#i love these messed up guys seriously need more lore about them

[mothsakura]

Grahhh... Ancient debates where the ancients debate different topics, they're all sitting around the fancy debate table. The best debater will get to debate with the council and if they win they have a chance of joining the council (but only if they're trustworthy and or higher class. Higher ranking council members are very picky with who joins the council 😢)

I love ancients augh I need more ancients lore I need to witness an ancient debate.

[proxylynn]

Lynn, what do you know about Tate Frost? I only know that he does not like liars, cats. He loves gambling.

{I'll be using quotation marks when using Mortis and Bile's lore. Seriously, they are amazing people. I can't thank them enough for making weird and messed-up characters that are also loveable. Lore and art provided below is by the wonderful creators mortisfox & bileshroom.}

[This is a bit of a hard one as Tate is in two projects. He was first introduced in Mortisfox's first game Purple and Frost Bite is set before the events of Purple. WARNING/TRIGGER WARNING (certain themes) Massive TATE FROST LORE drop!!]

"Frost Bite is set in 1995 and PURPLE in 1996. In Frost Bite, Tate is a butcher. In Purple, Tate chops wood and works on cars for a living. Tate is 6'1, his b-day is April 28th, he's 33 years old in Frost Bite and 34 in Purple. He's bisexual."

Why does Tate dislike cats? "he's just one of those cis guys who has never been around cats before and thinks they're weak and stupid. if Tate got a cat, he would hate it at first until it slept on his chest then he would take it with him everywhere and kill anyone who touched it. Tate just honestly needs to have a cat for a while. he'd still be a dog guy though."

"Tate LOVES to grill, but he's not like...the best at it. He sure knows how to heat the meat up enough for him to eat it but just barely, the bloodier the better! Tate would probably love someone who could cook for him though, anything to be lazier and still have food in him. But he's not very picky! He's usually a bit buzzed so pretty much anything you feed him he'll think is really good."

"so Tate would probably enjoy a feisty and rougher MC, especially if they're harder to kill cause he really likes the challenge."

Has Tate ever tried to track down or find out who his father was? "Tate's mom had a lot of partners before he was born, so she's not even sure who he is either. One of those random bar hookups ya know growing up, Tate wondered about it for a while but he lost interest. when he got older and has no desire to figure out who it is, at this point he's happier being independent with no familial ties, that way he can move around the country and not worry about connections. he likes to call himself a 'lone wolf' cause he's a dork."

Since Tate likes drinking, what kind of person is he when drunk? "OH lord he's usually really good at not seeming drunk when he is, but if you get him past that he gets REALLY handsy, very touchy, but after about an hour of that he becomes extremely sad and depressed, he has a hard time hiding that part of himself when he's shitfaced, but it does take a LOT to get him there and more than likely hed just pass out before that. He's not a violent or angry drunk at all though, if anything he gets more silly and nice."

Is Tate just, not interested in a real relationship like at all/ever, or is he open to it but it's just never really happened that he actually wants to stick around? "Tates has been very unlucky in love. he tends to get with people who arent really great people (not that he's any better), and he also struggles with feelings of caring or empathy for other people. I think in the EXTREMELY rare off chance he meets someone that's perfect for him that he doesn't just want to kill, the relationship most likely wouldn't last long cause he'd be the one to fuck it up. Tate's current mindset is that relationships are more trouble than they're worth and he'd rather just fuck around with people, but I wouldn't say him getting in a relationship would be impossible."

Who or what was Tate's first kill? "Tate's first murder (he was 18) was an old girlfriend (whom he lived in a trailer with at the time) who he caught cheating on him, they did not have a good relationship- often having screaming matches that lasted hours, so no one thought much of the screaming while he hacked her up with an axe."

"another bit of Tate's baggage He's always at least 25% drunk, but he gets these very depressing episodes and becomes very suicidal, these don't last too long, maybe a few days to a week, but they're very bad for him."

"anyway lore drop Tate has a younger half-brother (on their dad's side) Dean or 'Coyote' as everyone calls him, they'd never actually meet in canon but Tate would hate his guts lol"

Does Tate eat meat raw? Or does he prefer them cooked? Is he messy when he cuts meat up? "Tate loves meat that's been cooked for all of 15 seconds, the bloodier the better!! he also loves to just eat with his hands anytime he can, he doesn't care what other people think of him so he just does that in public."

Is Tate a cannibal? "yep, and there will be a lot of those themes in the game! we'll be putting a content warning when the game is released, but just in case that's not something you're into heres your heads up."

Is Tate good at aftercare? What does he do for it and how would he react to a mc that cries after sex from all of the brain chemicals and such? "Tate, being the man he is, doesn't think of aftercare all that much mainly because he doesn't have sex in a lot of places that allow it- usually in his truck or a closet or backroom of some sort, BUT on the occasion he does end up in his trailer or your place he'd very much be the "no talking I'm holding you" type of aftercare, if you can really call it that lmao. BUT if the mc was a crier after sex, he might be a bit more gentle, more back rubbing and if you're real lucky some forehead kisses that he won't talk about the next morning. (though he does enjoy the sound of pleasured crying so it might just turn him on again)"

Does Tate enjoy warm cuddles all night long or is he more of the 'needs his space' type in bed with only some cuddles? "Tate is very much a 'grabs onto you and doesn't let go until he is awake' type, even worse is he a very naturally hot person so I hope you can stand sweating buckets all night."

What is Tate's ideal type of partner? "Tate is one of those people that gets very easily bored with any one type of person, he's very selfish and doesn't care much about anyone else's feelings. Like there are certain things that draw him to someone: -shorter -shy timid people -people he reads as prey -small soft hands but he doesn't stick around any one place for too long and he has trouble forming real relationships (not that it's impossible, it would just be difficult lmao he is VERY stubborn)"

"Tates favorite animal is wolves obviously, but he likes rabbits and pigs and LOVES to play with people who have aspects or identifies with those the best."

"If Tate decides he likes you, really likes you, he's going to become extremely territorial, making sure everyone knows you belong to someone, to /HIM/, by leaving any marks he can on you. Tate does not like to share, he'd barely tolerate you even talking to anyone else if he decided you belonged to him."

Why did Tate become Slasher? "this isn't going to be touched on in the game, so ill answer it since it's not a spoiler! Tate doesn't really have any specific trauma or mental illnesses or any real reason to be like he is, he just does what he wants. He sees himself as an animalistic predator that wants to hunt and he gets excited when he kills people. he hunted a lot when he was younger and grew up doing that and it just escalated into adulthood and it went from hunting animals to hunting people because they're smarter and have a high capacity for fear, which he enjoys seeing. he thinks of himself as a wolf. but this isn't to say he's just a wild animal, he's actually very charming and can convince people to trust him easily. The game takes place around 1994-1995 too so it was a little easier for him to get away with things and he moves around a LOT from state to state. I imagine the state that Frost Bite takes place in is the new england area, but he's originally from Louisiana and he's actually in another game that takes place about a year later and he's living in California in it (Purple) -fox"

[Lastly...We now have pics of not just Tate or that one of his mom, but of his dad and half-bro! Also if you think Tate is huge, think again, because his old man is giant!]

(Lore and art provided by the wonderful creators mortisfox & bileshroom.)

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #18 – Montress Volume 3: Haven by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

I have been reading one volume of this comic a month, in part as a way to force myself to take it a bit slowly and appreciate the issues and volumes as distinct arcs and works in their own right instead of archive binging, and in part because a volume of comic books being more than ~20% of my reading goal for the year feels like cheating. This has accomplished both of those goals splendidly, but it is making it increasingly hard to come up with different ways of talking about the basic premise of the story. So I’m just not going to.

The plot picks up fairly directly where the last plot dropped off – with Maika having escaped the last maratime city-state she’d found refuge in (now wanted fugitive) and settling into the next one. To secure safety for herself and her little crew of misfits (eldritch god-monster her mom bore and raised her to be a host for, adorable fox-child she treats like shit, terrible cat who betrays everyone, improbably hot noble magic assassin whose technically supposed to be murdering her), she’s conscripted by the royal engineer to assist in repairing the ancient magical shield which protected the city during the last war – which, due to her heritage and the aforementioned eldritch god, she might be the only one capable of safely accessing. That (literally) blows up in everyone’s face just about immediately, and the remainder of the arc is spent scrambling to deal.

Dramatically the volume works very well as a self-contained narrative, though a decade of marvel movies have left me kind of incapable of taking a big climax involving an apocalyptic glowing hole in the sky that seriously. Beyond that though, this is definitely a Lore volume, digging deep into the history of the Shaman Empress, her relationship with Zinn, and what the other Montrum are or want. It also, if my memory is right, marks the point where Zinn finishes transitioning from this terrible quasi-unknowable parasite ruining Maika’s life and turning her into a walking atrocity to just, like, Some Guy. They’re a little shit with an improbably amount of flattering amnesia and also murder a bunch of people but like, they’re a character now. They banter with Maika constantly, and also keep fucking up and being wrong about things. Deeply endearing tbh.

