#this one kinda hurts man

[cviperfan]

Bayo 3 Thoughts

-Not crazy about the Homunculi as enemies, or at least not about the human sized ones, mostly bc i feel like their windups are a lot harder to read, and don't have as clear gives as Angels/Demons did before.  But then some of the returning Angels have shorter windups/reads than before, so this is probably more representative of a general tuning of combat feel

-Trade-off from the "two weapons per set" to "one per set" is that while there's fewer combinations to play with, they are definitely more focused and interesting.  G-Pillar is such a smart second weapon to introduce bc it feels so immediately distinctive from CMW, whereas getting the Shotgun after SF in B1 really only offers minor differences all things considered.  Also, I can only speak for myself but in B1/2 it's extremely easy to decide on a couple sets, if that, to stick with for all your possible permutations (probably involving a sword(s) and whichever thing makes you skate around fast)

-Also was so used to Y (gun) just being the auto-fire attack with your quad pistol no matter what that when it did the anti-tank shot for G-Pillar I immediately went :OOOOOOO

-While I get completely the revamp of how acquiring weapons works here (acquired through story progress so you get all of them, instead of being found piecemeal throughout the world/through meeting specific requirements)-- and it makes sense, you want to make sure every player sees the entire toolkit and I can get being frustrated that some cool stuff like Pillow Talk/Sai-Fung in B1 requires pretty big asks, at the same time it makes it feel less special if you're just getting them like this?  Like i really do get it but still the routine of finding all the pieces of an LP and bringing them to Rodin to do his thing built up this sense of anticipation and encouraged exploration and really gave him a lot of personality too so it's just like... it's fine i guess

-Speaking of which, I both kind of appreciate the more openly "wide-linear" approach to level design while also feeling like the meh rewards for doing so kind of undercut it.  Like the RoT chests in B2 at least gave you vital upgrades like Witch Hearts/Pearls, so there was an incentive to take up the minigame or hunt down the really well hidden ones in B1.  Most of these chests are just like... materials???? and a lollipop?  K

So it turns out some of them *do* in fact have useful upgrades in them but I still feel this point kind of stands?  Because it's still more likely you can go through the trouble of some of these and then it's just materials and that's still annoying

-That being said these levels do feel HUGE even right off the bat.  there's at LEAST 2-3 Secret Missions per level, and it's hard to deny that the effort Platinum have made to ensure stuff is findable is hard to come back from.  Not having to do some obscure bananapants placement/timing shit to hit them is honestly a fucking godsend, the way Verse breakdowns post-fight are laid out makes it IMMEDIATELY CLEAR if you missed one so it's easier to double back, along with up-front indicators about Umbran Tears.  I swear to god I 100%ed Level 1 on my FIRST GO, a thing I never thought possible with the dense and easily-missable nature of Bayonetta levels, even if it took me just shy of an hour to do so.

-The mimic chests got me like :OOOOOO

-Honestly maybe the absolute best payoff of the new approach to level design is the Phenomenal Rifts, which open up after finding all of the Umbran Tears on a level, which are basically secret missions with guaranteed Really Good Rewards, like Accessories or even completely separate demons/weapons.  

-Not crazy about how instead of just unlocking the base pieces of your whole moveset from Rodin (stuff like the Heel Slide/Tetsuzanko in particular) now you just buy them all piecemeal per weapon.  They aren't super expensive but having it this way (while again making the whole suite of moves clearer to novices) really cuts into the ease of combat flow between weapons.  Like it feels like a retroactive justification for the upgrade trees which kind of subtly shifts the focus from gameplay mastery to XP grinding which hmm not crazy about

-It's extremely interesting how much this borrows mechanically from Astral Chain, and feels like a glimpse into how Scalebound might have played out too.  It's really clear they wanted to carry over a lot of those ideas, even if only in a more restrained and limited approach.

