#me when i make a hacker get traumatized by another hacker

[lmadsadness]

can someone like uhhhh stab him for me

!!! warning for blood, potentially gore and cannibalism down here !!!

[thelongestway]

Finally, something of a breather. Having two people to play off one another is easier... Somewhat. Still think that this story will probably need a lot more line editing than the previous ones--our protagonist's state of mind is hard to get across, because it's messy and vulnerable, and so the writing must be precise. But that is, indeed, for the editing pass.

And now, without further ado...

Chapter 10: Emergence

A few minutes later, the drugs that would neutralize the sedative in the Friend's system did their job, and I was sitting nearby, waiting for it to wake up, when it stirred.

I said, "Please take it easy and let me help you. I'm a doctor. You have been shot at Minerva Station and are now recuperating. You are back on your shuttle, safe. We are presently en route to Advaita Station."

The Friend squinted at me, like it was trying to make out who I was. I gave it a bit of water to relieve its dry mouth and helped it sit. Once it drank, it rasped, "You're Luca's friend?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm not. That was my colleague."

Well, for a given definition of friend… According to the video, when my Friend realized it was out of its depth and called for backup from its movement, it hadn't known the people who would be coming--not even their false identities. It had just described the competencies it needed to a relay and waited. And then the two Friends had walked into our medbay after their reconaissance failed and identified themselves. If things hadn't gone wrong, my Friend might not even have known they were there, so as not to disturb its cover.

The Friend leaned on me, collecting itself and sneaking suspicious glances here and there. Finally it said, "Thank you for helping me."

Even now, just barely out of anesthesia it kept up its mask. I'd find it incredible if it wasn't so profoundly disturbing. And more stressful than the patient needed.

"Listen, Friend, " I said to it. "I know what you are. I know about your movement. And there is no one else awake on this ship. You do not have to hide. Kindly focus on recovering."

It blinked blearily at me. Then it said, "Where is Luca?"

"Likely dead, if the hacker we were with is to be believed. But that hacker is also likely dead. Aside from a single patient discarded by Encephalon, we are the only people on this shuttle."

"You know about Encephalon?"

"As I said, I know about your movement. And something of your goals on Minerva. I realize you have no reason to trust me. But… One of your colleagues left a data stick with me. Once you are feeling better, I will show it to you."

Satisfied with that, the Friend relaxed, and fell back into a non-medicated sleep for a time. I busied myself working through my Friend's files.

A few hours later, the Friend shuffled out of the medbay, and I helped it to a bathroom, then back to the bed. It thanked me, then asked for the data stick. I provided it, and it silently looked through it--much faster than I had done, thanks to its augments. I checked how it was healing while it worked, and it allowed me access with no protest.

"This is a profoundly disturbing development, Dr. Mrinal," it finally said to me when it was done. "You should not have been dragged into our affairs. This Friend apologizes for its colleagues' indiscretion."

"Really?" I said, not even trying to hide the bitterness. "That's the disturbing part to you, not the Encephalon data?"

It cracked a smile that was familiar enough to send a spike of pain through me. "The Encephalon data was something this Friend was sent here to deal with. It had been ready for that… Mostly. Though you are right: it is also more disturbing than this Friend expected. But also Encephalon is not here and you, who have been pulled into our network suddenly and traumatically, are. This Friend doesn't know what its colleague had been thinking."

"It had been thinking that, based on my history, I would reverse your Lyson procedure if left unchecked," I said, far sharper than I intended. "And it was right. If it had not given me those files, I would have. What you do to yourselves is cruel and inhumane, and…"

Even as I spoke, I felt a surge of disgust in me, aimed not at the Friend, but at myself. Going off on a barely lucid patient… Back on Preservation, I never thought I would be that kind of doctor. There were many awful things about my time in the Rim, but this was the part that probably made me hate myself the most: being so overworked that I found myself thinking ill of those who needed me, and occasionally taking my frustrations out on them. This ugly behavior had stopped when I began my work with Zaharije, and I'd thought I was past it--and apparently I wasn't. All it took was being alone again.

No. I wouldn't give in this time. Not ever again if I could help it. (I was far from certain I could. I'd tried in the past, and failed. But I would do my best.)

I broke off and turned away. There was always more busywork to be done.

But the Friend wasn't ready to let me go just yet.

"And yet you didn't."

"…And yet I shouldn't be talking about this to someone still in recovery. Please rest for now. I have work to do."

"This Friend is feeling well, thanks to your ministrations. If we are in this together, perhaps you could fill it in on the latest events while you work? What happened on Minerva?"

"You are impossible," I snarled, whirling back to the patient. That damned smile on its face! A couple more Friends, and I would start recognizing them solely by that smile! "How can you be so calm? Your colleagues are dead, you yourself are barely alive and stuck in a shuttle with someone who despises the entire idea of your movement, and…"

"…And this Friend is alive and capable of making a difference still. These are good things in its book."

"Please stop provoking me. I told myself less than thirty seconds ago that I would not yell at you, and I have broken this promise already. Let me help you in silence."

Strangely, that got it to be quiet. The next time it spoke up was minutes later, when I'd had time to go through some of the mental exercises the old Preservation trauma treatment module had given me.

"Apologies, doctor, but this Friend finds itself uncomfortable when idle. Is there perhaps anything it could do to help our situation--without interfering with its recovery?" I gave it a suspicious stare and it shrugged. "It does not wish to sabotage your work."

"Thank the light for that, at least," I muttered. "Do you know anything about piloting?"

"A little."

"More than I've got. I will help you get to the controls, and you can check the bot pilot. It makes me anxious to be wholly dependent on a machine I don't understand."

The Friend raised an eyebrow. "That's an unusual attitude for these parts of the galaxy. May this Friend ask where you're from?"

"Does it matter?" Bile rose in my throat again. "I'm not going back there ever again."

"This Friend apologizes," my collocutor said quietly. I ignored it as I processed my own words.

Why had I just said that? Returning to Preservation had been my goal for the last half year--one that I'd been scared to assail, yes, but what did I have left to lose? And yet the very thought of setting foot back on Preservation now filled me with nausea, and I didn't know why.

Perhaps I simply did not want them to see this cowardly thing I have become. Too scared to escape, too scared to return to its former life, too scared to do anything at all except maybe yell at defenseless patients.

Nauseating indeed.

"This Friend understands from its colleague's recording that you have been through a lot," the Friend continued, breaking me out of my ruminations. "This Friend does not make a habit of intruding into other people's affairs, but it does think it would be helpful if it understood where you are coming from. It would be able to make better choices then."

"Friend, I think it's too late for you--or for me, for that matter. If either of us made good choices in life, we wouldn't be here."

It laughed.

"Then let us make some more poor choices together. Our first priority is the Encephalon patient, correct? And you said we were going to Advaita Station? That's a good place to aim for. This Friend will check if the course holds."

[ragingstillness]

Criminal minds evolution 17x5:

Straight up forgot that Rebecca and Tara were together and when Tara was in the line of fire of the bomb I was like “why is Rebecca so worried?”

Love that they ended up having to leave hostage negotiation to Voit. Terrible situation, very funny for the viewer.

I feel sorry for Rossi still, I would love to see if he’s still hallucinating Voit because that could create a very funny angel/devil on the shoulder dynamic between hallucination Voit and real Voit.

I didn’t quite understand how literal Emily meant the whole trigger thing if Voit ran, I thought she just meant that would pretty much prove he’s a criminal because escaping federal custody is illegal and they’d be able to hunt him down again.

Garcia’s judgement is everything. So passive aggressive. At the same time though Voit is 100% giving as good as he gets.

I’ve said through this season and the last that the actor who plays Voit is having way too much fun but this has got to be peak “he’s having too much fun.” I mean, cooing over the jet, making up a ship name for Tyler and Garcia, singing in the BAU about Rossi being a coward. “Hi Rossi it’s me Elias it’s been a long time since my last confession.” He’s so entertaining I almost want to like him.

Brian makes me want to rip my hair out. He’s so infinitely frustrating. Can’t believe no one has done a thorough background check on Tyler enough to know that Teresa is one of his contacts.

I sure hope we’ll get more about the gold star program and Stuart house because we haven’t gotten nearly enough. And North Star too, if that’s even a thing. Maybe another house?

I get the impression Voit is a good hacker but how much information was he able to get in his year of crime? It’s a wonder he got any parenting or actual IT work done.

I actually said, out loud, “don’t cry Paget don’t cry.”

Emily says her breakdown started when she got arrested and maybe there’s smtg we’re not being told because honestly she didn’t seem all that traumatized by it at the time. I mean, Spencer got arrested but didn’t go off the deep end until he was actually in jail. Emily didn’t even spend the night I don’t think.

Emily smoking: bad sign for her character’s mental health but undeniably sexy.

Am I the only one who thinks they were almost pushing Rossi and Emily together? Like idk how to feel about that but that last scene (before the hug) just gave me an odd vibe.

Very curious what Elias’ true plan is. I mean, he seems to have said a true goodbye to his family and he might have an endgame for them but he seems to have refocused, although on what I’m not sure.

Happy to see Luke get to be smart. I know having him play dumb is an excellent way to get unsubs off guard but it also ends up not showcasing how smart he actually is.

Really really feel like they’re setting up this season for an old character coming back but idk who.

[jammys-pkmn-irl-hub]

Welcome! You can call me "Jam" (he/him); I run a bunch of Pokémon IRL blogs and at this point accepted that I'm probably gonna make more! So to prevent the ever-growing list of blogs I have to add to pinned posts, I've now made a hub blog.

Aside from making a listn I'm probably gonna also like. Use this blog to talk about lore stuff that's hard to mention in-character? And maybe even post some off-screen fics that I didn't finish at the time I meant to post them. So consider giving this blog a follow if you. Actually like my work for some reason lmao.

