#that's a whole nother post I should do later

[omiomi-kyun]

01:54 a.m. — night walk

“i'm sorry?”

tsukishima fiddled with his fingers while avoiding your gaze. he rubbed the back of his neck while looking at the lamp post few feet away from you.

“are you really inviting me over at your place?”

he pursed his lips as he nodded his head.

after almost six months of dating while taking everything slow, he's finally ready to share his safe space with you. both of you are finally starting to lower your guard around each other; ready to take your relationship to a-whole-nother level.

“um... so, uh... should i bring something over? i mean, should we pick up something to eat before...” you let out a nervous laugh before looking at him. “i've never done this before.”

tsukishima looked into your eyes with a smile. He grabbed your hand before pressing his lips againdt your knuckles.

“we could grab something to eat or we could just order later.” he held your hand closer to his chest. “we could also eat first then head straight to my place.”

“that sounds awesome!” you said before looking at the well-lit street you're taking. “we could do the former if you're not that hungry yet, the latter if you are.”

“you're not hungry yet?”

you shook your head. “after hearing your invitation, i feel like i'm all full.”

you wouldn't trade the moment you were sharing with tsukishima at the moment for anything else.

GRUMBLE

or maybe you'd trade your stomach for a full one.

“let's eat first, then!” he said after chuckling. “we could grab some snacks afterwards.”

“sorry 'bout that...” you murmured while nuzzling your face against his arm.

you felt his warm hand against your cheek before he tilted your head up. he pressed a warm kiss against your forehead with a smile.

“don't worry about it,” he reassured.

“thank you, kei-kun.”

“you're always welcome, love.”

you continued to walk towards the bustling street where several restaurants are lined up on both sides.

“so, where shall we eat?”

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

ToA Theory 1 - Apollo's Waking Visions

First official theory post, here we go! :D

Alright. So. After rereading The Dark Prophecy, I started wondering about something. In TDP, Apollo experiences waking visions, where he conks out for a bit and has prophetic visions.

I found this interesting because, well...isn't Apollo supposed to be cut off from prophecy? With Python back in control of Delphi?

Because think about it. Python controls Delphi, the root of all earthly prophecy. This would include Dodona, Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl - sure, they aren't strictly connected to Delphi, but it's pretty heavily stated that Delphi just straight-up Makes The Future. It's prophecies are The Big Deal and you Should Listen.

Meanwhile the other Oracles seem more guiding and "beware!" instead of "this is how it's gonna be".

(sidenote: found out there are MORE oracles and I wanna know WHERE THEY ARE IN RRVERSE CANON because I want my boy Branchus okay??? Okay. Branchus's oracle was second only to Delphi let's give Apollo's first boyfriend the attention he deserves!)

So of course, like all great members of this fandom, I started thinking.

Let's do a little family history first. ;)

Buckle up. We go down a deep rabbit hole 😎

Apollo and Artemis are twins, born to Leto and Zeus. Zeus's parents are Kronos and Rhea. Leto's are Koios and Phoebe.

Rhea has connections to Dodona, as we learn in-series, but she doesn't really seem to be all that involved with prophecy.

Her siblings, meanwhile...ho ho ho, they are a WHOLE NOTHER STORY!

Let's start with Phoebe. Phoebe, like all first generation Titans, is the daughter of Gaea and Ouranos. She married her brother Koios. Her children consist of Asteria, Lelantos, and Leto. As well as Artemis and Apollo, her other two grandchildren are Hecate (Asteria) and Aura (Lelantos).

Her name means "bright" and is the root of Apollo's most famous epithet - Phoebus. She is often described as "golden-crowned" and is the Titan of bright intellect, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, and is the second guardian of Delphi, after her sister Themis. She gifted Delphi to Apollo for his birthday after he defeated Python.

Classic grandmother move.

Anyway. There's a bit of Phoebe lore. Time for her elusive husband :3

Koios. His names means "question" or "questioning", probably because he's the Titan of inquiring intellect. He's also the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and has an oracle up in the North Pole guarded by an earth-dragon - you'd know this serpent by the name of Draco, the constellation btw. Additionally, Hyperborea (where Apollo goes in the winter times) is part of his domain.

eyes

Unfortunately, we have very little mythological lore on these two, and even less in the RRverse (I cling to that one (1) Koios scene) which sucks because I love them already BUT it does give me lots of legroom to mess around with canon >:)

Back to the theory now. As you may have guessed, I'll be taking us in a direction concerning Apollo's mysterious grandparents. But what does this have to do with Apollo's visions?

Well. Remember when I mentioned that Delphi is the root of all earthly prophecies?

...look at Phoebe's paragraphs. She's the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, right? So it makes sense she's been affected by Python's takeover too.

(if you've read my fics you'd know this already lmao)

Asteria, Apollo's aunt, is a little trickier. She, too, has a hand in divination, but mainly through the night/stars and dreams. <-will come back to that later.

Koios, again, is overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and is heavily implied to be able to commune with Ouranos's spirit. This is, apparently, a Big Deal because nobody else is mentioned to be able to do this.

...Except...remember this throwaway line in The Hidden Oracle?

^Apollo can see Ouranos too.

Within this theory is a sub-theory, so to speak - that immortals with the gift of prophecy can see Ouranos, since they can see what cannot be seen. This would include Phoebe, Asteria, Koios, and Apollo.

And it'll make sense why they'd keep it to themselves. Kronos wouldn't have been happy to hear his dad was still around. Neither would Zeus, for that matter.

So here I was. Contemplating. Wrote a few fics based around this idea. And one in particular got me thinking (fic in question being When The Stars Align), and a little ways down the road I realized something.

If Phoebe, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, would have been affected by Python's takeover...was Koios? Could he even be affected?

Because here's the deal: Koios is the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies. Prophecies from the Sky.

Phoebe's are of the Earth - the Earth that Python has taken control of. And Delphi is the root of Earthly Prophecies - not Heavenly.

That would be Koios's oracle, up in the North Pole with Draco.

...So that means Heavenly Prophecy must have still been in business during ToA.

But then comes the question: If it was still within the gods' control, why didn't they use it?

Well...Draco's there, for one. He's probably the Python-equivalent of the North, and clearly he's still there since no myth has spoken of his death (that I know of).

If you ask me, I just think the gods are too nervous/afraid to try Koios's oracle. They were too scared to face Python, after all, until Apollo arrived. I think they'd be scared of a serpent who comes and goes from the stars as he pleases.

And as for why Apollo hasn't done anything about it...well, I think his fight with Python left him rather scarred, don't you think? He probably went "yeah grandma's oracle is enough" and the only time he ever got close to Koios's was during his time in Hyperborea.

So getting back to the main theory now. (So many rabbit holes to dive into with this post. The ADHD Urge is real)

Since Heavenly Prophecies is still active, but Earthly is in Python's control, I conclude Apollo's visions come from the Heavenly source.

Could they have come from the now-working Dodona? Maybe. But Dodona's all about those windchimes and trees. It doesn't have the Vibe, so to speak, for granting visions.

And remember. Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl aren't destroyed/freed yet. They have Zero connection to Apollo at this point because Python cut him off from them.

...but he didn't from the North. From Koios's divine power.

Because remember. Apollo is the god of prophecy.

Not of Earthly Prophecies, like Phoebe.

Not of Heavenly Prophecies, like Koios.

Not of nighttime divination and dreams like Asteria.

Of. Prophecy.

Prophecy as a whole. The entirety. The whole enchilada.

Every part of prophecy he's the god of, be it tarot cards to the Oracle of Delphi itself.

In my opinion, I think whatever Koios's Oracle is, it has just as must power as Delphi. The only problem was that...everybody just left it be. Nobody considered it because:

1) scary dragon

2) scary titan ruled the place

3) honestly at this point I think it's just straight-up forgotten about. Like Branchus's Oracle. I think at one point Apollo himself mentions there are other Oracles besides the ones in-series, but there's so many that his mortal brain cannot comprehend how many.

If the Grove of Dodona nearly faded into obscurity, then I think it's entirely possible Koios's Oracle was forgotten about (or so we think...I'm gonna be chewing on this for a while.)

