#on first introduction doesn't it. you would be puzzled

[vaguely-concerned]

lucanis reading romance novels out loud to spite in the seventh attempt to explain to him what sex is and spite bemusedly being like 'wow you people really get up to that shit I thought that was just a bit mortals did or something'

[cosmic-dust-poltergeist]

Pt 4 of the Danny is Tim's 99th attempt at cloning Kon. A 3 year old Danny finally meets his not dead anymore template.

[Pt 3: here] [Pt 5:Here]

Danny is so nervous he feels like he's going to throw up. His Template, who was dead and now isn't, is coming over to meet him. He knows his dad wouldn't let the guy near if he thought he'd react poorly to Danny, and Danny is excited about maybe having an adult (barely, technically, since he's 18) to help him figure out his new alien heritage, but he's still scared shitless. He wants this to go well so badly.

"Danny," Tim sighs in fond exasperation, "Come here, sweetheart."

Danny floats himself into dad's lap, tucking himself to his chest.

"Kon has been just as nervous to meet you." Tim kisses the top of Danny's head, just before Danny turns a wide-eyed look towards him. "He's the sweetest himbo and has been gushing about meeting you, but he's terrified you won't like him."

"Rweally?"

"Yeah, one of his deepest desires and deepest traumas is his want of family. But he doesn't want to pressure you into accepting any sort of relationship with him." Tim explains before cracking a sardonic smile. "Which is a big mood. I'm pretty sure most of the younger heroes have imposter syndrome."

"Why?"

"For many reasons. Kon was, and sometimes still is, discriminated against and frankly abused for being a clone. I forced my way into the Wayne family and was repeatedly told I didn't belong. Jason never had a stable life. Damian was a rape baby and raised in the LoA til he was 10. Dick was kicked out by Bruce once he aged out of fostering age. Jason's "not" boyfriend, Roy, was shunned for developing a drug habit after gaining significant trauma." Tim lists off. "A lot of the younger heroes couldn't lean on the adults in their lives, and it leaves scars. We've all found our footing, and deserve everything good we have in our lives, but the feeling of unworthiness is hard to escape."

Danny hugs his dad around the neck. He knew some of this dad and co lore, but it makes him sad each time. No one in his new family family has had easy lives, but are still so nice.

Tim suddenly looks mischievous, "All that to say, Kon has been texting me all morning about what he should wear, do I actually think you'll like him, if he should bring a gift or would you think he's bribing you to like him-"

"Tim!" A guy whines as he enters. He's wearing a leather jacket over a band t-shirt and black jeans. He clothes don't hide how he's shredded and probably 6 inches, at least, taller than Tim. He's holding a puzzle box and looks flustered and embarrassed.

"It's true!" Tim grins at the newcomer, before adjusting his angle to give Danny a slightly better view. "Danny, this is Kon, your DNA donor. Kon, this is my- our son, Danny."

Danny shyly waves as a blushing Kon sputters and protests Tim's choice of introductions.

"What? I did all the work, you just provided the DNA. Maybe if there's a next time, I'll let you help." Tim teases, and is hilariously oblivious to the gutter Danny can see Kon's mind drop into.

Danny has found his dad to be absolutely oblivious to anytime someone is into him, outside of Ra's. Danny watched so many people try to shoot their shot, and Tim cluelessly rebuff them. Danny thought he was doing it on purpose at first, but soon realized, no, his dad just has low self-esteem and truly doesn't think anyone finds him desirable. It's as funny as it is sad.

"So mean." Kon pouts before holding up the puzzle box for Danny to see the design. It's a thousand piece nebula puzzle. "I ended up getting you this puzzle. Tim- Your dad told me you love space and are super smart, so I thought you'd enjoy this puzzle."

Danny blinks, looking between the barely adults, before deciding to be funny. He says in his gravest voice. "So you chose bribery."

Danny gets the glorious view of Kon's face dropping in shock. Tim is literally shaking as he tries not to laugh, knowing Danny is pulling the guy's leg. The Drakes let him flounder for a moment, trying to find a response to that, before Danny can't help giggling, which pushes Tim over the edge and start cackling, startling Kon into silence.

"You should have seen your face!" Tim wheezes.

Kon gets a dopey look on his face. "You're just messing with me."

Danny nods with a grin. He wiggles to be put down, which Tim complies with, still giggling. Danny trots up to his template.

"You're silly." Danny informs him before holding his arms up and demanding. "Up!"

Kon quickly sets the puzzle on an end table near him before picking Danny up. He looks a little nervous when Danny stares hard at his face. "Um?"

Danny takes in all the shared features between them, some harder to see with the 16 year age difference, but it's sort of soothing to see. He gets distracted when he notices Kon's piercings, gasping and taking a closer look.

"How!?" He excitedly, but gently grabs Kon's ear piercings. Danny had gotten similar ear piercings when he was a ghost, and he misses them, but figured he wasn't going to be able to get them done in this body. It being nearly indestructible and all.

"Oh, my piercings?" Danny nods, leaning forward to take a closer look. "I'm sure you noticed it's hard to hurt us, but there's a rock called kryptonite, and depending on the colour, different things can happen."

"I thought kryptonite just hurt?" Danny asks, pulling back to look at Kon's face.

"It can. Green kryptonite is the most common, and it will hurt you. It turns off your powers and slowly poisons you, and if not taken away quickly, can kill us. Gold kryptonite is the rarest type and will permanently remove kryptonian abilities and usually leaves permanent injuries. So please do your best to avoid those types." Kon explains, "Red kryptonite should probably also be avoided, it makes kryptonians angry and turns off your inhibitions, but it won't technically hurt you to be exposed to it. The last colour I know of is blue. Blue kryptonite doesn't harm you or mess with your mental abilities. It just turns off all of your kryptonian abilities for however long it touches your skin. I have a blue kryptonite necklace I wear whenever I want tattoos or piercings."

Danny turns pleading eyes to his dad. "Can I get ear piercings??"

Danny can't help, but notice an infatuated smile on Tim's face before the man huffs a laugh and walks over. He runs a hand through Danny's hair.

"If you still want them when you're 5, I'll let you." Tim hums, "I don't want it to be an impulsive decision, and people will be less weird about a five year old getting their ears pierced. You might still get weird looks since you're a boy, but that's their problem, not yours."

"Okay!" Danny cheers. He hasn't told his dad about his past life/afterlife, so he can understand the hesitance over letting 3 year old get a body mod, even if it's just a single set of ear piercings, on what seems like a whim. He's honestly surprised he only has to wait til he's 5. Tim can be a bit of a helicopter parent, but then again, Tim really wants Danny to be his own person, never once shaming him for not fitting into a mold.

His aunts and uncles and grandpa have all made comments when they think he can't hear about how different or similar he is to Kon. Or when he shows gender non-conforming interests. Tim gets mad at them anytime he realizes Danny heard them. He doesn't want Danny to feel bad about any of it. Siting that "no shit" there's going to be similarities and differences, that's how children work, clone or not, and how gender is a social construct. He usually starts picking apart all of his siblings' behaviors at that point, pointing out what they inherented from Bruce, what is trauma born, and what's uniquely their's so he assumes they're from their respective parents, as well as all the things they do that don't fall under what society thinks their gender should do. It's funny, but also very nice. Danny loves his dad.

The true question right now, though, is: will he love, or even just like, his template? Danny doesn't hate what he's heard and seen so far, but actual fondness or affection needs time.

"How about we head to the gym?" Tim says, "Kon can show you some of his powers."

"Can I fly higher?" Danny isn't allowed to fly more than 4 feet in the air. Which is annoying, but fair. Again, he's 3.

"Only if you stay in arm's reach of Kon when you do."

"Okay!!" Danny cheers, purposely flailing around. Kon's hold on him tightens slightly to make sure he doesn't fall, but it's not painful. Another point to the DNA donor. That's about five in his favour during this interaction alone.

"Already flying, little man?" Kon grins.

"Yeah!"

"He figured out how to fly before how to run." Tim chuckles, "Now he does both any chance he gets. It keeps things lively."

"I imagine." Kon's grin turns a little gooey, before letting himself float and zip to the gym. "Let's have so fun!"

Danny can't help his chuckles. Kon flies there faster than Danny's allowed currently. It's fun!

Danny also can't help but notice Tim isn't in a rush to catch up. Meaning Tim fully trusts Kon with Danny's life. That's a trust that took the rest of the family months to gain, even though Tim knew they wouldn't hurt him. Danny isn't sure what to make of that knowledge, but it definitely makes him more inclined to like his template.

And by dinner time, Danny does genuinely like the guy. He respects everything Tim and Danny have to say, shows Danny a bunch of fun tricks with their powers, and let's Danny lead their games. He's fun, nice, and most importantly, not creepy. He clearly likes his dad in a more than friends way, but is hesitant to act on it, clearly not wanting to fuck up with either Tim or Danny.

Unfortunately for Danny, he can see Tim likes Kon back, but his dad is an idiot and doesn't realize it. So now he has to figure out how to get his dad to realize he's into his template without it being weird.

But really, what was Danny expecting? Trying to clone your "best friend" a hundred times isn't exactly hetero behavior. He decides he's going to enlist Uncle Damian and Uncle Jason. It's for his dad's own good at this point.

He also debates on if he's going to try to parent trap them. He likes Kon, but he doesn't know him well enough to commit to the bit just yet. He'll decide later, once he knows more.

[housemdork]

house md rewatch: 1x01, "pilot"

they were all so young! and so orange!

the top of my notes called this one the "smorgasbord of themes" because they had a lot of messaging to urgently shove inside a potential-laden first episode, but i think they captured all the major players: everybody lies, house as god, "you can't always get what you want," and the puzzle and/or/vs. the patient. rebecca adler, the patient, introduces lying in house md before house himself does when she tells her students that they should "never keep anything from [their] parents."

regarding house's characterization, he gets a little lost in the harsher genre-ification of this episode; while he's obviously, clearly the main character, he services the mystery, rather than the other way around. "pilot" doesn't just prop up the medical plot (remember those days?); it centers the episode's tone around an external, viewer-response medical anxiety. the episode ramps up the MRI noises, every choke and gag is exaggerated, and every shot leading us into melanie's insides is long and paired with dramatic orchestral music. given that day-one audiences didn't know whether the illusive dr. house was capable of solving the case just yet, the sympathy engendered for melanie is more powerful than most patient stories in the remainder of the show.

another notable difference regarding house's characterization is his immediate anger episode in cuddy's office when she revokes his 'authorization' (very vaguely termed lol). he immediately starts screaming and yelling - and she immediately condescends to him, which was familiar and funny - and it feels, to a retrospective viewer, very preemptive. as the show progresses, so do the lengths it takes to make house truly angry like that. i'm very glad they dialed that back so much.

