#theories and practice ( meta. )

[moonyinpisces]

i want all meta writers and/or people with s3 predictions to please. pretty please. write the fic. otherwise SO MUCH is being lost in translation in your explanations and your 15k theories with screenshots and sources in a format that would rival my grad school essays. like have you heard “shakespeare must be performed not read”? that’s the exact same principle with s3 predictions. all the academic writing and web weaving posts in the world won’t accurately depict what you’re seeing in your head, it HAS to be experienced in practice both on the writing end and the reading end. JUST WRITE THE FIC!

[mzminola]

I think it's fun, and consistent with the rest of his character, that while Tim has no faith in the existence (or perhaps simply benevolence) of any sort of divine higher power, he does believe in the existence of souls.

I think that fits really well with Tim having faith in people. That all individual people are important, that they have amazing capabilities for both good and evil, and that they need support from each other to keep doing good. It fits with his continuing balancing act with both faith in and criticism towards Bruce.

Tim finds it totally believable that Greta is both a ghost & connected to some kind of afterlife pathway. He rolls with Anita's parents souls whooshing into the fetal clones. When Kon is worried he doesn't have a soul, Tim is confident that Kon does have one. He gets pissed when Red Tornado is dismissed as "just" a machine.

When Dick fights against Tim using or sampling the Lazarus Pit to bring back some loved ones, asking "What about their souls?" Tim just retorts that "The Pit brings that back too."

Which leads to one of my headcanons: that some time before she died, Janet expressed either belief in or hope for reincarnation. Tim describes his parents as "My mom was a little religious. My Dad not at all." in the Judgment on Gotham crossover arc. In Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, when thinking of dead loved ones to bring back, he pictures Kon, Steph, and his dad. Not his mom.

Combined with all the above, I'm headcanoning that Tim has reason to think the Lazarus Pit can't bring back Janet Drake. That Tim believes her soul is neither lingering on this plane nor moved on to an afterlife from which it can be summoned, but willingly reincarnated already, and is therefore actually out of reach.

[midnight-roses-candy]

I tend to stay off the femme4butch tag just because I don’t think my personal expression of femme-ness or my preferred sexual role(s) really fit in line with most of that tag so I don’t want to clutter it or get backlash. I’m (mostly) femme4butch, but not the way people seem to expect or consider typical on that tag (i.e. I’m not AFAB, not stone, and not a bottom).

[thunderjawsandlightning]

After listening to the GAIA Cast deep-dives and making up the transcripts for them, it's really obvious in hindsight how many hints get dropped through specific phrasing choices by Narrative Director Ben McCaw regarding certain topics, and I am currently losing my mind at all the hints and character parallels that are in the Jan. 30 Playstation Blog about Call of the Mountain (CotM). link

---

During "GAIA Cast EP. 6: Uncovering the Carja Civil War" [transcript by me here], Ben McCaw and Lead Quest Designer Tim Stobo talk about the divide in the tribe as an interesting tipping point to come into from both a narrative and world perspective. One of the things that particularly caught my interest is the following quote by Ben:

"And one of the things that’s important, like in any civil war, it’s like families have been torn apart, right?  It’s one tribe that’s been cut in two and some family members wound up on each side."

This is talking about some more specific instances in sidequests in which we see "the good, the bad, and the ugly" kinds of people within the two halves of the Carja, but the emphasis on seeing how the tribal divide impacts all different sorts of people is another detail that they continue to discuss. It's not just the Shadow Carja refugees in need of food and medicine, and supplies being smuggled by Sun Carja by robbing the richer upper class, but regular everyday civilians like Atral and Elida who are torn apart by the conflict (in a very Romeo and Juliet type fashion).

Which is why I find it especially interesting in the character teaser/ introductions of this most recent blog post, the topic of the divided tribe and divided families in CotM, and the impacts of actions taken during the Red Raids is again brought to our attention:

Guerrilla’s Studio Narrative Director, Ben McCaw, offered us further insight: “Ryas ended up on the wrong side for the right reasons. His family was torn apart, and ultimately, he was incarcerated. This is the story of how he tries to come back from that.”

**HZD and HFW spoilers and further discussion under the cut.

Digging into the topic of families divided and torn apart, we see its most obvious wound in the royal family, and the opposing forces of Jiran vs. his sons Kadaman and Avad, and later, Avad and his half-brother Itamen. In these two opposing relationships, we get to see and explore facets of the complications of the father-son relationship: the father against his sons, and the sons against the legacy of their father.

Morally and ideologically, we know that Kadaman and Avad care for their people and their tribe, in speaking out against the Mad Sun-King's edicts, and paying some kind of price for it. In Kadaman's case, it's his life; for Avad, the faith of the people and the fear of becoming like his father are burdens he will never be able to escape. Where family and fatherhood are meant to be examples of protection and guidance, this bond is warped beyond recognition in regards to Jiran and his sons.

The legacy of the father and the shadow it leaves behind, in both a metaphorical and cultural sense, in one that Avad and Itamen each have to grapple with in the uncertain stage of a ceasefire and afterwards. Metaphorically, they each have their own battles in stepping out from under their father's shadow: Avad as the King of the people and proving his will not become his father's son, and Itamen as a child figurehead for the will of others fuelled by ambition and blind faith. They are pitted against each other as symbols of the divine right to rule, and the cultural aspect of the Sun-Faith -- and the interpretation of Sun's divine will manifested through the power of the rightful king -- continues to perpetuate the intra-tribal divide.

---

Back again to the divide of family, I think it reasonable to assume that differences in faith and ideology to be one of the simplest explanations of families picking and choosing sides. In the Liberation comics, we are told of Urid and Ryas, each highly skilled and formidable in their own right, fighting in direct opposition to each other and in direct support to the ruling figures of each faction. Clearly, their loyalty to the governing powers of each faction is fuelled by something stronger even than the bond of family, and I can think of few other motivators stronger than religious faith and a code of honour to serve those whom you pledge yourself to.

“Having fought for the Shadow Carja, Ryas’ relationship with [new allies] is at best adversarial. He needs to make inroads and amends if he hopes to be accepted.”

"At best adversarial" indicates a potential rivalry with allies known to Ryas, or full-on confrontations to be had with other characters who know of him and his reputation. Given our introduction to Hami, the reluctant soldier charged with escorting Ryas, there is already animosity from within their shared tribe, even with the degrees of separation and association and/or participation with the Raids.

Either way, there looks to be some very interesting tribal conflicts permeating the relationships during CotM, which brings me to the next intriguing thing: the hope of acceptance from these new characters.

Acceptance despite past deeds and choices feels phrased like a kind of welcoming back into the fold, a return of sorts from ostracization or exile. There seems to be a preexisting bond that is under strain if the goal is simply acceptance, rather than "to be trusted".

"Making inroads and making amends" has absolute implied meanings of repairing broken bonds. But a broken bond with who? Given the precedent of reuniting estranged brothers in 'The Queen's Gambit' sidequest, Avad and Itamen show there is hope for rekindling and repairing the fraternal bond. Given this information, the most obvious candidate so far to whom Ryas would be repairing broken bonds with is his own brother, Urid.

---

So, we have the history of brother against brother, and the future hope of reuniting and reconciling said brothers. But what about the hints that "players will [...] be reunited with familiar [characters], though [Ryas'] past has affected these relationships"? Who else is familiar enough from HZD or HFW for us to anticipate seeing in CotM? With all of the promotional imagery of standing between the Sundom and Sacred Lands, I will focusing on potential Carja character appearances, since I feel there may be little in the way of Nora appearances given their cultural reluctance to venture near metal ruins that we will likely be exploring as Ryas.

Given their multiple mentions in Ep 6 of GAIA Cast, Uthid and Vanasha seem likely candidates to make an appearance. Vanasha's reconnaissance abilities and connection to Marad could provide some early intel as to what kind of situation we're heading into, and Uthid's switch in loyalty due to his honour code is an early seed to be planted for the legitimacy of Avad's mercy and willingness to make amends with a former Shadow Carja. As merely a captain, it is not likely that Uthid will have had any interaction with Ryas during the flight to Sunfall, but it presents an interesting common ground for these two weathered soldiers and their levels of involvement .

(Personally, I hope that Warden Janeva makes a brief appearance if for nothing else than to see what their assessment is for Ryas' character and his release from Sunstone Rock.)

And speaking of Sunstone Rock, there's the most obvious character to - hopefully - make an appearance: Nil.

---

Nil as a character is steeped in mystery, with his cryptic eloquence making it difficult to pin down much about his past. However, there are several parallels that draw him and Ryas along correspondent narrative threads that I find too interesting to leave alone.