Coming back round to TDP...I think this is a reasonable explanation about Apollo's visions. To summarize:

Apollo is cut off from Earthly Prophecy, his usual source of foresight that he gets from Phoebe

The unused, near-forgotten-about Heavenly Prophecy side of Apollo ignites to steer him on the right path

This is possible because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself, and not a single subset of prophecy, so he's not limited in the same way Phoebe is

Koios's Oracle is still out there and kicking and I will die on this hill

One problem. What about Asteria? She can interpret the future from the stars...aka the Sky. Like Koios. So couldn't she provide some insight to the future, since she, too, is connected to Heavenly Prophecy?

This is where things get a lil' tricky. And where I really slap on my tinfoil hat and start headcanoning my way through lmao

Basically, I think that since Asteria became the island of Delos (long story) a good chunk of her power is ingrained there. She's not as strong as she used to be, so her foresight isn't as strong.

This, in turn, I think could also serve as a reason why Koios's Oracle is "asleep" so to speak and nearly lost to memory in the RRverse - in fact, I think Asteria and Phoebe are the only ones who bother to remember its existence.

And Leto, of course. But I don't think she wants her son to know of another Oracle with a giant snake guarding it. She's had enough heart-attacks, thank you.

(Same with Lelantos, tbh.)

Canon is my sandbox and I am making some sweet sandcastles out of it XD

TL;DR

Apollo's visions in TDP stem from Koios's source of Heaven Prophecy because Phoebe's source of Earthly Prophecy (Delphi) has been taken over by Python. Koios's source firmly knocks on Apollo's mental doors and decides to kick back into gear to help its titular patron's grandson out. Because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself - every bit of it.

Extras:

I find it fascinating how magic and prophecy are both part of the same family tree (Hecate & Apollo).

and yes. You should expect a fic concerning Koios's Oracle at some point. but no promises on when :3

Thank you for coming to Insane Theory Time With Alder. I hope there will be more lmao

Websites you can look into:

Koios (Theoi)

Phoebe (Theoi)

Hyperborea (Theoi)

[je-lurk]

I gave omgitaj a(nother) rewatch and noticed… something. When French chariot-driver Sam meets Jean-Luc, he says they’re in Bordeaux. Let’s say near, to give them all a bit of grace (They can’t actually be in Bordeaux for reasons. Also where would you raise chickens there).

(Sam also later corrects Tom by saying "les coqs" which is 1) wrong, because in this context "coq" is singular, so it would be "le coq", and 2) wrong, because in this context "coq" is indefinite and it would be "des coqs", which, as stated in the first point, is also wrong, since it should be a singular, finally giving us "un coq". Which is stupid, because Tom already used the, albeit English (although it does sound like the French), singular indefinite article. Sam, with all due respect, you know nothing, stfu.)

Anyway, back to Bordeaux, it means that Jean-Luc ran all the way from (supposedly) near Berlin without meeting anyone nor realising he crossed the border (and probably without taking a break).

Bordeaux is here:

LOOK! Bro ran at the very least 700 km in 1942 France territory. And that’s being nice! The shortest distance between Berlin and Bordeaux is 1300 km.

Let’s do some unrealistic maths. I know someone who has been running marathons for a long time. For his last run, his speed varied between 8 and 10 km/h (well it was mostly between 10 and 11 but that’s not the point).

Assuming Jean-Luc, a trained spy and soldier, ran all the way without stopping to eat, drink or sleep, at a sustained 8 km/h speed, he made the 1300 km in 6 days and 18 (and a half!) hours. A WHOLE WEEK. That’s 3 days and 16 (and a half!!) hours FULLY IN FRANCE. How did he not notice we’ll never know.

Anyway, props for Sam for at least choosing a city that was actually occupied (I’m not entirely sure he knew, tbh, he might have just said the first thing that came to his mind). It does raise an issue, which is the number of borders Jean-Luc went through without noticing.

Below is a map of France in 1942. The blue (as well as the green-striped) part is the free territory, the light orange the occupied territory, the red, the forbidden zone, and the bright orange, the annexed one.

Notice how Bordeaux is in the forbidden zone? That’s the reason I evoked earlier.

Let’s be kind and say they were indeed fully outside Bordeaux, this makes a whopping 4 borders Jean-Luc crossed, again, while running without meeting anybody, you know the drill by now.

To break down the numbers, Jean-Luc ran:

150 km (18h45 min) in the forbidden zone,

225 km (1d4h) in occupied territory,

225 km (1d4h) in the free territory,

and another 75 km (9h30min) in occupied territory.

When you see how much work was done by the Résistance to smuggle Jews to the free territory, this is crazy.

There’s no real point to this post except making you all aware of the additional absurdity of this play and maybe let’s change Jean-Luc’s assignment? He would work miracles

[oetscop]

okay so im making a new post abt this since its a little different from my last analysis post. but @petscopping brought up a very interesting point in the tags! that being "nobody is innocent" and he is so fucking right abt that

that was in regards to the objectification of care, and how paul also contributes to that. but like, even characters that aren't explicitly on screen are culpable. specifically belle.

i always get this impression that shes hiding something. she knows far more than she lets on, and i almost have to wonder if its in a way to protect paul? which is interesting since we know how in denial he is about Literally Everything, which is actively harming himself in some way.

she knows. a LOT about this game. like, paul is only recording gameplay to prove that hes "not lying" about the weird game he found. then later down the line after paul gets to the other side of the quitters room and tells her tiara is gone and her reply is "of course." the way paul replies to that too is telling since hes confused as to why she knows somethings up. even earlier than that paul mentions how he was shocked to find "his room" but isnt anymore since it makes sense that the game would be connected to him through belle. not to mention she knows an older version of the game that had the passageway to the caskets. she had played it as recently as 2004. why lie at first?

a little tangential, but i really gotta wonder about her connection to rainer. obviously they were close enough for him to be doing...whatever the fuck happens during a rebirthing event. or whatever he thinks is supposed to happen, i should say. shes heavily connected to tiara in some way, and has a stupid amount of play time on the damn game. if you ascribe to the theory that tiara and in game marvin are based entirely off in game behaviors of real people playing the game, its no wonder tiara seems to be almost...sentient? all marvin does is run around and say shit and like be weird and the game was literally made for him. tiara like. can edit texture maps, and use that to also speak directly to paul thru tool. and because of that, she can speak more directly, and isnt hindered by the p2 to talk mechanic like marvin is.

point is, belle has logged a crazy amount of time into the game. sure you could probably say the hours played is inaccurate, maybe she just had the game left open on a console for what. 17 years was it? even rainer admits its dubious. but imo, it feels more...symbolic? like sure maybe she wasnt playing it for that long. but she had some kind of passive connection to the game in that time. she is/was in contact with rainer. she HAD to be. (this also might imply the game was still being worked on after 2000. but thats a whole nother can of worms)

i cant think of any other motive for her lying about that other than to protect paul in some way. which, in a way, ties back to cares objectification. paul is absolutely denying any humanity to his child self. its ingrained in the very code of the game.

and in some way, belle is also participating. maybe im reading too far into that, but with how much the series is able to tell us abt characters who dont even fucking talk is really impressive so its not completely unrealistic.

[anaid-queen]

thoughts on Astarion and asexuality

by a certified asexual ✌

yes, Astarion confirmed during Act II that he's only ever used sex as a tool (for as long as he's been a vampire anyway, which we learn later has been more than 80% of his life so far), either for his master because he was forced to or (more recently) for himself - to seek protection and trust, from you. he literally compares it to something disgusting to force himself through. but does that mean he's asexual?

yes, he talks about sex feeling "tainted" to him after he used it so much to lure Cazador's victims (and apparently, not just because it usually worked, but because he had to..? he doesn't specify, but lbr i wouldn't put it past the bastard to make it a rule of some kind, especially if he picked up on Astarion disliking it), but he also talks about being less disgusted by (quote) "beautiful" people (though he also conceded that in the sum of it all, that barely even mattered).

and he jokes about it being "almost [...] a challenge" to not have sex for a while (though it's unclear whether he thinks the player wouldn't be able to hold out, since it's supposed to be on his (Astarion's) terms?), and by the end of the romance arc, you can choose to have sex with him again and he'll enjoy it. all in all, it mostly really sounds like he's deeply traumatized (i mean duh, but yk, also sexually traumatized) and just needs a while to work through that (if you don't give him that time he'll go through with it once more but then break up with you, fyi) and not like he actually doesn't enjoy sex, never has never will.

i know he was not written as asexual.