This also marks the point where The Doctor and Maika’s paternal family more broadly starts being a lot more plot-relavent which, going to be honest, I’m kind of dreading. Can’t remember any real details but my memories of the whole upcoming arc basically boil down to ‘at least Maika got that badass clockwork prosthetic out of it’.

Kippa and Ren are basically irrelevant to the actual plot this time, which is totally fine because I love them both dearly and would have happily read an entire issue of them going shopping and having a nice day in the market. Kippa, besides being adorable, does actually get some pretty meaty scenes providing the view from the gutter here though – Maika gets scooped up by a scheming vizier engineer as soon as she walks into town, and also hates people, but Kippa is absolutely the sort of person to go wandering through a sprawling refugee camp doing whatever she can to help. Which is both good worldbuilding and characterization and provides some desperately needed grounding to keep the whole story from vanishing entirely into mythic freudian psychodrama.

Speaking of preferring the social and political storytelling – I’m not sure they ever actually matter, but I do love the two bit characters who occasionally get scenes of their desperate heroic spycraft and diplomacy as they try everything they can to prevent another war breaking out. Their little bit in this volume also does a great job illuminating what a broken mess the politics of the Federation is – given the incredibly vague 1930s-East-Asia analogy underlying the story’s geopolitics, I like that the genocidal power about to plunge the world into war is riven with internal contradictions and five minutes away from a coup with the army and navy barely able to stand in the same room without gunfights breaking out).

Anyway yeah, it’s still Monstress. Still good! I probably sound like a broken record saying it at this point, but the character design remains just sublime, even for very thoroughly secondary characters. Speaking of, my favourite one has now shown up!

[autumnapricot]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞 because I love your fics <333

ohh, thank you 🥰🫶🏼

(warning: major yapping incoming. no seriously.)

[1] will o‘ the wisps

quite obviously, lol! this story just has a special place in my heart, for the fact that i‘ve had the ground idea for so long, all the details that went into it that for most part probably even went unnoticed to the readers but were so important for me personally, the planning of things, the way i had like a list of the details and easter eggs and everything. also, the name (not to toot my own horn) but i truly had the biggest *oooohhh!!!* moment when i found this title for the story and it just fit so so perfectly. the vibe when i wrote it. yeah, just a lot of love. also it‘s my most „hit“ fic i‘ve ever written and wow, i would have never ever imagined to get this reaction to my writing, ever. like i saw the fics from other brilliant amazing writers in the fandom that‘d get 1-3k kudos and i was like what the hell, that‘s crazy much. and then wotw hit +1k kudos and i was (still am) mindblown by that because imagine 1k people irl telling you they love what you wrote? insane. and all your guys comments and asks and i‘ve gotten some of the greatest comments eeeveron this fic, like, just wow. i write for myself because i just have these ideas and words and stories in my head that i need to get out and one day decided to upload because i thought maybe a few people would perhaps like it, have a little joy with it, but of course validation is always amazing and nice, so this reception is mindblowing for me. also i now kind of wish i could rewrite some parts of the story, do some plots more or different or just write differently, but i always hate kinda hate my fics after a while and think i could have done better. but still, so much love for this fic <3

[2] friday night; i‘m in love

just for the vibe of this fic, it‘s my second fave :)) i remember i had such a good time writing this—it was the first time i went to a park to write and i stayed in that park for hours and just…wrote. this fic. and the song makes up the whole vibe of that time of that summer when i wrote this, so. just vibey. reminds me of good times but also somehow bad times. i got a comment that said „so this is what loneliness feels like“ and for someone reason that has stuck with me a hell of a lot.

[3] shores of forgiveness

this is not f1 but motogp, which is a rather little fandom on ao3 and at times idk what possessed me to write this, but, for some reason i do like it? idek. i don‘t even ‚ship‘ rosquez because oh my god, what a fucking mess that „relationship“ or well, that whole..thing..is. but that‘s somehow exactly what i love about them because fuck me that shit hurts and i lived through the split of worlds!! 2015 sepang. the press conference before? marc’s face? i wanna crumple like a leaf in the wind and to be carried away by them so fast that not even any fleeting emotions would ever graze me again. the coldness of 2016. 2018 argentina?? bro what a time to be alive (not!!). you need to know the whole rosquez lore to understand because my god. it hurts too good. literally as of this week’s events…imagine your childhood idol and absolute hero and later friend and now arch-nemesis still going on podcasts t.e.n. years later and still shit-talking you into the ground about how you’re the worst person to have ever lived and the worst thing to happen to this sport and entire nations hate you and and and!! well, ANYWAY, back to it: i don‘t remember the whole thing anymore actually. but still third! byee (fun fact: i have a rosquez playlist that literally consists of songs to scream in the car in anger and heartbreak, and it‘s my kinda therapy oops. as you can see, i am very invested in them still)

[4] but if it ain‘t you (it‘s a lie)

idk. sometimes i forget about this fic oops. but i do like it, i like me some soft besotted absolutely gone in-love alpha charles and cutie-patootie omega max. i don‘t even like the smut of this. actually why am putting this on fourth?🤣 buuttt i also remember the car rides where i listened to the song and then just randomly sat down, wrote this in one sitting, done. i think i wrote this at work even. well well well

[5] now, i am become death

listen. liiisten. i don‘t even remember writing this whole thing. literally two weeks ago i randomly looked through my works, saw this, halted, and was like—who wrote this? me?? when, where??? when did these words ever spook my mind? i reread it and yk what, it‘s fifth. no clue what‘s going on but hey. swords and blood!

anyway waaay too many thoughts, i’m so sorry, thank you! 🩵🤍

[shotmrmiller]

Hellooo again! I come once more with more Gaz thoughts. Seriously, bro, I am DROWNING in Gaz everything right now. Like.. I need to breathe him, need to intermingle our souls.. And intermingle from behind, from the front, from between- AHEM. Anywho~~

Kyle is a nerd, a geek, a total goof. I cannot for the life of me get that out of my head that he would take every opportunity he could to bring up stuff like Dungeons and Dragons. "You, uh.. You mentioned that a new movie came out? You wouldn't happen to be talkin' about the D&D movie, would you? You are! So I've heard-" And then he'd spill facts and lore and stories and "Oh! I have the newest edition manuals. I've read them and memorized the rules. Would you like to learn? I can be Dundeon Master!" Of course, it's the literal written law to say yes to him no matter what, so you obviously agree.

Well, as it turns out, the geeky little one-on-one that he would have thoroughly enjoyed with you during a solo campaign would be completely ruined by a boisterous Scotsman and a grumpy skull-face. Price would have joined, but he was busy(he really just wanted to take a nap like an over-exhausted single Mother running after said boisterous Scot and too-serious, overly-sarcastic skull-face)

With Kyle's plans utterly foiled,(he had PLANS, damnit!) he went on to begrudgingly teach Johnny and Simon what each die did, what each roll meant, how to write up a character and all the rest of that.(seriously, he really had plans for a solo sesh..)

"No.. Ghost, you cannot roll insight on a newborn Elf just because they might be the next bad guy.. This is the third time you've asked that, man, just leave it!" It was literally only the third session within the campaign, and Ghost was already on the highway to becoming a murder-hobo. It didn't help that Ghost had made a complete edgelord rouge with the backstory conforming to the stereotype. Opening the dictionary of stereotypes, Ghost's character was the single definition of it.

"Soap! Fucks sake, bruv, stop messing with me! Just because you want to hit on the made-up barmaid doesn't mean you physically have to act it out on me.. Soap!" Soap was also the definition of horny bard. Actually, Soap tried taking it up to an entirely higher extreme and physically attempted time and time again to act it all out. "Bu' think o' it, Gaz! It's all made up, why no' act it ou' as well?? It's fookin' genius!" "For the hundredth time, Soap, that's LARPING! Get your bloody hands off me, you git!"

And then there was you. Sweet, innocent little you. You were fairly normal, had done fairly normal actions that were consistent. Just a simple, happy, normal half-Elven fighter with a simple, happy, normal half-Elven fighter backstory. However.. His mistake was gifting you your first set of dice. He had bought the set specifically for you, bought it the moment he saw them, and immediately thought of you, that you would love to have them. He didn't know that that action, that simple little gift, would turn you into a dice Dragon.

"Bloody hell, what 'ave you done???" Session seven came around, and he was standing in your barracks dorm after getting a few complaints about your.. problem. There, spilling over your bunk and onto the floor, over the small little stand beside the bed, was several upon several sets of dice. "Beautiful, isn't it? Behold my treasure, for I am a Dragon! I have ascended to the heavens and have become my ultimate self!" "Bleedin'... Bleedin' hells, love.." He'd created a monster, but he couldn't be bothered to really care when it seemed to make you happy. He never had to worry about misplacing his own set now that you had so much to spare.

(I may or may not be a dice Dragon... It's not a problem, it's HAPPINESS)

I'm gonna be honest.

