#putting this under a readmore because I just rambled again

[lucabyte]

obligatory ramble about postcanon loop ask

also your art is amazing

Hiiiiiiiii :D thank you :)!!

and thank you for the excuse to post the. just absolute wall of text that i truncated down to form the tags of that post. (i did,,, hit the tag limit. i forgot tumblr had one of those...) so let me just paste that and tidy it up a bit...

I am putting this under a readmore because it's a bit long. but:

This is like. The General Context for all* of my postcanon doodles? (Except AUs obviously) Like this is the base idea I've been drawing them all in. So, feel free to backread with this in mind. I've basically had this 'postcanon' timeline set in my brain since finishing the game...

My general thoughts are that I like the idea of Loop (even if through dubiously ethical means) being able to slowly reintegrate with the party as a whole new person, because they are, in fact, their own person.

It's a muddle of thematic threads im pulling on and "wouldn't it be fucked up if", but. (at its core, it's powered by the fact that like, while narratively isat's theme of 'the only person who can truly take the first step to help you is yourself'. (wrt: loop helping the party help siffrin in act 5) which i LOVE AND IS GREAT NARRATIVELY…. would be super fucked up irl to learn that your friend 'learned as a lesson' while you stood by kinda uselessly. I know i'd be upset about it. but thats mostly background here. doesn't really come up. at least not until loop has to explain who they are and the party realises they had to fall back on literally themselves again for help, but i digress,)

The real core concept is: Occam's razor. It is like, inherently, a buckwild thing to accuse a person of being somehow a clone or copy of your friend. Even if they start vaguely alluding to a backstory it's far more likely they were some other person before all that. (I still think Odile has that theory in the back pocket but she's rational enough to know it's a really long shot without a solid explanation. and i think Loop deep down knows this, and would, if cornered into confessing, turn the situation around to go J'ACCUSE and make HER explain it instead. Ever longer dodging being direct with their emotions...)

And the party are nice! And if someone has changed and wants to keep stuff secret it's kind of not their business? (Though it's hard not to speculate… see: the main joke of the doodles) And they seem important to Siffrin so they just try to accept them abrasive quirks and all. And eventually the question of their prior identity just fades away since, well, they're Loop. Their friend Loop.

but yeah. personal headcanon is that a few months/weeks after picking up and getting aquainted with Nille** (since that was presumably the IMMEDIATE TASK postgame), Loop reappears (either after a literal period of nonexistance, or just spending a few months wandering the french countryside alone being attacked by wild dogs). Since Siffrin has had a while to be therapised by the party they're doing mostly okay, but Loop showing up and still being agitated/aggressive pulls them both into a bit of a backslide behaviourally and puts the party on the back foot again.

Hooowever, I do think that due to no longer being literally stewing in the worst pressure cooker of all time together, the two do mostly actually sort themselves out with productive conversation. (Via a cycle of: genuinely distressing argument -> weeeird lovebombing -> ok we're good -> repeat, that gets less intense over time)

Thus, allowing the party to just. Integrate loop as a new person. They and Siffrin shuffle into different ecological niches (Loop taking over stuff Siffrin is now too squeamish for, etc (see: hunting, mostly)), and while it's not exactly what Loop wanted they generally get that beggars can't be choosers and it's a pretty good deal. And the rest of the party does straight up just like them as a friend, especially when Loop quits trying to actively antagonise them after a few weeks of being around them, since they just can't keep up being mean to people they like forever.

As for how I think the truth eventually drags itself out. This is where I invoke The Isabeau Torment Nexus™. So its gonna get shippy here for a bit hold on.

Which is, I think giving them time before Loop reappears long enough that Siffrin and Iseabeau actually manage to become established, Isabeau has to be the one to nudge the pair of them and go. "Hey. You know we're in Vaugarde right. I'm okay with polyamory if we all communicate." Before Loop and Siffrin actually even acknowledge that whatever the fuck they have going on kinda looks a lot like a relationship of some kind. (or have already been agonising about that via fighting and arguing, depending) (Obviously this comes after Isa "Emotionally intelligent enough to keep a lid on the jealousy" Beau has managed to use that big brain of his to Not just go Scream somewhere on the daily because oh godddd they keep talking like theyre suicide-baiting each other jesus chriiist. is it overstepping his boundaries to bring that up?? god)

This, taking a bunch of the tension out of Loop and Isabeau's relationship (Since I imagine Loop is a. being weird for the obvious reasons and b. feeling kinda guilty about 'getting in the way of' Siffrin and Iseabeau), allows them to actually get close in a normal friend way. (I think an interesting turning point could be Isabeau actually taking Loop's side in an argument vs Siffrin, which would absolutely break Loop's brain. Especially if it's an argument that matters. Like what do you mean he isn't just going to play favourites. What?)

Then Isabeau, just actually open minded and charmed by Loop (and maybe even somewhat at Siffrin's suggestion?) tries to close the final open side on the polyamory triangle here and that's the final straw for Loop on "This lie by omission is too unethical to keep up, this is just actually sick and wrong. I can't do this while he doesn't know who I am." Though. Obviously it probably goes. Very poorly with emotions high like that. And the added element of several months of deceit. Getting dark here for a second but that dagger is going MISSING and so are THEY for a hot minute.

Then yaaay everything works out in the end 👍 yippieee!! all it took was maybe a lot of harrowed recontextualisation of all the weird shit your new friend said and did when it turns out they're your old friend. It's fine.

But yeah. this is basically the context all of my postcanon doodles have existed within? And those exist to give other people something to chew on. So this does too.

I suppose TL;DR: Imagine if sloopis almost fucking happens before isabeau knows who loop is. can you fucking imagine. can you imagine having to navigate that. nightmare.

*Yes this includes the implied cannibalism comic. Uhh. Comes part and parcel with headcanoning that Loop went way off the deep end similar to A5 Sif But Maybe Worse before giving in. Add weepy half-asleep confessions to murder wherever you see fit in your mind palace. 👍👍👍

**Re: Nille footnote. I don't have anywhere to put this besides here! I have some thoughts on Loop and Nille having an odd dynamic. I don't imagine Nille to be super gung-ho on trusting a bunch of adults (even if they are majority around her age) given their implied backstory. It's probably a big shock to the system, especially since Bambouche is a good couple hundred Kilometers up north from Dormont and these guys don't seem to have trains. She would've been unfrozen and without Bonnie for some time....

Which is to say: I think she's suspicious of them. I think she may be looking for excuses to distance herself, keep Bonnie safe. SO.... A new guy showing up? And antagonising the party? What do they know that I don't...? I should find out.

And since... Loop didn't ever know Nille, they have no ammunition or real reason to be cruel. Plus, if they're trying to stay on Bonnie's good side (SINCE... if Bonnie thought Loop was cringe they may as well kill themselves. In their mind.) they SUPER have no reason to antagonise Nille.

Mostly, they might be able to open up to each other easier than they can the rest of the party?

I feel like this resolves with Loop feeling compelled to apologise for what they and Siffrin let happen to Bonnie, though... Hmm... Depends on how you interpret Nille that they'd be glad nobody else had been told about that yet, or furious it had been secret this long. I lean toward the former.

[chaotikanvas]

Ok, ok, so incoming ramble about the Glamrocks that I keep thinking about under the readmore! 

Disclaimer: I can’t promise too much structure to this since I’m just putting some thoughts down, but hopefully it’s still an enjoyable read or something to think about ghfdkñkjgh

—

SO!

A while ago, when I was first planning my first ever fic for SB (which has been thoroughly planned but not written and I haven’t talked about it here at all but that’s! Beside the point!), I started really wondering how the glitch/virus worked (I will keep referring to it as virus as I think it fits a bit more).

And I was so happy that the DLC seemed to be in line with what I was thinking or at the very least it supports my headcanon in a way!

(And oh gosh this is gonna take setting the scene a bit at first so bear with me)

So, I’d like to make a note first of all, that I’m not entirely convinced Glitchtrap is gone, because the end to the princess quest 3 minigame means Vanessa gets freed from possession (via opening the door). There is not a fight with him as a boss that seems to deactivate or get rid of him once and for all, at least. But what happened to him is entirely guesswork on my part. Also, while the DLC implies very strongly that all the other endings are not canon and more stories Gregory drew himself, there are still elements from those endings that I feel cannot be discarded, and they help understand the story. (The blob does exist after all and that is only discovered in the Burntrap ending, and it is my belief that the friend that has the schematics for the underground mentioned by Gregory must be Vanessa, because Freddy seems to have only vague recollections of the place when Vanessa had him clear the way for her before, and also he is not capable of accessing all areas of even the main pizzaplex)

(Also, I squint a little wondering if they changed their minds on which ending was the true ending because the Burntrap ending is the one that has animated cutscenes and a cgi ending image. I actually like that Princess Quest is the canon ending now, since Vanessa gets to be free, but it does come with some inconsistencies. But anyways!!!)

So taking all of that into account! To me, the way the virus works, and considering that there must be a supernatural element to it due to the existence of Glitchtrap, has to do a lot with it locking away the “consciousness” of the animatronics. Much like in the way Vanessa’s true self was locked away actually! In past games, the animatronics only seemed to act outside of their programming due to possession of some kind, but these specific ones seem to actually have self-awareness. I have no doubt that the way they were programmed influences their personality, but the DLC has really emphasized that they are not actually just limited to their functions. 

They have true intelligence! Not a surprise, since Freddy was clearly self-aware since SB, but I like that it seems to be a confirmation of it being the case in general and not just an exception. And I believe this because there are animatronics that are able to snap out of it after Cassie interacts with them. They do seem to think things are normal like any day in the pizzaplex, at first (Eclipse and Roxy) and it would seem like this means they are not truly sentient, but considering that Sun was aware all this time that things were very wrong, and that Moon would attack Cassie if not rebooted, and that Roxy later awakens, realizes the danger and goes to rescue Cassie from the Mimic, makes it clear to me that their self-awareness is the real deal. 

So not only would the virus have to infiltrate the robot’s systems, but it also would have to fight against the “consciousness” of the animatronics to gain control. While we know the Burntrap ending didn’t happen, I think when we see Burntrap trying to take over Freddy is a good visual representation of what might have happened over a long span to the other animatronics.

Ok, ok so! With all that said (again gfkjh)! I’m getting to the main point of this post, which is that I cannot stop thinking about the little backstory we got for Monty and what might have happened with Bonnie!

The damaged model of Bonnie we find in Ruin makes it clear to me that yes, it must have been Monty the one who destroyed him. The scratch grooves that join with the hole in his chest do match with the marks we have seen on other spots, (I thiiink Monty’s room has them), and we know the claws are the characteristic associated with Monty.

(And here I make a sidenote acknowledging some buts, because I went back to read the SB messages, and according to those, Monty only received the upgraded claws to play the bass, which means Bonnie was already gone by then. One of the messages states clearly that Monty received modifications only after being moved to the position of bassist, when Bonnie was out of commission, so either Monty already had really strong claws or it's a bit of an oversight there, but I digress!)

