#its so much fun 2 imagine it on a real scale

[spinjitsuburst]

prime empire thoughts yes please

1- the world of prime empire overall. what are your ideas about it?

I personally they should've played with the ideas of invisible walls or show us how far the game actually expended. idk maybe that's just me but like the world of prime empire in its whole looks overlooked jgsjgl like there's so much you can do.

I also wanted so bad someone from the outside to interfere with the coding or something as well idk WHY DID WE GET SO LITTLE WITH A SEASON AROUND VIDEO GAMES

2- what are you thoughts about scott? (also does he play a big role in cabinet man? (since you also requested asks about cabinet man))

Cuz I think he is greatly underrated in prime empire (but yknow maybe that's just me)

3- jay's skin. I want all your thoughts about jay's skin. Superstar Rockin Jay should've lasted for much longer or at least become a gag in the future (or yknow the fact that there was a cult created out of it)

anyway yeah I like this season a normal amount. Toootally fine with how they handled it.

Can't wait to read your thoughts about it all ( ouo)

GJHJSHFJKGHJKFDSGH HOOOOO BOY

Ideas about the world of Prime Empire as a whole

OHOHO I HAVE SOOOO MANY MY FRIEND

first of all, most if not all the NPCs have some degree of sentience. That's an idea that I think should've been driven more home by the show itself but Blazey and Okino are not the only characters in the game that have free will and the ability to think for themselves. I believe this so wholeheartedly.

Prime Empire was split into different areas that I wish were explored more (honestly a lot of this season boils down to "I wish it were explored more"): Terra Technica, Terra Karana, and Terra Domina. Terra Technica obviously is the biggest area, with the entry point for players entering the game, the Speedway Five-Billion, Scott's Garage and Jay's Club, and at least one other area for the Dance Competition mini-game. I also think this would be where most of the shops run by NPCs in the game would be.

I think most NPCs reside in this area. To really hammer home the fact that they are PEOPLE, not just assets in the game, I think they have homes within the city. Y'know how in Pokemon games (except ScarVi rip) you can just walk into people's houses and there's NPCs inside? Yea it's like that. Except the NPCs leave the houses and explore as well because they have their own thoughts and lives.

Maybe it's just cuz I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom non-stop and it's taken over my brain but I think about the open-worldness of Prime Empire in a similar manner. You can pretty much go anywhere and do anything within the world of Prime Empire. You can scale buildings (if you have the skills unlocked for it) and find secrets everywhere. And most things respawn at certain intervals so players have the chance to pick them up. Kind of like a MMOPRG sorta vibe

BUT there is a sort of thing like you mentioned above - invisible points that you just can't pass. Like the place is enclosed by some giant wall you can't see, and doesn't let you pass through. If you TRIED you would just be running in place basically, never actually getting anywhere. You can see things beyond where stuck at, but they're just for show - there's nothing actually there to interact with, it just gives the guise of depth.

Basically Prime Empire is meant to feel endless, expansive, big, real, until the reality crashes in that it definitely isn't. And sure most people wouldn't care and would have fun playing anyways, but for those who aren't interested after this illusion is broken for them, discover that hey. How do you get out of here again?

Oh right.

They can't.

And that's when people start kinda freaking out. Which I imagine then Jay or the League of Jays step in to try and calm them down and get them to relax and have fun anyways while Jay waits for the rest of the ninja to arrive.

2. Thoughts about Scott and his role in the Cabinet Man AU!

OHHH MAN I LOVE SCOTT DUDE YOU'RE RIGHT HE'S SO UNDERRATED i think he's a super fascinating character to consider in Prime Empire. Given that Unagami clearly had a plan to cube a bunch of players for his portal, he definitely would've come after Scott first. When did Scott figure this out? Did Scott and Unagami interact in-person before this? How was Scott able to evade Unagami long enough to set up his garage's stealth barrier? He's so so so interesting to me

He's clearly a kind person who wants to help people to some degree (sneaking Jay into the garage with him in the shorts, letting Jay run his club from his garage, inevitably sacrificing himself so the ninja can get away, etc.) but he's also very wary and unwilling to risk himself in a lot of ways. He and Jay clearly come to care about each other to some degree in canon, given Jay seems fairly protective of him

and Scott trusts Jay enough to let him into his personal and secret place

LIKE I DON'T THINK THAT GETS TALKED ABOUT ENOUGH. NOT ONLY DID SCOTT AGREE TO HELP JAY HIDE OUT FROM UNAGAMI BUT HE LET HIM RUN AN ENTIRE CLUB OUT OF A SECRET TUNNEL CONNECTED TO HIS GARAGE

there was no reason for Scott to have done either of these things. Was it desperation because Jay's the first person Scott's seen in 30 years? Maybe. But clearly they care about each other to some degree

as for in the cabinet man AU! Jay considers Scott an older brother type figure. He, Scott, and Unagami actually got along well when Scott first got sucked into the game (the game is a lot newer than it is in the actual show given that Jay was 8 when he entered and there is no way he was in there for 30 years lmao, Jay would've been around 16 when Scott entered the game, Scott being 18 or 19, and Jay was around 21-22 when the ninja enter the picture). Unagami was excited to prove himself and give Scott a fun game experience, after all. But y'know, once Milton Dyer realized what happened.... things soured.

Jay and Scott were pretty much on the run together from then on. They care a lot about each other and Jay's extra devastated when Scott gets cubed. Once Jay and Scott leave the game, Scott takes time to rediscover life and reunite with family, but the two stay in close contact and see each other on a weekly basis for a while. Scott's still one of the first people Jay will reach out to if he needs help or advice with something not-ninja related

3. SUPERSTAR ROCKIN' JAY AAAAAAA

okay okay okay okay so obviously you and i met through skybound content so just in case you don't know yet

i'm. a little. unhinged. about superstar rockin' jay

i have so many thoughts about jay's avatar ranging from "this is my Gender and i want to look like a fucking lego" to "WHY DIDN'T NINJAGO LET HIM KEEP ASPECTS OF THIS" to just white noise in my brain and in the center of that white noise is me rotating his minifigure in my mind

HE'S SO COOL!!! HE'S SO COOL AND I LOVE HIM AND HIS DESIGN IS INCREDIBLE LIKE OKAY okay okay okay okay blue and yellow are contrasting colors that mesh REALLY well together and I think the glamrock persona with stars and triangles and shit looks super incredible and it's just a really nice and appealing design and I think that Jay would have like a v-tuber avatar of SSR Jay after the game cuz like LOOK AT HIM. THIS IS PEAK HEGHHAGJFHKGJKJHKJFHGKJFG god im so normal

this is why people call me the ceo of superstar rockin' jay. that design is every aesthetic of mine mashed into one. i'm so obsessed with this design it consumes my core being.

at the end of the day i too. am superstar rockin' jay

i lost track of the point of this question uhhhhhhhh OH YEA I WISH THEY'D LIKE. BRING IT UP MORE OFTEN LIKE JAY WAS AN IN-GAME IDOL!! HE WAS A PERFORMER!! DID HE HAVE FANS??? IS THERE SUPERSTAR ROCKIN' JAY MERCH???????? he should exist outside of prime empire screams

anyways this was a lot of words i love prime empire i love prime empire so much it's so good and more people need to talk about it please please lpease

[vvindication]

2, 7, and 25 for the oc ask yaaaaaaayyy (for whoever you'd like !!)

MINTT YAAAAY thank you hugging you hugging you !!

2. How much death and/or destruction have they wrought? SUCH A LOADED QUESTION. and such a fucking good one. if I were to compare the amount of misery caused between Vincent, Armistice, and Joakim ...

well, Armistice was the moralist politician. she was definitely causing the most harm on a grand scale whether she liked it or not. im not really interested in getting into the weeds of All That (bureaucracy is the quickest way to bore me I cant be assed to research that deeply for a hobby fic) but he was not responsible in his job whatsoever

well, no - by the time the events of The Fic roll around he isnt. I really do think she tried to be the son her father raised at first. that might have caused even more suffering than ignoring his job altogether to deal drugs and purposefully endanger himself. by actually trying to be a good moralist and make sure that the status quo is upheld (no matter the suffering of those people under the status quo)

as for our cop duo, Joakim has one extra year of formal service before Vincent, as well as a few informal years as a civilian informant. I'd like to think he did a lot more good in that time than harm, considering the reason he got involved to begin with was stumbling onto human trafficking as a teen - but he is also more trigger-happy than he would like to admit. if he thinks someone is in danger, he WILL shoot first and ask questions later, which inevitably leads to killing and maiming

I imagine his record of kills is more numerous than his partner's. I'd say an estimate of 1.5 deaths per year until his own death - making that 6 in total at the very least (idk why I decided to do fancy math about it, but it is what it is)

Vincent on the other hand avoids lethal force at all costs - he's not the strongest physically, so most of this entails convincing Joakim to back him up with restraint/fists rather than a bullet. hes trying to help people, not kill them - but then again, he gains the nickname Omen for a reason. people tend to die around him for no real fault of his own. it's Revachol, after all. hes killed about 3 people out of his service of 8 years, one out of strict vengeance for Joakim's death, others accidents of self-defense that he regrets immensely

7. What's their pain tolerance? FUN QUESTION I was thinking abt this while watching a character have an incredibly high pain tolerance going hmmm interesting ...

I do think Vincent is one of those people that has absolutely freakish pain tolerance + strength in the heat of an altercation because of adrenaline, but as soon as it starts working its way out of his system that guy is DOWN for the count. kind of dude who doesnt even realize hes hurt until someone else points it out. small things hes a wimp for though <3

speaking being a wimp, Mikael has to have some crazy pain tolerance considering how often hes constantly fuckin getting hurt and still smiling away. has a lot to do with him keeping up an extreme facade for police work & toxic masculinity, but if he didnt have it before police work, I imagine it would be a "fake it til you make it" kind of situation that developed over time. predator animal fear where no one can ever see him weak or theyre going to Kill Him To Death

25. Have they tore someone to shreds with their bare hands? With their teeth? OOOOH okay I love having characters that bite because well. thats me. im the biterrr (and I think thats a fun way of showing how potentially unhinged or desperate a character is in a fight) but I wouldnt say any of my disco ocs fit this criteria. HOWEVER

my FC5 Rook does definitely fit that criteria (funny - hes also a cop but from a different media) as the de facto leader of resistance against a violent cult. being stranded in what amounts to the middle of nowhere with no official backup and an organized militia trying to torture, indoctrinate, and/or kill him does insane shit to his brain. that guy turns into a monster all for the initial goal of genuinely trying to stand up to some evil shit he didnt like. the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and so on ...

anyway on top of that he was starved and denied water and who knows what else by one of those particular cult guys in an effort to basically turn him into a trained killing machine, so if he hadnt already been ready to seriously rip ppl apart with his hands & teeth that definitely did it

[iggydabirdkid]

6, 8 and 16 for the fic asks? 👀

6. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

I'm not very confident in writing smut, so anything regarding that I can never quite make work. Most other fics I find that I can find a way to write, given enough time and finding the motivation in which to write :)

8. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment?

My favorite plot point I haven't actually written yet 😅 It'll be something to do with my Selkie AU, but it won't be for a little while yet. But it'll be devastating and so fun to write.

My favorite chapter would have to be the 2nd chapter in my Bad Day fic. It was extremely cathartic to write.

My favorite moment would be the one below. The forehead tap is a callback to when Ortega taps a romanced Sidestep on the forehead to indicate they want to kiss them.

“Julia please, please just hold on!” You place a gloved hand to the side of her face and turn her head to look at you. You can see her lips moving and you lean in close only for her to weakly raise her arm and tap you on the forehead. It takes everything in you to not burst into a full-scale meltdown and as Julia’s arm falls limply back to her side you lose that fight.

16. 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.

I love all the comments made on my writing so it's very hard to choose just 3! But here ya go!

@wonda-fhr left this very nice comment on Chapter 3 of my Meeting Owl fic:

The first chapter hooked me immediately.♥️ The second from Julia's perspective was captivating, Julia's anger is as palpable as her concern. ♥️ The third chapter, a joy. A gentle relief that Themmy knows more, and knows what behavior is safest when a friend acts like a wounded animal. The repeated "No promises" was painful. I'm still staring at the end and waiting for what happens 👀👀👀, I love this story.

Literally any comment @just-a-tiny-goldfish makes I love to read but this particular one on Chapter 2 of my Victorian Era AU i loved

I love the way you write dialogue so much—I’m so envious of the way they actually sound like they are having a real conversation. Ugh and the way you always seem to be able to get their characterization right!!!! I really love how you depicted Annie and their…sisters relationship🤭 its so tragic so far, and is it bad i kinda hope they make up 🫣 Like—yes shes kinda bad…but…she sounds so sweet when they were little 😭 AHHH the beautiful lady part!!!! Okay but—julia def knows Annie is connected to hg right or is she still blinded? ALSO THE CHEN THING—SHE KNOWS HIM????!!! But when you described his footsteps walking in i imagines like—the whole cabin shaking lol

And then a short comment that @ledilettant left on Chapter 1 of my Bad Day fic that made me laugh.

Harsh.

Thanks for the ask :D

[crow-caller]

Finished Pokemon Violet

storyline, npcs : 10/10 best pokemon has had

poke designs: 8/10 generally really really solid generation, some great ones. fck the duck tho for real

catching/battling: 7/10 solid, fast, better. the fighting gimmick this gen is very underwhelming tho

enviromental design 2/10 a lot looks nice enough but it's extremely barren, not enough variety or big set pieces, cities are pretty but empty. No interior buildings, only sandwich

Gimmicks: 5/10 open world feels nice but half baked. Running and climbing and gliding is fun, exploring is fun. Raid battles are still meh. the hats are silly. The novelty is refreshing for pokemon

snom: 10/10 very glittery in this game

world design: 1/10 minor NPCs are sparse and you can speak to very few of them, none of them particularly interesting. pretty much no non story activities. pokemon spawn in groups but have no unique actions or interactions and don't feel natural. There's no secrets or hidden lore worth looking for

pokedex/collecting: 8/10 About 400 (100 new), which is a lot, but in a world this large and free roaming, it starts to feel repetitive. You enter a new area and only see one new guy max, as most of the new ones are put directly at the first few towns. I like the book style of the dex with nature photography pics a lot. Collecting feels very fun when you can snipe the ones you want rather than random grass search for hours. Lots of evolutions spawn, so you also need less grinding

Post game content 3/10 Mostly many harder battles and rematches as typical. annoying side quests to find 999 coins (so you can get an ugly pokemon) or some ominous stakes (so you can get cool legendary pokes). Not much extra story or content (haven't done it all yet)

Glitches .../10 I've had very few issues running the game on the cartridge but the amount still isn't acceptable for a game of its cost. It's force quit twice, the camera very often clips through the floor, pokemon get stuck, lag sometimes happens. It's been rare for me but not cool.

fun 8/10 maybe I'm just autistic and love pokemon and collecting things, but I had a blast playing it overall. I can imagine replaying being pretty fun too, honestly. Part of this is the novelty. A kid would enjoy this, someone wanting more (and we deserve more!) won't really.

Overall: the strict math is a 5.7 but this is not a good scale. I'm gonna say 7.5 "It could be way better and you're lucky it works for me"

[miss-3625]

Okay firstly: I forget to post this, which is why I'm only posting it now ^^'

Secondly, these are my thoughts during my own playthrough of Assassin's Creed 2, because I can't talk to anyone in real live about it. You don't have to understand them and don't have to like this post, I just wanted to get them out of my head and maybe someone can relate.

Thirdly, a little warning: this post is longer than the one I posted about AC1 ..

SPOILERS (obviously)

(02.01.2023)

• I like the beginning screen

• YOU CAN CHANGE THE LANGUAGE AND ADD SUBTITLES!!! Big + point

• Ohhh I like the trailer

• LUCY IS BREAKING ME OUT!!!

---

• Well that's one way to introduce us to the new character...

• I like that they use English and Italian words

• Little baby is a fighter

---

• The Eagle Vision can be activated while running!

• (Also the Eagle Vision is different - you no longer see the world from their eyes, which is sad, but I guess this new vision is more practical, because you can see around you quicker)

• YEES FIGHT GIRL!

• You know what, Desmond is asking the right questions. What is the plural of Animus?

• Arrividerci Abstergo

---

• Yes I trust you stranger, who helped me escape, but at first helped the organization that kidnapped me :)

• Where are we (in which country)?

• I like Rebecca - she is a sweethart :)

• I like Shaun - he is a sassy ass :)

• (Also I'M RISKING MY SANITY OK SHAUN! >:( )

• I like Shaun's notice board :)

• "Hello Desmond :) Go away >:)" ... well alright

• (He reminds me of Malik :D)

---

• New loading screen

• Ok, the new world-generating-thing? LOOKS AMAZING!

• HELLO Ezio :D

• And he got the same scar, nice!