-Was not expecting to actually play as the Alternate Universe Bayos (BAyUs?) so that's a fun little treat.  Tokyo!Bayo reminds me of that time Platinum was like PLEASE LET US MAKE A SPIDER-GWEN GAME and it's clear they're still hoping for it somehow.  It's the fact that the Ignus Yo-yo's Gun attack is STRAIGHT UP THE FUCKING WEB-SHOOTER for me

-Not a fan of how slow some of the Ride monsters like Gommorah are, tho being in a chase that's like "avoid all these tiny objects or take damage" and the dodge command takes 4 entire years to complete does not help.  The Not-Gojira fight while extremely fucking cool suffers from a similar problem of slow-ass responses to tight counter windows as well

-THE FUCKIN LUPIN HOMAGES FOR JEANNES FUCKIN STEALTH SHIT

-The Jeanne stuff is... short, but interesting?  Definitely more mini-game than full-on concept

-Being a huge nerd?  Having a sword?  Punk haircut?  Cool jacket?  Semi-comedy relief character?  Customizable shirts?  The way we all called Viola a DMC character when the reality is she's absolutely a No More Heroes character

- OK so after playing as her for a while now I've concluded that while Viola The Character is a fun addition to the series Viola the Player Character is... kind of not?  And a big part of that is that her main defensive option, Parrying (instead of Bayo dodging to get Witch Time, Viola can only do it if she parries with Jeanne-style timing) feels-- especially in the context of Platinum's oeuvre-- really fucking bad????  Like maybe it's the fact that reading the move in the context of Bayonetta's classic gameplay/enemy types is extremely difficult or the compounding difference of enemy attack timing or the fact that you cannot move AT ALL to do it correctly or you activate your double-tap rush move (and related, the fact that it's ALSO ON THE BUTTON FOR THE DOUBLE TAP RUSH MOVE, A MOVE THAT IS NOT SAFE AGAINST ATTACKS) or it's a combination of all the above but it's extremely frustrating to have three whole games built around Bayo's dodge timing and generous window and then to play Viola and have all that working against you... feels bad man

-That being said the kind of tandem character combat (again, carrying over from Astral Chain a bit) she has with Cheshire is extremely good and it feels like she's actually a better damage dealer bare-fisted than with the sword???

-While some of them are pretty cool on the whole I'm kinda not crazy about all the Big Area Bosses being gimmick Giant fights?  Like I think Bayonetta as a series generally does a great job making Giant Boss fights feel readable and fun (a little less so in 2, but 1 is absolutely a How-To on making that work) when you're a human-sized character so largely setting that aside for the final game in the trilogy is... kinda weird ngl

-I do think it's funny as fuck we all saw the trailer where Bayo pulls her heart out to apparently summon a Giant Gommorah and everyone was like "oh shit this must be for the final battle... like a desperate last resort move at the end of her rope" and then in the game itself she's just poppin that sucker out every 3 chapters like it's no big thing lol

-One complaint I had about the first two games is that with a few exceptions the weapons aren't really unique or have distinctive characteristics (a more common quirk of the DMC games), which 3 has absolutely amended to its credit.  While there are definitely light/fast and heavy/slow weapons, there's a lot more uniqueness and interesting quirks to each of them (Dead End Express is a very light homage to the Motorbike weapon from DMC5, and requires specific timing on the charge attacks to do the most damage but will burn out if you hold it too long; the Mic can do Attack/Defense buffs; there's a FUCKING TWIN DOOR SHIELD THATS DEFINITELY NOT A SOULS REFERENCE), so they really do all feel very different and fun to play with.  Like this is absolutely an aspect of the game where designers got to let their imaginations run wild and it mostly pays off

-The entire (and i mean ENTIRE) final battle is honestly fucking hilarious bc it repeats this cycle of

Singularity: HA HA YOU CANT BEAT ME IM REALITY Bayo: gets the upper hand with some crazy trick Singularity: NOOO???? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE????????? I CANT LOOSEEEEEE Singularity: counters it anyway Bayo: noooo im losing (return to step one)

LIKE THREE OR FOUR TIMES and it honestly kinda kills the momentum after the third one

Okay so.  I finished the game and hooooooo boy am I emotionally am kind of all over the place.

So I think I, like a lot of other people, saw That One Polygon Review for Bayonetta 3 (pointedly entitled "Bayonetta 3 Broke My Heart") and kind of took the conclusion, based on how the article dances around spoilers, that the reviewer was let down by the endgame pairing and was maybe letting that dictate their response to the game?  However turns out there are much bigger problems here and I can honestly see now why they made their feelings so bluntly clear.