I have never, in my entire 29 years of unwillingly existing, have I ever seen one game of DND. I have no idea what it's about. When I ask people, they lose me in the details because they get too excited (i just get a wide look in my eye and nod every once in a while, because they're speaking with so much passion i'd never ruin that for them) or they give the sorriest explanations known to man because they don't have the patience to teach.

it doesn't help that i don't know anyone that plays it either.

now. I'd be doing exactly that as Kyle went on an explanation turned soliloquy, because it feels like he's now in a play, and i'm the audience with the way his hands gesture his words.

His eyes are bright, his face is lit up with joy and i have no idea what he's saying but he looks so good in his element.

And then he hands me a die.

It's one of the best things I've ever seen.

I'd look at him and ask him if he'd be willing to buy me more. The way he smiles at me has my cheeks burning.

Now I'm collecting all kinds of dice and hoarding it like Smaug.

He'll step on it, and yelps because it feels like a lego under his foot, but once he realizes it's something he's bought for me, he'll carefully place it back on the little bookshelf.

In anticipation of any more scattered treasure, he now drags his feet on the floor.

"Come along! Help yourself; There's plenty, and to spare!"

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think Tomoe Tsurugi will keep being a main villain/antagonist in future seasons or will she fade into plot irrelevance like she was pre S5 ?

This show is such a mess that it's impossible to predict anything, but if I had to guess, I'd say she'll fade into irrelevance. I'm basing that guess off of her role in season five and the power she now has in the season five fallout.

It seems like she was only brought into season five's villain circle to justify Gabriel's access to high tech gadgets. Outside of that, she does nothing for the plot and she was left with no power.

Tomoe wasn't a driving force in the Anti-Adrienette agenda, it was all on Gabriel, so I don't think she's going to keep that conflict going. Nor do I think she even could because Kagami and Adrien are firmly in love with other people.

Tomoe can't do anything to control Kagami because Felix and Kagami pulled the ring switch gambit, making sure that Kagami was as free as a sentibeing can be. Plus Kagami has a miraculous full-time now, making it near impossible to lock her away.

As far as we know, Tomoe doesn't have a miraculous of her own nor does she have access to alternative sources of magic. She was just acting in a supporting role to Gabriel, so with him gone, she doesn't have the type of power she'd need to have in order to be a meaningful villain unless the show is going to make some serious changes to the types of conflicts it deals with.

All that being said, we have no idea what all Tomoe knows and no idea what her motivation is, so I could be totally wrong. It is incredibly... impressive that both she and Lila have been around for multiple seasons and yet we know almost nothing about either of them going into the season where they're our most likely main villains.

Top tier writing there, guys. Way to drive the hype!

In all seriousness, the season five ending would have made so much more sense if Tomoe was the one that ended up with the butterfly since Tomoe actually knows everything that's going on while Lila - who knows next to nothing about the miraculous as far as we know - only got a couple of pictures and somehow magically figured out everything she needed to know.

The show literally showed us Tomoe figuring out that Gabriel was dying while Lila would have no reason to think that he was in less than perfect health. Tomoe randomly showed up at the mansion to yell at Gabriel after Kagami's akumatization while Lila was never allowed inside the gates. Tomoe is a coconspirator and has apparently been one for years while the only reason Lila knows that Gabriel is the butterfly holder is because she read Nathalie's lips on the train at the end of season four. Even those stupid pictures only got into Lila's hands because the show decided to somewhat retcon the lore and have akumas be able to do things without the butterfly holder's knowledge, something we've never seen before. Not to mention that episode starts with the most awkward firing ever and Gabriel explicitly stating that it would be a bad idea to akumatize Lila:

Lila: You could've warned me! I don't believe this replacement was in our agreement. As the face of the Gabriel brand— Gabriel: You were only the face of my brand in exchange for a mission — to monitor my son's relationships and keep him away from bad company. You failed. My son got close to this Marinette Dupain-Cheng who's been nothing but a terrible influence on him. But you did give me one excellent idea — to create a new media-friendly pairing for my son, which is why Kagami Tsurugi will be the new female face of the Gabriel brand. (opens his Alliance) Perfection itself! All that remains to do is perpetuate this façade until it becomes truth in everyone's eyes. And until jealousy eats away at Marinette Dupain-Cheng... Lila: But... What's to become of me?? Gabriel: You just remain what you are. Nothing. (The intercom camera retracts back in the wall. Lila, filled with betrayal, becomes livid.) Gabriel: Hmm... such intense hate! It's tempting. But entrusting a power to someone who hates me so much wouldn't be a good idea.

Seriously, why did he fire her? It make no sense whatsoever. The show had to do so many stupid things to make Lila getting the butterfly feel kinda sorta maybe earned even though it would have made so much more sense to give it to Tomoe or Nathalie. Gods, I would have been so happy if Nathalie got to be the butterfly. She was such a good villain. Instead, Nathalie has turned into the worst mother of the year and we get the worst liar on the planet as the villain. Yay.

[identitheoret]

My Thoughts on the Story/Lore of “Ashes of Memory: Part 1”

(I might make this into a video if I have time btw)

Hey guys, IdentiTheoret here! :)

I’m not really sure what else I need to say here before I just jump right into my thoughts on Ashes of Memory. I think this Tumblr thing will actually work super well with what I’m aiming for here, but I’m still kinda new to it, so if you guys have any tips for me there I’d love to hear them. And my DM’s are also completely open, so you guys can ask me directly about literally anything you like or need help figuring out, lore related or whatever else you wanna talk about or say to me.

Anyways I guess I’ll just get right on into my thoughts now.

First of all, I had like no idea they were going this hog wild with changing up everything in terms of how the system works. I wasn’t keeping up a whole lot with the update prior outside of the one major teaser, so when I hopped on after maintenance and saw everything they changed I was kinda stunned.

I won’t be going with any particular order of events, rather I’ll try to go through each particular topic with all the details in mind from the beginning to end of Chapter 1.

Alice DeRoss (Reporter)

When I first saw her in the teaser I was like “Eh, not sure how to feel about her, it’s a little jarring seeing her like this.” And I didn’t even look back over it again to analyze because of the stuff I mentioned in my update video that was draining my energy. Although even then, I thought the idea of following adult Alice was absolutely dope.

But then I played the new story and got an actual good look and feel for this version of Alice and—OH MY GOD SHE IS SO FREAKING PRETTY LIKE AAAAAAH I CAN’T 😳🫠

Seriously they did such a good job with these new designs. And they kinda had to because they were gonna have far more normal designs outside of just Orpheus. I’m not going to go into any detail about my opinions there though, I’ll save that for a separate post soon after this one. I’m just looking at the story and lore right now.

So when it comes to everything leading up to her visiting the manor, they don’t really show off anything too odd. After her separation from Orpheus when they were kids, Alice suffered great social trauma/isolation, which we knew a bit about already with certain letters. But what we didn’t get to see was what happened after she left the orphanage. I was assuming maybe her trauma was going to mess her up in the long term, and if it didn’t I assumed she was going to lose her memories entirely or something because it seemed like things were just that intense during her time in the orphanage. But no, she has a fairly decent memory of her past by the looks of it. However, just like Orpheus in Time of Reunion, we are told she has little memory of the actual events of the manor tragedy, and in general some of her memories are a bit hazy. Not to mention the fact that she doesn’t find anything to be odd about Orpheus when she meets him in the manor.

Yeah, she hadn’t seen him since they were super young, but as we’ve seen before, the nickname of “Orpheus,” was a major detail of the two’s past friendship, because it represented their bonding experiences of making up stories and playing characters. The Orpheus nickname catching on and eventually being the name young Alice used for him exclusively was meant to show how close they were. But by the looks of it, she doesn’t remember the nickname at all.

And sure, it doesn’t mean she should immediately be like “ 😱 Oh mah gah that’s the same name it must be him ☝️🤓 .” However, this detail doesn’t even strike her as odd in any way. This could just be nothing, and she just decided to pay no mind to it, but when it comes to Identity V writing, these things are usually pointed out afterwards at the very least with a little “Huh, [Insert Minor Detail] is pretty odd” sorta thing. It happens a lot.

Outside of that, there’s not a whole lot she’s gotten involved in yet. I mean, it is only Chapter 1, so it makes sense. BUT, I do still have one thing to mention about her.

After you complete Chapter 1, you’re given the S-Tier Costume “Moment of Leisure.” And well, I mean, just look at it.

(Yes I am aware of the fact that one is a dress and the other is sleepwear but like, c’mon)

It’s possible that both the adult and child characters we always see together are probably BOTH meant to be Alice. There was really no reason for them to include this costume otherwise. Although, we do see in both the cinematics and in summaries by Orpheus that the older woman was a mother to the girl, and that she died a “horrific death.” Of course, the mother thing would make sense to conclude from Orpheus’s perspective so we can pretty much ignore that, but what about the death and it’s importance to the “Little Girl” after that? How would that fit into any of this?

