Tumgik
#i want Conflict! i want Lore! i want Jokes!
slowdrippingnoise · 5 months
Text
thinking of ways to fix my problems with earthspark's starscream lore cul-de-sac situation. next season hashtag gets to Remember The Plot Point and actually distrusts megatron because of it (shades of teen rebellion + "he just like me fr" attachment to stsc) which puts her in big conflict with twitch (idolizes megs, imiates him as "leader of the pack", he shows her favoritism in particular. little bird ^^) they have more and more little conflicts leading up to a Big Actual Sibling Argument episode a/b plot- with both of them putting together arguments for why their favorite uncle that they use to prop up their own confidence (#: "im not a bad kid" realest starscream girlie)/(twitch: i can protect my whole family im strong im stable i can do this i have to) has Done Nothing Wrong Ever (fueled by the fact that it's more about their own senses of self, they're kids they need role models) meanwhile megs and stsc are on the sidelines watching this fight go down like coaches at a boxing match. it takes them way longer than it should to act like responsible adults and break up the fight because, besides stsc already just being thrilled to have Anybody in his corner, megs keeps giving him the I Will Murder You eyes from across the scene and that sets him back to thinking this is all hilarious every time he notices it. punchline: they have to step in though after a while because hearing their respective kiddos' most godawful blorbo takes known to mankind makes them cringe too much to let it continue. no little buddy thats not how that happened- no- no that very much was my fault- ok how about we all go cool down for a while how about we go pet fluffyears wouldnt you rather do that- ends as a lesson in maturity for both the siblings and mg&ss (doesn't necessarily mean the latter must be forced to be around each other in future, but at least chills megs out a bit + gives stsc more room to develop) / further examination of the different character groups' personal perspectives on the war / kind of mk2 of thrash's 'con phase from s1 i like hashtag so much. my daughter
10 notes · View notes
thefloatingstone · 7 months
Note
Puff please tell me about Grunt I just saw a Tumblr post you reblogged that vaguely went into detail and I read a small bit of his wiki page but I want to hear it in your own words because it's like 10x more interesting with that filter. Fill my dash with grunt lore
GRUNT IS SHEPARD'S VERY LARGE SON
Tumblr media
I don't know whether the designers originally created him with this thought in mind or not but it's really funny because by the time the DLC came out for ME2 you can see the games just fully embracing what was originally just a joke in the Mass Effect fandom.
I used to not be fully into it as a concept but as I'm busy replaying ME3 and having just played ME2 again... nah people were right. He's our son.
He was created in a lab to be an "ultimate krogan warrior" or whatever, but when Shepard cracked how out of his tube, he had did not have that "burning desire of revenge in the name of his species" the scientist who made him was obsessed by. Physically he was perfect, but psychologically, he just didn't understand why he should care about being a krogan. in ME2 when he's introduced, his story arc is helping him connect with what it means to be a krogan, and to help him find purpose as an individual. You essentially help raise this adolescent fully formed person out of apathy and teach him how to care about things, concepts and people, almost completely through actions and not so much through words.
As ME2 goes on, it becomes clear Grunt very much wants Shepard's approval about things, which is funny because at first he comes across as a cold, uncaring fully formed adult, but as you help him learn how to connect with being a member of his species, he'll sometimes want to talk to Shepard JUST to be like "Hey Shepard!! I thought about something to do with being Krogan I thought you'd approve of! listen to this!!"
In the DLC for ME2, you can read up on his internet search history as well as his online purchase history and I just.... think a lot of it explains SO MUCH about him as a character. So I'm just copy and pasting those here
SEARCH: krogan history SEARCH: great wars SEARCH: genofage / ERASED / krogan victories SEARCH: okeer/ ERASED / great generals SEARCH: toochanka/ ERASED / tuchanka SEARCH: urnot wrex SEARCH: battlemaster shepard/ MODIFIED/ commander shepard/MODIFIED/commander shepard normandy SEARCH: animal fights / MODIFIED / large predators SEARCH: tryrannsauros wrex/ ERASED / earth lizard wrex SEARCH: dinosaurs
SEARCH: battlemaster humans/ ERASED / earth humans SEARCH: human history SEARCH: earth wars // DOWNLOAD 6.1T NEWS FOOTAGE - HUMAN GENERAL HISTORICAL - CONFLICT // SEARCH: warrior humans // DOWNLOAD 2.1T DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE - HUMAN GENERAL HISTORICAL- MAJOR MILITARY FIGURES // SEARCH: great humans/ MODIFIED / honored humans // DOWNLOAD 0.7T NEWSFOOTAGE [sic] - HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT- AWARDS // SEARCH: great storytellers human SEARCH: war stories // DOWNLOAD 0.67T LITERATURE - HUMAN WRITERS CONFLICT// SEARCH: human homer kipling hemmingway // DOWNLOAD 0.13T LITERATURE - HUMAN WRITERS – EARNEST HEMMINGWAY // // DOWNLOAD 0.06T AUDIO BOOKS // // THE SUN ALSO RISES // 14% COMPLETED // FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS // 100% COMPLETED // A FAREWELL TO ARMS // DELETED // THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA // 100% COMPLETED SEARCH: sharks
CATALOG ORDER: Ultra Black Ops Mega Catalog PURCHASE 2823- UG-652: Case Premium 54/ER Engine Oil VIDEO DOWNLOAD: The Madness of Sacrifice: The Unauthorized Biography of Warlord Okeer PURCHASE 2856- UG-122: Economy Box, Fishdog Food Factory "Tastee Bites" VIDEO DOWNLOAD: When Fauna Attacks! Volumes 1-10 PURCHASE 3254-UG-975: Batax's Hot Fish Spice VIDEO DOWNLOAD: Vaenia (this is a movie) VIDEO DOWNLOAD: Asari Confessions 26: True Blue (this is porn) PURCHASE 9683- UG-662: Fornax Special Spotlight: Krogan Edition (this is a human magazine focusing on interspecies sexual relations) PURCHASE 8856- UG-972: Captain Cosmic Action Figures: "Garr the Krogan Battlemaster" with real smash your enemies action!
By the time ME3 comes around, most of the rest of the squad is referring to Grunt in terms poking fun at the fact that Shepard is his mom. I think it's Joker who at one point comments "Our baby boy's all grown up" or something to that effect. I can't remember the exact dialogue. I think at one point Garrus also jokes about how "they grow up so fast" or something along those lines.
He also loves spicy ramen.
Grunt is a good boy.
Tumblr media
237 notes · View notes
panoffrying · 5 months
Text
My Dr. Sozonius LORE Headcanons
✨Warning this is a bit long✨
Sozo is a character that has lived for a very long time. Whatever that mushroom was on their head not only influenced Sozo but kept them immortal. We know really nothing bout Sozos past so I made some headcanons for silly fun and for me to visualize who Sozo was and what his life may have looked like. I want to do my best to keep this as game accurate as possible, so there will be quotes from the game. The quotes are not at all in order! I kinda just bring up random Sozo quotes as I go. Also I apologize if this doesn't make sense or if I ramble (I get excited about certain topics) 
thank you so much @7moonbird for going over and editing this for me, Love ya Pookie!
And so we start:
Sozonius was born in the days of the old faith. He was present the day the Bishops declared the genocide of the lambs and he actually played a big part in assisting the lambs survival. However, he almost got caught and had to stop helping the lambs to keep his family safe. He's never seen any of the bishops(maybe) but his village was part of Darkwood and therefore under Bishop Leshy’s ruling.
VILLAGE 
Sozonius village was mostly a colony of Carpenter Ants, there were a few other species living there too but it was mostly Carpenter Ants. I imagine there are different races of ants depending on the region they’re in; so there could be fire ants, pharaoh ants, and more! Most ants get along nicely and work together but sometimes other races of ants can be more temperamental and cause conflict between colonies. Carpenter ants are a more calm type of ants, they aren't aggressive but they are incredibly strong. Carpenters ants are known to live in trees; they hollow out trees to make their homes and they like to stay off the ground as much as possible in case of floods and other dangers.
In the colony they had their ruler, the “Queen,” who looked over the village and did queenly business (not gonna go too deep into it). Everyone had many different jobs, ants are hard workers and very strong. They made marvelous structures, farmed a lot of crops, and knew how to work together when there was a threat. Sozo’s village was one that many others would try making deals/trades with. I would talk more about his village but that's not why y’all are here lol. 
Sozonius was a fellow damn near everyone in the village knew. He loved his work and he loved to talk about it to anyone that expressed that they wanted to listen. He was that guy that you could get stuck in a conversation with and struggle to end it. He liked to ramble about his work and kids. Other than that though he never really started conversations with others, he would keep to himself unless someone interacted with him.
And I could definitely see him having a science rival but nothing too bad lol.
FAMILY
“Where am I…? Where is… my family…?”  are the words Sozo says when he turns back into Dr. Sozonius. I like to think he had a wife and two children. They didn’t have the best marriage but they made it work out for their two sons. His wife was a bit stubborn and very honest. She would say things before thinking which did cause issues, but Sozonius let it slide because he loved her so much and wanted a happy family for his sons. 
Sozonius was a very funny dude. He made dad jokes all the damn time, his family would pretend to hate the jokes but in reality they did love them. 
Sozo Dialogue “Now all Sozo can think about is mushrooms, mushrooms, MUSHROOMS… They don’t leave mush-room for anything else! Ha!”
(Also, this next idea is inspired off of @kuphulwho headcanons for Sozo. I loved her ideas and I recommend y'all look at her headcanons too!) Aside from Sozonius being a mycologist he had a side hobby of art! He wasn't the best artist, but he was really talented with sketching plants/fungi, he liked to make art of anything that interested him. He most likely wrote an educational picture book about Fungi, there's probably an old copy of it somewhere.
This art hobby caught the interest of his two sons, and they also started to pursue art. Sozonius would take his free time teaching his sons how to draw plants and such. Sozonius would hang his kids' art everywhere in their house, it was like walking into an art museum haha.