[ and yes i also know that asexuality doesn't mean having no desire for / feeling disgusted by sex, i know. but the day ace rep is portrayed any differently in media is still ages away, so i'm working with "character intentionally written as ace = character written as not enjoying sex" here. ]

But.

is it so wrong to feel elated at the thought that he could be? to interpret him that way? especially when he says "I don't think I want you to think of me in terms of sex. I don't know if I want anyone to." (and says the second part so softly, eyes downcast, utterly devoid of theatrics or feigned nonchalance - almost like he's surprising himself with that thought, and voicing it openly). I felt that so much. upon you inquiring further, he snaps almost defensively that he wants to be seen as a person, which i know, i know, easily works back into the trauma narrative of him not being seen as a living (well yk) being that has feelings. it clearly doesn't necessarily mean he dislikes being seen as a sexual being, just that he's more than that and is sick and tired of being reduced to it.

but something still jumped in me at that line. 'please don't look at me and think of sex' is a frequent thought in my mind, and looking at me and thinking of seduction is a joke and a half - i don't dress it behave it or talk it, ever. but nonetheless, the... fear, almost? is still there. (and maybe the very reason i take care not to send any contradictory signals, but that's a topic for a whole 'nother post - this isn't about me).

i just. do i think Astarion was intentionally written as asexual? no. do i think he should be, and that there's something wrong with seeing him or preferring him as allo? absolutely not either! but i believe just as much that it's valid to read him or prefer him as ace. and yk, obv everything is valid, canon is your sandbox and your headcanons are your own - but in this case, it's really, really close to being in the text. he resonates with a lot of us, one way or another, and i think that's beautiful.

[eddiegettingshot]

So I didn't really want to post this anywhere because some people got very protective of Buck/Tommy very fast and don't like it when people disagree (which is fine I guess, I also like my own opinions better than those of others) but I need to get it out. I admit it. I don't really feel Buck and Tommy together. Or, I see Buck being into him, at least while he's not talking about Eddie instead, but I don't see it with Tommy. In both ep.4 and 5 he just seems more amused with Buck than attrackted. For example, to me it felt like he was more, nodding along with a very eager Buck and then brightens up when Eddie shows up in ep.4. And then he takes Eddie on a helicopter ride to a sold out fight, hangs out with him a lot and meanwhile doesn't invite Buck to anything.

(And then there's the fact that Buck seemed way more worried about not having told Eddie that it was a date than about ruining the date with the guy that he was so much into that he injured his best friend to get his attention)

I feel like this story could have worked so much better if it would have been Eddie's.

...or maybe Tommy just enjoys to help babygays and bis figure out their shit in his spare time.

(Or maybe the problem is that Buck's whole behavior in ep.4 and 5 just doesn't feel very attractive to me)

I don't know, I just can't really get into it, and I know it's only been 2 episodes, but the fandom seems to be 10 steps ahead of me and back here I still don't see why this should go better than any of Buck's previous relationships. I'll stop now, sorry.

no, listen, i think there are WAY more people than you'd expect who are thinking exact same thing as you but don't want to rain on anyone's parade. so don't worry about it, i am here to be the resident storm cloud lmao.

i genuinely don't see it either - there is nothing in 7x04 barring the end scene where tommy indicates that he's ever been interested in getting to know buck (imo). even in 7x05, i fucking CRINGED when he called him "adorable" because it continued to be in line with the whole, "i'll treat eddie like a peer, but i don't think you're quite on my level" feeling i've been getting from him the whole time. i'm also incredibly baffled by tommy's choices in 7x05. if i had to cut a date short with someone because they were still so insecure in their sexuality that they impulsively suggested to someone they knew that i was also heterosexual, and then they called me up a week later to be like, hey i still like you do you want to come to my sister's wedding and meet my whole family + people i'm not out to yet even though we just talked about how we don't know each other and also remember our disaster date? WHO WOULD SAY YES TO THAT? maybe buck wouldn't have, but why didn't TOMMY ask to take it slow? that would have been good for buck! (i know why. because he needs to be at the wedding. For The Plot.)

i 100%, absolutely AM convinced of buck's infatuation with this guy, i understand how it ties in with his bi awakening and it's also par for the course for him. i get that. i am not convinced that the actual relationship between buck and tommy - what we are actually seeing on screen - is all that great. buck isn't handling this any differently from the way he's handled any other relationship. i still don't really see the chemistry between them even though lou ferrigno jr. seems to be acting his ass off. i like tommy! but buck and tommy together make even less sense to me than they did before. i don't like the circumstances of their relationship and i don't think buck needs to be in a(nother) situation where someone could get VERY, VERY hurt by the potential fallout of him trying to figure his feelings out. especially when we're talking about a character who has, apparently, already struggled in the past. this could have been remedied by them taking things slow and casual!

meanwhile, eddie's response to FINDING OUT that tommy is gay WITHOUT TOMMY EVEN BEING IN THE ROOM felt way more like Something AND IT WASN'T EVEN ON PURPOSE (?!) i get it. i understand why we don't have eddietommy and it's out of anyone's hands. but no i don't think you're obligated to be super into this ship by any means, just like no one is obligated to dislike it!

[omegamusings-writigs]

[HC] Being Alpha!Beidou’s Omega

Genshin Masterlist

Masterlist

Originally posted: Sep 30, 2021 Slightly edited: Dec 23, 2022

Original a/n: i started writing this yesterday and then i pulled beidou later that day so if you’re reading this, i hope you get the characters you want! good luck!

mommy? sorry

it’s pirate time!

if you’re her omega, you’re probably part of her crew

if you weren’t a part of her crew before the two of you started courting, you’re gonna end up joining sooner or later

beidou doesn’t like spending a lot of time on land

she would do it if that was the only way to see you but c’mon you have the chance to be a pirate! take it!

y’all sail the seas together and go on adventures and occasionally harbour fugitives

she also loves seeing you kick ass and will only step in if you really need the help

losing you is the only thing she fears

she’d rather get into a fistfight with an archon than have to lose you

though you know now that i think about it that would probably be interesting

anyways, let’s thirst talk about her muscles next

she’s a claymore which means she’s buff as fuck, i take no criticism on this

she’s also a sailor so even though she’s captain, she does her fair share of muscle work

drunk!beidou is always flexing for you

she does so when sober too but when drunk she’s on a whole nother level

she will flirt like crazy

one time she asked you if you had an alpha and when you said yes she challenged her whole crew to a fight to prove to you how strong she was

kazuha, who had been doing his own stuff in the harbout that day, came back to find most of the crew unconscious and the two of you locked in her quarters

it is an unspoken rule between the crew that they don’t talk about it

of course, you like to tease her with it

all in all, beidou is a very fun and hot alpha to have

also she should marry me

[podfeels]

Podfeels Adapt8ion Notes: Episode 3

hello, dare again! just as a reminder for how these posts work, stagelights will be covering the notes as a whole, and if i ever have to pitch in it will be with purple text like this! with that said, lets get back into it!

this episode had a good chunk of rewrites just because there's a ton of visual gags that simply do not scan in audio format. there was a good chunk of back and forth on a bunch of lines.

this bit of dialogue had a minor change, as the ‘question mark’ line kind of felt weird in audio. i think it probably could have still worked, but we decided to replace it to make it a call forward to a line later in the text, where vriska says the “prompting for a response” thing instead. for some reason the text in the video version was changed to a winky face instead of a normal smiley? i dont know who made that change or why but its so minor i dont even really care lol. it was made into a wink because we felt it fit the tone better! the original smile was kind of oblique, just ignoring june's question. but with the scene in general, and especially with our rewrites and our vriska's performance, a taunting wink felt far more fitting than the flat smile.

more emoji replacement. fairly simple

another text gag changed because it didnt work in audio. also the question marks were changed to exclamation marks in the text because i thought it fit the delivery of the actual line slightly better. 

theres nothing new to say about this that hasn’t already been said a bunch. moving on.

this line was a major sticking point. it’s a visual gag that we can’t just cut, because this gag is directly related to why june picks the name that she does. so we had to do *something*. we had a bunch of different rewrites on this.

we ended up going with the second one of these, as you can tell

there was also some deliberation on how long the actual “very long june” should be when said out loud. i thought the initial take we had was way too short, and i was mostly thinking back to the voxus dubs take of this specific line, but if we just took that delivery and slapped it here it would have felt *too* long because the context behind the lines is completely different. i think we ended having it be about 6 seconds long, which was perfect.

the immediate next line was also a bit of a bitch.

these were some of the rewrites suggested.