I think giving it such a downer ending, when that's never been what Bayonetta has pursued or been about, is such a bizarre turn that for a hot minute during the first part of the credits I was just like "no way this is the actual ending.  They're totally gonna pull a Bayo 1 and just when things seem most dire they're gonna fake-out the end credits and give us a better finale" and then.  they just keep going.  And then we get a random last fight with Viola with zero context?  And then the credits continue over the traditional pole dance bit and quick verses and??? that's really it the end of the game????

And I think trying to position Viola as The New Bayo (no literally) is such a weird choice when... again I like the character, but her gameplay is so totally different that if they're serious and she is gonna be The New Generation carrying the series forward there's no way that shit's not getting revamped.

And some of it feels really pointed (oh, the gays like Jeanne?  Even though she is specifically my, Hideki Kamiya,'s waifu?  Here's her getting a stupid and cheap ass death that Bayonetta only gets the Arthur Clenched Fist Meme response to) but half-joking it feels like Kamiya discovered a new set of fetishes (semi-goth punk rock girls with short hair) and looked at Tall-Milf-Domme-With-Glasses Bayo and was just like "I don't wanna play with you anymore" and tossed her completely in the garbage, literally erasing every possible version of the character to utterly stamp her out

On the subject of shipping, while I've always been in the Bayojeanne corner I never really expected the series to commit to it, or at least not in an upfront way.  Like honestly the most I expected was the comfort of ambivalence and ambiguity?  And I think B2 had so little to do with Luka and them barely interacting that I think a lot of people felt comfortable that Kamiya and co had apparently 180'd on the BayoLuka thing (especially since he has literally acknowledged them as a couple, like, romantically, in the context of several of his other explicitly romantic pairs) that I think B3 pivoting so hard on a "no BayoLuka was not only always it but THEY ARE LITERALLY FATED TO ALWAYS END UP TOGETHER GO FUCK YOURSELF" feels kind of spiteful (and is Kamiya a spiteful, petty person?  Yes.  Would he?  Also yes.)  And my thing is, in B1 I'm honestly kinda like they're fine?  Like the impression i got was for sure that they fucked btwn game 1 and 2 and then 2 makes it seem like they just moved on and never really hooked up again.  And to be sure if you look at Kamiya's body of work he absolutely loves this dynamic in an M/F couple so it's like... I can see this having been the endgame for him but at the same time it's extremely poorly done.  

Sidenote I think it's fucking hilarious that the game tries to play a few bits as recurring tics of their perpetual romantic entanglement which... are completely not (Luka's "Fate brought us together, and it will never tear us apart" is NOT EVEN A LINE HE SAYS TO HER, AT ANY POINT THROUGH THE GAMES IT'S A THROWAWAY PICKUP LINE HE GIVES TO SOME RANDOM NPC IN GAME 1 AND THATS IT???? or Bayo's "only the Luka I know would be bold enough to call me 'Cerezita'" which is ALSO something he has never said to her, except technically to Baby Her in B1 again).  Like I am actually pretty open to het pairings provided that they have good chemistry and the thing in question is not Forcing its Hand about how Meant To Be they are and the B3 writing really hits every branch of that tree on the way down

And the thing about B3 going "No Actually Luka is the most Important and Super Special Awesome guy in the multiverse" is it's so disrespectful to the Bayonetta character??? After two other games of her killing God and in this one of her summoning every possible version of herself to fight a man-made god which isn't enough?  And it's not even tied to any of the established lore it's some random new Third Thing too???  

And the thing for me about all the great scores and recommendations in reviews for B3 that don't even touch on how bad this ending is is that most of them are like "lol no one cares about Bayonetta's story" and people are like "Platinum are bad writers and can't tell a story" and I'm just like.  Compared to what, exactly.  Platinum's track record isn't consistent to be sure but there are way more games than not that actually cannot tell a satisfying or interesting narrative, and while Platinum has never been one for subtlety or gravitas most of their big games have themes and ideas they're conveying mostly successfully, and for all its bombast and background lore the Bayonetta games up to now have told a pretty solid and entertaining story with a consistent internal mythology.  Like B1 and 2 actually form a pretty tight duology that answers pretty much all of its own big questions and closes its time loop and like sure, you don't *have* to care about the narrative, you *can* just engage with them mechanically and still have a good time, but I think acting like there's nothing there, no thoughts head empty is pretty shortsighted.  Like you're never gonna see a Vaatividya take but there are ABSOLUTELY people making Bayonetta lore vids just like there are people making sick combo vids.