• You can see how much damage the enemies have! Awesome!

• I have a big brother! I like him already :)

• I have a life scale now, instead of a synchronizing scale

• YOU CAN LOOT!!! MONEEEYYY!!!

• 609 FLORINS!

• I like the little "beginning" screen before a mission

• An arrow above the head of people makes it easier to follow (and identify) then

• Weird mask (from the doctors) but I kinda like it

• O.o THERE IS INFORMATION?!

• SOOO MUCH INFORMATION :D

• (that is a really nice detail - in AC1 Desmond (and we) were not giving much information. We were just puched in a mission, in a life nearly a thousand years ago, without much useful information. Now though, we can read about the people and places at any time! Really nice!)

• Ezio disappeared at 17 after a dramatic incident? Well, I have a feeling we're gonna find out what it was..

• ALSO THERE IS A STATISTIC! It shows your synchronization, gaming time and more! :D

• Aww I love these two!

• "Baby brother has much to learn!" "There is no shame in losing, brother!"

• I LOVE the music!

• Aww he helped me up!

• Omg what a beautiful beginning! <3

---

• THE ROUND ABOUT AT THE VIEW POINT LOOKS SO GOOD! (Also love the music during it) Firenze looks so good!

• Also visit Cristina? No, I rather look around! View points to find an all that

• 66 VIEW POINTS?! O.o

• There are DOCTORS, BLACKSMITHS, TAILORS AND ART MERCHANTS?! So much new stuff!!

• A yellow arrow indicates that someone is watching you! If its full, it goes red and you should better get going!

• Also there is a green marker, so you know where you're supposed to go

• (And, other then in AC1, the little map also shows the rooftops and the ground levels and even enemies (red dots) - in AC1, there were just little symbols that showed you, which way the next activity was)

• Firenze is not flat, like the cities in AC1 were, but it is still a great feeling, to run across the rooftops

• There are chests! You can LOOT the CHESTS! 100 florins from a chest!!!

• ... Imagine you're 17 years old and just climb the Santa Maria del Fiore for fun (114 m hight)?!

• AND THEN JUMP DOWN INTO A WAGON FILLED WITH LEAVES?!

• (AND SURVIVE, LIKE THAT JUMP WAS NOTHING SPECIAL?!!!)

• THOSE WOODEN THINGS HANGING FROM THE CRANES SHAKE NOW! (slightly, but still)

• "I'm gonna have a few words with him" - punches him half to death

• Ah, the feathers of Petruccio are probably like the flags in AC1

• I LOVE the mother! XD

• I also love Leonardo! He seems like a real sweetheart! (Also he voiced the Rafiq of Damascus in AC1!) He is probably gonna help me later :) (at least, I hope so)

• Ohhhh secret messages, cryptic warning - I think there is more to dear Giovanni

• THEY DID WHAT TO DEAR MARIA?! >:O

• I SWEAR IF THEY DID SOMETHING TO MY BROTHERS!!

• GIAVANNI IS AN ASSASSIN! Is Federico one too?

• Ezio has a cape :)

• (A cape for just one shoulder ... don't know if I like it)

• The guards are supposed to just kill a 17-year-old for no real reason....

• Feathers and chests grow white in the Eagle Vision, making it easy to see them

• A dark shadow walking mysteriously behind Alberti ... I think I know who was the reason for the imprisonment

• NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :'O

---

• ARCHERS!!!

• I like Paola :)

• So the courtesans are like the scholars in AC1, but instead of you walking with them, you can get them at any time and they walk with you

• IS LEONARDO ALSO PART OF THE BROTHERHOOD?!

• SUBJEKT 16?!

• I love the thugs on the rooftops :D "Moving like the WIND" thank you, thank you ;)

• I love how Ezio knocks, but doesn't wait for an answer and opens the door immediately

• HUG!

• But can we all just take in for a moment, that Ezio was immediately on board with having his finger cut of... for a cause he doesn't even know of...

• And the fact that Leonardo immediately helped and protected Ezio, even though he knew him maybe a day or two

• I love Leonardo

• BYE BYE ALBERTI (love Ezios little speech)

• I tear down pieces of paper with my face off the walls and suddenly the guards don't know what I look like anymore?

• I'd like to point out again, that Ezio is 17!!

• SHE DIDN'T KNOW THEY DIED!!!

• THE MUSIC IS NOT HELPING

• There are no beggars but THERE ARE MUSICIANS!!!

• I'M TRYING TO QUIETLY LEAVE THE CITY, NOT PUNCH YOU ALL IN THE FACE

• The fact that 4 dancing women can make 8 hard trained guards leave their posts ...

• It's-a-me, Mario! ....

---

(03.01.23)

• I'm learning to fight.... I'm still not good

• Awww poor madre, here 5 feathers :)

• I'll help Mario!

• But first: view points!

• I miss the throwing knifes...

• Also I'm not suspicious when I'm running anymore :)

• THROWING KNIVES! XD

• BYE BYE VIERI

---

• Altaïr :)

• Of course the Codex pages would just lay around randomly in the open like that

• "He is a monster" "What happened..." "He's making me WORK" - relatable

• I CAN MAKE MOOONEYYY

• I get money from my amour, equipment, the feathers and Codex pages? Awesome!

• They are bulling the architect and I'm here for it

• Secret way in the wall!

• ALTAÏR :D

• Oh I definitely will have bette luck. I'll get the amour even if it's the last thing I do

• There is so much to DO in AC2

• I can't go in there .... (the big door, next to the stairs outside of the villa)

---

• LEONARDO I'M BACK

• "Anything for you, my friend" <3

• NEW ASSINATION TECHNIQUE!! (and 2 more lives) THEY ARE ASWESOMEEE!!!

• Why are these dummies bleeding, Leonardo?...

• 2 HIDDEN BLADES?!

• (Wait, this idea came from the Codex - the one Altaïr did... Altaïr was already deadly enough with one blade, imagine him with 2)

---

• You can get treasure maps at the art merchants

• Yes, I'll teach your husband a lesson my lady

• I wouldn't have wanted him as my husband too, my poor lady

• The times of the day changes (day and night)

• MY MONEY!

• hello La Volpe :)

• RUNNING WITH TIME AAHHH

• Barely did it ...

• Ohhh I like this (running around this tomb)

• I HAD HIM BUT THE DOOR CLOSED!! >:(

• Francesco you are gonna follow your son

• Is that supposed to be Altaïr on the sacrofaq

---

(04.01.23)

• the Santa Maria del Fiore is preeetttyy big (and empty) from the inside

• I can't make that jump, that's too far away ... but where else am I supposed to go?

• Apparently Ezio COULD make that jump

• Those chandeliers, beams and poles are pretty handy, eh?

• the secret treasure is probably not worth it, but at this point I'm so desperate, that I want to now what is in there

• 25 minutes later for 250 florins in that stupid chest ...

• But hey, I at least did it :')

• THAT JUMP was even more unrealistic?!

• MY GOD?!!! I would NEVER do that in real life...

• MA'AM I'M TRYING TO SAY THIS RESPECTFUL - it is fu*king hard to get to your sarcophagus (which I guess was intentional)

• SOMEONE has anger issues ...

• Quick death for someone with a big mouth

• Also wise words Ezio :3

• Nice one Ezio!

• Another Codex page - LEONARDO!

• It's kinda poetic with which ease Ezio hands over the hidden blade to Leaonardo - it shows a lot of trust

---

(07.01.23)

• Let's go to Tuscany

• Smoke bombs? (THEY ARE AWESOME! I wish there were more)

• Well that was a fast and easy kill - Bye bye Stefano, Requiescat in pace

• The horse follows you again - it's such a sweet little detail :)

• Requiescat in pace Archbishop Salviati

• I like the riding through the open world (but be aware, if you(r horse) knocks a person away, the guards are gonna chase you)

• Seriously, why do the guards put Ezio's wanted poster at like the highest point possible where no normal human will ever see them?!

• Well Bernardo's assassination was also quite easy (not that I'm complaining; I'm surprised that it's going so well)

• ARCHERS!

• wow Ezio has come a long way since the beginning ... Requiescat in pace

• "The Assassin is relentless. We cannot hope to stop him on our own." YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, BEFORE YOU KILL MY FAMILY

• AS IF ONE MUSICIAN WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ENOUGH BUT 3?! Guys, I need to be SILENT! YOU are LOUD AND ANNOYING

• Aww Ezio really has come a long way. Requiescat in pace Del Salvucci

• Sequence 5 finished

• A GIFT?!

• AWESOME! I can steal from as many people as I want now, without increasing the notoriety in Florence and Tuscany :D

• I like the cape

• LEONARDO MY BELOVED :)

• gone?!

• Venezia? All the more reason to go there ;)

• But first to Monteriggioni

• After a few updates, it is already looking better

• Knife belt upgrade :D

• And now to Tuscany again, because I wanted to get the Assassins Seal there

• Let's infiltrate the Torre Grossa

• I liked this one :)

• So now: to VENEZIA (and Leonardo)

• Or I guess, to the mountains first?

• Leonardo! :D Ahh he's so cute. WILL I FLY?!

• Ahh a chase scene!!

• I did it :) (it was a hell of a bumpy ride and I only hav 2 and a half blue squares left, but I did it)

• (I hope there are never carriage chases again...)

• Forlì is looking sad

• 3 Codex pages!

• And 5 feathers (so far)

• And the 33rd viewpoint :)

• AND another Assassin Seal - nice!

• The seal from Rocca di Ravaldino

• I also enjoyed this one :)

• 4 from 6 now already :)

• Guards change their shifts at morning and night time

• Man Leonardo has a loud voice ... (I could hear him kilometers away)

• Apparently I need to help the madonna to get the pass

• THE WAY YOU DRIVE THE OAR XD

• she became engaged when she was 10?!!

• please stop flirting...

• End of sequence 6

• Desmooonnnd :D

• Desmond has a say in all that is happening? Well, I'm not so sure about that ...

• Aww Shaun the little history nerd ^^

• Open your eyes lets begin! ... (don't ask)

• Hallucinations!

• ALTAÏR!!! :D

• O.o

• With Maria?! The woman that wanted him death?!

• I'm happy for him :)  (It's nice that we see him again)

• Venezia is BIG

• I love that the colours of the guards uniform change (blue in venice, green in forlì, red/yellow in florence)

• YES LET ME BUY IT FOR HIM

• I nearly missed the hug!

---

(08.01.23)

• Oh so you're better of on our own, but as soon as I fall behind and fight for you, you tell me to hurry up?! (Rosa)

• "They're shooting at us!" ... no they're not. I helped them, so now they're taking a deep nap ...

• "You work well under pressure" please if you just listened to me during the chase scene, then you would know that's not true

• Coffee

• New climbing technique!

• (Now I can finally climb the viewing point!)

• So.many.archers.!!!

• So the courtesans also fight (if you hired them and are under attack). They have a knife and everything ^^

• It is so cool that the thieves can follow you along the rooftops :D

• Also the voice actor from Federico also voices Ugo. I don't know what to do with the fact

---

(23.01.23)

• Always with the guards

• That didn't work like I planned it,  but I guess that works too

• Bye bye

• I love the music

• End of sequence 7

• Let's get the next Seal! (at the Basilica San Marco)

• Ahhh cool

• AHHH WITH TIME

• THAT TICKING IS MAKING ME NERVOUS

• WHERE DO I NEED TO GO?!

• (and what's wrong with these camera angles ....)

• I DID THEM ALL ON THE FIRST TRY OMG

• Ma'am I REALLY liked this one :) (if you take away the anxiety I felt because of the ticking)

• Ok but seriously, why is there always an woman singing during water sences in games - yes, she sings beautiful, but why?

• they argue like little children XD

• not them standing on the wide bridge, with Ezio in plain sight, and they still don't see him ...

• Yes, don't underestimate the young Assassin >:)

• And he looks straight at Ezio!!

• (New fanfiction idea: Borgia is a secret Assassin, that wanted to protect Giovanni but failed and now wants to help Ezio...)

• (Just kidding ...)

• LEONARDO  :D

• I'm going to fly!

• Well I didn't crash into any houses

• Leonardo is so cute

• Let's hope I get there save and sound

• I CAN KICK THEM OF THE ROOF?! Yeees >:)

• (And I got an achievement for it XD)

• Sequence 8 finished

• Carnevale :D

• A PISTOL?! o.O

• A mask :)

• Wouldn't you like be my date for Carnevale, Leonardo?

• The last tomb! :D

• I GOT THE RUNNER?!!! >:D

• Oh my God ... this (the big/last place in the hidden tomb) is soo big (and beautiful - nice reflections in the water)

• And of course with time again...

• I DID IT ON THE FIRST TRY?! !!! o.O

• I HAVE ALL THE SEALS :D

• Let's go to Monteriggioni!

• THE ARMOUR IS BLACK!!! AND SOOO PRETTY!!! :D (and full life bar)

• But let's get back to Venize

• Let the Carnevale begin!

• The games were very fun, but I wish that Ezio could have enjoyed the games without the constant thought in the back of his head, that he needed to win the games (otherwise he wouldn't have a chance of comming near the Doge) :/

• and of course they had to cheat

• Aannd sequence 9 finished :)

---

(28.01.23)

• Neeew land to exploreeee :)

• Uh my man, you don't look so good ...

• I'll liberate Bartolomeo for you :)

• O.o

• He seems nice?

• "Bella mia"?!

• STOP BEGINNING FIGHTS!!

• "Must.Break.Bone." - I think that is the perfect description for Bartolomeo

• He has a wife?!

• Oh no, it's his sword...

• Even though the mercenaries have no lives (those live squares) they can DIE

• I love the smoke bombs

• Well let's assassinate Dante and Silvio

• IT'S WITH TIIIME!!!

• I did it :)

• Ahh "Military District", makes sense

• End of the sequence :)

• 10 years already? Without his father and brothers and without answers... Oh Ezio :( (already 27, wow - and he is still searching for Pitrucuos feathers ..)

• Leonardo :D

• They looks so cute walking together

• Ahhh finally he has answers (even if just a few)

• 29th Codex Page! Just one more :D

• All 66 viewpoints!! (Seriously compared to AC1 the map of AC2 is BIG - at least that's how it seems to me)

• But where is the last Codex Page? Does Borgia have it?

• The Apple! (It has the same shell as in AC1)

• Uncle Mario? Hello? Nice to see you here?

• Why is it always with TIME?! :O

• Ezio in the clothes/armor of an enemy. Weird to see

• Even if other people knock against you, it's YOUR fault .. of course...

• Oh god, there he is o_o

• DAMN HE'S STRONG

• Uncle Mario :D and the others? Hello?

• "Look how good he fights" "You have improved since the last time, nipote" NO I HAVE NOT, I'M ALMOST DEAD, HELP

• "Your brothers didn't need to die, I just did it to make a point" - oh you are so definitely going to regret saying that

• Well Ezio being the Prophet would make more sense then the Spaniard

• Hello Machiavelli

• You're telling me he spent 10 years of his life being an Assassin AND HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT?! WHY THE HELL WOULD THE OTHERS LET HIM WANDER AROUND AND KILL THOSE PEOPLE AND NOT TELL HIM?!

• Oh Ezio we are Assassins. You are one too by the way. Meet us here at sunset. Bye :)

• ....

• Okay I got goosebumps during the ceremony, not gonna lie (I'm still mad at them tho)

• (It looked funny how they all jumped XD)

• THE APPLE OF EDEN!!!

• AN AN VENETIAN CAPE :D

• End of sequence 11 (how many are there?)

---

So apparently you have to buy/download  sequence 12/13 (which I sadly can't do, so I guess it has to be enough to watch them on YouTube)

(I really liked them ^^ also I LOVE Catarina XD And it was a nice idea to end everything in Florence. There Ezio lived in innocence for the first years of his life, then he lost his family and live there and now he is back, older and wiser, and ready to leave everything behind)

But let's continue with the last sequence :)

• Desmond :D

• Anndd bye Desmond ...

• He is POPE?! :O

• all Codex Pages!! :D

• LEONARDO IN THE VILLA

• Ezio has a beard omg *-*

• But why exactly is the Papal Staff the second Piece of Eden?

• Let's go to Roma :D

• Let's finish everything...

• I don't know what happend - I went through the place like a real Assassin. So stealthy the guards didn't know that I was comming until they had my Hidden Blade in their necks ...

• (I think it's the beard)

• So, let's kill the Pope

• AHH HE KILLED THEM ALL JUST LIKE THAT

• MULTIPLE EZIOS!!!

• okay, the fastest way to kill Borgia is to just use the throwing knives

• Did he make himself invisible? o.O

• OHH OH GOD, OH NO, OH F*CK

• EZIO! :O

• he's alright :)

• Okay, let's do it for real this time ...

• He let him live?

