#the game is in choosing which parts will be consumed and which parts will die along side you i suppose

[voidmagika]

mm maybe I shld post here lol

[double--hh]

Sorry my gay ass fell asleep but ok ok. Gonna start with the hierarchy first because I think about it too much.

The Horsemen are all technically the rulers (Yan Luo, Shub, Ishtar, Teutates), but since the place they live (which is honestly just more of a small village with a huge castle where all the Horsemen live) is owned by Yan Luo's family she technically holds the title of ruler. As I said in my headcanons post she is the youngest because Death and War are hereditary titles (Death and War tend to leave no survivors and be generational. Famine will keep whoever is causing the famine alive, and Pestilence requires creation and life). When the Horseman title is passed down, the next in line will be "branded" with a magic sigil which allows the older Horseman to transfer their powers. A Horseman cannot die when holding the title, but once they give it up they very much can die. Consorts are anyone with relation to the Horsemen, be it family or lover. They are required to have the symbol of their Horseman somewhere on their clothes or an accessory, and it is a sign of great disrespect to align yourself with a different part of the apocalypse. Next are ritual performers who. Perform the rituals or provide sacrifices (Abducius used to sacrifice people but in my version one of the fankids I made took over). These three upper rungs are privvy to information the general public doesn't know. Common Nightmares are everyone else. The extra guys (Chester, Clown, Nightmare Clown, Mask Ghost) aren't part of their society, and dopples are regarded as animals. 42 and Peach Peach are just. Outdoor cats you aren't supposed to feed.

Alignment is just which part of the apocalypse you aling yourself most with. Death is the absence of change and. Death. Pestilence is creation, Famine is constant change and being able to handle it, and War is destruction. You can choose to wear the symbol of the Horseman you are aligned to, but it often doesn't curry you any favours and can even make people just. Really mad at you. So most people do not do this.

There are marks you can get that do magic things though! Yan Luo's handmaidens and Teutates' army all have magic sigils on their shoulder blades so they can be easily summoned by their respective boss. Summoning people they know is something all Horsemen can do, but it takes a lot of energy and focus so having it as a button press is just so much easier. Other Nightmares can also create marks, but those take a lot more power and time, so most won't. You can also create charms to override any magic placed upon someone by a Horseman.

The group has a sacrifice every full moon to replenish their power. Everyone must attend because in order for this to work in any capacity the power must flow through each member of the Nightmares, completing the "circuit". There are also week long festivals dedicated to each Horseman because. Again they are really important. Spring has a fair with games and such, and Ishtar's special ritual includes no sacrifices. Summer has a week long feast with a mass sacrifice right in the middle so they can have meat. Fall has the tournament where a bunch of humans must fight both themselves and occasionally a Nightmare, and the winner fights Teutates. Winter has a week long funeral, concluding with a final sacrifice to start the new year. Also, each Horseman has a certain thing they go through each season, and all of the other Horsemen are affected but people with opposite seasons (Yan Luo and Shub, Ishtar and Teutates) are less affected. Yan Luo does into a deep depression each winter, Ishtar gets a certain way, Shub gets ravenously hungry, and Teutates is consumed with bloodlust. This also affects the rest of the nightmares too, just also to a lesser extent.

Going back to the Mask Ghost I just want to say I think she is a victim of the Nightmare Clown and now is forced to ask to be let in but never stay.

Also! In my version, the Nightmare Realm is a real place because my doorman character (the dOOrman) is connected to like. My pantheon of gods. They are also not human, they are a type of extra dimensional being known as a Contrivance which are beings created from the pure hope someone will come to save them. That's why they are a doorman! But yeah they had intrusive thoughts so bad they created a whole pocket dimension (I personally think the Nightmare versions are how the outside world perceives each of the neighbors so. Yeah :). ) They still aren't a human in the nightmare realm, they are an angel. A different kind of angel to Quachil though.

That should be it for now but. If you have any questions. You can totally ask :3

bro i LOVE how deep your horsemen au/hc is, id love to see this as a fanfic/comic!!!!!!!

[perfectlovevn]

If no one could give you the love you craved...

Then you would create someone who could.

Wouldn't that be fun?

Game is now complete. Have fun.

You were always obsessed with a specific love... not one advertised in romance novels or movies, but a love that consumes and corrupts... One of obsession and possession. No matter what you did, you could never find that love...

So you decided... why not make this perfect love instead?

A game that was suppose to be made for the Yandere Jam 2023, but I didn't have enough time to finish, so now I'm going to try to finish it by the end of the summer at latest.

Game will include:

Nameable MC (Default Name, Eris) who is incredibly manipulative

Choose your own Nickname

Too many references to yandere vns (in terms of names and nickname combos)

Milo, the to-be yandere that changes appearance, personality and dialogue based on decisions.

Everything in greyscale so I don't die of coloring

Three Choices

Eight Different Endings + A Secret Ending

Maybe Extras if I can figure out how to code it in which will include some basic side stories

Future Progress:

Extra Scenes Writing: 90%

Extra Scenes Sprites: 30%

Extra Scenes Coding: 30%

Extra Scenes Music: 0%

Milo Didn't Like that: 0%

Game Warnings:

Includes:

Bullying

Manipulation (on both Milo and Eris's part)

Blackmail

Violence/Blood

Stalking

Drugging (creation of and using of)

Possessive/ Obsessiveness

Yandere Behavior (And a yandere of course)

A Cruel MC

and others that will be added to the list afterwards

I'll try to give progress updates at least once a week so people know that I'm working on it. We'll see how it goes.

Feel free to send asks!

I'll figure out tags as we go as well. Have fun!

Tags:

#characterprofile

#about PreMilo

#about ManipulationMilo

#about ViolenceMilo

#about eris

#milo asks

#perfectlove dev logs

#Milo fanart

#C4 Draws

[sunset-synthetica]

Can you explain how the immortal science of marxism-leninism relates to Turbo Overkill

I don't believe TO is trying to have a huge deep political message, but some of it was intentional and the rest stems from its inspirations, ie Blade Runner, whose political messaging WAS intentionally a critique of capitalism and/or the more specific effects it has on our lives.

The backdrop is a late capitalist- using Mandel's definition- system where the largest and most powerful company's (Teratek's) capital is generated mostly, if not entirely, by selling increasingly more dangerous and experimental products to a consumer base spanning entire solar systems at the very least.

By looking at Johnny as a member of the exploited working class - albeit a class traitor, as he's a former cop* - a disabled person, unable to earn enough to save his life in any other way than by essentially selling himself to Teratek and gradually losing parts of his own body and surrenderong agency as this job becomes more and more demanding. We see a clear anti-capitalist sentiment built directly into the foundation of the game.

We can go further though.

SYN, in short summarized as a sentient, virus-esque AI, functions as an abstracted, personified representation of Teratek itself and its ultimate goals. SYN was supposed to enhance the process of human body augmentation, and, as Johnny's mother states, having been directly involved in the making of SYN, it should have been a way to help people, had Teratek not been the intended owner.

SYN goes rogue, and, instead of disobeying Teratek's policy, takes it further, either converting augmented people into a mind controlled force, or creating entirely new beings in the pursuit of human evolution. She seeks to force the human race to evolve, or be exterminated, which relates moreso to eugenics but is a vital part of her position in the story.

So, establishing SYN as both a manifestation of Teratek/the wider market as well as its relationship to the workers, and something of a next step in the evolutionary line of their thinking, her relationship with Johnny gets easier to pick apart.

