganronpa divergence with the complete disappearance of Sirei and his subsequent death at the end of Day 7. Who knows WHERE the plot will go from here, now that the students are essentially self-governing? And we have some interpersonal drama in there with Hiruko vs everyone who won't fight and Eito vs. Hiruko.

And what is "Cryptoglobin", the key word that appeared at the end of the most recent trailer? I know what Hemoglobin is- it's the protein that carries oxygen on your red blood cells- so... what does that mean here?

All I know is that Eito is sus. He's gonna have a serial killer arc. He's gonna somehow commit worse crimes than everyone else in the school and still do absolutely nothing wrong.

Anyway, some theories based on what we've seen:

Every character has been ripped out of their own time somehow. Takumi is from a different time period than everyone else, which is why some characters feel so old-fashioned and why almost everyone is completely disconnected from everyone else. It's because they didn't exist then- or only existed as adults.

The ghost boy is the "heart" of the Undying Flames. They appear to have a consciousness, and that consciousness wants to protect the school from the Invaders, hence why it tries to keep them out.

The flames burn through spacetime. This would explain how Takumi could see a boy he'd never met as well as why the flames only incinerate organic matter- rock doesn't deteriorate as fast as a plant, so if you sped up time around a plant, it would wither away faster than a rock would.

Rather disorganized, but those are my thoughts on the demo! I hope you enjoy!

[gnashingwailing]

@fireflywritesgt LOVINGLY WRITING MY UNHINGED CH23 THOUGHTS AND THEN BURYING THEM UNDER A READMORE. I felt such overwhelming hype when I saw we got 2 chapters in 1 day I truly was ready to throw my phone out the fucking window. TOO MUCH JOY FOR ONE LITTLE GNASH... I hadn't even finished processing ch21......

first off pov Joe when he goes to Calloway's to pick up his cute new tailored fit in 3 days

soooo right from the jump. hey.

"“…’cause he’s way better off than I am, it’ll make it harder for me to leave him or something. That he’s luring me in. I mean—” Joe laughed nervously as he steeled himself in preparation for how the captain would react to his next statement “—if it were a giant treating me the way he treats me, everyone would call me a pet.”

“Well of course they would, Joe. That’s because giants are evil.” The captain said matter-of-factly.

He may as well have poked Joe squarely in the eye. Nonetheless, the bartender continued."

hey. UM. Joe you beautiful idiot who canonically has bad luck and, presumably from reading this very chapter, a terrible poker face. Maybe you should have said. Any Other Thing? GODDD in my heart he's definitely sooo overconfident and drunk like wow I am so smooth :) nobody suspects a thing :) while Calloway is having a conversation with him like uh... just saying, but you know, none of us could stop you from. for example. idk. becoming a giant's pet. we wouldn't like that but it's just a random thing that came to mind just now, unrelated to the really tall really wealthy really powerful guy who is afraid of taking advantage of you by luring you in and giving you things like a giant would and maybe isn't treating you like a person. And you're afraid you shouldn't want it. Like BRO IT IS SO OVER FOR YOU even without Harry literally calling Joe's name 3+ times in the dead silence 😭😭😭😭 And presumably Harry having been waiting around there for a while to see Joe! Loitering in a way we know tinies are on guard about since they all noticed that snatcher back in Ch13!

They're idiots ur honor, so true, but it's all worth it to see Joe get rescued and swoon like a damsel ... I definitely wonder if Calloway observed any of that, and what he might think about it if so. >:) May or may not have been daydreaming and writing bits about how horrifying it would be to give your surrogate kid all this well-meaning advice, see him nearly slip to his death, and while you're hurrying down to try and help him, watching him call out to a walking nightmare for help and then get whisked away by it

I have a pet theory that everything we've seen from Calloway so far has been pretty heavily colored by it being from Joe's perspective when he's having a bad day, and maybe he will be more understanding than we think? Objectively, I didn't think he was being very rude or anything back in Ch 13, when he was speculating on Joe's love life. It rankled Joe, which is understandable, but he 1) he's happy that Joe looks good, 2) he doesn't let Gutters or O'Grady rag on Joe too hard and 3) he just generally seems like an interested father figure would about his kid's love life:

"“Oh, lay off him, Tim. It’s a good borrowing year!” Captain Calloway cut in. “We all have ‘em, we all enjoy ‘em, we all cry ourselves to sleep when they’re over.”