But! Even with that clear evidence, and here it’s where I admit it’s more speculation on my part, I find it a bit hard to believe Monty, the real Monty, at least, would destroy Bonnie just like that. Which makes me think Monty must have been one of the first, if not THE first of the band being infected with the virus. I think it’s a generally accepted headcanon that the virus alters the glamrocks personalities in a way that some of their main character traits are twisted in a destructive way. 

Now, Monty already clearly existed back when Bonnie was in the band. He had his own (large!) area even though he wasn’t part of the main band. The DJ is large and has his own section too, but he seems confined to it and was bought from outside the plex. And Monty seems to have been able to roam around anyways, so I think that probably means the higher ups were counting on Monty being a main animatronic in the future. (I have to wonder if the whole one man band thing from the backstory was something he did do for a brief time at the start, but admittedly that could have been added just in the cardboards). 

With all this in mind, Monty was probably the newest addition, a newcomer in a place that already had the four main animatronics. Almost known by no one in the public and without an established personality in a franchise he’s never been part of before. One of the messages says Monty could be more popular than Bonnie, after Bonnie’s disappearance, which makes me think he was mostly a side attraction, and nowhere near as known as the main glamrocks. Why mention that he could be more popular if the audience was as aware of him as the band right?

So, I think the main trait programmed for Monty’s personality is ambition. The backstory in his ride seems to hint at that. A young Monty with his own little music business, looking in amazement at the Glamrocks and dreaming of one day reaching their level. It would make sense to have one of the robots have this as their main trait, since kids would relate to the big dreams. And it seems to fit with other main traits from the other Glamrocks: Roxy seems to have been made with self-confidence in mind (winning races and having a beauty salon) which might be for encouraging kids, Chica is obviously all for being chipper and energetic and enjoying food (useful in an entertainment establishment that wants kids to indulge and get their parents to spend their money when they’re having a good time), and Freddy is meant to be nice and fatherly and the approachable gentle main face of the franchise.

(Though I am a bit sad Chica gets pushed aside a bit in regards to explicitly showing what she’s really like)

(As a small parenthesis from all this, I want to say that the Pizzaplexes troubles with the virus (or at least the more worrying behavior of the animatronics) are likely relatively recent before Gregory’s arrival. Could be months or a couple of years, don’t know how much exactly, but the fact that there are old messages all around, how some of those help give Gregory hints to where he can find stuff that is still there, how Bonnie’s Bowling Alley has not been rethemed to get rid of the evidence of his existence, Freddy’s hurt over Bonnie being gone sounding (at least to me) still fresh rather than from that long ago, and the message about the disappearances makes me think it can’t have started a decade ago or something like that)

Anyways! 

The Monty “rise to fame” story from the ride establishes that Bonnie “gave” his bass to Monty in order to have him join the band, though that Bonnie cutout is obscured. If they really wanted to make it seem like Monty had retired, why not make a cutout with the most important part of the story clear? They made one with Roxanne styling Monty’s hair! So maybe the plan had been to establish that (in the “in universe” narrative for the animatronics) Bonnie would be the Glamrock that took Monty under his wing and teach him the ropes of being a star? Though probably not with the plans of having him be a Glamrock at all, but maybe appearances with a Glamrock would increase the chances of the new gator attraction succeeding (again, speculation on my part, I know).

Coming back around Monty likely being the newest addition, him still not being established as a popular character would maybe mean that he was an easy target to spread the virus. Way more attention would be paid to the main stars, I think, so I think the probability of him being infected from almost the start is high. And with his main trait being ambition, and Bonnie maybe having been planned to be a sort of pathway to him being more known, it wouldn’t surprise me that by the time the incident happens, the virus has already twisted Monty’s ambition into jealousy and aggression and so he ended up destroying Bonnie that one day. Was Bonnie summoned by Monty? Did Bonnie go to Monty out of his own will because he noticed something was wrong? (which ouch if that was the case. It could very well be even that Vanny noticed that Bonnie noticed something was off and had Monty dispose of Bonnie in order to not have any secrets exposed) Who knows! But this is mostly what I think happened.

And why am I so convinced Monty would not have done this without the virus’ influence? Well… Mostly because of Roxy.

In the main game, Roxy is such a bully. Many of the phrases she says are outright cruel, and at a point where Gregory has done nothing to her yet. But in the DLC we see Roxy as she was meant to be. Encouraging. Lifting a child’s spirits up. Assuring them that they are fantastic how they are. 

We know that Cassie is a lonely child. A bit of an outcast who probably spent a lot of time in the plex while her dad worked. We know that her friends did not show up to her birthday and she treasures Gregory as a friend for being there when she was down. Cassie, seems to me, is the kind of child that would be an easy target for bullying. Insecurities and loneliness seem to be main struggles for her, which is why, if Roxanne was already a bully without the virus, why would she be Cassie’s favorite? Why would she be so nice to this kid that obviously needs the confidence boost Roxanne was made to provide? One of Roxanne’s literal lines in SB towards Gregory is “I bet you don’t even have friends!” Knowing that Roxanne knows this is an issue for Cassie, it seems even more brutal that if she’s in her right mind she would use that as an insult when chasing after Gregory. The Roxanne we see in Ruin is so kind. She is a source of comfort for Cassie, soft spoken, and making sure she feels like number one, instead of being self-obsessed (even if it’s born out of extreme anxiety over her own image). 

So if there is such an extreme change from a virus riddled Roxy, why would Monty’s extremes not be the same? We know not even Freddy is exempt from this sort of change though this one is more evidence from the books (slight not too consequential book spoiler and can’t quote from which book exactly it was, but I remember there was an off handed mention of Glamrock Freddy fighting over a plushie with a kid and then feeling dejected when people got angry at him, so it seems if Freddy was ever truly infected, his change of personality would entail being a spoiled main star?).

And it makes sense! Because Freddy considers all the Glamrocks his friends! We know Chica cares for him, because in the intro to SB she takes a step towards him when he malfunctions. And in the base SB game it looks like Freddy is just in denial about his friends (with the arcade minigolf game even having the famous Freddy in a trashbin course to hint at Monty’s jealousy, which you know could very well a real danger with what happened to Bonnie) (and now that I’m writing that it makes me squint a little at that arcade, since it’s very heavily implied the arcade in Sun and Moon’s room infected them so hmmmmmmm, but I digress), but honestly, seeing Roxy acting how it seems she’s supposed to act right before Cassie turns her off as the final node, really makes me think that the true selves of the animatronics are pushed back by the virus to replace them with a caricature of themselves that will obey Vanny’s commands. I mean, the Glamrock Freddy body is completely headless, and doesn’t even appear in the AR world! I don’t know whether it “attacks” because it’s what it would do if infected, or if it is simply leftover code from the way Freddy hid Gregory in his chest, but there sure as heck isn’t anything resembling a consciousness in there. Besides, we know Vanny was invisible to Freddy.

And if consciousness really is pushed aside by the virus, then it would explain why Monty is like that right now. (At least if my speculation of him being the longest with the virus is true) He would know nothing but anger and at this point he is acting like all he knows how to do is attack. Monty’s mind seems to truly be absolutely gone by now. :(

But aaaah this is getting way too long now fkjdghkjf

I guess I just want to talk about Bonnie a bit more, because we don’t have that much more about him that I can form any conclusions about. I do love the poster in his room! The fact that he really was this close to Freddy! They saw each other everyday and Freddy still decided to write a heartfelt message for Bonnie, that Bonnie decided to hang where he would see it clearly everyday! It really seems that Bonnie cared for Freddy just as much and that makes me so happy! It makes it all the sadder to know how heartbroken Freddy is over Bonnie’s disappearance…

Also I am incredibly confused by the whole wetfloor bot stuff! I don’t know if it’s implied that Bonnie’s “consciousness” somehow managed to transfer to the small bots (or why children screams can be heard from them), and if he managed to stay present through them after all. The little bots never really try to harm or sound alarms on Gregory unless shot at I think, so there’s that to think about! Or maybe Glamrock Bonnie was able to connect himself to them but not transfer? Kind of as long as there are any functional he too would be able to hang on? (Or did someone did that for him and it wasn’t himself who did?) Because deactivating the ones where we find Bonnie makes Bonnie’s eyes go dark. But why?? This I really have no idea about!

There’s also that one floorbot that remains beside a pile of Monty’s merch! And if Bonnie is looking or controlling the wetfloor bots that could mean a lot of things!! If Bonnie is in control, is the bot gathering the merch? Is it a negative thing? A sort of attempt to just collect the merch so it can’t be found ever again like Bonnie himself was? Or maybe, if Bonnie did have the most contact with Monty, did he get to know the real not-virus-infected Monty, and saw the merch as a way to remember someone that was briefly a good friend before things went terribly wrong? Hmmmmmm…

Well, I think that’s all I have! Just wanted to get my thoughts out there! It’s not very organized but if you made it all the way to here, thank you for reading!

[project-sekai-facts]

Hey there! Thanks for all your hard work. I wanted to send something that would hopefully be fun and a break from the asks. What are your fave cards for each character (and why if you want to explain)? :D

no problem :) and thank you for the break haha

this is kinda long bc of the amount of images so i'll put it under a readmore. note that my reasoning kinda ranges from "it's pretty" to <ramble about art>.

Before Thinking About It (Live with memories)

This set is really pretty but Ichika definitely has the best card in it. I love the stars and the little fish things swimming about.

Rainy Distance (First Star After the Rain)

No I do not care that this was her first 4*. How can people say the old sets are bad like have you SEEN the Stella set? It's absolutely beautiful.

Because You're Our Dear Friend (Unwavering Feelings, Now Put Into Words)

This set is so pretty!! It’s one of my favorite perm sets. Honami's is definitely my favorite though because the twinkly stars really take it up a level.

The Right Path for Me (Colorful Festival)

Shiho looks really cool in this one and I love the artstyle. I like the sign that just says "sign".

For "Your" Sake (Let's Deliver! Hopeful Stage)

Another really good Year One set! I love the angel theming with Minori and giving her actual wings was such a cool idea. Faito faito Minorin!

Perfect Premonition (Connecting Painful Hope)

I vividly remember when this leaked it was a big day for MMJ fans. She looks really cool in this card and I like the sort of rockstar aesthetic it has. Easily my favorite card for her

To You Who Wants To Be An Idol (Colorful Festival)

One of my favorite cards in the game! The aesthetic is really cute and reminds me of pop art. I love the details on the eyes as well

With the Feeling of Shooting a Thousand Arrows (Draw Your Bow in This White World)

I still can’t believe that this set is perm it’s absolutely stunning. Easily Shizuku’s best card, she looks so ethereal here

Kaleidoscope of Footprints (Colorful Festival)

I love the colors and the art on this one. It’s really unique and definitely one of my favorite fes cards. Again I love how her eyes are drawn and colored.