Well, I have somewhat of an idea to propose for that, and for quick context I need to bring up two simple details: First, the character lineup was likely intentionally different from what we were expecting with Melly/Norton to draw attention to how the timeline’s gonna work out, since we know the Melly/Norton/Orpheus game was the last one Orpheus participated in before the amnesia and all that. And second, most of Alice’s personality and character in general is centered around her persistence and vigilance, literally stating word by word that in the face of her past traumas and mysteries, she needed to “Face it, and it’ll all be over.” This wording about it being “over” also specifically draws attention to the idea of moving on after facing the issue instead of just facing it persistently and learning to live with it or something like that.

So, with that all in mind, this is my early theory for how I think this is all gonna go. Either:

Alice will find the answers she needs to understand the missing bits of her past so she can come to terms with it, and she moves on while Orpheus stays in his ways. And maybe after Alice finds out who Orpheus really is, and she realizes he is actively choosing not to face his own traumas and is beyond persuasion, she escapes the manor and leaves him behind because she simply has to move on. The depictions, both written and seen, of her “horrible death” would be based in Orpheus’s (subjective, rather than objective) view of her facing her issues head on and suffering through the worst of it before she finally is able to overcome her sorrow. To her, she would be getting through the worst of it to finally rid herself of the prolonged pain she’s felt for so long. But to Orpheus, that short phase of pain needed to overcome his trauma seemed far too horrible of a thing to be worth suffering through. Thematically speaking, this would definitely make sense (and because the depictions of the “mother” and girl are clearly not literal or direct about their meaning at face value). All the depictions of young Alice trying to guide Orpheus are things he put into his own head from a deep regret for not listening to her and a desire to have her take the lead for him once more because he doesn’t feel like he can rely on himself to change. But these feelings are still hidden under his repetitive denial, and that’s why it’s something he doesn’t know he’s aware of yet.

Alice dies during the game, either because she wants to try and save Orpheus from himself and fails, and/or because Orpheus starts to believe he can do it but hesitates and gets her killed in the process. This would make sense because most of the themes in Orpheus’s story center around his inability to stay firm in what he needs to do with his trauma, and to not look back with doubt based on what he’s done before. And this would also tie perfectly to the Orpheus myth of him turning to Eurydice with doubt and dooming her to the Underworld, leading him to a life of sorrow and regret in the land of the living. Since this is, well, Identity V, I am pretty certain that this aspect of the myth is intentionally tied into Orpheus’s theme of traumatic repetition and him constantly choosing not to look forwards. This persists in most of the elements of his story, especially with the major details such as the “Don’t Look Back” line that comes up a whole lot when you think about it. So assuming that to be the case, and also assuming that Alice dies, we can conclude that she becomes a spirit in the form of her past younger self as she embodies that wholly innocent part of her life, and maybe just to make herself easier to recognize to Orpheus I guess…? The reason why she’d stay in the form of a child is harder to explain here than it is in the other point. It’d make sense why the child version would be there when accompanied by the older version because it was so long after Orpheus saw Alice that he separates his view of her into his memories of what he thought she was like and what she is now in front of him. That also explains why he tries to see her in the exact same dress as the younger version of her, because at the core the two versions are still the same person.

Those are just my initial thoughts at the moment. I may build onto these conclusions more later on after giving it more thought or when we see more of the next chapter. I guess I’ll leave my thoughts there for now though and move on.

“Orpheus” DeRoss (Novelist)

Well, there’s not much to say for him really. Same’s gonna go for the other two as well for the most part because of how early we are into this, but I do want to point out the way he interacts with everyone. It sometimes may give off a vibe like he knows way more than he lets on, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think the depiction here is still accurate/still will be accurate going forward with the explanation given in Time of Reunion about him having his memory wiped over and over. I don’t think he is actually aware of anything behind the manor in this state. The way he pushes certain details and questions towards others, like the point about betrayal directed at Melly about her insects, and the other point about Mary’s French heritage with Fredrick, seem to just be derived from his intrigue for drama stemming from his interest in writing. He likes a good mystery and finding little things out. We even see him do this with Alice herself in the cutscene after Chapter 1, where he asks her to play the piano for him in exchange for some information on his new book. Besides that, not much needs to be said here.

Fredrick Kreiburg (Composer)

Okay, imma just be real here, I am COMPLETELY lost when it comes to this guy. I was really confused when it was revealed that he was going to be one of the four main characters of this thing, because the guys literally just came out not that long before and we didn’t even get like any buildup for him in the lore before his release. And when it comes to his connections to the racecourse with Mary, like yeah I’m completely clueless. But that actually has nothing to do with the Mary thing though, because I was well aware from the start that there was the theory that Mary wasn’t the actual Mary Antoinette but rather a noblewoman of some sort (based on bday letters if you’re confused). And I knew it was probably true, and was most likely gonna be important later on, but I still was just like “Nah I don’t care right now I’ll just wait on that one.” And now it’s already introduced but I’m still confused about like, why?

I will say one thing though, all the details surrounding that weird Mary subplot, such as the “was it a suicide or a murder?” mystery that’s almost treated like a legend, and the way the death is presented generally, and how the backlash against the racecourse afterwards is completely directed towards one man in particular, and how everyone just kinda goes like “🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️ Uh idek why she did that 🤷🤷‍♂️,” it all gives off MAJOR Atropos Ropes vibes and it’s definitely intentional. Not sure how to feel about that just yet, but that’s mostly because of my big lack of understanding about anything Mary/Kreiburg related.

Not only that, but look at the way they describe the legend of the past owners of the manor and the mysterious death of the male owner’s female lover before the closure of the course and selling of their manor before some seemingly random dude who is clearly a descendant (Fredrick) suddenly shows up upon invitation from the new owners, and he is is heavily associated with a certain art expression and deals with social pressures.

Like, dude. That’s literally the plot of Lone Moon from T&I. The husband is the Knight, Mary is the princess, and Fredrick is Narcissus.

(+ We have already gotten thematic connections between Lone Moon and Atropos Ropes in terms of the themes of repetition and supposed fate, but we also have literal connections through the Amethyst Duchess, linking Narcissus to Bella (aka, you know, Mary)).

And also, I think the way they use the racecourse specifically of all things leads me to believe that there must be a connection to COA 4. And no, it has nothing to do with the horse imagery in that story, because that was directly linked to Cavalier and his Don Quixote inspirations (but if you wanna get refreshed on that go watch my COA Lore vid). The reason why they did horses here and not cars is simply because, well, rich people shit.

The thing that really makes me certain about this, outside of the obvious specificity, is once again that reoccurring theme of repetition and mistakes from those who came before. It’s present in Atropos Ropes, it’s present in Lone Moon, and it’s definitely present in COA 4, because that story is entirely based around that concept. And all of these have strong connections to either the manor’s history or the DeRoss family, which I highly doubt is a coincidence based on the theories about the DeRosses I’ve been making for the past while.

Melly Plinius (Entomologist)

Not much to say about her either. She’s got that same weird personality that we’d expect from her, and talks about the betrayal thing in a very weird way with connecting it to bugs. But the most important thing I can really point out so far about her is how she has little to no importance of any kind to the events going on regarding the manor and the Kreiburg racetrack. I think this has something to do with what the devs want us to notice about how this timeline works, since Norton hasn’t appeared yet. So I’m guessing Fredrick either dies or just leaves and is replaced by Norton sometime in the story. Knowing how weird some of the other diary stories were written, I’m sure Fredrick just gets like a little bit deep into how he may be involved with the racetrack and the Baron as a result of that, gets uncomfortable and goes like “Nah no thanks” and just kinda bails. I’m not even kidding, I could see that happening tbh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, anyways, that’s all I have to say for now. Like I said before, I’m already planning another post sometime soon, and I’m also thinking about making this post into an actual video as well, but I’m not sure which will come first. Thanks for reading, I’ll see you guys again soon💖💖💖

[bloodanddiscoballs]

I have a somewhat embarrassing question. What is TF2.

It's not embarrassing at all! TF2 stands for Team Fortress 2, a game that was released on October 10th, 2007, by the game studio Valve. It is a first-person shooter where you pick to play as 1 of 9 mercenaries, each with their own unique skills that are separated into three separate classes:

Offense: Scout, Pyro, Soldier

Defense: Engieneer, Demoman, Heavy Weapons Guy

Support: Medic, Sniper, Spy

The game is set up so you are either on team RED or team BLU, each team holding 9 players, and you play through matches and game modes such capturing points by stealing the enemy intelligence (a physical briefcase you pick up and run with) or capturing control points and battling to defend those. There are variations of these as well as some other game modes you can choose from. It's free to play and on Steam for both Windows and Mac users. (though it was originally offered on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3).

If you ever played Overwatch, you already have an idea of how the game is set up for you, but in my opinion, TF2 is MUCH more fun.