Relief washed over Joe like the warm water in Harry’s sink.

“Though I gotta say…” The captain gave a wry smile as he continued. “…it could just as easily be someone else’s good borrowing year if ya’ catch my drift. Could be he’s got a little sweetheart looking after him. A brick of pure chocolate? That’s practically a dowry."”

Although I may be wrong here, since Ch 21's incident at Tiny Town with the Italian mob that saved him gives us the insight that "[for] the first time in Joe’s entire existence at that, Joe understood what it was like to have a real father." So maybe Calloway is not that nurturing to Joe and not much of a caring dad -- as @remordsposthume's tags so wisely point out:

WTF WAS HE DOING LETTING HIM LEAVE THE BAR LMAO. Calloway's Den of Drunkards confirmed for an "everybody drive home drunk. it's not my problem" bar??? Everyone is processing TAoLaW thru their own cultural lens and. in that spirit. lmfao. I must say. Calloway reminds me of the libertarian redneck dads I've known who just let their kids do whatever. If he was a giant I think he'd let his kids ride ATVs thru the woods drunk. Most probably he would also be ridin around drunk with them. "If you die it's your own damn fault" being his motto is too on the nose LOL. Huge farm dad "I LOVE MY SONS. ONLY HALF OF THEM WILL SURVIVE TO ADULTHOOD BUT I DO LOVE THEM" energy. To Me.

(Btw Harry & Joe processing their parental issues together WHEN <3)

BUT ANYWAY YEAH EVEN IF CALLOWAY WAS THE MOST UNOBSERVANT GUY IN THE WORLD RE: THAT SUSPICIOUS CONVERSATION? YOU WERE LITERALLY BOTH SCREAMING EACH OTHERS' NAMES LIKE LOVESICK ROMANCE PROTAGONISTS RIGHT UNDER THE DREDGE THAT'S STILL PROBABLY GOT AT LEAST SOME NIGHT MARKET CUSTOMERS? HELLO?? @94444 we are on the same wavelength rn

AND MORE ABOUT CALLOWAY... I am very heartened by how you mentioned once, Warren, that you planned to give each character real depth and treat them with sincerity. I feel very interested about when that time will be for Calloway! We know that he takes in kids (or at least O'Grady and Joe scratch that. tag lore be upon me) and teaches them how to sell trinkets. We know that he hates giants. We know he's been horribly injured in a way that led to him losing a hand, an eye, and possibly teeth. Knowing what we do about the risks of being a borrower, and how casually cruel giants are to them, it's not unlikely those last 2 things are related. I'M TAKING YOUR TAGS AND RUNNING AWAY WITH THEM LIKE A DOG W SOMETHING IN ITS MOUTH.

So Calloway knew them for several years as vulnerable kids... then lost them for a year or so... then got them back after they escaped the watchmaker's? I will be interested to see if that trauma means he's more protective of them, or uh, still more drunk libertarian dad about them. Lmao. He seemed like he cared about Joe getting into Tiny Town way back in Ch3 tho at least! (as an aside... interested in who Gutters is, too. He SEEMS to be older than Joe/Tim, but he could also still be a Calloway Kid himself... he seems to defer to Calloway... and/or he could just be some guy embittered about giant/tiny relations. which. fair, brother.)

If the broader Tiny Town culture (such as it is... would word get around about this incident with Joe and Harry, or does news just not travel that well amongst lots of secluded borrower communities? much to consider. it makes sense in a dark way why you would physically mark somebody who's transgressed against society's cardinal rule, in a culture where you cannot generally spread information effectively) would reject Joe for his proclivities... will Calloway, too? Or is it Joe's anxiety making him think that? I'm afraid we already know how Tim would feel. Other than him, Calloway is the person who Joe seems most connected to in miniature society... Although Harry's worry about Joe not spending enough time around his fellow miniatures in Ch22 is at least partially motivated by his own guilt-trip, I think he has a bit of a point! I hope Joe doesn't lose touch with everyone -- or if he does, I hope there will be new friends out there for him, too, who are more understanding.