JOB
Sozonius studied mycology which means he studied fungi. Sozonius knew fungi could benefit his society and he wanted to help educate others about the importance of fungi. Soon he learned enough of a new discovery of mushroom people, neither plant nor animal…Sozonius then made the decision to go on a solo mission to study the Mushroomo people.
THE MUSHROOMOS 
Dr. Sozonius Dialogue “My name is Dr. Sozonius. I was researching the Mushroomos that live in Spore Grotto… strange creatures, Neither animal nor plant…” 
Sozonius went to Spore Grotto and at first, he studied the Mushroomo people from a distance setting up a campsite near the Mushroomo Village. When the Mushroomo people discovered Sozonius they welcomed him into their home, cheerful happy little things. Sozonius was given the chance to learn more about these strange creatures up close! How could he say no? Sozonius was welcomed into Spore Grotto and was treated like a god. 
Sozonius asked the Mushroomos many questions, but getting any actual answers from them was difficult. The Mushroomos treated Sozonius like he was their most special guest, they danced and sang for Sozonius. They would mimic Sozonius and follow him around, making sure to do anything he asked of them. There would be many times when the Mushroomos would offer to feed Sozonius menticide mushrooms but Sozonius knew a lot about fungi and declined their offers. However, there seemed to be a special Ritual the Mushroomos took part in… 
Sozonius had been in Spore Grotto for many weeks now, it was time for him to leave, he had studied enough and was ready to return home but the Mushroomos were surprisingly sad when he announced this. They wanted to show Sozonius a sacred ritual to them before he left, he wasn't aware of the menticide mushrooms being part of it…
Dr. Sozonius Dialogue “They gave me Menticide Mushrooms, and then… that’s the last thing I remember…”
After Sozonius was tricked into eating menticide mushrooms and also gave Sozonius a crown, a crown that would grow into Sozoniuss mind, he shall be the Mushroomos leader… And the new Sozo was made. (literally just think of Ice Age 2 when the lil sloths take Sid to be their fire king, however they don't sacrifice him)
The mushroom on Sozos head is very powerful, it makes me wonder what it is exactly, it gives the person wearing it immortality, but also causes the user to go insane (don't forget that Sozo is also being fed menticide mushrooms) the mushroom crown kinda reminds me of Chemachs crown. It seems to have a mind of its own and a face. I feel like the Mushroomos for days straight made sure to give Sozo a diet of only menticide mushrooms to make him forget everything and to possibly power the mushroom crown. They would constantly tell Sozo that his mind would be open and free, that it would make him feel better, and Sozo being under the influence of the mushroom listened to them.
A Mushroomo Dialogue "Once you taste the Menticide Mushroom your mind will be opened." 
As the years went by so did all the sanity Sozonius had left, but in some moments Sozonius seems to still be aware but not all there. 
Sozo Dialogue “Sozo had friends... Followers... family... now Sozo has mushrooms..."
Sozo over time seems to start to dislike his followers and call them liars. He even becomes quite cruel to his followers. Yet he also mentions that he trusts the lamb and wants the lamb to protect him from his followers which makes me believe that Sozonius is somehow a little aware and fighting against the mushroom crown’s influence. He is mad at the Mushroomos for lying to him, tricking him, making him into who he is now.
 Sozo Dialogue  “No need to thanks Sozo. Build it at your Cult then come back to me. Sozo shall grant you one last gift. Sozo is always fair. Always repays this debts. Not like those LIARS out there."
"You did it! Now I know I can trust you... not like those nasty liars outside. They are always watching, always listening! Here take this. You are Sozo's best friend, you are Sozo's only friend."
"Sozo can trust you now, Sozo will pledge himself to you! You will protect me from those liars outside and bring Sozo mushrooms!"
(Also a side note that my gf brought to my attention last second lol! Apparently parasitic mushrooms rely on insects to spread. That is probably why they tricked Sozonius into staying and eating menticide mushrooms. Maybe it's been that long since they've seen an insect)
SOZOS IMPRISONMENT
So, this next little headcanon of mine is an interesting one and might be confusing to explain. Was Sozonius imprisoned within his own mind while under the control of the mushroom crown? If he was, I can see him being stuck in a sort of loop, imagining his family and friends. Think like Mabel's Bubble from ‘Gravity Falls’ weirdmageddon. Sozonius is trapped in a mental bubble, stuck in a false reality as the now mushroom-infected Sozo takes over his body and actions. 
In Sozonius’s mental bubble he is in a place where trees are big, tall mushrooms and flowers are mushrooms, everywhere he turns its mushrooms. He knows something is wrong, everything is too strange, everyone he loves is there with him but is it real? It feels like he's living in a dream. Sozonius proceeds to talk to his friends and family as if they are actually there in which I noticed that Sozo will talk to the menticide mushrooms as if they are actual people.
Sozo Dialogue “Precious, perfect little mushrooms, Sozo is here now, Sozo will always be here…”
”Sozo is busy now… Sozo must commune with the ‘shrooms.”
As time passes more mushrooms grow in his mind prison, and they keep growing and growing until they start to grow on the people he loves. He knows something is happening, he's going mad, and he starts to search for an exit, he needs to escape this false reality that the mushroom crown has created for him. 
He starts fighting the mushroom crown’s hold on him which causes him to regain some awareness. This is when a part of him realizes he’s been tricked, and he starts refusing everything the Mushroomos give him and becomes cruel to them. However, the lambs have never done him wrong before and the lamb (from the cult) begins to be the only person he can trust. At least until it becomes too much and well… we know Sozo’s fate.
SOZO’S REVIVAL 
So Sozo doesn't get resurrected until all the bishops become mortal (at least in my playthrough)(I might change this to he was part of the cult before the bishops I’m not sure). So all the bishop siblings are in the cult and learning the ways of mortal stuff and Sozo appears around the same time, still the crazy Sozo we know and love. However, he’s still very addicted to the menticide mushrooms and both the Lamb and night workers have found Sozo digging through the mushroom crops like a lil racoon.
Based on the game, Sozo likes to run around the cult and do his own thing; he often looks very spaced out but the moment someone talks to him he starts spitting nonsense before yelling at them to go away. The only people Sozo will talk to are people that give Sozo what he wants, which is menticide mushrooms! If you do that for him he will talk your ear off with nonsense, in conversations with him he will often talk about his followers, them being liars and disgusting little creatures. One day though Sozo’s personality seems to change? He starts to tell the lamb,
 “Sozo was just here, all alone, thinking about mushrooms... Uh, Sozo means Sozo's little Mushroomo followers!”
”Yes,, they must be so lost without Sozo. They love Sozo! Everyone loves Sozo - especially Lamb!”
“Without their great and beloved Sozo, Mushroomos must be so scared... YOU! You must save them! Save them and bring them to Sozo.”
”They will be trapped in Anura. They are always getting captured when they don't have their great Sozo to protect them. Rescue them and bring them to me.”
But when you bring the followers to Sozo he ends up eating them. At first glance you can assume it's just his addiction, in which it most certainly could be! He sees a big mushroom and he's like oooo~ delicious but there's also a possibility of this being Dr. Sozonius’s anger coming out. The whole fighting against the mushroom crown’s influence and realization that he’s been tricked. Maybe a mix of his addiction and anger for what they did to him? I’m not too sure if Sozo eating the Mushroomos was a problem before he joined the cult.
Of course, this addiction must be stopped so the lamb decides enough is enough and refuses to get more Mushroomos. This causes Sozo to dissent and, with little choice, the Lamb has to put him in rehab. I imagine it would’ve been a struggle getting Sozo to the prison without the Red Crown’s help. With the power of an ant that is Sozo’s size it's a miracle he didnt break that pillory while he was in it. Sozo just stayed silent and didn't fight; the person he had put his trust and hope in has imprisoned him. Sozo is a bit depressed at that moment. 
After Sozo has been re-educated, released, and cured of his addiction the mushroom crown finally falls off his head. Which, like I said before, makes me wonder, was it being powered by the menticide mushrooms Sozo has been eating or is it something else?
But Dr. Sozonius talks about some stuff before saying,
Dr. Sozonius Dialogue “I can’t help but feel that I have you to thank for… something. You have my loyalty, I will remain here and serve you. Please, take this!”
Sozonius was ready to live his life rather than reunite with his family in the afterlife. He wasn't expecting to be resurrected after dying in the cult from old age. But Sozonius gave the lamb their loyalty and promised to stay in the cult and serve them. The Lamb had been so kind as to give Sozonius an immortality necklace, the Lamb didn’t want Sozonius to go yet… and Sozo’s heart was too kind and soft. He will have to wait a bit longer to return home to his family, but maybe some good things will come out of staying longer~
Also! Who do we think Sozo was talking to? 
A Mushroomo Dialogue "Who is Sozo talking to when he whispers in the dark...?"
Is he talking to himself? The mushrooms? Or the Fox?
103 notes · View notes
if-chaos-was-a-boy · 2 months
Text
intro to a slightly crazy dude:
STATUS:
@if-chaos-wasnt-a-boy
Tumblr media
↳CALIX or…….calcium.cal.calcharo.bitch.funnydude.joker.boyfailure.hoe. whore.sillybilly.menace.givememorenicknamespls.
⟡age: 17
FUCKING CHAMPION OF ACHILLES @achilles-the-greatest
⟡Gender: Male
⟡Pronouns: He/him
⟡Birthday: April 1 [i was a joke from birth]
⟡Zodiac Sign: Aries
⟡Godly Parent: Eris/Discordia, Goddess of Discord & Strife
⟡Sexuality: Straight, bisexual as HELLLL
⟡Personality Type: ENTP [the CLOWN]
⟡Relationship Status: my fiancé and fiancée @itsyourboyezra and @of-course-im-the-winner
⟡Height: 6’1 (hormones go vroomvroom)
Tumblr media
⟡Weapon of choice: Small Celestial Bronze Blade [I usually just rely on Charmspeak & Manipulation which is…not great]
⟡Fatal Flaw: Probably Hubris [im an attention whore]
⟡Lore: I was brought to Camp Half Blood after a very weird incident where me, a party pony and a cyclops managed to sneak onto a cruise. I’m spoiled to the core and an absolute menace. Call me funny, call me annoying, I’ll still be the life of the party.
