#i just hit save and it automatically corrupted

[daily-joel-smallishbeans]

day 25. well . this is awkward .

[ignoringmyexams]

Imagine a jason that comes back to gotham, and establishes his criminal empire, all while (accidentally, hes still under the influence of the forbidden apple flavored kool-aid) helping the little guy. The bats are freaking out, trying to figure out who he is, but they cant, ots almost like he is a ghost (jason is competent, and knows how to go inder the radar). Then imagine him planning the attack on tim in the titans tower, but being informed by one of his goons about a deal black mask is doing. He shows up just in time to save tim, as he is being sold to the highest bidder. The sheer anger of seeing a kid like tim go through the same stuff he did while he was out on the streets breaks him out of the pits influence (the fact that tim is a rich kid, with no self preservation, hits jason even harder). He realises that putting tim permanently on the bench will help no one, and that sacrificing children in a crusade is not something that is unique to batman.

He saves tim from black mask, but simply drops him off by the manor. Tim is unconcious, and has no way of explaining to bruce that the red hood saved him, and so batman assumes the red hood was the one to hurt him. This makes him increasingly paranoid.

At the same time jason is realising how he can use his power to help the people of gotham (all while keeping up the crime lord front ofc), and jason makes the red hood a beacon of strength and hope for the gothamites, in a way that batman never could with his scare-tactics. The gothamites are helpful, and listens to him, and rallies aroumd the red hood if they need anyting done, from bullying a corrupt politician, to helping parents clean up a playground.

Jason finally has a support network and a community around him of gothamites and goons, and so he lets his guard down a little. Big mistake. Huge.

Batman catches a glance of his face in some random surveillance camera, and (as the paranoid, slightly mentally unstable individual he is), figures out who the red hood is, and automatically chooses to look past the good that hes done (yknow, significantly lowering crime rates, bringing a larger sense of unity to the city, cleaning up the streets, cleaning up after batmans big fights with his supervillains that destroy the city), and automaticalmy assumes he must be a bad guy, if hes not following his rules.

I can imagine batman telling the batkids to STAY AWAY, so ofc they do the opposite, and while batman assumes the red hood is evil incarnate, the rest of the batkids have a civil relationship with him. Nightwing goes on missions with the red hood, red robin trades intel with him, spoiler comes to him for advice on how to handle being a family disappointment (something the red hood gives suspiciously good advice for, almost like he knows how it is to be a batkid), robin keeps throwing jabs at him, that the other heroes dont know how he gets away with (damian and jason know eachother from the league, i will die on this hill, they love eachother), all the while bruce is growing increasingly worried for their safety (they dont understand why, after all, batman hasnt told them who the red hood is)

The thing is, batman is not the only one who has seen pictures of the red hoods face.

Joker wants to recreate jasons death, and make sure it sticks this time, with batman watching as extra entertainment. And so he plots.

Batman is constantly fighting the red hood, showing up to spoil his plans, and even going after his goons to send a message. He grows increasingly more violent and angry as jasons actions towards others dont reflect how batman thinks that they should be. He sees glimpses of his sons compassion in the way he helps others, and this doesn't mach up with how bruce assumes jason would act after coming out of the pit (because of course someone, probably tim, would figure out that was what happened to him), and even worse, jasons death did not make him violent and bitter (outside of the pits influence), as it did to bruce. And so he has to come to terms with the fact that his son has become better than him, without his guidance.

Jason doesnt even retaliate, just throws the batman off his scent, or fights him off. He is never overly violent, to bruce it just seems like batman is an annoyance to him. And he is right. Jason is simply tired of dealing with a father who obviously doesn't accept him, and has decided to end all hope of ever coming back to the family. Even the batkids notice how uninterested the red hood is towards batmans threats.

Although jason is no longer a regular human, he is still not infallible. He ends up getting so hurt that he has to stay off the streets for a while. And things get bad. People have simply gotten used to how safe the streets have become, and so the chaos that comes with a missing red hood comes as a shock. Batman is focused on fighting his self appointed nemesises, and going on missions to space with the league. The batkids and red hoods goons try to pick up the slack, but they dont have the knowledge, trust from the people, or the firepower to make up for the loss of the red hood. So jason has to return before he is fully healed. The pain hes in makes him slower (because he wont take any drugs for it), and so someone manages to get a hit on him.

He wakes up in a warehouse, tied up with batman.

The joker has the time of his life beating the shit put of jason infront of bruce. Harley quinn has even more fun using her competence as a psychologist to make these two emotionally stunted men actually realize how the other is feeling.

The joker finally has had his fill of demonstrating to batman how he hit jason with a crowbar, and leaves them to be blown up. Bruce is trying to alleviate some of his own guilt complex by giving jason a lecture, and blaming him for dying. Jason is simply fed up and bored.

The bomb goes off.

Jason is still alive. He forces himself out of his restraints. Apparently gotham wasnt finished with him yet, and so he could already see a way out of the now burning warehouse. He feels numb. His red helmet had come off at some point, and he shoves it back on. Jason then turnes to bruce. He too is okay, but unconcious.

The batkids arrive at the warehouse, scared shitless, because their dad, and the red hood who they now (because of damian) know is jason, are both in the raging inferno. Word of what has happened has also reached the citizens of gotham, who surround the warehouse in respect of their (assumed dead) red hood.

Everyone stares as a figure emerges from the fire, limping as they carry someone over their shoulders. The glowing eyes of the red helmet is a bright contrast to the soot and dried blood covering the red hood and batmans bodies. The red hood grunts in stoic pain as he lowers batmans body to the ground infront of nightwing and the batmobile.

Jason turns around and leaves. Either to murder the joker (and help a cat out of a tree), or to go home, treat his wounds and curl up on his lumpy sofa and finish his jane austen book. You decide.

The city no longer belongs to batman, its people have chosen the red hood as its protecter. It depends how mentally unstable bruce is, and how much the batman persona has taken over his life, but the control of the city being taken away from him either gives bruce the break to heal, and eventually reconnect with all of his sons, or it breaks him completely, and lead to an all out war against the red hood. Idk.

[the-meme-monarch]

in, i think at least a couple of the save points, FriendProgram says they were built to heal through friendship and. well they’re aplatonic so I want to look at this a second

the love test machine exists and that literally quantifies how much love you have in you so i don’t doubt the old organisms could build a robot that heals through making friends. but do you think 1) FriendProgram’s just been on low health this whole time or 2) would the healing count if just the other person believes they’re friends. either makes sense to me,

1) FriendProgram is constantly referred to as being weak, and Yeah friend programs weren’t built to be strong, Void says they’re still weak themself, but Void is capable of physically fighting And Winning so long as they don’t get hit. it seems to be that friend programs are capable of being strong(they're just Not usually) but they're certainly not Durable. FP doesn’t seem to be strong in either sense, BFP says them breaking her screens hurt themself more than her. FP and Void are both loveless but Void says they Want To Have and Like Having friends. nick says something in one of his logs about ‘it seems the more corrupted Void’s data is the better they are at fighting’ but FP’s data is Also corrupted. I have to wonder if the difference in their health and therefore physical strength is dependent on them wanting or not wanting friends.

also when FP was in automatic mode they started off passing in and out of consciousness Regularly, they were going through whatever little power they had before shutting off again until they actually Rested and woke up in nick's lab, where as Clover didn’t have a problem with this, my guess being they had enough leftover power to not have to shut off over and over to begin with

2) if healing works when just the the other person believes they’re friends, then that also makes sense to me, with friend programs' designed purpose being more sinister

also i don't have a conclusive point on this one bc I think I'd have to watch through the game again to make sure, but iirc in like act 1 when you're just encountering the experiments it says "you made a new friend" but I think once you have Waterbottle with you and you're encountering other programs it says "you made a new friend and ally" and I wonder if it's meant to be like, a friend to Waterbottle but an ally to FriendProgram. FP preferring the company of animals bc they're more free to be themself I can see them being more okay with the experiments thinking they're friends and saying so, but not other programs, using the ambiguity of "friend and ally" (even if that presumably isn't something being said out loud) ☝️I could be misreading the intention here however and "friend (and ally)" Is supposed to be in regards to just FP and that'd feed into my second point listed above about 'just the other person would have to think they're friends for healing to work'

anyway I think it’d be neat if post-game FP was looking into getting a patch for their system so they can heal though regular means, if that’d be something possible for them <:]

[bumblesimagines]

Imagine:

Escaping The Woods

Request: Yes or No

Finally giving my fem!readers some crumbs

~~~

"Sam, you need to go! Now!" She had no idea where this strength came from to shout at the boy. They constantly sedated her, keeping her numb and tranquil against her will, even when they claimed it was for her own safety. They feared her, just as they feared every other student trapped below the school. She knew well that her food had been tampered with, tainted with a sedative that would keep her from fighting when they did blood tests. The sedative would kick in soon and she'd be left to sleep for hours until she awoke with the hope that Sam finally escaped. 

"But- I can't leave you!" Blood dripped down his cheek, hands and clothes stained with the blood of the guards who had tried stopping him. He'd escaped his cell, just as he had done numerous times before, but he had a chance to finally leave and never return. Her eyes watered and he swallowed, punching in numbers into the pad on her door. It clicked and she gasped softly, wide eyes watching the door slide open. At her feet lied a puddle of blood and a guard with his jaw broken clean off. 

"Sam..."

"Come with us." He pleaded softly and she spotted what he held in his hand. A small supe. A girl. Drenched in blood and sound asleep in the palm of his hand. He held her carefully, as if afraid he'd hurt her with his superstrength. "Let's get out of here."

A chance at freedom. A chance to go home and far away from the corrupt humans keeping her trapped. She swallowed and took his free hand, a wide smile breaking out on his face. He led her down the bloody, corpse-ridden corridor and held the small supe close to his chest, his legs turning corners automatically and leading them to a dead end. Her brows furrowed but then Sam released her hand and braced himself, ramming his shoulder against the wall and making the hidden door burst open. He turned back to her, panting and smiling with his floppy brown curls falling over his forehead. 

"Almost there, (Y/N). Come on!" He took her hand again and they hurried up the stairs, leaving the building and stepping out into part of campus. The fresh air hit her like a truck and she inhaled deeply, the first breath of clean air she'd taken in years. Sam ran out into the field and toward a forested area, the grass beneath her worn sneaks crunching. Real, living trees. She was back in nature. But it wasn't enough. Her hand slipped from Sam's and she collapsed on her knees with a low groan. 

"Sam," She breathed out, feeling the grass against her palms. So soft, so comforting. The grass blades grew and wrapped around her fingers, the use of her powers only straining her more. Sam stepped toward her and offered his hand again.

"It- It's okay, (Y/N). I'll carry you-"

"No, you have to go." She pushed his hand away. "I'll only slow you down. If- If they catch you, who knows what they'll do to you. Save yourself and the girl. If they come, I'll hold them back for as long as I can." 

Sam hesitated, his lips beginning to tremble with anguish and eyes flooding with tears. He nodded and wiped his tears away with the bloodied sleeve of his sweater, turning his back to her and running forward before taking a leap into the air that left a small crater behind. She watched him disappear into the night and sighed, praying to whatever higher power above to let Sam go. To let him finally live a life outside four walls. To let him find Luke and run until nobody could find either of them. 

Headlights suddenly shone behind her and she swallowed thickly, staggering up onto her weak legs. The sedative. She could feel its effects beginning to set in. Her world began to turn and twist but she couldn't let it deter her. She had to protect Sam. She had to. (Y/N) took another deep breath and tried to focus, trying to summon the last of her strength. Nature was all around her. It was her strength, her power. But her vision became blurry and her movements became sluggish. 

"Hey, you okay?" A hand grabbed her elbow and she spun around, swinging as hard and fast as she could but even then, her wrist was easily caught. Her vision grew blurrier and she stumbled right into the chest of the stranger before her legs gave out and her vision went dark. 

Jordan stared at the girl passed out on their bed, teeth anxiously chewing on their bottom lip. They recognized her. She'd ranked 8th in the Top Ten before disappearing, or per Brink's words, 'dropped out due to pressure.' Yet there she was. Weak, delirious, and in the worst state they'd ever seen another person in. Famished, dehydrated, and likely tormented. "Fuck," They cursed softly and ran a hand over their face in frustration. Maybe if they hadn't been so meek back in freshmen year, maybe if they had gotten the courage to speak with her... maybe she wouldn't have been taken. 

She groaned and their heart nearly skipped a beat, shooting up from the couch and watching her closely for signs of consciousness. (Y/N)'s head lolled from side to side, slowly rolling onto her back and carefully sitting up with her eyes cracking open. Jordan slipped into their femme form, their smaller and softer form where they wouldn't be as intimidating. She'd almost cracked their cheek the previous night when they'd been in their masc form, and they'd rather not risk it again. (Y/N) slumped back against the wall with furrowed brows, her fingers curling around the sheets and comforter. 

"Where..." Her voice sounded hoarse. Jordan quickly moved around the bed and bopped open their mini fridge, snatching the first bottle of Vought Water they saw and opening it. They returned to the bedside and held the bottle up to her cracked lips, slowly tilting the bottle so she could drink and refresh her throat. She drank the water without protest before gently pushing their hand away, wiping her wet lips and chin with the tip of her fingers and finally getting a good look at her surroundings. "Where am I?"

"You're in my dorm. I-I'm Jordan Li." Jordan licked their lips and sat down on the edge of the bed. 

"Jordan? The... the freshmen that always tried sucking up to Brink?" Their skin flushed and they chuckled sheepishly, screwing the cap back on the bottle. She'd noticed them back then. Butterflies fluttered around furiously in their belly. Oh, how could she still affect them so much after three years? She tiredly rubbed her eyes and leaned forward a bit. "You look... different."

Right. She knew them before they came out and fully accepted their two forms. "Yeah, I..." They pressed their lips together and slipped into their masc form before going back to their femme form. Her brows raised and they braced themselves for a reaction that would shatter their heart. But instead, she nodded and leaned back, content with the wordless explanation. 

"Dorm.." She repeated quietly and her eyes widened, suddenly ripping the comforter off her legs and swinging them over the edge of the bed.

"Woah, woah, easy!" The bottle slipped from their hand and fell to the ground, arms shooting out to steady her before she could stumble and fall. She braced herself against the nightstand and took in short breaths, one hand gently pushing away their arm so she could stumble toward the broad window and peer out of it. She gasped sharply and jerked back. 

"I-I can't be here, Jordan." 

"I know, I know." Jordan's hands found her waist, digging their fingers into the fabric of the grey sweatpants to steady her. Her hands bunched up their jacket as she held onto them, the fear in her eyes making their heartache. 

"No, you don't know. If- If they find me, they'll take me back to The Woods and they'll wipe you so you forget about me. They hurt Sam but he's too valuable to them. I'm not. Jordan, they'll kill me." Her eyes flooded with tears and she shakily inhaled, voice trembling with each word she spoke. "They are going to kill me." 

"I won't let that happen," Jordan assured firmly. "I won't let them hurt you."

[rubyreduji]

hii congratulations on 3k !!<3

for the 🧸 sleepover can i request female cat hybrid!reader x dom joshua smut? smth w corruption or praise kink idk whatever u feel like it ! thank you 🩷🩷🩷 (p.s i really like your work and i come back to it every once in a while you’re really talented ><)

— sleepover event now over!! 🧸️

hello kitty, you're so pretty — hjs

summary: joshua bring home something new for you two to try together

tags: smut (minors dni!), cat-hybrid!reader warnings: explicit unprotected sex, dom!joshua, virgin!reader, slight corruption kink, praise, fingering (f. rec), toys (vibrator) wc: 1.7k an: i actually don’t know how corruption kink this is but i tired lol

“Hey kitty~” Joshua calls as he enters the apartment. You’re lazing on the couch, your tail slowly swishing off the edge. Your ears flick at the appearance of the man. 

“Hey Shu,” you say, not bothering to sit up.

“Guess what I picked up today?” There’s a giant grin on his face as he holds up a brown paper bag. You stare at him curiously as he opens up the bag.

When his hand reappears it’s holding a pink, oddly shaped object. It looks to be made of silicone and it has two bulbs on either end of the U-shape, one bigger than the other.

“...What is it, Shu?” You finally sit up, too curious about the object to be nonchalant anymore.

“This is a vibrator. You put it inside and it vibrates for…sexual pleasure,” he explains. He hits a button on it and it comes to life, a faint buzzing emitting from the toy.

You reach out, your fingertips just barely grazing it and you jump back. “You put that inside you?”

“Mhmm,” Joshua hums. “...Wanna try it with me?”

You look at Joshua warily, contemplating what you should do. You stare between the pink toy and the devilish grin on Joshua’s face and make your decision.

“A-ah~,” you cry out as Joshua pushes the vibrator in you. It’s not even on, yet the feeling of the thick bulb being inserted into you makes you whine. 

“Shh, you’re okay,” he coos. “Look at you, such a pretty kitty like this.” Your ears flick at the praise. “Gonna turn it on now, okay?” His large hands rub at your hip as he talks to you. You give him a slight nod and he presses the on button.

The toy roars to life, automatically sending waves of vibrations through your body. The sensation is strange, yet pleasuring and you can’t help but whimper even more. Your body tenses up slightly as your hips roll up into the toy. Another smaller bulb sits over your clit, making your brain go incoherent of any thought.

Your balls your hands into fists, doing your best not to claw up Joshua’s nice sheets. Whenever you get feeling needy Joshua always helps you out, but he’s never done anything more than let you use his leg and the occasional press of his fingertips against your clit, but never anything more. You’ve never had anything actually inside of you, and you can’t help but note how alluring the feeling is. You want more in you; Joshua’s fingers, his cock.

You’ve only seen his cock a few times before. Occasional you and Joshua will share a shower, nothing sexual, just showering together. You’ve only seen it once in the other way. You didn’t touch it, just watched as Joshua pulled it out and wrapped one of his large hands around it, groaning as he played with it harshly. The next day he apologized for his behavior, but you weren’t offended. If anything, it intrigued you more. 

You wonder if Joshua will push his cock into you, fuck you hard and deep, now that he’s brought a toy for you to play with.

(Though you may be sexually inexperienced, that doesn’t mean you’re totally clueless. Not that Joshua knows, but when he’s off at work you occasionally sit at his computer, watching porn videos he’s bookmarked. Your pussy always tingles and your face always heats up when you watch the cat-hybrid videos he has saved.)

Soon your body gets used to the incessant buzz of the vibrate and you paw at Joshua’s arm. “M-more,” you say, a bit bashful. 

“Oh? Does my little kitty need more? Need me to go up to the next setting?” Joshua teases. You nod weakly and Joshua chuckles before doing just as you ask.

Your cunt clenches down around the toy at the new setting. You can feel the slickness of your pussy across your folds, begging to be filled by something more than just the vibrator.

“S-shu-a-ahhh!” You wail out. 

“What is it, kitty?” Joshua asks, his hand pets at your ear. 

“N-need t’cum,” you slur out.

“You want me to go up another setting?”

“No, need you,” you whine. “Your fingers.”

Joshua stills a moment. You glance over at him to see his face slightly red. “I- are you sure kitten? You know we’ve never-”

“Please,” you beg. “I need it.”

Joshua takes a shuddering breath before nodding and letting out an ���okay”. He shuts the vibrator out of you and slides it out. You’re automatically hit with the feeling of being too understimulated and you whine, wiggling your hips against the sheets. 

“If we’re going to do this,” Joshua starts, “you have to listen to me though. Can you do that kitty?”

“Yes!” You say, knowing you’ll do anything to cum. 

“If I give you my fingers, you can’t cum until I say so, okay?” You nod once more and Joshua smiles at you. “Okay kitty. This might feel weird, so if it’s too much just tell me and I’ll stop.”

Joshua presses his thumb against your clit, rubbing slowly there. It’s nothing too out of the ordinary, but when you feel Joshua’s fingertips graze your slit you gasp out. Even though you just had the vibrator inside of you, the feeling of Joshua’s fingers touching you fills you with a whole new excitement.

“Ready?” Joshua asks.

“Yes,” you nod.

You hold your breath as Joshua starts to insert a finger into you. His finger is thinner than the vibrator was, but Joshua still has to take a moment to get his finger inside.

“Fuck, you’re so tight.” His finger wiggles inside of you, brushing up against your walls. You cry out, hips bucking off the bed. “You’re doing so well right now, kitty.”

His finger slides in and out of you, loosening you up more so he can press another finger into you. He repeats this process once more so he has three fingers filling you up. His fingers are thick and long and reach deep into you. 

Your brain is void of any real thoughts other than your pleasure as Joshua curls his fingers into you over and over again. Your tail wraps around his thigh as you throw your head back, your eyes closing. Your body already feels so close, but you know you can’t cum until Joshua tells you.

It’s difficult for you to think, but you do your best to put your focus on Joshua. You move your hand over to him, running it up his thigh before pushing your palm onto the bulge in his pants. You rub at it the same way you’ve seen girls do in the porn you’ve watched.

Joshua groans at the feeling, bucking his hips up into your touch. “Ah- kitty, be good now.”

“Wanna cum with you,” you murmur.

“Shit. You just can’t listen, can you?” Joshua chuckles a bit. “Fine, you can have your fun, but don’t think there won’t be consequences. Joshua reaches down and unzips his pants before pushing them down and grabbing his cock out of his boxers.

Even though you’ve seen it before, the size still makes your mouth drop a bit. It rivals those you’ve seen in porn videos. You’re more hesitant now as you reach out. You grasp his cock and jump a bit when you feel it twitch against your palm.

“C’mon kitten, you were so impatient earlier,” Joshua teases. “Do it like this.” Joshua wraps his free hand around yours, guiding it to pump his length in your fist.

His fingers are still thrusting inside of you, driving closer to your high and further away from sanity. Your hand does its best to work at his cock. You try to copy what you’ve seen the other women in the videos do, focusing on the tip before dragging your hand down his length slowly only to speed up a few seconds later.

The aching in your core gets too unbearable though and your body screams at you to cum.

“Sh-shua,” you whine. “Need to cum.”

“Ah, what did I say kitty? I said you need to listen to me.”

“I’m sorry!” You cry out. “I promise, I’ll be good now. J-just let me cum.”

“How about you make me cum, and then I’ll allow you to. Sounds like a deal, right?”

“Y-yes,” you respond. 

The only problem is that Joshua fucks his fingers into you harsher, making you lose focus at your own task at hand. 

“What’s wrong kitty?” Joshua teases. “Can’t make me cum?”

“N-no, I can do it.”

You do your best to focus your mind as tug at Joshua’s cock, working him in your palm. As you do so you can’t help but pant and gasp at Joshua’s fingers inside of you. You have to stop a moment to take a shuddered breath before continuing.

Your pussy is clenching down on Joshua’s fingers and you recognize the feeling, the one you feel right before you’re about to let go. You can’t though, not yet.

You press your thumb into Joshua’s tip, rubbing right against his slit. Above you, you hear him hiss, his own breaths coming out in pants. You do this once more and then go back to furiously pumping his cock. Almost like a miracle, Joshua moans and you suddenly feel something warm covering your hand. When you glance over you see his cock twitching as it spurts out white, thick substance. His cum.

“Fuck,” he groans. “Okay kitty, you win. You can cum.”

Joshua curls his fingers up into you, right into your sweet spot, and you finally let yourself go, shaking as your cunt flutters against Joshua’s fingers. Joshua helps you ride out your high as you mewl out, your body shaking as you do.

You lay motionless on the bed when you finish. You take a moment to catch you breath before opening your eyes to look at Joshua.

“I wasn't expecting you to actually cum before me,” you mutter.

Joshua blushes and looks away. “Your face looked very uh, erotic. I’ve seen you look like that.”

It’s now your turn to blush. Joshua Hong just got off at your blissed out face. You then smirk to yourself. At this rate you know it won’t be long until he actually fucks you on his dick, and you can’t wait.

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[40ozboogie]

i feel like i'm becoming progressively more politically atheist/agnostic as time goes by and i use terms as atheist/agnostic because nowadays, it feels like your political tenants/ideology of choice feels more like a God you have to swear by rather an intellectual/moral framework that just makes sense to you.

things like anticapitalism/anticolonialism/wealth redestributiom are still my compass I use to make sense of the world around me, but i no longer truly care about them making me "on the left" if It makes sense? i am slowly losing respect and faith for those on the left as much as those on the right: you can cloak yourself in leftism/comunism/anarchism and still be a vile piece of shit, a rapist, a mysoginist, a corrupt, a racist, whatever... the label and the use of certain visual cues/symbols/slogans won't save you, not if you identify with them more than with real people around them and their issues.