I'm gonna categorize this so:

"Glass Moon" Characters

Most of my characters fall under the same universe that I call the "Glass Moon Lore", because I like to joke that their anime theme song would be the "Glass Moon Dance" by The Vanished People. All of these characters are tied to each other in one way or another, and even tied to characters written by other people! More on that in a different post

Those characters are:

- @profchamomile - Paldea's new regional professor! Looking into ways to make Pokémon care more accessible so trainers in disadvantaged situations may still make sure their pokemon's needs are being met! Will they live up to the expectations that come with replacing the professors that built a literal time machine? Or will their worst fears come to life when the ghosts of their deep dark past come back to haunt them- I mean what?

- @porygon-supremacy - A hacker who totally doesn't care about people, and a mother of four weird pokemon children. Tries her best to be secretive, but her porygons have other plans. If what you hear of her work life concerns you... Well, you might be onto something.

- @anomaly-sanctum - a pokemon sanctuary specializing in the kind of pokemon that other sanctuaries can't. Legendaries, ultra beasts, artificial, you name it. May or may not be run by a former terrorist

- @kidresearcherindigo - Just a normal student of Naranja-Uva academy who loves their friends and family and expresses that in making them laugh! Sure they figured refer to their family as their "pack" and that family largely consists of zoroarks. Sure they may or may not have been to Area Zero. Sure they may or may not have saved the world from team plasma back when they lived in Unova. But they're TOTALLY normal and NOT traumatized!

- @bright-sun-porygon - One of porygon-supremacy's weird pokemon children; a happy-go-lucky porygon2 who wants nothing more than to put a smile on the face of everyone they meet! Their ultimate goals are to bring their loved ones together, get the human learning experience by becoming a student at naranja-uva, and becoming your friend!

Individual Lore Blogs

- @paradox-destroyer - what would happen if Arven couldn't save Mabosstiff? You get an edgy, troubled teenager forced to help a giant lizard get their powers back!

- @area-zero-era-navigator - another Arven blog, but this time he's an AI! Watch as he struggles to navigate human emotion as he's forced to process some of the most difficult emotions of all, such as grief, fear, love, among others

- @witheredcosmos no one special, really. Just a galarian man suffering from an unfortunate position. Certainly has no affiliation Former Chairman Rose or anything... Nevermind the fact that his blog was made a day after the former Chairman's death was announced.

That's it for now; more will be added, I'm sure because when I get an idea it holds me hostage for several nights

My activity tends to fluctuate a lot depending on which plot I'm most hyperfixated with. But interaction is always welcome on any one of them; even if I haven't posted on that blog in a while.

Also follows are from @jammerman64 but shhhhhhhhh don't tell my mutuals on main (/lh)

Feel free to send asks about my characters too if you're curious about anything!

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Hi Dana and Ceph! I'm sending this to the both of you cuz I'd like to know your opinion (and between the Mimic debate and the "Gregory is evil" thing I trust yall more than youtube theorists X) )

I'm wondering, who do you think the other therapy tapes belonged to? Patient 46 if I'm remembering. What are/were your headcanons about their identity and do you still think that?

I was using that and the one unmasked ending to say that there were two Vannys in a fic/retelling I'm building, but with Vanny and Vanessa being pretty much confirmed 1:1 it's made me all confused.

Ceph already answered this, but I suppose I will too.

Sorry I've been sitting on this one for awhile.

But I guess I should get all my thoughts about Patient 46 out there.

Before the DLC dropped, I would have guessed Cassie was patient 46 and had possible connections to Charlie.

However, post DLC, Having played Ruin, I can say that Patient 46 is NOT Cassie nor does she have any connections to Charlie. Other then then her empathetic nature and wanting to help, but even that's a stretch to connect the two.

She also has no clear connections to the Profile in the therapy tapes. (And I mean behavior profile) so she doesn't match.

So Cassie is ruled out entirely.

Another thought I had was that Patient 46 was Vanny. And a lot of people had similar thoughts when the games came out. But..... No. A lot of the therapists in the way they address 46 are clearly talking to a child. As their feet dangle from the chair, and while it could be a very short woman, Vanny is not short. She's as tall as Vanessa.

The therapists often try to say "you don't know what that means" about rather simple terms or phrases. And often try to be gentle with 46, even when being accusatory as compared with Vanessa's tapes.

(one of them legit says "you need to let this go if you ever want to be happy" to Vanessa...great therapist Fazbear 10/10 .... 🙄 )

While as with 46, they moreso go "I want to talk to you about something....." And then they hit them with the hacker and manipulator stuff.

So Patient 46 is a non-verbal child. All the tapes involve them either making gestures or pointing at things we can't see. Which leads me to believe either... The patient doesn't want to talk to therapists and mistrusts them, is non verbal autistic or went through a deeply traumatizing event and that's why they're in therapy.

Or they're just mute but I think the other are more likely.

My other thought was that it might be Vanessa as a young child....

But that doesn't add up either.

Cause both of these therapists are disappearing at the same time.

One of the therapists (and I think it's the case for all of them) said to not just work with big corporations like Fazbear. They also work in schools.

So when these therapists are dying, in a small population like Hurricane Utah, it makes sense that the therapist they outsource for Fazbear Entertainment will also take a job at the local school if they transfer. Cause both positions need to be replaced.

So... Who else could it be....

Well, there's always a possibility that it's someone we don't know yet. Maybe even the protagonist or a character in Help Wanted 2.

But....

Well...

No.

I don't think so.

It's Gregory.

There's no one else it could be.

In the GGY Story from the books... There's this weird paragraph aside that talks about the school therapists.

How the newest one was like, and how the old ones were like...

And they described their personalities as presented in the tapes. One being strict and a bit full of herself, the other being nice and cheerful, and another one being matter of fact.

These were there therapists at Gregory's school who were going missing.

GGY also connects the Greg in that story to Freddy Fazbear himself, and being a really skilled hacker who cheated to get high scores on arcade cabinets.

Gregory also gives him the alias Dr.Rabbit. most likely in reference to the Scraptrap arcades he plays. And he probably likes the mad robot scientist..... And where he got the idea to upgrade Freddy by Frankensteining parts into him.

Before the DLC I wasn't able to make sense of GGY. Because we'll "Gregory's not a hacker. He follows instructions on a keypad to update Freddy"

But.... In the DLC

Gregory said HE developed MXES......

Sure, there is speculation that Vanessa might have helped him, as he says that Vanessa has access to the building maps and is helping him...... But he said that HE designed the MXES Security System.

Which takes the shape of a Rabbit....

And Patient 46 was told by the therapists to lie about his home life. The therapist did research and find out that 46 had loving parents and lied about it.

We see a trend of that behavior in the GGY Story.... Where Tony, our dumb protagonist, thinks Gregory has super rich and well off parents..... But also admits that Gregory is dirty and cuts his own hair....

Something that just doesn't add up if he had attentive parents. So he probably ran away from home at that point and is squatting at the Plex.

It's unclear if 46 is actually lying about having horrible parents.... Or the background search was incorrect.

Patient 46 also came into contact with someone or something with Rabbit ears at some point.

However, I'm not drawing conclusions that Gregory is being manipulated by Glitchtrap or Vanny at all. Cause the therapist legit says:

"I don't think you're being manipulated here. I think you're the one doing the manipulating...."

.....

All the evidence lines up.

Gregory is GGY and Patient 46. There is no one else it can be.

What we know, he lies fervently about his home life. He ran away from home. He mistrusts adults A LOT. He programed Freddy to basically be his body guard. He's been abducting his classmates to the Pizzaplex. He's been using animatronics to kill his therapist when they get close to him.

And he is manipulating someone with rabbit ears....which could be anyone.... It could even be a Fazbear Technician we don't know or Cassie's Dad.

The only reason Gregory is vulnerable in Security Breach is because Vanessa took Gregory's toys from him, and Freddy experienced a system malfunction on stage so he doesn't answer to him or remembers him anymore.

(I do believe that Gregory genuinely sees Freddy as a friend by the end of the game and not a tool)

And from Vanessa's frustration, she's been hunting down Gregory for a LONG TIME. Not just the night of the in-game events. It's only that night she figures out his name, cause Gregory was good at staying hidden and out of her way since before then.

I don't nessarily think all of this means Gregory is evil.

The MXES being associated with a purple rabbit was the main reason why he was so misleading in FNAF and why a lot of people thought he was the villian at first.

So maybe all of Gregory's behavior is meant to be misleading. He might be an anti hero. In game, he mentions the disappearances at the end and seems concerned about them, despite him causing some of them in GGY and if he's patient 46.

I don't think Gregory is evil.

I honestly see a scared kid, who has been forced to play defensive his entire life. So he lashes out with agression.

An eye for an eye.

"get them before they get me"

Play offensive preemptively, against people who aren't even playing with you.

There is no one else Patient 46 could be at this time...

And I am interested to see what they do with this.

If they just go "he's just evil" like FNAF is prone to do....

That will be a bit disappointing.

Because I do think that there is a way that you can make Gregory like this, and still have it be very interesting.

Because child innocence tarnished by neglect and suffering is a very dangerous thing.

[il3x]

[Footnotes provided for non Reboot fans.]

There are very many Kenzie in Reboot bad endings, as you might imagine when one dumps Kenzie (girl who tried to sell herself to a serial killer online because the serial killer seemed lonely) in a city with major Circle (international human trafficking ring) presence, plus one million organ harvesters and murderers and rapists and suchlike. However, there is at least one feasible good ending, and it starts like this.