Johnny is offered a choice that, while more obvious in its immediate effect, partially reflects the experience of the worker- debase himself, be stripped of choice, free will, identity, be exploited for the rest of his life to build a future he will not see or enjoy, sell his labor for the cost of staying alive - or die. It's not a choice, not really, it's an illusion.

He chooses to stay alive, of course, and though SYN is defeated at the end, it doesn't break him out of the loop. SYN is not the root of the problem, she is not the cause for Johnny's suffering and exploitation, she's the more extreme, almost caricature-like version of his struggle.

Johnny ends the story the same as he'd began, only the illusion of a choice in the matter is shattered.

The Street Cleaners

The Street Cleaners are a mercenary-like faction, essentially fulfilling the role of the police, though on a much less regulated, official level. We don't have a lot of information about them, but from what I've been able to gather, they are generally disliked by the Regulators- police force- and work outside the law to an unknown extent, without pretending otherwise, all while fulfilling the interests of corporations.

Within the Street Cleaners, everything goes if the money is good enough, which was the incentive for Johnny to join in the first place- do the dirty work, get paid, survive.

I wanna look at Maw specifically. He's all around an interesting character, but it really shines from this angle.

All of the Street Cleaners seem to enjoy their work, including Johnny, but Maw's relationship to it is particular, in that he doesn't see his colleague or fellow people as either competition or allies on the same level, but as inherently beneath him, not worthy of his consideration.

Maw criticizes the corporations, claims them to be untrustworthy and incapable of wielding power without abusing it, and yet his solution is not the collective seizing of the means of production- SYN's platform and all its available resources, including the augmentation process in this context- but rather the accumulation of all for himself.

He plans to change the system from within by establishing himself as in control, as its driving force, instead of seeing the system as inherently flawed and needing to be dismantled. No amount of gradual change could have changed SYN, or the system for the better, and so, Maw only speeds up a process that, under SYN, might have taken longer, but would have been inevitable regardless.

Maw loses control, loses his sense of reality and objectivity, of himself, and crumbles under the weight of this process, this power.

Were SYN the one in control during the time of Maw's rampage, the process may have been more gradual, less chaotic, but the ending would have been the same - a mass extinction event, countless deaths and destruction, regardless of whether the motive was a false hope for the evolution of the human race, or profit for the bourgeoisie/market, as represented mostly by Teratek's Executive.

In short, Maw allows himself to become absorbed by the system, accelerates its negative outcome, and upon being killed, just like SYN's own death, nothing changes. Both deaths slow the progress down somewhat, hide the obvious, but result in no meaningful change.

All of this, while a reach in some parts, is not contradicted by anything in the story of Turbo Overkill, rendering it an insane, but viable analysis.

My conclusion is that Marxism-Leninism couldn't have saved Johnny Turbo, but it could have eased his suffering and made him see his struggle as founded in a material reality outside his own control, and inherent to the very system he exists within.

-----------

*the situation of the Regulator force isn't exactly clear, but Paradise- Johnny's home, and the respective Regulator force of which he was a part of- is stated to have heavy criminal activity, which necessitated the Regulator presence, and may have inspired Johnny to join in the first place.

SYN, ironically enough, directly states that Johnny's presence in the Regulator force meant he "enforced [her] goals," until he was led astray by his injury. Said goals are specifically the elimination of the weak to make place for the strong, a genocide, but it's unclear if by "her", SYN describes herself as the sentient person possessing agency, or the purpose for which Teratek utilized her prior. If we assume the latter is true, it would mean the Regulators are simply a cleaner, more widely accepted version of the Street Cleaners, as I've already stated is my belief.

[thekingwhereitallends]

I have a big question: Does Kazuya genuinely hate Jin?

What will kazuya do if he survived and he and Jun raised together? What type of father will he be

Kazuya didn't really hate Jin up until the climax of their final showdown in Tekken 8.

For the most part,Jin was just another nuisance to Kazuya. Kazuya probably found him to be an interesting rival during Tekken 6,but he didn't really show him any respect. Kazuya was busy doing his researches,avenging his mother's and grandfather's deaths(also his own effed up childhood) and planning to take over the world. Jin was just another obstacle in his way. To Kazuya,Jin was no different from him as Jin was the one who started WWIII and killed millions of innocent people.

Then in Tekken 8,Kazuya is the only one in the entire who has common sense and reminds Jin of his hypocrisy. Kazuya is at first confused to see Jin of all people opposing him. The next time they meet,Kazuya ignores Jin but the the third time Kazuya grows tired of Jin and tries to end his life as he is unconscious(which is an OOC act as Kazuya is an honourable fighter). Upon awakening,Jin keeps annoying Kazuya and ends up not just sacrificing his own supernatural powers but also Kazuya's demonic powers then manages to keep getting up over and over and over again. This infuriates Kazuya who can't process what's going on in Jin's mind and why he just doesn't know when to quit. Kazuya reaches a point where you can argue he starts to hate his son but in alternate/evil ending,He merely throws Jin off a cliff. Like come on,why not have Jin die a painful death in lava? Kazuya and Jin have already fallen from stratosphere and got back on their feet like nothing happened,that little distance isn't gonna kill Jin. That again shows Kazuya doesn't feel the urge to kill Jin. The only person Kazuya hated in his life was Heihachi and we all know how that concluded.

To answer your second and third question,it depends on Kazuya's decision to embrace Angel or be consumed by Devil. If he chooses redemption then i bet he'd learn how to be a good father. If he feels cute doing nasty job then it's all obvious.

Tekken 9 will be about Kazuya's redemption arc. At the end of the game,we might see him team up with Jin and softens toward his son. Kazuya won't be your ideal smiling,pure innocent and sad crybaby but rather a sympathetic and conflicted anti-hero of sorts.

[gacha-incels]

@frozenemus I want to eventually do a larger and much more researched post regarding misogynist men who are drawn to these types of games: socially, psychologically, financially and historically especially in South Korea. I don’t want to wait that long to reply here so I’ll let you know my thoughts so far which are by no means going to be a comprehensive look at everything.

Yes, I think these games pander to what this type of man already believes about women and this is why they will flock to them. The “gacha game” medium comforts him with the always-available cartoon woman who can literally be “won” (not through confusing things like treating them with respect but rather money),will never leave (until EoS), obeys all his orders (through gameplay), and always looks perfect (because she is drawn that way).

I believe these games and in effect all mainstream pop/entertainment media (among other things) serve to uphold the status quo in one way or another. This is not a phenomenon unique to gacha games themselves. Media like this can have a significant affect on its population, which is why you will see the US military finance so many films, tv shows and videogames. I don’t think any singular pop media can do something as drastic as completely change a population’s opinion regarding an issue, but rather it can flatter its audience by showing them an easy lie rather than confront an uncomfortable truth, which in turn serves to solidify certain concepts in a society. This media often reflects back onto the consumer a stereotype or dichotomy they feel safe with, which in turn creates a kind of feedback loop of comfortable falsity that becomes enshrined as truth. This can be something as seemingly benign as replacing an actual eagle’s cry with that of a hawk’s because that’s what the audience “expects to hear” or more sinisterly the “third world filter” used in many North American productions when showing scenes in a country viewers “expect” to be in poverty. There’s been a lot written within the past couple years regarding “copaganda” entertainment which exemplifies a lot of this type of thing. Similarly I believe it’s been studied that when in times of big changes or economy crashes, more sequel movies will be made and toy store aisles will have an extremely stark divide between “boy’s toys” and “girl’s toys”. It’s in part to comfort the society that fears the unknown future with both saccharine nostalgia and familiar dichotomies with clear and dividing gender roles to fit into. You don’t have to think or be worried- it’s all been decided already so just get in the box.