(LORRAINE WHEN)

Now Calloway aside, OBVIOUSLY THE ENDING OF THIS CHAPTER HAD ME HOOTIN AND HOLLERIN.

“Joe… can we go back to the big, sexy giant part for a second?” <- LIT'RALLY me rereading this chapter 800 times

A snapping turtle is a fantastic little horror for poor Joe to face, woof. Those fuckers are scary enough when ur height is measured in feet. The quick way they snap is no joke. Just want to 👏👏👏👏 about how good this passage is: The turtle’s maw emerged from the waters of the lake like the gaping mouth of some ancient monster that fed on the souls of sailors. The grimy lakewater rushed over its beady little eyes as its beak, sharp as a dagger, flew towards Joe faster than a gunshot. YEAH.

It just!! makes my little heart sooooo happy to see that Joe does have someone who will unconditionally look out for him...!!! Harry has his issues, and they're still learning how to open up about themselves, but he consistently shows up!! :') the thought of him waiting for his man all night ... hoping the dredge would be the place Joe meant ... and then acting sooo fast when he saw a tiny guy fall off of it... what a faithful hound of a [future] boyfriend. Calloway is so right. Joe deserves somebody to look after him. And Joe has done the (forgive me for the loaded meme) girl math on this. One big man is the best possible outcome for him. ONLY THE BIGGEST MAN WILL DO to keep him off of his bullshit as much as possible 👍👍

And OF COURSE god their conversation is just so so so fucking funny. "Thank you" "fuck no I'm not" -> "FUCK YOU" is INCREDIBLE i CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT lmaooooo and Harry still being so gentle about receiving this insult and trying to parse what Joe means ... he does listen to Joe, they're definitely not back to square one as drunk!Joe feared, his own issues are just getting in the way! (And Joe's are getting in the way of him seeing thru Harry's facade into what the real issue is! We love to see it!)

"“I meant that. You don’t get to call me handsome until you start listening to me.” He slurred. “You gotta—you gotta want it.”

Joe crossed his arms and scowled up at the beautiful man and his beautiful face as Harry tried to parse what Joe was saying.

“Want it…?” Harry echoed.

“Yeah. You gotta want to be my friend. And screw what anyone else thinks!”"

And did anyone else cackle at how Joe telephone-gamed Calloway's advice to still be in plausible-deniability-land. "You gotta want to be my friend" ok. not what he fuckin said. run that back real quick -> "Not if you’re being open about what you want and everything. That’s how love works, Joe. You gotta want it."

I just adored the moments of insight between them, too. "... Joe knew his real answer was yes – he was just too afraid to say it overtly. He argued and fought and begrudgingly accepted it instead. / What was that saying to Harry?" vs. Ch22 Harry's revelation: "How much of his relationship with Joe was genuine, he wondered, and how much of it was Joe going along with Harry’s suggestions in the name of diplomacy?"

Joe IS acting like somebody who's being coerced! Harry IS being a trustworthy guy by noticing it and checking in once their relationship is definitely turning intimate! It's so fascinating to think in hindsight that every time Joe turned red and embarrassed, Harry was having a thought at the back of his mind like "he doesn't want this. I'm scaring him. He doesn't want me, and he doesn't even know the real me yet. And worse, he can't tell me, because he's afraid of what I might do to him." But he can't SAY all that because it would hurt too much if he said it and Joe confirmed he was actually correct, so Ch22 comes out as a trainwreck where he's accidentally insulting Joe's ability to survive without him. (Side note I KNEW Harry wasn't REALLY considering Joe his landlord. Sad!!! That fucked up scrawny starving guy has squatter's rights and he was doing pretty good all things considered maybe !!!)