Kenzie gets portalled into the outskirts of the slums. Looks around. She looks enough like a city tourist that she doesn't get immediately mugged and kidnapped, just lightly pickpocketed. Runs into Bernie* and gets scammed five times in five minutes, but very quickly runs out of things to trade thanks to the aforementioned pickpocketing and ends up tagging along with him as an assistant. I'd have to re-listen to Bernie's appearances to see how that plays out.

Within a fairly short timeframe (few days? depends if I can wrangle them into an interesting and enjoyable dynamic) they run into the PCs and start trying to sell them stuff. Eve** (this is mid-S1) sees Kenzie and her must protect instincts click into gear. The PCs become aware of Kenzie's Tinkering abilities (she probably tries to sell them something she's made), and turns out that cameras are just what they need for their latest quest, but they need one made to particular specifications. They commission Kenzie's help (motivated in part by Eve's protectiveness) and she heads back with them to Ugly's Motors***.

Kenzie is eventually taken on as, like, a child/little cousin/apprentice by Eve and Incongruent****. Collaborates with Pr0***** on various tracking and surveillance projects, but I don't think their personalities would mesh very well. Speaking of, putting a kid who's desperate for parental love and has no concept of boundaries and is codependent to the point of damaging everyone around her and herself together with a nurse bot whose trauma and programming intersect to make her desperate to look after a baby, and who has also been alive for about two months and so has barely any knowledge of healthy interaction herself... well... this is going to go terribly. Or really, really well! Here's hoping Incongruent can mediate the situation.

Kenzie also accompanies the PCs into the city to meet the Clements family, which is where she meets Uriel and her personal plotline (spy vs spy plus rescue-mission) kicks off.

*NPC. Slummer and salesman. Comparable to Cutting-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler from Discworld, but less successful.

**PC. Sentient nurse bot. Or ex-nurse bot? Fun fact, drones become sentient by experiencing something both impossible to process and unthinkably traumatic, so she's got her own neuroses around children on top of her programming. She's awesome and I love her.

***Home base, kind of.

****NPC. Another sentient robot, though most PCs don't know that. Romance with Eve, later on. Ignore his remarks about puny fleshbags and the fact that he could crush your head like a grape, he totally doesn't mean anything by it, and it's not like he has justified reasons to oppose humanity... right?

He's chill, though, I promise.

*****PC. Hacker. Circle survivor. My favourite. Has done nothing wrong ever in his life (I say as the narrator asks his player whether he wants to make a Ganger or Human Trafficker skill check).

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 10- Part 11

Aw- it’s nice to see they, especially Amaria, still actually care. I’m not sure if Xera (in-character) is taking much solace in this plan, but I most certainly am.

Until next time, Amaria- I’m certain this won’t be the last time we run into her, and I don’t just mean in terms of eventually challenging her for a Gym Battle.

Onyx Ward? That’s where Florinia’s Gym is? I would’ve thought it’d be here in Obsidia Ward, this has been the latest location we’ve been exploring.

Oooh, interesting- and here I thought she was just some programmer/hacker lady, but being a teacher/instructor fits her, uh…intelligence just as well.

And so, here we stand…left to ponder everything that’s just happened.

Yeah, no, this park is much smaller now that everything’s back to normal- but given the weird layout of the overgrown version, I’ll take this any day. 

You know…I think this whole debacle with Borealis and Victoria being kidnapped can serve as an excellent character moment for Xera, as I alluded to before. Like I said- Borealis is clearly a strong Trainer, even I was spooked at the possibility of facing him right then and there- and I think Xera realized that too. For as strong as she’s gotten thus far, enough to get one Gym Badge and take down a PULSE machine, it still wasn’t and wouldn’t have been enough to prevent what happened to Victoria. 

And I think this stings more because, really- I think Victoria’s the only (human) character so far that Xera might, in some way, consider a friend. Really, think about it:

Cain is sorta getting there, but I’d say it’s…still a work-in-progress, at least on Xera’s end.

Ame may have saved Xera’s life, but it’s more like Xera wants to return the favor in some way, or at least prove (maybe to herself, maybe to others) that the chance Ame gave her to keep living wasn’t wasted.

Florinia, Amaria, Shelly, and Corey (reminder, Xera does not suspect him of being Borealis like I do) are more like acquaintances at best.

I don’t think Fern is anyone’s friend.

Julia is Xera’s sleep paralysis demon.

That…really just leaves Victoria as the one Xera’s on arguably the best terms with. And to me, it makes sense- Victoria was the first actual, newbie Trainer Xera met in Reborn City, even before Cain. All the others died in the Grandview Station bombing, and I don’t even know if Xera knew any of them. And not only that, but Victoria showed her actual kindness after everything happened- like, yeah, Ame did too, but again, that dynamic is totally different from a friendship at this time. And I think with Victoria, her kindness was more striking because most of the other citizens Xera encountered right after such a traumatic event were…not so pleasant in some form or another.

Of course, while I see the two having this friendship, in-universe I…think it’s only now, after Victoria is in mortal danger, that Xera’s coming to realize she actually considers her something of a friend. You know how the saying goes, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” and all that. 

When everything began, for most of the game up until this point, Xera’s been motivated by two things: a vague ambition to become a strong enough Trainer to take on the Reborn League, and vengeance on Team Meteor for almost killing her. She didn’t care about the city as a whole or the people in it, for the most part, it was mainly the Pokémon. Those feelings have slightly begun to change before this Obsidia Park stuff, but again- only slightly. But I think, with this event…it might just be what’s needed to trigger a real shift in priority within Xera for the first time.

She’ll challenge Florinia at her Gym, no doubt about that- but not as a stepping stone towards fulfilling her goals of victory over the Reborn League. If she does have to face Borealis or any Team Meteor member who gets in the way of tracking down Victoria…she wants to make sure she’ll be strong enough to take them on. She wants to make sure won’t be powerless to do anything again like she was in Obsidia Park. This isn’t completely about revenge anymore (though it’s still part of it), now it’s about rescue.

Maybe I’m going too deep into giving a meaningful character arc to a character who’s supposed to be a player avatar/insert, especially since we’ve got 17 more Gyms to go, but…I dunno, as fun as player inserts are, I like giving life to whole new characters (read: I really like making OCs), and this game is giving me plenty of material to work with.

Anyways- that’s enough of me pondering characterization (assuming you read all of that), let’s get back to the actual game. Let’s see if the NPCs have anything new to say now that the park’s back to normal.

I think you’re gonna leave with more questions than answers, buddy-

Chaos? You want chaos?? You can’t handle chaos! You haven’t seen what I’ve seen!!

Oh? I distinctly remember those old folks acting weird when Xera came in before- and now this? Sounds like a new side quest of some kind.

But that- as well as anything else in Obsidia and Onyx Wards- will have to wait until the next chapter. A bit of a shorter installment this time, sure, but hopefully the story stuff- both the actual in-game events and my continued OC-building- make up for the length.

Despite the gripes I was very ““vocal”” about (because it was written rather than literally spoken) this time around, make no mistake, I am still enjoying this game! So, here’s to another ten chapters of my desperate attempts to get good at Pokémon, and here’s to hopefully even more beyond that! Until next time!

CURRENT TEAM:

Riptide

Species: Croconaw

Gender: Male

Level: 21

Ability: Sheer Force*

Item: Quick Claw

Brave nature; Alert to sounds.

Breeze

Species: Pidgeotto

Gender: Female

Level: 21

Ability: Keen Eye

Item: None

Lax nature; Mischievous.

Glare

Species: Ekans

Gender: Female

Level: 21

Ability: Intimidate

Item: None

Naughty nature; Highly curious.

Whiskers

Species: Skitty

Gender: Female

Level: 21

Ability: Wonder Skin*

Item: None

Lax nature; Capable of taking hits.

Bloom

Species: Roselia

Gender: Male

Level: 22

Ability: Leaf Guard*

Item: Rose Incense

Docile nature; Alert to sounds.

Prong

Species: Charjabug

Gender: Female

Level: 22

Ability: Battery

Item: None

Rash nature; Loves to eat.

CURRENT BOXES:

NUMBER OF RELOADS: 5

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[nychta-luxury]

A Strange God

Gen Z reader

soft au - reader is an adult -

Warning: Not proofread, dark jokes, mostly comedy rather then serious, swearing.

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You were sitting in you're room playing genshin, doing your usual things like commissions, Tea pot, exploration, farming.

Until something strange happened your device wasn't responding. I don't mean the screen froze oh no no. You can still move your mouse however the game itself is moving on its own

"Oh hell naw I didn't sign up for this demonic shit. " You say as you back away from the device. Your main is still moving and the worst part is, its not even part of any idle animation or something you have seen before. You don't care if it's a hacker or some possession shit, EITHER ONE IS BAD

Then it hits you, you starting to get light headed, vision becoming blurry, you start on panicking. What the hell was wrong with your body just when you were about to reach for a phone you black out.

You are now concouice though haven't opened your eyes yet, it feels... Very peaceful your not sure why.. The birds are singing, the smell of flowers in the air, the grass on the ground

"THE GRASS ON THE GROUND?!" You instantly opened your eyes.

"Why is this grass brighter than my future." You say as you look at the neon like grass "Did people kidnap me to touch grass like a normal human being?" Look as much as unbelievable that suggestion was, you have been told to randomly touch grass more than your salary combined.

"You know what fuck it, it's like-" You look at the sky "I'm going to pretend I know what the time is, however I can say it's too early to care." You lay back down, ah how peaceful. Too peaceful, but who cares you can pretend to be in some anime and lay down at the grass.