For starters, an easy comparison of these two is their particular set of skills as hunters and fighters:

"As a master climber, hunter, and explorer, Ryas offers the perfect viewpoint of the sweeping vistas and dangerous wilds of Horizon.”

A significant feature of CotM appears to be climbing, and as we know from the Liberation comics, Ryas's brother Urid is the best climber in the Sundom. Nil is clearly an accomplished climber himself; the climb to the top of the Mesa during the "Cause for Concern - Farewell" quest is a long one with lots of jumping from handhold to handhold and creeping along ledges.

Nil's hunting ability is such that he sees bandits as a more satisfying challenge than hunting machines, even the more deadly combat machines that have emerged in the recent years; stating "They don't get that look in their eyes." (Devil's Thirst Bandit Camp conversation). Ryas' reputation precedes him, as Hami and Kavad -- the Carja escort soldiers -- comment that "everyone says Ryas is a good shot" (CotM State of Play reveal trailer), so clearly his ability with a bow is notable enough to be wary about.

Thirdly, being well-traveled and adept at exploring the world and its metal ruins in search of information is a quality we see in few others. Most other tribes have superstitions concerning the Old World ruins, and so avoid them; or are more pragmatic about its use for profit, as seen with Oseram delvers. We see Nil unafraid to venture into these ruined places, going so far to say "[those] lonely places where people once were, now just a hole cut in the world?  Chances are, I was there before. " (Gatelands Bandit Camp conversation)

---

Jon Gonzalez, the Narrative Director during HZD, emphasized Nil's significance as a representation of the effects of war, and clarified that there are elements of his quest narrative that are acts of atonement, of trying his best to balance the wrongs he's committed with a new motivation.

There is a kind of retribution in Nil's brand of atonement in that he hunts those who prey on those even weaker. Even if his claimed motivation is purely to sate his bloodlust, there is still some act of good done through it (Although his descriptions of racing heart, ringing in the ears, and the feeling of a "call to arms from inner desires" all point to chasing adrenaline highs). His acts of atonement are done in an echo of the presumed kinds of actions he took during the raids, of participating in the preying on those with less power. Instead of continuing that path, now he hunts those who would do the same.

"And I think that there are a couple of characters that also highlight really unique aspects of some of the tribes in really idiosyncratic ways. I think that Nil, [...] who seems to have become kind of a fan favorite, the kind of way that he has this kind of unique, sociopathic kind of approach to killing, but the way that that's connected to the lore of the Carja. The way that the Carja were preying on other tribes, and [...] the Red Raids and all of that, the thing [...] is this is a guy who's sort of a monster but knows that he was a monster – and to the best of his ability, kind of regrets it and has tried to atone. "

- Writing Horizon Zero Dawn - Jon Gonzalez interview link

The phrasing about Ryas "ending up on the wrong side for the right reasons" also seems to echo Aloy's impression of Nil upon the conclusion of their first bandit camp raid:

And when asked about a favourite backstory element or quest moment, Ben's comment about how intertwined Nil's questline and story is with the Red Raids and the civil war also seem to be more than just a passing anecdote.

ALOY:  So you hunt [bandits] down to help others?

NIL: No, no - for sport.  I can’t wait for wars anymore: life’s too short and the thrill of death too sharp.  If you kill a tribesman, there’ll be retribution; hunt a boar, they complain if you waste the meat.  But bandits? They’re vicious.  They always put up a fight.  And no one cares if you kill them.

ALOY: I…guess you’re doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

NIL: I’m doing what I love.  And what could be wrong with that?

- After completing Devil's Thirst Bandit Camp (HZD)

Tracing his quest path through the game takes you all over the map, although he will only join you for 3 of the 6 bandit camps in the overworld. He is clearly a skilled hunter and tracker to comment on "the surprised splashes [of blood] and scrabbles in the dirt" when next he sees Aloy. The two camps he is always present at seem to hold some significance too. Obviously, he's present at the Devil's Thirst camp on the outskirts of Nora land to start his questline, but the Nora were some of the most affected; he begins his journey of atonement there. The Gatelands camp -- on the Sundom side of the border between it and the Sacred Lands -- is where we learn of his stay at Sunstone Rock, with additional dialogue with him if you've made a stop by the prison and talked with Warden Janeva beforehand. Nil specifically waits for Aloy there; a border between two worlds, a step a little more into the world he is from.

"… if you really pay attention to what’s going on with Nil in those raids on bandit camps, his story is kind of interwoven with the Carja civil war and the Red Raids quite a lot, and he has a very, of course, unique and kind of homicidal insight into all that stuff. So I mean that’s something that I really enjoyed, because if you trace Nil’s paths through the game, a lot of it does in fact involve the events surrounding the civil war."

-- GAIA Cast Ep. 6 - Uncovering the Carja Civil War

Janeva's opinion on those kept within the prison and those who are released also vary significantly. The sidequest "Sunstone Rock" charges us with fulfilling the bounty on the 3 escapees, the Rock's most dangerous criminals. Janeva's assertion that the prisoners would have eventually found death are a stark contrast to the quiet surprise when Aloy asks after Nil, and the turn his path took when he left. And as we see again with Ryas, Sunstone Rock holds significance for those who are released from the prison to go forth on a turning point on their personal journey.

"[...] there’s a couple other characters that are associated with Sunstone Rock, including Nil. So if you talk to Nil enough, you’ll find out that he was actually imprisoned in Sunstone Rock at one point. And there’s also a character, an important character actually, that was imprisoned at Sunstone Rock that we are going to learn more about in the future."

---

It feels significant that Ben teases an upcoming character from Sunstone Rock that will be a person of importance in learning more about the world. What can we learn from Ryas' position in a recent, bloody history of tribal conflicts? What new point of view can we experience as someone deeply involved with the old power that split the Carja, and his reaction to the changes in the state of the world now?

All of these exciting questions aside, the biggest mystery of them all at the moment is Ryas' identity: is he at all related to any characters that we have met during the games? With his face deliberately concealed with a cowl in all of the promotional art, there must be some clearly identifiable feature that reveals something about his lineage, presumably a family we already know and recognizable by their Carja eye markings. There are few things as satisfying as a face reveal with deep narrative impact, and I think there is something other than just VR marketing to keep the protagonist 'blank slate', so to speak.

And we have a precedent for an impactful face reveal with satisfying emotional-narrative payoff: Nil's reveal to Aloy after winning the final Gauntlet race. It's a reunion after parting in circumstances of uncertainty; a reconciliation with actions and attitudes of the past and a display of healing and contentedness in themselves in the present. And in this reunion, Nil displays an almost parental affection in how he talks about the other Tenakth racers and refers to them as children.

---

Horizon is, in a way, the story of parents and their children, and coming to terms with what is left behind for the children.

We see it in Rost and Aloy and his willingness to do anything to protect her; we see it in Lis and Aloy and the power of hope, of wishing the world to be better for those who come after.

We see it with Jiran and Avad, of the legacy of the father and the challenges of the son to step out from that shadow.

The phrasing "family torn apart" makes me think there is more than just the fraternal bond to come back to and resolve. With the emphasis and importance on the father-son relationship in Carja culture, it feels like a reasonable conclusion that there will be some exploration of that paternal relationship in regards to Ryas.

Nil has shown tremendous personal growth in his ventures into the Forbidden West. He has found a healthy outlet for his adrenaline rushes in racing, and a kind of healing from the atrocities of his past in the acceptance of group that he explicitly refers to as children -- and children from an tribe that were explicitly wronged during the Red Raids.

What better parallel than to have a father finding healing and acceptance from his son who what also harmed and wronged by the Red Raids?

[acherys]

Being a WotLK-era frost/unholy death knight, Zoen grandfathered into using a single, giant two-handed runeblade ( named Lament ) and being a tank. This may account / simply complement her tendency in battle to get extremely raucous and excited, often mocking opponents and inviting all the carnage to come her way.

Now, does Zoen possess the defensive capabilities of a good tank? Technically! He's still kicking, isn't he!

[wardingprotector]

i think, had things gone differently with narius, and barovia, valar could be a person who is much more casual in relationships / sex / etc. but because of how things eneded, and because of barovia, he just ... puts a barrier up about it, unfortunately.

[libertasforte]

The thing about tartacchino is like - yes, I do think Childe is out of her league. But if so, then why is he with her?

Childe would like to have someone like Lumine as his wife. He would like to have someone like Zhongli as his wife. But it was always a relationship where he had less power - Lumine is a popular girl who has many suitors, and Zhongli is much more powerful than him. So pursuing them would always be work for him, and it would always be something he was doing for them.

He could get any of the other Genshin characters as his wife - but they are not his, and they are off-limits to him, and he wouldn't have power over them.