The respective issues ~Society~ has given both of them just make it impossible to talk about the root of their problems without baring your guts in a really terrifying way. OOF.

HOWEVER this chapter confirming that homophobia isn't such a problem in tiny society is going to make this eventual conversation betwen them real interesting... Harry like "You don't understand Joe :( there's something really wrong with me... ... I like ... men..." and Joe being like "omg :) :) :) :) :) wait what's wrong with you tho" and then Joe "No you don't understand Harry :( I know this is sick but... I like.. giants... I'm sure you could never see someone smaller than you as anything other than a pet ..." and Harry just ":) :) :) :) oh what no :) Georgie was shorter than me" I hope they can have a good, baffled laugh at how long they could've been snuggling guilt-free. At the end of the angst. <3

[inkblackorchid]

I was gonna try to keep my mouth shut, but I can't. I just can't. I have to go on another Aki rant because I feel like I'm going to explode. It's about this scene:

This drives me insane and I'm putting this under a readmore. Expect incoherent screaming, all ye who enter here.

Ok. Ok. I have so many issues with this scene. Specifically, with the way it develops later, when Aki's busy trying to figure out how to save a child from being swept up by a storm:

And I just. Look, I think the fact that I already wrote a fic that basically completely turns Aki's reaction here on its head should basically tell you everything. But! But. Allow me to defend why I think this whole scene is one big heap of horseshit, with a bit of analysis of canon and actual evidence to back up my claims and shit.

The thing is, I have seen people give this scene a charitable read. I've seen people be happy for Aki to enjoy freedom from the psychic powers that have given her so much trouble in her life. And the thing is, if this were season one or season two Aki, I would be completely on board with that take. Unfortunately, this scene is preceded by the pre-WRGP arc. But more on that below.

Moreover, I can make an educated guess about what they were going for here (in terms of messaging, because this is a kids' show at the end of the day and messaging is something you have to be properly concerned with when it comes to these). I can imagine it running somewhere along the lines of "you don't need special powers to be a hero". Or even "you can grow past the hurt and/or the mistakes in your life and still become a good person or even a hero". And really, I wish I could believe that take. It's just. The writing simply doesn't add up. I wish it did, but it doesn't.

This is where we get back to the pre-WRGP arc. And not just that, actually, but the timeskip between the dark signers and pre-WRGP arc, too. Because the thing is, the last time we have seen Aki in anguish about her powers on-screen by the time the episodes above (108-109) arrive was during the DS arc, during the duel with her father, which happened during episodes 40-41. 40. to. 41. This was over sixty episodes ago at this point. And after that, that's it. As far as the DS arc is concerned, Aki's conflict about her powers is resolved the second she controls them for the first time when her father tries to interfere in her second duel against Yusei.

(Yeah, remember this moment? That was literally the last time we saw Aki in conflict with her powers.)

And I know some people would argue "but what about the dark signer duel with Misty?". And yes, I get it. Misty does accuse her of having murdered her brother with her powers and Aki gets incredibly (understandably) upset about it. But the thing is, we know that's fake, and during the duel, Aki knows that, too. She goes as far as insisting that there were no casualties at the duel where Misty thinks Toby died.

(Yes, I have screenshot proof for literally every dumb little thing in this show, why do you ask?)

It's only after Misty keeps pushing and backing her into a corner during their duel (and literally gaslighting her) that she begins to believe Misty's version of the events. Which is why this doesn't "count" as Aki being in conflict with her powers the way her second duel with Yusei does. At least not to me, feel free to debate me over this if you wanna.

Okay, but what am I driving at here? Fair question. Let me hop back to after the dark signers' defeat.

So, we know there's a half-year timeskip between the DS and the pre-WRGP arc (which was allegedly enough for NDC to connect the city and Satellite, deal with all the social issues that entailed, and also build a giant duel network, which I will never believe but I digress). Unfortunately, what exactly our main characters did during that timeskip is never addressed, it's just kind of there to segway immediately into the WRGP setup. So the only thing we can do is guess at what they got up to based on where they are as people by the time we get back to them during the start of the pre-WRGP arc. So where's Aki at when we see her again after the dark signers' defeat then?