also, people should be hit with the awareness that espousing good causes/being on the right side of history doesn't automatically translate into them being good individuals. and the opposite is also true. and i say it as someone who for a long time had a hard time accepting certain kind of nuances. but now I see people trying to get a pass for being objectively trashy excuses of human being because they do it for a Good Cause™ yeah no it doesn't work that way

[shikai-the-storyteller]

QSMP PURGATORY FINALE

Liveblogging Phil's POV - Part 2

[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ]

Ok, I’m switching back to Phil’s VOD again for now. Anyways, back to existential horrors.

A rare thank you from the WHAT

This frickin Eye thing is quiet too.

The Eye: Do you desire to leave? I think your place is much better at my side. OHOHOHO THE LORE IMPLICATIONS, I’M *THRIVING*

OH FFS, MULTIPLE BOMBS

BUT THE EGGS

Yeah alright, ElQuackity is gonna be stuck, that’s not surprising.

Of course Dapper is the first Egg that gets through, LMFAO

Tallulah telling Phil to go, oh boy maybe Dapper is the only Egg they get back for now

Fit: I’m not leaving you, Ramon. Me: *HEART SHATTERS*

OF COURSE THEY GET A DISASTER RN

OH NO THE ENTIRE BUILDING IS FALLING DOWN ON THEM OH FRICK

FOOLISH POPPED A TOTEM?

Dang the admins want them OUT out NOOOOO the Eggs got warped away. That’s probably for the best, Phil and Fit and half the parents wouldn’t have left otherwise.

LETS GO DID THEY GET RICHARLYSON? q!ETOILES YOU LEGEND I COULD KISS YOU

Oh Richarlyson wasn’t meant to get out LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO, that was a fantastic blooper

Ok but in-universe, I’m just imagining Etoiles being such a badass he just automatically punches the barrier to try and get through to the Eggs, and because he uses his glitched corrupted code-arm, he’s somehow able to reach and grab Richarlyson, but it isn’t enough to keep Richarlyson from getting warped away. This is how I imagine that scene playing out.

Noooo Cellbit running back after seeing Etoiles’ message.

Etoiles: I tried my best… Cellbit: No he didn’t, no he didn’t…

Bruh :((((

I know I expected to only get one Egg but that still sucks

Thank you QSMP for sending the coordinates in the chat, they WOULD have spent the next 3 hours searching for it and trying to get everyone to go to the same spot

Baghera: I’M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT MY CHILD AGH……….. :(((((

METEOR LETSGO I mean, oh nooo (sarcastic) I’m sorry, the meteor is just suc a cool disaster

Tubbo: Do you still have your wings? Phil: Yes. Tubbo: And lasso? Phil: Yes. Tubbo: GET ME OUT OF HERE. MAN WHAT A COOL CONVO, GREAT IDEA, ADMINS PLEASE LET THEM DO IT IT WOULD BE SO COOL VISUALLY

LETSGOOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS SICK AS HELL

I CANT FRICKIN BELIEVE I DIDNT GET TO SEE THIS LIVE

Phil saying he’s not sure if they’re gonna make it because his wings are weak, AGH MAN THIS IS GETTING ME SO EMOTIONAL

I know the timer is there to incentivize them to hurry up but I DO think it would be funny if half of them just didn’t make it to the boat in time and the admins were like “Frick. Roll the (inevitable) animatic anyways.”

QSMP: YOU HAVE 4 MINUTES TO ESCAPE. THANK YOU MAXIMUS FOR DETONATING YOUR ILLEGAL BOMB, YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD THREATEN ME BUT NOW YOU’RE ALL JUST IN DANGER. GOOD LUCK. This guy is so frickin petty.

Phil: 43 seconds left on my elytra… THIS IS SO SAD MAN

I hope they make it in time, MAN THIS IS SO COOL

OH GOOD THEY GOT TO THE BOAT IN TIME

Oh man, and Phil slowly circling down so Tubbo doesn’t get hurt.

THREE SECONDS LEFT DANG THEY REALLY CUT IT CLOSE

FIT HAS HIS ELYTRA TOO LETS GOOOOOO Fit saying it’s a genius idea and saying that’s a great way to rescue more people. I love that so much.

LMAO that would be frickin hilarious if the meteor hit the boat

Love that Eye dude is letting them escape on a luxury cruise ship LMFAO I cannot take this dude seriously I’m sorry

This makes me think of the SS whatever that was in Pokemon Crystal

LMAO SLIME TRYING TO RP AS A CAPTAIN ANNOUNCER AND ROIER CURSING HIM OUT

How the frick did they lose the ENTIRE team LMFAO

I’m so glad I put on 

Fit was able to save Bagi at least. Agh.

2h 10m - NOOOO PHIL SAYING THEY SHOULD’VE SAVED DAPPER, MY HEART IS SHATTERED IMAGINING HIS IN A REAL-LIFE SITUATIOn

LMAO “How did he do this without us knowing? How many PHDs does he have?” I LOVE SLIME

“The true end of Purgatory rests solely in my hands” yeah yeah, whatever man

NEW GAMES NEW DISASTERS? PLAYERS?

For the love of god please tell me they don’t have to come back here to save the other Eggs

That eye animation was sick as hell though

NO SO WE DON’T EVEN SEE OUR ISLAND??? ARE THEY NOT GONNA SHOW US OUR ISLAND?? FFS PLEASE QSMP I NEED TO KNOW WE WONT BE STUCK IN PURGATORY AGAIN

Etoiles: Not Purgatory 2, man…

I swear if they actually do Purgatory again I’m quitting QSMP and deleting my entire QSMP archive

(This is a joke but I AM frickin dipping if we have to go back to Purgatory, that sucked so bad)

Awh, Etoiles saying he glitched out and that’s why he was able to see Richarlyson :(((

Tubbo trying to gaslight them, Tubbo please we all saw the video, but it doesn’t matter because all the rules and Eye commentary videos were confusing

I do genuinely wonder if that really WAS RNG though. Man…..

PFTTT NOT ETOILES BEING LIKE “Hey didn’t Maximus kill all the Eggs with that bomb.”

“HOW DID HE BUILD THAT?” have you considered that Maximus is just built different, Tubbo?

Why is Maximus’ ass a lore-relevant conversation MULTIPLE times. Bruh.

Yeah they’re talking about having to go back to Purgatory. If they have to go back I actually don’t think I’ll watch it. Or at least, like I said in the beginning, I’ll only watch Phil’s POV. I tried to enjoy it as much as I could, but that entire thing for 2 weeks was way too long. I block a lot of stuff and try to avoid Twitter, but even then I saw a lot of the negative fandom stuff, and how it affected different streamers. I think everyone – CCs and fans included – got burnt out by Purgatory. I know it wasn’t designed to appeal to me personally, and I acknowledge that, but I’m still sharing my thoughts because this is a liveblog (and this is also my post on my blog, lmao). There were moments where I had fun in Purgatory, sure, but I don’t want to experience any of that again. Like, I give the Election debates a lot of crap, but at least there were only 3 of them and at least they weren’t 2 weeks long.

Right now, my thinking is that if players DO have to go back to Purgatory, it will be optional, and hopefully the admins will completely revamp how Purgatory was designed (which I think will be the case because the Eye mentioned “new games”). I know they tried really hard, and I know the immediate negative feedback from the community was really disappointing and demoralizing for them. I hope they’re motivated to fix things, but even if they did make major changes… I dunno man. I’m so burnt out. I just wanna go back to Quesadilla Island so everyone can return to the storylines and lore they were working on before Purgatory interrupted things. Maybe after a few weeks back on the Island I’ll feel ok enough to watch more Purgatory content, but right now the idea of them having to go back makes me so tired.

Again, this is all just personal complaints, and I love the admins, but I’m just tired lol, and it doesn’t help that I’m staying up late to finish watching this VOD so I won’t fall even more behind than I already have.

Once again, I don’t feel the need to apologize for complaining about these things since this is my blog and these are genuine feelings I’m having rn. There are definitely MANY things that need to be improved about Purgatory if they want players to return there someday, but despite all that I want to emphasize that I still appreciate the admins and the work they do.

EDIT: WAIT NEVERMIND I JUST SAW THE TWEET, THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE THING THEY COULD"VE DONE. I almost wish I played Minecraft now.

Quackity + QSMP team thank you for dropping this tweet, this 100% changed my opinion of the Purgatory ending thank you.

[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ]

[quiettime3]

Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Absolution is a controversial game, not because it deals with a contract killer with the sense of whimsy you’d usually see applied to a set in a comedy club, but because it simply isn’t a very good Hitman game. Compared to previous entries in the series like Blood Money and Contracts, it tries to be more action-focused and expand on the backstory of the enigmatic protagonist, Agent 47, with a sort of irreverent tone that feels more like it belongs in a B-movie than a stealth game. Compared to future games like the now iconic Hitman reboot from 2016, the controls aren’t nearly as slick and levels are much more linear, limiting how you play in order to keep you on the path to the story the game wants to tell. On its own though, I honestly think Absolution isn’t nearly as bad as the rep it gets implies.

I understand why long term series fans were disappointed by Absolution upon initial release. It limits exploration much more than the previous open world levels of Blood Money and Contracts, and the character of Agent 47 seems to have been dumbed down and flanderised to an extent. Whilst the story is entertaining in an ironic, self-deprecating sort of way, there are more than a few cringe-inducing characters (nuns in bondage gear wielding automatic weaponry anyone?) and it definitely doesn’t quite hit the mark on the dark humour the series became known for.

Still, I came into Absolution as my first Hitman game, and I had plenty of fun exploring the environments it had to offer. Discovering signature kills was satisfying, and even the jankiness of the disguise system presented a sort of interesting challenge when it came to learning the game’s quirks. The instinct system is a great idea, proven by its implementation in the later reboots, and the graphics are definitely a point in the game’s favour. As long as you aren’t expecting perfection, there’s plenty you can get out of Hitman: Absolution. I’d say it’s worth the price of admission, even if it’s just to see the early versions of some of the systems from IO Interactive’s more recent takes on the series.

Pros:

• Interesting level concepts are fun to explore and map out in your mind

• Plenty of potential challenges to impose on a space to extend your playtime

• Pretty good graphical style, even if it does go a bit heavy on the bloom at times

Cons:

• Given the unique storytelling, I’m not surprised this game led to a soft reboot for the series

• I ran into a very nasty bug quite late on that corrupted my save - though it has been many years since this happened!

[tartrazeen]

Note to self: copy each individual post onto my website so I get the couple fixes to typos I made

Cathbad finishes his research. Or to put it another way, he confirms his suspicions. He'd given the others two possibilities as a test, to gauge their reactions to his leading theory. Unfortunately, they responded as he had feared: confusion, shock, concern... And that was before the truth beneath the surface was revealed.

(For you D&D nerds, just to reiterate, I'm not following the exact rules of the sorcerer class. I'm borrowing it for inspiration. Yeah, you'd have death saving throws before you die, and you can't use Strength of the Grave after death saving throws. The recommended origins are more like, "Maybe you inherited the power from an ancestor from another plane," not immediately inheriting it from your parents. You're also not really gonna be able to 'carbon date' the type of sorcerer either, like I'm gonna have Cathbad do soon 😵‍💫 Maybe you could with the Wild Magic type, because of the magic surges make it obvious, but I didn't want Angus' luscious hair falling out even if it would grow back the next day, and the magic surges raise too many questions for me on how he'd been hiding this. Also I couldn't resist when I read about the Hound of Ill Omen. :P

(In my mind, Angus can't actually do magic until he hits 21. He has sparks of magic that let him activate lodestones with incantations, potions with the right powders, and other things that only need that final spark to come to life. So that balances his "I can do better magic than Cathbad" claims - he's probably come across something laid out by somebody else and set it off with that spark. But this is the first time his own magic has actually shaped his reality.

(Also the level = age thing - don't even worry about that, it's another idea I'm gonna play with for inspiration. Let's just say level 1 starts at 21, and then you can study or gain XP or not. You don't move forward automatically. And Maeve skipped some levels with the runestone she got from Midar.)

(ok bye i love you)

Sorcery is uncommon in Ireland. Though it certainly exists, as both Maeve and Nemaine have proved, it's such a rare circumstance that it's - for lack of a better word - easy to trace. Maeve's sorcery came from her family line, and Nemaine's... well, Nemaine's had a rather unique mark.

But sorcery is the magic Cathbad's been led to. Angus isn't so divine that the gods would freely bless him with life again, nor so corrupted that a demon would insist he remain among mortals. Neither would Angus make a pact for power; there were too many temptations that the young man had overcome, and it wouldn't suit his personality at any rate. This was Cathbad's highest praise, but it was admittedly undercut by realizing Angus would never have kept quiet if that had happened. And that if Angus had made a pact, it would have been for wealth. And that most pacts required dedication Angus simply didn't possess.

There were no charms or trinkets that had been used or left around the castle. Nothing had been out of place nor recently used. Such effects required an intent and focus anyway, and Angus had long been past that focus at the time. It was also too soon after Rohan's own grievous injuries. Cathbad knew - as praise that could not be undercut - if Angus had any means of sparing his friend, that would have been when it was used. At its worst, Cathbad could have transferred Rohan's injuries, and Angus' fate with this poison would have played out then instead.

Treachery was the third option Cathbad had mentioned pursuing. But he'd left it to the end given its outright absurdity. There were no spirits possessing Angus, as was proven throughout the week. Conversation alone would not suffice, but there was more than conversation that Angus endured. He was himself.

Importantly, Angus was furious. He never asked who poisoned him or why, only what he'd been poisoned with. And from there, he only asked why that poison in particular was chosen. Cathbad explained it was slow enough to kill them in their sleep. The slow sips they would take would start to have them feeling weak, but by then, they would have finished their meal and dispersed. No one would have known which part of their dinner was tainted. Of course, Angus ruined this by gulping his cup in one go, flooding his body with all of the poison at once. This had been a royal poison, meant to prey on royal sensibilities, and Angus had none of those.

Ordinarily, Angus would have been amused or proud. Instead, he sank farther into the bed, staring up, enraged. It couldn't have been more obvious that he hadn't known of this plot. If, for some reason, Angus wanted to betray them - now, after everything - this would never have been the approach he agreed to take. He wouldn't've poisoned Rohan's cup, for one. Nor would he be so poetic as to kill with table manners. And he certainly would not have... well, Cathbad struggled to imagine a benefit, but Angus wouldn't target himself in such a violent way. The blood, not the pain, was the problem. If Angus had quietly passed in his sleep, it would have had the effect it needed. But to explode into a gushing river of blood and phlegm in front of everyone, and especially Rohan...

So there was no treachery. Where there were doubts for other things, Cathbad had none whatsoever with this.

What Rohan had told him of Maeve's beasts aligned with the magic Cathbad saw here. It was one the Temran royal family had passed along for generations. It was why they were linked to Nemaine: she'd been sought out to further their mastery, the same as Maeve seeking an arrangement with Midar.

That was important. Because when he explained his theory to the King, Cathbad had to make this lack of treachery clear before anything else.

"Then Rohan would have this power as well," Conchobar deduced with the facts he had. "He saved Angus' life."

"One might expect that to be true," Cathbad begins, "but Rohan has been my apprentice since he was a boy. Though his destiny is shaped by magic, he has no magic of his own. I can attest to this."

"Hmm." The King is puzzled, and Cathbad allows this. It's important to reach the conclusion at his own pace. "Then you're saying Maeve's magic was here, but not in relation to Rohan." There was a thoughtful pause. "Ah. Angus escorted Maeve to her banishment. Perhaps she placed a curse on him during that."

"He carried no curse when he returned," Cathbad says. "I feared as much myself, and checked him thoroughly."

"And Maeve has no reason to offer him protection," Conchobar continues. "If she wanted him to suffer, she wouldn't let him recover again, would she?"

"No," Cathbad confirms.

"Then I'm at a loss," Conchobar says. "Rohan doesn't have Maeve's magic, Maeve didn't attach her magic to Angus, yet Angus' life appears to have been saved by her."

"By her magic," Cathbad corrects. "Something her son would carry."

"Yes, through the family line," Conchobar repeats. "But you said Rohan didn't have..." Kells had a clever King. Cathbad had always thought so. Even now, Conchobar didn't leap to the answer that had been laid bare. His words were instead, "Cathbad, why not finish what you were saying? Before I interrupted."

"It would seem," Cathbad promptly resumed, "that if Maeve's son would have her magic, yet Rohan does not have any magic, Rohan may not be Maeve's son after all."

"It might have skipped a generation," Conchobar says, with irritation at himself for his denial of the facts so far.

Cathbad is happy to oblige in dispelling that denial for him.

"Perhaps," he replies. "But then it would not have been present at all. And from everything I have studied, and tested, and read, and asked, and discovered, Maeve's magic is the reason that Angus is alive."