ended up going with the second one, which surprisingly isn’t *that* different from how it was in the original text. this is because ultimately we decided that our edits were all... overegging the pudding a bit. we ended up going with one close to the original in writing, but specifically directing our vriska to perform it as if she was lying through her teeth. lying about xenobabble she doesnt know (either because she's vriska and hiding a mistake like vriska does, or because she's Not Quite Vriska and making up exomemories on the fly to justify herself, who is to say) and brushing it off, with a couple added lines to show she's forcing it to be dropped through force of will and rudeness. god i love that spiderbitch.

this line was changed to be a call forward to this bit in a later chapter, which i didn’t even notice until listening back to some of the early drafts of episode 7 (coming soon™)

this was actually to try and solidify a bit of consistency between John and June. we've sprinkled some quotes from each other into the other's dialogue to make them seem a bit more like each other. (i use John and June like this for godfeels reasons to be clear, because June isn't quite John, and John isn't quite Dare, so there's no good way of going about it so I just use John. personal taste.)

some emoticons removed

some fairly minor narration changes for pacing

bunch of emoji replacements

this part is pretty fun. vriskas voice becomes jades and johns matching the text color, which fits whats being said in the narration. stuff like this is a huge part of why i love working on podfeels.

nother emoticon replacement

this is a very minor text change, literally because john’s va said the line slightly differently and i edited the script to match whats being said

 this bit of narration was cut for pacing

replacing the description of “bawl so hard it feels like dying” with audio of john crying, with dialogue of vriska being comforting. not just comforting, but Encouraging. in the "You got this", she is in a sense instilling june with her confidence. shit may go to hell, but we'll make it work. YOU'LL make it work.

minor change, theres a text sound effect here

there was a small change in the narration to reflect an addition in sound design of tossing the phone, and the smaller text is a fun little gag

none of the text here was changed, but this is such an important moment in the story, and the decision to cast john and june separately really helps sell the same switch from second to first person, replacing the swap in text color with a swap in actor. i believe this decision was partly to sell this moment and partly as future proof for later parts of godfeels. i remember sarah saying once that she had planned for june to be played by the same actor throughout in her initial plans for podfeels, but i personally like the way we did it a lot. also, a nice coincidence in our casting is that, junes voice sounds like a perfect in between of john and vriska’s voice.

this seems like a fairly big change, but its not…really? the script formatting makes it look way more complicated than it is. mostly this is just adding dialogue for the characters approach, similar to how its described in narration in the original text.

this isn’t necessarily a change but the final “fuck” is slightly cut off as the song jumps into the credits theme. which i think is very funny. also if and when we get to godfeels 3.2, when they do the same bit again but with dare instead of june, i REALLY hope we can do this exact same cutoff gag again. but that’s getting way ahead of ourselves. :)

_____

so thats it covered! thank you to stagelights for doing the breakdowns for these episodes! check back tomorrow for episode 4's breakdown!

[jbt7493]

game where you have to solve puzzles in real time while dodging attacks to cast different magics, list of magic types and corresponding puzzles

first off, obviously there are flaws with this to begin with as me and kwarrtz and also me and sanity's stream chat have been discussing. I think it is sort of appealing from the idea that different playstyles are incentivized not just by amount of damage and damage type but also the actual gameplay, the gameplay is symbolically linked to what you're doing, and the skill ceiling is very high. However. the skill ceiling might be a bit *too* high and it would be overwhelming generally, and while you could have a lot of different mechanics to interact with, the fundamental concept of 'do puzzles while dodging attacks and aiming' is gonna be the same, and unlike a normal rpg where the gameplay isnt thaat different and you can try out the different builds, it may be too hard to try new builds in this such that youre actually more constrained into a single build

but with that said. this post is me listing some ideas of what magic types correspond to what puzzles and so on.

Spatial magic and teleportation- rubiks cube, mazes

Fire magic- this one is a bit tough, i think maybe one type of puzzle to ignite and then another to sustain the fire, so a fireball would basically just be a tougher ignition puzzle but a wall of fire would be an easy ignite and a progressively harder puzzle to keep it burning for a while. was thinking the sustain puzzle would be a bullet hell?

Summons- Was thinking a chess puzzle for like, soldier-y summons, control of the summons post summoning would depend on the type of the spell but obviously like, you could just do RTS micros for them, swap bodies to directly control very strong summons, do more chess puzzles to buff up your soldier-y summons etc. kwarrtz makes case for chess game against an ai being good, i think its you competing against a demon to maintain control over your borrowed units

necromancy, box of bones you assemble to get on board, micro to control, box has some decoy bones but open enough and those turn from a decoy into a whole nother skeleton to summon.

fey summons use later written, constructs use later written, unsure about pure arcane summons

Buffing and/or healing- was thinking a sympathetic magic empath type thing where its a dating game. originally was thinking that for healing but then i thought oh maybe a Surgeon Simulator thing. someone else said surgeon simulator type minigame for dispelling and counterspells but i think you should need to counter elements with opposing elements.

kwarrtz makes strong case for dating game being for fey magic whereas i was thinking itd be you appealing to your god. idk what buffing is then...

right so fey magic druidic summons and stuff- animal spirit summons are autonomous, no micros. fey magic requires also using other magic type to trigger spells. i like the day trading and delayed-spell-that-triggers-when-you-do-a-thing thing, and its like, the fey give you a challenge for their entertainment

Debuffs/poison - was thinking like a papas pizzeria type thing, kwarrtz kinda thinks the idea of poison magic is weird and it should just be out of combat alchemy. hexes/curses are sort of like, you have preparation but want to do it fast- drawing minigame for a predefined hexagram, pixel match for efficacy level

Electricity - circuit diagrams! kwarrtz disagrees a bit, thinks circuit diagrams would be more of a crafting thing. kwarrtz suggests like you click on the points you want it to arc to, then do a little osu thing to chain between those points, i think that might be a little too simple and direct

hm okay im also undecided on like, how many of the more direct damage elements need to exist and if we should do the whole fire earth water air thing. still dont even have a good ignition puzzle for fire, dunno what would be good for ice at all, electricity i think you can make pretty intuitive ones, even if i dont love kwarrtz's. kwarrtz says if you're making your own magic system for this you dont need it to be aristotles elements, but idk what else then :p

light magic- draw mirrors, focus the light/collimate it for better range and effect, draw a shape with it- randomly generated field, but you decide the spell to cast on that field. fire is usually direct damage but in this case would also allow you to make fire walls and stuff; light would be very long range and pretty much just damage, i dont know what else you could even do that would make sense

pure arcana magic like magic missile and shield are just helldiver stratagem arrow key sequences. unsure if it is JUST cantrip level stuff or if you can do harder typeracer sequences for advanced arcana magic

Clerical magic- You Have A Book, answer quiz questions from it, type as fast as you can, high level spells make you decipher the question before answering it, highest level you speak in tongues and answer back *in the cipher*

Qi martial arts- Where's My Water

I want conjuration magic because there's a lot of gadget-y things you can do with it and you can be both control and buffing your team by like, literally conjuring new stuff into their puzzles maybe? but idk how to do that one

crafting: alchemy mechanics, runestone language for a coding api maaaybe? kwarrtz says that's overplayed and i'm inclined to agree, plus the level of balancing for a coding language is rough because what can you do when someone writes literally the perfect script. make automatons and other gadget type things with like, one of those machine building type games, but as an out of combat minigame. dunno what to have for more direct item enchantments rather than magitech Devices, though. that's more of a thing for an api coding minigame thing but as mentioned. maybe you just need to time trial do a shitload of puzzles of the matching elements to put the enchantments on it? and then the crafting process has a skill ceiling of its own + the effect matches the school of magic, and it incentivizes a market where if you're not good at the spatial magic puzzles but want a teleportation item you wanna trade for it

[thanks-obillma]

songs on my td playlist that make me feel emotions again aka a chance to rant about my intricate headcanons for their adult lives

bad idea from waitress

both Mal and Zoey because they're way more similar than they'd ever admit

more shippy than I personally headcanon

"I know what's right for me, it's the only thing (I've ever) (I've never) done."