Oh, she's attending duel academy again now! That's nice. So that probably means the student body isn't scared shitless of her anymore and she's not being ostracised anymore.

Wow, she's an exceptional student! That means she must be a really good duellist. So she got the hang of her powers, then?

...Ah.

Do you start to see my problem? Past the DS arc, we are not being given any indication that Aki is still struggling with her powers or still resents them or herself like she used to. You could be forgiven for thinking that she's healed in the meantime. She's fine. She has accepted herself and can now use her powers safely. Which makes her later claiming "she no longer needs that cursed power" a bit... hmmm. And another thing. The fact that she refers to it as "cursed" rubs me the wrong way. After the defeat of the dark signers, she literally never does that even a single time before the moment in the hospital during the storm. (I'd post all the screenshots to prove it here but for one, tumblr doesn't allow it, and for two, I hope you'll believe I did my due diligence without it.)

And it just irks me. If the powers are still a "curse" to Aki by episodes 108-109, why give us the moment above?

And why give us this moment, where she saves Sherry, Yusei, and herself with those powers?

And why give us this moment, where she literally uses her powers at a public event to protect people, and is evidently not cussed out as a witch for it? Neither of these moments do anything to indicate that Aki still hates her powers. They don't indicate that she sees them as a "beast of burden" or necessary evil of a sort, either. On the contrary, I don't think it would be too out there to claim all these moments make her look rather badass. Like a small celebration of "hey, now she can finally use these powers for cool and not evil things!".

Yet, somehow, we still end up with episodes 108-109, where the writers expect the audience to buy that Aki was secretly still hoping she might eventually be rid of these powers after all. And maybe this would be easier to swallow if there weren't also the fact that they later literally go back on it to add to this confusing mess. Because the thing is, we all know the finale scene after the three-way duel with Sherry where Aki protects them with her powers (which have suddenly reappeared, aha!) again and also finds out she can use these powers to heal. So not only is the framing of Aki suddenly being glad to have lost her powers extremely weird, it's also temporary anyway!

So my question is. What was the point. What was the point of all this if the writers ended up going back on it anyway? Because I want to believe there's a reasonable, charitable explanation that also makes sense with what they show us in terms of Aki's characterisation past the DS arc, but if there is, I cannot for the life of me find it. If anything, this whole thing feels like it completely contradicts itself.

First, they tie up Aki's conflict with her powers with a neat bow after she manages not to hurt her father anymore. Then, they launch into the pre-WRGP arc and blatantly tell us that she can now control them. No questions asked. Indisputable fact, and we get nothing that contradicts that, either. Then, we get a bunch of setup showing her using her powers, too, and what's more, we get other significant players in the cast taking notice of it, too, as though it might become relevant. Because Sherry isn't the only one who gets curious about Aki's powers.

(I will never understand how Placido's hood works together with his horn-thingies and have stopped trying at this point.)

The literal, central antagonists of season 3-4 also take notice of it. Like that means something. Like it'll come up again later. But, well. We know it doesn't.

Instead, she suddenly loses her powers out of nowhere (and we are never given a reason for it, either, which does nothing to make this writing decision seem anymore understandable). And, look. The thing that upsets me most about this isn't even the fact that it feels a little inconsistent with Aki's character post DS arc. If that were the only problem, I could still suspend my disbelief far enough to go along with the idea that she secretly still hated her powers quietly in the background and wanted them gone anyway. What really pisses me off is that it reeks of zero setup and knee-jerk decisions in the writing room ten miles against the wind. If they wanted us to believe Aki's glad to be rid of her powers, why give absolutely no indication that she's at odds with them past episode 41 anymore? Why let her state outright that she can now control them? Why show her on several occasions using them to her own and other people's benefit, the way a hero would? And if her powers are supposed to vanish and it's supposed to make sense, why is there no reason for it? They already used cyborg timetravel at that point, they could have literally come up with any nonsense related to that and it would have probably made at least more sense than just letting her powers vanish for no reason at all. Also, if the message behind all this is supposed to be either of the things I mentioned way above—if the idea the audience is supposed to be getting is either "you don't need special powers to be a hero" or "your past and/or your mistakes don't define you and you can heal and grow past them"—why reintroduce the powers, which, in this reading, would be a symbol of Aki's pain, of her mistakes and her dreaded past, at the very end, during the finale, then? It just doesn't add up, and it frustrates me to no end.