The thing about Arlecchino is - she was the first woman he could take, with his own power. She was the first woman he could take and have power over her. And Arlecchino isn't weak as a character or a person, but the circumstances and the existence of eligible available candidates and their weak position as villains and outsiders so lined up that she was the first woman he could take who could be weaker than him. And he jumped on that weakness like a shark.

So he would fuck her, but not marry her - maybe someday he'd settle down with a wife who's in his league - someone like Lumine - and "provide" for her. But this is fine, because Arlecchino isn't looking for a husband who will "provide" for her.

What's in this for Arlecchino? I think being a man's first woman can be very powerful, especially as a dominant woman.

[mypunkpansexualtwin]

Man I wanna play Balder's Gate 3. Unfortunately my laptop is a piece of garbage and can barely run Minecraft

I understand the feeling, I only recently (admittedly it's been like two years now, but still feels new) got a laptop that could do more than wheeze opening more than three Firefox tabs.

Good news, it's out on consoles now. Bad news, I have no idea if that helps you.

[fandom-lover-extra]

DC X DP: Taking The Cake - Dead Tired

This had to take the cake.

Tim had noticed a couple of odd things about his boyfriend.

One: His boyfriend had an unusual cold temperature-- Tim had originally assumed it might just be because he had poor circulation in his blood stream. But as winter creeped in and his boyfriend still didn't get cold? Not only didn't get cold, but thrived in the temperature? Tim considered just maybe his boyfriend was a meta.

Danny had never mentioned being a meta. But Tim hadn't mentioned being Red Robin either. Not to mention, this was Gotham, so Tim understood why Danny may be a tad apprehensive as to mentioning his colder temperatures.

And if Tim kept the thermostat at a lower temperature from then on any time Danny came to visit? Well, that was his business and nobody else's.

Two: His boyfriend was abnormally quiet. Danny had managed to sneak up on Tim and a few of his family members before. He had managed to sneak up on Cass. And while, on some level Tim could understand his family's apprehension, he felt telling them to promptly 'f*ck off' had also been justified. Tim knew Danny, and Danny genuinely hadn't meant to sneak up on them. 

He had seemed just as startled as them when they shot up in surprise. (And maybe he did ask Cass if Danny was genuinely surprised. His boyfriend was a little sh*t and would totally pull something like this to laugh at. It was his business and Cass's and as far as the two of them were concerned, Danny was perfectly fine.)

Three: Danny was oddly protective. He freaked out anytime there was a Rogue attack and he hadn't heard back from Tim. And while Tim was touched, he hadn't exactly appreciated the mini heart attack he received when he saw Danny out in the field looking for him in a panic.

(That was one of their first big fights. Tim didn't want Danny out in the line of fire, he could take care of himself. Even if Danny didn't know that. But Danny had been just as insistent that he needed to hear back from Tim to know that he was safe.)

They'd reach a compromise. Tim made sure to always respond to Danny's text messages asking if he was safe during a major rogue attack. (Never any phone calls. Danny would know he was lying then.) And he would put up with Danny coddling him the next time he saw him. While it was a bit frustrating, Tim was still touched by the worry.

Four: Danny had enhanced senses. At first, Tim didn't really notice. But eventually, he saw how Danny would flinch at particularly loud noises. Would avoid crowds like the plague. Would sometimes have to wear sunglasses because it was "too bright". Tim never said anything. Never called attention to any of these occurrences, just attempted to help his boyfriend through it.

Tim knew it was a possibility that Danny was just sensitive to those types of things. But considering Tim was sure that Danny was some type of meta, he was leaning more towards that theory.

Five: His boyfriend was unusually strong for someone that looks as much like a twig like him.

Once when Tim had been injured particularly badly during patrol, he had practically been put on bedrest. Not because he hadn't attempted to go out the next night, but because Danny had found out he was injured and came to take care of him while he was injured.

When Tim had attempted to sneak out that night, luckily he had yet to change into his Red Robin suit, Danny had basically manhandled him back into bed. With absolutely no effort, even with Tim struggling against him. Not that Tim had struggled much, with how frazzled his brain had been when he realized that Danny was stronger than he realized.

And if Tim invited Danny to the gym next time he worked out? Well, that didn't have any ulterior motives, no matter what Steph insisted upon.

And now for number six. This took the absolute cake. The last thing Tim had expected. And at this point? Tim wasn't so sure that Danny was actually even human. Which means he would have to completely scrap his theories on his boyfriend and start over from scratch.

Because right now, Tim and Danny were cuddled up on the couch in Danny's apartment. They were having a series marathon of the Star Trek series. It had started out perfectly fine. It had started out as normal.

A weighted blanket on top of the two, Danny cuddled up to Tim, with a bowl of popcorn in-between the two. Eventually, they shifted. The bowl of popcorn ending up on the floor with Danny on top of Tim on the couch.

Absentmindedly, Tim began running his fingers through his boyfriend's hair, not really paying attention to the background noise of the TV. He was just so warm and felt safe with the added weight of Danny on top of him. The movements of his finger's being just as much as a soothing motion to Tim as it was to Danny.

And at first, Tim hadn't noticed it. Not when he was slowly drifting off to sleep. But as the sound got louder, Tim couldn't help but notice. Danny was purring. 

Tim blinked and he blinked again. Not once stopping in his ministrations as he blanked out. Danny continued purring away, leaning into Tim's touch, his eyes closed and a content smile on his face. Tim couldn't help but be reminded of an overly affectionate cat. Especially when he rubbed the space around Danny's scalp and ears, Tim was convinced the was purring louder than the sound coming from the TV at this point.

So maybe he wasn't human after all. Maybe Tim should have given more weight to Damian's alien theory.

But right now, Tim was tired, and he was sure he would remember in the morning.

In the end, Tim allowed Danny's presence to send him off into a warm and comfortable sleep.

(And if Tim proceeded to take apart his theory board and contemplate just how to ask his boyfriend about the fact that he wasn't human? Well, that was his business and nobody else's)

[signanothername]

i'm so glad you made killer smart, as not a lot of people do that. also, i totally agree with you on the fact that nightmare is smart, but not smarter than killer.

I personally think nightmare only cared to study very specific subjects like history, theater, and especially botany and dendrology (the study of trees and plants)

also he isolated himself from all social interaction for 500 years, so he wouldn't even know how to carry on a proper conversation, and might defer to things he read in his books.

Thank youuuu <333

No like i shall forever die on the hill that Killer is the smartest in the entire gang even dhdhdhhd

Like all of them are smart to me in different ways but how the fandom makes Killer out to be a stupid bitch (and even sometimes make him act like a child) makes me wanna punch the wall

That’s why I take it upon myself to portray him as the clever bitch he truly is just like in canon <333333

And omg I absolutely love your Nightmare hc!! I absolutely especially adore the fact he’d be interested in studying botany and dendrology!! Like I always loved to think Nightmare has an emotional attachment to trees but I never really thought about him studying it as a field!! That’s honestly so fucking cool hell yaaaa!!!

To me I like to think he studies almost everything, he just loves to learn new things, as long as he gets to read a new book he’s up for it, that’s where I think Nightmare’s smarts lie, in his ability to store so much information in his head, and a vast knowledge of a variety of things and how to apply them in his daily routine that’s applicable to himself

But yeah socially?? No luck at all wheeze, like to be able to be strategically and socially intelligent you need to actually interact with the outside world, which Nightmare never does in his entire damn existence

Like to me Nightmare can be good at planning missions and whatnot IN THEORY, but I wholeheartedly believe he never does it alone without Killer in the picture, cause listen he might not be socially intelligent but he’d definitely realize how smart Killer is in such things, and Killer would be able to tell whether such plans can even be applied in the actual field and be put into practice/action, plus Killer would definitely know how to give ideas that can give them the element of surprise, Killer’s always been pretty unpredictable and I think that unpredictably has definitely taught him a few tricks, and like can we talk about his meta knowledge?????? *flashbacks to that one Core Frisk comic where Killer basically says some insane shit that’s literally impossible to know that even Nightmare questions it*

And no like “defer to things he read in his books” is so real shhzhxhhz, that’s how I think Nightmare lives on a daily basis, he just tries to apply his theoretical knowledge to the real world, but the thing is, no matter how much knowledge you hold, you won’t be truly good at something until you put it into actual practice, and that practice needs to be constant, Nightmare never carries any convos or even gets social with anyone, there’s no way he actually genuinely understands how to communicate with people xhxhhdh

Like any social intelligence Nightmare has to me is more associated with his fear of the world around him, his fear of becoming helpless/ defenseless again, so he might look out for anything that might pose a threat to him, but even then he’s still bad at understanding how to apply such knowledge in the real world

Anyway, Killer is just way smarter than Nightmare and the fandom needs to start acknowledging it 😔✌️✌️

[via-the-cryptid]

Eddie is beginning to regret his decision to bring the gremlin into his hideout. On the one hand, she let him bandage her wounds and has been trying to come up with legitimate answers to every riddle he’s asked her so far, but on the other… well. There’s green and red spattered all over the floor, an alleged ceiling ghost judging him, and he’s currently got a terrible headache from trying to comprehend anything she says.