"AHHH IS THAT A FUCKING BUG" You instantly sat up from the ground, honestly what were you thinking

"GET THE HELL AWAY SATAN SPAWN."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay now that's over with. You look up at the sky "Okay universe we both know you will fuck me over one way or another. I know damn well that the bugs were only the beginning." You sigh, done with your anime protagonist moment and reach out to grab your phone.

"Where's my phone...?"

"NO NO NOO," you say panicking "WHERE IS MY LIFE PURPOSE?!" You scream "I AM STILL WAITING FOR TCF MANHWA TO UPDATE!!"

It's been 30 minutes and you are still upset you don't have your phone. YOU DON'T CARE IF SOMEONE KIDNAPPED YOU AS LONG AS THEY GAVE YOU A PHONE OR BE AN IPAD KID.

"Ugh, what's the purpose of life if it isn't to update that one story you never continued in 2020." You say dramatically, if anyone was watching they would think you just lost a loved one.

you felt a small tickle on your foot, and your -20 IQ brain thought that it might be a spider... but suddenly you had gained 1 IQ and decided to actually look at what it was instead of kicking your feet aimlessly.

Turns out it was was a squirrel, thank goodness you didn't kick it. Let's just say tiktok traumatized you with too much information about animals..

The squirrel was just cuddling up to you, your weren't really sure why. It was then you realize your surroundings. "Why the hell am I in some old ass ruin??" Now your confused, you look around the area to see where you are perhaps you might even recognize it who knows? You can see a huge structure, it kinda looks like a crossbow, your not quite sure how to describe it. It feels very familiar for some reason, you can see carving marks on it, it read "Seed of stories, brought by the wind, and cultivated by time." huh for an ancient structure it sure had modern English. Wait. That's not English. How are you even reading that??? there is only one explanation for this. "I am some fictional work that doesn't even make sense, like 90% of fantasy reincarnation stories even if the protagonist was transmigrated and not reincarnated, but they use it anyway to sound cool." You say with a serious face, "Lmao as if that was true" You feel something on your shoulder, you immediately turn to what it was just to find the same squirrel just climbed up to your shoulder and now just cuddling you. "You are so lucky my reflexes didn't kick in, I almost throw you off my shoulders yk." "Why am I even talking to a squirrel? gonna be Snow White 2.0 ig" suddenly you hear something drop, you turn behind you and see- IS THAT AMBER???? looks like she dropped her bow, why does she look so surprised? Is it your outfit maybe? Maybe even the hair?? Anyways you just walked over and picked up ambers bow for her "Yo, you uh dropped this" "YOUR GRACE, YOU DON'T HAVE TO PICK IT UP FOR ME!!" "Wait tf you mean your grace." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welp Gen z reader popped up in my mind so here- I decided not to add to many gen z jokes just yet since it is a little short story, might make a part 2 if this post goes well-

[boringkate]

I haven't watched the media you've posted yet, but you've mentioned there being forced fem victims. I don't quite understand what that means, at least in terms of portrayal in media. I'm definitely biased cause I have hot Tgirl swagger and a killer rack, and I think being force feminized is awesome. I guess at the core what I'm asking, is the situation portrayed in a way to illicit sympathy for the victims or will it turn me on and want to be them? (Still might be turned on regardless)

I mean I'm not jacking off to any of the movies listed (there's better porn out there for that), but I wouldn't say I sympathize with them in a "it's so sad that they got feminized" way either. I just think it's cool when boys are treated like girls or when there are girls that used to be boys. And it feels like there are obvious parallels to the trans excperience. It varies from movie to movie tho.

Like in Surrender Dorothy him being made to live as a sissy maid (and getting queer bashed for it etc and especially what happens at the end) is just rad in a salacious edgelordy Gregg Araki kinda way.

And in Memory Run it's just like oh this is a cool action flick about a trans woman. I'm fully viewing her as a trans woman. Especially with her being this traumatized computer hacker with increasingly radical politics and a found family sisterhood vibes thing going on with another traumatized girl. It's tgirl shit all the way down.

I've been pretty frustrated with people making a huge deal out of Spider-Gwen apparently being some type of trans (omg a cartoon used the colors pink and blue in the same frame). Because it's like if her transness is vague and subtle enough to go unnoticed or be debated then isn't that kinda weak? And I know those same people don't care about actual substantially queer media. Which makes it more frustrating. Why are you MORE hyped for crumbs than meaingful representation?

But I guess this is my version of getting hyped for crumbs. Movies where (rather than actually being trans) boys are secretly fed estrogen and then bullied into castrating themselves.

[psychospore]

Curling Up and... Dying???

Summary: Loki flies up straight to their home to find out about a mischievous misunderstanding with their daughter

Word count: 960

Days like this when Loki feels so bad for leaving home. Rogers called in for an urgent mission in Romania, apparently, their personal data was leaked by a hacker and norns know what could happen if they let it be any further. He had to leave when the kiddo was fast asleep because the kid really knows how to throw tantrums whenever one of them leaves.

Kiddo was left together with y/n in their cozy home in New York. She indeed bawled her eyes out when she realized her dad was nowhere to be found after checking all of the rooms.

Instead of leaving the kiddo with a babysitter, y/n called her hairdresser to have her appointment in their home. It took her months to schedule the appointment and it would be a waste to cancel it but she feels she'd be more comfortable and her kiddo too to have each other.

As soon as the hairdresser arrives, y/n instructed her kid to go play in another room, close the door as the fumes might get too strong for her, and just in case her dad calls, not to have a video one as she wanted to surprise him with a new look when he gets home. Kiddo nods as she scampers off with her mom's mobile phone in hand and carefully closes the door, but still making sure she hears her. She wants to make sure momma doesn't leave her like her dad did.

Meanwhile, Loki was scanning the debriefing file Rogers handed to him. Seems like the problem was more intensive than it seems, he was fidgeting with his phone wanting to calm his nerves before the operation as he's been overthinking about the thought of bad guys infiltrating their home. He knows y/n is capable of fending for herself but he doesn't want to subject their kid to a traumatic experience.

Thor noticed his discomfort and assured him all will be well but still in a brotherly fashion, he made Loki call y/n to ease the tension

As soon as the phone rang, the kiddo jumped up and saw it was his dad calling. She started crying again, which y/n did not notice from the noise of the blower blasting near her ears.

"Hello, darling?" Loki's voice rang through the phone

"Why did you leaaaaave meeee?" Kiddo complained in between sobs

"My heart, daddy's got an important mission but I'll be home soon. Where's mommy?" he assured

"She's in another room, with a strange person. She told me to hide here in the playroom and handed me her phone," still sobbing

"what's mommy doing? Can we do a video call?" Loki asked

"Mommy told me not to, I heard she was curling up and.. dyeing... I tried to peek earlier and saw the strange person with a gun near her head," she whispered in sobs.

" Stay there for me darling, I'll go home as soon as possible," he mustered before the lines cut off.

Loki went into full panic mode with the rest of the Avengers holding him back from wreaking absolute havoc.

Thor assisted Loki going home by calling out Bifrost to easily transport them back to New York.

The house doesn't seem to be in disarray as he entered but he walked through the room where y/n is to find her all dolled up - her hairdresser bouncing her new curled hair in a different color in front of the dresser. His mouth dropped, both in relief and awe at how beautiful her wife is.

Y/n looked at them both with curiosity, "I thought you won't be back until tomorrow?" She asked

Thor, "well, that explains it - where's the cheeky little monkey?" He chuckled going to the playroom.

"I called earlier and our wonderful kid told me you were curling up and dying with a strange person in the room and there's a gun to your head!" he sternly remarked. Visibly pissed and shaking his head with his arms folded.

Y/n was forced to hold in a laugh as she heard this. "I was having my hair done and she might have seen them blowing my hair with the blower," she hugged Loki by the waist and assured him everything is alright. "I was planning to surprise you with my new look but it seems you were in for a different surprise," planting a kiss on her worried husband's cheek. She then thanked her hairdresser before showing them out of the house.

Thor was picking up kiddo as they emerged from the playroom, "here's the little culprit that caused all the mayhem" as he sets her down.

Loki wanted to reprimand his kid but seeing her running towards him and hugging him, he seemed to forget all his worries as a wave of relief washed his fears away.

"I missed you, dad" the kid clinging to him.

"I missed you too, darling." He hugs her back tightly.

"What should we tell Rogers?" Thor interrupted.

"Tell them, all is settled but I'm staying with my family for the meantime" Loki responded.

" Should we tell them what happened here?" Thor asked

" Don't bother. Rogers will have my head after I almost destroyed the ship" Loki answered.

" Oh god - you did?" Y/n surprisingly responded

" Long story, for now, let me have this time to be with my extremely mischievous daughter " as he picks her up, kiddo responding with a resounding giggle.

" He was a total wreck, thinking something bad might have happened to you both," Thor whispered to y/n before seeing himself out. "I'll be going back there to help out but I'll be visiting again soon" Thor nods and winks as he closes the door behind him.

[arcplaysgames]

gurl me too the fuck

okay the next palace is really starting to get on my tits so lets stop and catch up and gloat about how i'm right about everything (i.e. am able to pick up on obvious narrative tells and extrapolate blah blah)

Ran into Kasumi and got lunch. Apparently she totally bombed her gym conference because she's still working to get over the very recent loss of her sister. Like, she says it was this past Spring she died and I'm like wow uh that's. really recent for you to be acting all plucky and optimistic.

So that kind of explains her severe Stepford Smiler vibes, goddamn. I'm certain that the recent loss of her sister definitely won't come up again in a traumatic way that reveals she's been plastering on a happy face to cover her pain, nope.

POINTS AND LAUGHS

stay mad, phuckboy.

Do you think Matt Mercer ever has to ask for a shot of whiskey before straight-facing lines like this or is he such a professional he just powers through?