# not my greg house ^

cameron, foreman, and chase had instant chemistry, and their teamwork when traching/venting rebecca does so much character work is such a short, tense amount of time. foreman is overly technical and fails to relate to the patient, while cameron levels with rebecca, and, later, chase treats rebecca carelessly, but is the one to effectively trach her in time. the most functionally dysfunctional polycule of all time, truly.

and they each come to embody their own mini house-complexes in "pilot," too! again, foreman is overly technical and slightly alienating; cameron, while abundantly kind, is overly obstinate in her convictions; chase is all about those last minute eureka moments that don't always make up for what goes on in the interim. overall, i would say chase is the most unassuming and underutilized character in the pilot.

transitioning to my favorite core theme - house as god and house md's treatment of faith. i've always been fascinated with the dichotomy house balances - or fails to balance - between loneliness and godhood, a title that his "followers" give him, but one that he clings to for legitimacy. he claims in "pilot" that "humanity is overrated," which is why he removes himself as much as possible from it. next to "everybody lies," this is the show's most consistent motif, and that it was made apparent so early is pretty awesome.

what was compelling about house/god/faith in "pilot" was the introduction of his favorite diagnostic method: treatment. treating the illness before we know what it is for certain. in a paradoxical move, house md demands we have faith in faith; house insists to cameron that he "has no reason to think that it's vasculitis, except that it could be." the episode gives us no recourse; we, along with the ducklings and company (don't worry, i haven't forgotten about wilson) have to go along with him. and the source of their belief and devotion, however reluctant, isn't even sure of his own reason, so he has to have faith in himself, despite being fully opposed to the idea of faith.

does that make any kind of sense? house is treated as god, needs that faith and adoration to validate himself, but also hates the very premise. this exact dilemma comes up in a later episode where wilson begs cuddy NOT to tell house that his diagnosis on a whim was a success in an attempt to deconstruct this problem.

now for some wilson thoughts :)

in "pilot," wilson is either giving uncanny valley, who-is-this-and-what-have-you-done-with-doctor-james-wilson, OR he's giving the most promising glimmers into the best the show has to offer over the next 8 years. one of the funniest parts of the episode is that he's treating rebecca at all because, 1) he's an ONCOLOGIST, and by the time they've figured out that it's not cancer, he's giving her another routine exam, and 2) if rebecca really was his cousin, he probably shouldn't be so involved in the case. not that PPTH cares about that sort of thing after awhile, but this is the pilot, after all.

it's very clear that the showrunners weren't sure what to make of him yet, which is so, so funny and actually gives rise to the show's most brilliant character (IN MY OPINION). thus far, he's personality-less apart from wry, quippy, yet soothingly suave. but his choices and scenes in "pilot" already are cutting through house's armor, and i can't decide how intentional or self-sabotaging this was.

for example, his scene with rebecca, demarcating the second act in the episode, undoes the character work we've accomplished with house so far. apparently, house does care about wilson by an external metric: rebecca's. care and love are not about someone's words but their actions, and wilson agrees that in that regard, house does care about him. the idea sets rebecca at ease about her elusive doctor, at least until she goes temporarily blind lol. yt by the end of the episode, "pilot" reassembles all of house's godhood, alienation, anti-humanity, etc., acting almost as if this conversation never even happened. it's really odd. i love it.

though i suppose it bears mentioning that it's wilson's white lie about rebecca being his cousin that pokes a lasting hole in house's rejection of humanity: "it got you to take the case."

and i can't forget house and wilson's inaugural conversation: "people don't want a sick doctor." "and I don't like healthy patients." who is the universal recipient and universal donor? who is house's keeper, responsible for his happiness? who has a problem with caring too much for a person and then resenting them? that's what i thought. hilson or not, their very first words capture their dynamic in literally 2 sentences. bound for life, wrapped up in the tragedy of house's internalized shame toward his disability, too.

speaking of hilson (season 8 spoilers below):

i don't know how to organize all of this effectively, but if the series finale wasn't planned, then they still wrote such a cohesive show that they could reference the fabric of their pilot episode and reflect it successfully in their parting message. one of the best ways we can measure house's growth is his treatment of rebecca adler's decision to die versus wilson's 8 seasons later.

house condescends to rebecca that everyone will die, that it's always ugly, and that "we can live with dignity. we can't die with it." this doesn't convince rebecca to accept more treatment, however, and house is forced to surrender. he's solved the case; the job is technically done. yet when wilson is undergoing Mega Chemo in 8x19, he begs house to help him keep his dignity by letting him die in house's apartment. house agrees.

in what i think is a direct parallel to wilson's cancer diagnosis, rebecca rejects further treatment because they have no proof in their latest diagnosis, a tapeworm. this reinforces the need to operate off of faith twice removed. in 8x20, meanwhile, the proof of wilson's cancer is what's killing house and demolishing the very premise of godhood as he's known it (i rambled about that here). in rebecca's case, absence requires faith; in wilson's, presence revokes that faith.

even foreman pleads for a real solution: "there's got to be something we can do. Better than watching her die." and wilson delivers the news about rebecca denying treatment: "she wants to go home to die." and, then, cameron with the steel chair: "because you respect her, you're going to let her die."

so, in total, i am super impressed with all that this episode manages to accomplish. it was way too orange, house was pretty one note as they were leaning extra hard into the sherlock side of things, and wilson is just kinda there??, yet it really is bursting with potential.

i didn't expect to write this much and have no idea if these posts will always be so long. i'll never get thru this if that's the case lol.

[house-hussy]

Dr. Wilson’s bleeding heart: Chapter One

Dr. James Wilson X reader

Summary: Y/N is a talented geneticist, working clinic at Princeton Plains-burro for a chance to work near the world renowned Gregory House. What you never expected was to fall head over heels in love with his best friend, Dr. James Wilson.

Which of course isn't an issue until House's obsessive nature decides that you and Wilson's relationship is its next fixation, putting a strain on your relationship that you never could have prepared for.

Working clinic duty at Princeton Plains-burro was bittersweet. Working with patients was always rewarding, gave you a sense of accomplishment and a bigger purpose outside of yourself. But ultimately it was never completely fulfilling.

You are a geneticist. Hardly a roll to condemn you to hours a day in a free clinic. Before you accepted this job you were leading a study on treatments for Hypophosphatasia, a metabolic genetic disorder. Your aunt Snow, one of the closest family members you had, had passed away from it far to soon for your liking, Sparking your passion for treating it. Sometimes you question why you walked away, but you know ultimately it was for the greater good. Because of what drew you to Princeton in the first place. Dr. Gregory House.

Of course he didn't just have an available spot on the team, he was known to be stubborn in who he hires and from the sounds of it, hasn't hired anyone new in years. All you've managed to get from him so far is a few passing, boob glances in the hallway, never having the courage to actually walk up to him. The head of the diagnostics department. Although diagnosing HPP isn't the issue, it's how to treat it, it's a puzzle nonetheless. And puzzles, as you've heard, are Dr. House's specialty. You would work up to House eventually, you can wipe a few more noses for the greater good.

The first four days took some adjusting but you got into a groove with things, and then one day that groove was thrown off in the best way possible.

————————————————————————

"I'm so sorry that I've delayed your briefing for so long" said Dr Cuddy as she beckons you to follow her out her office doors. "I've had a bit of a crazy week and usually we hire people in groups, so I guess it must have slipped my mind. You've probably explored the clinic by now" she points.

"Yes very well" you reply shortly with a smile. You can't pretend she doesn't intimidate you just a little bit, but you try to act cool nonetheless. You follow her through the seemingly endless hallways of the hospital, passing patient rooms, conference rooms, offices. With a formal introduction to each department head in the building, just in case you ever need a consult. You were looking forward to your formal introduction to House but when you and Cuddy got to his office, he wasn't there. Cuddy sighs, almost as if this is exactly what she'd expected, but she quickly moves on.

"Okay, last introduction of the day," she breathes, "I'm sure you're tired of shaking hands by now"

"Oh I don't mind at all." You reply. "I'll take shaking hands over sticking a needle in a squirmy five year olds arm"

Dr Cuddy gives a polite smile at your futile attempt at a joke (great job) , knocking three times on the door at the end of the hallway. It reads, "Dr. James Wilson; head of Oncology"

"Come in" you hear a male voice call from the other side. Cuddy proceeds to open the door.

"Hi!" You say as you enter. The first thing you notice is his dopey little smile, a welcoming smile at that which is more than you had received from the other doctors who were no doubt busy filing pointless paperwork. He had short but flowey brown hair, dark brown eyes, and the cutest smile lines that outlined his cheek bones. "Wow he's cute" you think to yourself.

"Hi I'm Dr. Wilson" he replies, reaching out his hand to shake yours. You noticed his sleeves were rolled up halfway, highlighting his muscular forearms.

You shake his hand. "I'm Dr. (Y/L/N)"

"Dr. Wilson is the head of oncology, he is actually one of the most reliable department heads we have." Said Cuddy.

"Well it's so nice to meet you, I'm a geneticist by trade but I'm just doing clinic work for now" you say, probably smiling a little too widely.

"Oh a geneticist, that's interesting what's your main field of study?" He replies with a seemingly genuine interest in his tone.

"HPP, I was previously exploring different methods of treatment to slow down the degeneration process" you reply, excited to speak to someone who actually cares about your work. It feels like forever since that's happened.

"That's wonderful, maybe we could discuss it sometime I'm curious what avenues you've been taking with that." He replies.

"Of course, I'd love to talk about it" you reply, a little too quickly. You've been told you get a little too excited about your work.

"Sorry to cut this short but I have some paperwork I need (Y/L/N) to fill out before my meeting at two today" Cuddy interrupts. You were so excited about someone asking about your work you kind of forgot she was even there.

Wilson gives you a little smile and a nod. "Well it was great to meet you Dr. (Y/L/N), I'm sure you'll fit right in. Don't stress to hard about the first couple weeks"

"It was nice to meet you to Dr. Wilson." You reply with a smile. You've follow Cuddy outside and just like that the cute oncologist is on the other side of the door again.

————————————————————————-

The rest of the week passes, then two weeks, then four. You thought clinic work would be a little more exciting than this, but what else would you expect after working exclusively with a rare genetic disorder and being downgraded to runny noses and headaches. It would probably be easier if you had made literally any friends, but your coworkers aren't the chattiest. A little polite small talk here and there was nice, but didn't feel enough to help your regret of moving.

At this point the most exciting part of your day was the brief few moments you got passing Dr. Wilson as he left for the day. He typically got off work an hour before you did, and you decided that you would take advantage of that fact. After all, polite small talk was still polite small talk, but he seemed to have a genuine interest that the others didn't. He seemed to care about what you had to say.

"Dr. Wilson!" You call as you see him pass by Cuddy's office.

"Hey (Y/L/N), how's your day going?" He replies, leaning on the clinic welcome desk.

"Pretty well, for some reason we have an unusually high amount of broken bone admissions today" you smile. Maybe an inappropriate response in this context, but that hadn't crossed your mind.

"Yeah that happens sometimes. One time when I was working clinic, I had four consecutive patients come in that broke the exact same arm, that was weird"

"No kidding?"

"Yeah that was a rough day" he chuckles. Eyes fixed on your face. His demeanor almost seemed tense, like there was something he wanted to say but couldn't.

"I could use a few less of those, I've already had six overtime hours this week, I've barely had any time to work on my paper"

"Oh yeah how is that going by the way, you never got back to me about it"

"Well coming along slower than I hoped but I'm actually very excited about it. I decided to focus on enzyme replacement therapy with asfotase alfa, and how the clinical studies are often misinterpreted as showing higher success rates in children, when naturally children just heal faster in general because of their developing immune systems"

"Dr. (Y/L/N)" one of the clinic nurses calls out your name sounding disgruntled.

"Oh I'm so sorry I forget you get off later than I do" Wilson says apologetically.

"Oh don't worry about it, I got caught up in talking about my paper again, don't worry about it. I'm sorry for talking your ear off" I chuckle nervously. Nothing more embarrassing than getting yelled at by your boss in front of a cute department head. "I'm coming! Sorry, paperwork" you call back.

"Well I'd love to listen another time" Wilson replies with a smile.

"I'd like that to" you reply smiling back. "Have a good night Dr. Wilson" you turn to walk away. You expect him to do the same but he just stands there for a second.

You get no more than five feet away before he calls "How about over dinner?" You turn your head hopefully, your heart fluttering a bit in your chest. He looks nervous, anticipating a response.

You realize you're just standing there awkwardly so to break the tension you say, "I'm off in an hour" Wilson looks relieved.

"Perfect. How about Giovanni's at eight?"

"I can do that, sounds nice" you reply, trying not to sound like you've been waiting to see him outside of work.