Powers:
⟡Chaos Manipulation-I can aggravate hostile situations till point of conflict, or I can slowly reduce the amount of chaos present (but that’s not nearly as much fun)
⟡Negative Emotion Manipulation: Anger, envy,wrath, frustration can be ramped up for the maximum amount of chaos.
⟡Flight: Like my mother-Eris-I can manifest fully formed avian wings to aid me in battle [more likely in shenanigans]
⟡Minor Control Over Illusions: Able to manipulate the mist to produce sensory hallucinations or illusions
AN UNRIVALED SENSE OF HUMOUR
⟡Appearance: A PERMANENT SHIT-EATING GRIN, natural messy black hair that can never be gelled down, striking maroon eyes that kinda looks at your fucking soul. Super Lean, you can only see the muscle definition when I’m wearing that compression shirt.
⟡fun facts about meeeee:
-I peel chicken nuggets
-I’m ambidextrous
-I have a hyper fixation with collecting nomnoms
-I love blind bags, mystery boxes etc @syd-the-nerd is my lucky charm, I’ve gotten everything I’ve wanted from blind boxes ever since meeting him.
-I have a skincare routine [can’t look this great without it, babe] -My dad gives me his black card to go do heinous shit, he says it helps with tax deductions
-I’m obsessed with my girlie/plat
Tumblr media
@that-girl-cupid (my ride or die, my best friend)
@chaos-pers0nified (best sister in the fking world)
@unhinged-waterlilly (she wildin )
@demigod-jack-hearth (op ahh, superhero)
@arisdaughter (relatable)
@hispanic-child-of-hermes (she intimidates me)
@bambi-the-dummy (SWEETEST GIRLIE ON THIS SIDE OF THE PLANET)
@love-lightning-forethought (legit my top 5 besties)
@debacleofdaemons / @iceweavercatlover [OOC I LOVE THIS GUY]
@daonedaonlyskh (actually the person with the sickest blog aesthetics)
@penelope-sato (my baby daughter)
@syd-the-nerd
@stephen-the-spider (Britney spears 😍😍)
@braydons-world (law student?????)
@of-course-im-the-winner (MY BEAUTIFUL FIANCÉE )
@fluffycows4life
@itsyourboyezra (my fucking FIANCÉ)
@apollos-favorite-child
@glee-of-ares-wrath-of-aphrodite
@thegroovydaughterofhestia
@the-haunt-brothers
@the-olympus-assassin
[HELP EXPAND THE LIST BY TALKING TO ME, I DONT BITE, IM JUST HIGH]
My adoptive parent: @steve-the-union-man
Tumblr media
FACECLAIM:
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
[OOC]
Heyhey, mod is currently going by either she/her or he/him (honestly gender fluid questioning) and a pansexual
Also im a MINOR so no NSFW BITCH.
Fun fact I have eczema so im sleep deprived coz I had too much fun in bed…….SCRATCHING MY FLESH OFF.
56 notes · View notes
clare-with-no-i · 1 month
Text
theogony part 1 behind the scenes
**SPOILERS ahead for theogony and mild spoilers for Outlander!**
this is just going to be a long infodump of all of the things I pondered while writing theog (specifically part 1, part 2 will come later) but never talked about! I'll try to go chapter by chapter, and maybe I'll end up adding more later on, but for now I just think it'd be fun to chitchat and reminisce on some of my favorite tidbits. this story is really my baby idk :")
Prologue - Alalá
one thing that I wanted to establish in the prologue, other than the obvious James-Sirius dynamic, is the presence of otherworldly or spiritual premonitions in this universe. it was always important to me that the first person who actually made any sort of prophetic declaration was James.
Tumblr media
so much of the story relies on Lily's status as an oracle, but this little tidbit here helped build the world for me so much; we can't be sure if James's various dreams and premonitions are wishful thinking, or really the Gods speaking to him, or something else entirely. of course, this story deals with time travel, so there's an inherent supernatural element. but Lily and James's conflicting – and sometimes competing – conceptions of God felt like such a necessary tension for me to explore. it was such an incredible shorthand for the tension between modern and ancient sensibilities. and we never get a definitive answer to those looming questions, which I knew I wanted to do from the outset. did the Gods bring Lily back to the past? did James? did she do it herself? does God/the Gods even exist?
also: there are probably moments where I failed to do this, but I tried to capitalize Gods in all of the James chapters but not in Lily's, unless she was referring to the Abrahamic Capital G God. that is, until the last chapter, which I'll elaborate upon later :)
also: i wrote the prologue first, then the epilogue, and then i posted the prologue pretty immediately after. I had the entire story roughly outlined but I absolutely jumped the gun when it came to posting the prologue LMAO I didn't even really announce the story, I just joked about writing it and then posted the prologue, which you can see from the beginning note. i remember Suze was about to go to sleep and she started messaging me like wtf Clare what do you MEAN?
and the rest was history (pun completely intended)!
Chapter One: Ouroboros
Tumblr media
the narrative brushes past the other statues in this section pretty quickly, but I always imagined that the first bust is Philoctetes, James's father. I think the consensus on this one tends to oscillate between Philoctetes and Aristides, which is another great interpretation.
The reason I wrote it this way and imagined it to be Philoctetes is because I thought it would have been nice to let Lily 'meet' James's father (in a sense), even before she 'meets' him. when I read this chapter back after I first finished the story, I had a very soft moment where I close-read my own fic (lol) and thought that maybe it was Philoctetes who sent Lily back to the past. maybe he sensed something about her and knew she'd be right for James and for antiquity.
Tumblr media
sooo many people forgot about this! which i was hoping for!!!!! I was hoping everyone would forget about James's statue holding something until the Big Reveal. fun fact is I wrote the reveal right after this. I liked the idea that, no, he was never going to actually be holding anything. he'd be reaching for Lily. the choice to accept his hand was always going to be hers.
a fun fact about this chapter is that I had to pull from a bit more Outlander lore than I originally thought. and no I don't mean the 'Jesus H Roosevelt Christ' part lol. It was always hilarious to me how Outlander set up Claire to be the objectively perfect person to go back in time. she was a combat nurse who happened to develop an interest in medicinal botany and Scottish-English history. she also happened to spend her formative years with her adventurous archaeologist uncle after her only living relatives died. like girl. lol.
so I had to really toss up which traits I thought it would be appropriate for Lily to have as she traveled back in time. the biggest one, obviously, is her field of study, which was necessary given the language barrier and the completely foreign nature of social norms in Classical Athens. I toyed around with the idea of making her mum a nurse so as to give her some base medical knowledge, but that felt a) unnecessary given the circumstances of the story, and b) far-fetched that she would have gleaned enough transferable skills to apply in 479 BCE.
it was also fun to give her more reason to go back to the future; she has a sister who, while they aren't in contact, is a significant emotional attachment; she has academic goals; she has a best friend (however toxic we know him to be). it added a layer of conflict that I enjoyed playing up, even if I definitely could have explored her modern life more fully.
Chapter Two: Kinesis
soooo much exposition and worldbuilding in this chapter. oml. it was so much fun to play around with the reasons why James would be in Tatoi in the first place; I can't remember quite how I landed on the Persian auxiliary soldier thing, it might have been from my initial (admittedly extensive) research on the months leading up to Plataea; it may have just been the fact that I KID YOU NOT this story used to take up all of my fucking brainspace. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'd be doing work for my research fellowship and just daydream about theogony. the initial idea came to me AS A JOKE!!!!! when i was idly pondering before going to sleep (as one does), and then it just wouldn't leave me alone. i kept imagining what it might look like. I thought about how the time travel might work. I thought about James's Greek equivalent. I ranted to my sister and her dog (he did not care) about what the statue might look like and mean (sorry bestie love u).
one narrative decision that has given me a bit of strife was the Dimitrios-James name change. I've had a number of people ask me if I'd ever try to pubilsh theog – and this is one of the (many) reasons why that would be pretty categorically impossible. using James's English name in his internal narration, instead of the name I give him as a Greek man, is something that only translates to fic. it makes pretty much no sense at all if you consider these original characters lol.
Tumblr media
honestly putting the word 'practicum' in here caused me SO much pain. in James's chapters I tried really hard to use words which had Greek roots and not Latin roots, even if they're in modern English today. in most of his chapters, I'd try and find synonyms for big/complex words so I could use ones that came from Greek. it just helped me stick to his narrative voice a bit more.
I forgot how much STUFF went on in this chapter. oh my god SO much happens?? we get the lack of the Parthenon as the time marker (felt very clever doing that), Lily processing the fact that she's time traveled (lazy writing on my part to not have this happen in a Lily POV chapter but I'll take that on the chin), the Plataea reveal. OML. tired just thinking about it. lily sweetie i am so sorry
Tumblr media
guys, the amount of time I spent wondering if I should Greek-ify Sirius's name is insane. For so long I thought about making him Seirios, which is the original Greek version of Sirius. But I felt like I had already messed with their names too much, and so I left it. but honestly I'm still torn. looking back, maybe it would have been the right move to make him Seirios and have Lily give him the name Sirius, but I guess we'll never know!
Tumblr media
one of my favorite Sirius moments, and something that, essentially, sets up the rest of the story. but I wanted there to be a little ambiguity throughout the story about how much of this Sirius actually believes.
we know that James has just confessed to Sirius and Pétros that he was hoping they'd desert the Athenian army. we know that he thinks he's going to die, and he's adopted this sort of fatalist view of his future. and then here you have Sirius, who could never abide such a thing, pretty much leaning into the idea that Lily can tell the future – which would allow him to challenge James's prediction. I always wanted to leave it up to interpretation, and I know it comes up in later chapters (at the komos especially), Sirius's skepticism about Lily's origins. but it's such a fun question to ask: does he really believe that she's the Oracle that James prayed for, or does he just need that to be true so he can try and influence the future himself?