• Wow he is all grown up :')

• Let's see what all this was for

• WHY IS SHE LOOKING AT ME?!

• "You did your part" THEN GIVE HIM ANSWERS, YOU WEIRD GOD-LADY

• also "you anchor him"... okay?

• "The rest is up to you, Desmond" HUH?!!!

• :O

• Ezio has more questions now then before!!! Come back lady!

• "What.The.F*ck" same Demsomd, same

• Let me tell you, I got goosebumps

• THAT WAS IT?!

• Oh wait, no it wasn't

• WARREN >:(

• Bye bye, we'll see each other again ...

• Soo we're all gonna die, because the sun will cook us. That's nice to know :')

• AND THE MUSIC AGAIN!!!

END OF ASSASSINS CREED 2

Feedback:

My God, that was perfect. I absolutely loved it!

I loved the story, the people and the landscapes/cities.

While we started AC1 in an random place/time, AC2 started with Ezio's birth and ended with him (after years and years) getting his revenge for the loss of his father and brothers. We have been longer with Ezio (we basically saw him grow up) and I really like him.

While AC1 was rather simple, AC2 had a lot more of activities to do, which just blew my mind. I greatly enjoyed building up Monteriggioni, getting the Seals for Altaïr's Amour (which is amazing and I'll wear it forever) and exploring the landscapes (because of the treasure chests and feathers you can find).

Also really love the fast travel options (again) and LOVED the flying mission.

The new (and many more) weapons and Hidden Blade techniques are awesome (like I said earlier, I absolutely LOVE the smoke bombs).

Furthermore, I love the whole information we get. Like I said in the beginning, in AC1 we were pretty much without any useful information the whole time. Yes we knew which time it was and where, but other then that, nothing. Now though, we have information about everything. The doctors, the courtesans, the blacksmiths, the people and buildings and I love it!

(Also I'm happy that firstly, we got more Desmond time and secondly, we got to see Altaïr again ^^)

All in all, I absolutely loved Assassin's Creed 2 and I'm excited to play Brotherhood!

[boypussydilf]

sherlock. what is it's gender. what is their deal. speak your trutg

oh dear with the state of my blog its now hard to tell when people walk up to me and say sherlock if they mean dgs sherlock the og or any of the several others ive started talking about. we need to like. color code them. anyway im gonna talk about dgs sherlock bc hes the one im most likely to have proper thoughts on and then probably also do one for mostly just. like. the general concept actually thinking about it i do have many thoughts on Non-DGS Sherlock i dont know why i allowed myself to think i didnt . i just get caught up in the bimbo dad but i like the entire folder hes stored in

dgs first tho <333333

Sexuality Headcanon: gay. Just gay

Gender Headcanon: If i had to make 1 decision. genderfluid <3 Sherlock Holmes (DGS) can fit so much gender in her !!!!!!!!!

A ship I have with said character: *looks at my blog* *looks at my pinned post* um i think you guys know . already. the only one i have . do i need to say it

A BROTP I have with said character: i mean. Iris. they r best friends for real ! they r like the most important people to each other ! they r this guy and their 10 year old daughter who packs peanut butter jelly sandwiches for them !!!

A NOTP I have with said character: im gonna be petty and say vanlock. i blocked the tag bc i got tired of seeing it. actually even moreso i like physically recoil when i see ppl shipping him with ryuu, it fucking. completely baffles me. like. nothing wrong with that. people who ship them aren’t weird in That sense. but theyre weird as in I can’t understand what compels you to do this . i dont like vanlock but i can Understand why people do i just got extra sick of it bc its semi common. i cant understand why people ship sherlock and ryuu. like youve misread the vibe badly. this is not it. oh dear god this just got 5 times as long as all the other sections of this fucking ask meme. power of being slightly annoyed sorry

A random headcanon: UHHHHHHHHHH OH MY GOD . I KNOW i have headcanons abou t this bitch he swarms around in my mind all the time. I am imagining Random Exploits of the DGS Cast on a daily basis where did the fucking Concepts and Ideas go. ill return to this once ive done everything else and see if i havent thought of anything fun by then. ive thought about it some more and my most recent thought on him has been like. she knows some russian and japanese right? actually a fucking lot of russian to be able to read entire newspaper articles but thats besides the point i just think that sherlock knowing several different languages is neat but, Like. its pure chance if she ever manages to learn enough to be able to …. use it. once every several months sherlock will get really really excited about a new foreign language and put in like 2 weeks of work before forgetting about it completely. he has the vocabulary of a very young toddler in half a dozen different languages and is remembering those vocabularies by sheer luck

General Opinion over said character: Im normal iam normal normal im normal and regular . im normal and im normal about him and i dont intend to put him under a microscope or anything. i am not putting him in a little plastic box and shaking him to find out what happens . *extends my hand ibuprofen style* who wants to speculate about dgs in hyperspecific ways with me. hello my like 3 dgs followers do you have thoughts on sherlock holmes. tell them to me. lets all be normal. Anyway uh hes funny

IVE GOTTEN THAT BITCH OUT OF THE WAY LETS TALK ABOUT …… im not even sure. The General Concept of Sherlock Holmes on a Wide Scale, which, like, ultimately probably just boils down to: acd holmes. time to get philosophical with it. thats not the right word.

Sexuality Headcanon: sherlock is either gay or aroace or some more specific combination of all previous terms. Hey does that… even count as headcanon? Ultimately my stance is “whatever as long as sherlock holmes is not interested in women” and it is stated very clearly explicitly and repeatedly in canon that sherlock holmes is not interested in women so . like.

Gender Headcanon: You know what’s funny is expressing disdain for women is an effective way to distance yourself from femininity in general, for instance, to assert masculinity as a trans man, or as a negative reaction to being a trans woman. So. Like.

A ship I have with said character: at first i was like “its just kind of an objective fact that sherlock and watson are gay but i dont have emotional investment in it” but that was a fucking lie

A BROTP I have with said character: SHERLOCK HOLMES DOES NOT HAVE FRIENDS. I DONT FUCKING KNOW, TOBY THE DOG?

A NOTP I have with said character: The next time an adaptation tries to make him and irene adler straight together im going to thr authors house and shooting them point blank. shut up shut up shut up shut up. they would NOT

A random headcanon: man i dont even fucking know. he probably eats food off the floor and i mean this genuinely

General Opinion over said character: Sherlock Holmes is the ultimate Little Freak. Like 80% of the joy of any sherlock holmes media is “Watch this Freak Behave Oddly”. Some people think he would be hard to get along with personally i think we would make very good friends and i would love to hang out with the Freak.

Man. I hope this post isn’t actually as long and hard to look at as it looks in the mobile post editor. Unfortunately it probably is

[holly-fixation]

For the full On the Sea of Crises OST for @birdblacksocialclub I genuinely tried to nail the medieval vibe, mostly tavern rather than epic music because as you can see in the fic here, being stuck in jail fits more of the tavern vibe than the grand scale of epic battlefields and such.

This is the break down of my fan made piece for OTSOC.

Going into this I knew two (2) things about pirate music:

Everything is in the key of D minor. Why? I have no idea. Even The Pirates of the Caribbean's main theme follows this sacred law.

6/8 time is your best friend for pirates. This gives more of the rocky boat feel (but again, I do not know the history behind it). Technically drinking music follows this too! Only with 3/4 time. Fun Fact: The Star Spangled Banner is actually one note off from a British drinking song.

Okay back on topic.

I used those two laws for both piano pieces I made for the OTSOC a while ago. Messing with time and key signatures is fun! It changes the entire mood of Crisis Core's main theme and even Those Chosen by the Planet. So, after researching how to make medieval music through a couple of youtube videos and too much googling for appropriate instruments, I went off.

0:00 - I started with just a drum, tambourine, and a couple of strings playing a basic rhythm to build up. In OTSOC, the first thing you see is Tifa yelling at a guard. I couldn't go straight into Crisis Core's main theme without the man of the hour, Genesis Rhapsodos, appearing in frame. (or the frame equivalent of a comic... a panel?)

0:18 - The melody of Crisis Core's main theme/The SOLDIER Way finally kicks in on violin! But ALSO (what I learned from my many youtube videos), medieval music likes to have counter melodies/harmonies. So though the violin takes the reigns, the flute is playing Roaming in the Afternoon Sun, a song most CC players will recognize from the 3,000 side missions in this game.

0:53 - I give into antient peer pressure with a motif from the final boss theme by giving it to the LUTE. The almighty medieval instrument many know due to its popularity in fantasy settings as well! Taverns always love a good lute! (And so do prisons I guess) The moving baseline on the harp and cello was just for fun. This quiet drop and BEING the final boss theme is (supposed to) line up with Genesis's introduction! He likes his drama and DRAMA means Dynamics must Change!

1:25 - The flashback to Shinra Tower in flames. A bad memory for most, a big moment for our crimson boy. Many walked away injured, but despite the chaos and victory, Sephiroth disappeared some unexplained time after. I can't imagine the news painting that in a good light, and Tifa received this information second hand.

1:36 - A combination of CC's main theme on the flute and Roaming in the Afternoon Sun on the violin, before changing the violin to The Price of Freedom. Obviously Genesis is in Jail now, but he looks like he's having a fun time flirting with the girl he is now stuck with. This continues throughout their flirting.

2:21 - Uh oh. He is coming.

2:27 - The opening of One Winged Angel. Except with the instruments I chose, it sounds more like the rail road crossing alarm when a train goes by (note: this comment has nothing to do with the fic). This is where Genesis (or really his mind) is sucked into the 'Other' World.

2:33 - Obviously this Other World should feel, well, OTHER. So I hope you enjoyed your time with real/pirate instruments, we are now in synthesizer and piano territory, with a couple of other instruments for that tasty flavor. Genesis is in another world. He has absolutely no control. He clearly hates this Other!Sephiroth but can't prevent the Cecaelia from slithering his many tentacles around him as restraints. Other!Sephiroth is toying with Genesis, but it's always smooth, never harsh, always alluring and dragging you (yes you the reader) in. Lastly there is a motif of J-E-N-O-V-A underlying just enough to remind you/Genesis that she's watching. And if I may assume, always watching in this world.

(side comment: 2:33 the One Winged Angel section gives me vibes of FFXV's dungeon theme Unsettling Aura but that's only because of the constant piano driving throughout the rest of the piece)

2:55 - Other!Sephiroth is clearly speaking to something else as well as to Genesis and that should set off some RED FLAGS (or more rail road warnings). This is to make you concerned and feel the OWA again. Interruptions are so distracting, aren't they?

3:00 - J-E-N-O-V-A takes over and you hear it through the end. Everything is uncomfortable and dissonant and wrong and perfect. The last note doesn't resolve because this quest is far from over. The threat is far from over.

"...For you are beloved by the Goddess. And it is almost time to come home to her, Genesis." - Other!Sephiroth

.

...Bottom line, I had a lot of fun making this! This was just a fun little project for one of my favorite fics and writers. It gave me a chance to expand my horizons and hopefully put a smile on said writer's face.

Please check out basically any work by @birdblacksocialclub because she is fantastic!

[vonkarma2]

3, 5, 8, 13, 16 for zeolan for the worldbuilding asks?

3.) any recurring images/elements?

Hmmm this is kind of broad so I’m not totally sure how to interpret it I guess I will go with like. If it was a tv show. What visual motifs or recurring shots would there be. I think if there were constantly shots of Rocio alone like in an empty space that would be kind of funny imagine watching a show and there’s an obvious meta narrative focus on how lonely you are I’d be so mad. That and shots of like her back while she’s reading something or working on something like she’s closed off to the world or whatever. Definitely a lot of contrast of darkness vs light though for sure like places with people in them being associated with yellow/orange light whereas empty places are associated with the dark. 

Also there would probably be many unnecessarily long shots focusing on nature and the environment around the characters bc that’s what I personally like to see 

5.) pick a theme song for the tv adaptation.

life itself glass animals 😞😞😞 rip to the animatic I started in early 2022. theres a whole vision. for variety ill also say the definitive end credits song would be 

8.) what inspired your world building, if anything?

Honestly. Not much lol I feel like a lot of it is just me trying to make something that appeals to me personally just thinking of like aesthetics 

in the extended secret worldbuilding there are some aspects inspired by or influenced by real history. that being said I try not to avoid making that too direct or have it come up too often bc 1) it’s easy to make it extremely tasteless or at least inaccurate/shallow in its portrayal ofc 2) it is ultimately a fantasy world where I wanted to make shit up + have everything be original rather than have like. direct copies of real places + events. I think it’s like background concepts can be to some extent based on reality but specific events are all homebrewed yk

sundown 2020

probably fullmetal alchemist like subconsciously. wrt the magic system not the world itself 

I guess you could say I was inspired by actively trying to go against like. Tolkien esque or popular YA fantasy tropes of the late 2010s early 2020s. Bc a lot of what made me want to make the story in the first place was being tired of and annoyed by the kind of tone that was prevalent in YA fantasy at the time 

I literally CAN’T think of much this is so sad. My worldbuilding is just too original you guys 😔 

no lol but yeah it mostly wasn’t inspired by anything specific which is a shame bc I do think looking at things you were influenced by is pretty fun

they don’t know the wizard system is fully ripped off from how the wings of fire books used animus magic expect it’s learned instead of born 

13.) how long have you been working on this project? what has changed from the outset?

A little over 3 years like since February 2020 :3. I love this question it feels very behind the scenes like Im talking in a documentary.  Mostly the structure of the story has become much more linear when the original was like arcs based if that makes sense? Like episodic even though the episodes were pretty large in scale + theoretical length. Ofc a lot of the characters’ personalities have as well. I think the main focus too like initially it was just for fun but when I first added like a vague general central theme it was a lot abt dissociation from your identity + the weight of living and things like that. Life is hard but it’s worth it <3 And now there’s more focus on the nuances of interpersonal connection and things like that. I do like the original theme though I wouldn’t want to drop that idea entirely even though I’d probably want to have it show up in a more nuanced or subtle way idk 

16.) imagine the entire story takes place but in the meantime the characters all also have tumblr. what kind of (terrible) tumblr posts would happen?

rocio would hate all forms of social media viscerally. if she absolutely has to use it then it’s several thousand word long rants that stay in the drafts for eternity 

cirillo probably the type to just use it as a diary 

angel runs an extremely popular yet controversial fan page for enstars or some shit (<I mean. in universe it would be about 1400s romance novels) but occasionally vagues abt his personal life and everything he says sounds extremely concerning. And then like once he ends up on the news everyone’s like omg… bone stealing witch tier drama 

gloria only posts thirst traps + posts that are like “will be in [x city] tomorrow if anyone wants to meet up 👅” with every location change

[dravidious]

You're sooooooo cool!

Posting my 5000+ word monster-maker TTRPG now.

When you dive into the world of imaginative roleplay, do you want to be a human? How about a dwarf? How about a lightning-spitting web-slinging flying pig? Welcome to Chimera Quest, where you craft a unique monster and use its cool abilities to go on adventures and creatively solve problems!

HOW TO START

For materials, you'll need two six-sided dice and pencil and paper to write down your powers and track stamina. For players, you're expected to have one or more players that play as monsters and one Game Master (GM) to control the world. However, it's probably possible to play without a GM.

Talk with your playgroup about what kind of game you want to play. Figure out the tone and what you'll be doing; should it be light-hearted and silly with lots of weird environments and social interaction? Action-packed and exciting with combat and dungeons? Dark and serious with survival elements? Setting expectations is important; if one player is expecting a casual game while another expects something hardcore, someone's not going to have fun.

After establishing what you want to do, create your monsters!

MONSTER CREATION

First, think about what you want your monster to be; a big fire-breathing dragon? A quick sneaky ninja-turtle? What do you want to be able to do? Once you have your idea, start looking through the POWERS section to build your monster. Players get 6 Power Points to get powers and upgrades, with every power and upgrade costing 1 point. You might not be able to get everything you want, so you'll have to compromise; your big mighty dragon might not be able to fly very fast, or your ninja turtle might not be very strong.

If the playgroup agrees, you can raise or lower the amount of Power Points players get, to either make powerful monsters with lots of abilities, or to keep things small and simple for a new player's first session. And honestly, I haven't done any real testing, so I chose 6 because it just feels right. It might be too much or too little.

Example character building: Dragon. We want a big, fire-breathing dragon, so let's find fire breath first. The Elemental power gives us fire, and then the Long Range upgrade lets us shoot fire. That's fire breath! Dragons fly, so we want the Flight power. However, we probably want to rain down fire from above while flying, so we need the Effortless Flight upgrade. Finally, our dragon needs to be big and strong, so let's get the Brute Strength power.

There's a lot more we could give to our dragon; fire resistance, armored scales, stronger fire breath, sharp teeth and claws, faster flight, even more brute strength... but we only have 1 point left. We need to focus on what we really want from this dragon. Personally, I want powerful fire breath, so I'll get the Extra Potent upgrade to the Elemental power.