Everyone tries to go see the summer fireworks but it's hard to see them in a crowd, the tall buildings are in the way, and then it starts raining.

Sucks. Poor Ann, you looked so nice, Ann!

One, sad boy hour is every hour when you are Reverie Vantas the Fifth.

Two, Ryuji can you fucking locate the brake pedal in your vehicle and apply some pressure, goddamn.

I'm prob not gonna show EVERY screencap of it because there are SO MANY but a third of the things Ryuji says are along the lines of wanting to be famous and dramatic, and it's a repeated refrain so much that I can only imagine that's going to be important later. But it chafes so fucking hard in the meantime.

I actually hate the Phansite and the entire concept of the Thieves being famous. I think they should be working silently, not for the fanfare. Not actively seeking out targets (which would lead to overeager mistakes) but waiting to build a case and then striking when the situation is dire enough to warrant their intervention, because the level of power they have over people is tantamount to an ego death and should be treated as such with the needed gravity.

Obviously there are mitigating factors, like how the very presence of a Palace indicates a severe situation, but also: I hate the current MO so much, I hate unilateral action without oversight.

(Hi, yes, I was Team Tony for the five minutes I cared about Marvel. Fuck Captain America.)

Every glimpse the game gives me Sojiro's secret daughter makes me pull my chair in and sit up straight, lmao.

also why do ppl wear their headphones like that, ain't that heavy on the ears

So there's a lot going on so summary: Medjed, which is basically Anonymous in MegaTenland, has threatened the Thieves and calls them fake prophets of justice and says Japan needs to drop the idol worship. wait i thought japan loved idol wor--

fucking crying laughing. IF YUSUKE HAS ONE FAN I AM ONE OF THEM, IF HE HAS NO FANS I AM DEAD.

So while Medjed is making threats against the Thieves, "another" hacker reaches out to Reverie and is like "I will help you with Medjed but you have to steal someone's heart, her name is Futaba Sakura."

So: Sojiro's daughter is named Futaba Sakura, she is setting up her own heart-theft, and I believe she is also Medjed and the entire plot is a set-up to make the Thieves do what she wants.

I don't have proof of the second half of that yet but I am pretty confident in it.

An unmarked envelope for Reverie shows up but thankfully Adachi is still probably in prison somewhere so its a blank calling card like the Thieves tend to use.

"Alibaba" is like "that's what you need, right, a calling card?" And Reverie informs them he needs the targets name. Alibaba reluctantly says its Futaba Sakura. Because Alibaba is Futaba Sakura, obvsly.

Going to Sojiro for deets doesn't go well.

BUT EVEN FUCKING WORSE

Sae wants info on someone named Wakaba, and when Sojiro says no she threatens to pull his custody of Futaba from him until he yields.

And then smiles and says she'll be back for coffee.

Wow, so its just the whole Nijima family, huh? Do what they demand or they will fuck you over aggressively and then pretend like it ain't no thing.

Meanwhile, Akechi is laying the groundwork to blame the mental shutdown cases on the Thieves, which is just fabulous. You need a haircut, Beige Boy.

THEN HE SHOWS UP TO BE VAGUELY INTIMIDATING TO THE TEAM AND BE ALL WINKY AGAIN. If this boy has not already done a murder before, he will have done a murder by the end of the game and we just gotta make sure it doesn't end up being Reverie.

LE BACKSTORY: Sojiro and Futaba's mother Wakaba were friends for a long time. Wakaba was a single mother (the game takes a moment to gasp about this to remind us This Is Frowned Upon) raising Futaba. It's obvious Sojiro was incredibly fond of her. When she died suddenly, Sojiro adopted Futaba and raised her.

She's always been a reclusive genius type but lately Futaba's been losing it, talking about hearing her mother and hearing voices. She blames herself for her mother's death though we don't know why.

Sojiro is doing his best with the situation but mostly is trying to give Futaba a place she feels safe.

8C

Sojiro I'm sorry I made fun of your hat, you're a really good dude. Don't worry, we will use the power of demonic smartphone apps to help your daughter.

THERE IS ALSO A SMALL THREAD BUILDING UP AROUND MORGANA. When Reverie and the team go to investigate Futaba, Morgana gets left behind in the commotion and they don't notice until later.

There is this small wind up happening with either the Thieves not appreciating Morgana enough (which: agreed) or maybe with so many people joining the team and everyone kind of up to speed on how the Metaverse works, Morgana is beginning to feel his importance slipping? Maybe he's afraid without some kind of usefulness, some kind of leverage, no one will be motivated to help him look for his memories.

Which is absurd, I would drop literally any party member for Morgana.

The team goes and asks Futaba for her keywords to get into her Palace. She's fully nonverbal but talks via chat and says she's going to die here, it's her tomb.

Off to the Palace!

[thefanficmonster]

It’s Only Fair

Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Swearing, Minor Spoilers for RE8: Village

Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: It’s all fun and games while Corpse is simping over Lady Dimitrescu, seeing as how Y/N herself isn’t immune to that woman’s charms. However, things get ‘serious’ when Corpse has to deal with his girlfriend making heart eyes at the hammer wielding final lord - Heisenberg.

Requested by Anon. Hi darling! Thank you so much for this incredible request - it hit close to home, not gonna lie hehe. Thank you so much for the opportunity you gave me with this request, I had a ton of fun turning it into a fic and I hope you have at least half as much fun reading it! Love, Vy ❤

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Heisenberg remind you of Lucas from the seventh game? I don’t know, all this speakers communication is giving me flashbacks I’m not too fond of. That guy traumatized me.“ Y/N shudders in her seat from where she’s observing Corpse’s gameplay while keeping tabs on the speeding chat, answering as many of the comments as she can.

“No idea. Never played the game.“ Corpse wheezes out, feeling the pressure’s on and working up a little bit of a sweat seeing as how this is the last lord he’ll have to battle before probably having to square up with Mother Miranda. The fact he’s running low on ammo has been stressing him out but luckily he has Y/N there to comfort him every time. She doesn’t even need to use words to do so or even ask him what’s wrong - just placing her hand on his knee allows him to feel relaxed and as though everything will be alright even though it probably won’t be if he doesn’t collect some money, ammo or supplies for making ammo soon.

“Wooow, fake fan, huh?“ Y/N pokes his side teasingly, “No, nevermind, I know exactly why you chose to play this, skipping all the previous ones in the process.“ She prods on, continuing to mess with Corpse who gives her a side-smile after having held on a still face for such a long time, features frozen in his focused and on-edge state.

He rolls his eyes, deciding to play her game, “Oh yeah? Why do you think that is?”

She scoffs, “Maybe cause thee other games don’t have 9ft tall vampire ladies? I don’t know, I’m just shooting in the dark here.” She delivers another poke to his side, giggling devilishly as she does so.

Corpse quickly takes hold of her hand, murmuring: “Maybe...” under his breath before bringing it to his lips and giving her knuckles a kiss.

Y/N wiggles her hand free from his grasp, mock-offended by his words, “Knew it! I freaking- Whoa, hello there, sir.” She cuts herself off as the game enters into a scripted cutscene, showing off the final lord in all his glory. “Who is you?”

“Y/N, Heisenberg. Heisenberg, Y/N.” Corpse laughs, “I forgot you missed the episode where he was first introduced.” 

“Damn do I regret that now.“ She whispers, eyes glued to the game instead of the screen of her laptop where she’s been fetching comments flying by. No one can blame the girl, she’s got a justified reason to be distracted. “Wish we met sooner, Mr. Heisenberg.“

Corpse finds his jaw on the floor in an instant as his head snaps to face his girlfriend, “Excuse me, what’s that supposed to mean?!”

Y/N frowns, narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend as she finally brings herself to tear her eyes off the screen where now the game has been paused. “What? You now get to complain? After I didn’t say shit about you drooling all over Lady Dimitrescu? It’s only fair I get my own simp-worthy subject, don’t you think?”

Corpse rolls his eyes, “This deal doesn’t seem like it’ll benefit you much - I get a hot, classy and rich vampire lady and you get...” he motions at the screen, his face twisting in a displeased expression, “...him.”

“Oh trust me, I’ll be perfectly benefited, don’t ya worry.“ She shoots him a wink, cackling quietly yet evilly at the shock-disappointment het comment is met with on her boyfriend’s part. “What?“ She asks though laughter, “He’s hella hot!“

“Ok, that’s it.“ Corpse gets up, pushing the desk chair Y/N’s sitting in forward, rolling it on its wheels towards the door, “You’ll be in exile until this chapter’s done with. I can’t have you simping all over the place, it’s bad for business. I mean, if you fall for guys who look like him, God knows what people will think I look like.“

“Well, you do need a shower but...“ Y/N comments through a fit of giggles, kicking her legs as to get up and off the chair but by the time she’s able to react, he’s already rolled her out in the hallway and shut the door of the recording room behind himself as though she can’t just open it and walk back in. Which is exactly what she does, much to his dismay - but she only pokes her head inside, “You’re right, it’s bad for your image, so I’ll clarify.“ She clears her throat, raising her voice as for it to be picked up by Corpse’s mic from across the room, “The two men in question don’t look at all alike, folks! Heisenberg is way hotter than Corpse!“

“OUT!“ Corpse shouts, sounding as threatening as he can while laughing his ass off alongside Y/N who has followed his ‘order‘ and stepped out in the hallway where her laughter can still be heard. “Guess the longer I don’t shower, the hotter I’ll appear to Y/N. Remind me to buy myself a cape as well. Wonder how much factories cost around the West Coast...“

“COPYCAT!“ Comes Y/N’s shout from outside the door, causing Corpse to break out in another fit of laughter.