"Both orphans," Conchobar mumbles. "That's what you said, isn't it? Rohan and Angus - both were orphans?"

"I went to Rohan shortly before I came to you," Cathbad says. "As he tells it, Rohan was an orphan. He never knew his parents. Angus..." He didn't mean to pause, as if it was for a dramatic effect. But he had to put his words in their proper order. "Angus was a runaway, of sorts."

"'Of sorts'?"

"Rohan says Angus never gave him details," Cathbad explains. "Only that Angus had known his family, and couldn't go back to them."

"Dead? Imprisoned?" Cathbad had no answer to give the King. "But he knew them. He would know them." More thinking. "Would she know?"

Maeve.

"Rohan and Angus met while they were young," Cathbad says. "They've changed considerably as they've grown."

"Yes." Conchobar sits with this point for some time. "We've had no reason to suspect either one was related to her. And she's had many opportunities to use this against us." He abruptly turns back to Cathbad. "I see now why you made such an effort to clear Angus' name."

"He is, admittedly, more loyal to Rohan than to the crown," Cathbad says, "but Rohan is loyal to you, and Angus led many assaults against the Temrans. And he saved your life."

"He saved Rohan's life," Conchobar mutters, reluctantly proving Cathbad's point. "All the same, I agree. He saved my life. He saved my daughter's life. Yours, Ivar's, Garrett's..."

"And apparently his own."

"Hmm." Conchobar is working towards a decision. "I'm satisfied with his allegiance, and his lack thereof to Maeve. I'll agree that Maeve didn't know, and was either confused or purposely lying when she spoke with Rohan. But where I still have doubts is in his silence. We've been planning for Rohan to assume Temra's throne, and Angus hasn't protested. I want to know if that's his intent or his ignorance. If he knew his family, and he's loyal to Rohan, then why does Rohan think he's Maeve's son instead?"

"Are you suggesting Angus doesn't truly remember who his family is?"

Cathbad says this with the same irritation at himself as Conchobar had had for his own denial earlier.

"No," Conchobar says, similarly happy to dispell that denial. "No, I think it's worse. I think Angus knew. And I believe he held his tongue." As Cathbad feared. "Still, we've no confirmation of that yet. Then again..." Conchobar takes his time with this one. "Angus isn't shy with his opinions, or quiet where Rohan is concerned. Yet I don't remember his reaction when Rohan revealed himself as Maeve's son."

"He may have been surprised," Cathbad posits.

"Suprised, certainly," Conchobar says. "Of any of us, if what you've discovered is true, Angus would have the least reason to suspect Rohan saying that. But weeks have passed since then, and nothing has changed. Either we're wrong, or Angus is allowing this, or..." The King's face was grim. "... or he's allowing it for now."

This was an alarming accusation. Though he did his best to maintain his composure, Cathbad's voice wavered with horror as he spoke.

"My King, as I said -"

"It's not as you said," Conchobar cuts in. "Angus is loyal to Rohan. On that, we agree. No one concerns himself with Rohan's care more than Angus, and that is what I fear. If it's better to let Rohan believe what he believes, Angus will do it - and is, most likely. But should that change, and Angus thinks it's better to tell the truth..."

"He can be ill-tempered, but he'd tell the truth more gently to Rohan than any of us could manage," Cathbad says.

"That's not my concern," Conchobar counters. "For Angus to let Rohan live in this... lie, it means there's more harm to be had in telling Rohan the truth. That is my concern. If Angus changes his mind, it means inciting whatever reaction he fears Rohan will have. Even if he's correct that doing so would avoid even greater harm, this harm is trouble enough that Angus is hiding the truth at all."

"And you suspect Angus may change his mind soon," Cathbad infers.

"We've been planning for Rohan to assume Temra's throne," Conchobar says again, more pointedly. "I've noticed... Rohan seems unhappy. The weight of it, perhaps. It's understandable."

"But if Rohan's unhappy, so is Angus," Cathbad concludes.

"So," Conchobar decides, "Angus is still a problem."

"Angus is also weak." Cathbad can't let them overlook that. "Whatever we do, we'll need his help, but we'll require his honest answer. Now, while he's at our mercy, is not likely to earn that."

The King agrees.

"From his perspective, it'd be accusing him of treason. The only one who might get an honest answer is Rohan, and for that, we would have to tell Rohan what we suspect." Conchobar frowns. "I'm beginning to agree with Angus. That can't be a good sign."

"We'll manage," Cathbad assures him. "Perhaps if we share strategic details, we'll be able to progress towards a solution."

"We'll need to have a solution worth progressing towards." The new frown signalled a somehow deeper appreciation of Angus' wisdom. "If Angus doesn't want the throne, his silence has handled that for him. But it would mean a false heir to Temra. Telling Rohan he's a false heir ensures he steps down, and puts Angus back in line for it." The implications of that seemingly spoke for themselves. "So we have to choose."

Cathbad feels tired. Conchobar looks tired. Angus had said he was tired, too.

"Well," the druid suggests at last, "if he is the heir, he can make one decision on who should rule."

Conchobar nods.

"So," the King says, "we're back to waiting for him to recover."

Somehow, that certainty felt misplaced.

Sooooo

Liiiiiiike

Angus.

Being Maeve's son.

The sub did the watch-along of the first episode today, and while we were chatting, we started talking about Maeve's outfits. That got into how Maeve has lots of outfits, and how nobody in Kells seems to have more than three - except for Angus. And that made a loose connection for me about how, "Ha, that's another thing he and Maeve have in common, on top of looking like each other." I think that was after I'd mentioned that Angus is a lot better at magic than Rohan, who's supposed to be Cathbad's apprentice.

I was expecting to leave it at that, but the other person I was talking to brought up something interesting 👀

Apparently, in the books (which I've never read), Maeve's described as having dark eyes, and Rohan's also described as having dark eyes and "chestnut-brown" hair.

Y'know, him:

And they mentioned it's not uncommon to have a bit of a physical description to help with casting, so if they knew they'd be building towards the reveal that Rohan is Maeve's son, they'd need to prepare for that from the start by securing some resemblance to hint that Rohan was related.

Y'know, to her:

So as far as the books were concerned, there was supposed to be a physical resemblance between Rohan and Maeve. And this person mentioned that Lochlainn O'Mearain was cast late in the process - which isn't necessarily bad, and maybe even not atypical, considering this was a show that made its toys so far ahead of casting that they uhhhhhh didn't know Ivar's supposed to be Black - that maybe...

... Vincent Walsh had auditioned for Rohan first. Possibly.

Now we've all heard of this: people auditioning for one character but being cast as another. The guy who played Ramsey Bolton originally auditioned for Jon Snow - it happens!

Here's the thing.

Ramsey Bolton and Jon Snow are characters that both have dark hair, light eyes, and pale skin.

In terms of basic checkboxes, the actors are visually interchangeable.

Here's Rohan and Angus:

But that's all beside the point: it doesn't matter, what happened happened, THANK GOD Vincent Walsh got Angus 'cause Rohan's not nearly as interesting, and I can make up whatever story I want to make up regardless of what the facts say uwu

So here's what I'm thinking: in the show, Maeve "proves" she's Rohan's mother by showing him she has the same mark on her arm. Okay, cool - except, what if, maybe, Lying Maeve who once invented a whole personality just so she could marry her way onto Kells' throne by bagging Conchobar, lied about being Rohan's mom to the guy who has very openly been whining about how he's an orphan who wished he knew who his family was.

Maeve spies on them all the time! She can spy on them through fire. And Rohan never shuts the hell up about his damn family!

👀 Angus does not mention his own.

So Maeve lies to him, trying to get inside his head by magicking up a fake mark on her arm, and he believes it because who the fuck lies about that? (a real queen, that's who) She also tells him that Rohan was "stolen" from her as a child. If he wasn't specifically a baby, he'd have a couple of memories about being in a castle, right? And she's got no other proof than that single mark (which is enough for a kid's show, but hey, okay).

👀 Angus knows his way around a castle. Kells' castle, but he's certainly comfortable exploring it.

It's a massive shock to everyone when they learn Lugad is Rohan's brother. Angus is stunned. He stops trying to kill Lugad; that's how stunned he is. And when everyone finds out Rohan is Maeve's son, everyone's stunned again.

Except for Angus.

Who doesn't say anything.

The camera doesn't even look at him, really. Just kinda glosses over the reaction from Rohan's best friend, who's routinely taken pride in "kicking out the Temran dogs" from Kells' land.

In fact, Angus' only major reaction to Rohan's family is - again - towards Lugad, when Rohan waffles about being able to fight the guy. Suddenly Angus is all, "The family you grew up with is more important than the family you were born into!"

👀

Maeve is magic. Inherently. Midar powers her up, but she has her own magic for levitation and telekinesis, and then potions and powders and such.

Angus has always been involved when Rohan does anything magical, and has repeatedly done magic on his own. Even if it doesn't go perfectly (like the potion to put his hand through a wall), it still does something.

He's also always getting into Cathbad's shit: constantly finding fun in the potions there, whereas Rohan initially leaves those alone. When they're children, Angus convinces him there's fun to be had with them. And that's a lifelong trait - as an adult, he says later that he loves magic, like it's some rare thing most people aren't overly interested in.

Maeve's magic uses a lot of incantations. Not always, but quite often. Almost once an episode. Way more than Cathbad. But she has a different type of magic: sorcery. And when Cathbad gives Angus a lodestone, Angus activates it - successfully, on his own - with an incantation.

All of this totals up to me like someone who:

Knows where he came from, so he doesn't need to question it

Left without Maeve's knowledge (stole himself)

Has Maeve's latent sorcery, and a bit of practise from playing with her magic powders

Is keeping his mouth absolutely shut, to the point of letting his best friend think he's Maeve's kid

Beyond that, HOLY SHIT, how much fun would that be? It recontextualizes so much!

Angus is always mouthing off or speaking glibly to canon royalty. So let's now say he doesn't care about their title, because he's royal too, and he's got Maeve's spicy attitude. It's why he's so openly impatient with Fin Varra. It's why he'll happily interrupt Conchobar, and then have to rein himself back in. It's why he'll mock Deirdre whenever she uses her 'princess' voice, and probably why he picked a fight with Oh So Great Prince Garrett. It's even why he makes fun of Rohan for "putting on airs" about being Draganta, to the point of having a whole episode where they fight about it: Angus does not like the ego that comes with authority, and he's surrounded by that in its royal form on all fronts. But while everyone else stays quiet, he's got the audacity to just blurt out what he's thinking.

A royal audacity, apparently 🤣 He probably did that shit in Maeve's court all the time as a child, and she probably it was hilarious.

There's also that weird thing with Angus and the throne. I thought maybe it'd work as a very, very far-off way to establish Angus and Deirdre getting together (y'know, so Rohan has someone to legitimately compete with), but I've said it before: Angus immediately backs down whenever Rohan mentions his interest in Deirdre.

And yet.

Angus has sat in Conchobar's throne at least once. And very, very comfortably! He's got his damn leg slung over the arm of it, and he's making fun of Cathbad behind his back while he's doing it. Later, there's a fancy chair gifted to Conochobar as a tribute. Before the king even steps toward it, there's Angus checking it out and about to sit in in first. Everyone stops him, with Rohan even saying that seat's only for royalty...

... and yet Angus tried to do it anyway.

It's one thing to be an unconscious pull towards a throne as 'foreshadowing,' I guess. But it's a WHOLE OTHER THING for Angus to know he's actually a prince, come fully to terms that he left that behind and is just living in Kells as a commoner, but not display a commoner's understanding that he's not worthy of sitting in those places.

I don't think it's malicious. I think he's just treating them like any old seat, and getting a bit of a kick from knowing it isn't any old seat. But the thought that he's fully aware he's a prince, and that's driving his utter confidence to assume he can get away with it? 👀

The little things - him emphasizing that he's Angus of Kells, that the Temran army are dogs, even that he had to do a test of honesty to get his mace, that one Temran soldier telling him and Deirdre that "I don't take orders from women or thieves" - all get a new context here too. Again, not malicious: I think he's trying to convince himself, not other people. It's telling me that if he ran away on purpose, he left on an extremely sour note, and he's committed to it completely by going to the other fuckin' kingdom that his at war with.

It does give Maeve being like, "Ooh, Angus is a fine-looking specimen" some Back to the Future vibes. 😵‍💫 And that's 'cause in this theory, I don't think she knows Angus is her kid. For one, she probably wouldn't approach his capture the same way. She puts him in a dungeon, and she tries to bribe him later on, but both of those seem like tactics you use on a stupid villager, not your run-away kid. For another, depending on how young Angus was when he left, she might just straight-up not recognize him.

It also adds a bit of parallel with Deirdre and Garrett (and Ivar, but they make him too humble). Deirdre's constantly told how beautiful she is. Garrett keeps saying he's handsome. Everyone tells Angus he's handsome. I think the only one who says it to Rohan is Aideen, so we can rule him out. So that's three out of these four royals (Rohan being a commoner again) getting told how physically attractive they are.

It was another weird thing to keep highlighting, like the fact that Angus was handsome was gonna go somewhere. But if he wasn't going to actually pursue Deirdre, and he didn'n have any other love interests, then the only narrative purpose it serves is to align him with other people the narrative does this for: royals.

And let's not forget the other family trait: Maeve is CONSTANTLY plotting schemes and making deals and openly lying to get what she wants. What's Angus do? Openly lies to Ivar about knowing who the thief is. Makes a bet with Fin Varra he has zero intention of paying. Gets immediately nailed by Garrett as "someone who'll try to be clever." Gets called "sneaky" and "slithery" by Deirdre and Ivar as often as he gets called handsome.

ACTUALLY.

Ivar saying the giant snake might like Angus because they're both slithery, just for Maeve to turn into a GIANT FUCKING SNAKE as her final form?!

"Some friend you turned out to be" indeed 😭

I'm not gonna go as far as to be like, "Angus wears a headband, which looks similar to a crown that King Conchobar wears," 'cause other people wear leather straps like that in the village too. But I will say, "Oh, wow, neat, both of these characters had long hair, that actually seems like a solid point towards that being the actor's real hair (i still want a definitive answer someday)."

But I am gonna try to speculate on what would've made Angus leave.

It's two things:

1. Angus can read. As much as I love the idea that Cathbad secretly cares about Angus enough to teach him that, I think it'd be Rohan teaching him instead. That's because Angus doesn't - like... sit still well? And he sure as shit won't sit still for Cathbad. He's always fidgeting, and he even actively distracts Rohan when Cathbad's trying to teach the guy how to fight in a special duel to save his stupid life.

2. Deirdre does not like her princess lessons. And Garrett and Ivar were trading stories about how tough it can be to be a prince, having to be so formal and attending all those meetings. That means Angus would've been getting some sort of education too, and he would've been expected to do the one thing he literally hates more than anything else: sit quietly and pay attention as someone tells him something boring.

So honestly? I think he ran away 'cause he didn't want to go to school.

"I'm going where I know they won't recognize me, and yes, I will go live as a dumb villager, because they don't have to listen to stupid lessons about history. BYE."

I think that's why he has some understanding of magic. In the first episode, he's like, "What Cathbad did doesn't look hard. I'll just do that too." Maeve probably tried teaching him the foundational stuff, but he only listened to the shit he was interested in and - like we see in that episode with the Evil Druid - he loves explosions. Sooooo after the last scolding he was willing to take, he ran away. (omg 😭 what if his teacher was Nemaine? Then again, Nemaine seems to love destruction too, so maybe that's an angle for Nemaine to recruit Maeve's potentially-other-son to her side as well. Which isn't gonna work 'cause uhhhh Angus is really fucking loyal)

And when you loop that back to how he treats royalty, no wonder he's mocking them! He thinks they're ridiculous! Who the hell agrees to learn all that stupid stuff, when you could just... not learn it? And they think learning it makes them important?! Pfffft. Hard pass. Yeah, sure, maybe being a villager meant he had to flee from the war and not freeze or starve to death, but at least he's not stuck learning.

👀 Funny how he's all focused when he's helping to pick out a battle strategy. A scheme.

But the question to me isn't why he left. It's why he's chosen to stay. A kid running away from home because he doesn't wanna do his homework? That's gonna fuel you until you're starting to see your ribs. So to me, I have two possibilities, and they're not even mutually exclusive:

1. He tried to go back, and the guards refused him. Maybe it was a plot of some kind, maybe they didn't recognize him, maybe they didn't give a shit about children on the battlefield and told him to fuck off. Maybe he mouthed off too much while he looked like a villager, and they punished him like a villager by beating the shit out of him - and that was enough for him to decide he hated these assholes, hated Temra, and he gave up.

2. Maybe meeting Rohan turned him against Temra and his mother. He sees the war's destruction from Kells' side, and thinks Temra has to be stopped. He genuinely believes that anyone who'd lead a war - and keep instigating it - to put his new best friend (and himself) in such danger is something he will never return to. It's Kid Logic, 'cause maybe Royal Logic would've been to plead a case to Maeve to get her to stop. But again, Maeve doesn't seem to recognize him, and if he wasn't 'stolen,' then he was abandoned, so it doesn't make sense for him to have tried that.

(i really hope the second one is in the mix, 'cause can you imagine the context that puts in for Angus being the one to escort Maeve to her exile? 👀 omg what if she figures it out on the way there, and makes it her new purpose to reveal that to the others and sow discord, or actively try to recruit Angus back to her side so she can take down Nemaine. Imagine her teaming up with Kells for that, and as soon as she's won, going right back to Temra but this time expecting her son to follow her)

What I'd like to do eventually is write a hypothetical Season Two episode where I look at how Rohan finds out he's not Maeve's kid and that she lied after all. That might go into Conchobar saying Maeve's son - if he's alive - could be a valuable asset in the war against Temra, since Nemaine's resumed it. But it's also a serious risk. Maeve was worse than her father, so what if that whole family line gets crazier as it goes along? It might be safer to capture that threat before it can reestablish power in Temra or free Maeve, and lock it in a dungeon. That turns into a bit of a "Hunt the Prince" arc, and Rohan - more or less relieved he isn't related to Maeve - is free to chitchat with his best friend about how Maeve's son probably is as evil as she is, and how he'd be more than willing to take that prince down, too.

Angus:

But that'll be for later. uwu

I will add: I am so sick of amnesia stories. Either Angus knows he's a prince and has consciously committed to living as a peasant, or he doesn't and he's not. No "ohhh, i got hit in the head as a kid" plotlines. We're using the 'Rohan calls Angus dumb a lot' schtick as evidence for why Angus ran away. 😤

[aikoiya]

DPxDC: Bell Above the Box

Dude, they used to put bells above graves in case someone was accidentally buried alive so that the interred could just ring the bell & be saved. Basically, if this happened to you, then you were supposed to feel around for a string inside the coffin, then pull. Or they'd tie the string to a toe so that if the buried begins to move, it just sets off automatically. Now, I get that this custom was originally for lead poisoning, but it feels pertinent here as well.

Now, imagine if Bruce, be it out of some vain hope, had had one installed, just in case, with a sensor that would alert the batcomputer, Alfred, & Batman if it were ever pulled. Never actually expecting for it to happen. Only for, in the wake of Superboy gutpunching reality, it does.

Because of this, Bruce is there as quickly as possible, before the League gets a chance to take Jason from him.

Jason is only half there & Bruce has him at home. But the confused boy tends to wander off.

It's because of this that Jason eventually wanders to a nearby swamp & finds what's called a "blue hole," though it looked more like a green hole to him.

The glowing green water that bubbled from the stone outcrop & filtered into the swamp felt somehow familiar. The closer he drew to it, the clearer his thoughts became until he fell in.

He's submerged for a moment, not really realizing what was happening, until it was as if someone had suddenly flipped a switch inside his head. His mind was clear & there was this strange, almost comforting energy in the center of his chest.

That's when Bruce reaches in & pulls him out.

Jason becomes a very low-grade halfa with only a few powers that he now has to practice at.

Things like advanced healing, increased strength, speed, & flexibility, intangibility every once in a while (like, he can't use it willynilly), the ability to actually grab & hit ghosts, night vision, able to walk silently, even the power to see the regular, non-GZ DC ghosts like Deadman & the Gentlemen Ghost. Not able to turn invisible, but he is able to affect people's perception of him similarly to ghosts. So, he can manipulate not only a person's sense of object permanence when in regards to himself, but he can also make himself unnoticeable. Like, he can basically do what the Chameleon Circuit does. Like this:

Spectral Acknowledgment

However, because he's not a very good ratio of halfa, his anti-gravity center isn't fully developed, so he can really only slow his falling. Just stuff that gives him an edge & a few benefits, while not taking away from his fighting style.

He also gets slitted pupils, pointed ears, tapetum lucidum, & fangs, as well as a core element once it's fully developed. I'm thinking an electric primary & either a fire or shadow secondary, but he can only really cover his body with the elements to give him an edge in combat.

The Pit Rage was much more manageable because the Lazurus Water he bathed in had actually been cleaned in the last century unlike the one in Nanda Parbat. At the same time, it isn't just that Ra's doesn't clean his bath water, it's also that Nanda Parbat's pit has been intentionally corrupted by dark magic & especially necromantic energy. Luckily, this one had recently (like, within the last 50 years) been purified via the same prayer used to make Holy Water (which is the proper means of neutralizing black magic from water). This helped to stave off Gotham's many curses from corrupting the water fully.

In the end, instead of becoming Red Hood, because he has no reason to, he becomes the Cardinal.

Not much difference in the costume to be fair. Instead, he wears the red vest (but it reaches his ankles like a trench) with an actual hood & a black mouth guard.

But, he does tend to use the All-Blades more often. Don't know how he gets them here, but he does because they're awesome!

One change to them, though. They don't only appear in the presence of pure evil & also work on paranormal beings. They are, however, only deadly to those who are pure evil. They can hurt those who aren't, but can't kill them.

However, despite Bruce having actually been there for him, the fact that the Joker was still walking around & killing people... stung...

The thing is that Bruce had been there for him. Had actually found him. Had kept him safe once he came back. And hadn't replaced him. So, Jason couldn't hate him entirely. But in a lot of ways, that's actually worse because it hurts even worse.

And because of this, he can't bring himself to trust Bruce.

And whenever Jason sees the Joker, it's like he's right back there in that chair being sold out by his own mother. Screaming for Bruce to save him.

You see, a ghost's killer is an extreme source of stress & anxiety for them. If they are still alive & able to continue on with what they do, it is a consistent source of trauma that can send the ghost spiraling if you're not careful. It is an IMMEDIATE & INTENSE trigger. Like, we are talking some serious PTSD! The sort that triggers the fight or flight instinct. So, even though it appears similar to Pit Rage, the source isn't rage, it's fear.

The only upside is that Dick is actually treating him like a brother now.

Then, one night, Jason hears Dick & Bruce arguing & learns that Dick had actually killed the Joker & that Batman revived him.

It shattered him.

He couldn't stay with Bruce anymore & went to live with Dick in Bloodhaven.

Edit: I also just learned that, apparently, due to being part of the All-Caste, Jason also has some basic precognative abilities, though he can't use them very long before they start causing migrains. As well as the apparent ability to just shut off people's powers.

I'm thinking about making Jason the resident magic-user/supernatural hunter in the batclan. Just as a treat!

I mean, does his love of literature also extend to research on ancient mythology & legends, even those of other cultures? Because if so, he could end up being a natural.

For those who don't know, I'm talking about the Supernatural-type hunters.

DP Character HC Masterlist

[anystalker707]

15 minutes until the night mass

Pairing: Gerard x [Gender neutral] Reader Word count: ~ 2 000 Genre: Smut Summary: Just a small treat to yourself before the last mass of Sunday. Kind of content: Dom-Sub dinamics / Vampire! Reader / Priest! Gerard / Blood play / Sado-Masochism undertones

MASTERLIST

          Temptation is one thing clerical people should be used to the most since they have to give up on so much of their life so they can dedicate themselves to God, solely. Deciding to be part of the Church doesn’t come without a warning, no. Everyone is very well aware of everything it means given their years of preparation to get in charge of such an important role of saving souls and spreading God’s words daily and freeing their consciences of sins weekly.

The church is as empty as it can be on a Sunday afternoon, hours after the afternoon mass and at the ending of the confession sessions. My footsteps echo down the empty, wide halls of the church uncomfortably loudly each time the sole of my foot meets the marble floor, but it thankfully soon comes to an end when I take a seat on the small bench at the end of the hall, on the confessionary.

“Bless me father, for I have sinned. My last confession was one day ago.” My voice doesn’t echo. “I have committed murder, blackmailing, manslaughter, kidnapping, premarital s—”

“I know.”

I chuckle, peeking at Gerard through the confessionary’s grids. “No need to be so rude.”

Gerard hums softly in response, a poor attempt of being serious.

“You know what I’m here for,” I add.

His breath hitches. Gerard is one of the people that, clearly, hasn't ever done a good job as a person of the church. I would even blame myself and take full responsibility for corrupting him if he already wasn’t like that before. Dyed hair and tight jeans. Cigarettes in hands and late night in bars. It was bound to happen.

“I told you not to come here.”

“You know better than thinking I’d listen to that, father.” I roll my eyes, shaking my head. Thinking he can control me certainly makes Gerard believe he is in control of the situation—the situation not being just me, but also his life as a whole. Maybe it gives him the same impression of when he says “I can just stop smoking if I decide to. It’s not that hard, really, believe me. I can stop whenever I want.” Believing you’re in control of what harms you makes you feel better, it seems.

Silence hovers in the cold church halls before the door clicks and opens to reveal Gerard not in the best of his moods. As if he has any kind of authority here with that fake cold glare; it makes me laugh as I stand up and wrap an arm around his waist. “Come on.”

“What are you doing?” He tries to pry my arm off him with hushed whispers, looking down the halls even if we are the only ones to crowd the area.

“Don’t be boring.” I chuckle as I walk with him until finding the door that leads to the small chapel from inside the church, pulling him inside with me. It is empty, of course, because everyone is taking care of organizing everything for the night mass that will start soon.

Gerard’s eyes avert away from mine the moment I face him again. “You’re a menace.”

“Calling me that makes me sound boring.” I sigh as I lock the door. “I’m not just some street criminal. I’m a demon.” I grin as I take a step closer to him, but he just steps back until the back of his thighs hit the last pew, where he holds onto automatically.

“Demon...” Gerard furrows his eyebrows. “You wouldn’t be able to get in here.”

“You don’t know a lot about vampires, do you?” I mirror his expression with pity, shaking my head slowly. I tug Gerard by his collar. “I can’t blame you. It’s not like you do a good job as a priest either, so I can’t expect you to know.” Even if I don’t mean everything I say—at least not completely—I can’t resist the way Gerard looks at me in frustration and almost shame.

“It’s not true!” He looks away with a sigh, but I just roll my eyes.

“How many sins do you commit just by looking at me?” I raise my eyebrows, taking Gerard’s jaw between my fingers so I can make him look at me; he has a small pout, hazel eyes meeting mine form under long lashes. “That’s already something, isn’t it? Come on.” My thumb grazes his bottom lip, tracing it gently. “But I don’t think it’s a problem now. We’re driving away from the point and you have a mass to celebrate in a few, right?”

Gerard opens his mouth to say something, but whatever it is, I shut him up with a kiss, lowering my hand to cup the side of his neck. His lips are soft and warm, pleasingly warm, and he kisses back hesitantly until finally giving in to it. His hands reach my torso to pull me closer by tugging onto my shirt, so I deepen the kiss.

The steps to the altar are messy, with us almost stumbling until Gerard’s lower back hits the table and I finally allow him to take a break to breathe. He already looks at me a little disoriented, but he twists his mouth like he always does when I start to undo the buttons of his shirt.

“We can’t have such a nice shirt stained, right?” I glance at him before I help him take his shirt and the collar off, setting them aside on the table. He is shy because of it, the blush going all the way from his cheeks to his chest as he grips a little too tightly onto the edges of the table behind him. “You look pretty today, father.”

“Shut up.” Gerard furrows his eyebrows in a scowl that’s nothing but adorable. His skin rises with shivers when I finally touch him, my cold palms wrapped around his waist.

“Your mouth tells me a thing,” I whisper, “but your body tells me another.” My hand cups the bulge in his pants to give it a little squeeze that’s enough for him to push his hips forward into it. How needy and touch starved can he be? I know it’s not often that I am around to be with him like this, but he still overreacts even to the smaller touches. It is quite curious.

His hair is a little greasy when I push it back to expose his neck, and Gerard automatically tilts his head to the side. My nose runs along the side of his neck and I press my lips to the skin for a moment until I find his pulse. It’s fast; his heart beats faster with the whole situation, which means a faster flow.

Gerard tenses up just by how I open my mouth, my fangs grazing against the skin until I find the right spot to sink them; it makes Gerard hiss and tense up, which he’s aware to only worsen the pain, despite the warnings. The blood starts flowing at the same moment once I pull my fangs away and latch my lips around the punctures instead, sucking onto the liquid gently until Gerard relaxes in my arms, his hips messily rolling into my hand. Horny bastard.

I drink a couple mouthfuls of the blood, shivering at the sublime taste, and just accumulate a third one in my mouth so I can push it all into his once we kiss. Gerard gasps surprised, almost choking on the blood, but he knows better than to stop it; he messily swallows the blood despite the amount that runs down his chin and gets lost while we kiss, falling on his chest and trailing down his torso along with the blood that still flows from his neck. The kiss is messy, with tongue and nibbles here and there, but still not bad. It sets the want rushing in our veins, giving urgency to the kiss that only gets some kind of harmony when I bite his lip enough for him to pause and let me guide it.

The blood starts to dry and turn into something sticky, but I don’t mind it, nibbling the wound on his neck until it starts flowing a decent amount again so I can suck more of the blood away to drink. Gerard lets out what sounds like a soft moan this time.

“(Y/–(Y/n),” he gasps as he holds onto my shoulder.

Nibbles and bruises are left behind as I kiss down to his collarbones, my hand going from his crotch to swiftly unbuttoning his pants so I can pull them down along with his boxers, just enough so his cock is free and I hold it with a firm grip. He’s already hard, twitching in my hand when I give him a few pumps. I look down, observing the bright pink tip in my hold as I try to spit right on it, letting the mix of thick saliva and blood work as makeshift lube to masturbate him while I go back to kissing his neck.

Even if I don’t care whether the bruises I suck onto his skin are visible or not, I still prefer to leave them lower, where there’s more to bite into. His chest seems like the perfect place, not to mention how sensitive he is, moaning and quivering whenever I bite or suck onto his pecs, which intensifies according to how close to his nipple it is. It’s a soft spot I decide not to tease now given how he already starts leaking in my hand; his hips buck forward when I tighten my hand around him and run my thumb across his tip to collect the precum and add it up to more spit in an attempt of making the movements smoother. This time, there’s more blood in my spit, making it seem redder.

The sharpness of my teeth is something I can’t really avoid, so Gerard’s chest easily gets a new set of cuts that easily bleed down his torso. My fangs end up getting in the way and also tugging on the skin along with the incisors whenever I nibble on it, then create cuts when the skin slides free. It’s hot, to be honest.

My hand stills around Gerard’s cock, just holding onto it tightly as I use my free hand to trace one of the cuts on his chest. It’s all fine until I push my finger into it lightly and he gasps, flinching away from the touch—or at least trying to. More blood flows, so I lick it away from the small wound, but can’t resist but push my tongue into the wound this time. Gerard moans at it, quite loudly this time, with a higher pitch, so I make sure to keep doing it while starting to move my hand around him again, tightly and slowly.

“F—Fuck,” Gerard gasps, both hands squeezing my shoulders, fingers sinking into my skin, as his legs quiver.

I drag my fang across Gerard’s pec to leave behind a cut on purpose, this time, making it a longer and deeper one that makes Gerard gasp and push his hips into my hand immediately when my tongue runs across it. His cock twitches in my hand as he pulls me closer and I almost judge it impossible to happen before he fucking comes all over my hand and, inevitably, due to the proximity, over part of my clothes as well.