Example character building: Ninja turtle. To be a ninja, we want to be sneaky and agile. The Camouflage and Acrobat powers can help with that. To be a turtle, a hard shell can be done with the Armored power. After that, we've got 3 points left and many options:

The Aquatic power gives some seaturtle flavor and can help with ninja infiltrations, the Projectile power can represent ninja stars (maybe flavored as throwing shards of the shell?), the Dexterous power lets us skillfully use objects and tools, the Invisibility upgrade to Camouflage gives excellent stealth, the Climber power helps scale walls and infiltrate buildings, or the Athlete power lets us run quicker and jump higher.

If we want to fight, let's get Projectile. Extra mobility seems helpful, so let's get Climber. Climber gives us options, so let's get 2 and 3; we can climb fast and take actions while climbing. And a ninja that can't use tools sounds pretty useless, so let's get Dexterous. We now have an agile, sneaky ninja with plenty of ninja tools at its disposal!

While your powers define "what" your monster is, "who" your monster is is important for roleplaying. There's a lot you can do with backstory and personality, but the only thing that will be mechanically relevant is your three aspects. Choose three words or phrases that define things about your character that aren't shown in your powers; what skills have they trained? What topics are they knowledgeable about? What connections do they have to other characters or factions?

These aspects can give characters advantages; a character that's trained in detective work will be great at scanning a crime scene for clues or tracking down a missing person. A character that is obsessed with plants will likely be able to identify dangerous ones in the wild.

Example aspects: Dragon. Dragons love hoarding gold, so if we want to make this a nice, stereotypical dragon, we can give it the aspect "Greedy Hoarder". This will help our dragon when it wants to steal some treasure for its hoard, or when taking revenge on someone who stole from it. Our dragon might also consider its friends to be part of its hoard, and will defend them just as fiercely!

Speaking of gold, if our dragon loves it so much, let's give it the aspect "Gold and Crystals and Gems, Oh My!" Not only will this help it acquire treasure for its hoard, but our dragon probably knows a lot about these valuables. It can probably recognize whether a treasure is real or fake, and may even be able to identify magical jewels!

Finally, such a big, strong monster probably has an ego just as big!.. Or maybe not. It might be more interesting if our dragon has a soft side! "Sensitive Heart" might show that our dragon is more likely to burst into tears when insulted rather than roar with rage, but also helps it be more aware of others' feelings, and help it show care and compassion.

Example aspects: Ninja turtle. Ninjas have plenty of skills outside just physical abilities, so let's represent some of that with an aspect. "Master of Trickery" gives our ninja a bonus to deception, disguising, and misdirection. Say, how did our turtle become a ninja? Maybe they were "Taught by a Rat Mentor", which gives them an ally they might be able to call on for help, or gives them knowledge about rats and other rodents. And of course, our ninja turtle "Fights Against an Enemy Ninja Clan", giving them an enemy the GM can use and giving them knowledge about anti-ninja tactics.

The last thing you can do is give your monster weaknesses. If there's one last power you really want your monster to have, you can give your monster a weakness from the WEAKNESSES section to get an extra Power Point. You can only get one extra point, or else monsters could get too complicated with like 10 different abilities to keep track of, but feel free to give your monster as many weaknesses as you want if you feel like it would be more fun and interesting.

Example weakness: Dragon. It doesn't feel quite right that our dragon doesn't have any defense powers; surely such a huge beast would be more resilient, right? Let's give our dragon the Armored power to let it stand strong against powerful blows! But, a big monster is a big target, and probably isn't very agile, so let's give it a fitting weakness. The Sluggish weakness represents our dragon's big, slow body; a big strong dragon can't move quick or dodge well, after all.

Tip: When creating your monster, talk with your other players; it might be pretty awkward if you brought your super cool and unique ice dragon to the table, only to find out that another player also made an ice dragon. Not to say that you can't have two ice dragons, just make sure everyone knows what's happening. You could even coordinate it to have the ice dragons be twins or rivals, or make other relationships between the party's monsters!

Also make sure to show your character to the GM; they might have certain ideas about how the game will play out, and you don't want to end up with an aquatic monster in a desert setting. At least give the GM a heads-up so they can prepare rivers and oasis. And if you are the GM, make sure your players don't feel like their monsters' powers are useless; give them chances to use their monsters to the fullest!

PLAYING THE GAME

Once the game's expectations have been established and all the players have their custom monsters, it's time to play! The GM starts the story with some sort of plot hook, which will likely depend on the party, if they know each other, and what their goals are:

If the party is a mercenary group, they might be hired to go explore a cave where strange things have been happening. Maybe all the monsters just happen to be in the same place, when a giant, conqueror dragon appears! Maybe the party lives peacefully together in the forest, when it comes under attack by humans! Maybe the each monster hears the same rumor about an ancient treasure, and they end up teaming up to search for it. Anything to get the party into the action!

From there, play consists of the players making choices about what to do, where to go, what to say, until something uncertain happens that requires a dice roll. See the TESTS section for that.

The most important thing to remember is that everyone at the table wants to have fun; do awesome stuff with your powers, yes, but try to help other players to cool stuff too! And the GM put lots of effort into preparing everything, so engage with the things they've made! Roleplay with the other players' monsters, and get to know all their cool backstory and interesting personality.

And as mentioned earlier, GMs should make sure that every monster gets a chance to show off; if a monster has flight, give them a test of their flying skills. If a monster has poison resistance, throw a powerful venomous enemy at the party. If a monster has the weakness Element Vulnerability fire, threaten them with fire every now and then. If a monster has the aspect "Curse Researcher", put some curses in the game, or maybe even make one central to the plot. Players made their monsters for a reason!

TESTS

So you want to do something challenging or risky; leap across a giant chasm, dodge arrows from a dungeon trap, trick the werewolf into believing you're a "were-goblin", or just punch the werewolf in the face? You'll need to do a test.

The GM determines when a test is needed, and sets the difficulty. The default difficulty is 8, and is often modified by the situation or characters involved; sneaking around at night is easier (-1), but deceiving a genius wizard is difficult (+1)... unless you stroke the wizard's ego: "You're a genius, you'd never fall for any tricks from a simple spider-pig like me" (+0).

Difficulty guide:

6: Very easy (if difficulty is less than 6, don't bother rolling, just auto-succeed)

7: Easy

8: Moderate

9: Hard

10+: Very hard

Once the GM is ready (they can choose whether to tell you the difficulty or keep it secret), the player rolls two six-sided dice (2d6), then adds +1 to their total for each bonus they have; cutting a rope with your Teeth & Claws power? You get +1. And you have the aspect "Rope Expert"? Another +1. And you have Element Power fire to burn the rope with flaming claws? +1 again! And a teammate with Element Power fire is helping you burn it? Power of friendship +1!

Anything that would hinder you will give -1; shoving a heavy boulder while you have the Wimpy weakness gives -1. And you're poisoned with a weakness toxin? Another -1. And it has the Potent Toxin upgrade? -1 again.

Add all your modifiers to your total, and if you roll above the difficulty, you succeed! If you roll below, you fail and face consequences. If you tie...

The default rule for ties is: If it makes something change, you succeed, otherwise you fail. If you're trying to open a locked door, then if you succeed, the door will open. That causes a change, so you'll succeed if you tie. If your trying to dodge falling boulders, then if you succeed, nothing happens; you just don't get squished. So if you tie, you'll fail and get squished, because that WILL make something change. If it's unclear, the GM has final say on what happens; in unique circumstances, a tie might have a unique middle-ground result.

What if a GM-controlled character tries to do something to a player, like the werewolf punching you back? Or when a player attacks another player? Two options. 1: Roll 2d6 and add the monster's relevant modifiers, then use that as the difficulty. 2: Start with a difficulty of 7, then add all the monster's modifiers to get the difficulty. Either way, the relevant player then rolls against that difficulty as normal. As usual, a tie results in a win for whoever is trying to change something; the werewolf will win this tie because getting punched in the face is a change.

Tip: If for any reason a player wants to fail a roll, they may do so (such as letting the kracken grab them to get closer). If a player/character isn't rolling, but setting the difficulty instead, they can let the roll auto-succeed. If BOTH parties want to fail somehow, then the roll proceeds as normal, except "success" in this case means intentionally getting grabbed, missing your punch, etc. Just in case that somehow comes up.

DANGER & STAMINA

The world is often unsafe for a crew of monsters. Dungeon traps, freezing cold, hungry predators, lots of things can hurt you, and you can only shrug off so much. Each player monster has a reserve of 10 stamina, and when something hurts them, they'll lose some stamina. Physical damage isn't the only thing that reduces stamina; mental or emotional hardships can hurt the same way, like being scared out of your wits by a ghost, or being confronted with the realization that you've been wrong about a core belief.

When a monster is threatened with harm, a test is required, with difficulty set by the GM. If the monster fails the test, they lose stamina equal to 1 + the difference between the difficulty and their roll; if the difficulty is 7 and they roll a 5, they lose 3 stamina. If the difficulty is 8 and they roll an 8, they lose 1. If a player monster attacks an GM-controlled monster, it works similarly; on a success, the GM's monster loses stamina equal to 1 + the difference between the player's roll and the difficulty.

When a monster has no stamina left, they become unable to take significant action; they'll automatically fail all tests, and only be able to perform easy actions like walking, speaking, and eating. If a monster would lose any more stamina while in this state, they fall unconscious.

Monsters recover stamina by eating and resting. If the party finds some food and has enough time to sit down and eat it, each monster that eats a meal regains 4 stamina. Monsters can also rest for 8 hours (usually sleeping, but some species might not, idk), which will recover all their lost stamina. But you can't recover on an empty stomach; you'll only recover your stamina if you've eaten a meal within the past 24 hours.

Finally, you don't only lose stamina from being hurt. Monsters can also push their limits and spend stamina to get a bonus on a roll. When you roll a test, you can spend up to 2 stamina. You'll get a bonus to that roll equal to the stamina spent. You must choose whether to spend stamina BEFORE you roll the dice.

Optional Rule - Survival Mode: It might be a little too easy to regain stamina, which would kinda ruin a serious, survival-centric game. To make stamina a more valuable resource for those types of games, you can use the following bonus rules: Monsters can only eat something if they have a power that allows them to eat it, such as Herbivore, Omnivore, or Iron Stomach. Monsters get an extra Power Point to get one of these powers. All stamina recovery is halved; eating a plant meal with Herbivore recovers 4 instead of 8, eating a meal with Omnivore recovers 3, resting recovers half of your maximum stamina, etc.

ENEMY MONSTERS

To make an enemy monster for the players to fight, give it stamina depending on how many enemies there are at once and how hard you want the fight to be; 1 or 2 stamina if the players are outnumbered, 3 or 4 if it's an even match, and 5 or more if the players outnumber the enemies by 2 or more. Give each enemy a few powers, including at least one that's helpful in combat (such as Crushing Hammer, Projectile, or Armored). You can use the random tables in the "GM-less Play" document to help with this.

TIME-SENSITIVE SCENARIOS

Your boat is on fire? You're being ambushed by hunters? The room is filling with poison gas? In frantic situations like these, it's important to know who gets to act when, and how often. All players roll 2d6 and add any relevant modifiers to decide what order they'll act in, highest total first. A player can intentionally lower their total if their strategy requires acting after a certain party member. The GM can roll or just choose when non-player characters will act.

When a character's turn comes up, they can only do one action; do they shoot fire at the enemy? Or try using their Mind Control power? Or climb a tree to get a good position for next turn? Or shove off the enemy that's pinning their ally? You only get one shot, so choose wisely. There's no hard rules for what counts as "one action", so it's up to the GM's judgment. Usually, if it requires a test, it's probably an action. However, speaking usually doesn't count as an action, except when trying to persuade or convince someone.

POWERS

For many powers, you can get them multiple times to get multiple options; for example, you can get Element Resistance with fire, then get it again with poison. When you get multiple of the same power, they are effectively separate powers that are upgraded separately, so they don't share upgrades; if you get the Full Immunity upgrade with fire resistance, you won't automatically get Full Immunity with your poison resistance.

Each upgrade can normally only be obtained once. If you have multiple of the same power, you can get the same upgrade for both, because they're separate powers; you can get Elemental with fire and get the Extra Potent upgrade, then you can also get Elemental poison and get Extra Potent with that as well. Or you could get totally different combinations of upgrades. Again, each multiple is a separate, independent power.

Powers that give a flat boost (like Armored) cannot be taken multiple times to stack the effect, unless otherwise stated (like Omnivore).

INTERACTION

These powers allow you to interact with objects, the environment, or other monsters in unique ways.

Teeth & Claws: Your body has some sort of sharp implement; sharp claws, piercing teeth, a bladed tail, etc. You can cut and stab things with it.

Upgrade - Razor Sharp: You get an additional +1 to rolls that use your sharp thing. You can get this upgrade multiple times.

Crushing Hammer: Your body has some sort of bludgeoning implement; a hard head, a hammer-like tail, or maybe just a solid punch. You can smash things with it.

Upgrade - Sledgehammer: You get an additional +1 to rolls that use your blunt thing. You can get this upgrade multiple times.

Brute Strength: You're really strong. You can lift, shove, carry, and throw things really well.

Upgrade - Bodybuilder: You get an additional +1 to rolls that involve lifting, shoving, etc. You can get this upgrade multiple times.

Elemental: Choose an element (fire, lightning, poison, darkness, sound, etc.). You can create that element and deliver it by touch; you can light things on fire, extinguish a light source, produce poison from your hands, zap an annoying party member, etc.

Upgrade - Extra Potent: Your element is stronger, giving you an additional +1 to rolls that use it. You can get this upgrade multiple times.

Upgrade - Long Range: You can shoot your element at a distance.

Element Control: Choose an element. You can control (but not create) your chosen element while in close proximity, but you are limited to a normal person's physical strength. You can also sense your element nearby.

Upgrade - Powerful Control: You can lift, move, throw, etc. your element with high strength.

Upgrade - Distant Control: You can control and sense your element from great distances.

Long Reach: You have long/stretchy arms or some other prehensile appendage, letting you grab and interact with things from far away.

Dexterous: You have thumbs! Or just extreme dexterity. You can skillfully manipulate and wield objects and tools.

Multi-Limbs: You have several arms, tentacles, etc., and you know how to multitask. You can interact with two things at once, but you have -1 on rolls when doing so.

Upgrade - Even More Limbs: Via more limbs or better multitasking, you can interact with an additional thing at once. You can get this upgrade multiple times.

Venom Debilitation: You can produce a special toxin that weakens the victim for a few minutes. Choose one of the options below.

Weakness: The victim has reduced physical strength.

Vulnerable: The victim is less wary or otherwise more vulnerable.

Slow: The victim has reduced speed and/or stamina, making it hard to move around.

Stun: The victim has a low chance to become paralyzed, fall asleep, etc. This effect wears off if the victim is hurt.

Upgrade - Potent Toxins: Increase the effects of your chosen toxin (in most cases, this means they give -2 instead of -1). Stun does not benefit from this upgrade.

Upgrade - Potent Infection: Your rolls to apply your toxin have +2.

Upgrade - Long-Term Debilitation: Your toxin lasts for 24 hours.

Projectile: Your body has some tool that you can throw or shoot, like a D&D manticore's tail spikes.

Upgrade - Sniper: You can throw/shoot your projectiles at a very long range, and with excellent accuracy.

Upgrade - Cannon: Your projectiles strike with high force.

Upgrade - Explosive: On impact, your projectiles explode into something chosen when you get this upgrade; spikes, shrapnel, fire, poison, etc.

Reckless: Most creature's bodies have built-in strength limits to stop them from hurting themselves. Yours doesn't. When you roll a test, you can spend any amount of stamina to get a bonus on that test equal to the stamina spent. If you spend all your stamina this way, you fall unconscious immediately afterward.

Telepathy: You have the ability to project your thoughts into others' minds, and to hear their responses. You can communicate out to a range of about 60 feet, and you can talk through most walls. You and your target can project words and images, but you cannot read any thoughts not intentionally sent to you.

Upgrade - Mind Reading: You can attempt to forcefully read a target's mind. Even after you succeed, the target can try to force you out. When a target successfully resists, they become immune for 24 hours.

Upgrade - Mental Manipulation: You can make your target see, hear, smell, etc., illusions.

Upgrade - Mind Control (requires Mind Reading): You can overwhelm the will of a target and make them obey your commands. You cannot force someone to harm themself or others that they wouldn't want to harm. After one hour, the effect wears off. When it wears off or when a target successfully resists, they become immune for 24 hours (immunity from your Mind Reading applies to this, and vice versa).

Keen Senses: Choose one of these benefits (you can get both by taking this power twice). Sight: You can see extremely far and are excellent at spotting tiny details or movements. Other: You have extremely good hearing, smell, and taste, able to notice and recognize even tiny sounds or traces of a substance.