Never did Corpse think he’d be trying to cop the ranks of a video game villain but here he is, actually googling the price of cape coats and he’s never felt more bemused with himself - ok, that may or may not be a lie considering he’s really digging the coats he finds for sale online.

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[shihalyfie]

Shiramine Nokia, and her role in Cyber Sleuth’s narrative

This one’s on request! Cyber Sleuth is quite the interesting game and a rather landmark entry in the franchise, mainly for being a love letter to the franchise and its long history itself, and for being the franchise’s very first work exclusively aimed at adults, meaning that it can explore different topics that wouldn’t normally be Sunday morning timeslot material, while also being a little more willing to assume that the people playing this are familiar with a lot of older parts of the franchise (not that it’s advisable to have complete lockout, but the game benefits greatly by not needing to assume lockout by default).

One of the ways Cyber Sleuth exhibits its “franchise love letter” status is by starting off the game all the way back at the franchise’s roots, before Digimon Adventure changed the game and everyone’s perception of Digimon and Digimon partnership, when the V-Pet lore was intertwined with Digimon as elements of hard sci-fi. As the game proceeds, the atmosphere slowly starts to resemble the more fantasy-like version of the franchise established by Digimon Adventure and its follower entries -- and that change is represented in none other than Nokia herself.

Before we begin: As anyone who follows my meta work has probably noticed, I generally prefer to have my analyses use tons of references and screenshots so that it’s easy to follow and the evidence is concrete, but Cyber Sleuth is a game, and it’s much harder to get those things without replaying the entire game, so I hope this won’t be too hard to follow despite being mostly text.

Nokia’s background and personality

If we want to apply the producer’s statements on Twitter, Nokia is 17 years old at the time of Cyber Sleuth, and has a backstory of having originally been a shy, bullied child who broke out of her shell thanks to the influence of her cousin (who, of all people, happens to be none other than Date Makiko). The flashback we get with Nokia in chapter 18, however, portrays her as just a fairly cheerful, go-getter child, but (although we only get to see her hair) she’s not quite as “flashy” or in-your-face as the description entails.

A possible hypothesis for rationalizing this all together comes from a what we learn about the process of memory wiping in Cyber Sleuth chapter 14: even if memories are extracted from the person, there’s some kind of residual memory left behind (the producer’s above statement also states that the same thing had even happened to Suedou). In Hacker’s Memory chapter 16, Arata confesses to Ryuji that the first Under Zero incident and Jude's loss to the Knightmon had re-triggered his trauma from having lost Yuugo years prior -- “not the memory, but the feeling.” So in other words, there was some feeling of loss that came after the loss of Yuugo that impacted those involved -- and it’s very possible that this deeply impacted and traumatized Nokia as well.

Assuming we’re still following this line of thought (since, again, this background point wasn’t actually in the game proper), Nokia eventually decided to break out of her shell thanks to Makiko’s influence, and become eccentric and assertive, and thus, the game begins.

While we’re here, I also want to point out that Nokia is also voiced by Han Megumi, possibly the Digimon franchise’s most notorious “promoted fangirl” who freaked out after getting to meet her childhood characters’ voice actors while cast as Airu in the Xros Wars crossover and ended up casted in a handful of major Digimon roles thereafter as a result. Which is not to say that her voice performance wasn’t also absolutely perfect for the bright and aggressive Nokia, but, you know...considering the below analysis, food for thought.

Nokia as a representative of “the conventional franchise”

Cyber Sleuth opens on a world where Digimon are largely seen as hacker programs, and even the hackers themselves only see them as non-sentient programs; there are ones like Chitose who treat them with empathy, but his attitude seems to be kindness towards them in a way not entirely unlike a family would treat a Roomba. Although he doesn’t admit to it at first, Arata himself also comes from this “world” of hackers, and we later learn that Yuuko herself is as well (via her “Yuugo” persona), meaning that, other than the playable protagonist, Nokia is the only “outside-context” person -- a completely ordinary civilian who’s gotten dragged into all of this.

Much like, say, the protagonists of Digimon Adventure.

With this background behind her, once she’s thrown into the world of hackers, she immediately has a “fateful encounter” with Agumon and Gabumon, instantly recognizable as two of the franchise’s most prominent Digimon (and complete with their Adventure voice actors, too). And I do especially bring up Adventure specifically, because while Nokia’s position in the game does end up taking in certain elements that roughly came around that era and possibly slightly predated it (mostly Digimon World and V-Tamer), Agumon and Gabumon weren’t particular mascots of the franchise until Adventure basically blew everything to pieces.

Right off the bat, Nokia does not have a single shred of doubt that Agumon and Gabumon are living beings and should be treated as such (again, much like the protagonists of Digimon Adventure; even Taichi in his “is this a game?” mode never doubted this). And they open up their meeting with this conversation:

Agumon: Umm, who are you? Nokia: It... It can talk?! It's so... so... so adoooooorable! M-M-M-M-My name's Nokia. What're your names? Agumon: Me? My name is Agumon! Gabumon: I... I'm Gabumon. Nokia: Agumon and Gabumon? Hee hee! What weird names! Gabumon: Hey, they're not weird! Agumon: You're the one with the weird name! Nokia: As if! My name's not weird! Hee hee!

And on top of that, Agumon refers to Nokia as having a “familiar” scent. Remember this for later.

Nokia’s second encounter with Agumon and Gabumon in Cyber Sleuth chapter 3 involves her properly partnering herself with Agumon and Gabumon, and learning about the existence of the “Digital World”. Note that, for all intents and purposes, EDEN had been treated like the functional equivalent of the Digital World in this narrative up until this point -- cyberspace with hackers, coming from the network, it’s basically a “digital world” from top to bottom, and yet here Agumon and Gabumon are introducing the concept of a more fantasy-esque incarnation of a digital world. (And, in fact, despite EDEN being right there, many long-time Digimon fans playing this game often complained about how little you get to see the “Digital World” in this game, because of how associated that term is with something more fantasy-like.) So, again: here we have Nokia, who’s forming a partnership with Agumon and Gabumon as equals instead of recruiting them as hacker tools (even the protagonist wasn’t immune to this method), and being indirectly responsible for introducing the more fantasy-like concept of the Digital World that the modern franchise is currently associated with.

Nokia embarks on the conventional shounen anime character arc of starting off cowardly, but eventually learning to have her own inner strength, with her Digimon evolving in accordance to her emotions. And, eventually, in Cyber Sleuth chapter 8, she decides to form her own hacker team, called the “Rebels”. She ostensibly bases it off the old creed of Jude, having heard that they were a team that never caused trouble for others, but we later learn via Arata turning out to have been its former leader, and the even later portrayal in Hacker’s Memory of its spiritual successor Hudie, that this is an extremely rose-colored image of them -- Jude (and Hudie) was not a well-intentioned team by any means, but rather a sort of mercenary group meant to enforce the “freedom” of EDEN, often taking on shady jobs and “punishing” entities they considered to be causing chaos. But in this case, Nokia forms her team under the idea of legitimately fighting for justice and good will -- again, much like a Digimon Adventure protagonist.

In case the metaphor weren’t clear enough, Nokia decides that the members of her group will not be called “hackers”, but “Tamers” -- the same lingo used by the franchise to refer to a human who partners alongside a Digimon to help them get stronger -- and that she wants to promote the idea of humans and Digimon working in tandem (complete with emotional bonding exercises). For this, everyone looks at her weird, and yet her methodology, initially naive as it seems, keeps working, because Nokia’s natural charisma starts bringing people from different places together and making quite the formidable team. Everyone is perplexed by this, but perhaps it’s only natural, because Nokia has just independently invented the modern concept of Digimon partnership in a world where it did not exist. And this is eventually solidified by the Under Zero invasion in Cyber Sleuth chapter 10, in which Omegamon is finally formed (from sheer guts on her part).

Omegamon is yet another symbol of the modern franchise, but it’s important to remember that he hasn’t always been so; even his appearance in V-Tamer was as more of a tactical piece than any kind of game-breaker, but the impact of Our War Game! has led him to constantly make a resurgence in major franchise roles (maybe a little too much these days). However, on top of Nokia basically embodying the modern franchise itself by doing this, Nokia and Arata’s positions are an obvious reference to Our War Game! in particular, being Omegamon and Diablomon Tamers -- but they’re not seen directly fighting each other. In fact, Arata’s partner only ever reaches Diablomon when he’s at the highest point of his morality, so the reference is more ideological; Nokia represents the more idealistic and heroic side of Digimon, whereas Arata represents the more dirty-playing and cynical hard sci-fi side of it (remember that Diablomon himself was rather detached from the fantasy conflict of Adventure, being a mysterious entity that sprouted out of nowhere on the Internet and wreaked havoc). Moreover, Nokia’s usage of Omegamon embodies a theme that’s central to both Our War Game! and Cyber Sleuth itself as a whole -- while most people associate Omegamon with Taichi and Yamato these days, the original method of formation back in Our War Game! came from “bringing people from different places together”. Nokia managed to bring together a formidable army in a place where everyone else in the hacker world was trying to promote a dog-eat-dog philosophy, and the sense of cooperation is arguably making her stronger than anyone else.

(I should also point out that Nokia’s name is, obviously, a reference to the Finnish telephone communications company, and this has a lot of relevance to the game’s theme of connection, along with her phone Digivice...and, also, the method used to bring everyone’s powers together in Our War Game!’s spiritual successor, Diablomon Strikes Back. Feels a bit too on-the-nose here.)