And the thing that stands out to me the most about Bayonetta 3's writing is it really feels like the team at Platinum took that "no one cares about the story" dismissal and decided "yea fuck it I guess so"

Like despite this being the end of a trilogy and supposedly a wrapping up of the story to this point, it has almost no connection to everything that came before it (supposedly after all the debate about whether this was an AU Bayo or not the Bayo of this game supposedly is?  And then through some multiverse shenanigans it seems to imply that the Bayo we played as in 1 and 2 are ALSO not the same character and are variants themselves which????? fucking weird and stupid if so????) aside from some cameo Angel/Demon fights.  They try to recreate the time displacement character reveal thing from the other games with Viola but it really doesn't work bc 1) it's extremely obvious VERY early on what her connection to Bayo/Luka is but 2) she makes effort to very carefully tiptoe around saying it for most of the game for no reason when being upfront about it would make for better character moments??? Like this isn't a fucking Back to the Future scenario it's not going to fuck up the timeline if they know (Like it works in B1 bc Baby!Cereza is a literal fucking toddler and then it works for Balder in B2 bc it's clear Bayo understands that connection so it feels impactful when it turns out Balder understood without her saying anything).  WE LITERALLY NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THE VILLAIN, WHAT HIS GOAL IS OR WHY.  There's no monologue, no connection he has to the lore of the series, what the Homunculi exactly are or why they exist.  Faeries are a thing now I guess!  Where are they from?  what's their purpose?  how do they fit into the Angel/Demon dichotomy? WHO FUCKING KNOWS BUT NOW LUKA IS A WEREWOLF TYPE DUDE I GUESS AND HE ALWAYS WAS SHUT UP.  I've seen some reviewers call this a Celebration of Bayonetta as both a character and a series but aside from some pointed references and the Multiverse shenanigans it feels a lot more like, again, the trappings of the series up to now getting thrown in the dumpster.

And speaking of it feels like while they're cool in parts the series honestly does not gain a lot from dipping its toe into the New Hotness of Multiverse Stuff (aside from Egyptian!Bayojeanne, who at least have both the Devoted Princess/Knight dynamic and have big Oh They *Fuckin* energy).  Like at least it's mostly there for Mari Shimazaki to fuckin flex (as one of the pillars of the foundation of what makes Bayonetta Bayonetta, her design work remains absolutely on point no matter what), but they're pretty perfunctory and while the advertising makes a big point of our Bayo teaming up with these BAyUs she really only meets them for like a minute and then they die but she gets their weapons/demons so hey lol works out for her

Honestly at the end of the day Bayonetta 3 just left me... extremely mixed on my feelings.  I'd played DMC and Ninja Gaiden before, but Bayonetta 1 really awakened my love for character action games, and from all accounts with the dark direction Platinum is taking towards the Live Service hellscape, I had the sinking feeling that Bayonetta 3 was going to be the last true Platinum game; a reasonably sized title that keeps you coming back not with the promise of Endless Content(tm) but a densely packed title with compelling gameplay and loads of reasons to revisit it.  And while gameplay-wise it definitely feels that way, its story feels like a disappointing cap-off to a great series and a company I loved as well.  I guess we'll see if this vague promise of a B4yonetta comes to fruition.