What he’s gleaned so far is, unfortunately, just the basics. Her name is Ellie — short for Danielle, not Eleanor (he asked), she’s fourteen and not ten or eleven like he’d assumed, she tried to tell him her eyes were blue even though he can very clearly see that they’re green, and she does not want to go back to where she was before.

She’s mentioned two names a few times, Danny and Vlad. The first seems to be in a good context, but the second… not so much. Eddie can’t help but wonder just what sort of situation she escaped from before landing herself in Gotham, but she’s made it rather clear that she’s not going to expand upon that.

Still, there are things that don’t add up. Her appearance, her mannerisms, her abilities… she has to be a meta, but what exactly can she do? Is it limited to going through solid objects? Is there anything she can’t go through? How did she get like this? Perhaps that’s why he brought her here — Eddie never could stand to leave a question unanswered, and this kid is practically a treasure trove of mysteries. He can’t help but want to know more.

She’s talking again, this time to the ceiling and not to him. It almost seems like she’s having a legitimate conversation with done invisible person, which only makes him wonder more about toxin and hallucinations. The Joker’s poisons can do far more than induce uncontrollable laughter, after all, and not even Eddie knows the full scope of the Joker Toxin’s effects. For all he knows, sudden vivid hallucinations are a part of that list.

“Yes, I know that, but it can’t be a safe box, those have keys and lids.” Ellie insists. “And probably hinges. I don’t know, I’ve never seen one.”

Silence falls for a moment as Ellie presumably waits for an answer. Then, she huffs.

“I can still make an educated guess. How would they put anything in without a key?”

More silence.

“No, that’s not right, there’s nothing gold in it… but you could put something in it! Hey, green beans, I got the answer!”

He’d given her an easy one this time — easy if one knew the pop culture reference, that is. Ellie, apparently, did not. Yet another odd thing to add to the list of facts about the gremlin currently sitting on his counter: nearly every time he brought up something that was common knowledge, she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.

Maybe he needed to revisit that theory about government labs and human experimentation.

“A box without hinges, key, or lid, and yet inside, golden treasure is hid,” Ellie recites. “I think it’s a vase full of coins.”

“…A vase full of coins.”

“Yes.”

“May I inquire as to why you guessed that?”

“No hinges, no key, no lid, but it’s not open on top like a bowl, so you can hide things inside if you want. The golden part is the coins.”

How unconventional. Not the answer he wanted, but not technically wrong, either.

Fascinating.

[emoangel44]

i think the thing that makes people mischaracterize and completely miss the point of chara is that theyre written to be two very different things concurrently that dont really mesh together.

from what we know concretely about chara as a character, they were a very mentally ill child and complicated person who simultaneously hurt and helped people around them, who held both a lot of love and hate in their heart. they are fairly vague but also have specific character traits such as liking chocolate and filling up water glasses to the brim to maximize efficiency. they take speaking patterns from toriel and an interest in gardening from asgore. if you believe in the narrachara theory, they even have a character arc that changes depending on the route you take. they are inarguably a character who haunts the narrative due to their decisions in life having lead to tragedy that shapes the very plot of the game inextricably; and arguably a character that haunts the narrative and shapes the story much more literally in being a conscious force and companion that accompanies our journey.

at the same time, chara isnt treated as a character at all and is instead a meta-narrative device meant to act as an in-universe player stand-in. in this way chara isnt actually a person with character traits, but a vehicle for toby to provide commentary about the people who play video games. they are a concept that represents the state of thoughtless exp grinding. in the no mercy route their main purpose is to be a reflection of you and your mindset, even more directly than flowey. the reason theyre named after you is because, for a number of aspects in the game, they are supposed to be you; with no notable separation like there is with frisk.

this problem also heavily applies to frisk, for who there is an effort to separate their identity from yours at the end of the pacifist route but who still ends up with no real character traits of their own. people compensate for this by using black-and-white thinking; which results both in assigning frisk and chara a sort of "good-and-evil" dichotomy leading to their early fan interpretations, and in thinking that frisk and chara can only be either fully fleshed out characters or mindless player inserts leading to people favouring option one and basically ignoring the player as a concept except to occasionally use it as a generic big bad.

i think toby prioritized meta-textual implications over actual textual characterization for the human characters in undertale. this left chara as a character feeling unclear, unfocused, and incongruent due to them trying to be several things at once with no real through-line; and frisk as a character feeling practically non-existent outside of being a vessel. there are effectively two different charas in undertale, the character and the plot device, which makes it hard to talk about them as one consistent whole. i think this is why in tobys second game hes been putting such a focus on kris as a character and their separation from the player, as to improve on what he didnt properly touch on in undertale.

[ohmerricat]

sutekh was a fantastic villain in 1975. sutekh was a compelling and frightening antagonist for one serial. it’s okay that his motivation was just “destroy everything, i hate all living things”because he was only around for one serial before tom baker sealed him in a temporal sarcophagus forever. and it should have stayed that way, with the exception of, maybe, a few big finish excursions, since they love to reanimate the corpses of dead characters.

sutekh is NOT a compelling enough villain to be refitted as the big bad of a nuwho series. “kill everyone now” is the most generic motivation a bad guy can have. “i bring death” ok what else do you bring? do you represent anything? do you have any subtextual value, do you have symbolic meaning beyond “lol, die everyone because i said so, i’m an evil egyptian god”. there’s no substance to him, nothing deeper. a character like the master is practically made of substance, his history and the doctor’s are entwined from the start and that’s what makes him so fascinating as a threat, but even lesser iconic villains — daleks, cybermen, weeping angels, ood, the silence, the great intelligence, the fucking fisher king from before the flood — all have complex and intriguing motives and philosophies of their own. okay, maybe not the angels, but they represent something. they stand in for a concept (in the case of angels, for example, the very meta concept of being glued to your screen, physically unable to look away).

what does sutekh stand in for? he’s just death. he wants all life gone. that’s not interesting, that’s not exciting beyond the scope of one serial or one episode. he’s not nuwho material, he’s definitely not nuwho finale material. you may as well just plop the grim reaper there, scythe and all, go full torchwood (derogatory), instead of embracing the dated, orientalist egyptian imagery russell has insisted on doubling down on. i’m feeling pessimistic. i’d really been hoping for the “stuck-in-a-tv-show” theory to be proven right. how naïve of me.

[king-crane]

A thought before I go to bed: Crane has been shown on many occasions to be one of the few rogues to consistently be willing to make business deals, and I don’t just mean with Roman and Cobblepot.

Notably, he is more than willing to uphold his bargains with Roman and Cobblepot, as they’re down in the dirt with him. They’re not just businessmen, they are crimelords who have been beaten, tortured, had ups and downs and taken their lumps countless times. He can trust them, even if only because he can predict them and somewhat empathize with them and the obsession with The Bat. Scarecrow works with Sionis and Cobblepot most of the times, even if it would be more pragmatic to betray them.

But Simon Stagg? Simon Saint? They are billionaires with the public images of philanthropists and men who bring peace and order - and they lie. To the public, to their families and friends, and to themselves. They are so disgusting to Crane that he does not even find them worthy of making test subjects. He already knows what scares them, and he does his best to make it a reality. And this isn’t just my own headcanon or speculation - Stagg and Saint are both men who have tried to deal with Crane, thinking they could control him, and paid the price.

Stagg is the corrupt arms dealer in Arkhamverse who thinks he can weaponize Fear Toxin, stealing Scarecrow’s shit, betraying him, and getting away with it. He does not.

And Saint? Oh boy, Saint is a real hoot. If Saint had let go of his desire to control Gotham, an uncontrollable force, then so much could have been prevented - including Saint’s incarceration. Instead, he comes directly to an imprisoned Crane, sets him free, and gives him all the tools and resources necessary to do what must be done. And by GOD is Fear State just the BEST example of why you should never think you can control Crane.