The medium of “gacha game” itself I believe is the first thing that should be considered- the first message conveyed to the consumer is what medium the “artist” chooses to tell their story. In a whole host of ways, interacting with a book is different than a play which is different than a movie, etc. You can find, for instance, older books where directors write about the need to recognize and utilize the unique facets of film to get meaning across rather than fall back on the familiar and easy stageplay of the theater. Off the top of my head, I think Tarkovsky, Cocteau and Maya Deren have written about it in their books, and a more contemporary book I especially liked was Doug Aitken’s “Broken Screen” interviews. Anyway you’ve probably read or heard of Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the massage”(message), it’s something I would like to elaborate on in a future post so I won’t get into it now. The most unique aspect of the “gacha game” is gambling and often spending large quantities of money for in-game anime style characters to play as/command. Like I said in the last post, these games ride or die on high spenders dropping cash to max these characters out. EVERYTHING about the game must cater to this consumer first and any “artistic intent” will be filtered through the expectations of these customers. None of the story beats or, more importantly, character designs can afford to offend the gacha gamer. Artistic intent and concepts are neutered simply by the medium itself- sorry but this is why I find it ridiculous to see so many people venerating Arknights and Limbus Company as making some incredibly progressive statements regarding capitalism or feminism. It is antithetical to the very medium with which they chose to tell their “stories”, especially when the companies can tell their incel playerbase “don’t worry, we fired that nasty female artist! this game is just fantasy, no need to think about real life atrocities or those hateful feminists.” This gives these men the ego boost they want and imbues them with a sense of power, especially over women who they frequently get fired. Even this is part of gacha games- the power these men get to control a real woman’s financial fate and to make a company publicly refer to feminism as a hate movement. What does this tell you about their intended audience? This is getting long so I’ll make another short post regarding some character design specifics. Hopefully this somewhat could answer your question lol

[assorted-things]

My thoughts on the ending

This is probably going to be a bit rambling and disconnected, so bear with me...

(This got far longer than I meant it to be...)

Does anyone else feel that the Deserter is a reflection of the person Harry could have been, if he hadn't lost his memory? The bitterness and anger and inability to let go of the past remind me of a lot of things that the Ancient Reptilian Brain and the Limbic System say in the dream sequences... I think that Harry's amnesia is a gift, in a way - it allows Harry to eventually let go of the past and decide what kind of person he wants to be now. One of the first dream sequences shows Harry a vision of himself as the hanged man, and I think in a way the old Harry did die when he lost his memories. One of the reasons the game was so affecting emotionally to me is that you as the player are the one getting Harry to turn his life around, if that's how you choose to play it, because it really makes you feel involved and part of Harry's story. It's one of the reasons why I don't think the game would work well as a TV adaptation - I think it would really lose a lot of its emotional impact without your input. It really moved me that I could get Harry to go from screaming that he "doesn't want to be that kind of animal any more", to telling the Phasmid: "I'm glad to be me - an incredibly sensitive instrument".

I really love how the tone of the game manages to be somehow hopeless and hopeful at the same time. Maybe the world is doomed by the Pale, and the Revolution failed, and maybe Revachol is a shithole, but... you can find that there are things worth loving and saving in this broken world. You're subconscious tries so hard to convince you that it's all terrible and evil and that you should just give up and let the darkness take you, but all of your actions through the game can prove that voice wrong. It tells you you're not helping anyone, but depending on how you play the game, you are: you found Billie's husband, and even though he's dead, at least now she knows and won't have to wait forever for him to come home when he won't; Cuno has someone who actually listens to him and takes what he has to say seriously; you got Plaisance to bring Annette in from the cold; you stopped the mercenaries from killing as many people as they might otherwise have done (it went pretty badly in my playthrough, but I tried), and you gave Kim a friend. I love the message it seems to be trying to put across that even if the world is ultimately doomed, you can and should still try to find the good in it, and make a small part of it a better place. And maybe in the end it won't change anything, but the fact that you had hope enough to try matters. And maybe if enough people thought that way, they could change reality for the better - maybe there was a grain of truth in that infra-materialist stuff all along. Maybe it sounds corny, but I found it very touching.

This is... sort of where the Phasmid comes in for me, because everyone thought the existence of the Insulindan Phasmid was impossible, but because you believed in it enough, you were able to prove it was real. And if the Phasmid is real, then maybe other things that people thought were impossible can happen, too... It makes me feel very satisfied that I chose "SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IS GOING TO HAPPEN" when I painted that wall. It seems fitting.

I also love the fact that the Deserter being stuck in the past is literally killing him. And... he talks a big game about being the last real Communist or whatever, but in the end, how is he actually helping the working class by clinging to his bitterness and refusing to let go of what could have been, instead of trying to do something to help the people around him? Even though Harry is flawed, and on his own can't change the world, he's made a difference to the people around him, which is better than being consumed by bitterness and doing nothing at all.

In the end, I think for me one of the core themes of the game is faith/belief (not necessarily in a religious sense)... I think that something that really helps is Kim's belief in Harry. He's so kind to Harry, when he could just as easily write him off as a shambling alcoholic. I think Kim's faith in you makes you want to live up to what he thinks of you, so... I'm not sure how coherent I'm being here, but it's a bit like how Harry believing in the Phasmid lets him make it a definite reality - Kim's belief in Harry as a great detective, or someone who could be a great detective, makes Harry a better person, I think. (At least, that's my take on it - I got so attached to Kim as a character that I really wanted to make him proud of my version of Harry!) And in the end, his faith wasn't misplaced. Again, he can't change the world, and he's human and not a saint (much as Harry may think he is), but Kim choosing to be kind did make a difference, even if it was only to one man.

tl;dr This is going to sound unbearably pretentious, but if someone asked me if video games can be art, this is the game I'd point to and say "yes".

[writers-potion]

i am writing a story where fairies and humans historically have been at odds, and in present day, the only remaining fairies have all been enslaved by the nobility of the kingdom. these fairies are forced to "bless" the nobility and their families with elemental magic, with each fairy having dominion over a different element. appearance wise, the fairies all look like ethereal children, and they also behave similarly to children (loving games, loving stories, being petulant, etc). i want the reader to be sympathetic to the fairies and for it to be clear that they are being mistreated and deserve better. however i also want these fairies to have qualities about them that make them almost eldritch. the fairies are immortal but they can only keep their immortality if human babies/children are sacrificed to them, which the nobility does in order to keep the magic they have stolen alive. however im stumped as to what it means to sacrifice a baby/child to them. the only image that comes to mind is to make the fairies almost gollum lotr-esque and have them eat the babies/children but i also wonder if theres a better alternative

Just to wrap my mind around your worldbuilding and answer your questions more specifically, I am going to assume:

By being "enslaved", the fairies aren't allowed to use magic as they wish, limited to using magic that is of use to humans - perhaps by placing magical cuffs on them/some curse, etc.