[doydoune]

Hazakura Temple, February

[s-sextape]

i am writing an accidental haiku to attract haiku bot

[beatcroc]

there's no way the bathroom at peppino's pizza is actually that big but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . hey ummm anyway.... i care them...... anyway there's a lil ramble on my take on fake pep's like psyche or whatever in tags on the og post if ur into that kinda thing :y

hey! it's a series! fake peppino world tour: [noise] [noisette] [peppino]<- u are here [gustavo] [gerome] [noisette again]

[mistbornthief]

so, to recap Korn's pov:

family business in the shitter

police coming after you blasting Bad Boys Bad Boys etc

parents flee the country and leave you to clean up their mess

hot girlfriend you dont like cuts her losses and leaves you in the dust

younger brother gets shot, nearly dies, currently in coma, refuse to leave him (<3)

can't reach your true love you're currently fighting with

find out said true love murdered a guy and is currently on the run

reunite with true love, no longer on the outs (<3 <3)

go on the run bonnie and clyde style :)

go on the run bonnie and clyde style :(

get confronted by cop. find out 1) your younger brother was involved with your true love's younger brother's death; your true love shot your younger brother in revenge; also cheated on you with the cop (but also you were cheating on him so like this one kinda cancels out)***

fuck this cop. how dare he interfere with your love life. he is the most fixable problem here. go to shoot him.

B A D IDEA

true love takes the bullet, dies in front of you

you've lost everything, when all you wanted deep down was one person

Bonus: act your god damn heart out grieving him

Like that is such an insane clusterfuck of like what, 5, 6, 7 hours? Korn's kinda valid for just being like, you know what. fuck this

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

thank you WH update for confirming that Wally breathes. i really thought he didnt <3

[mrsoharaa]

you didn't think too much into the simple graze of the newest spider-mans fingers gently brisking over yours as he takes his leave. the sweet, noble male that personally tended to you from your former strenuous, chaotic mission that led you to having a wounded leg. thus putting you right into the spider society's med bay.

you wave him off with a friendly smile, your eyes quickly sweeping over ever so attentively to the left to note Miguel's intent stare. pretty globes of soft cardinal leering behind the new, overly tending spider-man leaving the medical room you resided in. bearing directly into the back of the generous mans skull with such fueling rage and hatred.

his hardened glare sweeps back over to meet yours through the crystalline glass of the mirror into your medical room. thick brows that once tightened ever so firmly and searing wrath pooling into those glorious irises of pure ruby, immediately softening to your delicate gaze. a tinge of hurt and remorse instantly building up in the conflicted mans chest, immensely.

your heart flutters against your own, capturing the shorten, soften gaze of swarming distraught and longing clinging into those beautiful, intense eyes of his. your lush lips slowly part from each other, attempting to gather words to accumulate towards the man — but only failed, inescapably, when everything within you blared at you not to engage with him. not to engage with the very man that put you through with so much unbinding hurt and betrayal. the very same man that slowly, treacherously broke and tore you from piece by piece.

your pupils dilate, closing your agape lips promptly as your fingers crumble amongst the thin sheets of the medical beds bedding. you turn your head, shielding back the hot, thick tears swelling at the brims of your lashes. trying to not crumble before the very man that you inevitably fell in love with, during your previous time together (during your little "stress distressing" lascivious sessions).

the very same man that slowly, treacherously broke and tore you from piece by piece. promises of unfulfilled, unattainable pledges of comforting enlightenment and console, crumbling with the shattered fragments of your broken heart.

[frodo-with-glasses]

So uh. I might’ve found a pattern here.

From The Fellowship of the Ring, “Three Is Company”:

From The Two Towers, “The Uruk-Hai”:

From The Return of the King, “The Houses of Healing”:

Now I know Tolkien hated allegory. And I know LotR is not a copy-and-paste parable about WWII (which he didn’t fight in) or even WWI (which he did). But the man did see war, and so did people he loved, and he had a non-zero amount of trauma, and some of that is gonna make its way into his writing somehow.

And I think his soul might’ve had something to say about soldiers being forced to walk until they dropped from exhaustion.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I love Jiang Cheng and I hope you agree. The most tragic thing about yunmeng siblings is that JC and WWX really love each other the whole time… I like to think they can fix it someday

Someday perhaps....in the meantime, I bet he's loving having dogs run around lotus pier. As a WWX deterrent of course. No therapeutic reasons at all.