If you want the "lore" behind the game and the characters, you should definitely check out their website. They have write ups on each character which also shows you who you might be interested in playing, as well as comics, the short films they've put out (including fan made ones for the Saxxy Awards), full descriptions of the major updates, music, and official art. You've got a beautiful 15yrs to look at that is just oozing love.

What has kept people coming back to this game for so long is in the art, the humor, and the Community Workshop - a place where you as a fan can upload your own creations for customization for the characters. TF2 is affectionately nicknamed The Hat Simulation Game/Hat Dress Up Game cause that's a secondary part of it. While you can earn and pick up different weapons for your characters, you can also unbox crates that have cosmetics inside to make your characters look fun. Things like a hot dog hat or a banana hat or reindeer antlers, all of which only serve to make your guys look goofy and fun. There's also chest pieces and the occasional shoes or little shoulder pets. A LOT of these are made by fans who then submit them to be voted on by all players, and if they get accepted into the game, you'll have a chance of unboxing them. There are taunts as well, such as conga dancing or high fives or rock paper scissors that allow you to interact with other players regardless of the team. There are even many of the maps that you play that have been made by people in the community, making TF2 something that feels like something to be interacted with as well as to be played.

While the ultimate goal of each game in TF2 is to kill the opponents and to win points, most of the games you'll end up playing include some air of messing around. There are lots of times when matches will take much longer than they need to because someone started dancing and now half the players are dancing with each other. The map 2Fort is notorious for this, and I'd say it's about 70/40 of screwing around to actually capturing intelligence. I can honestly say that TF2 is THE game to always have me laughing and enjoying myself, especially compared to other games with similar setups. It never takes itself too seriously, though if you'd like to play competitive, there is an option for that. More often than not, the palyers are fun people, and even if you run into the occasional asshole, you can just drop out of that match and find a new one pretty quickly.

TF2 has lasted as long as it has because it is, in its bones, all in good fun. It takes the whole 60s-70s era dangerous mercenaries and spies in a secret organization and cranks up the ridiculousness of that to an 11. Each of the characters are from different parts of the world, but they're all such over-the-top representations of their cultures that it becomes something a lot like a Mel Brooks-esque setup. Shakespearicles was the strongest writer who ever lived and invented the two-story building, but everyone had to use rocket launchers to get up to the second level until Abraham Lincoln invented stairs 100yrs later. Every Halloween, you have to battle Soldier's old roommate who is a powerful wizard because Soldier turned his old castle into a raccoon sanctuary. All Australians are ripped as shit, have amazing mustaches, and Australia-shaped chest hair.

PLAY TEAM FORTRESS 2

[haovcrse-a]

🏹, 🕸️, 💋, 🩸, 🥀 for any of your selfships 💕💕💕

oooh ok so i spun a wheel, and we've got kazuscarahao (aka. soldier, poet, king) & zhade !!

🏹 : what is oc’s relationship with the other canon characters?

soldier, poet, king — hmmm now zhaoyi for this dynamic is also a wanderer and doesn't stick around in one place for long. however, he does have good friendships with most from liyue! being from liyue, and also someone with a slight unknown background, it's important to keep strong connections in the case he needs a helping hand. most notably, he's on good terms with the adepti xiao; well, as good as you can get with him; zhongli, beidou, ningguang, and ganyu! his reputation with the other locals isn't too shabby either.

zhade — as an honorary member of the stellaron hunters, zhao's relationship with the gang is quite familial. him and silver wolf are like those judgmental siblings at the extended family dinner lmao. kafka and zhaoyi are blade's worst nightmare due to how they bug him, not to mention the nick names...

K: bladie~

B: ...

Z: oh c'mon, darling, say smth to us, won't you?

B: ... s-shut up.

have not looked much into firefly's character tbh besides what ive read in the story, but the calm duo !! also the deadly duo when in battle like seriously. if you thought blade and zhao were unstoppable, wait until you see firefly and zhao's team work (canon wise. idk about in-game wise)

🕸️ : any song that reminds you of your ship?

S.P.K. — obv soldier, poet, king ( the oh hellos ) but !! a different one would be maybe blood // water ( grandson ) for the sole reason that this is my "angry at the world; holding on for each other" vibes ship.

zhade — omg... pretty please ( dutch melrose, benny mayne ) is so them coded it's unbelievable... the lyrics... also maybe changgwi ( aha ye eun ) or achilles come down ( gang of youths ) !! the lore for this ship isn't fully developed, but it's like. deep-ish.

💋: what motifs/symbols do you associate with your ship?

S.P.K. — burnt sugar // bruised knuckles // the north star // broken compasses // tree roots // paper boats // old books // hands tangled in someone’s hair // convenience stores at night // instant ramen packs // undone ties & wrinkled button ups

zhade — talked about here !

🩸 : what does your oc think of canon character?

did a little thought process of first impressions for both vs now instead of a whole timeline since the spk timeline is a little… hard to map out TwT

S.P.K. — “a stowaway? hmm… if beidou’s alright with him… then i suppose i should be too. as long as he doesn’t get too close.” // “what a bitch.” // “ah… he sent a letter again today. such a poetic sap… i miss him.” // “he hasn’t contacted me in a while… should i… no, going to sumeru would only make him annoyed… but im worried.”

zhade — talked about here !

🥀: favorite thing about your ship?

S.P.K. — genuinely my most chaotic ship in terms of plot and feelings. i love being able to mess up things regarding their stories and to make things hurt. they get their ending, but is it happy? sad? i love messy stuff like that and this is really just my chance to explore it! not to mention when the three of them are together, the dynamics are just too good heh.

zhade — a more comforting ship if i’m being honest. two people who dance around each other, too afraid but not realizing they’re afraid of what could happen. i love thinking about in-game stuff too when it comes to these guys !!

[wowowwild]

Ok Justice For All. This is not going to be exhaustive or comprehensive but here we go.

The first case we don't really need to cover. It's a tutorial, it achieves what it sets out to do, there's not a whole lot else. I really like the amnesia concept and while I wish more had been done with it (like being used in a regular case), I understand the mechanical service it does for a tutorial.

Our second case is solid. It was really fun to figure out exactly what happened and if you've been following my 'game posting' tag you saw exactly how much fun I had. I kind of wish we had gotten more out of Misty, but that wouldn't really work in this medium (lol get it). Obviously I love Pearly I adore her I would be her slave she deserves the world. Phoenix, stop showing her the horrors, please. I just really have to keep coming back to how fun this case was to solve. Sometimes the correct things to do mechanically make no sense to me bc I don't leap far enough with my logic, but this case I was able to do pretty easily which tells me it was very well written with the proper foreshadowing and such (and I am a sucker for properly laid ground work). I like that we get more Fey lore. I am devastated that I guesses the twist ending but I had no one to witness it. It's probably my favorite case this game.

Bigtop is a mess. We're going to ignore the Regina age problem for our sanity and pretend she's 18 bc wtf (I knew this but just now [as I was typing the end of this paragraph] connected the dots that in Japan 16 is viewed as our 18 and they just didn't localize her age). I really like Max! He's my favorite character to come out of this case and I will never let go of my wrightica/galactright ship (is there an official ship name?). He thinks Edgeworth is dead, it could happen. Also! Diversity win! The guy who murdered you is wheelchair bound! But actually I really like the concept of Acro's motivations, driven to madness and murder by grief. I like it less when we come back to Regina's canon age, like even when she's 18 Acro should still view her as a child and personally I could never hold something like that against a child. It was decidedly and accident and not even remotely her fault. It's not her fault your brother was swayed to do something idiotic by the power of boners, my guy. Also Regina is not ok. She needs help and the only one who realizes it is Moe. Everyone else is 'enabling' (that's not exactly the word I'm looking for but it's in the ballpark) her. Her own father was likely the worst offender. Moe may not be funny (I actually liked his jokes) but he is genuinely a great guy.

Our last case: Extremely well written. I went into this already knowing the outcome, how could I not. Despite this, I was so worried about Maya everything else went out the window. For a minute I actually convinced myself of the possibility that Adrian had done it (I am so sorry for everything we put you through, but it was for Maya). This case really put me in Phoenix's shoes. I'd imagine if you don't actually like Maya, this might not do for you what it did for me, but if you don't like Maya I don't know how you've managed to play all the way through the second game. Of course the good ending where you toss Engarde to the wolves (the assassin he hired) is iconic. That's what you get. Again if you've been following my 'game posting' tag you know I had strong feelings about Edgeworth through this. Most of them were due to the stress of Maya being kidnapped (I seriously got waaayyyyyy too in character during this case), but also he was smug as hell for no reason when he showed back up. He was like 'new me!' and refused to elaborate. Phoenix is not a mind reader, my guy. He won me over again so we're good. Also the dinner? At the end it literally says "I wonder if there's anything I can give him to express how I feel...?" I think we can all imagine my first thought... actually I don't trust people to put thoughts in my head, my first thought was a kiss. (You actually give the whip and Miles yet again thinks Phoenix is a mind reader, will it ever end?) I can't forget! Gummy's official stint at Wright Co! My one post about him being a Phoenix Wright weird girl was really popular and then my second (about this case) also got some notes, so clearly this is the Gumshoe content we're all looking for. (Can they please stop firing him though? He's going to end up dead on the street from starvation.) I thought it was really something how much Phoenix trusts Gumshoe. He said

The scene with Franziska and Miles at the end was sorely needed and it was fantastic. They're both growing and healing from shared trauma and it's beautiful.