I just think that’s neat. And also if any rich businessmen and/or crimelords want to interact with Crane I’m so down 👀

[lover-of-mine]

Hello and welcome to me being crazy about colors in media. Again. I feel like during season 7 there was the whole blue and yellow thing going around Buck and Eddie and I offered the theory that it could be like the blue and green thing, but for queer couples, since the show tends to use that color combo with Hen and Karen (here's that post if you want to see it), until @stagefoureddiediaz told me about a trend in media as a whole to use those two colors for queer coding, she mentioned red, white and royal blue and heartstopper as more recent examples but that this has been going on for a while. I'm gonna be honest, I don't watch a lot of movies, but the other day tiktok started to show me clips of Crush, it's a queer high school romcom, I had it on streaming, I was bored, I sat down to watch it, the movie is ridiculously blue and yellow, like, it's almost funny, I'm not gonna write a meta on that, if you get curious and watch the movie, there are blue and yellow elements to pretty much every scene, just pay attention lol. But that got stuck in my head and I was thinking about Love, Simon, and well, that movie also uses blue and yellow elements, in a more subtle manner, but it's there, rwrb also has details, like the lighting or color of ties, the same way they hide pride flags with elements of the scene. I never watched heartstopper, so I can't comment on that one.

Why am I telling you this? Well, if this is a pattern in media in general, then we have ourselves a solid theory. Crush and rwrb are more recent movies, crush is from 2022, rwrb is from 2023, but Love, Simon came out at the beginning of 2018. This makes the choice of making henren scenes blue and yellow very interesting.

You know me, I'm the blue and green person (extremely detailed meta on the blue and green), but I turned off the blue and green switch in my head and was going around wondering what counts as yellow. Because if we count warn lighting in general, the way it reflects in the background, Buck and Eddie are constantly surrounded by blue and yellow elements. There's a lot during under pressure, including the way the dialogue during the ambulance is "Practice rounds have blue caps, gold caps are live." while we have blue and yellow lights in the ambulance ceiling.

The blue and yellow elements are real, but while making my buddie in every episode series, I was watching season 3 with the blue and yellow goggles on, and I realized the lights behind Eddie during the tsunami are very much yellow, along with the blue tents and Eddie's uniform.

And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

They even have blue and yellow beers.

So the blue and yellow during season 7, has to mean something. For both of them.

And with the way that Buck, Bothered and Bewildered is a blue and yellow episode, I kinda wanna say that the blue and yellow IS about queer themes.

But the reason I'm making this post is actually more insane than just making this point again. Buck and Eddie have 2 undeniably blue and yellow scenes before season 7. Scenes where they are dressed in blue and yellow. And those are very important scenes in my humble opinion. Because the first one is the will reveal.

This scene is one of the most important buddie scenes. And that makes the colors here very interesting if we add things like the way they wanted to make Buck bi in season 4 but fox didn't let them, and this scene reads as a love confession anyway. Having Eddie in blue and Buck in yellow could very much have been the way they found to add more significance to the scene.

But there's also the way that Eddie's shirt is to yellow the same way Buck's is to blue during the presentation of the couch theory (rip you will always be famous), which is, again, a choice, we also have the notepads Eddie and Chris are playing with are yellow and the beers are also yellow, and the way Chris is a blue element.

Everything here keeps getting me more and more convinced that they will go canon while in blue and yellow, not blue and green like other couples, because green is both their breakup colors, if we count the conversation with Kim as a breakup.

And personally, I think we can, because by my own standards, their first conversation is blue and green.

So buddie going canon in a blue and yellow scene makes more sense because it would be unique to them.

This is a very long way to say, let's be on the lookout for both of them wearing blue and yellow lol.

That's all for today, if you reached this, I love you 💜

[tellmeallaboutit]

knock knock (Raphael x F!Player)

Chapter 3, In Which Larian Introduces The Raphael Romance

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

SUMMARY: Careful which mods you install for BG3. Did you read the terms and conditions carefully?

TAGS: meta romance, psychological horror, smut, the character is the player, Raphael is after you, you wanted him, you invited him to our world, he accepted your invitation

RATING: explicit

AO3

Chapter 3

TW for the chapter: self-harm, cunnilingus, vaginal sex, masturbation, problematic mom-daughter relationship

After spending forty minutes on the tube and another twenty squeezed onto a bus with sweaty, boundary-ignorant strangers, you finally got home from your coffee date with the devil. 

In that time, you had more or less come to terms with the fact that you had truly lost it.

This left you with three options: First, you could go to a psychiatrist (how do you find a psychiatrist?) and tell the truth. Your laptop is talking to you, a devil is stalking you with the clear intention of fucking you and taking your soul, in no particular order. They'd chalk it up to psychosexual mania, Freudian theories of repressed desires and frustrations. Prescriptions for anti-psychotics and anti-hallucinogens would follow while they dug into your very much fatherless past.

The second thing a person haunted by the devil might do is go to a priest. The last time you set foot in a church was when your mother could make you go, so it would be as much a surprise for the priest to see you there as it would be for you to do so again. Also, you can't help but imagine walking into a confessional only to find Raphael smirking back at you from behind the lattice screen, which brings you back to option one.

The third option was to accept your madness and play along with it. It had already made the last week of your life more exciting than the entire preceding twenty-seven years combined.

It wasn't a difficult choice.

Since your arrival at home, you had not let your phone leave your side for a single second, not in the shower, not on the toilet. Meanwhile, you had begun your preparations for the rendezvous, and you had begun by scheduling your torture for the very next day. 

Your tormentor was a petite Vietnamese girl who promised her methods would not hurt, and the execution chamber was a rundown salon down the street that definitely condoned illegal employment practices. 

Not like you could afford anything nicer anyway.

You could barely scrape together enough cash for waxing (damn inflation), but imagining that Raphael had watched you straddle a Bad Dragon dildo all natural- unshaved legs and the rest - was way more mortifying than the idea that the devil himself was watching.

After the Vietnamese girl ripped hair from your most sensitive areas, you felt prepared for any infernal punishment. When questioned if it hurt, you lied through clenched teeth.

The rest of the Sunday was a shopping blur. The last time you went on a date was some nine months ago (prior to BG3 coming out), it lasted an hour but left enough of an impression to delete your profile from Bumble, so you were completely out of stock of anything half-way decent, not to speak decent enough for a date with Raphael.

You consulted with the Devil's Den about what to wear and what lingerie Raphael would prefer, which didn't help much as everyone had their own interpretation of his preferences, ranging from none at all to him wearing lingerie himself.

At the start of the working week, your bank balance had dropped by four hundred euros and you still hadn't received any calls on your mobile phone. 

Wasn't there a rule about waiting three days? Whoever came up with this shit should spend his afterlife as a lemure.

You went through the motions at work, barely awake during two team conference calls, only to be told you looked "exhausted". This, despite having spent the entire previous day in a facial mask. To add insult to injury, you were scheduled for a "personal development" meeting next week.

In between the conference calls, you took the time to write two essays on Tumblr. The first was about how Raphael would easily conquer the Nine Hells and anyone who doubted that was an idiot (you didn't actually write that, but you certainly meant it). 

The second was about how Tav was the real villain for robbing Raphael. Maybe these posts would flatter Raphael enough to prompt him into calling you. Both got a decent amount of likes and reblogs, but not the attention you were hoping for.

On Monday night, you spent a good two hours staring at your phone, desperately waiting for some strange email, some kind of notification, however unsettling it might be.

It's not like Raphael actually works for that bloody law firm, is it? 

Or maybe, for devils, the usual waiting time for a call is a couple of years. After all, Raphael was angry for a dozen years that one time.

when you remember you have a mother call me hope you have a nice day

Well, you asked for a disturbing notification, and now you've got one. Your mother had an uncanny ability to make you feel guilty with just one precisely aimed message. Despite being well acquainted with her tactics (which she vehemently denied having), they managed to hit their mark every time.

She wasn’t a bad person, no, far from it; God knows she had enough problems as a single mother in a small and predominantly Catholic town an hour's drive away. 

She was the first in her family to go to university, but had to drop out when she became pregnant with you. Went through several terrible relationships, which she ended for your sake. You were her walking shattered dreams. 

It hadn't been that long since you'd last spoken on the phone, maybe a week? 

OK, a week was long. 

“Hi mum," you sighed into your phone. "Sorry, I've been busy."

"With what?" her voice fizzed over the line, laced with a scepticism only a mother can muster.

A solid start.

"With adult life?" you said.

"Adult life is juggling a full-time job, a child and a house that needs constant attention, Anya. You don't have any of that."

"I have a full-time job, Mum, remember?"

"Oh yes," she said. "I know how 'busy' you IT people are. Anyway, I called to tell you something very important".

You were not IT people, you worked for an IT company, but for you mum, you were IT people and therefore by definition overpaid and underworked. 

"I was at Nadine's", she said, and made a dramatic pause.

Oh great. Nadine, the human drain on your mother's savings, which were far from abundant. How your mother reconciled her devout Catholicism with regularly going to a fortune teller (and with getting pregnant at twenty out of wedlock) was one of the things that defied your comprehension. She had an intricate system, which only she would call logic, to justify these contradictions; you gave up trying to understand it long ago.