Chapter Three: Peribolos
Tumblr media
omg. lol. the chapter three opening academic argument scene. this is a favorite of mine, and something I had so much fun writing. it's actually based on an argument/"spirited discussion" I had with my dad a few years ago about moral absolutism versus moral relativism which forced me to interrogate and expand my knowledge on the subject. I thought it was such a fun way to get into Lily's politics and her character without doing crazy exposition in the ancient world.
it also touches upon one of the touchstone themes of the story: that to study something is, in a way, to detach yourself from it. academia is routintely completely disconnected from its subject matter, and it creates this weird disdain for lived experience versus book knowledge. Lily has spent upwards of ten years studying (in some capacity) the ancient world, but she is so utterly out of her depth when she experiences it herself. as such, she espouses these very revolutionary politics when examining historical conflicts, but she has a blindness to what the real-world realities may have been for the people living in those conditions at the time.
alsooooo, The Return of Martin Guerre is one of my favorite books I read in college, and the easter egg here is that it's about a person of dubious origin entering a community and the politics of how the community might accept or reject them. ha ha!
Tumblr media
^^based on something I said in an argument with a Poli Sci major in college and I have to say one of my better moments. was an absolute haymaker. this was very 'author gives main character a zinger' of me and I will not be ashamed of it
Tumblr media
this! ladies and gentlemen! this was basically a declaration of love!!!! to be loved is to be remembered!!!
in a very romantic way, the study of history can be such an act of love to those who lived before us. i just adore the idea that, even before Lily developed real romantic feelings for James, she had this itching sort of feeling; AKA, when someone has made such an impression on you, and you know (or in her case, you think) that you'll be leaving them at some point, and you just want to be interesting enough, be impressive enough, that they remember you, that they think of you randomly as time goes on. that is such a giddy hallmark feeling of having a crush, in my book. I liken it to making eye contact with someone or having a brief conversation on a night out, maybe at 3am on your way back from a bar when things are sleepy and dizzy, and you just have this sense that you're being seen in that moment as anyone you want to be. i love this moment so much I feel like I could give it its own meta LMAO
Chapter Four: Hamartia
this chapter really put the pedal to to the metal lol. at the time of writing the story, I generally didn't (and still don't) love fake dating that much as a trope; I don't typically love plotlines predicated on (even harmless) deceptions, it's just a sensitivity of mine that I don't expect anyone to relate to or share. but when I was considering how to structure theog, it just made so much sense for James and Lily's arcs to have them get 'married.' there was no way that Lily was going to be able to navigate Classical Athens as an unsupervised woman alone, and even with the Oracle title offering her some protection, there was nothing really tying her to James. much like Outlander, it really did feel like the last possible resort, which softened me to the idea of using the trope.
fun fact, i got a snarky comment a few months ago complaining that i was trying to pass the story off as historically accurate (lol to the fifteen disclaimers I embedded throughout which addressed that) and one thing they took issue with was that lily wouldn't have been able to own property and the only thing that would have kept her from being a slave would have been marriage.
which! yknow! none of which contradict the story! but anyway I digress.
I was initially nervous about how early on the fake marriage happens; we don't really know the characters that well yet, we're not sure who James is as a potential partner to Lily, or how Lily's feelings for him are starting to bump up against her very rightful and justified desire to get the hell out of dodge. but – we only really see James in canon as a husband and as the father to the main character, so it felt pretty true to the source material to throw him into being a husband pretty early.
Tumblr media
I loved writing this scene with Aristides. I've always been partial to his appearances throughout the story, and this one is just so special to me. I think of him as a driving force in humanizing the ancient world in theog, sometimes even more so than the main cast of characters. to elaborate a bit on that: with the Marauders and Lily and the other transplanted HP characters, I think there's this inherent sense that they are already fleshed out people (to some degree) even before they hit the page of the story, because they appear in canon and across Marauder fic verses. no matter how much I make James into Dimitrios and Peter into Pétros and Fleamont into Philoctetes, people know them and love them outside of theogony verse. but not Aristides. he doesn't have a one-to-one HP character. there is some version of him that really existed in 479 BCE (my complex and largely negative feelings on RPF are setting off alarms at this but we proceed) and that's it.
it would have been easy to just give him this very gruff and surly character, to make him a military general who didn't care about anything other than the war. I think that's how we conceptualize historical people sometimes, often without meaning to. but he was a person, and he had likes and dislikes, he probably had a family and maybe he'd fallen in love, and it was such an honor to give him such dimension. not to say that I'm putting that personality upon the actual historical person; but just to really take my time with a character outside of the Marauder canon. in this scene he has this human moment where he reminds James that, yes, love is a worthy pursuit, even to those in positions of incredible power. even when the discussion isn't about romantic love but about James's love for his closest friends. it's this permission that James didn't even know he was seeking but ultimately that changes the course of his and Lily's lives. Aristides is who James might become, in many ways. in the actual Plataea chapter this becomes more and more prevalent. (more on this later!)
overall, I am forever hoping that people come out of reading this story with an appreciation for the humanity of those that came before us. I did a poor job with other characters in this story, and I own that, but I'm proud of how I wrote Aristides.
Tumblr media
oh my godddddd I fucking love this part. i am so fucking proud of it. LMAO. achieving wordplay in an ancient language that i have never studied should be on my fucking CV I swear. like this was just perfect I'm sorry I am BUZZING that I pulled this off.
also, a cute way to introduce a phrase to the narrative which will become very important: se filo!
Tumblr media
I remember that I wrote this passage, which many people commented on and which I loved writing, in a coffee shop on a sunny day when my cousin was visiting me to introduce me to his girlfriend. there wasn't any wifi in the coffee shop so I was blessedly devoid of distractions and could only focus on the doc, and i was LOCKED IN let me tell you.
when my cousin and his girlfriend arrived I told them I was sending an important email and edited the last sentence of that paragraph about four different times while they sat in silence and waited for me to finish LMAOOO
Chapter Five: Ascesis
Tumblr media
a profoundly insane moment in my personal history was reading excerpts from Eudemian Ethics, Nichomachean Ethics, and Memorabilia just to passively mention them in a flashback in a fic. relied heavily on Foucault for this, I will be so honest. why did i do that tho. like girl take a breath...
but in all seriousness this was just a joy to write. i miss being a history student and having these discussions – law school is great, but history classes will forever hold my heart ngl! also, this passage is in some ways an homage to my grandfather, who is one of my favorite people ever. he taught himself Classical Greek and Latin when he was in his 20s, before he went to medical school (and get his pilot's license for fun, he's seriously the most interesting guy alive). he gifted me his leatherbound Great Books printings of Aristotle's works and of the Iliad and the Odyssey shortly after I started theogony, and I cherish them so much. he spurred my interest in ancient greece when i was young. so this is for him :)
Tumblr media
one of the hardest things for me to articulate (and maybe something I could have done better) was the war and the balance between James's inherent goodness and his growing feelings for Lily. i wanted her to have plausible reason to think that he doesn't at all feel romantically towards her, even as she's growing to admire him more and more. I hoped, as I wrote the story, that these little interactions where the reader clues into his feelings (this protective 'peninsula' moment being one of them) still walked that line. as in, i wanted lily to reasonably believe that he's just that good of a guy that he would take issue with anyone being taken advantage of, not just her. she's so destabilized in this moment as well, I think that worked to my advantage. or I hoped it did LOL.
from what I remember of writing this chapter, it just came really quickly and naturally. much more than the later ones. this early period of writing was just an outpouring of the ABSOLUTE BRAINROT I was going through after conjuring up the idea for the story. it just flew. the ending scene where they have their little almost-moment was probably about an hour's worth of writing. it's like I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. not sure i've experienced that since!
Tumblr media
also, the now, here, alive line reappears in the last chapter, which is one of my favorite callbacks:
Tumblr media
:) :) :)
Chapter Six: Kleos
one thing I used to worry about CONSTANTLY is that I was losing the classic (and necessary!) Marauder goofiness to the more somber setting. so it was a jaunt and a boon to write scenes like the opening one here, where it honestly could be copy-pasted into the Gryffindor Common Room and it'd look a lot like my canon stories.
Tumblr media
he's just a dude being hungover and embarrassed about the previous night with his bros!
Tumblr media
the first time we get a hint of Pétros disappearing to dubious locations!
this chapter was one of the most research-heavy. it was a new setting, filled with new characters, and predicated entirely upon planning the Greek front at Plataea. so if I couldn't nail that down (at least to some degree), I was going to have trouble. of course I took liberties, but I spent a lot longer combing through sources for this chapter than some other ones, I'll tell you that for free. it took ages to find any treatises on ancient athenian sword combat, sigh.
yeah I mean i remember thinking that the subtitle for this chapter could have been 'I am going to create an environment that is so toxically masculine' because that's pretty much the whole vibe. James is not immune to that, either, and that was intentional. he feeds off of the violence and the anger of the men surrounding him, and he exhibits some behaviors in this chapter (rushing off to kill Anaxagoras after he grabs Lily's arm, for instance) which are not ideal! but I do think that there's meaningful conversation to be had about Lily's cultural assimilation into an ancient, misogynistic society, and how there was absolutely no way I was going to get out of this story without giving James some sort of period-typical attitude. now again, I took the liberties I deem necessary, because I have no desire to make my main romantic lead into an asshole. that's not my James Potter. not that that's news [gets taken out by a sniper]
Tumblr media
i got CLOWNEDDD for referring to this dude as Dion son of Dion but idk what to tell you!! that's how the old documents referred to him!!! i didn't make that shit up I swear to god!!!!
also - that's the actual text of the Oath of Plataea, except (as Lily points out) it should read Athena Areia. is it likey that she'd remember this off the dome? no. is it possible that she just recognized the missing descriptor from context clues? yes. did i care enough to explain this either way? no, no i did not.
the Big Ticket Item of this chapter, though, is the oh.