[turtleblogatlast]

Many unhappy returns specifically is kinda sad to me because it feels like it's supposed to be the splinter leo bonding episode of the show that he has with his kids. But for most of the episode other than the end of it, he's just kinda expressing his distrust and disaffection with Leo to him while Leo's going through the motions of his plans. And he praises leo at the end of the episode but it doesn't feel like anything gets resolved or addressed or even worked on like it does in other episodes that focus on splinter and his relationship with his kids like the ballad of rat man for donnie or hidden city's most wanted for mikey (kinda?)

Yeah imo “Many Unhappy Returns” is a fantastic episode for demonstrating Leo’s greatest strengths (his tactician brain and his ability to manipulate the playing field) as well as Leo’s greatest weaknesses (not discussing his plans with his team ahead of time and throwing them all into the swing of things without prior discussion, as well as his insecurity issues).

The episode also does well to show Splinter’s own flaws, that being he doesn’t really notice when his sons are suffering unless they make it blatant.

But…yeah the episode doesn’t really show us much resolve for that, not with Leo.

[imminent-danger-came]

So I'm like, utterly obsessed with MK and Wukong's relationship, because it's like, Wukong has borderline unreasonable faith in MK and MK is willing to put pretty much anything on the line for Wukong (risking the curse being released in 4x02, ready to "meet his fate" FOR him in 4x13), yet MK is also purposefully ignoring SWK's mistakes/flaws and thinking in binaries of "good guy" and "bad guy". And at this point I'm not sure what they wouldn't do for each other, or where is too far to go for each other, and let me tell you girl it's edging on unhealthy.

[sunsetsandsunshine]

HIIII!!! 💖💖💖 Absolutely adoring the fics you’ve been writing recently!! Since requests are open I can’t help but want a part two to the mutant mayhem fic you write with lee Leo ✨ I’d love lee Leo and ler April. Maybe they’re hanging out together and she finally gets to use the info she learned on FaceTime with him! Take all the time you need of course and hope you’re well!

~ 𝙻𝚎𝚘, 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚎𝚛! 𝙻𝚒𝚔𝚎…𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 ~

💛💙 𝙵𝚒𝚌 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢: @veryblushyswitch 💛💙

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚𝙷𝚎𝚢𝚊 𝙱𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚑𝚢 🤩🫶🏾!!! 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚘 𝚜𝚘 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚖𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚎 😭💞💗💖💕! 𝙸’𝚖 𝚝𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚋𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚘𝚗 𝚃𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚘 𝙸’𝚖 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚐𝚕𝚊𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚘 𝚏𝚊𝚛!! 𝙿𝚕𝚞𝚜, 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝙼𝚞𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙼𝚊𝚢𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚏𝚒𝚌 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚠𝚘 ⭐️✨👏🏾!?! 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚜𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸’𝚖 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛!˚*• ̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*＊·̩̩̥͙

𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: 𝙵𝚕𝚞𝚏𝚏

𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜: 𝟸,𝟽𝟺𝟷

𝙻𝚎𝚎: 𝙻𝚎𝚘 🐢💙 

𝙻𝚎𝚛: 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 👩🏾‍🦱💛

𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: 𝙻𝚎𝚘 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚗 𝚊 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚕 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙻𝚎𝚘 𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚗…𝚊 𝚖𝚘𝚘𝚍.

(𝙰/𝙽: 𝙳𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚐𝚞𝚢! 𝚃*𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙺𝚒𝚗𝚔/𝙽𝚂𝙵𝚆 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚜 𝙳𝙽𝙸!!!)

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: 𝚃𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚜 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝙼𝚞𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙼𝚊𝚢𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚏𝚒𝚌! 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 -> https://www.tumblr.com/sunsetsandsunshine/751212539507097600/oh-my-gosh-prompts-i-adore-your-fics-so?source=share

T𝚊𝚐𝚐𝚐𝚜𝚜𝚜𝚜: @shut-up-jo @itzsana-kiddingmenow @saturnzskyzz

@someone1348 @savemeafruitjuice @giggly-cloud

@mistyandsnow @tmntalways @rice-cake-teen10 @titters-and-tingles

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎…𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚃𝙾𝚃𝚃𝙼𝙽𝚃 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚜𝚘 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚠𝚘— 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚠𝚘 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜, 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢!!!˚*•✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

“Okay…I am so. freaking. lost.” Leo grumbled, putting his cheek on his palm as April sighed dramatically. “I’m gonna explain it to you one more time, Nardo. And if you still don’t get it so help me.” April grabbed the empty shoebox she had in front of her, putting it in between her and the other teen.