Over all... I forget, is this the one people don't like out of the trilogy? I liked it. The first is obviously iconic and banger after banger, but I do like this one. Overall it's definitely worth playing and very enjoyable. (Idk bc I haven't tried it personally, but there's a post going around about ds estore emulation or something where you can play games from the ds estore for free now that it's closed, so as far as I know you can play it for free now.)

[savventeen]

I JUST BINGED YOUR ENTIRE “THANKS FOR PLAYING” AND I HAD TO STOP MYSELF FROM CRYING IN THE LIVING ROOM AND GODDAMN I GOT SO MANY QUESTIONS/IDEAS so here’s a dump lmao

AND SPOILERS ‼️‼️

and be honest if you honestly don’t have any idea or want to leave it up for interpretation

dino’s friend recommended it to him and he recommended it to mc right? well what happened to that friend/person?? i bet they are alive because they sent that game to 13 people before 3 am so the lady in the closet doesn’t get to them 🤭

if mc didn’t mess around and acted seriously in the game, would the outcome have changed? or was it always the gamemaster’s intention for the player to fall into obscurity?

how come dino remembered the mc? power of love??? or because he knew about the game (im pulling stuff out of my ass)?? or he has an android phone in this au 🧐

what if the pfps for the “AIs” are actually previous victims

so if you actually finish the game against all odds everyone is released (if they aren’t dead) hmmmmm sequel merhaps?? jk

imagine the only clue left about the players existence is the goddamn phone bill for texting 💀

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MC????? wait that’d be really sad if the mc was actually still alive but dino couldn’t recognize them as “mc” but knows they exist somehow uGH

i know you wrote this story for fun so these don’t need to have answers/comments but please provide any extra tidbits of info about this concept it’s so interesting 🙏🙏

SKLJDFLKSDJF OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING????? AND IM SO HONORED HOLY SHIT I WILL DO MY ABSOLUTE BEST TO ANSWER WHAT I CAN 😭💜

also you are not the only one with questions so I'm going to do my best to answer them all here!!!

[for anyone who hasn't read it yet and wants to know wtf we're talking about, you can read the entirety of my .|X| THANKS FOR PLAYING |X|. smau here!]

*cracks knuckles* alrighty buckle up folks time to try and answer some questions and take a deep dive into savv’s personal TFP lore here we gooooooooooooo

[putting it all under a readmore bc it got long af and also i didn't realize how hard it would be to translate the lore in my brain into words??????? i somehow didn't realize how oddly complicated it is??? like writing all of this out in any kind of semi-coherent way was SO HARD sdkjfsdlkjf]

~ Was it all a dream? (this one was asked by @junhui-recs)

Sadly, no. 😭 In the reality of this fictional universe, a tragedy very much did happen and Dino and MC are very much suffering from it 🥲 (I will not stop you from imagining that it was all a dream tho, we all have different ways of coping dklsjfsklj <3)

~ What's the main purpose of the game? Why are they doing this? (this one asked by @diamondyjh)

OKAY SO to start off you need to know that this au was heavily inspired by an episode of a podcast called "The Magnus Archives", specifically the episode “Binary” (transcript here). [If you're a fan of horror, I highly recommend giving the episode a listen/read, it's delightfully creepy — you don't need to have listened to any of the other episodes to understand it (just stop at the ending 'supplemental' part)]

The episode goes into detail about this sort of digital urban legend/creepypasta/copypasta about a guy named Sergey Ushanka who, long story short, tried to upload his brain/consciousness into a computer because he was afraid of death and wanted to try living forever virtually. There are tame versions of how he did it and other much more brutal ones, but basically "Sergey Ushanka" is a prank that various coders/programmers like to pull when making chatboxes in which you could talk with "strangers". It would start out normal and then steadily devolve into something creepy. This paragraph taken directly from the episode transcript sums it up very nicely:

"But then the responses start to break down, become more sinister, and keep referring to how much pain Sergey is in. Eventually, the only response the bot gives you is screaming and pleas to be released. The idea is that the chatbot is Sergey Ushanka’s mind, and he doesn’t like being in a computer nearly as much as he’d hoped."

So the idea that I stole from the episode essentially was: but what if it was real? What would the reality of being turned into cold, unfeeling data feel like? Agony is what the episode posits. Here is a list of phrases that the Sergey in the episode uses:

cw: vague body horror, blood mention "the angles cut me when I try to think" / "it peels my mind like knives" / "it feels like thinking through cheese wire" / "there's no feeling, but the no feeling hurts" / "it's cold without blood" / "the maze is sharp on my mind"

My next thought process was: What happens after? If someone were able to survive this process and were somehow able to keep any kind of agency, how would that person try to get out of the digital hellscape that has now become their existence? After knowing what it feels like to become distinctly inhuman, wouldn't they do anything to feel human again?

And how do we feel human? How do we find connection with each other and our humanity without ever having to come in contact with another person?

Stories. Fiction and non-fiction alike, we are all connected through storytelling, by finding feeling through other people's words. The thing about stories, though, is that they aren't messy in the same way that actually feeling our feelings is. That being human is.

So what does all of this have to do with the purpose of the game?

Essentially, when it's all boiled down, in this universe the story of Sergey Ushanka is real, and in this universe he is trying to gain his humanity back by stealing that of others. He started off with stories, with whatever online libraries and resources and archives he could find across the internet. And while it wasn't even close to enough to satisfy him, to get rid of any of the pain he was constantly experiencing, it was enough for him to learn, to grow, to realize that if he wanted his humanity back, he needed to go to the source.

So he started stealing real people from the real world, with all of their messy feelings and emotions and humanness.

That is the purpose of the game, why "they" are doing this. (pls don't ask the how bc i don't have an answer for that, just -waves hands- you know, insert your supernatural/sci-fi explanation of choice sldkflksj)

~ Did all the other characters from the game also get pulled into it the same way reader did? (asked by @diamondyjh) / What if the pfps for the “AIs” are actually previous victims

Short answer, yes to both! (Longer answer in the next question lol)

~ Who are those other people? (asked by @junhui-recs)

Essentially, the other characters/bots/whatever you want to call them are a kind of amalgamation of all the previous players who got sucked into the game. Once someone's been... let's call it absorbed, whatever parts of themselves are left after the process basically get shoved into whatever "character" they fit best, sometimes different pieces going to different characters.

And while the pictures could just be random ones, I like the idea that they're taken from the most recent players that got absorbed :')

~ Why was Changkyun evil? (asked by @junhui-recs)

Well, the main reason he was "evil" was because he's, y'know, a part of the game and the game is trying to steal people's souls or whatever. As for why he's mean, that's because he's trying to trigger an emotional reaction. The more messy, human feelings that are happening at the time of absorption, the better :').

~ Dino’s friend recommended it to him and he recommended it to mc right? What happened to that friend/person??

"i bet they are alive because they sent that game to 13 people before 3 am so the lady in the closet doesn’t get to them 🤭" SJKDFSKLDJ this made me snort, so thank you 😂

BUT to answer your question, in the story, Dino says that Yeonjun gave it to him and that he got it from "a friend of a friend of a roommate". Because the absorption and the consequent complete erasure is such a big process, not everyone who plays gets sucked in. In fact, most people who play don't get sucked in. Which is why Yeonjun is totally fine! (And why the friend of the friend of the roommate, aka this universe's irl Changkyun, is not 🥲)

~ If mc didn’t mess around and acted seriously in the game, would the outcome have changed? Or was it always the gamemaster’s intention for the player to fall into obscurity?

This one's a little bit complicated. It's kind of a yes and no situation? Generally speaking, the game isn't looking to ensnare every single person who plays because 1) it takes A Lot Of Effort to take/erase a single person, and 2) the game needs to spread to other people somehow, thus it needs people to play it and then tell other people to play it too.

For MC specifically, though, it's hard to say. How they played the game didn't matter so much as how they reacted to the game, specifically the first phase(s) of the Mnemosyne Protocol. The whole point of the game is to get big, messy, emotional responses, so if MC hadn't had such a big reaction, the game probably would have turned out differently. That being said, if MC had played the game as blandly as possible, the game might not have ever decided to test out the Mnemosyne Protocol, so. *shrugs* Do with that what you will lol.

~ So if you actually finish the game against all odds everyone is released (if they aren’t dead) hmmmmm sequel merhaps?? jk

Sadly, nothing special happens if you finish the game 😭 Plenty of people finish the game and pretty much go "huh, that was cool I guess" and then move on with their lives after telling their friends about it. This can be said about all four games mentioned actually, since we only see one of them get played.