This "sacrifice" of children is done by the nobility soley for the purpose of the fairies' sustanance, almost like feeding cattle so that they can be further exploited

While the nobility are capable of keeping fairies docile using sheer physical prowess, they still hold fear-induced respect(?) trust(?) in them deep down.

That said (I hope I understood your worldbuilding correctly, btw!), here are some suggestions:

In order to keep blessing the nobility, the fairies need to "unbless" children to keep the elements in balance. When a child sacrifice stands before them, they place their hand on the head of the child and sort of "suck" the life out of them to maintain their power.

Instead of eating the children directly, the sacrifice fairies need can be a little indirect, for example: they need to drink a bowl of infant blood every month/a special potion brewed from the bones of young children, etc. The nobility makes other servants prepare these 'special meals' which will then be served.

The fairies, in order to 'consume' the children, need to unleash their full form/power. The nobility constructs a cage/prison where they leave the fairy with the child sacrifice, then collect the remains after. (in this way, if you don't want to constantly describe gore, you can choose to just describe the before/after from the POV of someone on the outside)

The fairies need to draw power from the specific element they have power over. Each fairy is fed a different body part of the child, or the fairies take away one aspect of the child (sight, speech, body heat, the water their bodies, etc.) one by one until there's practically nothing left.

Maybe the fairies don't eat the children voluntarily at all. Although they're immortal, they've lost their will to keep living but the nobility starves them to an almost-mad state and feeds them children occasionally, which then they gobble up senselessly.

In order to stay immortal, the fairies "steal" time from other living beings. Thus when babies are sacrificed to them through some ritual, they grow old very quickly to the point that they die. The fairies get to live a bit longer, the child's lifespan added onto theirs.

Also, you might want to think about:

Why children? What do children/babies have that other human sacrifices don't? Is it their purity? Innocence? Or do the nobility take children from poor families just because it's easy for them?

What do the fairies need/crave? Do they need human blood, like vampire do, or is it the "life force" within humans?

Think about the tone of your story. Do you need horror/gore or mystery or tragedy?

[imsobadatnicknames2]

What are your favourite ttrpg mechanics that you’d like to see adopted by more systems?

Sorry for taking so long to answer!

Anyway, my answer is probably gonna be kinda boring because I very rarely play those artsy, high-concept rpgs with really out-there experimental mechanics.

I think some of my favorite mechanics are those that take elements of classic old-school roleplaying games but streamline and abstract them to juuust the right amount of crunch. For example, I've mentioned this before: I ADORE the initiative mechanic from games like Mausritter, Into the Odd, or The Black Hack: At the start of combat, every player makes a Dexterity check. Players that pass get to act before the group of enemies, while players that fail have to act after the group of enemies.

Similarly, I REALLY like the way The Black Hack handes inventory management through its usage dice system (which has inspired similar systems in later games): for stackable, consumable items such a arrows, rations, lantern oil, etc, instead of keeping count of the exact number, your represent the quantity of items with a die. Each time you spend the item, you roll the corresponding die, and if the result is 1-2, you downgrade the size of the die by one step (e.g. a d12 becomes a d10). When the usage die is 1d4 and you roll a 1-2, you run out of whatever item it was.

Both of these mechanics massively streamline initiative and inventory management and vastly reduce the bookkeeping involvd in those systems, but still keep the idea behind them crunchy enough that they still preserve an element of tactics. I tend to hack these mechanics into pretty much any old-school game that features initiative or inventory management, and I've yet to find a case where it wasn't a huge improvement.

Another mechanics that I love that I' think we don't see enough in games is 'd love to see used more often in games is risk-reward choices. One of my favorite examples is a magic weapon which I think appears in the second Mörk Borg Cult zine (Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic). When attacking with it, you can choose any number and apply it as a penalty to your attack roll, in exchange for getting to apply the same number as a bonus to your damage roll if you succeed. So the harder you choose to impair yourself with the attack roll, the bigger the potential damage you'll do if you manage to succeed. I think that's one of the best-designed magic items I've ever seen in a ttrpg and I wish more things in TTRPGs incorporated that kind of decision.

Lastly, another one that I love but I don't think it fulfills the "you’d like to see adopted by more systems" part of your ask: I absolutely ADORE the flashback mechanic from Blades in the Dark. Basically: at any point during a heist, you can spend stress to invoke a flashback to roleplay an action your character did in the past to prepare for the situation they're facing in the present (as long as it doesn't contradict or "undo" any of the things that have been established in the fiction so far). E.g. as you enter a party you get patted down and deprived of your weapons, you might choose to trigger a flashback to roleplay how earlier that afternoon you came by, gave one of your guns to one of the valets and, bribed him to hide it for you in one of the potted plants inside the ballroom. Just like any other action, depending on how hard or risky it is, it might automatically succeed, or it might require one or multiple rolls.

The reason I'm hesitant to say I'd like to see it adopted by more systems is because, as much as I consider it one of the most brilliant ttrpg mechanics of all time, it's also a mechanic firmly rooted in BitD's criminal theme and heist structure, and to me i'd feel pretty out of place incorporated into any system that doesn't mainly revolve around executing heists.

[open-hearth-rpg]

Engagement & Flashbacks: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Three

I have sat through hundreds of in-game planning sessions. There’s an objective, maybe specific, maybe general, maybe- god forbid- we’re discussing which objective we want to approach. These can be wonderful and interesting moments to explore character and role play to show what your PC values. They can be. But those are exceptions rather than the rule. I look back at the hours sunk into those which ended up in painful, circular, player-tension exacerbating, and time-consuming bad meetings.

My particular pet peeve from this is the player who listens and waits until someone has proposed a line of action and then says they don’t like it. They point out corner-case problems and wild possibilities which *could* make things collapse. But when pressed for fix suggestions or alternatives, they shrug their shoulders. I loathe them. I’ve seen many of them. Playing them at the ttrpg table made me that much more ready to flip out when people did this in actual work meetings in the real world.

Don’t get me wrong– I love it when a plan comes together. There’s few things more satisfying as a GM than to watch the players consider a problem, develop a solution, and reveal how their individual talents can save the day. But setting a planning session into motion is like lighting a stick of dynamite. Sometimes the players come together and manage to extinguish that fuse. More times the dynamite goes off and blows a hole in the session.

So that has long been an established problem that GMs have worked through, usually by degrees of heavy-handed riding the whip.

Blades in the Dark provided another solution and one, honestly, which completely changed my approach to this at every table I run. You have a job, a score, an objective. You can keep choosing that tight by filing down the number of options. Once you know generally what you want to do, you define the kind task and what’s your key element. Then we go to the engagement roll.

That roll is based on the challenge of the situation, the resources and information you have, and preparation (but only in the loosest sense). Good stuff gives you more dice, bad stuff takes away dice. You roll a pool of d6s and check the result. If the highest die is a six, we start the scene on the job with your characters in control. They’ve gotten past the easy layers and are in the more challenging part, but in a good spot. On a 4-5 it's more a mixed bag– you start out with some things at risk. You have to overcome a standard challenge right away. On a 1-3 we drop you in the shit. You’re in but things have gone wrong and the situation’s desperate.

But it's the other half of the system which completes this and makes things brilliant. Players can flashback to preparations they’ve made. They can improvise these on the fly. They can cost stress and require a test, but that’s dependent on how wild or impactful that prep is. Combining that with the flexible loadout system makes the players feel OK about rolling into a situation without having spent an hour working out all the possibilities.