“We are doing a biome project for Bio class. And since you wanted to be special and different you decided to choose the hardest one to do: a Tundra.” April said as she raised a brow.

“Sounds like me.” The mutant in blue chuckled. 

The girl with glasses shook her head fondly, “And so, we need to replicate a Tundra biome using a shoebox and just explain what we know about the biome.” 

The slightly taller teen titled his head to the side, squinting his eyes at his best friend, “…That’s it?” 

“What do you mean that’s it?!” The yellow cladded girl basically squawked, “Do I look like someone who know’s a lot about snow?” 

The turtle giggled in amusement, crossing his arms playfully, “We live in Manhattan, Pril. We get, like, 20 to 30 inches of snow most of the time…”

“Just because we get a shit ton of snow every season does not mean I know a lot about it.” 

Leonardo grinned at his friend’s funny comment, going into his backpack and pulling out a bunch of written on notecards. “Then it’s a good thing I wrote down facts about the Tundra when Mr. Fredrickson was going over the different biomes in depth in class.”

April’s eyes widened in both shock and respect, going over to look at the notecards Leo wrote on, “You actually listened when he was doing that?! I fell asleep when he got to the rainforest biome…”

“Prillie…that was literally the first one he went over…” 

“My point still stands.” She shrugged, looking at the notecards in awe. “Dude…you wrote down everything. You have the definition, what animals live there, fun facts and a whole bunch of other stuff!” 

“You even wrote down the different plants and regions that are inside of the biome.” She said in surprise, giving Leo back his notecards, “Oh my god I love you so fucking much. We are going to ace this project.” The human girl said as she went back to the empty shoebox.

The mutant’s eyes widened at her comment, a small blush appearing on his face as he cleared his throat to try and recollect himself, “Y-Yeah u-um I-I love you too…”

“What?” April said genuinely, not hearing what the other said. 

“What?” Leo replied. 

The girl raised a suspicious brow, “You mumbled something, you weirdo.” 

“Me? What? N-No I was j-just…talking to myself!” Leonardo explained, his blush deepening as he fiddled with his fingers, looking absolutely anywhere but the person in front of him. 

April huffed out a laugh, getting her art kit from her desk that was next to her bed, “Whatever you say, you dork.” She chuckled out, sitting on her carpet as she suddenly spray painted the inside of the cardboard box white. 

The turtle mutant covered his mouth, “Don’t you think it would’ve been better if you did that…outside?” 

The girl in glasses pursed her lips together, stopping and nodding slowly, “Yeah…I should’ve. My bad. But…I kinda already started.” She said as she continued to spray paint the box. Leo rolled his eyes, opening the other teen’s door as he started to spray Frebreze everywhere. “Leo…what are you doing?” April asked.

The turtle raised a brow at his friend, “What does it look like? I’m airing out the spray paint smell.” 

April covered her mouth, fanning out the air with her hand as she walked to Leo, “You legit just put the Frebreze scent over the spray paint scent. Now it’s just mixed together.” 

Leonardo groaned internally, nodding his head as the slightly smaller teen explained how dumb his logic was. As the mutant in blue tuned his friend out, he looked out her window to look at her balcony…but his heart dropped in shock (and a tad bit in confusion) as he saw his little brother’s just chilling on the small balcony.

“Nardo…are you okay?” The girl in glasses asked worriedly. “YEP! I-I’m fine! Perfectly perfect.” He grinned wobbily, grabbing the now fully dry white shoebox and giving it to the other, lightly pushing her out of the room, “I’ll just fan out everything here. You can go chill in your living room.” 

April huffed out a small laugh, “We’re New Yorkers, Leo…we’ve smelled worse.” 

“Y-Yeah, I know! Trust…I know. It’ll be quick, I promise.” He said as calmly as he could muster at the moment. The girl just fondly rolled her eyes, going over to the living room, “Don’t take too long, though! I need your help with finding a good show to watch as I finish the biome replica!” She shouted. 