The writers wanted to make the moment Aki realises she can help people (well, one person, a child) without her powers seem triumphant so bad, but every time I watch it, it just completely falls flat for me. This isn't a triumph, this is a hot mess of bad writing decisions. All I'm saying is, if they wanted me to buy that Aki would be happy about losing her powers here, they were missing a hefty amount of setup and also shouldn't actually have given them back to her during the finale (no, not even as healing powers).

Moreover... I'll freely admit I also have a personal problem with this scene. I've seen this show and these episodes several times by now, and during my last rewatch and my current one, something about this scene has been creeping up on me, and I think I've figured out what that is now. So I talked about the possible message behind this scene already, and the reading I've given so far was fairly forgiving. But the thing is, there is another reading that has occurred to me that I can't unsee anymore. As much as you could make a valid case that this scene is trying to say that people don't need to be special to be heroes and save others, that past mistakes don't define us, and yadda yadda, there's also a much, much less pleasant way to interpret this scene: "You're better off if you don't stand out." And I'll freely admit, this interpretation probably occurs to me specifically because I was considered a "weird kid" at school, singled out by bullies, and avoided by "popular" kids (take a wild guess why I relate to Aki so much!). And over the years, you learn to downplay that "weirdness" because you become desperate to be accepted by someone, anyone. And given everything the show gives us about Aki's relationship with her powers, it'd make sense that this idea would be buried somewhere in her head, too. It's better not to stand out. Don't be weird. Sand down your edges so there's no chance people could get upset about them. You're better off being whatever everyone else considers "normal" than being whoever you are. It doesn't matter if this is a part of who you are, just become someone else. Someone who's easier to accept. Who's easier to love. You don't need your "weirdness".

You don't need this cursed power.

You know, the "cursed power" that Aki had from the beginning of the show, that was a part of her for years, and that the show didn't give any indication could vanish. The power that we were led to believe would just be there forever, because it was simply a part of Aki, not a conscious thing she (or the narrative) could choose. The power that we were, for all intents and purposes, led to believe she had mastered and maybe even accepted along the way. But sure, let's get rid of that. It's better if she's """normal""". And more convenient for the writers, too! After all, if she doesn't have powers anymore, they can't cause plotholes (of which the WRGP already has enough) and can't possibly give Aki any more badass moments, which makes it that much easier to sideline her. And let's package this weird, shittily set-up moment in a message about how she's better off without her powers anyway. She's happy! It makes complete sense that she's happy. She's finally normal like everyone else. Ignore the way people who might relate to the character could possibly interpret this moment differently. And ignore how none of the writing surrounding this moment makes sense.

...Sigh.

Okay, I think I've let off enough steam. I just. Yeah. I'm sorry, but I cannot for the life of me view this scene in a favourable way and watching it today made me want to chew glass tbh. My only solace is that they went back on this trainwreck writing decision in the finale. Which, really, just makes this whole mess really, really pointless, doesn't it?

For anyone who stuck around this long, thanks for reading. Sorry if this got extra-rant-y. Idk man, I just think “it’s worth the effort to accept yourself as you are, even with all the bits you might not like at first” would have been a better message than whatever this turned out to be.

[bellaplots]

olha eu procurando plot de novo por aqui. oi oi gente, como vocês estão? eu sou a bella (ela/dela, 26 anos), e estou na tag a mais de dez anos. atualmente, a única plataforma que uso pra jogar é o discord e minha atividade é alta, e tenho grande preferencia por pessoas com esse mesmo nível! e tô morrendo de saudades de criar personagens novo, então decidi vir aqui na tag caçar algum partner.