Gerard’s ridden down his orgasm when I finally pull away, clicking my tongue as I look at the stains on my clothes. “Damn it...” I sigh.

“You’re worried over a few stains?” Gerard scoffs. “Look at what I am looking like!” He motions to his bloodied torso.

I shrug. “And what?”

He narrows his eyes, pursing his lips. “I have a mass in fifteen minutes.”

“And I still haven’t pleased myself, so?”

 ‿̩͙‿ ༺ ♰ ༻ ‿̩͙‿

[button-mash]

What I played last week #2

I figured I'd better update this lest it be another near-decade long hiatus until the next time. I didn't actually get to play a whole lot of games last week as real life got in the way, but I still managed to tuck into a few games here and there, and actually managed to finish off a childhood favourite, so that's where I'll start. Soleil / Crusader of Centy [Mega Drive]

Over the past few years this game has become quite a bit more well known among retro circles, but I've always considered it as true of a hidden gem as you can get. Usually when people talk about 'hidden gems' they almost always seem to be these games that literally everybody remotely into the hobby knows, but maybe just weren't the banner releases for a system. This is a rare example of a game that for the longest time honestly felt like nobody ever knew of it when I talked about it. I'd only discovered it myself because one of my best mates growing up had it on the Mega Drive when we were kids (shout out Meadey) and I've literally never seen anybody else ever own it, or even spoken to someone else outside of him that's played it - even the cart I own today is actually his cart which he very kindly sold to me years back knowing it would go to a good home.

I'm surprised there wasn't more of a fuss made of this game - not just because it's very good, but also because there were just surprisingly hardly any action RPGs on the Mega Drive, and the console was always crying for something to compete with Zelda. The broad format of the game is the same - it's ostensibly a top-down action RPG where you're moving around on an overworld map into different areas and defeating various dungeons and solving puzzles along the way. The main hook of the game is that fairly early on you lose the ability to talk to humans but gain the ability to talk to animals, and as you go on in your adventure more and more animals join your cause - they essentially become abilities you equip, so the Cheetah helps you run faster, a Flying Squirrel allows your sword to bounce off walls, the Butterfly allows you to control your sword in the air etc - basically how animals make your sword react in real life is how they tend to act in the game. It's quite a neat idea and opens up the dungeons and bosses for some cool puzzle potential to think about who you have at your disposal, and you can equip 2 at a time to come up with different ability synergies and stuff.

The game can feel really uneven in parts and often doesn't lean enough into it's puzzle potential though - some of the puzzles or dungeon areas are excellent and make you use your head a little bit, and then others inexplicably just won't have any puzzles or combat at all, or the puzzles will be so basic they just border on pointless

like in the above pic, I wonder where those blocks have to go... It's almost like they were placeholder puzzles they never actually went back and added in properly. Still, even with a lack of difficulty, the game does an admirable job of constantly changing up what you're doing, making the areas feel visually and mechanically distinct, and it's pretty well paced where it never really feels like a slog. There was actually a point during my playthrough where my save corrupted, meaning I had to start way back from where I was. That'd usually be an automatic playthrough killer for me, but it's all so straightforward once you know where you're going, that it was fine just catching myself up. The biggest peril in terms if difficulty in the game was actually just trying to constantly remember there is no checkpointing or autosaves in games like this, and forgetting to save my game as I went. Can be brutal sometimes if you lose track

The game undoubtedly has some flaws - the combat is pretty bad - your sword swings in this slow arc with questionable hit detection, and enemies don't get knocked back, meaning you can sometimes get caught in a situation where enemies are just sitting on top of you draining your health (plus the noise when you take damage is unbeliveably annoying). The bosses also feel like a bit of a missed oppourtunity - they're both incredibly imaginative and varied mechanically, but almost all of them are trivially easy, making them feel redundant and robbing them of a chance to feel truly memorable. However, the game just feels like it's more than the sum of it's parts. The art style is colourful with crisp sprites, and it has some genuinely impressive parrallax and transparency effects that make areas of the game look beautiful. Each area has a tonne of visual variety that really helps give the different areas a lot of personality, bolstered by the fantastic music that really adds to each area and making it feel distinct and offering it real identity.

What cracks me up is the game has a potentially interesting premise, essentially humanising the monsters and questioning whether they are even bad. There is a point early on where you get turned into a monster and you discover that they are just a scared, misunderstood family, etc…but the game is all over the place with it tonally. You're constantly being shown themes of unity and understanding and empathy, but you ultimately continue to kill monsters the entire game, who will all attack you without hesitation. Even your companions you win over and join forced with along the way are all animals and not monsters, it makes almost zero sense. I remember being really confused by the message as a kid and assumed it was going over my head - as it turns out, it's just an incoherent mess. I did wonder if it's perhaps partly a translation issue from it's origins as 'Ragnacënty', but I suspect it's just genuinely not very good. A missed oppourtunity for sure, but ultimately forgiveable Weirdly for me, this game always occupied a spot in my memory as a beloved childhood game I would borrow constantly from Meadey and has completed numerous times in my childhood. Yet when playing it through last weel, I soon realised that what I'd remembered as being the last boss was only actually about halfway through the game and I had zero memory of anything afterwards, even though I could remember everything else really clearly. That section of the game does kinda function as the end of an initial story arc... so now I am wondering if all these years I was just cheerfully turning the console off all these years thinking Id finished it, not realising there was an entire other half of the game to see. Idiot Anyway, good game that not that many people know about

I also briefly played a handful of games this week - namely the SNES port of Prince of Persia (which I had no idea was essentially it's own distinct, extended version of the original game), and the first couple of stages of The Legend of the Mystical Ninja also on the SNES. Mentioning them here for posterities sake, but I think I'll play some more of Mystical Ninja before writing more about it - the series is a complete blind spot for me despite me loving the SNES, and the Mystical Ninja (or Ganbare Goemon) series being fairly beloved. Prince of Persia [Super Nintendo]

As I was writing that last paragraph I was also going to save Prince of Persia for next week too, but deep down I don't think I am going to finish it to be honest. As mentioned, I had no idea that this was essentially an extended, remixed version of the original game, with new graphics and new stages. It looks absolutely fantastic, and I am a sucker for those rotoscoped animations that the game made famous, and we also saw in things like Blackthorne, Another World and of course Flashback - which is one of my favourite games of all time

(just an excuse to post a Flashback gif tbh)

....Actually maybe I'll catch this up next week after all because tumblr just deleted half this post when I tried to insert a gif - for some reason ctrl+z seems to revert you to a much much earlier saved draft rather than just undoing the last thing you did, and I cannot be fucked to write everything all out again because it already happened twice on this post and I reflexively keep hitting ctrl+z and I am going to lose my fucking mind. The general gist was that the SNES version is a longer and expanded port of the original (which I didn't realise going in), and ultimately probably outstays it's welcome because of it. It looks very beautiful - it's visually a huge upgrade on the original and it's visual variety fosters surprisingly potent atmosphere for a 16-bit game, but that extended length means that the game just starts to drag after a while. Also, from a mechanical perspective, I think that the deliberate, almost rigid control and animation based movement worked well in something like Flashback because the game is never demanding too much of you mechanically at once for the most part.

In Prince of Persia however, is at odds with both itself and you - it's encouraging you to go fast, hurry, experiment and take risks, but also pretty much requires that you go slowly and play methodically and risk averse, lest you die over and over and need to restart. You do get used to the controls for the most part, but the sword fighting in particular becomes more and more prevalant and it's a clunky mess that feels too random to be fun, even though its probably not random at all. It starts off as a fun challenge, but quickly devolves into an (often frustrating) chore. Considering that the punishment for dying is to start the entire level again (with the over-arching game timer still ticking), it quickly begins to become more of a test in patience than skill, and that increased length turns challenge into a chore - especially when deaths often feel unfair or a result of the controls rather than the consequence of a genuine mistake or a poorly calculated risk Prince of Persia is one of those games that has undeniable cultural impact and far-reaching influence, but was also something I'd never really properly played beyond maybe messing around on the first couple of levels over the years. I actually really wish I had played the original now - the SNES version has 20 levels and I got to level 15 before I really started to feel the fatigue of the difficulty and design. The original was only 12 levels I believe - which I think would likely be a much more paletable and well paced game. Actually, most of all I just wish I'd stop reflexively hitting ctrl+z every time I made a mistake - it's actually very fitting thinking about it, you can consider this the more poorly conceived, less well refined version of the blog update, with the original paragraphs I'd written being the more tightly designed and more enjoyable versions. There you go, I've somehow thematically bought it back around, and closed my own loop, so I am quitting while I am ahead, behind, roughly where I was in the first place. No more gifs because god forbid I have to write this piece of shit blog again

(Pic of me having to rewrite half the bloody entry)

[anime-grimmy-art]

Told you guys I’d ramble in due time.

I absolutely adore Bravely Default 2. It came at a really bad time cos I can’t waste 70 hours on a jrpg, but well, it’s too late to be concerned about that now. And as is tradition with me obsessing over a new game / show / whatever, you’ll basically find a fullblown review disguised as ramblings right under the cut. Be aware that I’m gonna talk about EVERYTHING, so spoilers are a given. Some maybe even for the previous Bravely Default games.

Also, if you wanna talk about this game in any capacity, hit me up, I’m DESPERATE to talk more about it.

Just for reference on how long this is gonna be, I made a voice recording while driving to remember all the points I wanna make, and that recording is almost 2 hours long. I did cut it down but still, this is gonna be a lot.

I’ll start off with the things that actually bugged me about the game, since there are only 3 things that really bothered me. First of, I really don’t like that you can name Seth. He has too much personality to be a self insert and player integration is not that big of a part in the game that this decision can be justified. It wouldn’t bother me that much if it didn’t leave a bad mark on the ending. First of all, we were robbed of Gloria desperately shouting for Seth, which makes the impact work less, and it’s just so prevalent that the name can’t be said because you have all the normal sound design going. If they’d just let the credits still play I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but because every other sound comes in it’s so obvious they’re just silently shouting in this scene, which makes it look silly. Like I said, this decision is more a detriment than an addition, and it’s a shame it casts a shadow on an otherwise heartfelt ending.

Speaking about lost potential, the other thing that really bothers me is the lost potential in certain plot points and character conclusions. I mainly mean Adam and Edna here. Both of them have been built up to be these formidable foes but they just, die. If it was just Adam I’d be fine with it, since you expect Edna to backstab him and be the actual big bad of the story, but I cannot fathom why they dropped Edna this HARD. If not Edna herself, I don’t understand why we don’t get more of a reaction from the Fairies and especially Adelle. I mean, Edna was her sole reason she left for her journey in the first place, then Edna dies and that’s it? No part where she grieves for a second? No concern from the others about Adelle? Mind you, I haven’t finished all the Sidequests, so maybe there actually is one in which this is addressed, but I think even just a Party Chat after Bad End 1 would have been sufficient to show how Adelle suddenly feels about the loss of Edna. It would have made Bad End 2 / The Secret Ending even more impactful, because, yeah, of course, you kinda know Adelle isn’t going to turn her back on fairy kind, but one of the reasons she doesn’t leave is because if Enda didn’t get a happy ending, then she shouldn’t either. It would have been amazing foreshadowing if she showed this sentiment before this scene happened. Other than that, it’s a shame that we know so little about Edna, or rather, how she became “bad”. I get she’s supposed to be corrupted by the Night’s Nexus, but how did it even come to this? It can’t have been a gradual thing, after all, Adelle says Edna was always good natured and then just disappeared one day. Really would have loved seeing more of that plot point.

Ok, last gripe I have, some choices in the soundtrack and sound design. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the OST, and I will get to that, but damn, whatever Revo used for the lead instrument in Wiswald hurts my ears. It’s a really good track, but I always have to turn down my volume because these high pitched sounds physically hurt. And for sound design. Dude, the Night’s Nexus is the least threatening, nightmare fueled abomination that ever existed. I get that its growl is kinda supposed to be layered with Edna’s or sth, but it, it just sounds silly. If they went the route of just swinging between different voices or began distorting it from phase to phase, it would have been fine. But the choice they made really made an otherwise creepy design just absolutely silly.

Ok, enough jammering, on to the good stuff. Like I said, there’s going to be a lot, so I’ll try to be brief in each aspect.

Gameplay

I honestly like the new battle mechanics more than the old ones. This individual, turn based system feels way more dynamic and it’s easier to strategies in battles. Because nothing made me more angry than setting up for a heal and the enemy suddenly being faster than me and killing my healer. Now it’s easier to plan ahead a bit.

I also found myself experimenting more with the jobs. Not sure what it really is, but none of the party members leaning more towards certain types of jobs and the job leveling being way faster probably helped.

And I know some people get up in arms because the boss sometimes can be a real pain in the ass (looking at you pope dude), I still found it very interesting getting around counters or even using these counters as a benefit. As an example, I made Adelle my main physical fighter and gave her lots of counter abilities to help her profit from being countered by enemies themselves. Now, she can attack enemies, get countered, automatically evade that counter and earn a BP at the same time. Made a lot of boss fights way easier and fun to exploit.

Music

Ok, I will try my best to be really, really brief, because in my recording this part takes up almost 40 minutes. Anyways, Revo might have just become one of my absolute favorite composers ever. I don’t know what kind of magic he used, but I initially wasn’t that impressed with the OST, but every time I listened to it, I just fell in love harder and harder. Before getting into specifics, I wanna highlight the two things that made me love this OST overall. First of all, this soundtrack almost seems like a refinement of BD’s. While losing some of that fairytale vibe, it sounds even more fantasy now. And in contrast to the original, this almost sounds more balanced? Like, BD’s OST felt high energy throughout, BD2’s on the other hand manages to find a good balance between high and low energy pieces. Like, the character themes or battle themes are absolute hype, but the overworld themes are a lot calmer and easier to listen to while exploring. Second big point that makes this soundtrack amazing is that Revo is an absolute god at using emotional progression/storytelling and leitmotifs in his songs. And heck, do I love myself my leitmotifs. You’ve got some obvious ones, like the final battle theme in which all the character themes and other leitmotifs are integrated. Then you got some maybe more subtle once, just like how the overworld themes are just the main theme, just a lot calmer and using the lead instruments of the towns of the areas.

But my absolute favourites gotta be the character themes and the main theme. I love how fitting the themes for the characters are and in general, each of them is such a bop. At first I prefered Elvis’, because I sure am a sucker for jazzy vibes, but over time Adelle’s became my fav. It’s just something about the trumpets, and how the theme almost sounds a bit melancholic and bittersweet, that drew me in. And considering her story, mostly her bad end, that the bittersweet tone really fits.