And at least at my tables, the secret is that flashbacks don’t get done that often. Sometimes PCs will get jammed in a corner or a player will have a particularly clever concept. But Flashbacks IMHO provide a mental cushion for risk-adverse players. It’s the GM saying, “let’s get to playing, I’m not going to screw you over, and you’ll have the chance to pull cool stuff out.” And it works– and I promise you I use it in just about every game I run. We still do meetings and planning discussions, but I know I can wrap it up and move it to the play if that begins to look like it is going to blow up.

Side-note: Blades isn’t the first game to lean on flashbacks as a key element. I think that would be Leverage, which is an amazing ground-breaking game by a dynamite team of designers. It uses that to model the reveals of the TV shows it's based on. There may be others, but that’s the one I remember.

[nageki-the-friendly-ghost]

Tell us everything

Welcome to the Hitori fucking Dies AU

Okay so I don't have pretty much anything plotted out yet but the concept is "hatoful boyfriend except hitori managed to save nageki in the fire and died in the process"

Tw for all the usual hatoful boyfriend topics (suicide, familial death and grief, medical malpractice, likeable characters making pretty awful choices)

Also spoilers for if I ever make this for real. I'd want it to be structured similarly to hatoful boyfriend where most major plot reveals happen late, so by explaining the ideas from the start of this AU I'd also kind of be spoiling every major plot twist. But I don't know how far I'll get into the project (I have had a REAL hard time focussing on writing recently) and I want to share all my ideas immediately lol

Obviously there are many logistical issues in this au that would need to be worked out- why bbl wouldn't just happen immediately if Nageki was alive, for instance. Bear with me pls

Also please note that I haven't consumed every single piece of hatoful media, mostly just the two games and sections of one of the manga. There may be some things I missed out on that.

But here are the ideas I have thus far

The first sticking point is that I think there's a high probability that if Hitori died in the fire Nageki would just attempt again because he still believes he needs to sacrifice himself and would just feel even guiltier. BUT I also think it could be equally in character for Nageki to refuse to let Hitori's sacrifice be in vain and find enough resolve to escape and keep living and find a better solution

But of course, Nageki could never have a normal life while infected with the charon virus, nor would he be content with one while he's aware of the Hawk party's plans

He'd have to go on the run, obviously. Here's where you get another interesting possible choice of Nageki somehow managing to join the Doves. But frankly I don't think an incredibly sick 15 year old with extremely limited life experience is going to be good at going on the run. I think he'd manage to stay hidden for long enough. For the purposes of this au he doesn't die from his sickness immediately but it was definitely a risk. (Let's assume that Shuu originally planned for Nageki to live much longer than he did in canon so he received some genuine medical care in between the experiments)

However. Nageki is homeless and unable to tell anyone about what was done to him or get help. He can't go to any birds because the Hawks are searching for him, and he can't warn any humans because they'd just die if he spoke to them

Surprise! This is where this also becomes a Kazuaki lives AU!

I think Nageki meets Kazuaki mostly by random chance in the street. Now, in canon I'm not sure if Kazuaki was kicked out of college at this point and that's why he was out there in the rain or if he was out there for some other reason (edit: been informed that he IS still in college when he meets Hitori in canon, which works great for me). I'm choosing to believe it's the latter for the purposes of making this au work- Kazuaki is living in a dorm at this point but is close to failing his classes and is out in the rain for some reason. Roll with me here.

Nageki stumbles across Kazuaki. He'd probably be hesitant to approach due to the aforementioned danger

But Kazuaki is obviously not in a good state, and if there's one thing Nageki hates its feeling like he can't do anything when people are struggling. And part of Nageki is purely running on What Would Hitori Do mode right now. So obviously Nageki tries to figure out what he can do to help

I think suddenly being shown kindness by some random kid who is clearly in a similarly awful state might draw Kazuaki out of his head enough that he could end up trying to help Nageki instead, out of genuine concern, a sense of understanding, and a desperate need to be important to literally anybirdie on earth

This is the first time Nageki has talked to anybirdie since Hitori's death, as well as the longest Kazuaki has talked to someone in weeks

Nageki needs a place to stay that no one would think to look for him and where he's slightly less likely to immediately die. Kazuaki needs to interact with another living being regularly, and has an empty dorm room and a meal plan he's barely been using

cue incredibly dysfunctional found family slowburn- They feel obligated to each other (which eventually becomes genuine care and protectiveness) and end up functioning better as a result

(This could possibly end up being very codependent, because what relationship in hatoful doesn't have a LITTLE unhealthy codependency. Staking the whole of your recovery on another person's wellbeing is NOT sustainable. But overall WAY healthier for both of them than Hitori and Kazuakis canon dynamic in that they both make it out alive with no deception necessary.)

Kazuaki starts attending classes again so that they can stay housed. He struggles and still can't thrive, but he just barely stays afloat with Nageki's support and renewed motivation. Nageki does what he can to make the dorm more habitable without leaving. Nageki's presence is a secret for obvious reasons, but it's a pretty easy one to keep since Kazuaki is so isolated to begin with. Nageki's trapped again in a different way, but Kazuaki's awful living space may honestly feel like a relief after the sterile lab. Months, maybe even a full year, pass

Eventually, Nageki trusts Kazuaki enough to tell him about everything- the charon virus, St. Pigeonations, Hitori's death, all of it. He tells him that one day, if he can live long enough, Nageki will find a way to expose what's going on at St. Pigeonations to the world and bring an end to it

Nageki likely tells him out of a sense of guilt- this is what he's gotten Kazuaki into, and he deserves better than all the extra trouble Nageki comes with.

But Nageki also won't be talked out of his plan, and when Kazuaki realizes this, he's not going to let Nageki be in danger by himself, not when it means Kazuaki would be left completely alone again

Kazuaki hasn't dreamed about his future in years, had no plans past college for how his life could go. What difference would it make if he started working towards becoming a teacher?

Kazuaki had no significance to the Hawks whatsoever. And teaching is completely in character for Kazuaki when he's in a slightly better mental state (see: shrine au) so no one would likely question it. No one EVER pays attention to Kazuaki or takes him seriously- which could make him a very, very good information gatherer

(And Nageki IS still sick, and maybe, just maybe Kazuaki can find out if the doctor wasn't COMPLETELY lying about doing research into curing it– if only as a contingency plan to keep his bioweapon from getting out of his control. Maybe if Kazuaki poked around enough, he could find it and hand it over to a non-evil doctor. He doesnt tell Nageki about this idea though- Nageki would refuse it outright, and Kazuaki couldnt bear the dissappintment if he told him and then failed)

Nageki... is apprehensive about this plan. But it's the only one they have, the only influence he can possibly exert to try to stop the Hawks without walking immediately into their clutches. His need to do what's right overrules his need to do what's smart.

But he begs- Kazuaki can't do too much for him, can't sacrifice his own wellbeing to keep Nageki hidden, and he can't do ANYTHING that might get him caught. If Kazuaki ever doesn't come home, Nageki is flying in right after him. Nageki has lost three families now- he WON'T lose a fourth, no matter what.

Kazuaki promises. We'll see if he's able to keep it.

WOO okay that's the main part I had planned out. But here's a little more.