Past Excitement (Colorful Festival)

This is An’s most recent 4* with neon lighting i just want them back. Also the Nagi-inspired hairstyle ueueueueue

The Reason Behind the Words I Was Told (Find A Way Out)

I love the emotion on this one like it carries really well. Honestly it’s not the prettiest or most interesting card ever but it resonates ygm. You can really feel his joy and passion in this one.

Feelings That Were Buried (Colorful Festival)

Ough his fes is so good. The symbolism as well like music is really important to Toya and it’s a huge part of his life but he's keeping this specific part behind a curtain for now. The fact it’s in the part of his fragment sekai that isn’t as derelict as the rest- it hurts.

Receiving Your Inspiration (A Sorrowful Farewell at the Curtain Call)

It was really close between this and Torpe but ultimately I chose this one. It’s really bright and warm compared to Rui's dark and cold and Nene's in-between and I think that's why it sticks out to me.

An Irreplaceable Smile (Smile of Dreamer)

Yumekawa sets are always some of my favorites and this set especially. Imo this is also the most “Emu” card so far like it’s so fun and colorful and imaginative

Dazzling Dream Stage (Colorful Festival)

Mary poppins nene!! Like I said with Emu this is probably one of the most “Nene” cards to me, she needs more stuff that has that classic musical theatre kinda vibe.

The Right Words to Throw (At This Festival Colored By Twilight)

I think this whole set was really pretty but this one is probably my favorite from it. I like the references to previous wandasho events and looking at this after Curtain Call just hits different yk

Flowerbed of Memories (Carnation Recollection)

Like I said with Akito this one is about the emotion. I think it captures the event story really well like if you have background context you can see all the connections to the Yoisaki family and Kanade reminiscing about that warmth.

The Silence That Only You Know (Draw Your Bow in This White World)

I had a really hard time picking my favorite but I think I’m gonna go for her archery card as well. I already said it but this set is great and I love the details in the background of this card as well.

Through Pain and Misery (On This Blank Canvas, I Paint)

I remember really well when this one leaked because it was around the time I started actively playing the game and I’m still in awe about it. It looks so good for a permanent card and we have never gotten another card like this.

Making Chocolates With Children (The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!?)

Not the most impressive choice but white day sets go hard. I love medieval/fantasy AU and this card is really cool. Also convinced that the artist does not know how heavy flagpoles are.

At Least, to Me (2nd Colorful Festival)

I love the victorian mad scientist look she’s bringing to the table. Also I like lore.

Sending My Singing Voice (On This Blank Canvas, I Paint)

Another emotion card. Rin being the one connected most to Ena and the way she’s embracing the art is so !!! It’s such a warm card as well you can really feel the way Ena feels about her craft.

Cheering For You (Colorful Festival)

The artists went all out for Kagamine fes the art looks so good. I don’t really have much to say about this one lol

Chalkboard Cherry Blossoms In Bloom (Sakura Across SEKAI, Interconnecting Our Feelings)

I love the colors on this one it looks so pretty; pink and purple palettes look so nice. Also leo/need with stars always a plus.

Reassuring Warmth (Get Over It.)

Probably my second favorite perm set after archery. I love space/sci-fi themed things and this is probably my favorite from that set. The colors are really nice and I like the lore implications of her solar system model

What Arrangement Would Be Good? (Draw Your Bow in This White World)

Shocker I picked archery again. What can I say, this set fucks.

[ritens]

dd2 has me doing mental gymnastics bc I don't really like interacting with canon all that much in ANY setting (nervously looks at wf, the chosen operator thing sucks, dont come at me).

puts this under readmore bc the ramble got too long oops just quickly going over Rau's story to see what canon events even tie in there at all.

It's just unfortunate timing in an unfamiliar place. Rau happened to be in Melve with his family, passing through really. Dragon makes a feast of his heart, he gets treated and dragged to Vernworth with strangers wanting to put him on the throne but he runs off because it's all too fast paced for him.

Disa does what Disa does best which results in Rau being enslaved on the Volcanic island with his memories missing.

He escapes the place, thank you Rook and goodbye Rook. Nobody picks him up from the griffon landing area and he simply wanders off on his own. (rather he wanders off BEFORE the soldiers arrive)

The guy spends a week trekking through the forests until he ends up in Vernworth again where Brant finally gets his hands on the stray Arisen to fill him in on his supposed duty.

Raures summons a mangled pawn at the big riftstone in the city and ends up leaving the thing alone at an inn for days to let him recuperate. During this time Rau runs the infiltration tasks in the palace for Brant.

Once Lane is good enough to walk, they set out for the Nameless Village and never return to Vernworth again. The pawn has his claws in the Arisen and does his best to distract the hero from his charge.

And the rest just doesn't happen for Raures. He sticks to his wandering lifestyle like he did with his parents before the Dragon scorched them and ate his heart.

They visit the Sacred Arbor at some point and travel to Battahl through illegal means. They assist those in need along the way because Rau is a stouthearted, kind man (if a little blind).

Brant is hot on their heels at times, exasperated beyond measure. Lane distracts him too by sending him the wrong way, but keeps Rau in the dark about the matter.

The pawn also murders Ambrosius on the beach as he detects the kind of energy is hidden in the small blue crystals. Better safe than sorry is the excuse he gives himself.

The (severely incomplete) bestowal of spirit was a mistake when it comes to Lane's OG master, Amaury LMAO he literally got all of the worst traits from the prick before the good ones could come in. Lane's learning those on his own now, through life experience. (((Exercises his sliver of free will to be a little bitch)))

After an unmentionable amount of time Raures loses his spark and is forced to retire as a New Arisen is made to pick up his slack and continue the cycle in his stead. He is devastated by the fact as the fog is lifted from his mind and realization finally washes over him.

He then notices that the pawn he adopted is still sticking with him despite his lost status. They have a falling out when Lane comes clean about his past and his motives and the role Rau unknowingly played in them.

Upset, Rau then FINALLY makes way to Vernworth to see if he can aid in any way. And Lane is left at Rau's cabin in the woods to think things through.

---

Raures is very dutybound so his initial reaction to Lane's manipulation, betrayal even, was very negative. But he eventually takes pity on Lane and goes to fetch the pawn before he can answer another Arisen's call and travel beyond the rift for good. Rau imagined himself in Lane's shoes and figured he would've done the same if he were in the such position.

Lane can no longer sense Raures either so their means of communication has got to become more direct too. It's difficult but they'll make it work.

---

Pathfinder is a tricky obstacle though I'm still trying to figure out what to do about that bastard. Rau does probably heed him. And he can very easily tell him that his pawn is corrupt and is getting in the way of his charge but there are many former Arisen who failed... How did they manage??? (or rather not manage)

[jacenotjason]

Can we just get some rambles about your AU, like nothing specific, just like little details you haven’t had the ask or idea to express artistically? I just love any little details about this AU (Howdy’s little finger beans)

AAAAA oh my god YES here’s some rambles from the depth that is this AU! Random factoids and snippets and hehehheheh

(Oh hey and checkout the AU itself!)

Hiding this under a ‘readmore’ becasue FUCK I WENT ON A RANT HAUIDA- i tried to stop i swear

OPEN THE FLOOD GATES!!

I HAVE PLAYLISTS FOR ALL THE CHARACTERS!! Ive been thinking about how to share them for awhile bc I LOVE these playlists and they help my brain rot on this AU but mm! Just wanted to get that out there im holding onto these

Something people didn’t catch was that in this animation, which is supposed to take place around the time Eddie moved into the neighborhood, he had his mail hat! But, currently, he doesn’t! That’s not because he lost it, Howdy actually stole it! Howdy immediately attempted to scam Eddie when he first arrived, stealing his hat and trying to sell it back to him, but he did not know that Eddie would not give a fuck. Howdy thought Eddie cared way more about his job then he actually does. So, Eddie’s hat is still currently decaying under Howdy’s desk.

All the characters have trauma or something depressing about them… except Julie! I’m not sure why but I just.. never came up with something reasonable for her backstory. I came up with a lot of ideas, but a lot of them seemed to cliche and controversial? Like, one of my ideas was some sort of sex working trauma, but I thought oooh of course you gave the most feminine character the sex working backstory! Another idea was eating disorder trauma, but again, ooh i gave the fem one the ED! The same thing happened with SA trauma, it all just felt so… cliche. And I felt like I would get a lot of backlash if I tried to implement this. So.. im still working on it!

^ originally Franks backstory was going to be completely SA related, but I changed that. Still not spoiling how, though.

^^ also I really liked the sex working idea! Because I think it would be interesting if thats how Eddie and her met. Not that Eddie bought sex from her, but that they like worked together and slowly became friends! Eddie kept her safe n stuff, beat the shit out of ppl that didnt pay yknow? Explored a deeper level of understanding between them

Ive been daydreaming about attempting to make my own little bootleg “play fellow exhibition” not nearly to the extent that Clown did, but just some sort of fake “restored” things! Maybe even fake interviews with those that remember the show! Ive even recorded some lines, of my own voice, of fake voice clips restored from the show. I haven’t had the confidence to post any of them just yet aa. I think my Eddie impression is IMPECCABLE though. Maybe bc I have a southern accent

^ also if this isnt obvious this AU is still a show being restored by a team, the show is just the adult parody ive created here. Ill be sure to specify if i ever post something restoration-lore-related!

The number of fingers they have is inconsistent, and that is not lore related! I am just an idiot! You might notice that sometimes they have 5, sometimes they have 4. I.. have no actual reason for this. I literally just.. forget! Im literally currently drawing a piece with Julie and Sally where they both have 5 fingers. Why?? Bc the reference I used was of two human girls so!! Just wanted to put it out there, that is not on purpose

I hide a lot of secrets in my art. Bc its fun. If you ever see something in my art thats a little too dark, feel free to up the brightness and see what you find. Does something sort of look like Morse code? Feel free to try it out! I’ll give you a hint, I have used both of these techniques to hide secrets in my art already. The Morse code one is really hard to find, though, so props to you if you find it!

I like to think that the AU’s show is like Rick and Morty. It started out this comedic, very clearly adult-humored show, but slowly the characters had lore! People started watching not for the humor but for the interesting characters. Like when Rick was revealed to have a depressing story with his wife and all that, it was the same as when ppl first found out about Frank’s strange amnesia and PTSD. Like “?? Who put lore in my funny adult comedy??” Yknow what i mean

^ i like to think there was some mind-bending moment where it was revealed Frank doesnt remember anything about his childhood and everyone watching was like :O

Originally in the show, (like season one), the characters were the way they are to make fun of those things. Confusing, but what i mean is that Poppy was a trans woman to make fun of trans people, Eddie and Frank were to make jokes about gay ppl, etc. but SIKE once the show got more seasons and got lift off they became actual characters instead of just jokes! The creators just wanted to make ppl love the show before they made the gay characters actually have personalities, so they couldn’t get cancelled prematurely! HA SUCKERS!!