"Don't get upset - it wasn't about you or anything”, you mum said. “Your name just came up in conversation and we ended up doing a reading - just ONE reading, but it was... enlightening."

As every single reading so far. 

"Yes?" you asked, not bothering to fake enthusiasm.

"Well..." She drew out the word. "The cards say you're going to meet someone special soon. A King of Pentacles, imagine! So, mature, financially secure, gallant…"

A gallant gentleman would not keep a lady dying for his call.

“There is more, Anja. There was also the Devil in the spread. Do you know what that means?"

You paused. "...the Devil himself is interested in me?"

Your mother let out a joyous laugh.

"Anya, sweetie, I love you, but I don't think THE Devil would be interested in you. Not this way, anyway”.

That stung a bit. After all these years of him supposedly seducing you into premarital sex and drugs, succeeding at the former and barely scratching the pot surface with the latter, and now he was suddenly not interested in you.

Well, that’s where you are wrong, mum. Hopefully.

"No, that means... Now I'm quoting Nadine here, Anya... Negative forces holding you back from reaching your full potential. NEGATIVE THINKING! That's what I've been saying all along!"

“Ah”, you said. “Right”.

You checked out and let the phone rest on the table on loudspeaker, allowing your mother to continue her monologue of small town gossip.The right-side neighbour was fooling around with someone else's wife, neighbour to the left doesn’t mow his lawn. You surfed on your laptop in the meanwhile.

queen-of-the-bored: now did you read that Raph smut I sent you

queen-of-the-bored: that one

You were hoping to get out of reading smut with Raphael and into living it. Ah, hell, maybe that would draw him out somehow. Maybe this would be about him and you, some meta stuff, a special surprise he wrote himself for you. 

You opened AO3 and began to scan the warning triggers that preceded the chapter. "Non-con", "pillory confinement", "rough anal sex", "face fucking" and "forced urination", and that was just for starters.

No.

Absolutely fucking not. 

“Holy fuck”, you said, and promptly closed the web-page.

"Anya! Watch your mouth! But yes, you are right, of course”, your mom said . “All these years acting like she is the holy and mighty and knows best… ”

you: are you ok recommending stuff like that?

queen-of-the-bored: what queen-of-the-bored: come on now queen-of-the-bored: dude this you?

She sent a screenshot of your Tumblr post with five hundred likes and forty-one reblogs:

"I don't get Hope, I personally would LOVE Raphael to lock me in chains in his basement and do whatever he wants to me <3".

That was undeniably you. Was that what attracted Raphael to you? Is that what he came for?

A sudden epiphany dawned on you: you were far more vanilla than you had let on. Especially on the first date. You didn't want it to turn into a basement horror story. Well, maybe you did, but only if it went exactly according to your script (which categorically did not involve non-consensual rough anal sex), in the kind of basement you liked (stylishly infernal rather than Josef Fritzl one) and with thorough aftercare and lavish praise. 

You weren't entirely convinced that this vision was in line with Raphael's preferences. You were not entirely sure what those preferences truly were, for that matter.

You scrubbed all traces of the fanfic from your browsing history and briefly toyed with the idea of posting something along the lines of 'GET THERAPY YOU SICK FUCK' in the comments - just to make sure Raphael knew exactly where you stood on the matter. 

What you need to do is search for fanfics tagged with phrases like "Raphael spoils Tav with gifts and sweet nothings", "gentle" and "teeth-rotting fluff".

"And then she said, Anya... guess what, she said..."

***

Tuesday was the third day without a call. 

If he did not call today, you decided, you would go to that bloody law firm to drag him out of a conference room and if he was not there, well... you might do the unspeakable.

You might rob the House of Hope for the first time in your life. A woman who has not been called by her favourite devil for three days in a row is a woman in severe mental crisis.

After spending some time day-dreaming your revenge, you finally reach for your phone while still lying in bed.

There were notifications waiting for you, not the ones you wanted. The Raphael romance petition (which you’d passionately signed thrice, using different IPs) had triumphed. The new update included a post-credits dinner and something extra.

The fandom was thrown into chaos upon hearing this announcement (though, truthfully, any news tended to do that). Fans heatedly argued about whether it was pandering, too much fan service, whether it trivialized victims of sexual assault or if it was simply bad taste.

The discord channel buzzed with chatter about that new scene - some dismissed it as too vanilla; others lamented that Larian backtracked on Raphael being a bottom; while some celebrated it as the best thing since Andrew Wincott had cooed "good girl" on a live stream.

In different circumstances, you would be overjoyed and congratulating dmgdgoods for the success of the petition. But now? It felt like cold leftovers in comparison to what you truly craved - seeing Raphael in person, feeling his touch and his breath against your skin.

Regardless, you decided to get ONE bloody dinner you had been promised.

To your dismay, your boss chose today, of all days, to make you work and make you hate your work. You had four useless conference calls during eight working hours, each one an hour apart. 

The clock on your computer seemed trapped within some diabolical time warp.

You’d bring an audience with you, you thought as you absent-mindedly typed emails. That’s right, you’d bring an audience. 

If Raphael decides to talk to you through the screen, well, there would be your solid proof you were not crazy - and a digital trace - and a message to the whole world that it was you, you, who were his special mouse among the thousands that would rush to House of Hope tonight.

If he doesn't, well… he isn’t calling you either.

You dropped everything the minute the clock struck five, and lectured the rest of your remaining team about the importance of work-life balance and the toxicity of corporate greed. 

Then you fired up Twitch.

The witnesses, a twenty-strong user mob, were summoned from across the communities you were in; some you knew, some you guessed who it might be, and a couple of random users.

The House of Hope stood ready. 

In the main hall, a table was set for two, draped in red velvet with silver candelabras and a centrepiece of blood-red roses; Larian clearly knew their audience - those who craved Raphael Romance would also enjoy a side dish of gothic horror.

This notion you would subscribe to.

"Ah, my little mouse," Raphael's voice crept into your ears the moment Tav teleported into his domain. "I've been expecting our rendezvous."

His tone was molten honey and made you forget for a moment your annoyance at his lack of calls. 

Archdevils Supreme were, after all, notorious workaholics.

Raphael was in his cambion form, which you liked, but preferred the human one. Like this, he would barely fit into your room - how tall was he? Two ten? Two twenty? Your ceilings were two twenty. One flap of those wings could destroy your bookshelf. 

The Twitch chat room was quiet; you threw out a test message that elicited a few half-hearted responses. Still there, good.

"I owe you, little mouse," Raphael continued in that rich baritone that brought back memories of the coffee shop. "I owe you your unwavering loyalty. Your commitment. Your trust."

Raphael paused for dramatic effect before adding: "I appreciate those who deal fairly with me, because I have only dealt fairly with you."

His words eerily echoed a recent essay you'd written; it brought a smile to your face as you reached out to touch him.

cross_my_heart: are you touching your screen? cross_my_heart: jeez man cross_my_heart has left the chat

Your Tav, a drow warlock (whom you imagined as Raphael's personal warlock), was wearing her most "why-am-I-here" expression, arms crossed over her chest. It drove you mad, that standard #2 emotion.

Then they ate; clunky, clearly afterthought animations rehashed from Karlach's date dinner. The food they were served (meat, meat, lots of meat) made your stomachs ache (you had been on a crash diet in the irrational hope of slimming down for the rendezvous).

"You were the one who gave me the Crown of Karsus. You gave me the power to claim worlds, my little mouse, even your own." He paused before adding, "You hung on my every word, spread my vision... Every time we played, you offered the crown. My most loyal little acolyte".

A thrill of anticipation ran through you; he must be deviating from his usual script. He was now speaking directly to you.

luxaeterna: haha cool meta stuff luxaeterna: the game is probably checking to see if you have any save games where you killed him luxaeterna: and judging by the way you just stroked the screen (lol) you don't

"Come, my little mouse," Raphael beckoned. "Come and claim your reward. What is it that your heart desires?"

Your eyes scanned the four options presented to you:

1. Wealth beyond measure.

2. Godlike power.

3. Eternal youth.

4. You, Raphael.

"Well," you said aloud with a smile as your cursor hovered over option 4 (the only logical choice), "I'm not sure about immeasurable wealth, but an extra grand wouldn't hurt.” 

You wouldn't know what to do with godlike power anyway, and you were too young to dream of eternal youth.

A message appeared in the right-hand corner of your screen: GUESTUSER43214 donated €1,000.

You gasped. 

Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes. 

He was here. Raphael was watching you play with Raphael, which was the most Raphael thing that ever happened.

And he'd just given you a damn grand for nothing, with a simple click of his fingers - virtual numbers to him, but very real to you. 