MOBILITY

These powers give you new ways to move around, letting you traverse areas that others can't.

Aquatic: You can swim at your normal walking speed, and you can hold your breath for up to 10 minutes. You also have resistance to water-based harmful effects. (Note: This is basically Element Resistance with water, but I felt the need to make it separate because "resistance to water" doesn't sound very useful.)

Upgrade - Fish: You can swim at double speed, and can breathe underwater. You are also immune to water-based harmful effects.

Climber: Choose two of these benefits (you can get all four by taking this power twice). 1: You can climb almost any surface with ease, even smooth or slippery ones, and even ceilings. 2: You can take actions normally while climbing (such as by holding on with just your feet, leaving your hands free). 3: You can climb at your normal walking speed. 4: You can hold on to a climbing surface very tightly, making it hard for anything to knock you off.

Flight: You have wings or some other method of flying. You fly at half your normal walking speed, and while flying, your ability to take actions is limited as you must focus your effort on staying in the air.

Upgrade - Swift Flight: You can fly at your normal walking speed. You can get this upgrade again to fly at double speed.

Upgrade - Effortless Flight: You can take actions normally while flying.

Acrobat: Your body's agility and flexibility allow you to flip, hop, and parkour your way to glory!

Athlete: Your body is optimized for track and field. While on the ground, you can run at double your normal speed. You can jump very high and far.

Upgrade - Sprinter: You can run at triple speed.

Upgrade - Frog: You can jump absurdly high and far.

Burrower: You can dig tunnels through dirt, and you can dig through sand (but you won't leave a tunnel).

Upgrade - Rapid Digging: You can burrow at a rate of half your normal walking speed. You can get this upgrade multiple times, increasing your speed by +50% of your normal speed each time.

SURVIVAL

These powers help you not die, such as by giving resistance to harmful effects or by giving you more stamina from eating.

Armored: You have a sturdy shell, hard scales, a thick hide, etc. You have +1 to resist physical harmful effects (bites & scratches, falling boulders, falling from a high height, etc).

Upgrade - Tank: You have +2 resistance.

Element Resistance: Choose an element. You are immune to minor harmful effects of that element (extreme heat from fire, electric zaps, poison gas) and you have +1 to resist major harmful effects.

Upgrade - Full Immunity: You are fully immune to all harmful effects of the chosen element (you can swim in lava, eat poisonous mushrooms). Note that in the case of effects that aren't purely elemental (such as a venomous bite), you will ignore the elemental aspect, but not the entire effect (it's still a bite (you are not immune to teeth (you can get immunity to teeth also, I guess))).

Herbivore: You regain +4 stamina from eating plants. This power stacks if you get it multiple times.

Carnivore: You regain +4 stamina from eating meat. This power stacks if you get it multiple times. (NOTE: Make sure to ask your play group first before doing a cannibalism. Don't make people uncomfortable.)

Omnivore: You regain +2 stamina from eating. This power stacks if you get it multiple times.

Iron Stomach: "Inedible" is a subjective term. You can eat pretty much any organic matter, including poisonous or rotten things, but you'll only regain 2 stamina from a meal of things not normally edible (if you eat a mixed meal, such as a salad of fresh apples and poisonous mushrooms, you'll regain 3 stamina).

Hungerless: Your body is extremely efficient with food. Even if you haven't eaten all day, you regain all your stamina when you rest as long as you've eaten within the past week.

Vampire: Once per day, you can eat a meal by sucking blood from a living creature. The bite has -2 to succeed on an unwilling victim. The victim loses 4 stamina. If the victim didn't have any stamina, you regain only 2 stamina. This meal does not benefit from Omnivore nor Carnivore.

SPECIAL

These powers do weird things that don't fit in the other categories.

Camouflage: Your skin/scales/whatever can change color and texture to blend in with your surroundings, letting you hide more easily.

Upgrade - Invisibility: You can turn transparent, but your ability to take actions is limited as you must focus your effort on staying invisible.

Shapeshift: You can change your body's shape, appearance, and size at will. You retain all your powers when transformed.

Upgrade - Specialized Form: Choose two powers, or one power and an upgrade for it. When you transform, you can give up access to your other powers to gain access to your chosen power(s). You can get this upgrade multiple times, but you can only gain access to any two of your chosen powers/upgrades at a time.

Silk Spinner: You can produce a thread-like material from your body. It's very durable, but it takes time to produce.

Upgrade - Sticky Web: When you produce thread, you can make it very sticky.

Upgrade - Mass Production: You can produce so much thread so fast that you can shoot it out at high-speed!

Living Storage: You can store stuff somewhere in or on your body, such as in a kangaroo pouch, without needing to actively carry it. You have about enough capacity to store a small monster or one meal worth of food (completely unrelated examples, don't worry about it).

Upgrade - Warehouse: Doubles your capacity. You can get this upgrade again to triple it, and again to quadruple, etc.

WEAKNESSES

Wimpy: Maybe you're small, or maybe you're just weak. You're bad at things that require physical brute strength, such as lifting, shoving, or throwing heavy things, or just punching stuff.

Clumsy: Your limbs are awful at manipulating objects, most likely due to not having fingers. You have trouble grabbing/throwing things and using tools.

Poor Sight: You have very poor eyesight. Choose two (or all three, if you want. or one, but you won't get a point). 1: You can only see things within about 15 feet. If your game isn't at a human-size scale, adjust range accordingly. 2: Everything is blurry, and you can only see general shapes. 3: You are colorblind.

Upgrade (downgrade?) - Blindness: You cannot see at all. I recommend getting Keen Senses to make up for this. Reminder: Getting this up/downgrade won't give you another extra point, it's just for fun.

Deafness: You cannot hear, and can be caught by surprise more easily by unseen threats. It is implied that you have some form of communication with your allies, such as sign language or writing, but it will be harder to communicate in some situations.

Sluggish: Maybe you have a big, cumbersome body, or maybe you're just not agile. You're bad at things that involve quick, sudden movement, like dodging falling boulders or breaking into a sprint.

Slow: You're a snail, a turtle, or otherwise just have a low top speed. Your normal speed is halved (this applies to all forms of movement).

Obligate Fish: You automatically get the Aquatic power and can breathe underwater, but you cannot breathe outside of water nor walk on land. You can still hold your breath for 10 minutes outside water. (Make sure to ask your GM before picking this, it forces a lot of water into the game that might limit environment options.)

Fragile: Your small and/or vulnerable body is weak against physical threats. You have -1 to resist physical harmful effects, such as bites/scratches, falling boulders, or falling from a high height.

Element Vulnerability: Maybe you're a monster made of fire that's weak to water, or a plant monster that's weak to poison. Choose an element. You have -2 to resist harmful effects of that element.

Obligate Diet: Choose plants, meat, or blood. You cannot eat anything other than the chosen food. You cannot get this weakness in survival mode.

Big Eater: You have a big stomach and/or very high metabolism. Your meals need to be twice as big. If you eat a normal-sized meal, you get only half the benefits (you regain half as much stamina, and when you rest on a half-full stomach, you'll only regain half your maximum stamina).

I'M NOT A GAME DESIGNER

This is not a professional game, and I have never actually played it with anyone. All the numbers for stamina, power points, and difficulty are based mostly on gut feelings and estimations, and none of the powers or rules have seen any testing. Use these rules as suggestions, guides, and ideas, not as absolute.

If you have an idea for a unique power not mentioned here, or if you think a power mentioned here should work differently, talk with your playgroup and homebrew to your heart's content. Especially if you've actually played the game. Same goes for altering everything else; rules, numbers, whatever.

[lemongogo]

you freaking out bc shigaraki's gonna fuck shit up is SUCH a mood and you're so valid

AHDBHJBDAJDH thank u , we r on shigaraki lockdown

his quirk is jst , so genuinely exciting to me. his has to be my favorite of the series , with tamaki and mirio right behind him. its just !!!!! WOO!!! the imagery of collapsed buildings and demolished landscapes is  so cool. thats what i loved most about the deika city incident

AND THEN THSI WHHICH WAS SO FUCKING COOL  QDWFWJFWWW

im so unbelievably happy that we’re getting it again here, nearly a year since mla . AA and to think like,, this is the same quirk but magnified. my mmind is going buckwild rn . the summary of 272 is enough to get me worked up

and speaking thru a v superficial shounen lens, i loved midoriya’s dread in this chapter . the fact that he’s stricken by terror at shigaraki’s return just showcases how powerful and intense it all is . and idk but im a sucker for those moments in movies/tv shows/whatever where like. something big is about to happen , the music stops and everyhting just idk. explodes? AA i cant explain what i mean but THTS what i felt like with 272 AND IM SKFNSDFJ A  A A AAAAAAAAA THATS MY FAVORITE ( best i can pull up rn is this clip -- mp100 s2 spoilers https://youtu.be/gPzNTcsSywg?t=134 but hopefully ygwim)

like. midoriya is frozen in fear ,, he senses that somethings not right,somethings about to happen. we need to get out of there, etc, etc- turns around and you essentially just see the hospital and everything before you explode in this state of decay

anyways  . thank u for the validation and thank u , tomura, for the awesome battles

[pretoriafics]

Teenage Dream

I think this one is the most fun thing I'd ever written. Maybe it can be a new series, I don't know. What do you think?

You were just reading smut fanfics about Derek Hale before sleep. When you woke up, you find that someway, you got into the Teen Wolf universe. Word count: 1.890 Pairings: Different Dimension!Reader x Derek; Different Dimension!Reader x Platonic!Scott; Different Dimension!Reader x Platonic!Stiles Contain: It's pretty fun; You dying of shame; AU Warnings: English is not my main language <3; Inappropriate language PART 2 ALTERNATIVE VERSION TEEN WOLF MASTERLIST

It was a calm night. You were lying on your bed with your bedroom in darkness. In your hand, you were with your cell phone. You had just read on Tumblr brand new smut fanfic with Derek Hale, one of your most-loved fictional characters. You found another one with Stiles - a platonic fluff fic this time -, and you will read it when you woke up. You were almost sleeping, and you are not capable of reading it now. You just have to sleep.

You put your cell phone on your bedside table and fell asleep quickly. But when you woke up, you found yourself in a different and familiar bedroom. You sit on the waitress and look around.

It was a sunny morning outside, and you were still in your cheesy kitten print pajamas. The bed, the walls... Everything sounds familiar to you: It was Scott McCall's bedroom. At first sight, you thought it was such a real dream. However, when you stood up from the waitress, you hit your little finger on the bed.

"Fuuuck!"

You sat on the waitress, holding your foot. Damn! That pain's too real for all of that to be a dream. While you grab your foot, you look around again. You could smell cologne and some low noises from outside the house. A little bit more confused right now, you stood up and walks around the bedroom. Getting close to the window, you could see a familiar jeep.

No, no, no. It was impossible. All of this is just a hyper-realistic dream.

You walk in wide steps to the bathroom and look at you through the mirror. Well, you are the one reflected there. What the hell? Should you go downstairs? Should you stay right here, waiting for something happens?

Hell no.

You take a deep breath and open the bedroom door, walking downstairs on tiptoes. Then, you heard two familiar voices.

"I don't know, Stiles! She just appeared in my bedroom!"

"How she is? Does she have scales? Fangs?"

"She's just a normal girl. We have to do something! If she is a psychopath creature?"

"Scott, I'm serious. We need to call Derek."

"No! We don't need another sociopath near us. We need to take care of it all by ourselves."

You heard Stiles let out a long sigh.

"You even know how to control yourself yet, Scott. Derek is used to dealing with strange things like this. We have to call him."

"Shh! She woke up!"

Well, you were exposed.

You finish getting downstairs and walk close to the living room frame. Scott and Stiles were in the middle of the room, and they look at you scared. Your eyes got widen, and the room dives into a weird silence for a few seconds. Yeah, you aren't crazy: Somehow, you got into the Teen Wolf series.

And when you realize it...

"Oh my gosh." You put your hands on your head, in shock and so excited at the same time. "Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh!"

Scott and Stiles look at each other with a 'what the hell?' in the eyes. You turn yourself to look around. Yeah, it was Scott's house! Your inner teenager was freaking out.

"Scott..." Stiles looks at his friend "Calls Derek."

Scott already was with his cell phone in his hands.

"I'm already calling."

Man, how did you get there?! Excited, you open the door and runs outside without care about being in pajamas in the middle of the street. Derek finally answers Scott's call.

"Derek?! Oh, thank god!"

Scott almost could hear Derek's muscles get tense.

"...What happened?"

"There's a girl who suddenly appeared on my bed, and she's freaking out!"

"What do you mean with 'suddenly appeared'?"

"Suddenly, Derek! She wasn't there in a second, and then she just was!"

And then, you saw Stiles' jeep. Oh, man, you loved that jeep so much!! Excited and freaking out, you ran to the jeep. Stiles almost had a heart attack.

"No, no, don't touch my jeep!!"

But it was too late.

"Oh my gosh!!" You touch Stiles' jeep just as if it was of gold.

Stiles run to you, and Derek starts to understand that something pretty wrong was happening.

"Scott, who's yelling? You know what? Forget it. I'm coming. Took this girl in your bedroom, don't let her escape."

Derek turns the call off, and Scott puts his cell phone in his pocket. Scott approaches you, and Stiles hasn't the courage to approach you yet. So, he was just staring at you, praying that you don't do anything with his precious jeep.

"Hey!" Scott calls you, and you look at him. His voice was hesitant, but he was trying to control things "I think you should get into the house. I mean, right now."

You blink your eyes repeatedly at Scott, frozen in your place. Yeah, you were inside your favorite series when you were a teenager, with all your favorite characters... But, you know about Beacon Hills. The city was full of secrets and dangers. Until yesterday, you could see Scott and his friends escaping from death numerous times. This time, you will be the one who does it.

And this is not good.

"...Oh my gosh."

This time, your words were not from excitement but fear. Man, you're so fucked up.

You swallowed hard and got into Scott's house. The boy looks at Stiles, confused.

"I thought that took the girl inside my house would be harder."

They got into the house, looking at your shape sit on the couch. Now, you look terrified.

"Uhh..." Stiles looks at you, trying to find out something "How did you-"

"You guys need to send me home! Something went wrong, and I came here."

Scott and Stiles look at each other. It was Scott's turn to say something to you.

"What exactly went wrong?"

"I don't know! Look, I was just trying to sleep on my bed, and when I woke up, I was here."

"What are you?"

"Nothing, I'm just human. Do you guys did something that could have brought me here?"

They denied with his heads, so confused as you. Scott and Stiles were relatively new to the supernatural world. So, they are completely lost. You bit your inner lip, thoughtful.

"Something big made it. I mean, I'm definitely not from here."

Scott and Stiles stare at you with a scared gaze. Then, you all hear a car noise: It was Derek's Camaro. He was parking in front of Scott's house. Your eyes got widened when you saw it. Oh, man, you absolutely haven't the maturity to deal with Derek. Well, first of all: You were reading smut fanfic about him last night. Worse: It was an imagine! And you even want to remember the fact that, when the show got to its end, you and your best friend made tattoos. She tattoed the McCall Pack symbol on her arm, and, well, you tattooed a small triskelion between your boobs.

Man, you were dying of shame. It is such an odd situation. Anyone would never know about your tattoo or the fanfics.

Derek got into the house, and his eyes run to you immediately, and then he looks at Scott and Stiles. You felt your cheeks burning. Such an odd situation!!

"What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing!" Scott said, too nervous "She just came out of nowhere."

Derek narrowed his green eyes to Scott and Stiles, and then he looks at you. You already knew what he could ask you, so you started to talk.

"Either do I! Look" You took a deep breath, trying to contain all that mess of feelings inside of you "I was in my bedroom sleeping, and then I woke up here. But there something pretty important you guys should know about me: I am definitely not from here. When I came from, anyone of you exists. You all are fictional characters from a tv series."

The room dives into a weird silence. Scott looks at Stiles.

"Uh... Stiles... She's not lying."

"Oh, man, I was born in the wrong dimension. Hey," Stiles looks at you "What the girls think about me? Do they like me? Do I have many fans?"

Stiles began to approach you, but Derek grabs him by his shirt, avoiding an approximation.

"We don't know about her yet, so stay right there."

"Oh, c'mon" Siles looks at him and gives a few steps close to Scott when Derek unleashes him "I'm pretty sure you're curious as well."

"I'm not. I just want to know what the hell is going on."

You narrowed your eyes to Derek. You know why he wasn't interested to know about him. So, you started to talk.

"Are you sure? I mean, everyone thinks you are the most wronged of all."

Derek stares at you, unmoved by your words. You should know he would be suspicious about you. He stares at Scott and Stiles.

"She will stay with me until we know she is not a problem. I'll investigate to know how she came here."

What?! No, no, you have no maturity for that. You felt your cheeks burning again. Man, it was just like on fanfics!