FFUck okay i think i got it all out of me?? Idk feel free to ask again in like a month maybe more shit will have accumulated in my brain

[baalzebufo]

two years ago I tossed my designs for some fan cogs, the adbot department, onto tumblr. well its been a while and ive gotten back into toontown again, so! it was about time I gave them a fresh coat of paint and a few new faces. please zoom in/open in new tab for detail!

the adbots deal primarily in broadcasting and propaganda. they aim to reach toons through their tvs and radios, either convincing them to buy their products or their ideals, or skipping that in favor of straight-up brainwashing. a quick tldr of each cog below the readmore, if you’re interested!

- ⚙️-

sockpuppet - a bold new recycling technique using parts from cogs that were either faulty or too broken to put together properly was used to create these lackeys. they can only mimic other cogs voices and follow orders very well, but most cogs dont like working around them- likening them to zombies and being generally unsettled by their presence.

signal jammer - adbot tech support, these guys are tech-addicted and always grouchy. usually because they keep accidentally jamming their own phone signals! they tend to work as cameramen, engineers, really any behind the scenes help an adbot would need.

viral marketer - working alongside signal jammers, these guys are ideas cogs and adept with technology themselves. small and numerous, none of the ideas they come up with are very good... but thats why they make so many of them. one of them is bound to have a profitable idea eventually!

wheeler dealer - these speedy cogs are door to door salesmen and expert at pestering toons until they just give up and take whatever theyre selling. they often run advertisements on cog radio signals and slip themselves into commercial breaks.

motor mouth - fast talking loudmouths, these cogs feature primarily in lengthy- and loud- infomercials. they have boistrous personalities and a smile that could sell sand to a beachgoer. however, they tend to get caught up in rambling unrelated to their actual sales pitch, seriously damaging their productivity.

string puller - these cogs tend to hide behind the scenes and help produce most of the adbot syndicated shows and advertisements. theyre sketchy talent scouts whose contracts always- always- have strings attached. often seen with a posse of sockpuppets, they love bossing them around.

talking head - they say each face has its own personality- but theyre all so boring, nobody can tell the difference. these cogs make watching paint dry seem interesting! their natural lack of charisma can be downright deadly to a toon if they spend too long listening to their droning.

crowd pleaser - uncharacteristically upbeat, these cogs seem fun until you learn that they work exclusively with talking heads. they charm toons into watching their shows before switching to their co-host, who can turn a toon sad before they can even change the channel! theres an insidious nature under that cheerful grin.

tv personality - these bots rarely leave the adbot studios, and thats a good thing- they’re highly dangerous! they seem to have technology similar to toon hypno goggles, and it works through a broadcast signal to boot. thankfully, their ego refuses to let them take parts in a show or commercial they feel is ‘below their level’- seriously reducing their screen time.

- ⚙️- 

if you read all this, hi! wow! hope you liked them! i’ve got plenty more lore about these guys and especially about their boss- the Executive Producer- but that’s stuff for another time and another post. hope you have a good day :D

[eric-the-bmo]

Hello I saw your tag PLEASE tell me about Annabelle Von Gears she seems right up my alley

OUGIYGH OH BOY LET ME RAMBLE ABOUT MY OC, THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE STRUCTURED HORRIBLY LMAO—

So! Annabelle von Gears is my character for an upcoming homebrew campaign my friend's been wanting to run for about a year; She's put so much work into it, it's fascinating! (So sorry if u weren't expecting ttrpg stuff, but the floodgates have opened, and as a man with a special interest in ttrpgs I'm not going to shut up now—)

In very simple terms, Annabelle is a porcelain warforged/robotic wizard (bladesinger, specifically) who grew tired of her life and runs off to go adventuring. I adore her and this WILL be an infodump under the readmore!!!

[Art by @teefs_art on twitter!]

Augh okay I have no idea if I'll be able to get everything down, especially her thoughts on her family and herself, but here we go-

In terms of personality, I've been keeping it a bit vague; I'd like to have some room to build upon it when we finally play, and I've found it's easier to go off a general vibe.

So: Annabelle, at the start, is really just trying to do her job as a secretary and is very bored over the whole thing. While disruptions in the day can annoy her, she secretly delights in a few of them, because hey- that's another break in monotony, baby! After discovering free will later on, she's a lot more impulsive and upbeat, but still attempts to maintain her air of formality and fanciness. She most likely has a very strong sense of what's considered "fair." Due to Annabelle's upbringing, she'll probably be a bit rude and insensitive to others and their plights at times- and despite her sarcasm, she seems unable to detect it in others?

I definitely need to think more about how to include some knightly traits for her, and yknow, the whole thing of self vs duty, but... eh, yknow. Just vibes so far ☆

Anyway, the fact she's not literally built for a life of adventuring does nothing to dissuade her, btw; she'd rather do this than go back to a boring job.

Fun(?) facts:

Annabelle was based off the idea of "hey, what if a porcelain robot got hurt a lot and had to be fixed up with gold? Wouldn't that be cool or what"

Annabelle has programmed codes! Some of them include not being able to enter certain parts of the Von Gears manor, and being physically unable to harm her father figure (She can certainly try, but it's extremely difficult to break through those instructions)

She can sleep standing up, and yes, this probably will unnerve her party members very much ☆ (She can also stand completely still! More than once she's startled a foreign diplomat by blending in with the various statues and automatons in the manor, and so she's not allowed to go into those rooms anymore lmao)

Annabelle would really like collecting vinyls <3

She has the emblem of her home kingdom painted on her shoulder blades/upper back (it's an eagle with its wings outstretched!)

She can remove her face plate, and getting fixed by an artificer or mechanic is a bit uncomfortable :-/ It's like going to the dentist.

Annabelle is supposed to have a German accent- but I'm unable to do one. 😔

Her favorite term of endearment is to call someone "butterfly"; but so far she exclusively refers to only her sister with it.

She's unable to cry; she's not built with tear ducts! :-(

She's probably got a list full of silly little things to do while adventuring- like sneak into a building, or take part in a bar fight.

Taking heat damage is flavored as such: Her porcelain coverings are actually pretty heat-resistant! However, her insides aren't. It almost acts like an oven... (good luck venturing the kingdom of Helosh, love! ouch)

I'm absolutely going to find out how she can stim with her magic. No one can stop me /lh

And now for her general story: (note: I'm only putting in the most basic information for this. There's so much worldbuilding, but I sadly don't have time to ramble about all that. Again, sorry if this is incoherent, augh)

On the continent of Mysterra, most warforged reside in the country of Tectonica, which is ruled by Warrick von Gears (I forget his exact official title), a warforged who's been around for a very long time- definitely more than 100 years.

Following Mysterra's calendar, in 1835 Warrick decided he wanted a family with his wife Eleanor (also a warforged), and on the 19th of the Month of Talis, he commissioned the construction of Aria as his daughter– Annabelle was then added as a sudden addition. It took a year to complete the both of them, at which point artificial souls were placed inside their chests, and they were taken home to Tectonica's capital of Skysummit.

Despite being awoken at the same time, Annabelle is considered the more mature out of the two- mentally being in her 20s, with Aria being around 12- and primarily functions as Warrick's secretary. She arranged meetings, schedules, etc, and traveled along with him to diplomatic meetings to the capitals of other countries- along the way she picked up how to speak Gnomish and Draconic, as Windberg and Balaur do frequent dealings with Tectonica.

But eventually, she got bored with... well, just about all of it. It all began to seem monotonous, with only traveling for meetings, chess games with Warrick, and the shenanigans of Aria to break it all up. (She cares very much for her sister; it's almost the energy of "If this one favorite coworker wasn't here I would've quit a Long Time Ago" /hj). She wasn't really allowed to leave the estate without permission- and the thought to do so anyway had never occurred to her- so she had to find a few ways to avoid completely losing it.

Despite the fact she was built with a variety of coded spells to ensure self-defense, Annabelle began to study the variety of spellbooks and fiction in the Von Gear estate to stave off her boredom and restlessness- as well as daydreaming, becoming a lover of gossip, practicing swordfighting with some decorative blades hanging up on the wall, etc; all while wondering if something was wrong with her. Because she was built for this job, so surely she shouldn't be dissatisfied, right? [And what's with that strange tugging in her chest sometimes..?] But nothing ever seemed wrong when the mechanics showed up for yearly checks, so she didn't really ever bring it up in conversation to Warrick.

[While she loves the other Von Gears, her discontent with her current life makes her feels separate from them. Combined with her job as a secretary, she tries to be formal towards them and keep a distance– but she makes a few exceptions. She has fun with Aria, and despite her insistence she's really not part of the family, she does participate in family game night, and has accidentally called Warrick "dad" more than once. Anyway...]

And so, in the year of 1842, Annabelle von Gears is still the secretary of Tectonica's ruler— that is, until a famed Artificer is late for his scheduled meeting with Warrick. This catapults the events of the campaign, as well as Annabelle meeting her future party— an artificer searching for her missing father, a barbarian seeking revenge for the destruction of her town, a ranger with the last known dragon egg, and a paladin trying to prevent his kingdom from being destroyed by a volcano.

She’ll be sent by Warrick to join them for a quest, much to her surprise, and will discover that adventuring is just what she needs in her life. She runs off to join them, promising her sister she'll write to her.

Being an impulsive woman once she's discovered she has free will, Annabelle's bound to get into trouble and gain all sorts of scars- and probably a lot of them, since she literally isn't built for adventuring– as well as probably gaining... odd visions? And passing knowledges of skills previously unbeknownst to her? Strange...

While adventuring, Annabelle will occasionally feel guilt for leaving her job and family behind.

And oh, the Reveal! During her journey, Annabelle von Gears will eventually discover the truth that her soul isn't artificial like she was told: She had been a flesh-and-blood person whose soul had been ripped out (either from a living body or the afterlife) and rewired, just like every other warforged.... Which would explain all the odd memories and possibly even her want for adventure- she had been a person before. And surely Warrick must've known this whole time, right? (cue, hopefully, a climactic daughter-father fight)

(There's also an idea the DM and I have where Annabelle encounters the "resurrected" body of who she used to be, possibly leading to the body attempting to kill her so it can get its soul back. We're going to have so much fun with the horror elements)

Anyway augh this was A Lot, thank you for showing interest and allowing me to Ramble ;-;✌️🫶💕

[meowmeowmage]

Let's write an mHanders fic! Part 6 (poll under readmore)

Masterpost featuring links to all parts: HERE

"And then I said I wasn't like- like the other nobles!" Hawke exclaimed, letting his forehead hit the sticky table at the Hanged Man, while Isabela shrieked with laughter.

He hadn't meant to retell his embarrassment to anyone, but after several drink that were meant to make him forget about it, he was instead rambling about it, much to Isabela's entertainment (and a bit of pity).

"Oh, sweet thing, I know I basically told you to think less, but I didn't mean quite that little," she said and then laughed again, slamming her palm against the table.

Hawke lifted his head just enough to take another big gulp of the nasty but effective Hanged Man alcohol.

"So what happened next?" Isabela prompted, once her laughter subsided a bit.