I haven't thought as much about ghost!Hitori yet but. Oh man. Ghost Hitori

I think he'd be a lot less bitter than canon Hitori since he achieved what he set out to do (save nageki) but I do think he'd still have regrets enough to not be able to move on (leaving Nageki completely alone, not rescuing him earlier, knowing that there's still danger and being able to do nothing to help it)

I think he'd be less detached from the world and more driven to help others- especially the students, the kids, who were being used unawares of the horrors of the school. If only, if ONLY one of them could hear his warnings

(eventually, years later, Hiyoko can hear his warnings)

I'm also curious about how Shuu's plans would change with Nageki alive- with a burnt medical center and no liver cells to work with, he doesn't have samples of the charon virus. Would he still plan on turning Ryouta into the new carrier when the original carrier was still out there and needed to be recaptured? Lots to think about.

How I'd want to present this, ideally is as a fan game of alternate routes based on these changes

In true hatoful boyfriend fashion all of this is just the backstory to get to where all the characters are at the start of the game. The main plot is about all of the butterfly effects that occur in Hiyoko's experience due to entirely new plot threads occurring

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Paranormal Agents

This week's game recommendations are about professionals dealing with the weird and strange: think SCP, ghosts, and supernatural phenomena.

EXTRACAUSAL, by ostrichmonkey games.

Extracausal is emergent mystery and darkness. You will collaboratively create and discover strange mysteries in worlds, embody characters facing overwhelming darkness, and delve deep into stories. Extracausal is about large, overwhelming webs of secrets, dangers, mysteries, and darkness for all players to explore. 

This is Extracausal; a role-playing game about creating and uncovering a dense web of the paranatural, the occult, conspiracies, and of things far beyond it all. This is a game of encountering that which is extracausal. Imagine the Magnus Institute, the Federal Bureau of Control, Southern Reach. All groups that are involved with forces far greater than they could ever imagine, filled with individuals who piece together clues and secrets in the hopes of knowing the unknowable.

Extracausal provides guidelines to help you create a world and an unfolding conspiracy, without a static gm. It describes itself as "GM-full", in which the entire table shares the responsibility of determining where the story is going to go. Rules-wise, Extracausal uses Trophy, a system designed for rules-lite play and quick character creation. Your characters have two tracks: Tenebrose and Insight, which mark your characters' growing weirdness, as well as their familiarity with the paranormal. When it comes to tone, the game offers a sliding scale, allowing you to choose what kind of horror (and to what degree) you would like to include in your story. If you enjoy creating your own myth collaboratively at the table, Extracausal might be for you.

24XX Glossolalia, by Wadabadah

We are not alone in the hood and yet, the galaxy does not give a damm f*ck about us. Follow the First Contact Protocol and may you return in one piece. Screw up understanding a cryptic alien message and you've f*cked, with some luck, an entire extrasolar habitat, somewhere, at sometime… no pressure. 

Welcome to The Bureau, agent.

24XX GLOSSOLALIA puts you in the smart and yet elusive uniform of an agent who works for the Bureau, a non-symmetric, horizontal organization that operates in the shadows to secure human life in First Contact scenarios. Remember, aliens have their own agendas and motivations as we have our owns, they are uncanny to us, as we are to them. 

Like any 24XX game, this will get you up and rolling in just a few minutes, with quick character creation, a series of prompt tables to get a story in a few seconds, and simple rules that let you make use of a number of different polyhedral dice. Excellent for a game in which your characters are very likely to die, as rolling up a new character is incredibly easy. This game focuses on alien life and alien influence, rather than modern paranormal horror, but it'll deliver the strange happenings that occur whenever you meet something completely not-of-this-world.

Statements of Fear, by Rue (ilanight)

Everyone's afraid of something. But as a Researcher, it's your responsibility to look into these tales of fear, categorize them, and determine what's to be done. Can you still reach out and help the person in question? Or is it too late- have they already been consumed by the fears they brought with them. In that case- can you stop it from happening to somebody else?  Do you want to? 

Statements of Fear is an investigative-horror TTRPG based on The Magnus Archives, played using the Powered by the Apocalypse system.  Facilitated by a Narrator, Researchers are given a Statement and asked to follow up on the case by reaching out to the witness, investigating the scene of the incident, or consulting the Archive for similar occurrences. 

For the most part, if you're familiar with PbtA games, you should be able to pick up Statements of Fear and be able to run with it. Unique to this game is a hidden role, which each player can choose to hide or disclose throughout the game. This hidden role will provide each player with a reason to sabotage the case that the group has been given, and it's up to the players to determine whether or not the entity they have been marked by is something they want to please. This game is based on the Magnus Archives, but you don't have to be familiar with the world in order to play this game. Statements of Fear is free, and therefore fairly bare-bones, but if you like the Magnus Archives, it might be worth checking out.

Cthulhu Deep Green, by Moth Lands.

In Cthulhu Deep Green, players take on the role of shadowy agents of The Conspiracy as they fight to maintain the veil of secrecy standing between the public and the horrors that reside just beyond human comprehension.

Cthulhu Deep Green is designed following the structure of Cthulhu Dark, a game of cosmic horror. In this game, however, players are directly linked to a government agency, providing them an in-game reason to band together against the supernatural. This game doesn't waste much space on lore; it gets right to the point in teaching you how to play. Players will find themselves checking against their Stress and Insight as they come across dark horrors and shadowy conspiracies, and there are special rules for both cooperation and competition against your fellow PCs. There is also a special note about mental illness, including advice on how to approach some of the subject matter in Cthulhu Deep Green with caution and respect. This product also comes with its own scenario, titled Food of the Gods. If you want to get into a game of shadowy horror and paranormal mystery, without having to read a big chapter of lore, this might be the game for you.

Against the Dark Conspiracy, by Alun Rees (Gallus Games)

Against the Dark Conspiracy is a supernatural thriller tabletop roleplaying game for 4-6 players. One of them takes the role of Control while the others each play an Operator. Against the Dark Conspiracy is written to require zero preparation but includes advice to Control on how to prepare or adapt materials published for other games, if that’s an approach they prefer. All the players cooperate to outline the Operations they’ll be embarking on and collaborate to find out more about the threats and complications they’ll face while having the opportunity to describe an obstacle they'd look cool overcoming.

This game is also inspired by Cthulhu Dark, but the conspiracies you are working against are factions such as Vampires, Demons and Fae. It's less cosmic horror, and more occultic, urban-fantasy horror. (It also draws themes from Night's Black Agents, a game about operatives discovering they were working for Vampires all along.) Similar to Cthulhu Deep Green, it comes with advice on playing with sensitive subject matter. If you like the idea of playing agents who have only each-other to trust, this might be the game for you.

External Containment Bureau, by Mythic Gazetteer

Congratulations on your employment, and welcome to the External Containment Bureau. Yours is a special privilege: to study paranormal manifestations, contain them properly, and thereby ensure a harmonious accord both within our world, and in relationship to other worlds that with ours. Your relocation to Bureau headquarters in is scheduled upon your review of the attached brief of Bureau activities and procedures, as well as the attached intake materials.

External Containment Bureau is a game of paranormal investigation and bureaucracy using a lightweight, hackable version of the Forged in the Dark design framework. You play as trained agents of the External Containment Bureau, an organization tasked with the study, identification, and containment of paranormal phenomena. The Bureau authorizes agents to make use of these phenomena to give yourself incredible powers (so long as the proper forms are in order). But take care: using paranormal energies inches you ever closer to joining the ranks of the paranormal yourself. 