You licked your lips with excitement. Easy money. The easiest money ever, for a joke and a smile. Tax free too. Is that how the girls at OnlyFans feel? 

papa johnes: holy fuck why didn't you ask for a million papa johnes: reload and ask for a million! DEVIL CREAMPIE: WOW WOW WOW  luxaeterna: is this a prank?  DEVIL CREAMPIE: SUGAR DADDY DEVIl

Would he give you more if you asked for it? Perhaps. Perhaps more than you could possibly imagine, enough to make all the worries disappear, but all in due time; that was not what you were craving from him at the moment.

luxaeterna:@GUESTUSER43214 are you Raph are you Raph Raph is it you? luxaeterna:@GUESTUSER43214 I can also stroke the screen for a thousand where do I sign up?

The user did not reply, but Raphael in-game did as soon as you clicked on "You and only you".

He walked up to your Tav and embraced her; tenderly, carefully, his clawed hands tracing the back of her spine. She looked frightened. 

Well, she only had so many expressions.

"You've always had a knack for making wise decisions," he purred in her ear. "It's one of your many talents, my dear. And once again you've chosen wisely. Now, how may I indulge you?"

papa johnes: ASK FOR A MILLION 

1. Fulfil my every dark fantasy. 

2. Let me put you on a leash and show you what pleasure is, devil.

3. Aren't you only bedding Haarlep?

4. Thanks, I'll pass. Haarlep has told me I’d be well advised to indulge elsewhere.

luxaeterna: Fulfil my every DARK fantasy lol who wrote this stuff a horny intern on her lunch break papa johnes: ASK FOR A MILLION GODDAMNIT

You briefly contemplated if you wanted Haarlep to join and thought that’s something you would save for later, so you went for the horny intern option.

"I will make all your fantasies come true," Raphael promised, as he stood up from his seat and approached Tav. "The ones you're aware of and those yet to be discovered. But for what comes next, little mouse, I prefer us to be alone. No prying eyes."

The game gave you three options to choose from: 

1. Yes, Raphael

2. Yes, Master

3. Yes, of course

luxaeterna: I think there might be an option missing  DEVIL CREAMPIE: lol any colour you like as long as it’s black right Raph

You nodded, chose “Yes, Raphael”, and got an immediate response:

Connection to Twitch lost. You clicked around, but the servers seemed to be shut down. Huh, you thought, Raphael can control Twitch servers. He could use it as a tool of mass indoctrination.

A deep sigh slipped from your lips. 

It was just the two of you now. 

But you wouldn't leave without proof. You pressed escape and positioned your phone camera on the highest shelf, angling it to capture everything that transpired on screen.

Raphael pulled Tav in a kiss the moment you resumed the game, something clearly modelled after Ascended Astarion kiss, with him standing, her seated, looking tiny in comparison to him. His clawed hand grasped her ebony neck and gave it a light squeeze. His expression was perfect - possessive, dark, animalistic, hers was screaming “I am about to shit myself” and completely out of place.

You are a Lolth-Sworn and a Bhaalspawn, Tav! What the bloody hell are you scared about? He should be scared of you!

"You taste ambrosial, my little mouse," Raphael whispered into Tav's ear. "I've lived thousands of years and never tasted anything better."

She doesn’t, you thought bitterly, she tastes like nothing but code, but I do, I do! 

Your hand traced up your neck mimicking Raphael's touch on Tav's skin and squeezed lightly. The pain made you aware of the bitter resentment against your own avatar - Raphael invited her, dined with her, was about to fuck her, not you, and it could be you now, should be you, not some character you cooked in an hour in the character creator. 

She didn’t do shit but follow your orders. It was you who ordered her to give him the Crown.

Next, Raphael shoved the dishes and the cutlery to the floor and gently laid Tav onto the dining table, positioning himself between her thighs. At first glance, it looked like they'd used Halsin's animation from a different angle until you saw his forked tongue glide across Tav's pixel-perfect hairless pussy, sliding in and out of her.

She did one of those high-pitched, perfectly fake screams that made your blood boil and that was exactly the reason you never watched mainstream porn. 

The very next gameplay your Tav is jumping off a very high cliff.

Tav threw her head back and moaned, the hair that should have fallen down remaining perfectly in place in her braid. It made it look fake the way video game sex sequences look fake, plastic dolls smashed against each other.  Every woman in Faerun and Earth would grab his horns and hold on tight, but no, Tav was not animated to do so.

At least Raphael looked real, every second more so, so you focused on him, and his eyes, and his face glistening in candlelight and Tav’s juices.

There was no way Larian would make it so explicit, a thought that floated in the back of your mind. Can’t be right. The moans, the animations, the visceral, explicit arousal - his and hers. Can’t be right. 

No way you’d be stopping to cross-check, either.

So, you watched Tav writhing under the devil's tongue, slipping your hand under your t-shirt, pulling aside the black lacy bra you'd recently bought for him and caressing your hardening nipples. 

You couldn't help yourself.

You wanted him, his lips on your pussy, your hands around his horns, you wanted to come onto his mouth, to grind around his cock like a fish caught on a hook.

But all you could do was stare, the pulsing of your clit in perfect rhythm with your heartbeats.

Raphael was looking at you, at you specifically, just like in the cafe. He grabbed one of Tav's legs by the ankle and lifted it high into the air as she arched her back in pleasure. The other leg was slightly spread, offering a view of your avatar's glistening pussy, which you couldn't care less about, unlike the ribbed, red, engorged cock between Raphael's legs, impressive enough to both arouse and frighten. 

He must taste so good. The very thought made your mouth water.

You shoved your fingers under your jeans, feeling the zipper scrape against them till it hurt, but you couldn't care less.

Fuck her, you muttered aloud as you rubbed yourself. Or better still, call me and fuck me. 

As if he could hear you (he could he could he definitely could), Raphael hoisted Tav’s ankles onto his shoulders and rammed into her with the force that would have been painful in reality but looked mesmerising on the screen. 

Hard, sure thrusts, sliding in and out, looking at you all that time, his mouth tightening in a sardonic smile. The promise in his eyes. The promise of all he could give and the promise of a hell of a price to pay. Despite all your fear for him, and because of it, you wanted him even more.

Tav screamed her cry again, exactly the same vocal line, her symmetrical, round, cookie-cutter breasts bouncing to the rhythm dictated by Raphael.

It’s me next time, you pleaded. Make it me. I deserve it. I’ll make it worth your while. Please.

Raphael moaned, loudly, like no man you've ever been with moaned - no man you've ever been with could pull off a moan like that - wild, lustful, deep, shameless. You have to talk like him to pull that off. You have to look like him.

You have to be that silver-tongued devil.

"You are mine. I owe you, my precious little mouse" Raphael said to Tav, hovering over her, folding her in two (would you be that flexible?).  "Be my good girl and say it." 

This is exactly the kind of talk you wanted from him, exactly the kind of talk that made your pussy throb, that made you click on everything with 'maledom' in it in a split second.  Such a shame you could see so little, had to imagine so much, their parts were barely visible in this position.

"I am yours," you whispered breathlessly, pinching your nipple as you plunged your fingers deep inside you. "I am your good girl. I am your little mouse. I am!”

Tav said nothing and Raphael raised his hand over her face. Slap her, you urged, hurt her, slap her hard, but he didn't, instead running his fingers through her snow-white hair and you moaned in frustration and pleasure.

This man brings out the worst in you.

Your pussy clenched around your fingers, a little moan escaped your lips and you bored into them, pretending it was his cock ramming into you. You would get the Devil's Dick from under the bed if you could just tear yourself away from the screen for a moment. 

You were right on the edge, so close, closer. Your eyes were fixed on Raphael's face, desperately trying to catch a better glimpse of his cock as he thrust one final time before the screen slowly faded to black.

"NO!" you screamed in frustration. "COME BACK! I'M NOT DONE YET!"

The scene changed to both of them lying on a crimson bed. You closed your eyes shut and gritted your teeth.

Of course, you could have used your imagination to fill in the rest, but you were tired of pretending. You craved the real thing - flesh against flesh, hot breath, his scent, beads of sweat, and taste of saliva, his saliva. Not just porn or smut or audio recordings – the actual physical experience. Sex that you had never had because all you knew was awkward fumbling and elbows tangling in your hair and ‘ugh do you really want me to talk dirty this is so weird’.

You would do anything to fuck him now. Bring me that damn contract, I'll sell my soul for a good fuck. Give me the fucking paper, Raphael, give it to me now.

You reluctantly pulled your sticky fingers away from your aching pussy and cursed under your breath. How many times did Raphael ruin the mood already? Cruel, sadistic, cold-hearted fiend, damned hellish beast. 

You wanted a different kind of torment.