"See you tonight" his smile widens as he walks out the front doors.

Is this a date? What if it's just business and you're misinterpreting the invitation? Maybe he really does just find your work interesting and wants to hear more about it. Hell, maybe he's gay. You don't want to get your hopes up, but you are more excited about tonight than you would ever admit.

Just one more hour of clinic, and he's all yours.

[catmask]

genuine question – and i hope it doesn't come as weird – but how do get into...pokemon? </3

pokemon universe feels so big and there are so many games and i really like their designs – both for pokemons and trainers – making ocs in this setting would be so cool but i have no idea how to. begin!

could you give some advice?

ps leaving compliments for your comic and art in general!! i really like how your pieces are so colorful! gives the vibes of some small but cozy and fun town in a videogame..

no worries!! it seriously depends on what you are interested in - gamewise, region wise, and story wise.

heres what i can say. if you like typical top-down style pixel art rpg games where you solve tile puzzles and build a little team of monsters, any of the games before x and y is a good choice. platinum is a great introduction to the series because it doesn't baby you but is still decently difficult, heartgold/soulsilver are the 'coziest' games imo but may spoil you because of how much content there is, black/white and black/white 2 are the most story-driven of the games and bw2 is probably the longest play of all the games. emerald is also great, but its genuinely a hard game even as someone whos been a fan of the series for years. i would say to start with hgss because they're my favorites, but they're so good it might raise the bar too high for all the other games pixel-art games.

if you prefer 3D graphics, but still like the 'run around catching guys and solving tile puzzles', i think sun and moon are the best of the 3D games! the story is engaging and a little more modernized so that there are actual cut scenes, i think the pokemon available are cute and the region is really pretty. i thikn after that, x and y is pretty cute! the story is less strong in comparison to sun/moon. importantly; every game in the 3D era has a new type that was not present in the pixel art era - the fairy type, so if you want to learn the MODERN type chart and balances, the 3D games are where you'd need to start.

finally, if you're not a fan of the 'catch pokemon run around region' type games, pokemon has a LOT of really awesome spin off games. my favorites are as follows...

pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky. its the strongest story the pokemon company has ever written, and im a big fan of the mystery dungeon style gameplay.

pokemon ranger (any ranger game!) the story and graphics are cute, and it focuses on rescuing/rehabilitating pokemon more than capturing them. really lovely expansion of the pokemon universe.

pokemon go, because its free! so if you dont want to download a rom, or sink money into a new franchise, its an easy way to get into it.

pokemon snap - this was actually my very first pokemon game i ever played! (never owned it though heha) but there was just a remake for the switch, if you've got a switch that is. the game focuses on photographing pokemon in their natural habitat, and its really quite cute. slow paced and fun if you're not sure about battling yet.

finally... if you weren't looking to get into games at all, pokemon art + fan creations are personally my favorite things in the entire fandom! artists and writers and fangame devs are the people who hold this fandom up, engaging with their creations is a great and typically free way to involve yourself... im sorry this is so long, i hope this helps!! and ppl are free to add on to this hehe

[etoiile]

IT'S NOT A CRUSH!

starring kozume kenma!

synopsis: you transfer into kozume kenma's class, and he finds that you somewhat pique his interest. and by "pique his interest," it means exactly that. you're just new and intriguing, that's all. ...he doesn't like you, really!

notes: fem!reader, sorry

kenma had always thought that he would never get into a high school relationship.

after all, he wasn't very outgoing and was told he seemed unapproachable. he mostly kept to himself and played his games, and wasn't exactly a ladies' man. he always thought it was kind of weird to see young high school couples walking around together all lovey-dovey, and couldn't imagine himself doing that. not to mention, love wasn't exactly a priority for him. he couldn't even remember a time he had a real crush on a girl.

sure, he'd thought that a couple of girls were cute before, but it wasn't really an attraction, more of a recognition of beauty. anyone could recognize that a girl was cute; it didn't necessarily mean attraction or crushing. which is why when you transferred into his class and his first thought in response to your nervous introduction was, 'cute,' he figured it was a temporary acknowledgement of your physical appearance.

when just two weeks later, seats were changed and you ended up next to him, and his heart did a little flutter when he saw his name by yours on the board, he figured that the reason the thought of you being cute hadn't left his mind was just because you were new and interesting. you seemed super sweet and bubbly, based on the way you interacted with your classmates, and seemed to fit in relatively quickly. quicker than he would've, anyways. (he still doesn't fit in, actually.) you simply piqued his interest, that's all.

another 2 weeks had passed, and kenma was a bit confused. why hadn't you left his mind? you and him had become friendly, mainly due to your efforts, not his own. you two made small talk before and after class, and oddly enough, he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy it, or even that he felt indifferent. he looked forward to coming in the morning and getting to see your bright smile, and hear your sweet voice. it was puzzling. very, very puzzling.

months had gone by, and kenma couldn't really wrap his head around it. the "physical appearance acknowledgement" should've worn off within a maximum of 2 weeks, and you should be out of his mind by now, but you weren't. far from it, actually. he thought about you all. the. time. why? a true mystery. he wasn't crushing. he didn't form crushes. and even if he did, it's not like he'd do anything about it. high school relationships just weren't of any interest to him, and besides, you two were so different. after the initial shyness, you were sweet, bubbly, and talkative, whereas he never made an effort to talk to anyone, was quiet, stoic, and all around apathetic towards everything around him. you were like a ray of sunshine, and he was like a grey cloud. even if he had a crush, (if!) it's not like it would work out, anyways.

one month later, you two had become quite close. you came over relatively frequently, and you'd do your homework or watch tiktok on his bed while he played a game. sometimes, you'd walk over to where he gamed to watch him play, and make little comments and questions, to which he'd respond to with a smile, happier than he'd admit that you seemed genuinely interested in his interests.

and, of course, he'd never forget the moment it happened. the teacher was going on and on about...something. carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in a 1:2:1 ratio. or was it 2:1:2? he didn't know. suddenly, he felt a light pressure hitting his shoulder, and he looked over to see you fast asleep on his arm, your chest slowly falling and rising. he felt a warmth rush across his cheeks and reach the tip of his ears. he froze, trying his best not to move a muscle as to not wake you up. he attempted to shift his attention back to the lesson and not pay you any mind.

of course, he couldn't help himself and peered over his shoulder to look at your sleeping face. he wouldnt notice the small smile that crept its way onto his sharp features. your long eyelashes, your cute nose, your plump lips, your tiny mole. they all worked in harmony to make your face, which happened to be a very cute one.

why was he thinking about it this much?

--

"sounds like kenma's got a crush..." kuroo teased, making little kissy faces and forming hearts with his hands. "is this your first real one ever?" he questioned.

"it's not a crush. i don't get crushes." kenma argued, though the red dusting on his cheeks was certainly not helping his case. "i just...want to know what's happening. i don't have a crush on her, 'nd i don't know why i think about her so much. it's kind of a pain."

"it's a crush, kenma. face it. you like y/n." kuroo sighed, a little exhausted from his friend's emotional stupidity.

"it's not."

"it is."

"it's not."

"it is."

"it's not."

"it- GODDAMNIT KENMA why are you so stubborn?!" kuroo screeched, annoyed by kenma's antics.

kenma only hummed cheekily, glad to have won the "it is-it's not" war (for the 98928392th time. kenma's stubbornness always won.)

it's not a crush. kenma thought to himself as his eyes automatically made way to you, hanging out and laughing with your friends at your lunch table. she's just new (sort of...it had actually been a little while since you'd transferred into his class) and interesting, and i like her as a friend. and she's cute. but just because she's pretty doesn't mean i like her! anyone could recognize her as pretty. its just a fact. i don't like her just because i think she's pretty, and i don't like her just because we're friends. i dont like her. well, of course i like her, but not like that! i dont get crushes on girls. she's just sweet and comforting to be around, and she just happens to be a girl. i don't like her like that. i don't. really.

suddenly, you noticed kenma's gaze and your face lit up, which was really cute. you waved to him excitedly, and gave him a happy little giggle in response to his wave before turning back to your friends.

kenma clutched his heart nervously, which was beating faster than ever. he glared at kuroo, who was smirking and raising a brow at him, and internally yelled at his heart to calm down.

"sure," kuroo teased, "you don't have a crush on her. totally."

"i don't!" kenma protested, despite his pink cheeks and ears.

he gave you another small glance and his heart fluttered. fine, it was more of a fast-paced beat than a flutter. ok, maybe it was more akin to a swarm of stampeding, angry butterflies, but same thing.

alright, maybe he liked you, but only just a little bit.

(it was in fact more than "just a little bit.")

𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐈𝐋𝐄 ©𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 please do not copy or repost my work on any other site. interactions appreciated! 🤍

[traincat]

I absolutely devoured and LOVED your Johnny Bobby Ultimate WIP- thank you for posting that!! It was just amazing. I haven’t read the Ultimate F4 comics, are they worth a full read? Or if not, what are the highlights to see all the big Johnny moments?

Thank you so much! I have a soft spot for it myself. Love Ultimate Johnny, whose life is terrible even by Johnny Metrics.

Is Ultimate Fantastic Four worth a read? Short answer: Oh God, no. Absolutely not. It's garbage.

Long answer: Oh God, no. Absolutely not. It's garbage, but on the other hand there's nothing like a little dumpster diving.

Off the bat: Ultimate Fantastic Four is a bad comic. It is bad in almost every conceivable way. It cannot keep track of its own continuity. The writing is aggressively early 2000s and often not very good. The art? How do you like your most obvious of "this is traced off of porn, isn't it" Greg Land issues.

Is it like, weirdly compelling to me in spite of all of that? Unfortunately yes.

Ultimate Fantastic Four reimagines the Fantastic Four in the original Ultimate Marvel universe, which was originally envisioned as an updated version of their classic characters more suited for modern times. (Also they were going bankrupt.) Most popular for Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, where Miles Morales would eventually take over as Spider-Man after Peter's untimely death, and The Ultimates, its take on the Avengers, Ultimate Fantastic Four was largely background noise in the universe. In Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Baxter Building is re-envisioned as a military funded think tank for baby supergeniuses, run by Franklin Storm. Reed, who built a machine to transfer matter between universes in his stepdad's garage, is recruited into the program, where he meets Sue, a medical prodigy, Johnny, not a prodigy at anything, and Victor, a hostile foreign recruit whose equations are the missing piece of Reed's puzzle. On the day of the test launch for the finalized version of his project, his childhood friend and protector Ben comes to see the launch, and, of course, everything goes horribly wrong. Forever changed, the Fantastic Four are formed under the strict if inefficient supervision of the US military. And Victor gets little metal goat feet!

One of the big problems with Ultimate Fantastic Four is that it doesn't know what to do itself. It recreates a modern day version of the accident -- exploring other dimensions instead of outer space --and then just kind of flounders around with itself for a while. Reed and Sue are a couple, because Reed and Sue are a couple in 616. Ben meets Alicia before the book forgets she exists. Johnny meets Crystal, etc. (I do appreciate how deeply weird the Ultimate Inhumans are, even by Inhuman standards, which are already Deeply Weird.) But unlike Ultimate Spider-Man, which like, okay, I am not the biggest Ultimate Spider-Man lover in the world, but it takes strides to tell a modernized version of classic Spider-Man canon. Ultimate Fantastic Four, for the majority of its original run, just kind of sits there and twiddles its thumbs before a wider Ultimate universe event forces its hand and sends its cast scattering in all different directions and onto different books.