Then there’s the main theme. Just like BD’s it shouts “triumphant anthem” and it definitely gives you a very familiar vibe, but I’d argue it has even better emotional progression. Heck, the first time I heard the music start up in the reveal trailer, I didn’t have to look at the screen to know this is gonna be a BD game. Also, the credit song version had me weeping at the true end. I’m someone who’s very easily affected by music (if me shouting about soundtracks on this blog wasn’t proof enough) and just hearing that ending song, getting the after credits scene, just for the second credits to start as a freaking duet. Dude, at that point I just started sobbing, I’m not gonna lie. Just this little part showed how much Revo knows how to put emotion in a song and also write it in such a way that he can elicit strong, emotional reactions from you too. 

Story

People have been complaining how the story is too boring and kinda disappointing in comparison to the last one, but I just think the games tried to accomplish different things here. Since the BD series is a celebration of old, classic jrpgs, “cliche” storytelling is a given. Though, BD did throw a lot of meta stuff in there too. BD2 in contrast just feels like a direct execution of that initial idea. It feels familiar, it feels comfy and it feels safe. Except for the little things with the endings and then overwriting the Nexus’ “save file”, BD2 doesn’t really get that meta, which is totally fine. It doesn’t try to reinvent or innovate anything, it just wants to be a fantasy story, that might be cliche, but still fun and enjoyable in its own right.

I’d also argue that the pacing is a lot better than the old game, because with BD I sometimes found myself skipping through scenes to get on with the story. Not that this game didn’t have me rushing through stuff as well, but I found it kept my intrigue way better than the original.

Characters

Next to the music, this is the part that I absolutely love the most. While, yes, they did lose a lot of potential with some characters, mostly with the villains, the main cast is just so much fun. I love these 4 dorks so, so much.

I honestly can’t stand how much people compare them to the original cast. Yes, ofc, I’ve been doing my fair share of comparisons too, but calling these four a more boring version of BD’s party physically hurts me. Because except for some initial impressions, the Heroes of Light are completely different from our beloved Warriors of Light.

While yes, Seth and Gloria give off strong Tiz and Agnes vibes at first, they both grow into such different characters that they’re not really comparable. I think this shows with Adelle and Elvis even more. I do understand how people could compare Adelle and Edea, since they’re both the feisty girl type, but I can’t understand how people can see Ringabel and Elvis as the same character type. While those two are the “suave” party members, they act so differently from another. And that’s honestly apparent the first time you meet them. 

Anyways, I love these 4 so much.

We technically don’t know a lot about Seth at all, but they manage to pull so much out of just the fact that he’s a sailor, that it makes him really endearing, really fast.

I was kinda disinterested with Gloria at first, because again, the initial impression was Agnés2.0, but she grew on me a lot. Gloria is way more hard headed and honestly sassy in comparison to Agnés and I absolutely adore it.

Elvis. Elvis, my man. I love this fantasy scottosh wizard so, so much. He’s such a ridiculous character but so endearing at the same time. You got all this dorkiness, with him setting himself on fire as a student, him doing god knows what for a good drink or just laughing danger and prejudice in the face. But then you got his super empathetic and caring side. Mind you, most of his wise moments come from quoting Lady Emma, but still, as much as he’s hopeless with certain social situations, he’s actually still really good at reading the room and playing things smart. He’s a smart and powerful idiot, which makes him a danger to everyone and himself, and I love him for it. (I also can’t believe they called him Lesley I MEAN COME ON)

And then there’s Adelle. I liked her from the start, but I didn’t think she would stick out to me. I think now she’s my favourite character. Not even talking about all the stuff that happens in chapter 3 and onward, because these story threads are awesome in their own right, but there’s just something about her personality that’s interesting and appealing to me. Like I said, I’m not surprised people compare her to Edea, I did too at first, but while Edea walks very close to the line of a Tsundere, I was really surprised that Adelle is, well, not a Tsundere at all. Yeah, of course she’s putting Elvis down a lot, but that stems more from her preventing his ego from going to his head than her being all embarrassed. No, Adelle is actually really well adjusted when it comes to communication. While it’s hilarious that she and Elvis met with her chucking her shoes at him, the two just got along well right from the start. Adelle in general has this really open and helpful personality, but also doesn’t shy away from putting her foot down, even if that sometimes comes out as an embarrassed sputter. She’s also the mother hen of the group. She looks out for the other three and gets concerned about them real fast. 

I dunno, Adelle just really grew on me over the course of this game, and then her kinda being paired with Elvis too, as partners and as partners, makes me like her even more. Because as much as I like their personalities individually, I like their character dynamic even more. I honestly love the relationships between all four of them a lot. You really feel them grow closer as friends and all the little character sidequests just always made me really happy.

Conclusion

You might not believe me, but I really held back there. This could probably have been 3 times its length. As much as I love this game, it’s of course not perfect. It struggles and flails in some parts a lot and it certainly has some aspects that might turn people off. But for me, it was just a very familiar and comfy game that didn’t necessarily deliver anything new, but that told its story in such a way that it still got me excited to keep going. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing and the conclusion of the story actually got me to cry. While not groundbreaking, this game is highly enjoyable and leaves you absolutely satisfied at the end.

Also, I would like to iterate that I am desperate to get more content about this game, so if you wanna chat about it, hit me up.

Anyways, anyone else felt like having a fever dream when everybody in chapter 2 started talking fantasy scottish? Cos I sure did.

[pt-disconnected]

Anonymous Ask Responses #20

This one is pretty delayed, sorry about that. But I will say there's some interesting ones here. And some amusing ones. But with that out of the way, let's just get straight into it.

————————

First, some from before the latest iteration in the series. Lots of these ones, so I'm sticking with ones I found interesting.

@prhthezanko:

"Oh interesting~ Toriel now knowing about the soul being Player's... Now thats gonna bring up a lot of questions, especially the way they found Kris in the first place. Though I do have to ask, how is Player going to go around town to the other Dark Worlds without being seen by others?" As we saw earlier, the group made their attempts to hide the Player while headed to the school (with it succeeding to fool everyone except Berdly). However this won't be how it happens every day, so that will get complicated for the group as time goes on.

———

also @prhthezanko:

"Ah yes, Toby is the one who planned this all. Toby created a connection to another world to get a more immersive story. Though, he didn't plan on it being literally immersive. Here's a small idea, since this time travel is inside said world, and not in the Overworld, it more like an auto pilot, and to keep the paradox, it automatically disconnects at the point to prevent timeline corruption. I don't think Gaster would risk a temporal paradox that might endanger his plan, right~?" Mmm, more like the game window can be open at a given point in time. Normally this would flow with time the same as any other situation, but with the altered SAVE data, it gets a little screwy since it isn't pulling a character in the game back in time, and thus not affecting the actual timeline at all. Everything goes the same until a new element, the Player, is introduced. And since the Player has gone in and out of the timeline already, the game simply works around that- if they encounter themselves, then they likely either change future events or just get pulled back again. This might be due to an error in the code of the 'gateway', since there's not supposed to be two of the same character at any given point. That's part of why the Player needed the avatar in the first place. Errors in the code do usually cause the window to close however, which could mean one of two things. One, the Player is spat back out of the Light World into the Over World again. Two, they become trapped in the Light World until they manage to reopen the 'gateway'.

We'll see which of these options works best for story purposes. :)

———

"I hope I didn't miss anything here but will Kris play as a party member given that the player is now an individual character that isn't controlling Kris anymore?"

It's less because the Player is an individual character and more that Kris no longer has a SOUL that can get hurt. But we don't fully know that whole mess yet. We'll see soon enough.

———

"When kris was kicking player in part 8, the only thing I thought of was John Mulany saying 'stay down on the ground you motherfucker' lol" Kinda what Kris was doing. They were sick of the Player choosing for them and wanted to exact revenge, and when they can't fight back it's a lot easier to do that. But, well, we saw what happened in the end. Hitting someone while they're down is a cheap fighting technique, and that's kinda why I put it here. Kris was willing to use such low blows because of how aggravated they were.

———

"I just realized that in part 8 when player tellis kris to “strike them down and get their freedom” it was referencing the asgore fight in undertale where asgore tells frisk to do the same thing"

Close, but honestly not quite. Asgore says (word for word) "take my soul, and leave this cursed place". But it definitely was a part of what that scene was based on. A small part admittedly. It also is a nod to how the SPARE function works in Undertale, outside of the Asgore battle anyways. You don't fight back- you take each hit, and you just grin and bear it, continuing to try and connect with them and see what they're like. You never really think about what it looks like from the other side though...

———

"Seam saying the stuff about the player just makes me think of the snowgrave route"

I wonder why? Maybe it was intentional? :) But seriously though, if someone who did the Snowgrave route for fun had gotten this sort of situation, things would be a lot worse. And no, I'm not gonna go down that path for any spin-off stuff. Too dark. (Doesn't mean I'm gonna stop anyone else.)

———

@prhthezanko:

"Oh I love the details. The souls, the fact that Player will still have control (assuming nothing stops that), and so much. Here's an interesting thing, What would happen if the Player would reset just after Disconnection? Would they be able to go back before the Disconnection or would they end up at the point of Disconnection? Basically, would they be able to reset where Kris would have the soul still or would the Disconnection of the soul lock them out of the previous saves."

The timeline for that segment is fixed- anything that has been witnessed by the Player becomes a fixed event. Timelines are weird, but I'll try and explain it.

The timeline of the Light and Dark worlds is, in a way, separate from that of the Over World. The game is more or less a 'gateway' into a particular time and place in one of those worlds. Normally, the timeline is just an A to B line.

But when the Over World gets put into play, things are different. With the Player witnessing things from outside, those events are locked into place- anchoring points of sorts. This means that if the Player sees or experiences an event, it can't be reset. This is because of the distinction between Kris and the Player. Kris, being part of the world, would pull everything else back with them- otherwise there would already be a copy of Kris there, and that would break things immediately.

But the Player, upon arrival, hadn't existed until then. So while they can go back in time, they don't actually pull the rest of the world back with them. This is why they saw themselves at the Heaven/Hell gate split- they hadn't pulled the edge of the timeline back. As mentioned earlier, encountering themselves directly, with the added notation of directly changing the timeline by altering their past self, would likely cause an error in the 'gateway'. But things like this, where their past self is left unaltered, are stable, and will remain in place.

Since the Player witnessed and directly influenced the disconnection of the SOUL, it is a fixed event. If they were to alter it, then things would just revert to an earlier state before the attempt to change it. Paradox protection of sorts. If the Player never disconnected the SOUL, then they would have never been there to stop themselves from disconnecting the SOUL. Another error in the timeline.

I will say that the particular situation you bring up is interesting. It could have many implications. However, for the time being, the Player is not going to stop themselves from disconnecting the SOUL- likely only to encourage it- and none of the in-"game" characters can change it either...

———

"I’m guessing gaster will be the reason why player will go back in time again"

"Wait player will go back in time again. how far back will they go?"

Firstly, Gaster may be involved, but that remains to be seen. We'll see sooner or later.

Second, it could be a variety of possibilities. Could end up going back to the beginning of the story. We have no idea.

———

And now we return to asks from after the most recent story segment. If your ask from before that point wasn't responded to, I sincerely apologize. There's just too many of them to get all of them in one post with a reasonable size. This on its own is a whole AAR segment on its own! (Also back to the usual indicator for between questions, eight lines instead of three)

————————

First, a few of the reaction "asks".

"Ooh things are getting interesting!!"

"I’m excited to see what happens next!"

"Ooh it’s about to go down!"

I'm glad I can make the story enjoyable enough for you all! It's honestly fun to write whenever I'm not dealing with writer's block ._.

————————

"I wonder what will happen now" (x2)

————————

"Wait so where did player sleep when they were at Kris and Toriel’s house" (also x2)

Probably either the couch or one of the chairs. Pretty simple. (Though I will say I get the confusion.

————————

"Yay you’re back!"

Yeah, kinda ^-^; I still have lots of stuff going on and Christmas break was more hectic than I thought. But I'm still gonna do my best...

————————

"'You went off-topic. Again. You do that a lot. Can you just, for once in all these interactions, just get the information out?' Lol player is literally all of us"

...isn't that the point? XD

But seriously Gaster is the master of monologue. Susie could probably just sneak behind him and scare him to give him a heart attack and win. We don't need three hours of riddles and stuff when you're gonna explain it anyways with five minutes of actual information.

But of course, such is his character and personality.

————————

"Player: I know I said I wanted to be a part of this game but this is not what I was expecting"

Player: sees the game doing stuff without them Also Player: WHY DID I GET SUCKED INTO THE GAME THAT SHOULDN'T HAPPEN

I mean seriously, you see a game doing weird things and don't stop to think "hey that's weird maybe I should just not mess with it"

and instead say "oh cool I want to mess with it and put myself in"

and then are surprised when you are literally put in.

In all seriousness though, you hit the nail on the head.

————————

@hypnonerdcookiepatrol:

"So the player is staying in the dark world"

For now anyways. :)

————————

@prhthezanko:

"At long last, we end up at the part where we decided to see things through. But now, this is when it all changes, right~? Will the Player get the timeline control again since Kris should be disconnected? Or will there be some unintended side effects of meddling where you shouldn't? Time will tell, and reality shall break.

Determined to see the end, the Player ventured recklessly, but now, they will face the consequences of their actions, and the consequences shall be seen by them firsthand. Will Gaster keep them there because the soul is needed for his plan, who can tell~?"

...holy crap you just wrote that description they have on the back of the book what the peck

Anyways, we'll just have to see how it works out with the Player in the mix. We don't quite even know what we're dealing with in the first place! So yeah, definitely gonna be a tough part to write.

I will say that I'm gonna try not to go down the path of Chronology (another really good fan-continuation to Paper Trail, go check it out), so while there may be bits and pieces inspired by that, it's not going to be that at all.

So yeah, this one may take a while to write. I need to figure out a lot of unknown factors.

That being said, I'll do my best to make sure it's a really good part. I sadly can't guarantee anything (since I personally have no idea how good it is until I post it and see reactions), but I will strive to do my utmost.

————————

And with that said and done, Anonymous Ask Responses #20 comes to a close. I hope you all understand how difficult it may be for this upcoming story part, plus college difficulties on top of that. However I do have a few ideas already, so it may come out sooner or later depending on how much I can weave together.

Thank you @prhthezanko for continuing to send interesting asks with pretty much every iteration of AAR, and sorry if I do miss your asks sometimes ._.; and also thanks to all the Anons, the asks do keep me somewhat motivated (even though I'm pretty sure there's a few asks that are from the same person, hah).

Hopefully the next part of story will be good, as it definitely is gonna be a tough one to write. But until then, I'll see you all later!