This is a game that facilitates incredibly easy prep, both for players and GMs. It helps players cobble together unique characters without overwhelming options, and allows the table to decide exactly what tone and genre they're looking for in the game. Each session will contain a briefing, investigation, mission and debriefing section, allowing for episodic play while also giving you the tools to piece together a larger conspiracy if you wish. On the GM side, the mission advice encourages GMs to only construct half of the story; the players have to determine the final scene on their own.

If you want to play this kind of game, but with less corporate jargon and more occult influence, I recommend checking out the hack Congregation by DM Rawlings.

[mania-sama]

This ask is just for fun...

Top 5 (or top 3) Favorite female characters :

Top 5 (or top 3) Favorite male characters :

Top 5 Favorite media :

Media you are currently enjoying :

Media that exceeded all your expectations :

Top 3 Unpopular media you really love :

Favorite romance :

Favorite action :

Favorite fantasy :

Favorite sci -fi :

Favorite drama :

Favorite comedy :

Top 3 Favorite movies :

Next in your watch list :

Next in your read list :

Top 3 Favorite antagonists:

Top 5 (or top 3) favorite ships (can be canon or non canon) :

The series, movies or type of media can be anime/manga, books, or tv series....

Thanks 🌻

thank you so much, sunflower anon! i love little games like these!!

As far as any listings go, there is generally no particular order in which I rank them. Here you go!

(And I know you didn’t say I could list them, but I considered games to be a viable category for me to choose from. And, note that these are not what I think are, necessarily, the most well-written things of all time. These are just my favorite. Vastly different concepts.)

Top 3 Favorite Female Characters -> Kugisaki Nobara [Jujutsu Kaisen], Nina Zenik [Grishaverse], Yosano Akiko [Bungou Stray Dogs]

Top 3 Favorite Male Characters -> Robbie White | Axe Boy [Identity V], Oikawa Tooru [Haikyuu], Percy Jackson [Percy Jackson and the Olympians]

Top 3 Favorite Media -> A Silent Voice (Movie), Merlin (TV Show), Grishaverse (Book Series)

Media You Are Currently Enjoying -> I am on Season 3 of Kitchen Nightmares.

Media That Exceeded All Your Expectations -> The A Quiet Place movie franchise. Cannot believe how fantastic those movies are. And it’s impressive that it exceeded my expectations, because I went in with high expectations already.

Top 3 Unpopular Media You Really Love -> Taking “unpopular” to mean underrated/not well-known; Child of Light (Video Game), School - Live! (Anime), The Unlisted (TV Show).

Favorite Romance -> When I Awake (Fanfiction). I don't give a flying FART that this isn't it's "own work" or whatever. I HAVEN'T CONSUMED A BETTER ROMANCE THAN THIS FANFIC.

Favorite Action -> Moon Knight (TV Show).

Favorite Fantasy -> Merlin (TV Show).

Favorite Sci-Fi -> A Quiet Place (Movie Franchise).

Favorite Drama -> A Silent Voice (Movie). The reason why I have this listed here, instead of under romance, is because I believe the movie - as opposed to manga - has a far stronger focus on the drama genre rather than the romance genre.

Favorite Comedy -> The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (Anime). Honestly, this is my weakest category. I love a good laugh, always, but I read comedy fanfiction and don't really watch/read comedy in any other media format. Because the funny people in this world are not producers en masse in exec rooms, but 14-year-olds on Archive of Our Own. Sorry. I don't make the rules.

Top 3 Favorite Movies -> A Silent Voice, A Quiet Place, A Quiet Place: Part II. I seem to have a running theme…

Next In Your Watchlist -> A Quiet Place: Day One (Movie).

Next In Your Readlist -> This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Book).

Top 3 Favorite Antagonists -> Akutagawa Ryuunosuke [Bungou Stray Dogs], Kuro [Ori and the Blind Forest], Oikawa Tooru [Haikyuu]. I find it very humiliating that the normal, high school teenage boy somehow managed to make it on my list of favorites in this ask three whole times. But he is an antagonist and honestly very well-written one at that. I will die on this hill.

Top 3 Favorite Ships -> Klance [Keith/Lance; Voltron: Legendary Defender], Percabeth [Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase; Percy Jackson and the Olympians], IwaOi [Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru; Haikyuu]

[queka-store]

A Plea for Peace: End the Romanticization of Victimhood

Give Israelis and Palestinians a Chance for Coexistence

Content Warning: Mentions of violence and historical atrocities

For too long, people from the outside have romanticized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a gladiatorial arena, a reality show, or a competition of values. By romanticizing victimhood and choosing sides, you allow governments and dictators to stay in power. Your inconsistent support, favoring one side's victimhood over the other, makes it impossible for those of us, both Jews and Arabs, who want to live in peace to actually achieve that goal.

The West and East have chosen politicians on both sides who oppress the weak, buy warfare from them, and lack empathy. Yet for centuries, Jews and Arabs lived together peacefully in many areas, and there are still those among us who have never stopped hoping for that reality, even in the face of atrocities like the Nakba, Sabra and Shatila and many other horrendous crimes to the one side and bus bombings, rape crimes, and the horrific events of October 7th, where Jewish Arab supporters were slaughtered and burned alive on the other. Brainwashed-hurting-people are hurting people. By dehumanizing each side for its barbaric acts you leave them lonely and hurting, which leads to more extremism.

We are all being brainwashed, and as time goes on, more Jews and Arabs are losing hope, allowing pain and hatred to consume us, and enabling the rise of fanatic politicians who further fuel this cycle. But we are all just people who want to live. If the East and West truly wanted us to find a solution, they would invest in mutual education and acknowledgment of each nation's pain, helping us learn about our shared Semitic Abrahamic roots, rather than selling both of us more weapons.

Many Arabs in Israel-Palestine are not just our cousins, but our sisters and brothers. Not all Jews fled when the Romans came; some of them became Christian and then Muslim. Some of them are the Palestinians of today! And the other part is our closest cousins. Our DNA is so similar; there are no closer ethnicities in the world. The world plays savior while pushing us to fight harder, funding narratives of hate and promoting xenophobia and antisemitism on both sides.

We are all children of the same God, the last remaining Semitic peoples. Please, world, support new leadership on both sides! Invest in peace, not war. Give the Jews and Arabs who want peace a chance to achieve it. Strengthen us, and give the next generations of Semites a chance to live with dignity, compassion, respect, and mutual love.

Since the British Mandate pitted us against each other, as they did in India and Pakistan and so many other places, where colonial empires left the people to fight each other - "proving" the "barbarity of the locals" in comparison to the supremacy of the colonials, the biggest world powers have used our conflict to prove their own strength, choosing a side as if we were gladiators in a ring. Please, stop this game of money, power, and manipulation. No one should have to die anymore. Life is already too short! Palestinians and Israelis should be free together, from this war, from these separative beliefs, from the hatred, to live and move freely, to marry each other freely. To have one shared government that represents us all equally with dignity - with no more brainwashing and separation. This is what I pray for. No occupation nor any slaughter or rape of any kind. We should not fall into traps; if all people open their eyes, politicians lose their power. With the help of decent, honest allies from the world, this is achievable, slowly but surely. This should be the reality. Where all kids know both languages in an Arab-Jewish state, celebrating together, growing and then aging together with the deepest respect for all the mutual and all the unique, beautiful differences. Looking into Arabs' eyes, I see the eyes of my family members. You are not that different. I want peace with you .