"Raphael, you better call me," you growled at the screen. "Or I swear I'll come to your house, snatch your hammer, end you and..."

Your threat was cut off by a ring of the doorbell.

"Metaphorically speaking," you hastily added as the doorbell chimed again, more insistently this time.

The memory of blood blisters on guy's lips for lesser offences was still fresh in your mind.

"You promised you'd knock on my door, not ring," you muttered to yourself, feeling a tinge of fear run through your body. "And again... metaphorically speaking!"

The doorbell rang once more, louder and angrier than before. You wiped your slick fingers on a napkin and quickly adjusted your clothing before cautiously approaching the door.

A quick glance through the peephole revealed something red outside. But you didn't dare take a second look.

Your palm found its way to the cool metal of the doorknob. This was it, wasn't it? The moment where a stupid girl opens the wrong door at the wrong time and gets clawed to death.

Behind the door stood a teenage boy, around fourteen or fifteen years old, with acne and an ill-fitted t-shirt, casually chewing gum. He looked at you as if you were the one disturbing his peace all along.

"Why the hell were you buzzing my door like a maniac?" you asked.

He thrust a bouquet of red roses towards you without much ceremony. It was heavier than you thought. 

"I have a special delivery for you, ma'am" he announced.

"Why did you buzz my door like that?" you asked again, irritated.

"I get an extra hundred if I deliver these today. I was pissed that you weren't home," he replied with casual indifference.

"You can't just do that to people, you little shit," you shot back.

"Whatever, sue me, bitch," he retorted before walking away with a shrug and one last jab: "And zip up your fly."

You flipped him off, your fly still splayed open. It was funny how not too long ago, such a comment would have mortified and flustered you.

But now, being a bit (okay, a lot) crazy has its perks.

The bouquet he gave you was exactly the type that you used to mock in high school when the popular girls would flaunt their dozens of roses on social media. Over-the-top, showy, just plain vulgar in its excessiveness. How many were there? A hundred? At least. 

You absolutely loved it.

You loved the note attached even more. 

"Apologies for my silence. Had urgent matters to attend to. I promise to make amends and cannot wait to see you again -R."

Oh, and a box of Ladurée macarons which you never tried but you couldn't take your eyes off of them through the window of the shop! 

As if on cue, an incoming call lit up your phone screen. No Caller ID. You clutched the bouquet tighter and hurriedly answered.

“Thank you so much”, you said, momentarily hating the simpering, saccharine voice you adopted. “What a coincidence, just received your flowers”.

"It's hardly a coincidence," Raphael replied calmly. "They sent me an email notification."

You let out a small laugh at the mention of the "e-mail". It seemed like Raphael was still playing the “no, no, it’s not me Raphael the cambion, I just look like him” game. Whatever the hell for?

"You've had my home address this whole time, haven't you, Raphael?" you asked. "Why did you ask then?"

There was a moment of tense silence on the other end of the line, and you could sense Raphael's anger without even seeing him. 

One wrong sentence and everything could shift between the two of you in a split second. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he responded with firmness in his tone:

"It’s one thing you didn’t ask for my name - which I found impolite, but I can forgive a beautiful woman many things. Calling me another man’s name? That's something I will not tolerate."

You blinked in confusion as you read the note in your hand: "I cannot wait to see you again. -R".

"I'm sorry," you stammered, "Your note..."

He laughed. Soft, charming laugh of a rich and successful man perfectly content with his life. 

"Raul, at your service. Raul d'Avergni, if you're interested in doing some research in your free time."

"Raul?", you asked. It was not an ugly name, but it was foreign, mundane and not diabolical enough for your taste. It made you think of a Spanish soap opera, not of Avernus.

"That's right," he replied calmly. "Italian, in case you were wondering. From west of Pozzuoli. Not exactly a place you would be familiar with."

You couldn't help but feel a little hurt by the comment, even though you indeed had no clue where Pozzuoli was.

"Oh," you replied. "I hadn't noticed an accent."

"I would hope not, considering how much my father spent sending me to Eton," Raphael (you won’t call him otherwise, no) joked, although his voice tensed up at the mention of his father. 

Great, now Mephistopheles is here too? Did you accidentally invite all of Hells?

"I will be there by eight to collect you," he said very matter—of—factly.

You checked your Apple Watch and saw that it was only an hour away.

"Tonight?" you inquired.

"Do you have any other arrangements?" 

No, of course not. I've been waiting for your call this whole time, you wanted to make a joke before you realised it was no joke and therefore not really funny.

"No... none," you admitted. "Where are we headed tonight? Should I dress up?"

Or it wouldn’t matter because I would end up in a garbage bag and a “missing” poster?

You could hear him smile on the other end of the phone.

"You definitely should dress up," he said, his tone flirtatious again. "We are heading somewhere special. It might be a little unconventional for common taste, but I assure you, you'll love it. See you very soon."

He hung up before you could ask for more details on what kind of unconventional thing he had in mind. As you tried to calculate your chances of survival for this unconventional event and what exactly was considered unconventional by infernal standards, the odds seemed to get slimmer and slimmer.

Would they even find your body?

It suddenly struck you that 'Raul' never bothered to explain how he knew where you lived, and you still didn't have his phone number to call him back. This realisation prompted you to do something you hadn't done since childhood: call your mum twice in one day.

The only person you could trust to hunt down a devil.

"Mum? I have plans tonight. I'm going out with a man named Raul de… de… oh, God, Avergni or something. Yes, write down his name and look him up on Google. If I don't call you until tomorrow..."

"What do you mean by tomorrow?" your mother interrupted sharply. "Are you planning on spending the night with him?"

You were hoping to spend the night with him!

"I'm twenty-seven, Mum."

“Anya, you know better than to sleep with a man on the first date. Men are hunters, and if you give in too easily, they will lose interest. Trust me, I've been through it all before…”

You clench your jaw as she continues to lecture you on how to catch, tame, and keep a man.

"Mum?" you interject.

"Yes?"

"Did it work with my father?”

Your mother let out an exasperated sigh and switched to her "I have the worst daughter in the world" voice.

"I hope you have a nice evening, but please remember to call me when you get home TONIGHT."

As you showered, dressed, moisturised your face and hands and tried to style your hair, you couldn't help but think of Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic. After all, she looked good dead, so you should too.

The marks of your own fingertips were still visible on your neck. You quickly covered them with concealer and briefly recalled a distant memory of cutting yourself as a teenager.

Why had you cut yourself? The reason was foggy in your mind, as was the pain, but you remembered the bitterness and loneliness. You didn't want to die, but you wanted something else - something you didn't have, or someone who could give it to you.

Being suicidal must be a package deal with being crazy. 

Your phone buzzed. The thing with your mother, she gets distracted too easily to remain offended for long. And you provided her with excellent food for distraction.

is he the managing partner of the law firm?

oh my god

ANYA, THE KING OF PENTACLES.

they write “not married” on the website, god bless

he must have so much money, Anya, so much money.

so handsome

no offence love but how on earth did you manage it

(ah that’s why you were cutting yourself)

we can live with him being Italian, I think.

at least he is Catholic.

please wear black, it suits your figure.

remember POSITIVE thinking.

(Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic)

send me a picture when you are ready. OK? love

wear a cross too 

A cross? You let out a laugh. Unlike your mother, you were consistent in your beliefs. Catholic school was the perfect environment for raising atheists. Ever since you were a teenager, you had been against that rotten, bloody institution, full of pedos, crooks and who knows what else. 

If this was God's team, then you proudly allied yourself with the devil.

As you ranted internally against the church, you suddenly remembered that you now had some freshly made solo porn on your phone that needed to be deleted immediately. 

Not before you give it a little watch.

You wish you hadn't, you thought as it started to play. A high-quality video of you choking in front of a black screen, your hands clutching your throat with a fervour you didn't even know you possessed. A reflection of your face on the laptop: possessed, sickly, rapt. Moans escaping your lips as you pant, hands roaming all over your body, little tremors of excitement... at nothing.

A black screen.

You immediately deleted the video from your phone. If it proved anything, it was that you were gone. Far gone. Off the deep end. The way you moaned, salivating at the mouth, Christ almighty (Christ had nothing to do with it)...

Knock-knock.

Well, that was Raphael. You could tell by the simple knock. It was soft and polite, modest yet assertive; but he wouldn't wait long for you to open the door, so you had to be quick.

Knock-knock.

Your gaze drifted to the ornate golden cross, the crucifix in the centre; suffering, redemption, salvation, deliverance from evil and all the shit you did not believe in. 

In fact, you didn't believe in devils either. 

Besides, a cross won't help against the devils of Baator.

Then again, it wouldn't hurt.

Next: Chapter 4, In Which You Attend A Very Special Event