Tumblr media
and it wasn't just an oh, it was an oh followed by this innocuous conclusion that isn't even about Lily. i made myself laugh so hard with that. he's just like 'oh god my friend is going to wave this over my head FOREVER' and you know what? he's right!
as for the previous paragraph in that passage, I pulled a bit of a bait and switch, but not as badly as you might think! it was a risk to even bring up the idea that James could leave Athens, because I know it spurred some people into thinking that he'd go to the future with Lily (sorry babies that was not on the table). but what I intended for this passage (however successful it may or may not have been) was to just…allow him a moment of real, visceral empathy for the sensation of displacement that Lily's experiencing, and as well, introduce the idea that he might leave the life he's cultivated in Athens. his entire upbringing has been himself, the consummate Athenian man, surrounding himself with people from outside of Athens and drawing from their experiences, but never venturing outside of his little realm. in so many ways, the story questions what Lily's relationship with 'home' is (especially later on), but it always felt necessary to me to reckon with how 'home' may change for James as well.
finally:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
yeah honestly i just remember the exact moment i thought of this passage. i had been reading the secret history (shoutout Donna Tartt i idolize and fear you) and i was lying down in my local park in the summer. I just thought about the Greek myths I knew, and the kind of cosmic horror that it is to really admit you're falling in love with someone, that they have this power over you that you didn't anticipate. and that closing line of the scene really struck me out of nowhere – I wrote it down in my notebook and just stared at it for a good few minutes. it's still one of my favs of the story :)
ok! if you made it this far, you are just amazing. this has to be a few thousand words at least. TYSM!!!!
see you all later for the part 2 BTS ❤️
50 notes · View notes
dr-spectre · 6 days
Note
if team past wins im gonna be so sad bc it's the most boring outcome idk
If Team Past wins I'm actually gonna be upset. Idc if this seems so unsportsmanlike but I don't want them to win dude.
Tumblr media
At best we'll get a game with a past like aesthetic and have boring wooden and bamboo weapons or some shit.
At worst we'll get a Great Turf War game and I genuinely don't want that. I would fucking hate that so much. That would mean no Squid Sisters, Off the Hook and Deep Cut for over 5 years.
If it's DLC for a Splatoon 4 that involves time travel or a spin off then fine. That's okay. But the main focus of a multiplayer mainline Splatoon game? No. Fuck no.
Setting the next mainline game in the past would be an awful idea for nurmous reasons.
1. You would have to cut down the weapon roaster for lore reasons. If you introduced new weapon types and variants it would create a lot of weird questions and holes in the world building.
2. The story and world millions of fans have grown to love would go on hold for at a minimum of 5 years or longer. Which WILL impact the engagement of the game. There is a huge subset of the fanbase that loves the Idols and characters and not seeing them for a long time would cause a LOT of people to leave the fanbase.
3. The themes that the story could go for, would be a repeat of Splatoon 1 as it would focus on the conflict on the Inklings and Octarians. You know, THE FUCKING CONFLICT THAT GOT FINALLY RESOLVED IN SPLATOON 3!!!!!!!! YOU WANT TO UNDO ALL THAT?!?!?!?!! FOR WHAT?!?!?! FUCKING LOVERS TO ENEMIES TOXIC TWINK YAOI OF CUTTLEFISH AND OCTAVIO?!?!?! REALLY?!?!?!
If Team Present wins, we'll just stay the same which is okay. I dont really give a shit. Maybe it'll have a stronger urban focus? I don't know.
If Team Future wins, we might get cool Sci-Fi weapons, locations and it would be such a shake up for the Splatoon we have currently.
Although there is a risk that it would take place a long time after Splatoon 3 and if I see Callie and Marie as old ladies I will leave the Splatoon community. I'm not joking about that btw, I would be incredibly heartbroken.
Also btw, Team Past, can you fucking calm down? Why are you guys so sweaty?! Like... JESUS CHRIST YOU REALLYYYYY WANT that twink Cuttlefish x Octavio sex scene THAT badly huh?! You friggen Splatoon 1 boomer friggen wii u owners... I bet your wii u's are dusty too.... gross /j.
Im sorry to my friends in Team Past, I'm just pissed at the moment from Tricolour matches.
42 notes · View notes
genericpuff · 5 months
Note
Hello! Recently got into your lore rekindled series and as a (used to be) fan of lore Olympus I LOVE what you have done to the world and characters. Everything flows so naturally and you actually made Persephone a cool protagonist.
One question I had (if it will come up in future episodes no need to answer) is will Persephone’s interest in law school be a thing? When I was rewriting my own AU of lore Olympus I used Persephone’s interest in law to be the reason why she went to the Underworld and met Hades. As in the original comic it says that the underworld creates the finest lawyers in a throw away line. I also used Persephone’s love of law to be one of the major reasons why she and Demeter being to have conflict. Demeter wanting her to be into agriculture and horticulture like her and seeing Persephone becoming a soulless lawyer creating one of the driving conflicts of their relationship.
Heyo! Thanks so much, I'm glad you like it! <3
There won't really be a law school interest in Rekindled as that already felt like a half-thought-out plotline in LO with very little foundation (and honestly I always saw that mention about the Underworld having the only law school as a throwaway joke about lawyers being terrible people from hell LOL)
HOWEVER she still does have her own motivations for wanting to work in the Underworld that remain to be fully seen. There are lil' hints here and there that have been dropped (and more on the way, esp in the next couple episodes) but I'm waiting to see who pieces the puzzle together by the time it's revealed ;)
That idea you just pitched though for Persephone wanting to pursue law instead of agriculture would have been really interesting! I feel like if Rachel had actually planned out that plotline more she could have definitely gone at it from that angle. Couold have even set it up in the beginning for her to go to law school in the Underworld instead of university in Olympus which could have created an interesting scenario as that would have explained a lot more why Demeter didn't want her to move away.
I still would have been annoyed at the rift between them existing at all but it would have made more sense than "mom signed me up for the virgin club and now she's mad that I'm running off with the 2000+ year old man >:(" LMAO (or at least the way LO writes it, bleh)
85 notes · View notes
comradeboyhalo · 1 year
Text
(not maintagging this because it comes out more aggressive than it means to be. this is just an unserious rant.)
first of all, i do think qsmp as a whole has been kinder to cc!bad. the qsmp’s more dnd-like format is more inclusive in general, there’s net 0 creators who constantly swear at him, and the fandom does treat him better (the bar is low though). i’m more than grateful for that. 
that being said. i dislike how everyone acts like cc!bad was bullied into a corner on the dsmp. yes, a chunk of creators and fans only saw him as a “language” joke, thats an unfortunate fact. but i see a lot of people ignore the fact that cc!bad saw this, and in response created a whole fucking storyline that was designed to allow everyone to join in on it. 
bad, ant, and sam created the egg arc because they disliked the current political storylines and wanted to experiment with scifi-horror. this was after the badlands were formed, and after they realized that they were locked out of a lot of l’manberg conflicts. they didn’t sit around waiting for lore to be handed to them, they created it themselves. to act as though bad didn’t have the chance to create a complex character on the dsmp, or that every cc didnt take him seriously, is devaluing his work. the ccs involved in the egg arc did see c!bad as a threat. they respected his work, they participated in his lore. and there were a lot of them! you just maybe just didn't watch them.
if YOUR streamer only saw bad as a “language” joke, whatever. if YOUR side of the damp fandom never paid attention to egg lore, thats fine. but dont act like every cc did, or that the egg arc didn’t have a following. its true that it was very underrated, but cc!bad is also not this helpless baby who needs his hand held to create an engaging character. he saw he was the largest streamer among the egg arc ccs, and used that platform to bring everyone else up. he put in the fucking work, and it’s not his fault that people still refuse to acknowledge it.  
i see ex-dsmp fans praise the qsmp fandom for respecting bad, and then turn around and beg him to not reference egg lore. the same people who love karmaland, ordem paranormal, and 2b2t references are telling bad that he can’t reference his story, that he put work in. why? for dislike of streamers who weren’t even involved in it? you cant be happy bad is seen as his own person, then turn around and boil his dsmp work down to bigger streamers you dislike.
again, i don’t blame people for not watching the egg arc. i don’t think anyone should be forced to watch every storyline, or keep up with every cc. i don’t know. it’s just frustrating i guess? me and other egg arc fans were creating content, character analyses, and lore masterposts all to hype up c!bad and it’s not our fault yall ignored it and are just now seeing bad’s a good roleplayer! idk! i know everyone’s trying to be nice, i love everyone who’s new to bad’s content, i dont want to gatekeep at all. but your dsmp experiences are not universal. the way your streamers treated bad was not the way everyone treated bad. 
295 notes · View notes
theminecraftbee · 1 year
Text
it’s ending a day after it originally began
i don’t want it to end.
it’s going to be so dramatic!
Martyn stares at the closed curtains in front of him. It’s intermission. Outside, the audience is mulling about, talking, theorizing. Here, on the inside, Scott is muttering to a campfire. He looks slightly to the left, like he can’t see the curtains at all.
i think it’s not fair. it’s a bunch of the same people who always win. you had better backstab scott before he wins a second time. it would be boring otherwise.
that would be so sad :( no they should stand together at the end.
god i hate how overdramatic everyone is. just do some killing and get over yourselves.
what if no one killed each other? would that be fucked up or what?
you could just kill yourself. that would be fun.
yeah. listen to us!
Martyn twitches. Scott mutters at the sputtering campfire. Martyn watches the curtains. They’re stained with blood. The stagehands had stopped bothering cleaning them; the curtains are red anyway, so who cares?
Blood dries brown, though.
you should talk to scott. he seems sad.
you should kiss.
make him sadder!
no i don’t like being sad.
what are you doing here then?
we want drama!
they all seem so sad though.
oh, it’s delicious how sad they are!
drama!
yeah, give us something good!
i still want you to kiss. majorwood ftw.
“What is it with you all and kissing?” Martyn says, exasperated.
“What? Martyn?” Scott says, looking up.
“It’s nothing. Go back to cooking salmon.”
you’re so boring.
yeah next time we won’t watch you if you’re like this.
our will be done.
no show without an audience.
now kiss him!
no stop that’s so rude and gross of you
imagine being that guy
yeah imagine having morals
it’s sadder if they kiss.
platonic relationships can be sad too!
Great. Now they’re arguing. Martyn sighs and turns away from the curtains. They’re closed anyway. It’s intermission. None of this actually matters. None of this will change the end of the show. Listen or decide not to listen, the show will go how it goes. The clock ticks down on the players.
He’ll act his heart out. The audience will eat it up. There’s not really another option.
i hate all the conflict. this isn’t fair.
kill him, martyn. betray him. show us a surprise ending. win.