Hawke told her the whole thing. Or as much as his drunkenness allowed him. But it wasn't hard to get the point of his embarrassment and cringe behaviour across.

"Let me recap," Isabela said, "You interrupted a private conversation, made an ass out fo yourself, then lied multiple times in order to make yourself look better, but were so bad at it that you got caught."

Hawke didn't follow all that very well but it sounded accurate enough so he nodded.

"I'll be honest with you, Hawke," she said seriously and barely kept her facade for the next part, "you're so cringefail you're giving me secondhand embarrassment," she then started laughing yet again, eyes almost watering from it.

"Aren't you supposed to make me feel better?" Hawke asked irritated.

"That's the alcohol's job, sweet thing. Mine is to laugh at you. But look on the bright side - despite having your foot in your mouth you still somehow managed to patch things up, so just don't think about it anymore and try not to be quite so terrible next time."

It was a good advice. One Hawke might be able to follow. At least as long as Bayron was not around. Fucking Bayron...

"What does Anders even see in him?!" he blurted out, completely ignoring how Isabela wasn't up to date with what was happening inside his head.

"In Bayron?" She asked, a bit confused.

"Yes, that fucking prick!"

Isabela snorted and then a wide grin spread on her face. One that Hawke didn't like one bit.

"Well, he is quite a looker. I'd firmly put his ass on my Top 5 Best Asses In Kirkwall list. So there's at least one reason."

Hawke got up so fast that the world spun and his thighs hit the table hard. He swayed but caught himself with both hands on the table.

"My ass is better!"

"You're certainly being a bigger ass, that's for sure," she noted with amusement, "Hawke, if you get any more jealous you'll start spewing poison while you talk."

Hawke imagine if that was possible. To spit poison in Bayron's face. That would be quite something. But Anders would be very pissed off. Just his disappointed face was enough to cool Hawke a bit, and he sat back down like a scolded brat.

"I've been helping Anders as well," Hawke mumbled dejectedly, looking as miserable as some of the other drunken patrons, "but it looks like I haven't, and now I can't tell him because I'd look like I'm only doing it to get brownie points with him."

Isabela looked at him with sympathy in her eyes. She got up and combed the hair out of Hawke's drunk red face with her fingers, and then tugged him upwards to stand up.

"Let's get you home, loverboy. Some sleep will do you good. It's not amusing to poke fun at you when you're being such a miserable mess."

° ° °

[spearxwind]

been thinking a lot about my different oc worlds recently. ive said before ive got four, but technically it's five if you count extinction.

im gonna put all my thoughts under a readmore bc once again this got insanely long jkllkjjkf. i be rambling

most of my attention has definitely been going into challenger deep the past year (and will likely continue), recently i refurbished hollowridge as well and have had a lot of fun with it (even if i havent drawn much to show for it...)

the other two of the set of four i originally posted about are my agony drive and broken horizon settings. Broken horizon is more of a personal headworld where ive set my dragon ocs, but I have not really been successful with it in terms of like. worldbuilding and crafting a story for it, mostly because there are very few characters in it currently and i struggle with it. But it's the world where cercerion and my sona dima (as an oc) exist. i would love to actually do a better job with it sometime but it currently isnt a huge priority because ive been focused on the other two main ones (but again since its just a personal headworld it literally is just some place i like to mentally hang out and fly around in, im not super bothered by it being undeveloped.)

However we have the two troublemaker worlds now

the agony drive setting has been driving me more than a little nuts because of its whole situation with it. i absolutely adore the characters i have in it, but i have no idea what to do with the world itself. it used to be a joint project so i was extremely limited in the way i could develop it bc i depended on the other individual enjoying the ideas and i did my best to keep it afloat almost being the sole contributor to it, so now that its liberated i just didnt know what to do with it. i do like a bunch of the lore bits i came up with but some part of me is like 'idk if i enjoy this as a world' bc it still feels limited in some way? Another issue is that while hollowridge (previously my horror and slapstick gore setting with demons/angels/magic vibes) was dead in the water, i channeled that violence slapstick demon/magic vibe through TAD, but getting a focus back on hollowridge has kinda just. straight up deleted a bunch of TAD's reason to exist? i dont know if that makes sense

HR isnt really that much slapstick violence because death is final, and TAD is more cartoony in that sense bc death ISNT final which is its main reason to exist (unlimited violent major character death for the funnies), but theres a weird overlap that is keeping me from focusing correctly because it makes my brain go 'you are doing the same thing twice'

I would really really love to actually turn it into something fun and unique (separate from my other worlds) but i really havent been sure how to go about it because of that overlap. i genuinely think its just a problem of 'you have to actually develop the setting to have fun in it' and i just havent been able to do that yet bc i cant decide what i want it to BE. TAD has also never really had a lot of story to begin with so it makes things harder bc the story is the vehicle to explore the world with. its pretty frustrating bc midas set and david are some of my fav ocs ive made and i miss them but god dammit if it isnt hard to actually work with the whole thing....

and last but not least... the fifth one. extinction. a lot of you probably know this one from my comic. if youve been here since like... 2014-2015 (which would be insane) you might remember me beginning to develop that story until it eventually became the comic that is currently sitting unfinished and feels like a huge weight on my shoulders just out of sheer shame

the issue with extinction is that it was a lot of characters that i deeply loved (and still i still deeply love!!) all with fun plotlines, backstories, and a lot of fun tidbits to em that i ended up bending and breaking dozens of times just for the purpose of fitting them into a relatively short story that i could draw out and finish. and more importantly into something i hoped would be handleable instead of spiralling out of control like it had happened before

but what i didnt realize is that by doing so, i "locked" their lore in place into these very small boxes that would fit into a story, and thus i would remove what i had loved about those characters and their interactions that i had come up with years and years ago and a lot of my very very cool ideas for them simply went out the window in favor of .... well i dont. know. but off it went

i live in complete shame for not being able to finish the comic. it genuinely is a huge and extremely heavy weight on my shoulders and this whole thing has prevented me from even thinking of said ocs for years now even though they are some of my oldest and most beloved. saying all of this is not something i take lightly in the least as well

so recently I have been thinking about bringing them back as well... maybe (to the extent that i can... i have a lot of ocs and you guys know i have a lot of bias when drawing faves. so i cant guarantee content but at least i would be able to think about them again).

essentially the same way that i rewrote and got back my old concepts for hollowridge that slapped hard i want to get back my original ideas for extinction that i thought were really cool and just wasnt able to fit into a comic narrative

obviously this would come with a lot of retconning and i know a lot of people will probably not like it if i do it and i think thats something i have to face and learn to live with

but yeah anyways. TLDR is i really want to actually do something proper for TAD but have been having a lot of trouble with it unfortunately, but im working on it. and ive also been feeling rly nostalgic about extinction so you might see the characters again, albeit different in terms of story from what you probably know

[the-east-art]

Musing on JRPGS

Just like some stuff I've been thinking about. This will mostly talk about Tales of games that I've played and Final Fantasy VII (kind of reviews of these games?)

I'm putting it under the readmore because this will probably be long and rambly!

SO quick background. I love video games but I don't actually play a ton of them, I get busy with a lot of other stuff so while I have a passion for games I would never call myself an expert. Growing up my parents did not want us playing video games, and we only ever had consoles or games because of my rogue grandparents and uncle I believe. I grew up with a Gamecube with no memory cartridge, so games I played we always started over, or had to keep the GameCube on for weeks at a time. Eventually we got one, but that was in middle school.

Most of my experience with JRPGS has been in the last six years. I met a lovely friend with a passion for Tales of games and have slowly been making my way through the catalogue with them. (they're @mewnia and do awesome art!)

Anyways JRPGS! So I have noticed a couple main ideas that guide a JRPG. Most of them are defined by their lead characters story, the world building/magic system, the fighting system, and the cast of supporting characters. Different games are stronger or weaker in the various areas.

The Tales of series and the Final Fantasy series are like sister franchises to me. They both are a long line of titles, all mostly standalone, that deal with the same general magic concepts of spirits and stuff but play around with the rules these elements play by and the role they have in the story itself. My first JRPG was really Tales of Symphonia, and while I remember really loving it, I also played it way back in Middle School. I could talk about it, but not in a way that's analytical enough for this discussion. There is also kind of a classic JRPG mid game twist, where we discover that the world is not what we thought and reveal the 'true' plot of the game.

The Tales of series while not the most popular series in the west I really love the general design elements that they choose to go with. I feel like they're just stylized enough to stand out (with the exception of Arise, which makes me worry for the future of the franchise) and their designs walk an interesting line between complex and and just approachable enough for an artist.

Tales of Vesperia - This was the first one I played with my friend. The overall story isn't anything special in my opinion, but where this game really shines is the the side characters. This may be one of if not the best JRPG I've played so far that has the characters dynamics not only feel so good, but has each characters narrative arc integrate into the main story in such an intuitive way. Many JRPGs I've played will have the main plot basically come to a standstill in order to address the side characters stories. However each character in this game has a significant relevance to the main plot, and while circumstance brings them together, it's their choices that keeps them together. Because you connect so much with the characters, this game made me have some real emotions during its' various character twists (I'm looking at Raven here) Although this games mid game twist isn't anything crazy.

Tales of the Abyss - Boasting some of my favorite character designs, this games overall plot is definitely one of my faves. I think it does its' musical motif really well in the worldbuilding. The main character specifically has some of the best written progression and development over the course of the game, which does a good job at feeling real. Both this game and Vesperia has a relatively simple battle system, but I especially like how I feel like I'm really in control of how I play my character, and that I'm making choices in battles. Again I think most of the credit to this game goes to its' good world-building.

Tales of Xillia - This one boasts some of my least favorite character designs! congrats! I just felt like the designs are too complex and as a group not harmonious. When all the characters in Abyss stand together I was very happy. When all these characters stand together it looks like a mess. That being said the mid game plot twist in this game KICKS ASS. I LOVE IT. The issues in this game are one of my faves in the moral complexity, with lots of attention put towards how we prioritize certain people in our societies. I recall enjoying the fighting in this game too, and this is the first game I think I played with a really unique ability to customize your characters with little silly props. 10/10 all games should have this.

Xillia 2 - I will just touch on this one briefly. I have big love for the protag in this game, and it has good world building. I love alternate universes. Getting to see the paths the main characters took after the events of the first game is nice, although I would have appreciated a couple more new characters in the team. The affinity building dynamic was unique to this game and something I particularly enjoyed. Ludger is also very hot. there I said it.

Tales of Zestiria - This game is, uh, fine. Designs are fine. Character dynamics range from really good to just meh. The story is pretty vanilla, which I think is on purpose? Since its like a King Arthur retelling. I feel like this game has a really weird battle system where your attacks are judged by combo rather than direction button presses, which made me feel less in control of my characters fighting. However the magical girl merge mechanic in this game made up for it. Despite being such a vanilla story, I also found myself really confused a lot? Like the names and stuff for some reason were really hard to follow? But that's okay because this game sets the stage for....