And yet it is so hugely influential, for some reason, on the rest of the Marvel universe. Ultimate Reed eventually becomes the multiversal supervillain the Maker. Ultimate Fantastic Four was the first introduction of Marvel Zombies, with a zombie version of the Fantastic Four trying to invade the Ultimate universe from their zombie universe. And the plot of an Ultimate Fantastic Four arc was used as the base for the MCU's Avengers (2012). Ultimate Fantastic Four #33-38 features space whales, a Plot Important aspect named Tesseract, the cosmic cube, Thanos, one character (Ben/Hawkeye) getting possessed and attacking their companion -- it's the same plot elements, just assembled differently and featuring a different team. Which is just weird for a comic that, again, I have to point out is not very good.

So it's bad. I've read it like five times. For some reason it compels me -- I'm completely aware of its quality, but it's kind of fun in its inability to ever wrangle its story into something sustainable. I will say I think everything that's actually interesting with the Ultimate FF happens after the dissolution of the team -- basically all the Johnny stuff I covered in the Johnny/Bobby WIP was post-Ult FF. Peter dies and everything is so horrible for him from then until about twenty seconds before the whole original Ultimate Universe got blown up. More under the cut.

I can't advise reading Ultimate Fantastic Four. I'm not advising against it, either. Ultimate Fantastic Four is more of a thing that either happens to you or doesn't. It hugely depends on your tolerance for frequently terrible comics. (My personal tolerance is, unfortunately, huge. You give me a particular kind of terrible comic and I will happily read the whole thing.) But for Johnny highlights from the actual book itself:

(Ultimate Fantastic Four #13) "I notice stuff." Cute moment of Johnny telling Ben his eyes are still the same as before, and a look into his kind of general attitude with him not being particularly interested in whether or not his powers might kill him. An interesting thing with Ult Johnny is that, despite his dad being alive (at this point in time anyway) and present in his life, he has significantly less of a support system. His father doesn't understand him and is frequently frustrated in him, and he's never been "special" for anything before, not like Reed and Sue, who are both geniuses. He's been raised in a government think tank as, essentially, the dumb kid who is just there because his father runs the place. Because he's much closer in age to the rest of the team in Ult FF, no one else on the team besides Sue really views him as someone who needs to be supported or protected. He's a peer to them and not a kid, which I think makes him feel even more isolated than he does in 616, and it's why he was so much happier when he was living in May Parker's house.

And his "flame thing" does mess him up, btw, at least temporarily:

(Ultimate FF #15-18)

(Ultimate FF #24) Look at him being sooooo happy his terrible mom who abandoned her family to go look for Atlantis is back in his life to call him dumb. I'm obsessed with Ultimate Mary Storm, she's the worst. Ultimate Franklin is also the worst because when his wife left him he decided the best course of action was to pretend she was dead, up to and including throwing a fake funeral for her and making his young children attend it.

Great question, Sue. "A humanist service, as requested." Incredible. This Johnny and Sue had zero chance of being normal people. (I had the most fun writing Ultimate Mary in the JohnnyBobby WIP because she strikes me as the exact kind of person who would waltz back into her children's lives because she wants something, discover her son is gay, and proceed to be absolutely delighted about it because she views having a gay son as fashionable. She sucks! Women's wrongs! Abandon your children on the regular!)

Anyway, with parents like these, maybe it's not surprising Johnny gets Teen Pregnant.

(Ultimate FF #30) Sort of. Not with a baby. With an alien parasite that's going to kill him and also everyone else when it's born. "I knew this was gonna happen, but all those lying skanks said it was impossible." Incredible.

Because Johnny's alien parasite baby is going to kill everyone, Alien-style, the military decides the best course of action is to chuck Johnny into the Negative Zone so then only he'll die. Great plan, everyone!

Sue even tries to get Crystal to help, and Crystal basically goes, "Wow, that sucks. Not my problem, though."

(Ultimate FF #32) "Oh, I heard them, sis, and I'm cool with it. I mean, what's an idiot like me compared to all the people who'd die out there if this thing ever hatched?" Haha, hey, could any version of him value himself even a little bit? Like for ten seconds?

It's also just now occurring to me that this is the Ultimate version of Valeria's birth (life-threatening pregnancy solved via magic ritual) and also of the Egg Baby incident (Johnny's supposed offspring is actually a monster that will kill everyone if it hatches) just like, with alien parasite mpreg. And this is why everyone loves comics.

I'm skipping over yet another uncomfortable Johnny and consent plotline but rest assured it happens here, too. Staring out across the ocean.

(Ultimate FF #55) I know what the intent was here but Sue saying she needs to be more like Johnny by having "a boy in every port" is unintentionally very waves hand around. I will say that Ultimate Johnny is more aggressively "girl crazy" than 616 Johnny, where even the writers who have tried to push it the most ultimately give up, but like 616 Johnny it still feels very hollow. He'll brag about sleeping with hot girls and then turn around and do this on a date:

(Ultimate Spider-Man #129) To be fair, though, I do think Bendis had a more consistent personality for him than anyone writing Ultimate FF. The cuter Johnny stuff is honestly over in USM.

Ultimate Fantastic Four ends at issue #60, and has a brief epilogue with Ultimate Fantastic Four: Requiem. In it, Johnny has an argument with his father where his father says Johnny essentially says Johnny isn't "who he needs to be," and then immediately dies saving him. (There was a big wave that hit Manhattan and a lot of people died. It's important to the Ultimate Universe overall, but not important to our cause beyond "big wave killed people" so that's all I'm gonna say about it.)

The Fantastic Four essentially dissolve at Franklin Storm's funeral, when Reed proposes to Sue over her father's casket. Literally.

(Ultimate Fantastic Four: Requiem) Unfortunately I find this kind of funny. Reed moves back into his family home where he will eventually, uh, kill everyone in it. (Ultimate Reed is kind of an interesting thought exercise in "what if Reed Richards sucked exactly as much as people who don't read Fantastic Four think he does" and like, the thing is, the Maker is so utterly horrible he circles around to oddly compelling evil noodle, so it works.) Ben joins the military. Sue... does something. She ends up on an iteration of the Ultimates eventually. And Johnny? Johnny wanders directionless around Europe for a while, hating himself, before he collapses on the Parkers' doorstep.

(USM v2 #2) "He's just a baby." Thank you May Parker for being the only person to ever say it! He is just a baby!!

(USM v2 #3) "You're just a kid." I love May and Johnny so much in Ultimate. :( She loved him. :(

Johnny lives with May and Peter, along with Gwen and Bobby, because May Parker was taking in wayward youths like it was her hobby at that point, for a while and he's like, actually happy. (His alias at this point is "Johnny Parker." Do with that one what you will.) He dyes his hair! He goes to school like a normal teenager! He has actual friends! He kisses Peter's clone! He doesn't know she's his clone, but he very much kisses Peter's clone!

It doesn't last, of course -- when the Green Goblin attacks the Parker house, Johnny's fire accidentally makes him stronger, and while Peter defeats him, he ultimately dies himself literally underneath Johnny.

(USM #160) Which completely devastates Johnny, who admired Peter more than anything and -- look, obviously I'm biased, but I don't think it's a very huge reach to think that Ultimate Johnny was in love with Peter. At the very least, he was, essentially, Johnny's lifeline, and with him gone, Johnny loses any sense of direction he had.

(Peter was eventually resurrected. I don't know if Johnny ever found out. It doesn't matter because they blew up that whole universe anyway and that's how Miles Morales is a 616 character now.)

(Ultimate Fallout #1) Literally exploding in grief at the top of the Empire State Building on the morning of Peter's funeral. Johnny doesn't go back to May's house, feeling responsible for Peter's death, and instead ends up joining Bobby and Kitty's underground mutant militia, a fraught situation because Johnny is, of course, not a mutant, something that gets constantly pointed out to him. He stays behind on a mission to protect the mutant kids they've picked up, which is when he's captured and taken to mutant torture prison, which I discuss in that fic. He's saved several months later, spends roughly a year in a hospital before he's kidnapped out of it and modified by Evil Noodle Reed into his heat proof drone. Sue saves him and we see him like one more time after that in another comic before the Secret Wars (2015) blew up the Ultimate Universe. So his life is like, generally just terrible the entire way through, save for a brief bright spot when he was living with May and Peter.

I love him so much even if he's inconsistently written between various series. I am going to one day write that fic where, as a side effect of, I don't know, Franklin messing around with universes, Ultimate Johnny falls into a 616-adjacent style universe where Harry was Peter's tragic dead college love.

(USM #118) And he'll get to be friends with MJ again because they were cute. I just need to, you know, rip it up entirely and rewrite it first.

[eidolonlathi]

How the way the Sanguinarch and Lettou were introduced already foreshadows their incoming dynamics in the plot

I can't stop thinking about the fact that the first time the main story shows the Sanguinarch he literally gets introduced by talking about Lettou. There's this short introduction to the members of the KMC right in chapter one of Episode 10, and of all the subjects he could have brought up it is Lettou the Sanguinarch is talking about.

And the way he is doing it is so revealing and already following the trend of their incoming dynamics. Yeah sure, on the surface he's complaining about “Theresis' friend” Lettou by comparing him to the Victorian nobles, but the really interesting part is the vagueness of his threat and the way he reacts once Theresis takes the bait. He instantly agrees when Theresis orders him to leave Lettou alone and abruptly changes the subject to something completely unrelated. It is atypical to how he usually reacts to Theresis' orders. The Sanguinarch usually challenges, questions or outright ridicules them. Just compliantly agreeing to something Theresis or Theresa says is not something he usually does. It's one of the symptoms that shows during the main story (and Babel) how tense his relation with them is.

Which makes me think that in this case he only brought his “annoyance” with Lettou up because he knew Theresis would predictably have no patience for it and order him to leave things alone, and thus give the Sanguinarch a chance to agree to just that. Like look, now it's not his idea to stay patient when he's spending time with Lettou. He's just following the Regent's orders here and the rest of the KMC heard this. It's not the Sanguinarch’s idea to act patient with the outblood. Like what, are you complaining now he's listening to Theresis in this case? Are you the one trying to pick a fight now? The Sanguinarch has just muted all criticism before it even got a chance to arrive.

Putting a distance between him and Lettou during moments the Sanguinarch's behavior could be interpreted as being too involved and lenient also perfectly fits in with the way he behaves during the main story. He falls into a rant of how he doesn't need Lettou every time he feels puzzled by his behavior while at the same time he is not letting his pet (Duq'arael's words) stray too far away from his side and keeps insisting that they're friends. But now that matters in Londinium are getting tenser no one can accuse the Sanguinarch of having grown soft towards Lettou. He's just following the Regent's orders by showing patience towards him, and he made sure everyone had to hear that he had no choice but to agree to that.

Keeping this in mind it is very revealing that during the first scene the Sanguinarch seems to lose patience with Lettou there is actually the opposite going on. The Sanguinarch is not angry, only disappointed: Lettou brings up that kiIIing the wife and children of a noble they have been after might have went a bit too far, and the Sanguinarch makes it clear that he disagrees about that by taking away Lettou’s ability to breath with his blood arts. The implication he is making is clear. They are in no place to have pity with the enemy, and Lettou should already know better. There’s a reason why through all this pain he is inflicting the Sanguinarch also admits he keeps Lettou around for his personality and intelligence. The reader could have guessed at this point: People the Sanguinarch feels displeased with and doesn’t care about usually end up as a bIoody puddle on the floor. It is noteworthy though how self-conscious Lettou’s objection manages to leave Duq’arael. He doesn’t even bother to refute anything Lettou just said, but instead voices disappointment Lettou doesn’t show him the same trust Duq’arael has been giving him. And then he tells Lettou he would prefer to not get pecked by his pet bird. And that might sound like someone is being a little bit oversensitive until you remember… The bird Lettou appears to be based upon is a peregrine falcon. Those were used in the middle ages by European nobility for falconry. It's a predatory bird, not a songbird. So, when Duq'arael calls Lettou his pet bird the statement also acknowledges that he keeps him because he needs him for hunting his “prey”.