“It would be easier if you decided what you wanted,” Martyn says.
“Okay, I know you aren’t talking to me,” Scott says.
it all ends tomorrow.
i don’t want it to end.
i want it to keep going. the drama’s barely started.
yeah. when will they kill each other again?
next time, there should be less mercy.
next time maybe they’ll just be friends?
hah! who wants that?
“Nah. Talking to. You know. Them.” Martyn gestures at the curtain.
Scott raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Well, it’s hard to hear them if you aren’t Listening.”
good joke
oooh lore lore lore
“…now I’m even more confused.”
“Ehh, don’t worry about it. It won’t matter soon enough anyway.”
“That’s… ominous.”
“Yeah, well.”
Martyn stains at the bloodstained curtains. He hears the orchestra warming up.
no matter what. as long as whatever he does is a good show.
true. put on a spectacle.
everyone loves a good drama.
OUR WILL BE DONE.
“Some things are just ominous I think.”
Scott returns to his campfire. Martyn takes his headband off his head and uses it instead to cover his ears. It doesn’t help a lot, but it helps a little.
Tomorrow, huh?
Well. Better to make it count, then.
357 notes · View notes
cryobabyy · 3 months
Text
I’m ngl, I’m having a hard time getting down with the whole “s3 had no character development” take. I think theres a lot of conflation between the actual term character development and positive development. Characters can also develop negatively. In the case of s3, Carmen gets worse, Sydney’s conflict avoidance gets worse, Richie’s identity as a father is changing, Marcus is reckoning with his mother’s death, etc. I don’t think there’s a lack of character development, I think it was more so an issue with pacing. If the pace is off, it can literally feel like nothing is happening.
This season we saw a lot of internal conflict — a lot of shots sequences cut together to represent what’s going on in their heads, subtext heavy writing etc. I think the show also has a problem with substituting a solid plot with subtext. It’s lowkey exhausting to follow along with. For Carmy and Sydney — the two most avoidant characters on the show — their shared screen time felt a bit aimless because you have to constantly consider this intricate ass subtext and apply it to all of their interactions, and if you don’t the scene feels empty. The constant parallels, double-meanings, call backs, etc — it was all just… exhausting. And that’s coming from someone whose special interest is meta analysis lol.
I think you can apply this logic to the plots of all the seasons as well. S1-2 had subtext, but were fairly straight forward plot progression wise. The casual viewer could understand and enjoy the story easily, and the viewer that likes to engage with media on a deeper level can delve into the details.
But in s3, like 80% of the conflict is occurring internally with the main plot of the season being trying to keep The Bear afloat and to keep operating costs of the restaurant within reason, which doesn’t feel super important because the only person telling us it’s important is Cicero — and he’s quite literally just telling us, we never see how The Bear is taking a financial toll on him, he just pops in every once and a while to remind us that they’re in big financial trouble while Carmy keeps wasting food, Tina shops for ingredients that are outside of their budget, Sydney barely brings it up at all, and everyone generally keeps operating as if they aren’t in deep financial shit.
The first watch experience for me was pretty rough, and I frequently asked myself “What am I supposed to be paying attention to? Where am I supposed to look? What is actually supposed to be important? Why does it simultaneously feel like so much is happening subtextually but the plot is progressing at a snails pace?”.
The second watch of some of the episodes was much smoother, but only because I took the time to try and deconstruct exactly what I saw via feverish and unhinged meta analysis on tumblr dot com. I think this is a big reason why this season had less than stellar reviews. The average person does not want to do homework to enjoy a show.
My final consensus is that I don’t feel like it was a bad season. I could tell what the writers were trying to do, but a lot of it just didn’t land. What was supposed to be tense, introspective, and slow-storytelling came across as aimless directionless and confusing.
Here’s to hoping season 4 will be an improvement lol
Less serious shit that pissed me off
- over relying on the Faks for comedic relief
- Pete constantly being the butt of the joke for???? Being pleasant and sweet?
- the way less miserable characters are treated like caricatures
- NO EPISODE ABOUT FRONT OF HOUSE???
- NO EBRA CHARACTER PIECE????
- Sweeps lore being reduced to a filler scene, smdh
- mid build up and no pay off
36 notes · View notes
Text
there's been something that's been eating at me.
look at early mn and watch them all be so anti-anything leading them into conflict that they couldn't easily weasel their way out of, crack jokes about stopping the adventure and becoming sharecroppers, and how matt had to force them into caring about the war and the people it impacted (one of which being a player's husband) instead of ignoring it to do anything literally else.
and this carries on even after they're thrown into the thick of it. from handwaving away all of what essek did for the sake of "well, he's nice to us! and it happened so long ago it'd be pointless and hypocritical to hold him to that!" (which, you know, not how that works but sure) and pushing off dealing with the cerebus assembly until the very last episode, every single conflict the nein had was only relegated to them and their personal struggles. tharizdun and cognouza were really cool as apocalyptic monsters, but we only figured out their importance after the fact or in an exposition dump!
and this is what the mighty nein is praised for! they're praised for steamrolling over every single possible conflict they could encounter unless matt made it mandatory because of ashley's schedule or the baileyham's baby! so of course when the next campaign rolls around and the fandom is asked to look deeper into the world asides from the character's personal lives, they get upset.
and i'm not saying that it'd be superior if they were more objective or went with less character-based decisions or storylines as opposed to plot based decisions that impact the politicial discussions of exandria first and foremost. heck, it annoys the HELL out of me when characters i like in c3 are nothing but objective and refuse to budge on it (if you know you know) or when they stop to talk about lore stuff for too long! i love the silly feel-good vibes of the nein that're light on story and heavy on characterization!
but it does feel weird that people look at c3's less-than-wholly optimistic plotline where the status quo is directly questioned and insist it's forcing the series into new waters it was not built to tread when no, it's always been there. you just never found it pertinent to interact with because the players never took those routes, and were incurious after the fact.
when matt says he plans to make the animated series of the mighty nein far darker and more political, i can't help but wonder if the fans will reject it outright.
(obligatory disclaimer that YES i'm frustrated that there seems to be no other option for bell's hells than to get that salty codger's moon hijinks dealt with and not a single loose end left over and THEN they can finally do stuff they want and have downtime without being reminded that they gotta stop him every other sentence and they're all clearly dying to get to that point... but there was sledding on a wok, and making dresses out of cocktail shrimp for a zombie rat, and spin the bottle too. to act like they're completely flat little npcs running to the next objective marker over and over and have no silly character moments is plain wrong.)
23 notes · View notes
stoat-party · 5 months
Text
Evaluating Which Details Pose Continuity Issues (yeah, it’s long, sorry)
I’m being relentlessly annoyed by (some) people mad at the show and by (some) people mad at people mad at the show, so let’s clear up where the issues are and aren’t so we’re not just talking over each other here.
Destroying the Strip
Obviously not a retcon. Retcons refer to previously-established events. Some people might have their own problems with it (I definitely saw it cited as evidence of a coordinated attack on New Vegas), but it presents no continuity problems.
2. What exactly is a vial?
I don’t think this changed ghoul lore. They can still go 200+ years without turning, or they can start turning as soon as they get ghoulified. There’s just a new plot element where they can stave off the effects of going feral for awhile if they take this mysterious drug - without the drug, the rules are still the same. The story was NOT clear on this, and it confused me, but if ghouls need drugs to stay sane, Oswald, Dean, Billy, etc. could not exist even if there’s a massive industry in vials of goop that’s never been mentioned before.
3. It took Vault-Tec decades to build all the vaults.
This is something I worried about because there couldn’t have been much time between the boardroom scene and the bombs falling (Janey doesn't age). But I think it makes sense if you assume the vaults were already built and they filled them with experiments afterward. It does leave the problem that some vaults were unfinished but Vault-Tec also dropped the bombs - why would they do that before finishing their vaults? It’s possible that they planned to drop them but got beat to the punch, or any number of other explanations. Clear retcon but not a huge plot hole.
4. House is worse than Caesar all of a sudden?
This one’s a private gripe of mine because House and Sinclair were not originally written to be Actual Sadists Who Hate Humanity. There’s also House’s mastermind prepper attitude toward the apocalypse, which doesn’t indicate that he had a hand in orchestrating it. While the change doesn’t conflict with the text as far as I know, it really changes the flavor of the game, but not as much as:
5. The Fall of Shady Sands
Let’s say that this happened after the first battle of Hoover Dam, so no continuity issues with their ability to win that. (That’s probably why they set it in 2277, so the NCR would have almost four years to recover before NV. As if Caesar wouldn’t have taken half of their land by then, even with his armies crushed, but ok fine he’s going through a divorce, he’s busy right now.)
But are you telling me that a country can lose a massive city containing much of its infrastructure, most of its central government, and ~5% of its population and still be trying to manifest destiny four years later with no mention of it?
Losing the Divide as a travel route almost crippled the NCR in the Mojave for awhile. Now, not only have they lost the Divide and their capital city, but one of their other biggest cities, the Boneyard, is abandoned and inhabited by an apparently-unaffiliated town. (Yeah, Los Angeles is big, but we don’t see any NCR or Followers despite three main characters traveling through it.) Even if there were still people there during New Vegas, how is the NCR still conducting a campaign in the east?
Also, who is Muldover and what’s her position? Why does she have raiders at her disposal? Is that really supposed to be what remains of the government? I get that some of this will be resolved later, but short of complete societal collapse, there’s no explanation.
We don’t see any of this in New Vegas. The president (who was in office in 2277) is still alive. No one mentions losing family in the explosion. Caesar, Ulysses, and House, along with the many other characters who complain about the NCR’s weakness and instability, don’t bring it up. People even mention the politicians in Shady Sands specifically. PEOPLE ARE MAKING JOKES ABOUT WANTING A NUCLEAR WINTER-
Now there’s a saving interpretation going around that “the fall of Shady Sands - 2277” refers to a metaphorical fall, and the explosion was later. I’ll accept this if I have to, but don’t pretend it’s not a strained reading. Every entry on the board is dated. Why would you date an amorphous event and not date the city exploding?