Tales of Berseria - a prequel to Zestiria, but best played after it. The vanilla tone of Zestiria perfectly sets you up for the INCREDIBLE story of Berseria, where you play as not only a morally grey character, but in many ways an actual villain. The character dynamics in this game are really fun, as most characters are also leaning into the morally grey archetype, versus some of the characters that are kind of trapped with the group but are more archetypical good characters. It ends up really making you look at the story from a lot of different angles. The designs can be hit or miss in this game, ranging from awesome to 'I know you could do better'. The fighting in this game is one of my faves, requiring some real thought and the ability to have unique abilities taken from enemies spices things up a lot. This game is, without a doubt, a tragedy. And while by this point I was kind of tired of Tales of games never giving it's protags happy endings, I can't deny that this ideas was a theme throughout all the game and all the characters arcs.

Alright so, Final Fantasy VII

So, because I have played so many Tales of games, it is with the eyes of a tales of player that I analyzed Final Fantasy when I finally played it a month or so ago. Final Fantasy VII was an archetype game, defining a genre. That means that it is both very good, and also very lacking in the quality of life additions that we take for granted in more current games. So I won't belabor you with those critiques, just know that they're there. The designs in this game are good! very different from the Tales of series that I know, these character designs are a little more grungy looking, but overall I think the team looks good all stranding together and in the world, which is what matters the most. The magic system is something very unique, with the idea that the lifeblood of the world is also the knowledge of the past, and the materia system is simple enough for a beginner but also complex enough that if you should choose you can really dig your teeth into it. I personally really love the story of this game, both as it played with trials of the main cast, and the political power of Shirna in the face of the apocalypse. I think it's particularly telling and realistic that even in such a circumstance, the government will attempt to fight both the apocalypse AND the main cast rather than uniting. Character arcs are VERY hit or miss. We have some arcs that incorporate perfectly into the main story such as Aerith's, some that are only there to support the main characters (Tifa), some that stop the main plot in order to be pursued off to the side (Red XIII, Barret, Yuffie), and some that are barely there is at all (Cait Sith and Vincent). Luckily we have the remake in the form of future hope that some of these characters will get the spotlight and attention I feel they need.

Anyway uh if you read this all thanks! Mostly I wanted to get some of my thoughts down so I wouldn't forget it. IDK if I'll ever make a JRPG of my own, but I do really love JRPGS. I find the large cast to always be very fun, and the different ways that the games build up a world around similar building blocks to make unique stories is really interesting. Sometimes these worlds are the main focus, and sometimes they are just a beautiful backdrop for the plot.

[tomatoluvr69]

I think you’re very wise so I’ll ask you: how does one make friends in their 20s. Like I have a friend group and stuff but I’d like to branch out more. Maybe fuck around find love. Who knows. But how …….

I’m pretty floored by this compliment not gonna lie…and I should be clear that I’ve also struggled with finding friends out of college. I wound up moving back to my college town where I had some connections already, but I can tell you what I did to branch out from those people and make new ones? This is just what’s worked for me, and it’s been slow going, but here goes :-) putting it under a readmore because it got really long and rambly hehe

I had a pretty rough summer when, after 5-6 months of my living here, two of my closest friends (literally 2/3 of the people I decided to move here to be near!) moved to other cities in rapid succession & i had a tough adjustment. What I did to heal was to take some time where I was very intentionally kind of scaling back my social life because I recognized that the irrational hurt that resulted from those departures made it so that I wasn’t in a healthy headspace (thinking a lot of thoughts like companionship is pointless, friendships are born to die, my life will be a long and pointless cycle of making friends -> they abandon me for a partner -> make new friends -> they abandon me for a partner). I had the wherewithal to recognize those thoughts as reactionary, and pretty far removed from the truth, but I was still having them all the time. But I gave myself a purposeful fallow period and I think it REALLY helped. I know that’s not your situation but it’s helpful to explain my experience. (And also just to say, see if you can recognize thought patterns and doubts you have around new friendships as fallacious or insecure if you think they are! Challenge them in your head, and correct them.)

Then, in the fall, I found myself opening up again. Because of my little break (I spent a LOT of time with my very close friend, which maybe wasn’t the most ideal for either of us— but we weathered it) I had the clarity to observe what worked for me and what didn’t, and set challenges for myself. I’m a pretty shy person, and the really fucking annoying truth I’ve come to realize over and over again is that in order to have a rich and thriving social life, I must grit my teeth and fight against those impulses nigh constantly. It is not my nature to cold text an acquaintance who’s on the brink of being a friend to make plans for the first time. That shit is scary to me!!! But I have been fucking forcing myself to make that kind of leap. Basically, the rules I have been trying (and oftentimes failing!) to hold myself to:

1. Almost every other young adult around you is also quietly lonely and hoping for more social connections, especially at that post-college stage. People are thrilled to be reached out to. Remember this first and foremost!! Reassure yourself that no one thinks you’re a freak for being friendly.

2. Text first sometimes (often). You HAVE to do this— if everyone sat around and waited to be enveloped into friendships, no one would have any friends at all. Think about how touched you are when someone makes the first move to you— asks for your number, uses it, suggests a hangout. It’s scary and it sucks but then it’s sooo worth it.

3. This one’s controversial…but I have a policy of “yes”. I do not say no to an invitation. And I do not allow myself to cancel unless I’m ACTUALLY ill. No “self care” excuse. No “I’m tired/depressed/long day at work” excuse. The ONLY exception is if I have a rigid commitment already (or if I’m vomiting or have covid which is…infrequent lol). I always go to the scary party, the nerve-wracking dinner at a friend of a friend’s. Sometimes I have a hunch I’ll hate it, and I do. But most of the time I have that hunch I’m proven wrong and very pleasantly surprised at how nice of a time I’ve had. This is how I’ve deepened acquaintance relationships into friendships, because it allowed me to see people a whole bunch of times and get accustomed to them and talk to them little by little and be less scared of them. but it was harrrrrrd, and it took a long time. I’m only now feeling like I’m actually friends with people I met like… 6-10 months ago.

Those are my rules, but basically it boils down to forcing myself out there way more than I’m comfortable with. And honestly, it’s already changing my personality and becoming more easy.

Also re: seeing people again a whole bunch of times. Become a regular somewhere!!! Join a club, my friend is in a writer’s group that has formed some very solid connections, I have friends who meet up all the time in an earth skills sharing capacity. I have a friend in some sort of trans baseball league or something? I’ve seen posts online for like idk a queer craft meetup, a diverse authors book club, affinity hiking groups, etc. A lot of my friends (and sometimes I!) go to a weekly themed night at a dive bar & over time have gotten to know a lot of the other regulars. Is there a bar near you that has a recurrent event that intrigues you? Goth night, dyke night, karaoke? it won’t happen overnight, you gotta go again and again and and again. But find social hobbies, and by seeing people again in the same place, you will first recognize them, then become friendly, then perhaps even become friends.

Now some disclaimers: I’m very lucky to be well positioned as the best friend and roommate of an incredibly outgoing person, who is the type to become a nucleus of any social scene he enters into. People love him, and want him around, and he loves me and wants me around! This makes things much easier for me, and without that connection, I’d be much more isolated! So I guess some advice there is to be on the lookout for the type of person who effortlessly gathers people. Sometimes I think (unfortunately lol) of the biblical phrase “fisher of men”. But it’s quite apt. If you find yourself being fished, go along with it!! Even if you don’t click completely with that gregarious person, the likelihood that you’ll be thrown into orbit with others is high, and you may find people through that. Let them invite you places! Meet their friends!! Friends who have served this role in my life have been absolutely indispensable for me & I try to actively emulate their modi operandi as much as possible

If you have a pretty closed off friend group, you could work on changing that? Another concrete piece of advice (and one that’s brand new to me lol) is to become a host! Have a brunch potluck or throw a birthday at your place. Invite your friends and have them bring along someone you might not know! Invite people you��re friendly acquaintances with. One of the nicest ways to build community is through like casual, open, and recurrent gatherings. Highly, highly recommend low stakes evenings like potlucks & yard fires & movie nights but especially potlucks. Sometimes you gotta be the gatherer if you want it to happen. I’m brewing up a brunch potluck later this month & im forcing myself kicking and screaming to include a few people I don’t know that well, despite the voice in my head that’s like “why would they want to come hang out with YOU…” (see rule one!!!!!). And again, I’m very lucky to live in a very special town with social people all around, but no one is going to come along and create that culture where it doesn’t already exist. Well, they might…but you can either sit around and wait for them to appear OR you can start fostering that community for yourself. I guess the idea is to take the connections you already have and BUILD! :-) I’m happy to hear you have some friends around you already, I’d really encourage you to start holding casual gatherings and make it explicitly clear that you’d love for them to bring people along.

Oh and also, I’ve found that hosting things TOGETHER is a huge help, it’s hard for me sometimes to put myself out there as the person for whom people will be showing up— but I have teamed up with friends to take the scary edge off. Me and my best friend had a combined birthday party last spring despite our birthdays being a month apart. No one cared about that, and we had so much fun with our goofy wacky theme!! And me and my roommates are all hosting a backyard party together at the end of Jan. This is a great arrangement for me as the shy one of the trio lol. So team up, if you and your friend see a tiktok of a theme dinner, or a costume party, or a scavenger hunt you’d like to recreate, toss it out there! Throw the soup party. Throw the dress like your fave character night. Throw the movie night with themed snacks.

My other disclaimer is that I have a healthy and moderate relationship with drinking, and because of that, I can have a glass of wine or something to help me out at a gathering where I feel very scared. They don’t call it liquid courage for nothing. That’s not an advantage everyone has, and I’m not necessarily advocating for it, but boy does it help me feel less like an alien robot when I’m out somewhere. Having a single g&t sometimes makes all the difference between going into the bar where my friend is playing a show and running back to my car and driving home listening to radiohead all alone. Weed has the opposite effect so I avoid it almost entirely lol. Just pay attention to the way substances affect you if they’re rife in your circles. If you’re sober, look for people who do lots of other things other than drinking— easier said than done, I know, but that’s another reason to throw your own little gatherings— they can be dinners or brunches or movies or hikes or museum outings where there’s no need for things you don’t partake in.

Ok the TLDR of all this is a) push yourself by force to put yourself out there. This is unfortunately an iron-clad prerequisite, like it or not (and I don’t like it…). Grab someone’s number, text them first, go to your random nice coworker’s birthday party where you’ll only know the host. throw a potluck so you can gather budding connections together. b) find what you love to do and do it with others, regularly. You don’t even have to like it that much I guess— just find a way to be exposed to the same people again and again and again. c) repeat to yourself over and over and over and over again that people are WAYYYY more receptive than you think they’ll be— they’re fucking lonely! Our way of life is fucking lonely!! And they think WAYYYY more positively about you than you think they do!!! I absolutely promise. I have ABYSMAL social self esteem and am frequently floored by this discovery but it’s very true. But people want me around because I’m funny and smart and kind and unique. And they want you around for all those same reasons, I promise.