Mal knowing that the system will be safe and happy with Zoey and Cam but pulling away anyways to satisfy his need to be in absolute control to feel safe

(he knows he's being selfish) (he doesn't care) (he's the protector, he's the hero) (he's the villain) (he'll keep them all safe) (he's hurting them for his own sake) (he can't stop) (he's got everything under absolute control) (he's terrible) (he's the best thing that ever happened to them) (like it or not)

*slaps roof* this bad boy can fit so much cognitive dissonance in him, I love him

she's not a person anymore, she's a ghost, a shape a piece of clay for everyone to shove in their gaps, she's a stand in and a crutch and nothing and nobody and she's only the praise everyone else gives her, she doesn't even exist, she's a ghost she can't leave she's a terrible person for being a person she's not a person and this isn't a problem no she's being good so good and everyone loves her she's a person she has a body (she's just a shell)

and then it just goes straight into:

"what if I never see myself ever be anything more than what I've already become"

hoo boy

they can grow so much (they will grow so much) but god they can't see it right now they don't even know where to look how can they ever get there if the future is just wind in their hands

jealousy jealousy

once again Mal and Zoey

she doesn't exist outside other people, of course she struggles with being jealous of everyone somehow

she's jealous of their personhood, but that's too abstract so it's just their looks and accomplishments and belongings and life

and him? why him? why did it have to be him what did he ever do to deserve this? look at them. they're happy why the hell do they get to be happy??

I think he's jealous of Mike (I have a whole nother ramble locked and loaded for that) so the bridge is all his

anyways I think they should bond over being jealous of everyone and everything and Zoey should get to be bitter and embrace being an outcast a little more, you don't have to be perfect girly

keep an eye on dan-- abba

haunting sorta song about parenting separately

and Vito and Anne Maria are already my designated abba bitches sooo

they get kids but Vito's part of the system and the others have their own things going on so he's really only out a day and a half or so a week

so Anne Maria is basically raising the kids by herself with him as unreliable back up

(she's got a good support system and she wanted kids regardless of whether she had a coparent or not so it works for them pretty well but like angst potential here)

(I'll post more details about the kids later)

Vito strikes me as the type of guy to want a couple kids running around but he's also terrified of having kids because look how they (the system) turned out, how can he break that huge of a chain?he cries a lot the first time he holds his daughter because he finally got his dream and it's so fragile in his hands

(he's a great parent, he does good. she's a great parent, she does good. they do good, they do it.)

they all get their happy endings. they fight tooth and nail for it and they get it.

[ddwcaph-game]

i saw you answered my ask (the one about wayne hahaha) and I feel so embarrassed, I can't believe I mixed up the color of the hearts!! I also tried having a crush solely on JM too so that must be why I got the blue and yellow hearts messed up (and then there is also B who is a whole 'nother story 😂😂). Maybe I should rerun through the game again because I definitely know MC did not have the romantic trait and was too scared to say she liked him in front of his DAD. I just want to see for the flavor text lol.

so Rosie is red, Wayne is blue, JM is yellow, Lily is green, B is purple(?) and what about the other ones that have yet to be introduced?

Yup, you got the heart colors correct! I do mention the heart colors (as well as explain the other game mechanics) if you enable the gameplay tips before the game starts.

As for Cordelia, she will have a half-green/half-brown heart, while Cham will have a white heart with wings and a halo. Not sure about the other crush options yet.

If you're going for Wayne, he'll be much more interested in Silly/Headstrong MCs. But if you can't get a mutual crush established with Wayne that early, just let me know and I'll post the whole scene with his dad here. 😛 (The success scene is substantially different than if he says "Maybe ask me again some other time".)

Oh, and if you want a more private confession with Wayne, you can do so later in Chapter 6 if you follow him when he runs back to his house (I haven't written that yet though). There won't be any more private confessions after that until Volume 2.

Anyway, good luck! 😊

[imagionationstation]

Just saw ur post/answer to an ask, and:

"I have a Mutant World au, MW AU, which is my 2012 separated AU-type project. Tis my baby. So young, but so full of trauma"

And God, I am now in love with this AU. I love me a good separated type AU.

And one that Leo and Donnie separated together in the TMNT 2012 version (honestly, I just love Leo and Donnie's relationship/dynamic in general, so I am always happy to see more of it. And TMNT 2012 is a fav. of mine too), and basically alone/only have each other. And being the only humans in a world full of mutants, but like, also Kraang experimented on humans (Damn, they got Leatherheaded, April/April family'ed. The poor boys; happy they escaped. Even if they still have to be in hiding) - which makes me wonder if they might got some April powers stuff going on; that would be so cool, and then when two mutant bros (Raph and Mikey) do stumble in their lair, Leo tries to just straight up murder them (protective mama bear mode. We only have each other mode), and Donnie has to talk him out of it, and then they get to be not so alone anymore with Raph, Mikey, and Splinter.

It is just great, and now I want this as actual story or something someday; it just sounds so good.

Also makes me curious about some of the human characters (well, kinda/mostly/sometimes human characters for some of these) like April and her Dad (kindaaaa to both of those though), Casey (also kinda a bit), Shredder (until later on), and Karai (again, until later on). Oh the blind chef that I love a lot, but his name is hard for me to spell/remember.

The hypothetical other separated AU you talked about was interesting to me. Not the usually my cup of tea (i.e., how and/or who was separated and who stayed), but you did make it sound interesting. And I liked Leo and Raph just trying not to hurt their missing, now found little bros, and Mikey believing them first after trying to kill them for a bit, and Donnie being a little slower doing so, because he is loyal. It is just all very good.

Last of all, and not related to that one post at all, but thank you for making that post, about how the universes/dimensions and the people of the different universes/dimensions; in that case 2012 and ROTTMNT are different and each universe/dimension has different laws, because God, do I feel like some people forgot that/don't' realize that/don't take it into account as much as they should imo. Not all ofc; just you, some/a few at least.

First off: I totally forgot this ask existed and I am so sorry for that! Things have been hectic or else I would have responded much sooner 😓😓

Secondly: No problem! I think people forget how different so many aspects of the universes are, and that the differences are what make them awesome, and not flawed!

Thirdly: YEEE, MY BOIS *hugs BB and LB* 2012Leo&Donnie never get their own outcasted separated world together (or so I’ve seen) and so I have lowkey given them one. Raph and Mikey have their own kind of traumatic past, but these boys are on a whole ‘nother level…

I love Big Brother(BB) and Little Brother(LB) so much because they understand very little, and yet what they do understand matters more than anything else. They need each other, they can’t let the Kraang find them, and Mutants are never to be trusted.

They pick up the basics of the world outside the Kraang labs as they go, but BB spends so much time protecting LB from it that LB never gets his chance to see the ✨wonders✨ of the planet so unlike Dimension X. He has his books, but it’s not the same. BB gets surface time, but his fear blocks him from seeing anything other than dangers up there.

Of course, then they meet the boys, and Mikey helps LB to see everything he missed, and Raph helps BB to understand there’s a balance between protecting and shielding. If BB shields LB from everything, then LB won’t learn to really protect himself and will never get the freedom he deserves~

I briefly considered giving them psychic powers, but that’s still a ‘to be decided’ for now. We shall see ;)

HAVE THIS THING THAT BRINGS ME JOY

M7Craft from DeviantArt made this. It’s how she imagines Leo, and even though that’s not how I see him- I LOVE IT WITH MY HEART AND SOUL BECAUSE BB HAS LIFE! LOOKIT THE BROODING BOY!

They have names and designations. The names are what they call each other (Big Brother and Little Brother), but they consider themselves to be the Kraang experiment designations, 1683(Leo) and 1684(Donnie).

We talk story sometimes and M7Craft is working on art for me because we want to give it life since I’ve already got too much on my plate to write a full story and comics are not my forté.

One day 🥺

I make clips and stuff sometimes, which spawn from a random statement or question. Like this-

"How much longer?"

1683's whisper came out harsher than intended, but he felt too exposed in the alleyway, in full view of any mutants who happened to be walking by. 

They wore their protective armor, their hoods and mouth pieces- what had Little Brother called them? Visors?- that hide a fair amount of their face from view, but anything could happen on the surface, and he was experienced enough with mutant mindsets to know that they did not trust anyone whose face they couldn't see. 

A wise suspicion to uphold, but dangerous nonetheless. 

Unable to use his hands to speak while picking the lock, 1684 consented to vocal communication. "New lock. Different than practice one... Almost- there..." 

There was a click and 1684 quietly cheered, "Success!" 

1683 ruffled his hair in congratulations and then moved to push open the door as his Little Brother got to his feet. 1684 remained in the alley until 1683 reasoned it safe. After a quick motion for him to enter, his Little Brother darted past him and through the back room, searching through the boxed and canned items.