The explosion was nineteen years ago, and it had to be that early because Lucy and Norm don’t remember living there. (Not clear how old they are but probably in their early-mid 20’s.) The earliest you could place the event without it making no sense is late 2282, because with the time skips in DLC, the events of New Vegas are about a year long. Maybe you could put a gap between Lucy returning to the vault and the actual destruction, but not a five-year one. And if it was in 2282, Max would still be a teenager.
There are legitimate concerns here. Between House and the NCR, the show changes a lot about the main conflict of New Vegas. It’s not just side details.
Not telling you how to feel! Just don’t pretend nothing poses any problems and people are crazy for being concerned. I think the vibe right now is to dismiss me as a hater, but I hope you can see I’ve tried to make it all work. Continuity is really important in a multi-decade story, especially to writers.
I will be appeased by a respectful and thought-out New Vegas remake that preserves as much of the original continuity as possible and is also really good and costs $4. Thanks in advance Bethesda.
Edit:
6. Tatoes in the vaults
TATOES IN THE VAULTSSSS? THIS IS MASSIVE DISRESPECT TO THE LORE. EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS DESTROYED. UNFORGIVABLE.
(but yeah there shouldn’t be tatoes in a vault that hasn’t opened)(maybe norm and lucy had seeds in their pockets when they came back, sure)
52 notes · View notes
lostiolite · 2 months
Note
Two request ideas (sorry if that’s too much)! One for my boy Hyuk (I’m down bad ofc I’m gonna ask for him) and one for Hyun because I have a cute angst/comfort idea.
One - Some basic Hyuk romance headcanons. How does he deal with and express his feelings, how does he confess, what is he like in the relationship, etc.
Two - Can be a fic or headcanon. Hyun obviously has gone through a lot, so how would he open up to his S/O about everything? What topic does he lean towards first and how does it come up? Can work both in universe or even no-apocalypse AU.
Tumblr media
LEE EUN HYUK romantic headcannons
(dw ill do the hyun one, just in a separate post :P)
when it comes to most things, Hyuk best shows his affection through silly actions and jokes. “If you really loved me, you’d binge watch the entirety of maria with me ^_^". In return he'd probably play/watch/read that one piece of media you’re obsessed with.
If he goes out and sees anything related to the media you really like, he'd buy it and say something like "i thought of you". It would be an unconscious thing, before he'd realize he likes you. Obviously the buying of little trinkets catches the attention of his little sister. They aren't too well off & buying treats is usually reserved for special occasions.
I feel like when he realizes his feelings he'd be conflicted on wether to go for it or not. Esp eun, she really likes you and really wants hyuk to pull bitches. 💯💯💯
She'd probably not-so subtly try and interogate your opinion on him. To which he lowkey panics because he doesn't want things to get awkward.
He would make flirty jokes then immediately retract them because he feels like its out of place.
He can be serious, just he perfers not to.
But he has to.
He'd probably ask you out outside so if things go south he could just leave and lock himself in his room.
Hes very thoughtful, he already knows who you are, what you are and the type of things you like / dislike.
Generally hes very protective, i dont feel like he'd be jealous all that often. Theres definitely anxiety in him that makes him think that you would leave him for somone "better" but hes also very rational and will ignore it because he knows its not true.
I feel like in the very rare occasions where those thoughts do get to him, he'd become a bit more attention seeking. "Would you love me if i became a worm? :P" he'd ask you stupid silly questions because he doesn't wanna go "do you love me???" .
Arcade dates. Gaming dates. Plays sims with you and your sims are married btw, Your bed's are together in Minecraft, he visits your island all the time in animal crossing, he does your commissions in genshin / Honkai impact/star rail.
Love's doing the stupid crane games with you.
You've memorized the maria lore, because hyuk always plays it as background noise. You somtimes just lay down in each others presence not doing anything, its nice, its calm.
HALLOWEEN!!!! You cosplayed as maria in the sky characters btw!!!!
Matching pfp's on your socials, he doesn't really post
If you post alot, your friends are so confused cus whos the guy that you tag in your photos with a matching pfp.
--------
Lowkey wanna do a smau (social media au) with hyuk but i fear id mischaracterize him💔
44 notes · View notes
sepublic · 4 months
Text
No Tree Left Behind!
Titan this was such an amazing storyboard pilot episode!!! I love the worldbuilding and how it’s all a backdrop for these characters understanding one another and getting together as a family!!!
Once again, we see Lilith depicted as much more antagonistic without any of the hesitation or awkwardness of the final product; But I do note that she seems to hurt a little on the inside as the Arborgeist tree falls! Her dangling Luz over danger seems like a moment that was translated to Agony of a Witch!
It’s interesting; I think I kinda prefer the final version, mostly because there’s so much more good will and love for Eda made apparent in Lilith’s actions, so when she does use Luz as a hostage and reveal she cursed Eda, it feels less like an obvious twist and more like. A painful betrayal, y’know? Like yeah she loves Eda so much that it hurts to know she still did that, whereas here the hatred is so much more emphasized so it doesn’t hit the same imo.
We get to see the effects of colonization, we see some more conflict between wild witches and the coven! I loved Luz being pretty scared of the whole thing, it makes sense for her to be as a kid! Meanwhile Eda’s hoping for someone who can appreciate the significance of this tradition, and Luz does! So they both make concessions for one another, they both appreciate, and it’s about life surviving, like cultures and tradition, even in the face of seemingly inevitably destruction! It was bittersweet yet ultimately touching. The Arborgeist trees are also the palisman trees of the final show, so there’s that loss as well! But like in the final show, Eda helps a sapling recover from the devastation!
Also; Pilot Gus! So he appears with Willow! I was surprised that Willow didn’t have much of a role here, I thought the title meant this would be the first draft of Luz meeting Willow but it’s already happened by this point! I love King having to trick the others into joining the party and his loneliness over no appreciation for demon culture seems like a precedent for The Intruder. I love the way his B-plot wraps back around to the A-plot’s conclusion!
There was a lot to this episode; It was definitely a simpler one per S1 vibes. But it was touching to have Luz better understand her mentor and engage with the meaning of the world around her. It was about how traditions survive and the core behind them, how we have to adapt to colonization sometimes. Luz and Eda dancing together was so cute! And I love the morbid joke that being ‘naked’ in the isles also entails removing your skin haha! There was so much charm to this episode, and a part of me wants lore like the Arborgeist trees and Allard to be low key canon to the final show!
31 notes · View notes
flower-boi16 · 8 months
Text
Hazbin Hotel Is A Show That Exists
Tumblr media
So...after five years of waiting, Hazbin Hotel is finally out. I had very low expectations going to Hazbin - not only because of the current state of Helluva Boss (Its spin-off show) but also because of all the things I was hearing about it from people who saw the leaks - needless to say, it wasn't very positive. I was expecting this show to be a complete disaster on every single level, though deep down, I did want to be excited for this show - as I did used to briefly be a fan of Viv's work until I realized HB's MANY writing issues, so I went in with low expectations, expecting the show to be awful while deep down hoping that MAYBE It'll MAYBE end up being good. And after watching the first four episodes I can say that...
The show isn't awful nor is it that good. It's just...PAINFULLY average. In this post I'm going to give my current thoughts on HH based on the first four episodes that are currently released. Note that these are only my current thoughts on the show - there's a chance that MAYBE the show will improve in the second half of season 1. But for now, here are my current thoughts on the show:
1. The Animation & Visuals
The animation is...fine. The characters definitely look very rigged at times, but the animation is at least pleasant to look at. An issue I have is the camera work - sometimes the camera work can be VERY off at times. The show would constantly cut to different perspectives in some of the scenes and it becomes a headache to look at. It's especially bad at the beginning of the Happy Day In Hell song - where the camera looks like it's having a stroke during the sequence as it constantly cuts to different perspectives a LOT.
That being said - the camera work is mostly fine throughout the rest of the show so it's not too bad. So overall, the animation looks fine. I don't love it, but I don't hate it.
2. The Comedy
The show's comedy is...actually pretty ok. There were a few jokes that got a good laugh out of me, especially in episode 3, the episode that isn't written by Viv, so it therefore is the funniest episode of the show so far. I am surprised by the lack of sex jokes in the show which is at least a plus. That being said, a lot of the jokes in the show don't really land - mainly the ones that Angel Dust makes. So really, the comedy is OK. I don't hate it, but I also don't love it either.
3. Worldbuilding & Plot
So now let's talk about the main plot of the show as well as its world-building. Ok so the main conflict for the show is that due to someone killing an Angel during the last extermination - the exterminations are going to happen twice as fast now (6 months instead of one year). The mystery of what happened to the angel...lasts for about two episodes before we're given an answer in episode 3, and then it's just resolved like that.
Aside from that the series mostly revolves around its premise so far which is good. Alright, now lets talk about the lore and worldbuilding - basically Lucifer used to be an angel in Hevean but was seen as a trouble maker and Adam demanded that Lilith fuck him (or something Idk Idr) and Lucifer and Lilith fell in love blah blah blah Lucifer gave an apple to his new lover Eve blah blah blah the apple was cursed blah blah blah the apple created hell blah blah blah It sent evil to the world and Hevean was pissed about that so they banished them to hell blah blah blah Lucifer became sad blah blah blah Lilith didn't blah blah blah Hevean started doing exterminations because they were afraid of Hell's power.
(Semi-accurate description of the opening exposition dump). Ok so a few things; 1) I already asked this in another post but why did Hell never choose to fight back against Heaven when Heaven shouldn't have any power over hell because Hell was a realm created by Lucifer? Also, why does Heaven even have any power over Hell to begin with? and 2) So Heaven is eeeevil now and is going to kill all of Hell. Like I already said, it would have been more interesting if Heaven wasn't evil, and it also would've been better than this Hevean v Hell war we're probably going to get in the finale.
They even changed the reasoning to why Heaven started doing the exterminations, instead of it being because of an overpopulation problem now it's because Heaven was afraid of Hell's power...
...which contradicts the pilot which is canon to the series. But then the show just goes back to the overpopulation problem as the reason for the exterminations???? Like??? Which is it, is it because Heaven is evil or because of an overpopulation problem??? PICK ONE!!!