You objected.

"Hell no! I'll stay here."

Without a drop of patience and calm, Derek rolled his eyes.

"You'll stay here? With Scott and his mom? So what do you will tell her about your presence at her house?"

Okay. Your plan was stupid. Also, it was funnier when Derek was rude to Stiles. With you, it was just annoying. You cross your arms in front of your chest, not so sure about what to say. He let out a long sigh of annoyance and took your arm. You widen your eyes standing up from the couch. You look at his hand on you, and then you look at him.

"Hey!"

Derek drags you in the door's direction and looks at Scott.

"Something went too wrong for this girl to be here. Tell me if you find something else."

"Wait!" Scott gives a step forward into you and Derek's direction "She can't stay a little more? We need to, uh... Investigate."

"Let your stupid curiosity for another time, Scott."

You whine in annoyance while Derek drags you in his car's direction. A few minutes ago, you would be freaking out of getting into Derek's Camaro. Now, you are just too pissed off to care.

"Let me go! I know how to walk!"

He opened the passenger's seat door and released you. Derek didn't talk anything, just stares at you in a silent order. Pissed off, you cross your arms in front of your chest, stubborn.

"I'll not come in!"

Derek gets closer to you, giving you a deadly glare.

"Get in the car. Now."

You swallowed hard. Oh man, this part wasn't like the fanfics. It was not sexy at all. Actually, it's a bit scary.

Pissed off, you get in the car, and Derek closes the door, getting into the driver's seat. You look at Scott e Stiles through the window, thinking that maybe it would be better if you stay with them. However, you haven't a choice. All you have to do now is try not to be killed by the first supernatural threat that appears in Beacon Hills.

[clubatsumu]

we used to share his tiffin when he hurt his knee and missed clubs. he hated missing sports it but i spent mornings with him talking about everything. now we say hi to each other in the hallways and he's seeing past me. i'm too boring for him, i've realised.

loll i just feel like crap lately 😔👍 how about something with sunarin? i remember u had that romcom series (deskmate suna?) with him n i just need.. a pick me up? sorry if i spammed. love ur stuff tho!

this took an awfully long time lol. hope you feel better soon. the situation youre in is nuts lmao i cant even imagine being in your shoes SO this is all i can do to help and i hope this makes u feel a tiny bit better :)

"it's the retrograde." you nod, closing your eyes and leaning your head back the cheap fluff of the infirmary pillows, the thin scratch of its lime green pillowcase.

suna rintaro is sixteen years old, and he's never heard of that word in his life. he blinks up at the ceiling. "the... what?"

“the retrograde. it’s why you’re so”-- you motion at his body with your eyes– “off-kilter.”

“the gatorade?" he questions again.

“retrograde, genius. it’s when mercury looks like it’s going backwards in its orbit, because it's, like, faster than earth, which makes us think the world is going backwards. it messes up everything.”

you are replied to with nothing but a doubtful, “sure.”

it smells like disinfectant and the cheapest detergent in the store. there’s nothing but the soft hum of birds outside the bright infirmary windows, the whir of the rickety ceiling fan, and the pasty almost-summer morning breeze until –

“my parents divorcing can’t be because of mercury.” suna sputters, topic hanging heavy in the air. 

it's almost comical, the way he does it. everything is comical with him, on a scale so small it’s almost microscopic. the way he says the most ridiculous things. the way he knows the most ridiculous things. the way he has the most ridiculous assumptions about girls. 

he’s kind of ridiculous, and not just in the intrinsic way sixteen year olds can be. his brand stretches further, and without real rhyme or reason, you’re sure he’ll be ridiculous twelve years from now. 

“then what else could it be because of?” you ask, wide-eyed. “don’t forget your twisted ankle, your concussion, and the four stitches you need on your hand. the only good thing is it isn’t your right.” you shift so that you’re leaning on your elbow, body twisting until you’re facing his bed while you occupy your own right beside it. “what could possibly explain your life being this much of a disaster?”

he shifts defensively. “jeez, it’s not a disaster…” he trails off though, because it kind of is. bodily injury is one thing now that pro teams are scouting, but his mother cheating on his father is another separate, larger bag of bones for him to unpack. 

fun. 

“good thing i don’t live at home, eh?”

you hum, knowing he lives with his aunt here. come to think of it, you know a lot of things about him ever since… well… ever since – look, you’re not proud, but the only reason why you know each other is because the two of you have constant aches and pains… or so you say. you know you’re lying everytime you clutch your stomach, stagger inside the familiar sliding doorway, and say to the nurse, “i’m not feeling so well,” and she rushes you to a bed and gives you a painkiller pill you don’t drink. 

your stomach aches at exactly 2 o’clock, geometry period.

the first time the two of you met, it was when you were already lying on the cot, scrolling through your phone, your mouth playing with the menthol candy you bought from the cafeteria at lunchtime, hugging your pillow. minutes later, from outside the curtain separating you from the world, the doors slid open again, and a voice said, “migraine,” before the cot next to yours got occupied with a boy-grunt and sigh. 

the cots are separated by these semi-sheer-kind-of-not curtains, and when he opened the one between you, you saw suna rintaro for the first-ish time. you’ve seen him around, sure, but the two of you had separate everythings. to be honest, he wasn’t the kind of guy you’d be friends with. something about him radiated very strong woman-hater energy, at least to you. maybe it was the dark undereyes or that he hung around the twins. everyone knew that the twins weren’t fun to be around unless you liked your underwear being pulled up your asscrack. 

“sorry,” he said in a voice that was exactly what you imagined it to be. “thought no one was here.” then the curtains closed with a swish between you. 

“did you know my grandmother is a shaman?” you ask him now. you tap your fingers on your stomach in a steady rhythm of the radio jingle.

“do you know how to… do that stuff… you know, like the praying? dancing?”

“yep,” you pop the p. “i’ve been training since i was a little kid.”

“that’s nice.”

if the attendance logbook was in the infirmary, you and suna rintaro would be star fucking students. 

you saw each other all the time, and like a liar recognizes another one, the two of you kept making excuses that were more desperate  than the last. it evolved from a headache to a toothache to i feel like my appendix might burst, nurse, but i swear, i don’t need the doctor, i just need to rest here for a while and i think i have an ulcer.

there is always a war on who gets to have the bed nearest the window. so, in camaraderie maybe, you say: “my grandma would tell you to let things happen. problems are like waves. some are huge, some not so much, but all waves are impermanent. if you ride all your waves, it won’t matter whether you fall of or stay on top of them, you’ll still end up in the water.”

he blinks, you see from the corner of your vision. his body’s dancing subconsciously to the beat, his bicep flexing from the way he’s reaching up the pillow under his head to hug it. “is it because she’s a shaman? she’s so at peace?”

“it’s because she thinks no one is worth her time. she chased her neighbor with a fork, once.”

that earns you another blink. “you’re kidding.”

“i’m not." you snort. "i’m really not." you admit, "my parents are divorced too, that’s why i live with my grandma.”

“how’d that go?” “i get two presents on my birthday. i have step-siblings on both sides, but i think all of them want nothing to do with me, which is fine, to be honest – i don’t like them all that much either. it sucked at first. i was ten. but then… their life is theirs, mine is mine. they can do whatever the fuck they want with it.”

that sounded way angrier than you intended it to be. you’re sure he notices, if his “huh” is anything to go by.

“well…” you admit, “sometimes i’m still angry. but whatever. nothing we can do can stop it.”

“yeah. we can’t stop it.”

his words are measured, like he’s already somewhere else and only a fraction of his attention is on you. you hum, “can’t control it.”

“can’t control it,” he repeats.

“do you ever get scared of how out of control everything is?”

“no.”

of course he doesn’t, you roll your eyes. the jingle fades, and a commercial about a hardware store comes on. “i thought so.”

“life’s a wave,” he says. oddly, you think you helped.

“life’s a wave,” you repeat.

.

“ohayo.” he salutes you in the hallway. you’re a class ahead of him, but you’re really not much better in the student rankings. the two of you are in the same tier, sit in the same proverbial table of nonchalant students that don’t really plan on going to a fancy university or being an alumni success story. 

“hey-o.” you offer a fist, which he bumps with his own. 

suna is your kind-of friend. 

a friend you talk to about things that don’t revolve around sentences like is this cute? i swear, tampons are way easier than pads. what about my hymen? do you think a tampon is as big as a dick? 

you love your friends, truly, with all of your heart, and these conversations are fine. but you and suna talk about – 

“what if pewdiepie stops uploading videos?” 

– which really isn’t better than your girlfriends, but…

none of them hate geometry as much as you do. you answer, “you’ll probably shake and throw up and have the sweats. go through withdrawals.” 

“true,” he agrees. you know he’s playing said channel on his phone. you can hear it because the only setting his earphones are ever on is blasting, so you hear his english drawl from a cot away. 

you rub your socks back and forth the sheets like a snow angel without snow, nothing else to do. 

.

“what are you gonna do in the future?”

he never asks about the future. you’re not sure the word is really in his vocabulary. after that talk about life being a wave, every minor inconvenience he was met with, you’ve heard him mutter wave, wave, life’s a wave – so no one can blame you if you think he plans on being unemployed. 

“i’ll be a cinematographer.” you pause, surprised. “wow. that’s the first time i’ve said that out loud.”

you have no clue how that came out. you haven’t told anyone about it, just made them believe you’re still figuring things out even though you already had, since you were thirteen. 

“oh wow.” is his only reply. you want to retract it suddenly, that piece of yourself you’ve shared only with him. it’s funny how he didn’t even try, and yet – he knows your secret, and he doesn’t even know the gravity of it.

you bite your candy. “you think i can’t do it?” to be honest, you sometimes think you can’t too. there are a lot of people in this world, and what kind of special do you think you are to hold the place you want? fucking suna. 

“nah. i just didn’t think you liked movies.”

“i do. i just don’t talk ‘bout them to anyone because…” you trail off lamely.

he casts a glance your way. “you don’t mean, like, a cinematographer for… porn… right?”

you tilt your head deeply, frowning. 

“just making sure.” he waves a hand in the air, as if to waft away the discomfort. “what kind of movies do you like?”

“dunno. the usual. hitchcock. nolan. scorsese, but i don’t like goodfellas all that much.” you frown more, not knowing what he’s going to say next. he’s probably going to say ah, and change the topic. you shift in your cot, embarrassed to be talking about this – you already have and no one really gets it the way you do, they all just say ah and move on. it’s a waste of time, really.

“i like psycho. i like the birds more though. don’t know why. so, you're gonna be like hitchcock? like, suspense shit?”

oh, your mouth parts.

oh wow. 

to be completely honest, you didn’t expect suna rinataro the transfer student to be the one to tell your deepest darkest secret, and there was an even lesser expectation that he’d understand. something sparks inside you. something akin to appreciation for him, that the stars collided and put his soul into a vessel of bones and blood and skin, delivered him right beside you in the infirmary of inarizaki high.

you blast him a brilliant smile. “no. not at all! i want to make stuff like yasujiro ozu.”

.

suna tells you tokyo story made him feel so lonely that he couldn’t finish it. you nod enthusiastically, talking his ear off about how there were so many lines that encase the characters in the frames that they seem to never be able to get out, does that make sense? how singularity is the root of interpersonal struggle?

he looks at you funny, with a huff to his nose, a tilt to his lips, no, it doesn’t.

. 

on a wednesday, the door opens again, but it’s not his voice that wafts up the air, into the brrr of the fan, the static of the low radio drama that the nurse is listening to. 

it’s miya atsumu that says, “i think i sprained my wrist.”

you try to quell the disappointment blooming in your chest. 

.

the next week, the nurse resigns. rumor has it that she’s moving to the states with her american boyfriend. the new nurse who replaces her doesn’t fall for your headache rouse, and neither does she fall for the appendix excuse. the moment you say it, she looks at you gravely, saying without having to say, you try that shit with me and your grandmother’s hearing about it. 

you attend geometry class for the rest of the year.

when you and suna pass each other in the hallway, he looks at you sourly, and you understand. you mimic it all back. no more infirmary for the two of you. 

.

when you turn seventeen – when everyone who was sixteen turns seventeen, really – the relationship between you and rintaro gets threadbare. like a shirtsleeve seam that’s being rubbed everywhere, time maybe, different interests, different groups, all compound to the friction that creates the heat that separates the two of you. but unlike heat, nothing is remarkable about the way the two of you stop talking. you just… do. 

you and suna are kind of like tokyo story. within rooms, looking in through doors, but never out of them. 

an unremarkable relationship marked by an unremarkable end. 

.

.

.

you meet the old nurse – the good nurse, the nurse who understood that students shouldn’t sit through geometry if they didn’t want to – again when you are twenty-eight, scrambling for the subway in new york, not knowing shit about the stops. you’re carrying a tripod in your arms, a sling bag full of camera equipment secured across your body. 

nothing’s changed about her, except maybe the appearance of a few white hairs near her hairline that weren’t there ten years ago. she tells you, “i remember you,” and suddenly you are a student again, even though you haven’t been for a while. you smile at her politely, thinking it’d be weirder if she didn’t, seeing as you were in her clinic almost daily. 

“you used to have short hair.” she says. 

“ah, yes, that’s right.”

she narrows her eyes, “and you used to come in with that boy. you and he were chatterboxes, weren’t you? yapping all the time with each other. are you keeping in touch with him?”

it’s been a while since you thought about him, but without a slither of a doubt, you know she’s talking about suna rintaro. “oh, i haven’t talked to him for a long time now. how have you been?”

you look around the cart, seeing a burst of color. there is no monotony here, but somehow, the individualism creates a sense of comfort, a sense of safety knowing no one cares if your hair is firetruck red. they're all reading their books, scrolling through their phones, listening and looking far away. only you and the old nurse are in the cart.

“the same. i’m surprised to see you here.”

“for work." you admit. " and only for a year, and then i’ll go back to japan.”

“ah,” she says, looking at the flickering light above. then she starts gathering her things. “it will be my stop soon. it’s good to see you.”

.

seeing the nurse was a prophecy, your grandmother would say. or at least, a prelude to something. because when you come back to japan, not a week later you see suna again. 

he wasn’t a missing piece – not the way your best friends would have been if you’d lost touch – but still, there’s a deep seated longing in your bones that hits you so forcefully when you see the side of his head again. a kind of time loop that reverts you back to when you last talked, a nostalgia for all the years that passed, for something you’ve forgotten and recently remembered.

you’re in a hospital emergency room. for an ulcer.

the curtain opens, and there he is. a flicker of surprise mars his features for a second before the nurse closes the curtains again. 

you shift in your bed, wondering if that was really him. it can’t have been. 

the curtain opens again, the sound of metal on metal, and all the questions die in your throat.

“hi,” he says to you. 

you manage to give him a smile. “hello.”

“how are you?” you don’t remember him to be this enthusiastic when you left high school. you have a feeling nothing’s changed, and this anomaly is caused by your sudden reappearance into his life. you know the feeling well.

“i’m okay.” other than the ulcer. “you?”

“great.” other than the obvious cast on his foot. 

“what happened to you?” he asks. he's still ridiculous, nothing has changed, you think in awe.

“ulcer,” you reply. “or so they say. you?”

he lifts his left foot. nothing prepares you for what he says next. a wry smile. “mercury retrograde.”

it’s probably karma that landed the two of you here after so long, in an actual emergency room. still, you can’t help but feel that this is a beginning, a proper one. picking up an open-ended sentence and starting a new page. 

[bcdrawsandwrites]

Fandom: Psychonauts

Rating: K+

Genre: Gen?? Sickfic?? mild H/C??? you got me, man

Characters: Caligosto Loboto, Boyd Cooper, Gloria Von Gouton, Fred Bonaparte, Crispin Whytehead, Sheegor

Warnings: Vomit, blood, depictions of sickness... (SPOILERS: implied torture + amputation)

Description: Loboto is having a very bad night. The inmates are not helping.

Beta Readers: @jaywings​ and Rocket

Notes: This fic is based on a theory that comes from a few figments in Loboto’s mental world in the demo footage of Psychonauts 2. ...also I wrote this while sick with a fever, edited it while still sick, and illustrated the cover while recovering from said sickness. have fun

—~~~—

He did not remember arriving back at the tower.

Partially because he wasn't even back in the tower, instead standing on the frosty shoreline, the chilly waves lapping at his boot heels.

Loboto stared dumbly out at the cliffside for a long moment before frustration simmered beneath his fogged mind. Yes! Of course, they wouldn't send him back to his lab. No! He could do with a good climb, especially on a frigid night like this! His chest heaved with quiet, dazed laughter before he took a gasp of cold air that grated against his sore throat.

The wind, though not harsh, cut through every part of him that wasn't covered by his shower cap or lab coat like a fine knife, as cold as it was painful. It grazed his shoulder, and his vision went white as his mechanical eyes flashed. But even with the blasted optics glitching, he could still see. His imagination ran wild with absurd visions of ridiculous things that had never happened.