[ragingbookdragon]

To Fear Or Not To Fear, That Is The Question PT. 1

Lantern!Reader x Lanternfamily

Word Count: 2.3K Warnings: Explicit Language, Angst, Mentions of PTSD

Author's Note: I wrote this story a while ago, but this ask made me post it! I'll get part two out sometime later! Enjoy! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

She gripped the arm rests of her chair until her knuckles started to whiten, her heart pounded in her chest, so harshly against her rib cage that it began to hurt. The flashes spread across her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to breathe as the mantra, “You’re home” flowed through her lips, though it didn’t quell the violent shaking in her body.

Their faces darted through her mind, expressions frozen in mixtures of shock, pain, and fear. She could feel herself slipping back there, could feel the heat of the sun beating down on her body, the sliding of her limbs in the burning desert sand, the splattering of hot blood from her teammates wounds, the smell of gunmetal and oil, of sweat—it was all coming back again, so fast, and all she could do was hold on and force herself to ground.

She had no idea what had set off the attack, but she did know that she was able to turn the lights off and sit down before it immobilized her with tremors. Clenching her hands into fists, she forced herself to bend over, pressing her forehead to her knees.

You’re home, (Y/N). You’re not in Afghanistan anymore. You’re alive. You’re here. The memories are there, but you’re not. Relax. Focus. Keep it together. Don’t give in. Hold—

An explosion rocked the side of the house, sending her to the floor and she gasped, automatically covering her head, waiting for the impact of mortar rounds and grenades. Another explosion sounded, followed by a bellow, and (Y/N) lifted her head up, crawling on al fours to the window. Gripping the window ledge, she pulled herself up and peeked over, eyes widening at the sight of two glowing figures throwing punches back and forth.

One of them was covered in a green glow, the other an angry red. She held the ledge and watched as the red one socked the other in the chest and they hit the ground, holding out their arms to protect themselves. The attacker lifted their hands and to her shock, a crimson block appeared above them. In an instant, she knew who the enemy was.

Her eyes darted to the lock box sitting on the shelf and forcing herself to get up, she ran to it, yanking it open and grabbing the contents. She sprinted to the door and shoved the clip into the 357 Magnum, pulling back the slide before flipping the safety off. (Y/N) slung the door open and ran down the front steps, kneeling in the grass as she raised the gun and closed one eye, taking sight of the target before her. With an intake of breath, she unloaded all nine rounds into the back of the glowing red person.

She wasn’t sure if it took them down because they started spurting more of the acid like blood, but it was the opening that the person below them needed, because the next thing (Y/N) knew, a flash of green sent the bellowing red enemy sky-high and out of sight.

Her arms suddenly felt weak, and she let them go slack, the Magnum landing by her hip. A groan sounded from the person in green and she stumbled to her feet, hurrying on weak knees to them.

They were laying in the grass, and when she got there, her jaw went slack when she saw their legs blown off a few feet away. (Y/N) went to her knees, already yanking her sweatshirt off, starting to tie tourniquets around the amputated appendages.

“Hey,” she breathed when they groaned. “You’re gonna be okay. I’m here to help.”

They opened their eyes and she blinked at how bright and green they were. “It is too late.”

(Y/N) shook her head. “No. I’ll help you.” She swallowed the urge to vomit as the blue blood started soaking through her sweatshirt and on her hands. “You’re going to be okay.”

They reached out and grabbed her arm. “You must take my place.”

“I—what?” she asked, tying the knots tighter. “You need to get to a hospital. You’re bleeding out.”

“I have been bleeding out.” They laughed, blood splattering their chin. “Atrocitus’ minion has chased me long through the stars.”

“Atrocitus? Who?” (Y/N) shook her head. “Look, we need to get you help.”

“Your human healers cannot help me. I am at my end.” They squeezed her wrist. “You must take my place amongst the Green Lanterns. If the ring is left alone, someone could corrupt it.”

(Y/N) stared at them. “Rings? What?”

They raised their hand free hand and she saw a black band, a glowing green symbol in the center—she recognized the symbol; the Green Lantern in the Justice League wore it. Slipping it off, they handed it to her.

“Find the Four Corpsmen in this city. They will help you.”

(Y/N) shook her head. “No. Right now, I need to help you.” Her eyes hardened. “I don’t know anything about alien physiology, but I will save you.”

Their eyes narrowed fondly, and they whispered, “I can see the fear you hold in your heart…that you could not save the ones you were supposed to protect from your enemies.” They swallowed, coughing harshly. “You can overcome this fear.” Holding out the ring again, they said, “The ring will guide you to the Four Corpsmen.”

She took the ring, flipping it over in her hand, and she caught sight of a dim green inscription. Squinting, (Y/N) read, “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power—Green Lantern's light.”

The green ring suddenly moved on its own, sliding onto her finger and an otherworldly voice commanded, (Y/N) (L/N) of Earth. You have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps.

A warmth washed over her body, and she watched in shock as her clothes were replaced with a skintight black and green suit, but it didn’t feel restricting. It felt comfortable—it made her feel safe. A mask flashed across her eyes and when she looked down at the alien, their eyes had glazed over, mouth frozen in a smile.

(Y/N) felt her heart tighten and she breathed out, reaching over, gently closing their eyes. She stood from the body and wandered behind the house, returning with a shovel. It didn’t take long to dig out the hole and she was surprised that she wasn’t tired from the exertion as she lowered the body into it, before covering them with dirt and standing over the grave, her hands clasped together.

Wherever you’ve ended up, friend…I hope you’re at peace. She opened her eyes, a firm look in them. I’ll continue your mission.

She looked down at the ring on her finger, then up at the bright city in the distance. Gotta go into the city. (Y/N) turned and walked into the house, climbing the steps to her bedroom. Glancing down at the ring, she said, “Okay, ring. You gotta power down so I can change my clothes.”

Nothing happened and her brows furrowed.

“Power down?” Again nothing, and a bolt of irritation struck a nerve, and she clenched her fist, commanding, “Power down. Now.” The suit on her body faded and she sighed in relief. “Okay, so commands work.” (Y/N) moved into the shower. “Clean up first, then get dressed and leave.”

***

She kept to the back alleys of the city, which, given that it was nine o’clock, most of them were empty, still, she didn’t want to find trouble before she found the…what had the alien called them? Four Corpsmen?

(Y/N) shook er head and looked down at the ring on her finger. It hadn’t lit up again since she told it to stop. “Ring! Uh…show me where the Four Corpsmen are!”

The symbol in the middle lit up and a started making flashes, and in a panic, she shouted, “Do it inconspicuously!” A small green line slide along the ground and she smiled. “That’s better.”

Following it, she sprinted through the back streets until she came to a bar; she rolled her eyes. “Of course, they’re in a bar. What men.”

(Y/N) followed the line into the bar and when it disappeared, she blinked, looking around for whoever could fit the description of supposed Corpsmen. There were a few guys at the bar, a few playing pool, some at booths and tables…she had no idea who could possibly be who she was looking for.

Someone brushed past her with a small, “Excuse me, sweetheart.” Another dart of green appeared in her vision, and she saw it attached to his back as he flowed through the bar and to the back where a trio of young men were sitting. They cheered when he got back and he smiled, passing out four beers.

“Them?” she murmured to herself and before she could move, someone had her around the waist.

“Hey, babe. Lookin’ for company?”

(Y/N)’s face pinched, and she shrugged away from them. “No thanks. I’m not here for fun.”

“Now don’t be like that.” The guy reached for her and before he knew it, he found himself being slammed face first into a wooden post, collapsing down onto his back, out cold.

She happened to look up just as his friends were coming over from the pool table and she rolled her eyes, already lifting her hands, ready for a fight. Two came at her and she swiped a beer mug from a server, sloshing the beer in one’s face before she sidestepped, slamming the glass into the second’s head. (Y/N) flowed into the next step and threw her elbow out into the first’s throat. They both fell to the ground, and she tossed the handle aside, but before she could do anything, someone had her around the waist, hauling her up then slamming her down to the ground.

(Y/N) grunted as she lost her bearings, and somewhere over the noise and music of the bar, she heard more shouting, but she paid it no mind, scrambling to her feet when one of them shoved her backwards.

Someone caught her, shoving her back up, shouting, “Get your head in the game, lady! We got some assholes to lay flat!” Four men passed her, already throwing punches and spurred on, she threw herself back in the fight.

Within seconds, the bar fight was over, and she panted as the four guys leaned against the bar, all laughing, each picking up a beer mug to drink from. (Y/N) felt a bit worn and someone laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, you good?”

She looked up at the man who had short cropped, ginger hair and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Glancing at the others, she said, “Thanks for the assist.”

One of them held out a hand. “You fight like a soldier.”

“Former special ops. Navy corpsman.” She replied, eyeing the dog tags around his neck as she shook his hand firmly. “Sergeant.”

“John,” he corrected with a smile, then gestured to his friends. “That’s Guy, Kyle, and Hal.”

(Y/N) shook their hands too. “Name’s (Y/N).”

One of them, Kyle, handed her a beer. “So, what brought you to the bar besides the bar-fight?”

She gazed into the liquid. “Uh…I’m looking for someone…multiple people actually.” Her eyes fell on them again. “But in the haze of the fight, I lost sight of whoever it was.”

Hal sent her a wink. “We’d be glad to help out a beautiful lady like yourself.”

(Y/N) rolled her eyes, but since she didn’t have a better option, she murmured, “I’m looking for some men who are known as the ‘Four Corpsmen’.”

Immediately the mood shifted as their friendly faces dropped, all solemn as they looked at her. “Where did you hear that name?” John questioned and she met his gaze.

“I’m taking from the seriousness that you’re who I’m looking for then.” (Y/N) held out her hand. “The alien said you could help me with this…I don’t know how to work it.”

They all glanced down at her hand, well, the ring on her hand, eyes widening at the sight; Hal grabbed her wrist. “Where did you get this?”

“The alien. It was being attacked by something in red and I…” she looked away. “I shot it, but the alien, it…I couldn’t save it. Its wounds were too severe.” (Y/N) yanked her hand back, clenching it into a fist. “It told me to take its place amongst the Green Lanterns. To overcome my fear.” Swallowing thickly, she admitted, “I don’t how to do that…but it said you four could help me with it.”

She could tell the were mulling it over, quite possibly communicating with one another by the way they seemed to shoot each other looks, and she cracked a smile at how Guy cocked a brow and then gestured to her whilst looking at Kyle like he was an idiot.

But (Y/N) grew tired of their mental conversation and yanked the beer mug from Guy’s hand, ignoring his shout, and she down it before slamming it on the bar. “Look, I don’t what I’m supposed to do with this, and if I’m left to my own devices, I’ll probably do more damage than I would help people.” She stared them down. “Even if you don’t want to, help me so I don’t get innocent people killed.”

For a moment, they all looked at each other, then Guy reached over and pulled her around the neck, smirking at them. “I think she’s going to do great things with us, boys.”

Kyle winced. “Guy, maybe don’t put your arm around the woman who was former special forces?”

(Y/N) huffed a laugh. “Don’t worry…I can handle whatever you throw at me.”

[dehydratedpercy]

So, when I hear about the Prophecy of the Seven, I thought about Luke being the one "foe" that they would see on the Door of Death. I love Bob, and Damasen, but now I think that there was a Big Wasted oportunity.

Because while in Tartarus Percy starts to really understand Luke's view. And imagine him there?!

First. "Why" it's the question. It was his punishment? Please, Zeus wanted to send his family that wanted to form a democratic Olympus and he didn't because the one that helped him made him promise that he wouldn't.

Bringing Kronos? Free Pass to Tartarus. And Percy and Annabeth how would react? And Luke, would he want to help them o Gaia or Tartarus make him work for them?

But maybe not? He was actually in the Fields of Punishment, and as a Son of Hermes, the God That Can Do A Lot Of Stuff, like travel between other god's domains, he may manage to escape the Furies. And his dad the Messenger Divine Dude he may have heard some way that Annabeth and Percy were on Tartarus and he... jump to join. Three is better than Two, right?

So either the motive, we have Luke. In Tartarus. Along with Annabeth and Percy. Who are so done with their fate.

And how would that be? Luke as "Oh, the gods didn't respect their words? I'm so surprised" or "Mood. Let me help you save the world this time". Luke as "Goofy Ex Villain". And either he sacrifices himself, or manage to escape along them. Or try to betray them? A sort of Marvel's Loki? Who knows?

Who knows?!

I'm gonna just go ahead and assume you're talking about in canon, and not in PoR bc PoR Luke doesn't get a redemption arch.

But I've heard mention of this idea before and I really like it! Damen and Bob were okay, but they were very much disposable characters that were created just to serve a purpose, so it'd be interesting to see an alternate option.

I like the idea of Luke escaping the fields of punishment bc he's a willy son of Hermes-- maybe also, it's easier to escape if you literally escape to tartarus? So like, maybe his punishment included him walking near an entrance to tartarus or something (maybe he had the leaky bucket punishment) and he always looked at it and then one day he heard a rumor that Annabeth and Percy were down there and he was like oh worm??

So Luke jumps down to tartarus, bucket and all. He's still very much dead, but dead in a "fields of punishment" kind of way. This means he can't sleep, he can't eat, but he always can't exhaust himself (he's supposed to walk, carrying this heavy bucket, for all eternity, which means he'd be constantly tired but could never run out of steam). Let's say, more specifically, his punishment involves walking a long distance, past a pit of tartarus, dumping his bucket in the river Styx (or another river), which burns his hands and makes them raw, and then he has to walk back to where he came from and dump the water out, but by that point most of it had leaked out anyways. There's no way to keep the bucket from leaking, and his hands heal naturally, so every time he dumps his bucket in the river there is fresh pain from his hands burning again and again.

Which sucks. BUT. When he escapes into tartarus, he retains those traits, which means that he can't tire, he doesn't need food or sleep, and he heals automatically (though slowly). This would be a big advantage in tartarus.

I imagine him jumping down and saving Annabeth and Percy from a baddie at the exact right moment. They're fucked, they're injured and weaponless, the fight is not going well, and then the monster is about to make its kill shot when BAM! It's hit over the head with an enchanted celestial bronze-infuzed leaky bucket, and it dissolves into dust. And there's Luke.

Who's to say how Percy and Annabeth would react. I'm gonna go ahead and guess "poorly", because damn, they almost died and now here's fucking /Luke/. Maybe, they were told that Luke went to Elysium because he was a hero in the end, but the gods had actually lied, always intending to send him to the fields of punishment for betraying and trying to overthrow them (regardless of how he was manipulated into that choice, regardless of how he changed his mind and defeated Kronos in the end). So now Percy is feeling /really/ fucking betrayed, because shit man, the gods really are just liars and cheats and torturers.

I feel like this would naturally settle into a very of HoO that ends with the gods being overthrown as well. Which, imma be honest, its not my favorite version-- who would run the place? Will demigods die out? Will the current demigods absorb the old gods powers and rule like they did, eventually becoming more and more corrupt? I don't know. BUT, I feel like in this version of the story, Luke helps Annabeth and Percy through tartarus and his mere existence feeds into Percy's already-present anger at the gods and subsequent rejection of them. Luke dies at the doors of death, idk how, but somehow he is the sacrifice, and there's no coming back this time. His soul will be scattered in the wind, not going to the Underworld again, and in some ways its a tragedy because he deserved Elysium, and in some ways its good because he was never meant to stay in one place for all eternity, and now the willy son of Hermes is free for good.

So Luke's gone. Annabeth and Percy go up to the mortal world again. Grover is there (in this version, he'd be there instead of coach hedge), and he knows something is very very wrong, but Percy won't talk to him about it. Eventually Annabeth does, though, so Grover understands why Percy does what he does next.

Gaea rises in Greece, and Percy and the others fight her, and make it seem like they're just killing her. But, at the same time, they manage to connect all of the Olympian life forces to her, so when she goes down, they go down with her. The gods only realize too late. They are killed, and their power is transferred, making the 7 questers the New Olympians.