As for a sequel... almost certainly not 🥲 I'm not going to give a hard no/no forever, because who knows if I'll end up getting another idea/get suddenly struck with inspiration, but... it is Extremely unlikely. Another story in the same universe??? ...still not likely, but slightly more likely than a sequel lol.

~ Why is Dino the only one who remembers reader? (asked by @diamondyjh) / How come Dino remembered the mc? Power of love??? Or because he knew about the game (im pulling stuff out of my ass)?? Or he has an android phone in this au 🧐

I almost want to make the answer "bc he has an android" because that is So Funny to me like sldkfjsldkjfslkjdf amazing 😂

But no, that's not the case lmao. And while I am a huge sucker for the Power of Love being an unstoppable force (ESPECIALLY when it's non-romantic love!!!), the reason Dino and only Dino remembers is thanks to sheer luck and a glitch.

So, in episode 28, MC drops their phone when meeting their brother and in episode 29 we see the alert ".|| MNEMOSYNE PROTOCOL COMPLETE ||." show up on a cracked screen.

The final phase of the Mnemosyne Protocol is the erasure portion, and the reason players get erased instead of just like, disappearing is because their "essence" is basically being transferred from reality into this digital realm of Sergey's existence. And reality, because it's now lacking an entire person and their history, just kinda... rewrites itself to make sense with the missing gap. Think of it as the universe doing like a sort of reverse autocorrect.

But because MC's phone got broken in the middle of that transfer, there was a slight glitch in the process. A glitch wherein Dino, because he was on the opposite side of the globe when this was happening, got accidentally missed in the autocorrection process. If he had been in Korea (or heck, anywhere within a few thousand miles) when this happened, he would have forgotten MC as well.

So long story short, Dino was just extremely (un?)lucky 🥲

~ Where is reader? (asked by @junhui-recs) / WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MC????? Wait that’d be really sad if the mc was actually still alive but dino couldn’t recognize them as “mc” but knows they exist somehow uGH

Well, sad news here friends. Most of what's left of MC is now stuck inside the game. They got absorbed and are now a part of Sergey's dataset and will be used/distributed into "characters" as needed.

Notice that I said most. Because, thanks to the glitch, the part of them that was connected to Dino didn't get transferred properly, and now that part of them is kinda stuck — it no longer exists in the real world, but it also didn't get fully absorbed into the game.

Which leads me to the next question:

~ Did reader turn evil and try to pull Dino into the game or is it the game itself being evil and impersonating reader to lure Dino in? (asked by @diamondyjh)

When I wrote the original version of this, the answer was a kind of combination of both — MC had gotten absorbed and corrupted by the game, so while it was the MC reaching out, they were doing so because it was what the game wanted.

But in this version... It's actually neither! Which I think would normally be a good thing but I think in this instance actually just makes this sadder oops.

So, the epilogue isn't the game impersonating MC and it isn't an "evil" MC trying to lure Dino in, it's actually just the part of MC that got stuck during the glitchy transfer. This is why the messages show as being from "Unknown" instead of the phone number associated with the game. And the reason what's left of MC asks Dino if he wants to play a game is because that's the only way it knows how to connect with anything anymore.

Basically, this sliver of MC that's left is experiencing what the original Sergey went through when he first "uploaded" himself, but instead of reaching out to anyone through a chatbot for help, it's reaching out to the only thing it "remembers" about humanity — Dino.

...I honestly didn't mean to make this story any sadder than it already is and I'm glad that the epilogue by itself just reads as spooky/freaky as hell instead of, well, this. 🥲

~ If Dino plays the game, will he be reunited with reader? (asked by @diamondyjh)

It pains me to say that there is no longer an MC for Dino to reunite with 😭 The part of them that got absorbed by the game is, well, a part of the game now. And the piece of them that's left and trying to reach out to him? Well, like I said, it's just a piece.

There could potentially be a chance for him to find some closure here, but that's about it I'm afraid :')

And now because I want this to end on a more lighthearted note:

~ Imagine the only clue left about the players existence is the goddamn phone bill for texting 💀

It becomes the next biggest conspiracy, that there's someone (or a group of someones) out there completing the world's next biggest scam by raking up random people's phone bills and somehow finding a way to steal the profit lmao

~ Some last thoughts from savv:

If y'all made it all the way to the end of this... holy shit I applaud you sldkfjsdlkjflksjdf LIKE!!!

thank you for taking the time to read all of this?????? it's not even fic it's just me rambling and making things Even Sadder??????

i also want to say that i'm a believer that 'canon' is whatever was posted in the story itself and that anything else is just headcannon, even if it's from me, the author. so if you don't like/don't agree with anything i've said here, feel free to ignore it!! fill in any gaps/questions you have in the way that makes your reading experience the most enjoyable!!

but yeah tHANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING AND I HOPE THESE ARE SATISFACTORY ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS AND IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE/HAVE A RENEWED DESIRE TO FIGHT ME MY INBOX IS OPEN SDKLJFSLKJFLSKFJSLKD

[coyoxxtl]

https://www.tumblr.com/coyoxxtl/726754829755678720/does-anyone-have-legit-criticisms-about-aotd-or?source=share

The only criticism I have honestly, is the retcon of them learning to be better people in Doomstar. But it's a continuity thing for me.

You guys finally learned to do something kind for others towards the end of that movie but you went back to being assholes to your fans again AOTDS?

The same thing that got ya'll into this mess in the first place?

Also, my expectations were a little bit blindsided by what they would do here.

I was expecting more lore about Murderface here and maybe some diving into their past as Dethklok was starting, but it's nothing too bad.

i still need to rewatch aotd several more times its not embedded in my head yet so i wouldn’t consider my thoughts and crits Completely formed

mmbut i wouldn’t necessarily call that a retcon, bc i don’t consider that lesson to be fully Learned in doomstar requiem? what they learned, mostly, is that they’re a family and YES they actually care about each other. and that’s not even something they didn’t know but they consistently deny it, and don’t take that love seriously enough to express it in any meaningful way. and thats just amongst themselves, they still didn’t learn to rid their harbored resentment for their fans, who they infamously hate and barely consider people. to me this movie was literally about the continuing the lesson from the first movie, they learned to care about each other now they have to extend that out to their fans. im p sure this is what the whole “open hand” thing is about, also why the fans were the army of the doomstar all along, dethklok is now a part of them, not against them.

also, personally i think there was just enough Murderface, his whole possession deal was around for as long as it needed to, and their connection with him afterwards was very sweet, “but you can’t even hear the bass” ”but you can always feel it” was so beautiful it stuck w me lol

like ofc i can always appreciate more lore and backstory but i consider that fanservice and wasn’t something i was seriously expecting to be included because every second of this movie needed to be dedicated to wrapping up the story. i don’t doubt brandon small and the other show runners wanted to do more and give us the fun extra juicy bits but i can tell they written the movie to be tight with nothing wasting narrative space. the lame thing about being a creative is knowing when something is unnecessary for the story even if it’s interesting. i heard that brandon small is thinking about continuing metalocalypse so hopefully we get to see stuff like that in the future i want that too😭

[cheeto-flavoured-pasta]

For the Random WIP Ask Game:

11. 🌈 RAINBOW SLOTH: Wild card! Share one thing about your WIP that you have been waiting to be asked about!

And all of a sudden I’ve forgotten everything I’ve ever wanted to be asked…

Kidding (partially).

I initially wanted to post a whole paragraph about plot twist ideas/arcs for my WIP for this, but then again, I also wanna talk about APS fun facts, but then again again, the question is asking to share only one thing, so now I have to actually make a choice and commit. :P.

I think I’ll do the second option, so here are some random APS fun facts:

The very first version of APS was some novel I wrote 3 years ago that was set in Japan (I was a huge weeb at the time and it was so cringey) and the plot was wildly different and honestly so convoluted. I tried to take the premise of “superhumans discovered by government and go through dystopic hell” and “secret underground superhuman organization that basically fights off ‘bad guys’” and mush them together. Turns out, you can’t have two main premises at once (at least for me). One of them could have been a side-premise/subplot of sorts, but nooo. I had to mash them together and squeeze them into one book to the point where the plot switched from one plot idea to the next (ex: I set up the story as a “superhumans discovered by gov’t” plot and then completely flipped it on its head and forgot the other premise halfway through). It was a hot mess. A flaming mess. I deleted that book entirely and decided to change everything about it (except the title). That was a much better decision.

Caster was supposed to be the love interest of another random side character. Decided against it later because I don’t wanna center the story too much around romance. Caster’s also aroace and not interested in any kind of relationship, it wouldn’t really be fitting anyway. Idk, the idea just didn’t stick.