Hell is also kinda boring of a setting, it's just our world except red. That's it. So the lore and worldbuilding is kinda eh, Heaven is just evil cuz ofc it is and the lore has some problems. Its funny to how one of the lyrics of Adam's big villain song is "its all black and white", and since Adam is the bad guy and Charlie's goal is to redeem sinners, the show is trying to go for a "it's NOT black and white" message, but that's kinda ironic considering that this Heaven/Hell conflict is very black and white in it of itself; Hell good Heaven evil. That's it. Not saying black-and-white conflicts with a good guy and a bad guy are bad, most shows can make them work and be interesting, but Heaven would have been more interesting if it wasn't evil, at least IMO.
4. The Voice Actors
A lot of the discourse surrounding Hazbin until its release was the new voice actors. Let me just say I don't dislike the voice actors here; I think they are fine and they fit the characters decently well. Their singing is also decent as well. So I don't dislike any of the voices, they are fine for the most part and fit decently well with the characters.
5. The Songs
The songs so far are...fine. If there was one thing that HB consistently got right, it was the songs. Even if I dislike HB, the songs are actually pretty good (for the most part...). Hazbin's songs are...decent. There aren't any songs that I can say are bad, though I have some issues with the show's music; mainly the fact that the show sometimes shoves in songs...for the sake of having a song.
If you want to make a musical with songs you need to make sure each song has a distinct purpose for the story; take "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. Before this song, it's pretty easy to infer that Ariel has an interest in the surface world - with her collecting human stuff and all. But the song further shows us her desire to see the surface - to see what it's like above water. It shows her desire to see the surface in the form of a song - it has a purpose within the story because it tells you something about the character.
Hazbin Hotel meanwhile sometimes has a problem when it comes to shoving in songs for the sake of meeting the song quota; the two biggest examples are "Hell is Forever" and "Respectless", as well as "Whatever It Takes". These songs are all completely unnecessary and they give us information that could have been communicated through simple dialogue rather than characters bursting out singing.
"Respectless" in particular feels less like a song and more like the characters just...singing a conversation with each other. The song is completely unnecessary and is just there to fill the song quota per episode. None of the songs I've mentioned are necessarily bad, but they suffer from being unneeded (HB also sometimes has this problem in season 2 mainly in episodes 3, 4, and 7).
Aside from that issue - the songs are...fine. None of them are bad but some of them are kinda useless and don't serve much of a purpose. I at least liked Happy Day in Hell and Poison, aside from that most of the songs are...ok. I just don't find most of them that memorable.
6. The Characters
Now, let's talk about the characters. First I'll talk about the main cast then the villains.
Charlie - I think Charlie's...fine. I always like overly positive and happy characters for protagonists so I was going to like Charlie anyway. She's fine; she's easy to root for and she's likable enough.
Vaggie - Vaggie's also fine. I do like her snark in episode 3, but aside from that there isn't much that interesting about her.
Nifty - Nifty's cute. Nifty's funny. I like Nifty.
Angel Dust - sigh Ok so I didn't like Angel Dust in episode 1 because of the fact he was another character whose one character trait is being excessively horny. And I also find all his jokes painfully unfunny. I'm not really in a position to judge how well his abuse from Val was handled so since I held a poll asking SA victim's thoughts on episode 4 and most of them voted no I'll just say that they didn't handle it very well and move on. So ya don't care for Angel Dust.
Alastor - Ah yes the creepy radio demon. He's also fine, I like his whole style and stuff.
Husk - Husk's whole purpose in the first three episodes is pretty much just to be pissed off at stuff, I kinda liked the scene where he talked to Angel Dust in episode 4 but aside from that, Husk is kinda just..fine...like everyone in this main cast.
Now let's talk about the villains so far!
Adam - Don't care for him. Sigh look Adam could be an entertaining villain but so far his dialogue and jokes are just painfully unfunny and I don't care for him as a villain. I could talk about his sidekick whose name I forgot but she's gotten so little screen time I can't form an opinion on her yet.
Also isn't it funny how HH was meant to be a female-focused show yet the males get more focus so far (As I've already talked about)? Ya, I thought so too. Anyways, the characters are...fine. I don't hate any of them, but I also don't really love any of them either. None of them are that interesting so far to me.
That's pretty much what I can say about everything in this show so far; I don't hate the animation but I don't love it either, I don't hate the comedy but I don't love it either, I don't hate the songs but I don't love them either, I don't hate any of the characters but I don't love them either.
7. Conclusion
So, that's my current thoughts on HH based on the first four episodes. Well...it's certainly a show that I watched. It's amazing to me how a show could be so consistently painfully average in pretty much EVERYTHING, from the animation to the songs to the comedy to the characters, to the episodes themselves, Hazbin Hotel is the most painfully average show I've watched so far. It's not bad so far, but it isn't good either. Again, maybe the show will improve when the latter half of season 1 comes out...
...or it will just get worse. I'm expecting the latter unfortunately due to the trailers making it look like there's going to be a Heaven/Hell war which means the show is probably going to abandon its premise like its spin-off (...that came before the main show was released). But ya, Hazbin Hotel is painfully average so far, probably a 6/10 so far, expecting the show to probably get worse, goodbye.
58 notes · View notes
otomes-world · 2 months
Text
Trail
i. Small Key, Portal, Detective It's not full fic, really not, just another idea I thought but never write a post. Also... I forgot I have my own prompts as well...Something like a general prologue and lore for possible works for this AU. You can skip next bunch of text, it's just my thought. There are no triggers yet, except barelly edited text. I haven't decided yet whether this will be a yandere AU or a regular one. I tried to think about possible conflicts in the story and realized that it directly depends on the character. Therefore, here is only the general part, which telling the state of affairs. How the reader even got to such a life, haha. As for plans, I can say that for some reason I thought about Jade. Don't ask me why. As if he would fit into this au better than anyone. I dragged out the introduction a bit… enjoy reading! Let me know your ideas as well, I`ll read and answer them later.
Tumblr media
What is the best profession? Probably, every child asked this question at least once. There were always many proposals, but there was one that everyone thought about. Detective. Do they even exist? Or have they always been an idea embodied in books and films?
Are there schools that produce qualified specialists? Is it possible to became one? What is the principle of selecting candidates?
Calm down, hands on the table. You also did not know the answers. It’s trivial, but the profession found you itself. Moreover, if someone found out about your “Detective” badge, they would think that it was a high-quality craft. Seriously, aren’t detectives just an invention of film directors?
In the company of friends and their acquaintances, over a cup of tea or another drink, you would also laugh at the joke, adding your own to the general vat of barbs. Nevertheless, the rushing carriage harnessed by black horses was as real as the mantle of a prestigious college on you. Luckily, the hood was long enough to hide part of your face, so you could look around the room with a bored expression and no sense of professionalism.
A huge mirror in the middle and flying coffins. Crowds of students and a director late for the ceremony.
Never in your life could you imagine that your job would take you to a haven for magicians. Yes, magic existed and was the envy of many, even you, but nothing more. If that's how a mouse felt when cats were swarming around its hole, then be it. However this mouse was very well prepared. It had a hidden artifact that allowed cast simple spells. Nothing more. After all, your task was to gather the material and leave unnoticed. In no case would you become the best student among the stream of first years, heaven forbid.
You only hoped that the bribed principal and the Mirror would not throw you to the predators. Exactly. The kind teacher knew about everything, and the inside pocket of his jacket sank under the weight of money. Naturally, after convincing him that you had no desire to harm the college's reputation. The struggle between schools was not in your competence, let them squabble over talented applicants as much as they wanted. Your task was the simplest.
Just make sure that the representatives of influential families were not planning anything… interesting. The version for the director was to collect information about the college, for further writing of the article on behalf of the "student".
You had already received half of your payment, and the customer signed a contract in which you received your other half in any outcome. Plus, you could always earn extra money by publishing an article to the delight of Crowley, but that's it. Possible options after completing the job.
Finally, the director appeared, and you would have sighed with relief if not for the student who appeared behind him. It seemed that no one knew who it was, however, this was only to your advantage. Any information was important to the customer.
Tumblr media
"Any information was important to the customer." This thought was worthy of a hit to the head with any heavy object. They were just students, what could possibly go wrong? The contract details did not include feeding flamingos in pink and painting roses from white to red and back. Why, of all the dorms, the Mirror decided to send you to Heartslabyul… that question should have been asked to Crowley. Only for him magically disappear every time, "and do not to interfere with a professional's work."
A professional could not work in such conditions.
Luckily, a pair of first years significantly attracted the attention of the head. All you had to do was secure their friendship and the article "headache" of Rosehearts. The collar on your neck in most cases explained why you did not use magic regularly.
However, in other dorms it was hardly easier. Whether this thought was self-consolation or acceptance of the harsh truth, you didn't care. Or it could be a simple complaint from chewing his lunch Ace.
If you had come here at an earlier age, when you yourself were a scholar, you would have been overjoyed. Of course, what child would refuse to learn magic? To travel between colleges using portals? The one who was now in the body of an tired of everything adult obviously.
It was much harder to study seriously when you needed to be in several places at once, and for missing classes the head "cut off your head". In your time, being a hooligan sounded easier.
Bless the existence of Internet storage, otherwise attempts to hide the notes of real work would have finally driven you to the grave. The promised payment was not worth it.
Fortunately, or vice versa, there was plenty of information. Filtering rumors, looking for the truth - that's another task. At least the soil for this was fertile. News of growing tension in a dorm. A rumor about a student who grants any wish. Possible conflict between two celebrities.
How true were the rumors about the strained relationship between the second prince of the Sunset Savanna and the crown prince of Briar Valley?
Everything was carefully written and saved for later editing. When did you have time to do this? The answer was simple. You sacrificed your time for sleep. All paper records were burned and destroyed after being transferred to the cloud. You didn't need any extra problems.
It felt like you had a kind of key in your hands that could unlock a box to nowhere. Your readiness to face everything that awaited you at the bottom was unimportant. A minimum of feelings and a maximum of facts were required from you.
22 notes · View notes