DISCORD: trnzdowzrnings

MAIN BLOG: @trnzdowzrnings (o tumblr boicotou ele e não me deixa mandar/receber mensagem direta)

embaixo do readmore, vou deixar alguns tropes & plots que eu mais gosto, fcs que estou querendo usar ou jogar contra, mas estou aberta para conversamos também. é só me chamar pelo discord.

tropes !!

enemies to lovers

friends to lovers

young parents

arranged marriages/fake daiting

famous x non famous

found family

brother best friend

nanny plot.

small town!!!!!!

plots !!

O clichê do aplicativo de namoro onde MUSE A se depara com um perfil muito interessante e curioso, MUSE B era seu nome e estava usando fotos de um famoso ( que MUSE A pode ser, ou não, fã ). Claro que nem todas as fotos estavam postadas no ig do famoso, mas MUSE A pensou ser algo que foi apagado ou postado em outro lugar; e apesar do perfil parecer um fake, achou engraçado continuar a conversa que estavam tendo, porque era natural e acabava sendo fácil criar assunto mediante as informações dadas, mesmo que fossem aleatórias e bem cômica. Se falam todos os dias e quando, finalmente, marcam um encontro MUSE A não consegue acreditar que MUSE B é, de fato, o famoso das fotos, teve beliscão, teve tapinha no próprio rosto e tudo para verificar se não estava sonhando. MUSE B, sendo o famoso, só consegue rir e ficar sem entender, porque acreditava que a garota que estava conversando tinha percebido que era ele, pelas fotos, mas parece que se enganou.

A SINGLE MOM FIGHTING FOR CUSTODY OVER A SHITTY FATHER BUT MORE FINANCIALLY STABLE, SHE’S DESPERATE TO KEEP HER CHILD SO SHE ASKS HER BEST FRIEND (HE’S WEALTHY) TO MARRY HER, THEY WIN CUSTODY BUT NOW THEY ARE STUCK TOGETHER AND GIVE ME ALL THE ANGST OF ACTING LIKE HUSBAND AND WIFE BUT THEN SHE STARTS TO FALL FOR HIM AND THEY ACTUALLY BECOME A REAL FAMILY.

A plot where we start right now. A plot where you don’t tell me anything about your character and I don’t tell you anything about mine. A plot where we swap messages of interest and then the urls. A plot where the two bump into each other in public somewhere, at a park, or a coffee shop, or the train station. A plot where there could be 5 or 10 or 15 years between them in age because that’s what happens when strangers meet. A plot where they could become lovers or best friends or complete enemies and it’s all decided by the characters.

okay but imagine a one-night stand thread where we both randomly pick one of our muses and go along with it. that way they’re complete strangers that aren’t necessarily compatible or maybe they strangely are. the point of it is to find out and play around with chemistry !

muse a and muse b have just started dating. it’s nothing too serious yet, just a few dates here and there and thoroughly enjoying each other’s company. muse a is always coming up with excuses as to why he can’t go to the other’s home or have muse b at his apartment, but muse b just assumes muse a wants to take things slow. muse b is a nurse/doctor at the hospital. one day, they’re working in the emergency room and the paramedics wheel in a crying toddler who took a spill at the park and has a broken arm. but coming in right next to the gurney is none other than muse a, holding the child’s hand. surprise, muse a is a single father and didn’t know how to tell muse b, but surprise, guess who the nurse/doctor is that gets to take care of the small child and their now-shocked father?

QUALQUER COISA INSPIRADA NOS LIVROS DA ELSIE SILVER, COWBOYS, FAZENDAS E ETC AAAAAAA POR FAVOR

wanted faces !!

zayn (op)

jonathan bailey

callum turner (op)

fai khadra

evan mock

dylan obrien (op)

renee rapp

olivia rodrigo

sydney sweeney

edielibertyrose

emilia.nia

des.qua

zendaya

tom holland

alvaro mel

gigi hadid

bruna marquezine

kendall jenner