It’s funny though how only a short while later the writing confirms Duq’arael’s approach of sparing none of their targets to be an appropriate caution. Because do you know what happens to the children of their targets who escape? They become RockRock and Stainless. RockRock’s father was killed by the Sarkaz, and RockRock still feels shaken by the memory of how Theresa was there when he was executed, doing nothing but watching in silence. Stainless only escaped from the Defense Forces who were already on his tracks because Lettou listened to Catherine’s plea to spare him. Lettou’s conversation with Catherine was the first time in the story we saw him in person, and it’s a bit funny that his habit of showing sympathy with the people of Victoria in the wrong moment was a theme already present there. I doubt Lettou had any pity left for Feist in that moment, but as Catherine is the person basically running the factory and is highly respected by her co-workers, keeping her cooperation was important. At that time Feist was but a little clog in the Self-Salvation Corps that Clovisia was running, I guess Lettou thought agreeing to Catherine’s plea and spare Feist was an appropriate price to ensure her cooperation.

You’re always wiser in hindsight and from Lettou’s perspective sparing Feist was the wrong thing to do. Team Amiya leads the attack on the Command Tower, and the spared children Feist and RockRock lead the charge. If it wouldn’t have been for the Sanguinarch putting a shield of blood between Lettou and Ascalon things would have ended fatally for Lettou. It’s not only telling with what impulsivity Duq’arael shielded Lettou instead of going for Amiya’s crown while surprise still would have been on his side, but also that this is the first moment we actually see him lose his patience. He snaps at Lettou for being foolish enough to not hide from the Sarkaz despite knowing that they are much stronger than him. Interestingly he sees not engaging in a fight here as a completely reasonable option. Ironically, this conclusion comes from his mindset of seeing non-Sarkaz as potential prey – as we’ve seen in his interaction with Siege – and for prey it is reasonable to flee from a stronger enemy. It really is telling that in the moment Lettou explains he only stayed because he couldn’t bring it over himself to abandon his soldiers who are still fighting team Amiya, the Sanguinarch’s reaction is to use Lettou’s soldiers for his bIood arts and kiII them in the process. He removed the one thing that was holding Lettou back this time. Actions speak louder than words, I guess. The Sanguinarch’s comment he soon will have no need to keep Lettou alive sounds like a cope after the outburst he just had. Guess admitting he cares if this non-Sarkaz lives or dies is in fact a potential weakness – especially with half of the KMC and the enemy still watching and listening – so he needs to cover that up.

Like, Duq'arael has an advantage over Lettou, yes, but it is funny the text makes it obvious he feels vulnerable over the fact he started to care so much for a non-Sarkaz. Duq’arael pretty much dislikes everyone we see him interact with, and then it’s this Liberi he will admit to feel affection for. If I was part of the cutthroat environment that is the KMC I would try to cover that up too.

And his effort was strong enough that the text could bring things to their conclusion. The story introduces Lettou through the Sanguinarch and the text lets Lettou return to the Sanguinarch’s side to die. Or as Lettou put it himself, he was always going to find His Highness. And Duq’arael doesn’t get what is about to happen until it is too late and Lettou has already cut his own throat. Instead Duq’arael is too focused on his own words during their last interaction, once again having no other subject than Lettou during his monologue. Or to be more precise, the Sanguinarch is really just a compilation of tsundere tropes during his and Lettou’s last meeting:

He mentions how his vampire subjects were sure Lettou wouldn’t stay alive long enough to return for the day of the ritual but that Duq’arael had always believed in Lettou to manage just that. And that he’s happy to see Lettou in better spirits because the mere thought of witnessing more of his revenge against Victoria is already filling him with affection for Lettou: “Yeah, I might like you, so you better feel honored by it.”

He points out that unlike Lettou not even other Vampires have the honor to see the horrors he is about to unleash today: “Do you even realize that I’m keeping company with you that’s below my standards? Do you appreciate it? Do you really?!”

And then, after Lettou kiIIed himself Duq’arael has an entire monologue how this René Lettou is definitely, definitely not worth to be remembered: “Oh you think you can hurt me by guilt-tripping me in such a dramatic manner – Well, you were pathetic to begin with anyway, it's not like I care or anything.”

Yeah. It’s not like the Sanguinarch cares, or anything. He is just shown to keep obsessing over Lettou for no particular reason.

[riddles-n-games]

In one of your posts you talked about how the TGG charcters leave a bad taste in your mouth and while some of the TIG charcters were spoiled they still had constant reminders they were human and I agree.

I'd like to talk about Lyra . People love to talk about how much better she is than Avery because "she's focused on family while Avery's focused on puzzles" . When Ave has every right to know answers considering people are trying to kill her left and right and it's not like she stopped caring or even loving Libby throughout the books

People don't talk about how entitled Lyra came off when she first started calling him in brothers Hawthorne , were we supposed to hate Grayson because he asked who this random person who just trauma dumped on him was ?.

Even after she saw him again in TGG I didn't feel bad that Grayson told her to stop calling. Also some people actively forget that Lyra KNEW she was trauma dumping on someone who's gone through a lot .

It also makes a lot more weird that she was kind of flirting with him in The brothers Hawthorne

Ok, first off, you shared a lot of thoughts in the last while and I am happy to be the one you're sharing this with. Respect that a lot. Also, you are telling me people are not respecting my OG girl. Where are these opinions being said so I can go hate and cancel?

Jokes aside, opinion is opinioning as always. I would argue Avery is VERY focused on family. Her loyalty and constant worry for Libby is literally introduced to us within a few pages of her introduction! Heck, her introduction is being with disguised Toby which was someone she offered companionship and cared for despite her own tight situation. She cared for the brothers and tried to get Jameson to get his head out of his ass. Grayson too. She let Nash become her unofficial older brother. She immediately hit it off with Xander and tried offering him support where possible even when he refused it. And despite them sure as heck not deserving it, she even still hangs with Thea and Rebecca. Oh, and didn't she literally try helping Eve before the evidence started turning on her? Basically, that's a huge part of Avery's arc.

Avery only got roped up into the puzzles because that was clearly the only way she was going to get answers in the first place and even so, you can tell that she doesn't always like them. Why else was she so appalled by Jameson's dumbassery after their first kiss? I even wrote a rewrite of that sequence so she would be more pissed with him!

Regarding Lyra, yes, very good point to bring up. Home girl hit him up and of course his reaction is WTF. I can't blame him for that at all. I would have literally blocked and not even answered if I was in his place. I guess from Lyra's perspective, because he was most vulnerable in a sense, she must have chosen Grayson strategically. It's also revealed in TGG she had a crush on him so I definitely think that strengthens the cause. Grayson may not be without faults but this is part of why it's hard to connect with the newer characters in TGG. It's like even though you want to root for them, they keep going and doing something that ruins their chances of being more likeable.

I hope JLB touches more on this for character development.

[akemiiya]

flowey-centric - first person pov - 750~ words

this was supposed to be the introduction for a fic i'm writing, but I decided that it doesn't really fit with the rest of what I had in mind, so I'm posting it here as a standalone. hope you all like it.

Stale monotony has its claws tightly wrapped around my stem. I've exhausted every possibility I can. There is nothing else I could possibly think of doing. Boredom engulfs me, and excitement is faraway.

Whenever I'm feeling lost, I visit my best friend’s grave and talk to them. I know they aren't listening to anything I say. They're gone, body long decomposed and SOUL shattered into space. There isn't anything left of them. Still, words spill from my lips like a waterfall, as I talk about anything that comes to mind.

It's soothing, in a way.  

Then, without any warning, something heavy falls from the sky while I'm mid-sentence and collides with the patch of flowers, right on top of their grave. I barely manage to burrow into the ground in time to avoid getting hit.

I resurface a distance away. I'm about to rip apart whatever interrupted me so rudely, but when I get closer, I see it.

Smooth flesh, the rise and fall of its chest, a heartbeat – there's no mistaking it. This is a human.

An actual, real human.

This is the first time a human has fallen since I woke up in this form.

What fortunate timing. I had saved shortly before this, right when I arrived to talk to Chara. I have the perfect point of return if I want to retry anything.

Hee hee… We’re going to have so much fun together. I just know it.

I bring myself back to the present, and that’s when I hear it: the human whimpering softly, hands clutching their leg, which is bent at a weird angle… I think. I'm not actually sure. There aren’t a lot of books about human anatomy down here, but Chara’s legs never looked like that, in any case. I suppose they must have broken it on the way down. I crane my stem upwards, and…

Wow. I never realized how long of a fall that was. Yeah, I can see why that would have happened.

I’m about to introduce myself, when I hear footsteps. Even and steady, the slightly muffled sound of soft paws on the floor – it’s Toriel.

Irritation flashes through me. Seriously? Now? Her timing couldn’t be any worse!

I can’t let her see me. This is just too bad. For now, I hide underground and listen. Toriel’s footsteps approach the human, who is still crying. I hear her suck in a breath. She must have seen their leg too.

“Oh, you are hurt! Do not worry, I will fix this.”

The room takes on a soothing atmosphere as magic is gathered into a healing spell. There is the telltale sound of it hitting its target, and the human’s sobs subside slightly. Toriel lets out a breath of relief, and starts speaking: “I am TORIEL, caretaker of the RUINS.”

I’ve heard all this before. I tune her out and slightly lift my head above the ground. It’s a good thing that this patch is full of golden flowers – it’s the perfect camouflage for me. 

I can see them now. The human doesn’t say anything, but their eyes shine as they take in Toriel’s appearance, gazing at her in wonder. Heh, the complete opposite of Chara. I remember our first meeting clearly. They had also gotten injured on the way down, and they were apprehensive of me despite me healing their injuries. They looked at my face, then stumbled backwards and exclaimed…

…No, that’s not important. Anyways, the human grabs Toriel’s hand and follows her, walking with a slight limp in their step. She introduces them to the RUINS, explains the puzzles, and makes them solve a few laughably easy ones by themself. It’s utterly mind-numbing. I have half the mind to interrupt them, but no. I have to be patient. 

I still hate this, though.

After what must have been years, they finally arrive at her home and pass through the doorway. Toriel brings the kid to my room, and– “This is your new room.”

Wait, what? Their room? No! That’s mine! My room! It belongs to me! It has my glow-in-the-dark stars and toys and everything! Are you kidding me?!

I know she had taken care of the rest of the humans before this one too. But if she’s giving my room to this brat, does that mean…

…

Ha. I knew she had been itching to replace me, but this… Ha. Ha ha ha.

What a bad joke.

Enough. I can’t bear to stick around any longer. I’ll check up on the human again later. I burrow into the ground and go as far away from here as possible.

She ruffles the human's head. Just like she used to do with–

[reign-life]

Y'know I was wondering if I should make this. But cringe culture is dead and the team seems to actually be trying so

Poppy Playtime Chapter 4 Gameplay Trailer Reaction/Analysis

First of all, I like Doey's jingle. It's short, but sounds realistic enough

And... has there been a swear in Poppy Playtime before? If not then holy shit an actual swear. Sure it's a tame one, but compared to the obvious kids farm bait of chapter 1, it seems like a good sign

Security Breach jokes aside(put a pin in that), why does it look like there's a bunch of the poppy gas? There being a bunch still lying around is believable, but I thought we'd see the last of that stuff with Catnap being impaled. But with how the toys apparently become part of the Prototype once he grabs them...

I like Harley's voice and the little eye animation. Realistic eyes are always creepy and the voice actor's doing great

Here's one of the spots from some of the images and Baba's trailer. Obvious puzzle is obvious(ding!). And I just noticed this, but that's possibly a new hand(could also be the purple one in strange lighting though)

Y'know tvs aren't cheap. Assuming this hallway(that does admittedly look cool) isn't something The Doctor made, I wonder how much of the budget got spent on this room alone. Maybe it's some security area?