All his senses on alert, 1683 left the door ajar to keep from being locked in and then placed an empty can in front of it, as a warning if someone tried to enter. Little Brother began filling his bag, so 1683 allowed him out of his sight long enough to move from food to supplies, examining the options.

Little Brother already tinkered with anything that they could get their hands on, so necessities other than food were few and far between.

Considering everything 1684 did was for them, he always indulged his Little Brother's comforts whenever he could, paying special care to the stacks of books, trying to aim for ones that could prove useful.

He picked out two, both with words that he could not understand, and knew that Little Brother might get another chance to use his prized dictionary. He grabbed more matches for their lantern and then joined Little Brother once more. Sitting on the floor, his finger seemed to tap the air as he counted the prices in his head, slowly moving his collected items into his bag. 

1683 placed his objects on the pile and Little Brother paused, giving him a curious look that questioned the decision. He gave one nod and 1684 picked up his prizes with interest, a warm feeling flooding 1683's chest as tired eyes slowly lit up. Even that bit of subtle joy was enough to make this trip worth it.

Little Brother checked the price on the cover- they only took the books that had those because they seemed cheaper than the rest- and then picked up the other one. 

1683 let him have a minute to browse that one as well before he raised a hand, the motion gathering his Little Brother’s attention. He informed him that they needed to get moving, and 1684 apologized, adding that he had something for Big Brother as well. 

Before he could deny the gift, his Little Brother pulled out a package of mint tea leaves and 1683 lowered his hand, realizing that his one weakness had been discovered. Brown eyes danced as Little Brother put it back in the bag, adding what he'd brought and closing the flap, zipping open a side pocket and then counting out the mutant's trading paper- money- from what they had. 

1684 handed it to him and he held up five fingers, reminding him that if he didn't come back in five minutes, he was to head to the Bunker and not look back. Little Brother rolled his eyes, and 1683 huffed at his inability to take the danger seriously. 

They didn't know if there was someone waiting in the store itself, and just because they'd never seen anyone yet, didn't mean that wouldn't change. 

1683 waited until he got a nod of consent, one that seemed more to pacify him than anything, and then he made his way out into the store. He remained on the defensive as he located one of the money storing machines and then slipped their payment within, racing to the back again. 

There was a moment of intense panic when Little Brother was nowhere to be found, and then he realized the can had been moved and he was standing by the door.

The adrenaline in his veins hardened the glare 1683 gave him, but Little Brother was undisturbed, locking the door and silently heading out into the alley. 

He let his nerves out in a long sigh, but obediently followed suit. It was about time they got below anyway. They had their supplies, and Little Brother would be safe and underground for another week or so. He'd check the windows for new projects after Little Brother was settled in the Bunker. 

1684 shivered and 1683 realized that the temperature had dropped some. Knowing how easily Little Brother tended to get sick, he locked a hand on his elbow and urged him forward. They didn't have the resources that mutants did and their Bunker was surrounded by area that was far from sanitary, so the less they taunted fate, the better. 

Little Brother allowed it, taking one last look at the street lights behind them before they dived deeper into the alley. Sometimes he felt bad that Little Brother didn't get to see much of the city, and was wary of the ignorance of mutants that 1684 bore because of it. 

However, this was the price he was willing to pay. Little Brother was safe and healthy, though he probably wouldn't sleep that day since he had new books to read. Even if his choices to keep him protected left Little Brother bitter on hard nights, as long as he still had a Little Brother to be annoyed with him, 1683 would have no regrets.

Waving him down the open manhole, he watched Little Brother descend into the dank sewers. With one last careful scan around them, 1683 leapt after him, leaving the dangers and worries of the surface behind.

This is one of my earliest works while examining the bros and their relationships and BB’s thoughts on everything and sometimes they seem pretty bland in my writing because even I cannot do them justice but that’s okay because I love them so much!

Perhaps one day the world shall too. 💚💜💙💚

[mmmitchmmmarner]

so i got a message

like the title said, i got a super nice message from someone who wanted to share their experience w the team on sunday in seattle and asked if i could post it here anonymously

here's what they sent in:

Hey, mega Mitch fan here! I’ve been lucky enough to meet him (& his teammates) a few times & wanted to share some anecdotes from when I saw him before & after the Kraken game on 2/26. I should preface first off: The tiny little man we all love and adore is actually… not that short. Yes, standing next to freakishly large 6’5” athletes Mitch looks mini, but he’s pretty close to 6 feet. I’m a 6’2” dude, & he’s no more than 3 inches shorter than me. I was honestly very surprised the first time I met him that he wasn’t shorter, especially with that baby face. (I have a whole ‘nother story about the first time I met him, I should share another time.) So game day, I’m standing in front of the team hotel, along with a dozen or so fans, waiting to catch a glimpse of Mitch & company as they get on to the team bus. Of course, Mitch comes out of the hotel with Auston, deep in conversation. I think they’re pretty much inseparable on game days. Gio, Willie & Pierre came out later & greeted the fans, which is really nice (Gio is notoriously kind to fans). I got to say a few things to each of them, but the rest of the team came out in a group & the most I got to do was shout “Good luck tonight!” at them. Sheldon actually had a smile on his face as he walked by, which is unusual from previous experience. I feel like he carries the entire weight of the Toronto fanbase on his shoulders as coach. Going to the game itself was a blast. I sat next to the players’ entrance as they came out. It’s crazy to be that up-close to them in their full gear. Sloppy first period, but Leafs had the last word, so it didn’t even matter. After the game I raced back to the hotel to congratulate the team. I was able to tell Mitch “Great game!” as he got off the bus and he replied with a sheepish “Thanks!” I think he gets flustered when men compliment him. 🫢 Auston is usually pretty in-the-zone when I’ve seen him before, but he actually looked happy after the win and replied the same way (minus the blushing). The funniest interaction I had was with Dubas. He replied to me “Could have been better.” in reference to the game. He said it with a smile, but I think he was referencing the first period a little too. I just replied in a sarcastic tone, “Yeah, yeah, it could always be better.” Dubas really does want the best out of the team, and that’s why I believe the Leafs can & will win the cup under his leadership. It would be great to see more hockeyblr folks out supporting their teams & saying nice things to the players. I think the Leafs’ security guy is used to fighting off hecklers (not the nice kind). 😕 It takes a bit of perseverance (& standing out in the weather for hours sometimes), but I’d recommend anybody willing to to try it. You can meet your favorite player! P.S. Pierre Engvall looks like a super model up close. 😳

thanks again anon for sending this in! this was a fun little look at some of the guys

[sitzfleischh]

So I just finished watching Gomens s1 + 2 for the first time ever yesterday lol I read the book years ago and loved it but never got around to the show. I just saw your post about the structure of s2 feeling weird, and is that the general consensus from fans? I've just dipped my toes into Fandom today, so I have no idea the popular thoughts and metas, so from my pov s2 worked super well, and I actually liked it waaaaay more than s1 but maybe that's bc I didn't have years of s1 to sit on and it's ALL fresh and new? Iunno I just found that really interesting lol

Good question! I certainly can't speak for the whole fandom but from what I've seen on here I think there was a mix of reactions ranging from the folks sending hate to Neil Gaiman because they couldn't deal emotionally with there being a sad cliffhanger, to folks who totally loved the season as-is, to some who thought that the writing was bad but actually it was bad on purpose as a long-con magic act plan that will all be revealed later, to some who enjoyed it overall but were either thrown off by how different it was from season one, or thought it had some issues in terms of pacing and quality of dialogue/etc.

I fall somewhere on the more positive end of that last camp, so my post about the structure feeling weird was partly a response to some of the more negative responses I had come across-- like there were posts I was seeing where folks were trying to insinuate that S2 was uniquely worse or different writing from season 1 and I was kind of like... No I think whatever writing/tonal issues good omens has have always existed and have more to do with the way that the silliness and satire of the novel translates differently on screen (but that's a whole 'nother post I should write sometime haha).

But also tbh I think it was mostly just me thinking through my own reaction to the series, which was somewhere along the lines of: I loved it and had a great time but it felt weird to me in a way that made me go "time to put on the ol' analysis goggles and figure out what's going on here."