And last thing, it takes fucking TIME. it takes forever. It takes practice and discomfort and stomping all over your hard-won instincts and behaving in ways that are terrifying and brand new to you. But keep seeing people, and take the leap of being the initiator, and give it time and effort and you can do it!!!!! Again these are just the things that have worked for me, your mileage may vary! But genuinely best of luck and I would LOVEEEE to hear updates :-)

PS (I hope this (or like any of this answer lmao help) doesn’t sound condescending, it’s not meant to come across that way, I just tend to ramble. And also I tend to forget that other people don’t always have as much trouble with these social skills as I’ve had so if I’m overexplaining that’s why!! Lol) you can rehearse things in your head as much as you want and no one will ever know. I literally have small talk scripts lmaooooooo. I’ve literally used strangers to practice a method of like interviewing people to get to know them where you just continue to ask questions relevant to what they just said. and you could practice saying things like “want to grab some coffee after this?” or like “hey let me make sure I grab your number, here’s my phone!” and no one will ever know you had to practice like you’re in an elementary school play LOL. I’ve learned so many like normal person social skills just by watching gregarious friends talk to people and straight up intentionally emulating them. bc im normal…. And also intentional and borderline saccharine phrasing like saying “I’d love to have you!” Instead of “if you wanna come” or something. Ok actually I’ve rambled on for soooo long now I hope at least a tiny shred of this was helpful :-)

Okay and another quick edit SORRY. CAMPING!!!!!!!!! If you have ANY desire to camp whatsoever DO IT!!!! NOTHING jumpstarts a new friendship like a camping trip, you can like fast forward through literal months of the early stages if you can get your friend to bring a friend etc. and if not, a nice long hike, if that’s something your body’s not gonna scream at you about haha. GO OUTSIDE WITH PEOPLE IM SO DEADLY SERIOUS.

[ro-botany]

I probably shouldn't be talking about this when I'm tired and bad at articulating myself but I think part of why I'm so compelled by the monster Robin au that lives only in my brain is very closely intertwined with several of the reasons I find trans Robin very compelling

I can feel myself getting rambly so readmore

Because the thing w/ trans Robin is. The amnesia.

With how comprehensive the magic for bodily transition can be in this setting, if a person has total amnesia then they might. Not know they're trans at first. If there are signs left that they were not always this shape, they could be obvious or they could be quite subtle, depending; either way, finding them, figuring out what they mean, is inherently going to be very strange. Piecing together any part of your past from fragments would be strange, but learning that you remade yourself in such a fundamental way. Its in its own category.

And the way it interacts with all the grima shit...

Your body wasnt yours. It was never intended to be yours. You were born a particular way and you were to fulfill a preset purpose, you were to play the role assigned you. Your body wasnt yours. But you MADE it yours. You put in the work and time and materials you forged yourself into the shape that pleased you. You are yourself before you are anyone else's.

What a strange story to find written into your own flesh and bones and not to remember any of it.

Its the fact that the story of who they were isn't just lost people and memories but the history of their own body. That gets me.

(Probably has something to do with my own complicated feelings about my own trans body)

And then w/ the monster au. It takes that and twists it into the horror genre. New flavour of the trans weirdness, blended all up with the grima shit, makes the dragon past life horror not just mental but physical.

Not just finding scars or evidence of surgical spells or something. Finding the bases of horns on the sides of your skull, hidden under your hair, edges roughened like the past you filed them flush with the skin. As weeks pass you can tell they're growing, and hair can only conceal the shape for so long. (Do you keep filing them down? Why do you have these? Why do you hide them?) What you thought were strange scars on your face are torn open by accident one day. Underneath them are eyes, beady and nonhuman, following the curve of your cheekbone. Eyes that you or someone else sewed shut a long time ago. (Do you ask the healers to shut them again? Do you carefully cut the other scar lines, open all the eyes? Why are they there?)

Not who are you. WHAT are you. What are you?

Evidently you took a body you did not like, or else could not survive with, and you changed it. You cut off the horns you sewed shut the eyes gods only know what else you did. But the signs are still here, the changes weren't permanent. And the person who made those choices more or less died with your memory. Do you want to reverse these changes made a lifetime ago? Which shape is You? Which shape do you, the person you are now, want to be?

It feels all. Very connected to me. I don't know if I'm verbally connecting the dots that well but the dots are connected. To me. It's about bodies and the history of bodies and the disconnect you feel when a body isn't the shape you expect and the choices Robin makes about the form they take. Does any of this make sense to anyone that isn't me.

[moodymisty]

Hey! How're you doing? I hope you've been able to get some good down time :) If it's ok, I have a bit of a...writing query? How do you know which tense is best to use? I realised that I have a habit of "tense hopping" and that's why I get in a fluster when I write. Is present tense better for writing fics or is this just personal preference? (This is why I draw more than write, I am very rusty with my grammar skills lol, I'll make sure to post some tastefully horny art the ppl will approve of)

(I never know if I should answer these queries public or private, I'll answer public just in case anyone else wants to hear my deranged writing tips)

Uggghhh I'm massively guilty of this as well, especially around like a year ago when I started writing again. I had to go back and revise one of my old posted fics recently because I wrote half in present and half in past.

Putting all this under a readmore because I rambled XD

TL;DR: There really isn't a 'best tense' or anything you can apply, since they can all work. It's largely personal preference, unless you really want the reader to feel a specific way.

Generally however, if I follow one character specifically, I like to use present. Which is why many reader inserts are written in it since we're following 'ourselves' as we do things. It also seems to help readers connect more with what a character is feeling or doing in that exact moment. Present also helps if you're someone (like myself) who likes describing small or mundane details. Like how someone's hand moves, how the pins on their bag jingle. An example ↘

It isn’t as if Crosshair is exactly a stranger to watching people, given he’s someone who is far fonder of scoping out a situation from afar. But ‘scoping out the situation’ implies he’s at some point going to jump into the lake, to take a swim; He’s not, and what he’s doing seems to tread more into the lines of leering, than anything else. It makes him furious at himself for not being able to do something so simple, but no matter how much he tries, he can’t seem to get himself to do much beyond just thinking about you. It’s not like he even can get himself to stop doing that either, as he sits in front of the Marauder with his rifle in his lap. Crosshair wonders if the way your body moves is intentional; The way your hips sway, turning on a heel scurrying from task to task like you’re simply floating on air. There’s just something about you; You’re only updating a maintenance report for one of the reg starfighters to keep it on schedule, and he can barely keep his eyes on the maintenance he normally does religiously. You must be finishing up with it, because the next time he looks up you’re walking this way, waving hello to all of them. There’s not been a day since you met them where you haven’t at least tried to spare them even the tiniest moment of your time.

Meanwhile past tense is usually better the longer your work gets, or works where you're not focusing on anything or anyone super deeply. 'Past tense' also tends to be easier for people to read, and you get more flexibility with how you format the writing. For instance if you're skipping time, it's easier on readers to flow into the idea that an amount of time has passed with past tense wording. Example ↘

“It’s… Cleaner in here?” It’s not clean by any means, but stuff was off the floor, which was a major accomplishment. “Yeah, had to clean it up before we haul it back to Coruscant.” Hunter walked by Echo as he spoke, the rest not far behind. Echo closed the gangplank behind him, and gently crossed his arms as he watched Tech diligently wrap up a cable that has been laying there ever since Echo had first stepped foot in this ship. Having walked into the cockpit, he put a hand on Hunter’s seat as he looked out the viewport, before he spotted the outside of the hanger they’re currently landed in. Tech was fiddling on his datapad for a moment before they took off, having crossed his legs one way before he then swapped to the opposite. “Before? What’s the big occasion? Not that I’m complaining.” Hunter gave a small smile.

Using italics, for instance like say using them when a character is thinking of a past interaction, can be helpful for if you NEED to swap tense briefly, but don't want to jolt the reader. Forming it more as we're watching the character in the present, think of the past. Rather than sending the reader themselves to the past. Golly I hope that makes sense. Here.

He remembers the way his legs were hanging off the side of his bunk, aching and in pain after a nightmare had woken him up from his sleep. He’d been sitting just like this for ages, staring off with his heart racing in his chest before you’d come over, sitting beside him. You were quiet for a bit, with Echo silently enjoying the feeling of company. And when you did finally speak, you were offering him even more of your time than you’d already given him. ‘I think I just need some sleep. But…’ He had glanced your way and saw the dim light shadowing the edges of your features, as you looked right at him. ‘Thank you.’ Your lips pressed against the corner of his mouth, eyes closed. When you pulled away, there was tiniest smile on your face. ‘Night, Echo.’

Apologies for the tangent, and again, this is all just my personal thoughts. I have no professional writing experience beyond middle school English class. I am but a humble fic writer. But I really hope it helps! And If I didn't answer your question (I have a tendency to go off the rails) Feel free to tell me!

(exclusive image of me writing)

[lumenflowered]

OOC: Right so the readmore just entirely gave up on my new and hopefully final intro post, so. Fuck it, we ball, I'm putting my OOC info here.

Hi. I'm Hope, you may find me elsewhere at @ofstormsandfire where I am routinely not remotely normal about my favorite fictional characters. One of said faves is Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, because I am really enjoying Bloodborne and also she's just. She's just a really cool character okay. Yes I know she has four lines it's about the ~implications~ y'all.

Last summer, a lot of my friends were getting really into pokeblogging so I made one myself, but I have not gotten anywhere near as invested with any of my other ones as I have with this one. Because I had the thought, the critical thought that started all this, that was "oh hey, people are throwing their faves from other pieces of media into here, I could totally do that too."

And then, near the end of November last year, I thought for too long about how hilarious it would be to throw someone from a tonally incongruous piece of media like Bloodborne into the comparatively much kinder world of Pokémon.

And then I thought for too long about how I could throw this woman who was, in all likelihood, extremely traumatized at a world far kinder than anything she'd ever known before. About how this could be a journey about healing, about falling back in love with life.

...And then I came up with the blog url and it was really all over for me from there.

My own ramblings on how this blog came about aside, Bloodborne is a horror game, it is normally fairly dark. Canon-typical themes for Bloodborne will be present, but I'll do my best to tag for anything that isn't your usual pokeblogging fare and if you'd like anything I'm not already tagging for to be tagged, just lmk, I'm happy to.

And now, assuming my readmore works here (I have my suspicions as to why it isn't on the other post) have some navigational tags under the cut!

Story tags!

#firebird arc: I combined the Radio Tower takeover and the Ho-oh subplot, made the Kimono Girls more relevant, and ramped up the stakes. Ho-oh is a firebird and I think there's a type of rocket called the firebird. I like puns.

#from the ashes arc: Giovanni became an actual threat, there got to be an entire Rocket base in Tohjo Falls, and Silver got traumatized more. Mind the tags and also the warning OOC post at the beginning.

#kanto rocket arc: There wasn't much to do in Kanto so I had Rocket start causing problems on purpose. Silver transed her gender and Giovanni... seemed to no longer be a problem at the end of it.