Two things to address for this screenshot! First of all, what the fuck is that. I don't... think it's a human body? It doesn't seem rotted enough(assuming that's not bone) and this would be a questionable model. But it has one of the hands? Despite not having a grabpack? If the "the protag's not human" theory wasn't thoroughly squashed by now I could maybe say it's connected, but even the player needs an actual grabpack

Second: the caption. What do you mean the Prototype's working with Harley?? Maybe this is some manipulation(and not The Doctor's, you can't convince me Prototype would listen), but I can't see why he wouldn't just kill the dude. "They're both experiments" doesn't work, we saw what happened to that one former scientist. A security system could be useful, but would that really outweigh the cost of working with the dude who caused most of this suffering?

Yarnaby has claws. Neat!

This graffiti's certainly worth analyzing. It's clearly directed to the smiling/nightmare critters, which makes sense with how many of them are crawling around here. But who made this? The eyes could maybe be connected to Harley, but this is his domain and the toys are being shielded from them

Edit: it seems like Doey's made this and, by extension, his own safe haven for other toys. Not a good sign when combined with the hoard of minis, but hopefully they're unconnected

I have to wonder what this guy means(and who he is ig). There's vending machines that you could've used and... everyone's been down there for years. Food was gonna run out eventually and the only choice left is cannibalism(which they're clearly willing to do, nothing's stopping them). Sure Prototype's plan has a few flaws, but the starving thing doesn't seem to be entirely his and Harley's fault

Oh he is big. Bigger Bodies Initiative, I get it, but I assumed he'd be slightly smaller from his introduction trailer

...I will not make jokes. What I will do is notice that The Doctor's clearly got a body. Honestly kinda disappointing(not to mention confusing, but I'll talk about that more in a second). Him only being shown through tvs and other not-body electronics would've been cool

Kissy's alive! Yes! Ignoring Poppy's eyes seeming more bloody than normal, there's an unknown voice. Sure several of the voices are unknown, but this one is directly acknowledged as that. My theory is that it's the Prototype. Something about the way he says "mind" sounds different, added in

Okay remember that pin? Something about this situation screams "weeping angel" and feels really similar to the Glamrock Endos. But y'know what, the "inspiration vs theft and does that argument even apply" thing isn't new. So I'm just going to ask: what are the tv heads? They wouldn't be toys(I think?) and while the company is cruel, surely they're not stupid enough to give Harley a way to move around even more easily. Maybe these were made by the Prototype? He seems smart enough that it's possible

We finally get to see what role the nightmare critters play and it's... about what I expected. Which is a good thing! Their toy models are pretty cute and it's not surprising that they function the same as the mini smiling critters in chapter 3. But we also get to see two(only one in this screenshot) mini huggies. Which really does highlight that this area is a safe place and may lead to us seeing other types of small toys. I see where Catnap got the idea to watch over the minis

And more of the maybe-corpses. I don't think these are skeletons since one has an ear(you'd think the toys would've picked them clean...), but these just- aren't believable humans??

If there's any moment to reveal that Ollie's a traitor, this is gonna be it. Calling it now. Also 1. why are Kissy's injuries depicted like that(assuming it isn't something else). The toys bleed, this is just a fact. 2. what is that thing wrapped around her?? I assumed it was a sling or something, but her injured(?) arm is free to move around. It seems like it could be a bag or bandages, but the former doesn't make much sense and it looks a little too leathery to be the latter

Return of the Ollie and our first look at Pianosaurus in a trailer. The light in part of his mouth makes me curious. His keys seem to have distinct colors and looks more like an injury. Maybe he gets hurt at some point and that's what's on the inside?

Had to grab the transcript since these are Two captions and I have enough images here as is. Anyway, this is an interesting exchange and use of names(or lack thereof). I'm not sure who the first one is, but the second sounds a lot like Poppy. But shouldn't the captions have just said that? It could be a tape, since those captions don't label who's speaking. But they never explicitly hide it either. Something's up with this

And that's just how the information is presented to us. What's actually being said is a whole different discussion, but I have no clue where to start with this

Now to talk about Doey and the thumbnail for the video. This guy is directly stated(both on twitter and in the description) to be helping us and thank god. All the play-doh falling from the ceiling could maybe pass as creepy(I'll admit, my horror senses are kinda broken), but his actual appearance? I saw the thumbnail and was expecting the worst because even Poppy looks more unnerving than him. But as an ally and not a source of horror? I like him, his design is simple and neat. His first lines get the gist of his personality down(the "hiya there" possibly being what he was meant to be for the kids, while "follow me" is a more mature and real tone) and I can't wait to see what happens with him. As long as the scares involving him are kept to minimum

[ominous-faechild]

SUN AND SHADOW

BONUS SCENE: “DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR”

(actually this is from mid book 2 LMAO)

[this scene contains major the arcane rifts spoilers and moderate sun and shadow spoilers! continue with caution!]

CHARACTERS:

♝ Freya Ula (pov) ♝ Eugene Salles

TIMELINES:

approx. 815 AA (global timeline)

word count: 1.9k

Freya: [minding her own business, studying in the library like she'd been the last time she ran into him]

Gene: [purposely came in just to see her]

Gene: [and, of course, his powerful Chaos aura gives away his presence]

Freya: —

Freya: [tensing slightly, quickly looks up]

Gene: [forces gives a soft smile as their eyes meet across the room]

Freya: [tenses even more—]

Freya: [subconsciously remembering how ill she'd felt after their first encounter. Figures it was because of him for one reason or another and is not looking forward to it happening again]

Gene: [still heading over; voice as careful as always) "—ah. I was hoping to come across you again. Frey, right?"

Freya:

Freya: (cautiously) "… yeah."

Gene: [smile turns a bit apologetic, but he stops at her table]

Gene: (gently) "may I sit down? I'd like to speak with you about something."

Freya: ,,,

Freya: [chews the inside of her lip slightly, looking away

Freya: (trying to sound dismissive, but awkwardness leaking through) "yeah. Sure. Whatever."

Gene: [pulls out a chair to sit down across from her; saying all the while) "thank you."

Gene: [takes a slight, deep breath, reflexively summoning his definitely-not-rubix-cube mental shield puzzle and awkwardly fidgeting with it]

Freya: [looks to him with the movement]

Freya: ,,,,,

Gene: [except, at the same time, awkwardly looked away himself]

Gene: [still fidgeting as he stares into space himself; carefully) "—right, so. I figure proper introductions are in order."

Puzzle-ball: [click]

Gene: [seemingly ignorant of it, finally looks back over to her with another forced, slightly-awkward smile on his face]

Gene: (a hint of awkwardness in his voice) "as I said before, my name is Gene. I didn't lie. However… I'll have you know I'm an avatar of Magic. The Existential God of Magic."

Freya:

Gene: [slightly quirks an eyebrow at her] "I don't think I have to explain the concept of 'avatars' to you, do I?"

[Small narrative explanation of it if not explained before in the story; Freya would know of Soren as an avatar of one of her hometown's local gods]

Freya: (quietly, caution clear) "… no."

Gene: [gives a slight, curt nod, awkwardly looking away to stare past her ear]

Gene: (carefully) "right. Well, as you can probably imagine, I'm powerful. I have quite a few…" [click] "—relatively unheard of magics myself."

Freya: ,,,,,,,,,,,,

Freya: [knows he's leading into something and NOT excited to find out what it is, especially with his clear awkwardness… especially compared to his apparent collectedness with their first meeting]

Gene: [eyes flicking to meet hers; matter-of-factly) "in short: I'm a telepath. As I figure you don't know what that is—"

Freya: [doesn't]

Gene: "—I'll explain. It means I'm capable of reading people's minds. Hearing their thoughts."

Freya: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Gene: [looks away again—this time completely—and tilts his head to the side as though deep in thought as he continues evenly) "—including many other things, but. Point is:" [takes another slight deep breath, then turns to meet her eyes again] "—I can also see memories."

Freya:

Puzzle-ball: [click] :)

Gene: [still seeming completely ignorant of it; matter-of-factly) "—and, as one of Magic's avatars, I'm extremely sensitive to magic. So. One of the first things I noticed about you was the immense amount of memory-altering magic wrapped around you."

Freya:

Gene: [takes a slow, deep breath, completely looking away again]

Ball: [click!]

Freya: [clenches her jaw, glancing away for a moment as she struggles to keep her cool and focus on what he's saying]

Gene: (voice ever-so-slightly uneven and thick) "I'm not going to lie to you, Freya. I approached you because I was curious about it, and wanted to figure out why it was there. If it was there for a good reason or not, and to 'fix' it if that wasn't the case."

Gene: [pauses for just a moment—]

Freya: (cautiously) "… it's been months. Why didn't you come here sooner."

Gene:

Gene: [fingers stilling on the puzzle, looks to her with an eyebrow lifted as though to ask: 'did you seriously just ask me that?']

Gene: (a slight edge to his otherwise-even voice) "you weren't here for a while. And I was busy. I'm often travelling all over the world. I'm an avatar, and I have my own life. This was the soonest I've seen you since I've decided to tell you, and I had something to take care of before I wanted to address it with you. I've taken care of it."

Freya:

Freya: [oops, fighting tears, but flexes her jaw from repressed anger—]

Gene: (the edge to his voice growing clearer) "Now. Do you have any other questions?"

Freya:

Freya: that is so, 100%, a threat :')

Freya: [remembering and re-recognizing his immense magical aura; answers cautiously) "… no."

Gene: [nods slightly, eyes dropping under her ear again and voice returning to matter-of-fact) "right."

Gene: [takes another slight deep breath, his eyes dropping to the ball he's been fidgeting with]

Gene:

Gene: (to himself) ah. When did I bring this out? :')

Gene: [and takes a deeper breath, closing his eyes for a moment, before looking away and returning to fidgeting]

Gene: (voice slightly tense) "obviously, I've come to the decision to tell you about it. And long story short—"

Ball: [click] :)

Freya: [eye twitches, but forces herself to close her eyes and take a deeeeeeeeep breath]

Gene: "—you have magic altering two 'kinds' of memories, clearly by two different people."

Freya: [irritation dying away and blood going cold, hesitantly looks back at him]

Gene: [still not looking at her. Has his face turned away from hers, subtly pinched, and is staring blankly into the distance]

Gene: (only having paused for a moment, continues) "The first kind: mostly early childhood. They're changing memories. They're less serious, but I figure you'd still like to know about it. Then, the second kind. They're…"

Gene: [falls silent, chewing his lip slightly as he struggles for words]

Freya: [silent, waiting for him to continue and really not sure how to take all of this—] 😰

Ball: [click] ;D

Gene: [takes a slight deep breath before continuing) "… they're hiding memories. Repressing them so you cannot acknowledge them. Well—" head tilts to the side again "—technically some of them are a mixture of both, but…"

Gene: [sighs, then finally meets her eyes again]

Gene: [hints of defeatedness on his face, but voice as neutral as before if not slightly tired) "some of them were from the first person. Once again, less serious, but still something I'm certain you'd like to know. The fact that they were changed—the implications—are more serious than the contents themselves."

Gene: [slight pause—]

Freya: [swallows, then gives a hesitant nod] 😅😰

Gene: [gives a weak, slightly-forced smile, then averts his eyes again]

Ball: [click] :)

Gene: "… then there's the last bit. From a different person, someone I hesitate to refer to as a 'person'… more from h—their behavior than their… status."

Gene: [hesitates slightly, then continues] "these memories are incredibly serious, completely concealed very well. They will change a lot if you choose to know them, and I want to warn you."