In the second half of the game, when the world starts falling apart due to the Digital World portal opening, Nokia becomes one of most important people holding everything together as Arata goes off the deep end and Yuuko starts fixating on her own personal problems and revenge -- because she’s the one most in tune with treating Digimon as the living beings they are, she’s most active in advocating for them and helping them bond with humans, and and she’s the one making the chaos be a little less chaotic. The second half is basically the more fantasy-esque version of Digimon leaking into the sci-fi, with the sidequests progressively resembling your average Digimon anime monster-of-the-week episode, and holding that all together is Nokia, who becomes a vital figure in maintaining that fellowship by being in tune with the modern franchise’s philosophy.

Through all of this, Nokia ends up taking a role rather similar to a Digimon protagonist, which is highlighted very strongly in Cyber Sleuth chapter 18 when she ends up literally becoming the player character while the main protagonist is out of commission. During that time, Yuuko and Nokia learn the truth of what happened during the EDEN incident eight years prior -- and we also learn that the five children involved had an extremely conventional “first meeting in the Digital World” experience that could have been pulled right out of the first episode of a Digimon anime, with them having a lovely adventure meeting new creatures. And at the center of that “first contact” was none other than Nokia, Agumon, and Gabumon themselves:

Agumon: Um... who are you? Nokia: Ahem! I am Nokia! And just who are you? Agumon: Me? My name is Agumon! Gabumon: I... I'm Gabumon. Nokia: Agumon and Gabumon? Hee hee! What weird names! Gabumon: Hey, they're not weird! Agumon: You're the one with the weird name! Nokia: As if! My name's not weird! Hee hee!

Nokia, Agumon, and Gabumon’s meeting at the beginning of the game had been an (accidental) reenactment of their first meeting in the Digital World eight years prior -- and, in the flashback, Nokia invites them to go on an “adventure” with them. So in other words, Nokia getting involved in the hacker conflict at the beginning of the game was, unknown to all of them, her attempting to restore that beauty and idealism of the Digimon Adventure-esque philosophy and fun in a world where the Eaters had torn it away and EDEN had turned into a haven of cynicism and hacker battle royale.

In the end, the game’s conflict is only resolved by bringing everyone together; Arata has to be retrieved from the deep end, and Yuuko has to settle her deep-seated personal grievances. Everyone makes a promise to return together, in the sense of making things right and repairing the connections between them that had been cut in that incident. The final battle (momentarily) causes the playable protagonist to literally fall apart, and the one reaching out to them and sending her message to them at the end of the game is none other than Nokia herself -- again, in the absence of the game’s protagonist, Nokia is the one with the closest role, because in the face of the new world going forward, she was the one who contributed most to restoring its idealism.

Ultimately, all of this is especially because Cyber Sleuth works under one of the most terrifying imaginable premises for a fan of a kids’ franchise: “we made an entry for this, but for adults.” Many of us can testify that this kind of premise can go very well, or very badly -- the latter especially in the case of things that decide “taking the opportunity to do things that you can’t do on a Sunday morning kids’ timeslot” means “going out of your way to put edgy violence and sexy things and cynicism just because you can”, or, in other words, looking down condescendingly on its kids’ franchise roots with malice and deciding that something for adults means “more suffering” and not “issues that require more life experience to understand”. The reason the game ended up getting as much acclaim among longtime Digimon fans as it did was that despite being the franchise’s first venture into this territory, it did end up setting itself up as something that took that opportunity to do something new and unique that would have never made it into any of the prior entries (holy hell the doll quest) and yet never gave up on the idealism and themes of connection that make up the franchise at its core, and paid respect to everything that had contributed to all of that while it was at it.

And at the center of that is Shiramine Nokia, who is effectively the spirit of Digimon Adventure, condensed into a single character.

[thunderheadfred]

🤚The Second Worst (Pt. 1/?)🤚

Part 2 of my Shigaraki Thesis Headcanons. HC's // The Second Worst: 1 - 2

The half-mad ghost of Shimura Tenko is in love with you, and your life is about to become a tragic wreck. -- AKA here's when I gave up on bullet points and went off the fuckin rails

I'm self-conscious about writing so much, so uhhhh, please be kind, hahaaa. This is rather long and involved. Are these still even HCs or just a self-indulgent AU outline? There are some mysteries we may never solve.

This is on AO3 now, if you prefer reading there. Anyway. Minors do not interact.

- - - - -

You met Tenko before the League existed.

Believe it or not, there are a million ways it might have happened, but in the end: you were both bargain-binning in Akihabara.

You reached for a copy of a collectible bullet-hell cute-'em-up (near-mint! CIB!!!) and accidentally bonked hands with a complete stranger. He flinched about five million feet away from you. Ouch. You're just a nobody, quirkless and average, but you didn't think you were THAT repulsive.

(You're not. Hell, even if you were, this guy couldn't care less. He barely registers that you have a face.)

(Shigaraki is accustomed to getting in and out of this shop in seconds. He always comes in before anyone else and goes straight home. -- Is that really home? Is 'home' a real place? -- ANYWAY he's already pirated this shit, god, why does he even care? He doesn't need to be here. Father doesn't like it. Is that why he's here? Just to do something Father doesn't like? That's pathetic.)

He's had at least ten complete internal arguments with himself before he so much as looks at you.

You know in the tenth of a second he actually meets your eyes... this fucker is going to fight you to the death over this game.

- - - The death match ends in a draw. He was not expecting you to know the first fucking thing about this game. Nobody knows about it, even in Japan. Who the fuck do you even think you are? Oh, no, he's still taking it. But... maybe he can show you how to play it it. He'll give you a little taste, just to make you jealous. He's got his hoodie pulled down like he's going to commit an act of terrorism. What little you can see of his face looks twitchy and messed up. If you have any survival instincts at all, they're kicking in right about now. But... why not. You're not going anywhere with this dude unsupervised, so you suggest a crowded web cafe down the street. The cafe has the necessary console... but the retro gaming booth is laughably small. The TV is about four inches across and you end up having to practically sit in his lap. You were sure this guy was a nasty fucking creep, but he's................ only mostly terrible. Way too angry, for sure. Has no idea how to have a normal, friendly conversation. Inadvertently insults you every other sentence and seems to have a deep-seated persecution complex.

You'd prefer to be mad about the awful company, but... he's obviously deprived of human contact. When it's established that you two share a lot of media fixations, he calms down and starts treating you a little more like a human being. Or at least like a fellow elite.

Wherever he came from, he doesn't seem to want to go back. He keeps pushing you to play one more level, pretending he wants to beat your score. You feel kinda bad for him. You get the distinct feeling that his life is a disaster. He looks like he's never had a full night of sleep in his life. He trips your trigger hairs in that 'is he gonna follow me home?' kind of way, but... up close, he's a lot more depressing than scary. At the very least, you want to buy him a stupidly cute dessert. Just... as thanks. For letting you try out the game and stuff. It's not a big deal, so just pick a flavor, okay? The world isn't actually that awful, y'know.

It's not even that impressive... Definitely not a great cafe. But he takes practically a full hour to eat a single slice of strawberry cake.

When the hoodie comes down. He's all shriveled and dried out, like someone left him him in the desert to die. He chews on his peeling bottom lip and nervously scratches his neck. He doesn't thank you for the cake. Which is fine. It's not a big deal. Actually, you wish he would eat faster; you feel weirdly responsible for him now.

Under all that mess he's... gorgeous? His hair is stunning: a bright, gleaming silver that catches the light. His bone structure is flawless. If it weren't for all the scars and the misanthropic slouch, he'd look like a fairy fucking prince.

You were not prepared for that. In another life he could have been a model, the type of guy who would never even look at you. But something bad happened to him. Something... very bad. Do you even want to know? You have no idea how to ask. Has anyone ever been nice to him? It doesn't seem like it. Should YOU be nice to him? You sort of want to try. - - - This becomes a regular thing. This weird little secret. You should probably tell someone when you see him, just in case you don't come back one day, but you say nothing; how the hell would you explain why you want to see him so bad? You don't know his full name. Maybe he's on a watch list. When he gives you a long string of random numbers so you can schedule meet-ups (is THAT his e-mail, really?) he tells you to just... call him Tenko. Or whatever. It doesn't matter. (He sneaks out when Father is deep in his plots. As long as he comes home on time, it doesn't really matter where he goes, right?) He brings a different game every time. He has an insane collection. Where does he get the money for all this? You know he doesn't work. God, is it drugs? It's probably drugs. Wherever these hidden gems came from, he proudly shows them off to you, like he's never had an audience before. It's sort of cringe-inducing, the way he one-ups and rubs every little victory in your face, desperate for attention.

But at the same time, you are becoming too... something...to mind. Do you... like him? He's not funny, but he thinks you are. His mouth is huge when he laughs. He seems to hate everyone but you, and you've had to earn the distinction of being merely tolerable. Still, he gets really excited about random shit like the garage kit black market and haunted dolls and the price of weed on the dark web.

And... strawberry cake. The realization hits you both at the same time when the waitress brings one piece with two forks. God, what the fuck, are you... are you dating? Quick, think. You look forward to seeing him, and don't even mind sitting close to him anymore. Sometimes you push your leg up against him just to see if he'll still flinch away... and he doesn't.

You jealously notice the way he touches everything but you: with delicate precision, one finger at a time. His large, elegant hands always have a pinky up like he's aspiring for a fiefdom, and you wonder what his skin feels like. You go home and dwell on the way he plucks flowering weeds out of the pavement in front of the cafe. The way he stands rooted to the spot as you leave, just... looking at nothing, unsmiling.

You watch his lips too much, and not just because you want to buy him chapstick. You catch him gaping at you all the time. You thought he was just creepy like that, but maybe... Yeah. I guess you are dating him. Shit. - - - Okay, so, yeah. Bringing him back to your place was definitely a bad idea. You know you shouldn't trust him, even if he is... apparently... your boyfriend? Sort of? You still don't have his phone number. So. Um. What now? You order overpriced pizza and queue up a campy horror movie. What the fuck are you even doing. You don't really think he's going to murder you anymore, but... still. Is the suburban massacre scene gonna give him ideas? Turns out, no. He doesn't like gore, even when the blood is neon pink. He gets upset. Like, really upset. Shaky and green, like he might puke on you. He can't stop scratching that scaly spot on his neck.