I totally think that having the long wait between season 1 and 2 contributed to that feeling though, so you're right on the money there. I wasn't really part of the GO fandom in the years between season 1 and 2 but I imagine if I had been all of this would have been even more heightened because you're stewing for so long in fanon works and meta and expectations about how the story will go from here, so inevitably there's going to be some culture shock in returning to canon after so long. Also just the fact that for a long time after season one we didn't even know there was going to be any more! Which I think was the main factor influencing my experience of season 2, as someone who first read the book 11 years ago so I've spent over a decade thinking the character arcs and story beats of Good Omens had been completed, so while season 2 was very welcome and appreciated, I went into it kind of expecting it would also be a mostly complete self-contained story arc like season 1 was.

Anyway I kind of went off the rails a bit here LOL, analysing and critiquing shows is the way I express my love for them, and I love Good Omens so much and have for over a decade, which means all I wanna do all day is take it apart and look at the pieces to figure out how it works

Sorry for the very long and rambly response but thank you so much for the message, I hope I answered your question!! ♥️♥️

[tarnishedxknight]

Headcanons: Basch’s Necklace

{out of dalmasca} Alright, I’m going to tackle the issue of what Basch’s necklace is and what it means in this post. It was never said during the game what the symbol on Basch’s necklace means or where he got it. After doing some comparing to other characters and looking at when he has this necklace on (and when it should have been taken on him, but it wasn’t), I’ve arrived at my own headcanons for what the necklace means. This combines doing some digging for what’s in the actual game as well as my headcanons for the Dark!Ivalice AU, which elaborates on the core game and fleshes out some more realistic but triggering background information for the Ronsenburg twins. (I still have to write that up, ugh. Someday I will actually finish that, heh.) Obviously this makes these headcanons… non-canon, but from now on I will be using this for my version of Basch.

Sussing this out was a collaborative effort with @tarnishedxjudgement​​. Credit given where it is due. =)

Throughout various points in Final Fantasy XII, we see Basch wearing a necklace with some sort of symbol on it. It’s never said what it means, where he got it, or why he wears it. The most obvious choices are that it’s something meaningful to the throne of Dalmasca, or that it has to do with the Order of the Knights of Dalmasca or perhaps the royal guard (both of which Basch was captain). However, taking a look at Sir Vossler Azelas, also a Dalmascan knight, and a royal guardsman, Reks, proves that it is not something that designates rank within the Dalmasca army.

Here’s Reks and Vossler (not to scale, obviously, haha). Vossler doesn’t appear to be wearing any kind of necklace at all (or, frankly, his gorget on correctly... don’t get me started on the utter impracticality of Dalmascan armor, I could write a whole ‘nother meta about that alone, haha). One could argue that he took it off after the fall of Rabanastre, except that he doesn’t have anything on in the very beginning of the game either, before that occurs:

Being a knight was important to Vossler. Knighthood was a common thing in the previous generations of his noble family, and being passed up for Knight Captain in favor of Basch was something that stuck in his craw and contributed to his later betrayal and his part in framing of Basch for Raminas’ murder. So if the necklace was some kind of symbol of knighthood, Vossler would have worn it at the beginning of the game, certainly, and I would argue even afterward, since it was something that was on his mind and that he thought himself more than worthy of. Reks, on the other hand, has his own neck adornment on. You can see it in this screencap where he’s near Basch.

Incidentally, we see here that Basch doesn’t appear to have a necklace on, but he does have his gorget on correctly, at least, even though it’s not a good one and doesn’t come up high enough to protect his throat (again, don’t get me started, lol). I believe Basch possibly has the necklace on underneath where we can’t see it. More on that later. 

Here’s a closeup of Basch, and we can see that whatever metal piece that is, it is just a closure or adornment on his gorget, not his necklace. Going back to Reks, I’m unclear as to whether his is a necklace or part of his armor, but not all guards have it, so it was something unique to him. It was likely something that was a family heirloom or just personal to him, since we see Vaan wearing it for the rest of the game, after Reks’ death. So he either inherited it or just took it to wear in remembrance of his brother.

That’s the same neckpiece Reks had, now on Vaan. Contrast that to Basch’s necklace, which is admittedly difficult to see in this particular screencap, but you can see they are not the same. So his necklace has nothing to do with having been a Dalmascan knight or royal guardsman. (Side note: this is the only time in the game Basch ever smiles, so... take it in for a second, heh.)

It is also not the royal seal of Dalmasca, which is pictured above. I thought because he had been Knight Captain and Royal Guard Captain that these titles may have set him apart from others and earned him his own royal sigil to wear, but no, it’s clearly not the same as House Dalmasca’s sigil.

Many characters have clasps, fasteners, etc. or other adornments on their clothes and armor that are just part of their outfit. This is not the case with Basch. His necklace is separate from his clothing/armor. We know this because when people use mods to change the characters’ clothing style and color, the mod is programmed to change everything related to that character’s outfit, like a skin that alters it all as a whole. So if that necklace was actually part of something he was wearing, it would disappear or be changed by using mods, but as you can see in the above modded screencap, the necklace remains while Basch’s outfit has been altered.

So if it isn’t because he was a royal guard, a knight, or a captain of either, and it isn’t part of his outfit, then what is this symbol, where is it from, and what does it mean? It’s up to us to decide, since it was never mentioned in the game, so we can decide based on what we think is realistic and what is significant to Basch as a character. To flesh this out, let’s do some examining of when Basch wears it and what the significance of that might be.

Alright, we’ve already seen some screenshots of Basch wearing his necklace after the fall of Nabudis and after his imprisonment in Nalbina Dungeon, but what about before? I mentioned before that he doesn’t seem to have it on in the game’s prologue, but it may very well have been underneath his gorget. But, you might say, he does not have it on at the Battle of Nalbina Fortress, as you can see above. There’s actually... ah-hem... a gap... in his armor... right over his chest (Dalmascan armor sucks, no one will ever convince me otherwise), and you can see right through to his skin (why does he not have anything on underneath his armor? well my version of Basch did because this is absolutely ridiculous, heh). So he’s not wearing it there. That might prompt you to think he didn’t have it at this point and got it later on, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think he took it off for a reason. 

Here, you can see the gap better in this pic. This was when he had returned from the front lines in Nabradia to inform King Raminas, and I guess Prince Rasler too, that things were not going all that well. Now... a Knight/Royal Guard Captain of Dalmasca fighting in Nabradia... Why? He has no jurisdiction there and the Dalmascan army has no business being there... unless sanctioned by Nabradia. Which... they were because of the wedding between Rasler and Ashelia. So Basch, as a high-ranking officer/general type individual on the front lines in Nabradia representing Dalmasca, might have wanted to remove any other symbols from his person. On a battlefield, being able to identify friend from foe is important, as is having those under you recognize that you are an authority figure, so confusing symbols others might not recognize on someone who looks like a person of import might get him targeted in the wrong way and distract attention away from the real enemies. Also, if he is representing Dalmasca while inside Nabradian borders in a war against Archadian forces in official fashion, he’s very much obligated to look the part. His actions on the front lines reflect on Dalmasca and on his king. He would only have wanted to be visually recognizable as a Dalmascan knight in this instance. So I think he either left it at “home” in the royal palace at Rabanastre, or maybe on whatever airship he was currently stating in, or maybe he carried it elsewhere on his person, like in a belt pouch, if it was that important to keep with him.

Now here’s where it gets interesting... The following are screenshots from Basch while he’s in Nalbina Dungeon and then right after he was busted out of it:

You can see his necklace really well in both of these, but more importantly... he still has it. This is intriguing because, especially in the first screenshot, you can see that almost everything has been removed from him. Why would they allow him to keep this while imprisoned? More importantly, why would Noah, his twin brother and unfortunate nemesis at this moment, allow him to keep it? It seems out of place, and it seems not to make sense. Nevertheless, he has it all through his imprisonment and afterward he wears it for the rest of the game. So it seems to be something very important to him, and yet something that Noah would not remove from him during imprisonment and interrogation. Noah didn’t use it as leverage, a bargaining chip, to antagonize Basch by taking it off, nothing. He just left it on him. Why?

Alright, here’s where I get into my headcanons, having gone through all of this observation and analysis. I think Basch’s necklace is something from Landis, specifically to denote a station/rank he made there. Landis was a small republic, but throughout history, republics have had their own knightly orders. Here’s my story/explanation for the significance behind Basch’s necklace, bring together everything I’ve just mentioned and combining already-existing headcanons for the twins...