Gene: [meets her eyes again]

Freya: [has a lump forming in her throat; very nervous about what all this would mean]

Gene: (voice as serious and somber as the subject itself) "remembering these things—all of them, not just the last ones—can lead to some personality changes. They will cause revelations that might change your opinions of people you know and cause some incredible complications in your life. This is some serious stuff, that will have a massive impact on your life."

Freya:

Freya: swallows :')

Gene: [silent for a second, face twisting as he glances away—]

Ball: [clicks!] :)

Gene: [sighs slightly, shoulders slumping as he drops eyes to her chest—]

Freya:

Gene: [—then his eyes widen, cheeks flush pink, and he quickly looks under her ear again]

Gene: (quickly, wincing slightly as he stutters) "s-so, I'm he-here to mak-e you an of-offer."

Gene: [hesitantly meets her eyes again, taking a slight deep breath]

Gene: (seriously, words slowing, but still slightly accelerated) "I can re-move th-those en-chant-ments on you, l-letting those memories return to you. They will hit you full-force, and you will re-remember long-re-repressed things of variable importance. Wo-uld you like to remember anything?"

Freya:

Freya: [shocked. Didn't think he'd actually be able to remove them, but thought he'd just be telling her… which she wouldn't fully trust in general, especially because he could have any number of ulterior motives]

Freya: (to herself) … but he's also a—what, a "telepath"? Who's to say he wouldn't be faking them in general?

Gene: (at the same time, more carefully) "I can release any of the three kinds—"

Freya: … and who's to say he's not in my mind right now?

Gene: [is, in fact, in her mind]

Gene: [—comes to a sudden stop]

Gene:

Freya: (mostly to herself, but knowing he can hear) so that's a yes. >;'D

Gene: [sighs, looking up, seemingly rolling his eyes]

Gene: (cautiously) "… yes, I'm in your mind. T-to be honest: faking memories is incredibly complex, and not s-something I'd b-bother with for s-someone like you."

Gene: [drops his eyes to her, eyebrows raised slightly and hints of irritation on his face; an edge to his voice) "I'll be blunt: you're not that important. I'm being kind by doing this for you. I have countless other things I could be doing right now, but instead, I'm here to unlock memories that have nothing to do with me."

Gene: [flexes his jaw slightly, then gives an ominous, angry-looking smile]

Gene: (voice harsh and yet matter-of-fact) "you are but a simple girl with nothing to your name but a fortune. I work for one of the most powerful gods in Existence. There's literally nothing you could offer me, and no reason for me to bother with faking anything for you."

Gene: [warps out of his chair, instead teleporting to his feet behind it. Has his cane cradled between his hands as he leans forward on it, staring down at her intensely]

Gene: (harshly) "You are D-tier at best and I am a B-tier who can take on S-es. I'm sure you might have no idea what that means, so let me put this into words you can understand."

Gene: [tilts his head to the side, face slowly twisting in bitter rage as he continues) "While I am far from the most powerful being in Existence, I can battle them and escape unscathed. You are a simple girl with delusions of grandeur. Stop assuming everyone else 'has it out for you' when you mean nothing."

Freya:

Freya: [whoops, stunned—]

Gene: [face flattening and voice evening out) "I have no reason to 'fake' anything for you. It is a kindness I am offering you. So, last chance: would you like me to unlock any of these memories for you?"

Gene: [takes a slight deep breath, eyes closing as he leans back and his cane disappears for the ball again]

Ball: [clicks as he continues, making visibly Gene ease up]

Gene: [slowly returns his eyes to her. His voice evening out again, starting only subtly thick) "I can remove any or all of the three: early childhood changed, most of your life repressed and changed, and/or the recent, completely repressed. Would you like any of them removed?"

Freya:

Freya: [swallows, trying not to think about—]

Gene: (harshly) "You are a simple girl with delusions of grandeur."

Freya: [closes her eyes, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to go over what he said about the memories]

Freya: … my whole life? How can everything be a lie…?

Ball: [click] :>

Freya: that is SO fucking annoying, Levebolg save me.

Freya: [puts her face in her hand, fighting it, the knowledge that he's probably still in her head, and the omni-present paranoias that he 'has it out for her' back]

Freya: [swallowing and flexing her jaw, hesitantly looks up and meets his eyes]

Gene: [just watching her carefully; fingers fidgeting with the countless buttons on the ball, flipping and turning it before pushing seemingly random ones in and causing others to pop out]

Freya: (hesitantly, voice breaking) "… I'd like to know. I—I want to know what's been kept from me."

Gene:

Gene: [face softening slightly, nods]

Gene: [and—eyes flicking to the chair—awkwardly moves to sit back down, face twisting slightly]

Gene: (voice slightly soft) "I figured. We'll start with the earliest ones first."

My poor, poor autism baby boy Gene. Trying to avoid eye contact but also keep an eye on the person he's talking to. That could neeeeveeeerrrr cause any problems! 😄

(sobs because I relate)

ALSO WHAT ABOUT THOSE ROASTS!? AM I RIGHT!? 🤣

Everything taglist:

@honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star

@the-letterbox-archives @48lexr @aalinaaaaaa @thecomfywriter @an-indecisive-nerd

@seastarblue @rae-butter

"Delusions of grandeur" taglist:

@inadequatecowboy @write-with-will @corinneglass @tallgirlpidge @darkfairiefey

@toywave

Hiatus party taglist:

@aalinaaaaaa @sm-writes-chaos @teamarine777 @caffeinated-starsailor @oliolioxenfreewrites

@nightmaricwriter @lunaeuphternal @inadequatecowboy @princessuncertain @storyteller-kara

@themongosianhorse @nczaversnick

divider by @saradika

[strangescaffold]

Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 Is OUT NOW! + FAQ

Firstly, our match-3 survival horror comedy RPG metroidvania you didn't know you needed is OUT NOW! Here's the launch trailer!

Now, the 3 in the title may need a little explanation so we put together this handy FAQ. FAQ: WHAT IS CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION 3?

WHAT IS CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION 3?

It’s a video game!

Also, we’re calling it the match-3 survival horror comedy RPG metroidvania you didn't know you needed. A “matchroidvania”, if you will. And you should, because that’s what we’re calling it.

DO I NEED TO PLAY CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION OR CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION 2 TO UNDERSTAND?

So, there is no Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 1 or 2. This game was originally intended as a sequel to two games that didn’t exist, because we thought it would be funny.

Then the game industry took a nosedive, and this game got cancelled, un-cancelled, and cancelled again.

When we started on CRDM3 for the third and final time, we saw an opportunity to use this sequel to a series that doesn’t exist to actually say something about the game industry, and the process of making a game in 2025. You’ll probably appreciate a lot of the jokes if you’re a game developer, but if you aren’t, we hope the game is both understandable and a good introduction to that secret world of knowledge and context you usually only get from being prematurely aged by this hellfire of an industry first.

DID THE TEAM CHANGE DURING ALL THOSE CANCELLATIONS? HOW DOES THAT IMPACT DEVELOPMENT?

Our team composition naturally changed over time as we ran into lulls or developers moved on to other projects. The result is a game that doesn't just have a false history--but a real one. Everyone who has ever worked on CRDM3 is somewhere in the project, with a joke, a piece of art, or just an idea crafted with genuine care. We hope the game finally getting the chance to launch honors their contributions.

THIS LOOKS LIKE A MOBILE GAME! WHY DOES IT USE MATCH-3 MECHANICS?

We were inspired by Puzzle Quest and Puzzle & Dragons, games that use these mechanics in a similar way, but mostly focus on combat. It seemed to us that there was wiggle room to explore conflict and characters through these mechanics, so we built a really robust Match-3 system with things like character traits, consumable items, stress meters, and more!

It means that using the same grid of simple symbols, everything from crafting a cursed hunting rifle, to hacking a mainframe, to trying to out-cowboy a plesiosaur, can be done with the same core mechanics--massively expanding the range of things you can do in the typical RPG.

WILL WE EVER GET A CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION 1 OR 2?

If there’s interest in more, we’ll be listening! For now, we hope you enjoy what we’ve made and the place that it comes from.

WILL WE EVER GET A CREEPY REDNECK DINOSAUR MANSION 4?

No.

----------- We hope you enjoy our weird-ass game with Dinosaurs and match-3 and a not subtle commentary on the games industry. Also, fun fact, on the steam page right now you can watch me playing the game! I do voices and everything! See you on the internet, - Chris @ Strange Scaffold.

[warsamongthestars]

How to do I view TCWs Bad Batch...

Cos its not a secret that its personal. All this, comes from a personal place, even if its cut down to snark, rage, or just plain analysis. Personal motivations are the best motivators after all.

We start with the set up.

They are, by all accounts, set up to be the odd ones out. If there are weird mutant clones, these are the guys. If you're looking for the super special awesome squad made of underdogs, its them.

( As the former Weird Kid from childhood, who later grew up into the weird adult, I immediately grew attached to them. I broke the Jedi code folks, please don't kick me off the council Mister Windu )

And from there, it all became very complex, and yet, so simple. Because when you've been there, you get it.

Now we start with the perspectives.

So I saw...

... The Bad Batch as those who teeter on the edge of wanting normalcy whilst also rejecting convention. These boys have been rejected for things all their life, from appearance, to skills, to attitudes, to innate abilities and to simply not fitting in / being regulation.

Crosshair is the one who learned to strike first, and the first strike should be the final strike. He's the confrontational one. (Very in line with his sniper job). If you strike first and its always the mortal blow, you avoid getting struck. ( This doesn't work, because he's a verbal lasher, and that hasn't killed anyone yet--so he'd get a punch to the face and invite combat among allies )

Tech is the one who learned to back down and be unconfrontational one. Let the aggression pass, it is temporary. This has probably cost him with injury and items stolen from confrontation (because if someone wants to make a problem, they will make a problem and they will do it to the easiest target).

Wrecker is the boisterous one. He wants to directly fit in so things are either not a big deal or he exaggerates to a point where its become habit (a simple fear of heights becomes a ridiculous series of panics straight out of a cartoon that even Tech rolls his eyes over). In this way, he's a kind of people pleaser who needs to find excuses to confront people he has a problem with.

Hunter is the quiet one who wants to given space to process. But is never given time. To him, people are complicated and he needs time to puzzle them out, but at the same time, he's still trying to puzzle himself out. So everything either comes out as a sarcasm or it comes out as anxiety, because in truth, he's not sure how to react to situations and was never given the communication or time to develop that understanding--and has to practice based on experience [ CF99's plan system ] because otherwise he gets overwhelmed with him. ( But in such lack of processing, the stuff he has had time to process? He can weave through fluently and adaptively. He knows not to give more information than is necessary even in friendly conversation with strangers, because he knows the effect it would cause. )

The word "Hyperempathy" comes to mind.

But in such additions...

CF99 as a whole, as they lie outside of the regulations, have developed an nonchalance over things that would be alarming in any circumstance, odd one out or not.

The Yalbecs, mentioned in CF99's introduction, are an implied Insectoid sentience that follow a HIve structure (with the Queen ontop who can produce pheromones to encourage reproduction). The yalbecs were performing an Insurrection on their planet, Yalbec Prime. As the Republic had gotten involved by sending CF99, that means the insurrection was against the Republic, meaning that the Yalbecs were, prior to the war, a Republic peoples.

If I had to give a reason for this insurrection, it would probably because the yalbec queen's stinger is used as food on other planets / by other cultures.

Two and two together, the yalbecs were insurrecting because their queens (and potential mother figures) were being hunted down for food, and the Republic was doing nothing.

A horrifying set of circumstances, made worse when the Republic sent a commando squad to handle the situation once it had become violent, and the result was, yet again, the death of another Queen and possibly her entire court.

... especially when that said Commando Squad began to brag about it afterwards.