Tenko, are you crying? Fucking hell, did you just trigger him? Of course he has a traumatic past, it's carved all over his face. You're so fucking stupid. You don't know how to make it right. You want to hug him, kiss him... anything. But he's never really touched you, and you're too afraid to push now. It ruins the whole night. He leaves without explaining anything. Doesn't even say goodbye. He just. Leaves. Maybe you'll never see him again. Maybe that's for the best. Your chest hurts. - - - He shows up at your door a few weeks later. You haven't heard from him since that disastrous movie night. You had pretty much accepted that you'd broken up with a boyfriend you never actually had. But no. Apparently not.

This time, he’s brought his own entertainment. He's holding a boxed set of some show you're not familiar with. You're distracted by these weird little half-gloves he's wearing, like a cyberpunk hacker. That's a new look, and even if it's a bit edgelord adjacent, he makes it look cool. You tell him as much. It's the first time you've let on how attractive you find him. He's wearing a tight black shirt with a deep, deep V-neck. That's distracting too.

He clears his slender throat and doesn't look at you.

You try to apologize for before, but he's acting like it never happened. What are you even talking about? Have you seen this OVA or not? Get out of the way and let him in already. You've watched three episodes now, but you still have no idea what this stupid anime is about. You can't pay attention to a single frame. All you can think about is how his arm has crept up behind your shoulders. A few inches more and he'll be holding you. Does he... want to hold you? You lean toward him so slowly your spine creaks. One molecule at a time. After a thousand years, your head slides nervously under his chin. His arm comes down, locking you in, fingers clutching your sleeve in a death grip. Even that snobby little pinky. His head tucks down into you hair. A sharp collarbone bites into your cheek. His heartbeat is hard, fast, and irregular. There's not a scrap of fat on him, and as you wrap your arm around his stomach, you think you see a twitch in his pants. Is that just you being desperate? Or... hopeful? This is really happening. --- Soon, you learn that Tenko is a clumsy kisser. It doesn't matter; the fact that he's kissing you at all is good enough for now. His lips are dry, but not half as dry as you expected. There's a slick of menthol helping things along; he's been using something medicated on his lips. Plus, his mouth tastes like he drank a gallon of mouthwash.

All this thrills you more than a little, because it means he came here wanting to impress you. Wanting you. Full stop. Underneath that minty sting is a strange, worrisome aftertaste, like something rotten. Your brain fires off an alarm. Stop kissing him. Right now. This thing will make you sick. But his hands nervously slide over your body... and you decide not to worry about it. Instead, you kiss him deeper. He makes a sweet, startled little noise. Your brain is a fucking liar. It occurs to you he's probably never done this before.

When you lace your fingers in his and try to pull one of his gloves off, he rips his hand away.

Don't. That’s the only explanation he gives.

No need to ask if it's a quirk thing or a trauma thing. Judging by how jittery he gets, it's probably both. You remember the way his hands almost float over objects without ever holding them. Maybe his touch is dangerous. Maybe that's why his face looks like that.

Maybe you should learn more about him before things go way too far...

No. It can't be that bad. Now that he's in your arms, everything frightening about him evaporates. He's vulnerable. He's alone. He's shaking a little. Has anyone else ever seen this side of him? You want to keep him all to yourself, just like this.

So what if he has to touch you with gloves on? You've heard of worse quirk-related inconveniences.

It's okay, Tenko. Do you want to keep going?

You put his hands back on you and wait for him to kiss you again. It doesn't take long.

---

You open his pants. He's long and thin, calloused even here. Every part of him feels untouched, unloved. You hold him tight and squeeze.

It doesn't seem to occur to him to please you in return. He looks afraid. Confused. You're sure you scared him earlier with the glove thing. Is this too much? No. He gasps and leans into you. The tiniest, broken please.

He cums in your hand right away, face buried in your shoulder, his eyes wet and hidden.

I have to go, he says. Over and over and over.

It's okay, Tenko.

You know he doesn't want to.

- - - - - (oops I wrote more)

[girlysword]

How to Write a Villain x Heroine Ship

I will be comparing Shadow and Bone and Agents of SHIELD because the very shallow similarity of the main heroes being young biracial Asian women connects them in my head.

1) How they are introduced: Ward at first appears to be a straight-laced hero with some aggressive tendencies that most shows would either have him unlearn or entirely ignore. Which is what made his betrayal so shocking and fantastic and devastating! Honestly a lot of the StandWithWard read like denial (at first, until it evolved into “are we even watching the same show anymore?”) rather than true villain/anti-hero stanning. The Darkling is introduced as a mysterious authority figure who wears all black. If he was an unambiguous hero that would have been the twist.

2) The heroine’s type: Based on her major canon relationships, Skye/Daisy’s type is 100% a straight-laced good guy. Yeah there was Miles, who she dropped like a hot potato when she found out he betrayed his white hat hacker code. Lincoln also had a dark past, but he had done a lot of work to redeem himself before they ever met. Daisy is more than willing to encourage someone to continue working on themselves, but she has no patience for kick-starting a redemption arc. We even see that in her friendships and not just her romantic relationships. Alina’s type is - Mal. The Darkling is the first time she opens herself up to anything besides Mal, and it may have all been an act, but hey, it was an act that worked. I would say Alina’s thing is that she needs to be needed. She defended Mal from bullies when they were children and the Darkling positions her as hope, not just for the country but for him personally.

3) The reason that they are evil: Both Ward and the Darkling have believable reasons for being on a dark path. Ward bounced from one abuser to another and the Darkling was consumed by the need to protect his people from discrimination. The difference was their opportunities to turn from that path. Ward spent an extended period with a group of people who genuinely took care each other and he didn’t say to himself, “You know what? My surrogate father figure is a butt-face. Maybe there is another way. Maybe this much nicer surrogate father figure can help me.” The Darkling on the other hand is 1) hundreds of years old so unlikely to change his ways regardless and 2) the people trying to dissuade him from his plans are idealistic teenagers who don’t understand the full complexities of the situation and his mother who a) doesn’t seem like she cares about non-Grishas any more than her son, she just understands that attacking them will fuel Grisha prejudice, and b) accepts the deaths of mortal Grishas as a fact of life (honestly positioning the Darkling as more idealistic than his mother was a fantastic move).

4) Audience Reaction: Brett Dalton doesn’t play Ward with nearly as much conviction as Ben Barnes plays the Darkling. That is not a knock on Brett’s acting at all, he gave a stellar performance. The character of Grant Ward lacks conviction. He doesn’t really have any motivations once his surrogate father figure dies and stops telling him what to do besides, “maybe this will get Skye to like me again?” He just has all this bottled up anger from years of abuse, so he just decides, “Fine! I was taught how to murder, so by golly am I gonna murder! Also, I will gather a team of traumatized murderers and they will be my friends! In no way am I actually just continuing the cycle of abuse!” If there is the one thing the Darkling has, it is conviction. He may be conflicted by his feelings for Alina, but he knows exactly who he is and why he does what he does. That conviction creates a presence which is easy to get swept up in, forget your irl beliefs, and play pretend in the aesthetics. With Ward you want to spray him with water and say, “Stop making the absolute worst possible decisions.”

[podzolle]

if brightwin were to be in another series together as a couple I'd love to see them in something darker, more mature with more action and intrigue. Come back in a few years with a crime series like maxtul did? Maybe perhaps when they've grown a bit as actors and as individuals??

Picture it:

Bright as the son of a mafia boss, criminal underboss type character, with a good heart and good morals, but born into the wrong family in the wrong environment. He stopped thinking he could get out of this life a long time ago gets by by doing his father's bidding and has resigned himself to living a violent life and dying a violent death until he meets...

Win who plays the son of a CEO or corrupt politician, millionaire playboy, famous, lives a lavish hedonistic lifestyle, openly raging bisexual, owns a few clubs here and there. Gossip girl type character, do you see it?? Pretty boy gets kidnapped because his father owes the mafia an enormous sum of money. Looks dumb, pretty, useless and entitled but turns out he's selfless, brave, only needed to find some kind of purpose in his life AND surprise: he's a pretty talented hacker or some other skill that turns out to be super useful for the plot.

Obviously bright's character is assigned the job of holding win's character captive while the mafia demands for payment. They hate each other at first, become unlikely partners and then friends, and then lovers if you aren't a coward. They can act as straight as they want, the audience just needs to see them as partners in the end in a Fuck the world, it's me and you, baby way. they both escape from the situation SaFE AND SOUND. Mildly traumatized if anything but we do not bury our gays. Together they somehow unravel and expose the corruption or just find a way to get out of that life or SOMETHING havent figured out that part yet.

Guns, suits, cars, hair pomade. Make it action packed, make it violent, let them cuss and smoke and drink. Hire a proper stunt coordinator and include fight scenes, some martial arts perhaps.

It's cliché but I'd love to see it. And cast P'Foei as Bright's right hand man/ mafia mentor/ father figure/ only person who will protect him within the whole criminal infrastructure. Took that from an interview one time where he said he'd love to act in a series with P'Foei so there. Drake the chaos child can be the psycho rabid dog the mafia sends out to get some really dirty job done or something.

Wouldn't you love to see it though??

It's an idea, not very original and probably has been done and id be able to find it on ao3 if i searched. Putting it out there if any sarawatine fic writers wanna take it, please do and tag me when you post it.