On top of that, the slice of pain brought with it a violent realization that it was not the only pain he was in. The numb shock he’d been in gave way to an agony that tore through him, ripping up and down his side, nearly bringing him to his knees. No, no, no, that pain could not be real, just like the horrific visions of red and yellow that flashed through his mind. It was all a trick—all a stupid trick from his malfunctioning eyes and his brain. Pah!

He found himself clawing at his shower cap, occasionally stopping to smack his mechanical eyes a few times until they flickered back into focus, the desolate beach snapping back into view. "Enough of this!" he growled hoarsely at the sand beneath him. "That little army man will be back any day now, and we can't keep him waiting."

With a grunt, Loboto marched forward and heaved himself up onto the first narrow ledge, already finding his body shuddering with the effort and his mind struggling to push back the imaginary waves of pain. "Ridiculous!" he blurted into the rock he leaned against for balance. "A child can climb a mountain ten times this height!" And it wasn't like he'd never done it, either. Muscle memory helped him get from one step to the other, but keeping his balance was harder than normal, especially as his mind repeatedly dipped back into brain fog.

His eyes flickered in a blink when he found himself on the ladder, his boot slipping on the frosty wood and one hand losing its grip. Realizing he was about to fall, he flung his weight back against the ladder, biting down on the nearest rung to keep himself in place. A frantic giggle worked its way through his clenched teeth—ah, teeth! Useful for so many things! They would never let him down.

If you let us down one more time—

Ripping himself away from the rung and leaving rough teeth-marks behind, he let out a snarl and heaved himself the rest of the way up the ladder and onto the ledge. He sat on his knees for the moment, his mechanical eyes pulling back as he tried to make sense of the gate that seemed to be spinning around him. No, not just the gate—the entire cliffside spun beneath him like some wild carnival ride. He couldn't remember it doing that before, but the absurdity of it made him laugh, the action tearing through his sore throat. Yet he continued to laugh until his stomach lurched and a cascade of vomit silenced him.

He managed to scoot himself away, spitting and coughing as the world slowly came to a halt. At the same time, a figure that had been sleeping against the opposite wall snapped alert with a panicked gasp.

"Ah—ah!" Boyd stammered, scrambling to his feet and whipping his head around until he spotted Loboto on the ground. "Who are you working for?"

"That fool Oleander," Loboto grumbled under his breath, his eyes swiveling to glare at him.

Boyd's eyes blinked separately before recognition dawned upon him. "Y-yes! Of course!" Fumbling with his keys, he got to work unlocking the gate. "It's said he knows the milkman..."

Gritting his teeth, Loboto shakily began to push himself back upright. A large hand suddenly clapped against his shoulder, and he gave a yell as he was heaved to his feet. Without turning to look, he struck at the one who'd grabbed him. "Tricky terrible traitors try to trap—"

"AH—no, I am no traitor, I am the guard!" Boyd cried, stumbling back and holding up his hands as Loboto found his balance.

The two stared at each other for a tense moment, Loboto's eyes glowing harshly as Boyd trembled beneath his gaze. He couldn't help feeling a twinge of satisfaction at seeing his subordinate cower.

"Th... the milk is not ready yet!" Boyd said, wincing away as he eyed the doctor's clenched fist.

Loboto stared.

"I'm lactose intolerant."

Boyd glanced at something on the ground. "I-I noticed."

With a growl, Loboto finally marched past the guard, who frantically closed the gate behind him.

Now that that mess was over, he could finally get back up to his lab and get back to—

He paused.

"SHEEGOR!"

His voice boomed through the empty grounds. It was empty of people, now empty of crows, and empty of elevators.

When his assistant did not spontaneously appear, he clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white beneath his glove. "Yes! Wonderful!" he proclaimed to no one as he stamped toward the withered garden with a harsh laugh. "I can scale this dilapidated tower myself then. Fine night for some exercise!"

He knew his way through his asylum, of course, so it wouldn't be overly difficult, but he would have much preferred the express elevator so he could get back to work immediately. But as it was, he ducked through the entrance to the greenhouse, fighting to keep steady as the action made his head spin, his back ache (no it didn’t, he was fine), and his shower cap to catch against the branches overhead. Turning his optics up, he pressed a hand down into the cap, pulling it away from the plants. He'd hoped to avoid the woman who occupied this corner of the asylum, but as he straightened his back, he bumped into one of the flowerpots, knocking it to the ground with a dull clunk.

"My, you need to buy seats in advance if you want to come to my shows!" Gloria said, turning to him with a patient, hazy smile. "No need to be harassing the paying customers."

"What do they pay you in? Leaves? Seeds?" Loboto asked, the frantic giggle that followed clashing with his strained smile.

Gloria ignored the comment, glancing him over and waving him off. "Please see yourself out. I'm not an usher, but since they seem to be ignoring their duties, I'll have to tell you you cannot bring food or drink into the theater."

Swiveling his optics in an approximation of an eye roll, Loboto turned away to head out the other side of the greenhouse. "I don't have any."

"Not anymore, but anyone can see that wine you've sloshed onto your nice suit."

Loboto froze.

"It's a wonder it didn't get onto the carpet—"

The next thing he knew, he was staring down at an entire line of flower pots that lay in pieces on the floor of the greenhouse.

"Oh!" Gloria cried. "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure the ushers will attend to this ruffian, and the play can resume..."

He left her to continue rambling to her imaginary audience as he tried to rid the imaginary nonsense (visions, pain, glowing yellow eyes) from his mind. "Fickle fumbling females feeling faint for fading flowers..." he mumbled as he stepped into the lower floor of the asylum. It brought its usual sights and sounds of one of the former orderlies dozing over a makeshift game board (with stolen game pieces, he noted), the artist in the room overhead scraping old brushes furiously against a canvas, and finally Crispin standing dutifully in front of the asylum's only other elevator.

"Crispin!" Loboto said, and the man turned to face somewhere slightly to his left. "Let me up, will you?"

"Of course, Doctor Loboto." Crispin turned toward the elevator controls, only to pause, his dull eyes squinting as he turned back. "Wait..."

"Wait for what?" Loboto threw out his arm in a wide gesture. "Do you want to hear that army man ranting at us again? Or perhaps you find it funny! Though it is, isn't it? Shouting about sneezing powder and tanks! HAH!"

While he'd been talking, Crispin had been leaning forward, eyeing him up and down. He frowned. "You're not Doctor Loboto," he said at length.

"WHAT?!"

Behind him, Fred sprang to his feet. "Sacré bleu! We have fallen asleep on ze battlefield!"

Ignoring the man and his terrible French accent, Loboto stepped closer to Crispin, finding himself trembling—in rage or in suppressed laughter or something else, he wasn't sure. "Of course I'm Doctor Loboto! I was, last I checked. Highly trained and professional!"

"Yes, well," Crispin began, leaning back and raising a brow, "the real Doctor Loboto does not wear an actual straitjacket. It's merely a strappy jacket fashioned from one."

"This is my jacket, you milky-eyed moron!" Loboto cried, tugging on the front of his coat in demonstration. "It doesn't have my arms tied up!" He lunged toward Crispin to grab him by the collar, but stumbled as the world spun once more. He struggled to keep his stomach from flipping again.

"Well, that's because you're wearing it poorly. But you are certainly not Doctor Loboto. I can tell. You don't have the right jacket, or the right complexion." He tipped his head. "The real Doctor Loboto is blue, not sickly gray. As you can see, you can't fool me. Now go back to wherever you came from and—"

"He has returned from ze war!" Fred blurted behind him. He blinked, then shook his head, hunching in on himself. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, we really shouldn't—" He straightened again. "Yes, shut up! We are in ze presence of a great war hero!"

Crispin rolled his eyes. "What are you going on about now, Fred?"

"Do you not see? He bears ze blood of his enemies upon his robes, and ze scars of victory—"

Loboto whirled on him faster than he could think, managing a swift kick to Fred's shin.

With a yelp, the man crashed to the ground, curling up on himself and whining. "Ohhh... can we just postpone the battle until morning?" He twitched. "NON! Ze enemy never sleeps, so neither shall we!"

"Well, Fred's down for the count again," Cripsin remarked. "So if you're done, kindly step away from my elevator and off the nearest cliff, thanks."

Loboto wanted nothing more than to knock Crispin to the ground and find a few bad teeth to remove, but his vision was blurring and flickering, and he found it hard to think.

"No, really, we can't fight in the dark, and the enemy can't either, can they?" "Rrrrrghhh, I suppose you are right, for once. We shall camp here for now, but come sunrise, we fight!"

A weak laugh made its way past his lips as he stared down at the former orderly settling on the cobblestone. Yes, that crazy man had a point. There was no point in fighting tonight—he'd get his work done in the morning. And that work would have to include getting back into his lab in the first place.

After a brief moment, he snatched an item from the floor before stumbling back through the greenhouse and toward the entrance.

A nice night for sleeping under the stars, he supposed.

---~~~---

Judging by how bright the world was by the time his mechanical eyes flickered back on, the sun was starting to rise. But he couldn't tell for sure when there was a large metal cage blocking his view, with something else within—

"He said he would be back by nightfall, but he hasn't come!" a high pitched voice cried as a familiar form stepped out of the elevator, her back to him. "Oh Mr. Pokeylope, do you think he's gone for good this time?"

The corner of Loboto's mouth twitched.

"Oops!" She clapped an oven mitt over her mouth. "I'm glad he's not around to hear me say that," she said as she began to turn. "If he was, he'd be—EEK!"

Sheegor jumped back at the sight of Loboto laying sprawled out at the foot of the fountain, having slept (or passed out) there the remainder of the night. He clutched his worn teddy close to his chest and stared her in the eyes.

"Oh—I—I—!" Sheegor held her pet turtle close to herself. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry Doctor Loboto, I didn't mean any of that, I—"

"Yes, well it's a nice morning, isn't it?" Loboto grumbled, tucking the teddy bear under his arm so he could push himself to his feet. His entire body ached (from sleeping on the ground, not from anything else). "A nice morning to get some work done after you left me stranded here all night!" He took a threatening—but wobbling—step forward, fist clenched.

Oddly, Sheegor didn't seem as intimidated as usual. Her mouth gaped, and her eyes darted between his face and his right side.

"What are you looking at?"

"Y... you..." A trembling mitt was covering her open mouth. "D-Doctor! What happened to you?!"

His eyes flickered. "I slept out here with a rock for a pillow."

"N-no, it's—it's—!" Her whole body was shaking now, but not, he sensed, in fear of him. It should have made him angry, but exhaustion pulled at him instead, making his frame droop.

"Yes? Well, spit it out."

Sheegor held out one hand, pointed toward his right side. "Y-your arm!"

Loboto's optics slowly angled down to his right. For the first time he noticed the enormous, darkened bloodstains on his jacket, and a torn, empty sleeve hanging limply at his side.

"Oh," he said dully, feeling himself wobble as the pain finally worked its way to the forefront of his mind. "How did that happen?"

At once the world tipped to the side, and Sheegor caught him, straining to keep him from fully collapsing to the ground.

Wordlessly she helped him into the elevator, letting him lean onto her while he bit back the urge to scream. He wanted to protest, to berate her for touching him, but everything felt distant, even the upper floor of the asylum as they rapidly ascended toward it. And anyway, once they reached the top, anything he would have said was held back by his rolling stomach ejecting whatever bile still occupied it.

As he gagged, he could hear Sheegor whispering to the turtle in her mitts: "I know, I know, but I-I can't leave him like that—th-the asylum wouldn't... w-we were supposed to..."

"Just... get back to work... Sheegor," he managed to slur around the acrid taste in his mouth. Bitter bile breaks brittle bones of the mouth.

Sheegor looked from him to her turtle a few times, her mouth wobbling, and carefully eased his arm over her hunched back again. Instead of leading him to his lab, however, she led him down into the asylum, into the usual room he slept in: a mostly-intact bedroom with a mattress and blankets over a broken bed frame shoved into one corner, a chair and a desk with papers scattered across it, and a meticulously crafted and framed (and official) DDS license on the wall.

After easing him down into the bed, Sheegor stepped back, looking away. "Um... I-if you want, Doctor, I can clean that robe..."

His initial thought was that the blood stains made a wonderful addition to his ensemble, but glancing down at them again caused his brain to supply him with more awful, made-up nonsense. No, he wouldn't have that any longer.

With some amount of struggling he managed to get the thing off, unceremoniously tossing it in Sheegor's general direction. She managed to catch it and quickly scurried out. "I'll get this back to you as soon as I can Doctor bye!" she squeaked before the door slammed behind her, leaving Loboto sitting in the empty room.

Everything felt surreal, being in familiar surroundings after spending an entire night on freezing cobblestone. The sight when his gaze turned downward, however, was less familiar: there was new stitching across his chest, and on his right shoulder where his arm had been. It was cleanly done—they hadn't wanted him too much worse for wear, since he still had a job to do for—

Oleander. He had a job to do for Oleander right now. The sneezing powder, yes. His mind drifted over the things they'd discussed in their last meeting.

They'd both figured out a way for it to be made, more or less. The remaining issue was how to properly dispense the stuff. Oleander had suggested keeping it in a bag, but that was easily-spilled, and it may lose potency if pre-ground. But what was he supposed to do? He didn't have a grinder with him on-hand at all times—

A shock of brilliance bolted through him, and he stumbled to his desk with renewed energy. He grabbed a well-chewed pencil and began to write, his non-dominant hand shaking badly as he forced it into motions it was not used to.

But that was fine. It wouldn't have that job for long.

A manic giggle bubbled out of his throat as he worked out the notes and rough sketches, detailing a jointed pepper grinder with claws and a strap to secure it to his now-unoccupied side.

This loss of a limb, baffling as it was, was exactly what he needed.

[ladyyatexel]

Strange Shapes Snippets Volume 2

Here is more of my incredibly long Malik/Ryou problem!

Today's Adventure: having long distance feelings with Monster World

Upon confirmation that Malik both has and can use video capabilities, they struggle through an hour or more of configuring and compatibility issues before the first connection works.   The image of Ryou moving on screen sets off a spark of much wanted reunion and reignites whatever it was that made Malik put an ancient artifact into a bag destined for airport security.  It’s the first time he’s seen Ryou’s face since they were separated. 

Ryou is pretty even when lagging and pixelated.  His clothes look too big and his hair kind of flips at the ends and the light from his monitor gives him a glow like the moon against his vaguely defined apartment.    

“Sorry about the mess.  I’m still finishing a project.” 

Malik is not looking at the mess.  

“What is it?” 

“Oh, it’s kind of a redesign of a game world I made before.”

“Can I see?” 

“Um, we can try.  Can you even see me?” 

“Yeah.” And he’s so happy to see Ryou at all and looking real and he’s adorable and beautiful and weird and makes sense all at the same time and Malik still does not see a mess.   “It’s a little bit choppy, but it’s okay.” 

“Okay, hang on.”  

Ryou gets close to the screen and then the image gets patchy, flashing in and out of dark as Ryou unhooks his camera from whatever he has it balanced on.  When things stabilize again, it’s difficult to tell what the camera is pointing at or even from what direction. 

“Hello?” Malik tries. 

“Still here, can you see?”  The image is a little unstable but when it focuses it does so on a tiny village in the middle of getting a new paint job.  

“Oh, yeah, there it is.”  

“I’ve just been making some small changes right now.  Colors, mostly, but I might change the setting a little, too.  I played a game with Yuugi and the others with this, and it was really special to me, but I just have to change some things about it now.” 

“Why?”

At first, Malik thinks the connection has frozen, but then Ryou moves the camera view to include himself next to his fantasy world.  The scale is surprising.   

“Sorry, I think I’m just used to hesitating when I talk to people about this.  But I don’t need to do that with you.”  His tone shifts from polite apology to casual confiding. The glow that accompanies Ryou smiling even through unpleasant memories might just be a lighting problem with his camera.  The warmth of being some kind of special exception is definitely from the camera.  Definitely.

“You remember I told you about my hand?”  Ryou holds up his left hand as he talks.  “The spirit in the Ring used my diorama to do it. Something I made for fun. You see the castle?”  

The image swings from Ryou and shakily centers on a grey building painted to resemble stone.  The tops of all its towers come to points, except what should be the largest one, which is missing.  

Ryou continues, his voice sadder than Malik remembers. “He used the top of the tower.  It went the whole way through.”  Ryou puts his hand into frame palm up and lowers his arm, simulating the impalement.  His face is off screen, but with the camera pulled toward him his voice is louder, clearer, closer, realer, like he’s right there.   “I tried to clean it and put it back to the way it was afterwards, but the force and the blood… It was ruined.  I’ve needed to make a new one since then.  Now that everything is over I actually have the chance.” 