#downpour arc: This hasn't started yet, and won't for a little while, but I've got one post in the tag already establishing it and letting people know what's up OOC ahead of time.

Character tags!

(...I really should think about making a character tag for Ade at some point. That would require going back and tagging so many posts and I don't actually have an idea for her yet, but maybe sometime in the future.)

#passing stranger: Dee (better known as the Plain Doll in Bloodborne canon) is here! And is now on the blog full-time because I love her and it made thematic sense! The earliest posts from her are from her 24-hour takeover back in February, before anyone knew who she was in-character and Dee was then very invested in keeping it that way.

#milf time and sonboy hours, #milf time: The first tag was specifically posts from Ethan and Reina, but Tumblr stole my yellow and I think stealing it back broke the cut on the other post so I'm not going to risk using it here. Ethan might show up again occasionally, Reina is more likely to show up on her own though. She likes birds and may or may not have had a bisexual awakening when her kid brought a Faller home.

#rainbow wings: Posts from (or sometimes relating to) Ho-oh. They don't post that often but they're a giant rainbow bird they can do what they want. What they want, when they happen to be online, is generally for injustice to Not Happen. Good luck buddy this is the internet.

#the first to fall: The Hunter from Maria's world taking on the role of the player character in Bloodborne. Her name's Mallory, she got the Childhood's Beginning ending for people that means anything to, and she was a Faller in the other direction before dragging herself and Dee into the world of Pokémon. (And, unintentionally, Maria too. She's probably the only unintentional tag-along, though. Right?)

#what's with this sassy lost child?: Posts from Silver, before she got her own blog at @cosmic-crobat. These days she mostly uses her own blog, but she'll still get blue text when she shows up in recordings.

Misc other tags!

#ask game: Reblogs of ask games and responses to said ask games. This one isn't chronological.

#hints to the future: Specifically, responses to that one ask game with the gear emojis that lets you hint at future events. I am always accepting asks for this one no matter how long it's been since I last reblogged that ask game. I like hinting toward what's to come and I like writing prose.

#glimpses of the past: That one ask game with the hourglasses that lets you see into the muse's past. Again, always open because I love writing prose and I can write out prose for things that have already happened this way.

#pelipper mail: It's open, it keeps happening, it keeps causing problems. Note that while I do not have magic anons on, if you're sufficiently creative with Pelipper Mail and it isn't too story-breaking you can probably get a similar effect to a magic anon that way.

#sword lesbian things: Silly and fairly self-explanatory. For when Maria's doing things with her sword, now that she has it back.

#the death hole: Scarvio DLC spoilers! Maria decided to Pelipper Mail herself to Paldea to help a friend. The death hole lived up to its reputation, and she will probably be Pelipper Mailing herself to try and solve other people's problems by ignoring her own more often in future.

#the vampire allegations: Silly tag for posts involving the recurring jokes about Maria being a vampire. It keeps happening, due to her entire aesthetic and also me deciding she can be allergic to garlic for coincidental and completely mundane reasons.

[army-of-bee-assassins]

hi I just have a question about image descriptions, is it better when I put it in the alt text or under the image? does small text make a difference? I shouldn't put the description under readmore, right? sorry for so many questions I want to do it right

hi there! thanks for these questions. i'm always happy for people to ask this sort of stuff! i appreciate that you want to learn more and do it right. :)

so just right off the bat, i'll say small text should be avoided. some people who need the image description may be low vision but not using a screen reader, which means the small text would be inaccessible. they may have ways of enlarging the text on their phone, but it can't enlarge the small text enough to read. and yes, a read more should usually be avoided as well. the only exception i would say is if you're describing something extremely long, such as pages of a comic. in that case, the best practice is to include a short description outside of a read more, like a quick summary of what the images are, that then also indicates that the full description is under the cut. but again, that should really only be for something super super long.

when it comes to alt text versus ids in the body of the post, they both have their uses and are preferred/more accessible to different people! alt text is designed for people who use screen readers, and it has been standard practice across the web for a long time. most people just weren't aware of it until recent years when sites like tumblr and twitter made it more visible to those not using a screen reader. when an image does not have alt text (which is the vast majority of images on this site), a screen reader coming across that image just says "image". so the screen reader user needs alt text to be able to have access to the content of the image. an image description following the image will also get the job done, but i have seen multiple screen reader users say that they're in the habit of skipping a post as soon as they come across an image without alt text, just because the majority don't end up having an id anyway and they just get tired of scrolling through inaccessible content.

some people do prefer an image description outside of alt text, since alt text still has some accessibility issues for those who don't use a screen reader, particularly in terms of color contrast and formatting. it can be hard for some people to read, which is why they prefer the image description to be in the body of the post instead. something to note for image descriptions in the body of the post - it's important to place the id right after the image and before any commentary.

basically - both alt text and an id in the body of the post are good things! different people have different preferences for one or the other. according to a resource i've seen shared around here a lot (i believe from perkins school for the blind), generally speaking alt text is for a short description, while an image description is meant to include more detail. so this can be good practice. you can also always mention in the alt text that the description will be expanded in the image description. something that i and a number of other people do is actually just use the same description in both alt text and the body of the post. in that case, for the image description i start it with "image description copied from alt text", so that someone using a screen reader could skip it easily.

sorry for rambling so long, and thanks again for your questions! if you have any others just let me know!

[alivegirlmari]

sorry i keep bothering u BUT i have another question😭 i was wondering if you’d seen this interview of melanie (https://youtu.be/xhHDMOEnuB4 the first minute and a half) and what you think of that because i’m pretty sure shauna does NOT care but to me jeff very much went from a sympathetic guy who loves his wife to a sinister little man😭 i get making bad decisions when you’re young but man😭

you are NOT bothering me omggg you could neverrr. me when i wake up to an anticurses ask and get to chew on it at work for the next two days: ❣️ 💕 💞 💓 💗 💖 💘 💝

i've seen a few people analyze that specific interview and tbh i don't think i have anything groundbreaking to add but i wanna just ramble about shauna anyways asdjnjsdk so! putting this under a readmore bc it'll probs be long-ish and incoherent <3

ok so. shauna's relationship to motherhood has always fascinated me. when i first watched yj it was all in one night, in a haze, during a not-good-mentally period in my life. so it took me an embarrassing amount of episodes to go from 'oh she hates callie bc callie's wilderness baby and thus a reminder of everything that entails, both jackie-related and trauma-related' to 'OH callie can't be wilderness baby, timeline wise, which adds an even more insane level to shauna returning to jeff post-crash'. bc the decision to date him let alone marry him has always been sooo interesting to me!! like yeah we all knew why but like, how did it happen? how long after the crash? did he call her up once she got out of hospital? did she go back to school? was it another drunk grief hookup thing again, but one that spiraled into more? did they discuss jackie at all? iirc, when he reveals he's read the diaries, he implies they never talked about the 19 months which is why he read them. but did they ever discuss jackie, separate to what happened in the woods? or was she the eternal elephant in the room? i mean, yes it's canon that shauna marries him out of guilt and shame and obligation, but the CALLIE of it all is the wildest part to me. bc she's pregnant with his baby, and then jackie dies and the baby dies, and then she goes back and has anotherrr baby with him, in spite of everything!!!!

so melanie p much saying 'she can't keep justifying her decision to not have kids with him, so they have one'. is like. well she's right!!! i can 1000% see jeff pushing to have kids and shauna, unaware that he knows about wilderness baby and not wanting to tell him, agreeing to it bc a) she'd rather die than talk about it honestly, b) the guilt of it all, and c) well that's what normal suburban heterosexual couples do isn't it?? get married and have kids!! and to me jeff has always been that guy, which he even admits in canon! he was always gonna be the high-school boyfriend to jackie, but that's his life role, too: he stays in his home-town, he owns a business in his home-town, his only friend is his teen bestie, etc. he's the suburban straight guy who doesn't properly wash his underwear, whose wife cooks every meal (that he still complains about), who thinks flavored lube is too kinky and weird and gay for him.

and it annoys me that the show doesn't even lean into the horror of that, let alone like...the genuinely terrribleeee things he does. like if you're not gonna frame it as devastating, tragic, claustrophobic, and miserable that shauna marries jackie's very Normie boyfriend and has another baby with him, that her whole life has become a jackie altar and not what she herself wants, then at least frame it as awful that he blackmailed her and her friends using their trauma??? HELLO???and i hate that the adam thing kinda like. made them ~even~, narratively, or at least made people forget about jeff.

and if you're NOT going to make it a heterosexual horror story, AT LEAST make him the wifeguy people insist he is online!! what REAL self-respecting wifeguy would turn down strawberry lube or panic when their wife grabs the gun from the guy holding them at gunpoint!!! and i mean, his reactions (to the gun thing at least) are valid and normal, ofc he'd freak out, majority of us would too. but this IS a tv show, he's not real, and you can't have him be the freaked out, 'you're out of control' husband and the 'my wife can do no wrong' husband ykwim. (me & rose talked about that angle specifically here)

but also YES it's legitimately evil for jeff to not tell shauna he knows about wilderness baby and for him to just then. keep bringing up having another one. the most generous reading i can give him is that he also, of course, feels guilty about jackie, and his desire for marriage and children with shauna is driven by that, but again: he knew he was only ever the high-school boyfriend, so. and what melanie said in that interview IS right but it's not being said/implied/explored in canon, and i worry that if it was then again, it wouldn't be shown as the horror it is, so i'm almost glad?? bc i'm not sure the general audience would see through that and view it as evil either.

anyways, jeff n shauna to me is like. does she love him? probably, in some way, on some level. i think she enjoys his company sometimes, i'm sure they have happy memories together etc. but he will always be a reminder of #everything. and so will callie! and i think that's just a more interesting dynamic to explore!!! (though tbh. loveee the goat stuff, but shauna just kinda. saying everything so explictly to lottie did feel like a telling not showing, exposition moment. as did the fact that it was a KID like sometimes this show is so subtle and other times it's incredibly not ajdksjask.)

um anyways it's 4am. i need to go to sleep. i am probably forgetting something bc i have So many thoughts about shauna + motherhood ESPECIALLY in the teen timeline which i didn't even touch lol, and how it connects to adult timeline but i do wanna give the writers temporary benefit of doubt just bc we've still got 2 eps left. so who knows what'll happen. me personally i'm hoping jeff dies and/or goes to jail and we explore the complex web of feelings that shauna and callie have towards each other, and they change their names back to shipman. i think it's rly funny and sad and tragic that callie doesn't care that her mom's a killer (well, she does), she's just so happy her mother's being honest with her. </33 also just love women who aren't naturally maternal and aren't good mothers but they're not villainized for it, and it's also not a one-dimensional portrayal either.

(final note that i LOVE is that in the original pilot script, shauna has another kid!!! callie has an older sister!!! soo curious whether she was meant to be a surviving wilderness baby or if they had another kid post-crash...jeff im in ur walls regardless)