There was supposed to be a scene in chapter 6(?? Was it 6?) — the one where there’s a street brawl and someone chokes and dies — where Talia actually steps in to do something. All she manages to do is splash water in one of the perpetrator’s/instigator’s faces. I only wrote that because I thought it was funny, but I took it out later because it created a big character inconsistency

APS was supposed to be a book series with dual-POVs throughout (ex: Caster and Talia for the first book, Melissa and Cassian for the second, etc. etc.) I eventually scrapped that because the second POV either became useless to the book or it could have another whomp story all by itself without sharing the story with a perspective of another character.

At one point, I planned APS to be a 6-10 book series with so many fucking prequels and sequels and companion novels. I scratched that entirely because, seriously, it was so unnecessary to have that much for no good reason at all. The plot would be too stretched and convoluted if I kept it as a 6-10 book series, and after revamping the plot events, I realized I only needed three books to tell the whole story.

To build off the previous one: I do have a slight “spinoff” series of APS called APP (A Powerful Past). It’s more of just individual books covering pieces of backstory/lore in more detail, but that’s a side-series, so it’s pretty much it’s own thing. I’m only gonna work on it after APS is finished, so for now, the most I do to work on APP is to add to any thought dump pages.

[locke-n-k3y]

aodhkdhdkdjd hey hey locke!! i have appeared to scream into the void about my ocs so you may ignore this :]] (these might not make any sensee and warning for violence just in case)

Adele and Josh and Janette. I. am. dead. thinking about them aughhshdjdjd so so as i said before, the adults have a LOT of highschool lore which is mostly there for funsies and stuff!! Those three, which my friend named The Dead Poets Society as a ship name, have the most.

So Adele was known as a bully/group (i don’t want to call it gang since it wasn’t one? really?) leader and probably beat up Janette in highschool once but neither of them remember (josh does) Josh (He went by a diffrent name- transmasc josh <3) was a part of Adele’s group, they dated during that time as well. So adele beat up people and josh kind of stood there like uhhhh this is messed up. When josh comes out as a trans guy when they were in their late teens 17-18 (he didn’t rlly know how to explain it since not many people where out and proud as trans in the town in the 90’s) and Adele threw that aside as ‘oh you know that’s fine’ and never took it seriously. In their 20’s, Adele and Josh started fighting more (there’s a scene in my head for them where they’re just driving in silence and both have a bleeding nose).

They should get a divorce tbh like DUDEE. josh would happily let adele go but adele still has love for josh since she likes men as well but she’s buried that down with disgust from her teens. So adele’s like noo don’t leave to fuck you why did i ever marry you. So yeah D: at the end of the story when adele gets arrested, since she had commited so many crimes, she talks to josh and if this was an animated show i would flash back to them in their teens!! She basically says like ‘hey I still don’t understand everything, and I wish I’d had the courage to ask why you felt how you felt when you first told me’ and then she drives away in the police car. (she gets out of the court with only charges for property damage since she covered her tracks well)

cough. yeah. Them!! head in hands about them (My Boy by Car Seat Headrest is so Josh and Adele coded and i have a whole animatic planned for them with that songsvdhdhdkdj sorry for the lore dump!!)

DONT APOLOGISE AAAAHHHHGGGG TRAGIC ADUKTS YES YES YES YES!!! I LOVE THIS I LOVE THEM, TRULY THE EPITOME OF MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE!!! THEY NEEDED TO GET A DIVORCE OH MY.GOOODDD THANK U SM FOR SHARING I AM! OBSESSED!! WITH THEM!!!

[mionemymind]

For some reason season 5 felt very different to the others. Maybe bc I didn’t watch immediately after season 4. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Lots of little twists and turns. Have to say Steiner is such a character just so funny.

Carlos winning his first Grand Prix, I was literally jumping for joy. So happy it finally happened for him, can he’s hair be anymore perfect.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned how fast those guys on the pit crew can be like less than 3 seconds crazy. Pierre and Yuki’s friendship felt so natural and genuine. Loved to see the big brother little brother thing they had. Yuki, he’s a funny little guy I really liked him.

Mick Schumacher having such a tough start was hard to watch. Feeling like u need to live up to ur father who has 7 world championships. Come on that is entirely too much pressure, so many chances and possibilities to mess up just trying to measure up.

Clearly I made my opinion on Horner very clear but can the FIA be more of a joke. The budget obviously didn’t go towards the car. Never thought I’d feel bad for Red Bull or Horner but the scrutiny they went through being called cheaters was totally not right. Got me having sympathy for them. I don’t know if it’s just me but Zak from McLaren gives me such bad vibes.

Very much feeling like this is a start to the Max Verstappen dynasty. Understand why u mentioned he’s dad bc from what very little we seen of him, there was still so much to not like. Can u not seriously not ever be happy or cheer for ur son, win or god forbid lose.

Also I’ve made the unfortunate mistake of going to TikTok and following all my favorite drivers and teams. At first they were funny and happy then they got so sad, like am I really tearing up over a TikTok.

Oh no season 6 is next and that’s the last season. I also might finally be sending in that Wanda x reader request maybe? Anyway hope u have a good week.

-S

Hey S! Wanted to start off with the fact I'm unable to attach a Carlos gif on this post today. Doing this illegally on the work laptop lmaoooo (pray for me).

But some highlights that I wanted to respond to was that Pierre was Yuki's favorite teammate. Like to me, he seemed so heartbroken when Pierre was gone.

Also, that cheating scandal with Redbull sucked and Zak gets on my nerves sometimes. But his lore is crazy beause he won money from a game show and invested it into motor sports and down the line he became part of F1 and is CEO of McClaren. Like bruh! That's a fanfic right there.

But don't be too sad about season 6 being last, more is to come. Also, try and watch the F1 interviews and fun games that the drivers sometimes participate in. It's such a fun way to see them in rather than just constant racing.

But send in that request! I'll definitely consider it but don't hate if it's like months before I actually post it.

Can't wait to see your thoughts about season 6 :))

[swadloom]

I love the d&d outer planes they would be so good if they didn't SUCK!! Anyways here's a nerdy and very personally opinioned ramble about them from a guy who's barely gotten to DM before, mostly just based on what I know from the DMG. If there's any stories that do something more interesting with them I'd like to hear about it!! I have no idea where some wikis are getting the rest of their lore lmao

The main ones like the 9 Hells, Celestia, Mechanus etc are good settings but the ones in-between alignments are just like. Really empty-feeling from what I've read of them?? The only ones I like that much in their base worldbuilding is the Beastlands and Gehenna, and besides that like. What plot hooks and adventures could you make out of Acheron. They work as worldbuilding for the most part, but have so much wasted potential as settings to explore in the corners of the universe

The good-neutral ones (Arcadia & Ysgard) versus the neutral-evil ones (Acheron & Pandemonium) just don't feel that neutral-aligned? They're both very nice/bad places. In fact Carceri seems more Lawful Evil than Chaotic Evil, and vice-versa for Acheron, from what little we're given from them. Honestly I just think the base books don't have many well written Neutral monsters and settings alike tbh.

Which gets into Limbo. I know lots of people like the concept behind Limbo but I feel like you could make Elemental Chaos the exact same thing. It's nowhere near as distinct as Mechanus, and also I love the design and concept of the Slaadi but they are NOT the embodiment of Chaotic Neutral they should be (I promise I don't usually take alignment that seriously I just think their role in the planes is potentially interesting yk TvT). Personally I like reflavoring Limbo as a surreal alien infested void that spoots out new, highly volatile critters for no reason that don't look like living things, and could mess up the order of the world if they create something especially law-defying.

I may be biased since I don't like the Abyss aesthetic much, but I really don't like how they're supposed to be Devils opposites as infinite creatures without hirearchy!! Then the book tells you the hierarchy they follow anyways. GUAH. They should be more varied and customizable like humanoids are right? Opposed to Devils being molded to whatever form Hell needs to serve Hell's hirearchy, no two Demons are the same brand of evil. Mine are inspired by Journey to the West type demons: they have similar broad weaknesses and abilities but their personalities are all distinct, they're out for themselves, and they tend to have one special skill.

Stuff like those who go to the Nine Hells or the Abyss presumably becoming fiends but few other planes having unique creatures to them is just kinda weird. Like some of these just don't make sense as afterlives like they're said to be, and I think having distinct inhabitants of each plane would make them work better. Imagine the type of person who tows the line between chaotic neutral and evil filling up Pandemonium and what kind of creature their spirits would be, or what kinds of celestials occupy Chaotic Good Arborea, there's some fun stuff there! Also im a little gayboy who likes it when heaven is weird about free will in stories and I want more Lawful creatures following that pattern like Angels and Modrons do with more Chaotic ones as foils you get me

Uh yea that was my dumb lil planes rant, they're one of my favorite things to use in game settings just building off the concepts but I usually add a whole bunch first. I've been planning to draw some of my ideas for planar entities too (like Acheron being where tragic heroes and vengeful spirits fight in perpetual Kill Bill fashion or Pandemonium having coral guys who fuse and unfuse into monstrosities over and over. There's POTENTIAL guys. hough)