This is a "funny" contrast to the hyper-empathy argument, and that is the total lack of empathy. Suggesting that CF99 primarily only cares about what a particular group (the "regular" clones) thinks about and tries to bring attention their successes to that group; but inevitably alienate themselves by sheer misunderstanding of both themselves, others, and the situation. Its the fantastical fantasy narrative equivalency of "my cat tried to show affection by bringing me a dead bird" or "I told a self deprecating joke about my childhood, and everyone looked at me with horror"

The "Total Lack of Empathy" is less inherent problem, and more akin to, learned impersonality, which can be a common problem when it comes to empathy.

Now this is starting to sound like "playing Psychology with fictional characters who can be written to do anything". I ain't diagnosis shit, I'm just pointing out a potential pattern, by drawing from experience.

Don't you just love how fiction can get personal.

Anyway.

In such inbetweens...

The Bad Batch have formed strong interpersonal relationships, only vaguely hinted at during their Clone Wars run.

From backing each other up, no matter who does what (from Crosshair's overly confrontational nature being immediately defended by Wrecker lifting someone up by the necktie and Tech's Goggles glare and Hunter stopping the person that Cross is confronting)...

... To Crosshair immediately stepping up to block an officer from yelling at Hunter...

... To Wrecker interrupting and teasing Tech, but then immediately quoting Tech to officers...

... to how proud Hunter is over his team, or Crosshair's indirect silent compliments in regards to Wrecker...

... to trusting Tech's strategies and intelligence, no matter how crazy, or how much he's teased afterwards, near immediately...

... to the various list of plans they perform practically on trust and instinct alone...

... and to giving the new odd one (Echo) a chance, even if they verbally distrust him.

The world these boys must have behind closed doors and off duty, is one of intimate trust, obvious communication and communal understanding, and each of them, no matter how they express it, share values.

They're playful and competitive with each other, and their various strong personalities do bump against one another, but its less destructive and more akin to knowingly being pieces on the same board. ( billiards comes to mind and everyone has a pocket. )

Its those hints of history and personality beyond their job, is what I wanted to see more of (and probably others too). Its those conflicts and bonds between themselves, the world and others that would've made a show.

( Character Development isn't necessarily that the character themselves changed--its often just that the Audience now knows more about a character. Character Development is more often than naught, a change in perspective from the audience's point of view. )

Introducing Echo would've been a fine way to learn more about them, by allowing the audience surrogate to be a main character lead, whilst also going off on fantastical sci-fi adventures in the Galaxy Far Far Away.

Applying personal interpretation and experience is often how you can make a story more interesting, as it allows both yourself and the audience to further understand themselves.

Yeah, its telling a familiar story, but often that's what's needed. And you freely can want what you also need.

[avelera]

So now that I'm caught up on Interview with the Vampire (as of ep 2.5) I want to say a few words about the appearance of Raglan James, aka the antagonist in "The Tale of the Body Thief".

First, and on the most basic level, I lost my fucking mind when he showed up. Body Thief is perhaps a controversial installment of the Vampire Chronicles but it's actually one of my favorites (and I could write essays on why).

Once I was done screaming in delight at his appearance, I went looking to see the reaction of other book fans and here I must admit I am puzzled.

Many book fans here seem to think that Raglan James isn't what he appears. That he's Marius, or David Talbot, or Aaron Lightner, or some other book character in disguise.

I vehemently disagree with this both for Watsonian (in-universe) and Doylist (out-of-universe, practical) reasons.

Raglan James is Raglan James, the Body Thief, and I'm going to reiterate this a few times in explaining why I hold this view.

Now, to get into why I think the show is just giving us pre-canon Raglan James right now, and not already playing with his body jumping abilities by having him be someone like Marius:

When introducing a character who is effectively a shapeshifter, in this case the Body Thief himself, Raglan James, you actually do need to show him in his "normal" state first because not everyone in the audience is familiar with his ability because of the books. You have to introduce and build up this ability gradually because it's a very confusing ability for a visual medium to have a different actor playing the same character (and if you don't believe me, go check out some other famous shapeshifter characters like Mystique or The Doctor and see how carefully the narrative introduces and builds up how their power works, almost always starting by showing them in a normal "original" state as a baseline).

Showing him for the first time in another guise would only create confusion. We need to know who he is on his own before we can begin to play with the narrative. At most, I think his current form might be the body of his first "jump" into the body of his fellow inmate, but even then, I think that's something you save for later, when you introduce the ability he has. I really think we're actually seeing early or pre-canon, real Raglan (the one who had cancer) right now in his first original body. Honestly, I wouldn't even be surprised if Raglan doesn't have the ability yet and is building up towards achieving it. I think right now, he's just a normal, scummy, kleptomaniac Talamasca member.

Is "Raglan" his real name? Perhaps not, the man is an infamous con artist. But I took Daniel's skepticism to be more in line with "You made up a silly sounding name because you're a drama queen and great believer in your own legend. Your real name is probably something normal like "Bob', Raglan," rather than an invitation by the audience to assume that Raglan is, for example, Marius or another vampire in disguise.

My sense is that we're setting up Raglan to be the post-Queen of the Damned antagonist, just like he was in the books. But in order to introduce him to best effect then, instead of a totally confusing appearance out of left field (like he is in the book, tbh), it's actually very clever to introduce him now, early on, as a Talamasca member (or recently kicked out of it) before introducing him as the Body Thief. They're making him a normal, known member of the cast before they toss him out there as one of the most bizarre antagonists of the entire book series.

Personally, I think that Raglan is being introduced now as our first introduction to the Talamasca. The Talamasca is a very questionable organization on many levels, we are often meant to distrust them or view them with the same distrust as the supernatural creatures do who encounter them, despite the fact they're actually mostly benevolent in the books so the suspicion supernatural characters view with them often feels a bit excessive. So it makes sense that our first introduction to it is with a somewhat shady character, in order to justify the book levels of suspicion vampires and witches feel towards the Talamasca, because the first one of their members we meet is a con artist and a villain, even if later ones are mostly good guys.

Basically, I think instead of just introducing Raglan out of the blue after he's jumped bodies a couple times. Instead, we're going "back in time" so to speak, showing the prologue of his backstory and intertwining it with the main story so it's not so shocking when he shows up later as an antagonist.

For my money, Raglan hasn't been kicked out of the Talamasca yet or he has very recently been kicked out and is now hunting down Daniel on his own in order to get closer to his real targets, powerful vampires like Lestat or Armand. He's going to be a regular for a bit, a shadowy figure at the edges, perhaps drop away for a bit during the events of Queen of the Damned, and then come back as the main antagonist, with all the familiarity we have with him, after those events as the new antagonist.

And as for Marius... along similar lines of, "you have to show how something works before you break it / you have to show who a character is before you disguise them with a shapeshifter's abilities" IMO, when we see Marius, we're going to see Marius. We're going to see Armand's master in his original form. We're probably going to see him the way we first do in Queen of the Damned, busy tending the shrine of Those Who Must Be Kept.

I don't, for my money, think we're going to deviate so much that Marius is going to show up (except in flashbacks) just because the characters are talking about him.

The whole point of Lestat becoming a rock star, the whole justification for it in Queen of the Damned and the Vampire Lestat was to draw out all the vampires in his life, vampires he's missed like Louis and Armand and Marius. The whole point was to bring them to him.

Having Marius just randomly pick up that Louis and Armand are talking about him and then show up smacks of television coincidence. But the show's narrative is too carefully crafted for that.

So, in my opinion, Marius will be held in reserve. We will only see him in flashbacks at first, probably not until Season 3 so they can cast his actor for the whole season (nice thing about Raglan James, since he is a shapeshifter/body thief you can always recast him later once his plotline kicks off). Marius will emerge for the same reasons he did in the books, because that lends weight to Lestat's otherwise batshit insane plan to become a rockstar, because it might be crazy but it works.

Marius has no need to appear in the body of a human before that. It makes no sense from a television angle (where it only causes confusion) or from a story angle, because he'd have no reason to show up in Armand's life now when he hasn't done so before except that we've first learned about him in the show.

Obviously I could be completely wrong! It would be amusing to eat my words and it has admittedly been a very long time since I read all the books (though I read them over and over back when I did). But these are my lengthy two cents on the matter.

[nicohverse]

Entropic Float 2 Demo and Kickstarter Launch!

Picture a point-and-click adventure game. Now picture a branching, time-looping ontological mystery visual novel. Entropic Float 2 combines those into its gameplay concept: A point-and-click where you can never solve every puzzle at once. Where you have one key that fits two locks... And the only way to see what's behind the lock you didn't choose is to die, repeat the day, and try something different this time. With only you and your protagonist aware of the loop, seek an answer that earns new information. Through trial and error, solutions and murder... Can you find the way through this new Anomaly?

In early 2021, I started working on a project just for fun. Using the character creator and scene assembly tools of Illusion's Koikatsu, paired with the visual novel engine ren'py, I decided to learn to make a VN. A year and a half, over three hundred thousand words, and quite a bit of pocket money later, I released 'Entropic Float: This World Will Decay And Disappear' for free on steam and itch.io. 

Something that was never meant to be more than a fun exploration of a concept grew into a huge endeavor for me, a visual novel as long as any two Umineko episodes combined! I got guest artists, made plenty of art myself, and learned a lot more about coding in ren'py than I ever thought I would. After releasing the game, my friends were proud of me, and I've heard from a lot of people it connected with. It became the basis of what I want to keep doing creatively- Expanding on this world, telling its story, and finding those people it will resonate with.

That brings us to Entropic Float 2: Land Of The Witch. A sequel I've been planning since the first game released a little over a year ago now. It's a game that can't be free (though if you, for any reason, cannot purchase it- I care more about sharing it than I do about making money) and a game I want to create to that standard. There won't be assets made in a character creator or royalty free music this time. I hope to bring the Pine Creek Anomaly to the screen with my own two hands, and a little bit of help from freelancers. I want to make a point-and-click adventure worth paying fifteen dollars for, an artistic experience that constitutes a huge step up from the first game.

A demo is available to download and play from itch.io! Features already reflected in the demo include:

The general structure of the point-and-click gameplay; including travel between maps, item collection and use, and conversations with other characters.

Hand-drawn backgrounds (with minor animations) and talksprites.

Profile screens for each character and a memory-seeking system improved from the first game. Also improved from the first game is exposition being mainly in a linear-locked part of the story so it doesn't need to be repeated in different places so different players don't get confused!

Planned features yet to be implemented include:

Loop Randomization- The demo includes only the very first loop of the story, but in the actual timelooping gameplay, many factors will be randomized between loops. Characters and items will appear and disappear, characters will have different trustworthiness scores, and eventually, the weather will even change and impact puzzles and character behaviors.

Zones- Minigame areas that abstractly inform you more about a character and are locked behind obtaining certain profile notes and memories. The rewards for completing zones will be tools to access additional areas, such as Area 2 waiting beyond the broken bridge.

Characters- Several of EF2's characters don't appear yet in the demo, due to having their introductions tied to maps that aren't accessible in Area 1.

General Improvements- Characters currently only have one talksprite. The preferences page is still in the ren'py default configuration. Some music tracks recycled from the first game aren't the best fit for the situation. These are all things that relate to the current version being a demo. These are all things that will improve sooner if this kickstarter is a success.

Shortly after handling the Anomalous Clocktower in the Black Rock Desert, Kanatsune Ame was promoted. Now, as an agent of the Wish Task Force at a rank equipped to handle more complex Anomalies, he's received an assignment for another one above his pay grade. Pine Creek, an entire town that was wiped from the map and from all memory several years ago, only to suddenly begin dragging new victims inside within the last few months... Somebody inside this forgotten piece of miserable Americana decided to call out to the world that left it behind, and it's up to you to find out who that could be.

Thank you, as always, for reading!