Landis had its own knightly order, an upgrade above town watch, basically, that served as public defenders. Like... a police force. Being raised as soldiers from very young ages, Basch and Noah aspired to join this order, and likely their father even pushed them to eventually join someday. This order was populated by altruistic men who would lay down their lives to protect the towns and cities of Landis, and also ones skilled in riding chocobos, the breeding, raising, and selling of which was something Landis was known for.

Basch and Noah’s family was involved in chocobo farming, even having their own stable. Basch had always taken well to the animals, not only having a good rapport with them but loving them as well. He always had such affection for them, and they for him, but Noah... was wary around them. The chocobos seemed to get agitated around him, and Noah could never get the hang of riding them. As with many things in the Ronsenburg household, Basch seemed to have a much easier time with mastering riding the large birds than Noah did.

By the time the twins were fourteen, they were eligible to start trying out for this protective order of knights that kept the general public safe in Landis. Basch had the right temperament, the necessary fighting skill, and the ability to ride chocobos, so he was accepted fairly quickly. Noah, on the other hand, although he had the skills with weapons he needed, he was not able to ride chocobos and he was more likely to save himself than to die for others. Given this, he was rejected. It was one more way in which the two identical twins were judged differently, and one more reason Noah grew to resent Basch.

Basch was very proud to be accepted into this order, not only because he felt he had accomplished something significant, but because he genuinely wanted to be a knight. It has always been in his nature to be a protector, and it was something he’d wanted to be from the time he was very small. Noah was not an altruistic person, and although he could be loyal to those he cared for and willing to put himself in danger, he would not do so for strangers, and he wouldn’t do so before exhausting all other options. To Basch, the necklace he was given that helped designate him as one of these knights, and therefore advertised to the people of Landis that he was someone they could go to for help, was an absolute honor and a joy to have. Being in an order like that was everything he wanted in life.

As far as what the symbol actually is, I’m not sure, but to me it looks like maybe wings surrounding something. A guardian angel type motif, maybe? Seems like a protective symbol to me, wings surrounding a central design. Or... perhaps a stylized bird? A chocobo? It might look like a body, a head, and wings curling around in a stylized version of them if you kindof imagine hard enough. Looks like something a chocobo-mounted public defender force might wear to me. *shrugs* Use your imagination, folks.

After Landis was obliterated by Archadia, the necklace meant even more to Basch. It represented his childhood, his idealism, the life he could have had, and his fallen homeland. This is why it is so important to him, and why he continued to wear it after he left Landis and traveled to Dalmasca. Although he never spoke much about his past or family, King Raminas would have known what the symbol meant, and having been in an order of knights previously, even that of a tiny republic like Landis, would have said something of Basch’s capability and temperament. It may have been a reason why Basch ascended the ranks in Dalmasca’s army as quickly as he did, and even why he was chosen as Knight Captain above Vossler, who had come from a prominent Dalmascan family with a history of knighthood. Vossler’s temperament, as we saw later in the game, was not as altruistic as Basch’s. It’s possible that Raminas considered all of this when he slighted Vossler by elevating both a younger man and a foreigner above him as his captain.

Now fast forward to Nalbina Dungeon, and Noah intervening in Basch’s execution to keep him imprisoned and interrogate him to find out information on the Dalmascan Resistance and the whereabouts of Ashelia. Noah was in complete control of Basch at that point. He could have had anything done to him that he wanted. We know, both from what was said and from his condition after being freed, that Basch was mostly stripped down, starved, injured, and kept in a cage at least part of the time he was in Nalbina. So why leave him with this necklace that means so much to him?

I won’t go into detail here because I swear I’m writing up the Dark!Ivalice AU if it kills me, haha, but Noah did not have a good relationship with his father, the twins’ relationship was strained, and much of the horror of his life that followed after the fall of Landis he blames on Basch or at least sees him as the catalyst for. Landis... is not a fond memory for Noah. It wasn’t a happy home, a safe place, or an honor in knighthood. It was never feeling good enough and being compared constantly to Basch. It was failure and disappointment. It was being the lesser twin. Seeing that symbol around Basch’s neck I think was triggering to Noah. And when Noah is triggered by something, when something upsets him or makes him emotional, he walls it off, ignores it, and otherwise pretends it isn’t there or didn’t happen. He wants to appear strong, unbreakable, emotionless, and never weak. He never wants to be a victim again, and part of that is cutting ties with Landis.

I think he left the necklace alone because he either got triggered and mentally denied it was even there, or because he was trying to actively ignore it, both so that it didn’t affect him mentally and to almost prove its insignificance to Basch. He was almost saying, I’ll let you keep it because it’s of no consequence, it’s meaningless, when it was anything but. If he had taken it from Basch, that would have proven that it meant something. To leave it alone, to ignore it... better indicates that it’s worthless, at least in Noah’s mind. 

And there you have it, folks. Basch’s necklace indicates that he was a knight from a now-disbanded order in the now-destroyed country in which he was born. Consider him wearing this in all threads unless otherwise specified, and absolutely feel free to have your muse notice it or ask him about it. Why doesn’t he wear something from Dalmasca, you ask? Especially in threads where he’s no longer in his own time? I’ve got an answer to that too. He knows by heart what the Dalmascan royal seal looks like. As soon as he realizes tattoos are a thing in this current time period, he will sketch the seal and get it tattooed, likely on his arm, like this guy did. Because Dalmasca was his second home and he loves it as much as he did Landis. =)

[leftovergasoline]

I really really wanna share just a bunch of info about what I enjoy doing. Very long post about art and projects and Transformers below:

Okay, so one hobby I've always wanted to pursue is 3d printing my own Transformers. Transformers action figures are awesome and I love them, but they're also 1) very hit-or-miss, and 2) expensive. Like, the good and fun ones that make me happy are usually $60. So as a teenager, I started thinking, "why don't I just design my own? I could take my own headcanon characters and give them my chosen alt-modes with all the combinations of my favorite design traits from all the continuities and they would be perfect!!" So that's what I did.

I have personal visions for basically every Transformer I can think of, but the first one I wanted to tackle was Omega Supreme. Lore-wise, I could write a whole nother post about his character, but design-wise, I wanted him to follow the G1 TV show design, but with the actual Saturn V launch vehicle, LUT, and Crawler Transporter as his alt mode. Later on, I decided to include the Saturn IB and its stand, and I would like to include Skylab as well. I really really wanted to "solve" the physics/continuity problem that he has in the animated show where he flies to other planets as a spaceship and the rest of his alt-mode just shows up on the ground. I came up with a solution that involves each possible combination of components having its own robot mode capable of interplanetary flight. I've also considered tying those robots into characters from a specific Japanese continuity, but I forget which one or which characters. In terms of alt-mode components, the tiers of individual robot modes would roughly match what he would need to function like the real Saturn launch vehicles while still being completely mobile:

1) full launch vehicle (CT + MLP + LUT + Saturn V or Saturn IB + milkstool)

2) launch vehicle, minus rocket (would include milkstool)

3) Crawler Transporter

4) full rocket (Saturn V or Saturn IB)

5) S-IC (or S-IB) stage

6) full rocket, minus S-IC stage

6) S-II stage

7) Orbital portion (S-IVB stage and up)

8) S-IVB stage

9) Lunar portion (CSM, LM)

10) CSM

11) Service Module

12) Command Module

13) Lunar Module

14) LM Ascent Stage

15) LM Descent Stage

16) Lunar Rover, retroreflectors, and Lunar Rover (if I'm feeling adventurous :) )

As long as each of these portions and their associated kibble (instrument ring, LM adapter housing, Launch Escape System) are able to come back together on another planet without assistance from other transformers, I consider my design a success. I'd say I've achieved that, but I'm only halfway there.

Around 11th grade, my school got 3d printers and I taught myself how to use TinkerCAD. I finally started my work:

Then I realized that the scale would be too small for all the stages, so for the CSM portion, I made another scale:

I spent the better part of a year just working on this, and by the end of 12th grade, I managed to print this little guy:

First prototype for my 12-legged Command Module transformer! He's a funky lil man who barely functions, but he's a good start. I hoped to continue.

THEN...

The summer after 12th grade was 5 months of hell. And then the 3 years after that have been spent starting to come to terms with 18 years of hell. In that time, I worked on some other projects, like my personal HC rendition of Death's Head from the Marvel Transformers series. However, I have not gone back to this project. I feel like I should, but I just don't. And maybe this year I should. I should do it while I still have access to 3d printers.

Anyways,

That's all. Just wanted to share!