[countlessrealities]

F, M, K - the Vs for Vaggie and Alastor

Screw, Marry, Kill || Accepting !

Vaggie groans. For real? Is this the same person who asked last time? Probably. I mean, there can't be multiple people who want to know what they would or wouldn't do with the Unholy Vapid-ity.

At least she hopes.

"Fuck Velvette, because...duh. She's the only one with the parts I like," she replies, making sure that the distaste and vexation are well audible in her tone.

Velvette is objectively attractive, she can admit that. She doesn't totally hate her personality either...if it wasn't for the fact that she acts like a spoiled rich brat half of the time.

"Kill Valentino, of course, because that's never not going to happen."

That's a hill she's going to die on. She could stand the other two, if she had to, but Valentino? Oh no, he doesn't get a pass with her. No matter the circumstances.

"Which leaves..."

Lord, this is weird. She has said that she would adopt him in the previous ask and now she has to pick that for him.

"...Ugh. Marry Vox, I guess." A heavy sigh leaves her lips. "Alright, Al, your turn."

Only silence answers her.

"Alastor?"

She turns to look at where her companion is supposed to be, just in the to see the shadows starting to engulf the Radio Demon's figure.

"Oh, you don't!" Vaggie exclaims, grabbing him by the arm. "No fucking creepy voodoo exit shit! What was that you said to me, last time? It's just a game!" An eyeroll. "C'mon, answer and let's get this over."

Alastor's smile is tense and tight as he stares at Vaggie, contemplating whether or not he should comply or just shake her off. However, knowing the former Exorcist, if he were to choose the latter option, she would haunt him and hound him till he answers that demented question.

"........I̸̺̺͎̰̥̜̯̼̮̰͖̜͂͆̿̈́̿̔F̵̜̜͎͉̯̜̓͂ I̸̺̺͎̰̥̜̯̼̮̰͖̜͂͆̿̈́̿̔ Ŗ̷͇̙̰̭̪̟̺̲̜̹͔̎̍́ͅȨ̸̪̯̗̘̥̣̲̣̣͍͚͙̥̩́̀̈̆͑Ą̵̺̰̻̻͔͇͓̈́̓͛̏̈́͌͋̄̑͆̏L̷͖͈̓͌̎̉͒͗͂̓̌̚͝L̷͖͈̓͌̎̉͒͗͂̓̌̚͝Ý̴̥͙̘̇̈́̇̃͒̿́͘͘͝͝ͅ M̶̧͚̪͉̯̜̰͎̘̀͋̇̀͗̍́͆̑̏͂̿̊̚U̴̡̢̱̳̳͓̗͔̮̔͜͜͜Ś̸͙̺̥̰̯͙̭͆̏͂T̷̡̧̬̲̭̦̘̩̊̉͛̓̓̌͌̕."

The static lingers in the air, thick and threatening. Vaggie can feel it biting at her skin, but she grits her teeth and stands her ground, glaring with her arms crossed.

"Kill the whoremonger...We can easily agree on that," the Radio Demon starts, his voice a little too tight to be nonchalant. "As for the other two utterly unpleasant options..."

His voice trails off, claws tapping over his microphone with perhaps a bit too much energy. Had it been made of a less resilient material, he would have stabbed holes into it.

"I suppose that Vox is the...If I had to pick one of them to touch me, he'd be the lesser evil."

His stomach churns as he speaks...even if not as much as he would have expected it to.

"...Marry Velvette and never consume said marriage and..." He looks almost pained for a moment as he takes a breath in before finishing the sentence. "...copulate with Vox."

The silence stretches on awkwardly until Vaggie clears her throat.

"Uh, yeah, greeeeat, alright. That's it. Fuck off, people. The show is over."

{ @holoharbinger - I think Vox needs to see this xD }

[mothheart-ships-archive]

So I think I'm coming to a decision and here's what I want to say:

I am choosing to be neutral. I do not want to take sides, and I don't really wanna be involved in discourse and see people say that someone should die or something. That's wayyyy too hard for me, as someone who has lost someone close to me to suicide, and has witnessed many more crack under the opinions of people who don't even know them.

More under cut.

I come from a fandom where darker topics are roleplayed all the time, but the people there agree that certain topics are yikes and do not support them irl. We agree that characters intentions, thoughts, opinions, etc. do not equal the intentions, thoughts, opinions, etc. of the roleplayer; the fandom source is dark, and it allows us to explore darker themes, angsty plots, and interesting stories. We recognize that some stuff just isn't our cup of tea so when engaging with each other we don't engage in those topics!

Additionally, I think characters and ships and narratives all rely on the source and CONTEXT they are based on.

Another example: It's like cancelling George R.R. Martin for writing about war and murder and incest and rape in Game of Thrones. These things, unfortunately, happen, and exploring them in fiction is normal for a lot of writers and they are still able to admit that these actions irl are wrong. And yet Martin is not cancelled. People who are not comfortable with these topics don't watch the show nor read the books. People who do engage with the media make ocs and ships with murder and darker themes as it is within the realm of belief for the source. It does not mean that they, nor Martin, support rape or murder or incest.

This. This is what I'm understanding of Proship at the very least. I do not know enough about comship as it is a new label that I'm not as familiar with and I am still struggling to understand it. I think it is VERY important to be critical about the media you consume, to question themes and the creators is healthy, but I do just as genuinely believe that people can explore darker themes without actually endorsing it irl. THAT is the most important thing to me. If someone is prancing around saying they whole heartedly wanna do things to children... that is a completely different story. That is not even in the realm of shipping. Those are the people to watch out for.

Think about the memes about this, too. The "i could fix him" and "i could make him worse" memes. That's toxic idealization, but put in a way that is humorous and something a lot of people can chalk their very own ship dynamics up to. I don't see people sending death threats over that.

Which means it's all about context and intent. Not all proshippers agree with various dark themes, and from what I've had explained to me and from what I've seen it is generally just letting people explore fiction the way they want to. Sometimes it's a way to cope. Sometimes it's to create a story. Sometimes it's just to have fun.

If you're reading this and choose to disagree, that's your decision and it will be respected. People are allowed to agree to disagree over something as simple as fiction. Feel free to block me.

This said, here are my boundaries, I would like for them to be respected if we have a conversation/talk about ships.

-I do not support incest irl and would prefer not to engage with romantic incest ships. I will block if this is disrespected.

-I do not support pedophilia and would prefer not to engage with adult/minor age gap romantic ships. I do not mind ships with age gaps as long as a MINOR is NOT involved. I will block if this is disrespected.

-I do not support rape irl. I do not support unhealthy relationships where sex is more important than the emotional well-being of the partner. I do not support situations where 'no' is not respected. I do not support non-consensual actions between individuals. I do not mind it as a detail of narrative, I do not mind it as being part of a character's/oc's/insert's back story. But if there are heavy themes of active noncon in a ship then I do not want to engage. I will block if this is disrespected.

-I would like to get to know the actual human person I'm talking to before judgement is made over the little things.

-However, fascists, racists, pedophiles/MAPs, terfs, anti-lgbt, antishippers/anyone who actively harasses anyone for differences or brings harm to others ARE NOT welcomed here. If you identify as these or with the ideologies of these identities then please do not engage with me. These are not little things. That's a person's life.

Thank you for reading, regardless of your stance on the subject of pro/neutral/antishippers. I hope you have a nice day whoever you are.