Malik curls his fingers against his palm imagining the force of the injury.  In various places around the world, people are living with similar damage that is directly Malik’s fault.  His fingers curl tighter, pressing fingernails into his palm.

“Is your hand okay?”  It’s too small a question for the size of the event.  He didn’t give the injury the weight and consideration it was due while Ryou was in Egypt. It’s another pang of guilt, even though, at the time,  he’d fully expected to deliver his apology and then be asked to never speak to Ryou again. Now, he’s finding himself aching to offer comfort he doesn’t know how to provide for an injury that healed long before he met its owner.

The tiny figures are, unsurprisingly, cute.  Even through the awkward lighting of the camera, they look like Ryou’s friends, especially Yuugi, who has to have been a particularly custom-heavy job. 

“I love making these.  I still have a lot from before… so it’s nice to be able to make new ones.”  

“You just use them like tokens?”

“Not like you’re thinking.  They just represent where and who you are in the world.” 

Malik laughs.  “I could use one of those.”

Either missing Malik’s existential joke entirely or choosing to ignore it, Ryou leans enthusiastically toward the camera.  “We should play!  I can make a miniature for you too!” 

"I've never played that kind of game before."

"It's fun!" He glances at the little figure in his hand. "And, you know, a bit of an escape."

“Still escaping, huh?” 

Ryou’s gaze on the miniature softens into tenderness Malik feels he shouldn’t be seeing.  “Always, I think.” 

Perhaps fueled by the feeling that he shouldn’t, he just wants to look.  Whatever Ryou is feeling is pretty and real and makes Malik ache and just seeing it will be better than hearing the rules of another kind of game, no matter how fun.  

“You should teach me, then.”  He says it quietly, maybe reluctantly.  

Instead of vanishing, the soft expression turns toward Malik.  “Really!?”

“Yeah,” he replies weakly.  

Ryou’s glow for this topic is enchanting. Tenderness is replaced with the camera shaking with his enthusiasm, but it’s just as wonderful.  “Let me get you some materials, we can see what kind of character you’ll be!” 

He’s grateful they aren’t playing Duel Monsters, but if anyone could make Malik feel like going near it again, it would be Ryou.

☆☆☆

Ryou holds the figure close to the camera.  At first it’s too close and he has to pull back.  “Here we go.   What do you think?” 

The tiny sculpture even has an extra swish of dark paint under its eyes and over its cheeks.  It’s simple but touching to look at something made for him (and of him).  

“It’s great.  I like his eyes.” 

“That’s my favorite part too.” 

The pause as Ryou smiles at the screen wraps itself around Malik’s lungs and for a very warm breathless second he could swear Ryou is not talking about the figure. 

Ryou reaches off screen and the moment vanishes only to be replaced by one just as warm.  

“Here,” Ryou says, putting a white figure with a hood next to the tiny fantasy version of Malik.  “Now they can go together.”  

The white figure has Ryou’s eyes and his hair and is a healer.  

"That suits you."

☆☆☆

[gisellelx]

Like a Raisin in the Sun

Saint Tropez, France

June 28, 2021

Despite all the trouble it caused them, all of their family liked the sun. Even Jasper, whose ruthlessly military affinity for the dark had taken decades to overcome, lay stretched out on a chaise, his eyes closed, with Alice curled up on his chest. Emmett and Rosalie were curled up on another set of chaises, Rosalie’s head on Emmett’s shoulder, his fingers stroking absently through her hair.

The estate they’d rented had a private beach, of course, and two large pools, and the main house itself was large enough that they couldn’t always hear from one side to the other. Small mercies after the beginning of the pandemic, when the nine of them had somehow managed to cram into their five bedroom cottage in Toulouse. Here at the coast, they all had plenty of room to be apart.

That turned out not to matter much, however. Except for a handful of times of day, when one couple or another would peel off into one of the suites so expansive they were large apartments unto themselves, they were together. Four pairs of chaise lounges feet from the water’s edge. Nine players around the Monopoly board Rosalie and Jasper had designed which was much more punishing and required a buy-in of two thousand euro from anyone who wanted to play to fund the “bank.” Seven in the audience around the Steinway, as Edward and Renesmee worked through the entirety of the four-handed Dolly Suite.

The water made an arrhythmic whoosh as it met sand over and over. Sometimes two waves came almost together, huge and frothy; other times it was the more gentle swish of a small, barely there swell of ocean. It was strange, beautiful, percussion-only symphony, and Edward could almost hear a melody over it, feeling his fingers begin to itch with the desire to compose.

Only one set of chaises sat empty, and as he gazed toward the horizon, he could see them: bright flashes of light between the two-foot swells. They were much farther out than would be safe for humans, having allowed the undertow to take them probably an eighth of a mile out to sea, to a sandbar where the waves crashed prematurely before building up again to come ashore. Between the waves, they stood only waist deep in water, the sun glinting off their shoulders and backs, sending shimmering rainbows across the dark sapphire of the waves.

Carlisle dove through a wave, emerging with hair dripping down his back. He ran a hand through it as he laughed and took a few strokes through the water to be closer to Esme, whose definitely-designed-to-scandalize-the-adult-children string bikini left more of her skin exposed than her husband's long swim trunks did his. Once together, a few steps further out took them both into deeper ocean where they treaded water, having a conversation Edward could not overhear.

So intent was he watching, he barely felt he hand on his shoulder as the chaise beside him became occupied, its regular owner having returned from retrieving a new book from the house. His wife settled in next to him, immediately following his gaze out to the distant sandbar. Together they listened to Esme’s giggling shriek as Carlisle picked her up and threw her full on into a large wave, followed immediately by Carlisle’s deep laughter as Esme recovered her footing and immediately picked him up and did the same. They slapped each other’s shoulders playfully, wiping water out of their eyes and shaking it out of their hair.

“They’re having so much fun out there,” Bella commented quietly.

Edward nodded, saying nothing. After several minutes more, his wife poked him in the side, making him chuckle.

“Sometimes I’d like to have your gift,” his wife said. “Know what you’re thinking.”

He laughed. “That makes two of us.”

It was their private joke, how Bella was his one silent mind. From time to time, she let him in, but it was difficult and she didn’t do it often. So he had scaled the uneasy cliff of learning to ask her to voice her thoughts, and to be more forthcoming about his own.

“I forget so often how young they are,” he answered, his voice quiet. “They should just be at the beach, splashing each other.”

“And then coming in and having mojitos,” Bella added.

Edward stared back out over the water.

“He would be just out of his M-1 year,” he muttered.

Bella laughed. “Carlisle? He’d be a rising M-3 at a minimum. You think he somehow didn’t finish college at least a year early?”

He laughed. “True.”

Bella leaned into him. “And she’d be the rising star architect at the boutique firm. Nobody can believe she has so little experience because her designs are so good.”

Edward slipped an arm over his wife’s bare shoulders. “How did they meet?”

“Mmmm.” Bella’s gaze returned to the ocean. “She designed the art museum and he went to a gala. He’d be looking at the Cezanne. And she would come up from behind him and start telling him about it.”

“Yeah and then he would compliment the architecture of the building and make her blush.”

Bella laughed. “A coincidence, or does he know who she is?”

“He knows who she is. He’s hitting on her.”

They both smiled.

“Does it work?”

Edward nodded. “She lets him buy her a glass of wine from the cash bar. And it’s generic and not very good so he offers to take her to a real wine bar after the event. And they sneak out of it a little early. He orders something way too fancy for his budget and he’s just going to put it on his credit card but—”

“—Esme sees straight through him and gets the check.”

Laughing again, Edward nodded. They both fell silent for a moment, the only sounds the breeze, the birds, and the gentle whoosh of the Mediterranean.

“How long do they wait to do it,” his wife asks mischievously.

Edward threw his hands over his eyes. “Bella!” When he opened them, he saw his wife, one eyebrow cocked, and when they spoke, it was as one:

“Third date.”

They dissolved into laughter.

“His place or hers?” This was Edward.

“His. It’s a mess. He wasn’t expecting to invite her home. His sheets aren’t clean, either.” Carlisle, for his master command of anywhere between two and ten people’s laundry, somehow almost always managed to forget the sheets even with an inhuman memory. Bella’s invocation of one of her father in-law’s few marital imperfections made Edward laugh.

“She doesn’t care,” he added.

Bella shook her head. “She’s kinda charmed, really.”

“They move in together very quickly.”

“But they don’t get married for a long time.”

Edward nodded. “Until he’s in residency.”

His wife smiled. Then she mischievously leaned into his side, putting her lips at his ear and whispered, “They pull the goalie before the wedding.”

This made Edward laugh, but it rang true. In this world of events his mother would be thirty, and worried. They would both want to get started as soon as they were sure of their commitment, and neither of them had ever been much for suffering other people’s opinions about what might be proper. He listened, smiling, as his wife went on.

“They find out the day before and everyone is gushing at the reception about how sappy in love they look. It’s not until she starts showing that they tell everyone why they were so gooey that day.”

Edward smiled shyly, sitting up, dragging his toe in the white sand.

“Boy or girl?”

“Girl,” Bella answered immediately. When he cocked his head and frowned, she smirked and added, “There is no alternate universe in which you are not Rose’s little brother.”

At this, Edward guffawed. But it was true, he knew. When he saw them, in their minds, the shadow-dream family his parents both had, he was always the youngest. Sometimes there were three children, the oldest a boy whom each of them imagined differently—Carlisle imagining caramel hair and brown eyes, and Esme imagining a softened version of Charles, usually, but sometimes a boy with Carlisle’s hair, and blue eyes the exact hue of which she didn’t know and Carlisle didn’t remember. He would have been twenty years younger than Edward, chronologically, yet somehow in all their imaginations he was the oldest—the lost child, the child she ran for, the only person in their family who had ever died.

It weighed so heavily on them. All they had lost, all the things they had won in their stead. They had been so weary a week ago in the morning, when they’d met the rest of the family on the tarmac in Castres. A pandemic year was taking its toll on them both.

The couple who splashed in the waves seemed too young to have experienced all the loss they had. They looked so unburdened, chasing the waves, laughing at each other, catching the sun. As they watched, Esme put Carlisle on her shoulders and he fought until they both fell backward and went under.

Bella squeezed his hand. “Which ones do you think are happier? The imaginary ones or the real ones?”

Edward pressed his lips together. He could see them, in his mind’s eye: the beautiful couple settling comfortably into middle age, the doctor coaching his daughter’s basketball team, the architect leading the pine car derby for her son’s scout troop.

But he could see this couple, too. The joy on their faces as they hugged each of their six children. The way their skin had glowed in the light of absolutely unnecessary birthday candles, a “1”, a “2”, and a “0” on a cake only Renesmee could eat, and in all likelihood wouldn’t. The night before, when they’d watched In the Heights, his daughter fighting sleep as she leaned on her grandfather’s shoulder. How contented Carlisle had looked as he nudged her awake, knowing she considered herself far too old to be carried to bed.

They were old and young. Happy and sad. Yin and yang, like the ancient forces: equal parts the hard amidst the easy, the pain amidst the joy.

“The real ones,” he said, and was rewarded with another squeeze of his hand as his wife smiled.

“I think so, too,” she said.

In the distance, they both watched as Carlisle and Esme disappeared again under the waves.

[pippenpaddlopsicopolisthethird]

That person might not have said top ten but I would like to see the other five underrated animes 👀

(First post) I’LL KEEP ‘EM COMING, I LIVE FOR RECOMMENDING ANIME. I keep changing my mind on which ones to include because there’s so much good shit out there.

By the way, all of the recommendations in this list AND the last one are 26 episodes or less and tell a complete story. No cliffhangers, no “finish the manga to see the finale”, no “where’s the rest of it???” endings. That’s why, for now, Stars Align and Princess Jellyfish still get stuck with the honorable mentions even though what’s been made for both of them is incredible.

1. The Tatami Galaxy (Drama, Introspective)

The director behind Ping Pong the Animation and the original author behind Eccentric Family join forces to make Tatami Galaxy, which capitalizes on the best strengths of both shows. The protagonist is a lonely college student facing the prospect of graduating after having thoroughly wasted his college years. He bemoans how circumstances outside of his control, from conniving fake-friends to selfish and shallow extras, have conspired to ruin what should have been a “rose-colored campus life”, and wishes he could do it over again so he can get it right.

So he does, with the show using avant-garde animation and abstract storytelling to explore all of his threads of what-ifs. The plotlines seem separate but weave together and subtly build on each other, culminating to a finale that explores the meaning of relationships and who you are in the absence of outside forces that can define you. It’s heartfelt, funny, raunchy, and deep, and perfectly encapsulates the existential dread of being in college. I watched it for the first time when I was about to finish undergrad and it hit like an emotional freight train, then I rewatched it during quarantine and it hit like a truck. This is one of my top favorite anime of all time.

2. Re:Creators (Fantasy, action)

Most of the anime I’ve put on these lists get their spots for being deep, nuanced, and delicately crafted. This is not one of them. But, by god, is it one of the most over-the-top fun shows I’ve ever seen. Re:Creators is a rare reverse-isekai. Fictional characters from popular anime, games, and manga suddenly start turning up in the real world, instructed to “find your Creator and reshape the world you came from”. The soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano is bar-none one of the hypest things out there; seriously, just listen to Layers, the song for a character from a grimdark everyone-dies series begging her author to tell her why.

The characters in this show are so fun to watch bounce off each other, even if they’re not as “three dimensional” as others. Magical girls fight Stand users, mechs face down scifi-noir detectives, Lawful Good Paladins go toe-to-toe with Chaotic Evil light novel villains.  But by including the artists who imagined these characters as characters themselves, it also has a lot to say about the creative process, the reasons people create, and the relationship between an artist and their work. Between the high-octane fight scenes, there’s a surprisingly human and genuine throughline.

3. Sora no Woto (Slice of life, music, post-apocalyptic)

This show is another of my favorite examples of worldbuilding done right. A young girl joins the army as a bugler because it’s one of the only ways she can learn to play music. The episode plots focus on how she and her tiny regiment of young women stationed at a small town in the middle of nowhere deal with day-to-day troubles, while the details of the world around them slowly fill and round out the picture of a broken society where people still just... live. They still create myths, they still have festivals, they still blow glass and tell ghost stories and make art. The plots seem inconsequential, until the world built into the background becomes too prominent to ignore. The background art and music is some of the most gorgeous I’ve seen. It’s part of a genre I’ve been calling “soft apocalypse” and it’s been one of my favorites for years.

BONUS MENTION: Girl’s Last Tour (Slice of life, post-apocalyptic)

Yes, I’m cheating, but listen. Girl’s Last Tour fits perfectly into the canon narrative provided by Sora no Woto, just set in the far future, a few apocalypses later. It’s got less of a main plot, because there’s almost nothing of society left, just two girls wandering together through an abandoned world. It’s soft, introspective, and bittersweet, showing how humanity is still humanity no matter how few people are left. Despite having nothing about their productions in common, it’s the perfect spiritual successor to Sora no Woto and they deserve to be recommended in the same spot.

4. Tamako Market (+ the movie) (Romance, slice-of-life)

This show is the platonic ideal of a soft, heartwarming, sweet-as-sugar, slice-of-life romance. It follows the daily life of Tamako, a high school girl who lives above a family-owned mochi shop in a shopping center, who is followed around by a talking bird trying to find a bride for his prince in a far-off land. But really the show isn’t about the bird. The show is about love in all its forms. The love that the other families in the shopping center have for Tamako, the love that she and her friends have for each other, the love they have for the activities they’re passionate about, the love you feel when someone makes you a cup of coffee, fated love, childhood crushes, family love.

Something about this show that also stands out is how gently and naturally it incorporates some of the best queer representation I’ve ever seen in anime. One of the shop owners is a kind and soft-spoken trans woman, who is never the butt of a joke, never questioned, never treated as different, loved all the same. One of Tamako’s friends is gay, and her crush on Tamako is treated with as much respect and care as every other moment in the show. This series never makes you flinch for fear of “representation” that turns sour. It’s the epitome of a feel-good show.

5. ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department (Political, mystery, drama)

Yes, I keep saving my favorites for last on these lists. I can’t describe this show as anything but the perfectly written plot. As a rule, I don’t like political dramas, and this is one of my favorite anime of all time. It’s set in a fictional country, where 13 regions all exist relatively independently under one collective monarchical ruler, and follows Jean, an agent of the independent Inspection Department, which acts as a check and balance to each power. The series begins with Jean being assigned a full review of each territory while the powers-that-be field whispers of a coup. This show masters foreshadowing, intrigue, escalation, and mystery. The stakes build and overlap on scales from intensely personal to national. The pacing is amazing, keeping tension balanced with plot twists that answer more questions than they ask.

Plus, it’s got one of the most visually appealing and stylized openings out there. I realize that political drama isn’t exactly escapism right now, but believe me, this series is worth it.