“I’ll be right there!” He shouted back as he turned on her ceiling fan. He basically stomped to the balcony, closing the door as he glared at his younger brothers, “What the FUCK are you guys doing here?!” Leonardo screamed. 

Donnie raised a brow as he leaned on the railway, “What ever do you mean?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT DO I MEAN?!” The leader in blue shouted, “H-How did you guys even get here in the first place?! Me and April rode her scooter to her apartment!!!”

“We’re ninjas, bro. I think you always forget that.” Mikey chuckled and only chuckled harder at the eldest’s pissed off face.

Raph went over to his immediate older brother, slinging a hand over his shoulder, “So~! How’s the date going~?” 

“IT’S NOT A DATE!!!” Leo screeched before facepalming, “How long have you guys even been here, anyway?!”

“Not long.” Mikey shrugged, “It was kindaaaaa hard having to climb up the building…”

“Whatever…” The blue banded teen grumbled as he turned away, “Just go home and don’t tell Dad about any of this...”

“Why~?” Donnie asked teasingly, “I personally think Dad’ll be happy that his rizz is finally shining in you.” 

“Donatello.” Leonardo glared.

“Fine! Fine! We’re going!” Donatello said as he took off the backpack he had on, taking out color-coded grappling hooks and giving them to Raph and Mikey. “Also, since April mentioned wanting to watch something with you, you guys should watch Smiling Friends. The rest of season two dropped.” The purple banded turtle explained. But before the eldest turtle could give his brother’s a piece of his mind, they were just…gone.

Talk about being ninja’s…

“Jiminy mother loving toaster strudel…” Leo grumbled to himself.

.

.

.

.

.

.

“Smiling Friends?! I didn’t know the rest of season two dropped!” April gasped as Leo walked into the living room talking about the show.

The hazel eyed mutant rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, “Uh…yeah. I just looked online for stuff to watch and, um…yeah…”

April snickered at the awkward demeanor of the other teen; not really and truly questioning it due to the fact Leo was just an awkward person 24/7. The blue banded mutant sat next to his friend, fiddling with his fingers as Smiling Friends played on the TV.

“Hey, Nardo? I wanted to say sorry about the whole spraying-spray-paint-and-literally-almost-intoxicating-you thing. I just wasn’t really thinking about it making more sense for me to spray it outside.” The girl explained solemnly. 

The younger teen snorted, “Prillie…it’s fine. It’s not like you killed me or anything like that. I think you should worry about your Mom coming home to the smell and killing you, though.”

“OH SHIT!” The elder teen shouted, going to her room to spray Frebreze and spray some in the living room as well. The girl with glasses sat down before sighing, leaning back, “Oh! And btdubs, I finished the Tundra replica.” She said as she finished the last final touches on the piece before handing it to the other teen.

And to Leo’s surprise…the replica actually looked pretty good. Like…really really good. The inside of the shoebox honestly looked like a mini Tundra…and it even had little mini clay plants and animals. 

“You seriously just made this?! April, I wasn’t even gone for ten minutes!” Leonardo said in awe. 

“You, my dear friend, underestimate my artistic skills.” The brown eyed teen said as she continued to watch the television. 

Now…Leo wasn’t known for getting into…moods often. 

I mean, in all honesty he would just get tickle attacked by his brothers 24/7…so in a weird way, he kind of got used to it.

But ever since he and Raph went on that call with April a couple weeks ago…she hasn’t mentioned said call. At all.

And perhaps maybe she forgot! Maybe she forgot the legit most embarrassing moment of Leo’s life…

…so why the absolute hell did Leo want her to mention it? Or at least acknowledge it! 

I mean…Raph even dropped the bomb that Leo liked it! That was a clear opportunity right there!!!

But in order for one to be actually tickled…one must ask for it first. And there was no fucking wayLeonardo was going to do that.

“You want me to tickle you, don’t you?” April said casually as she looked at the other teasingly. 

The mutant’s eyes widened in shock, his face becoming a glowing hot red as he absolutely refused to make eye contact with the other teen. “A-April whahat—?”

“Dude…don’t even try to deny it. You’ve made it so painfully obvious.” She giggled softly as the other’s face burned in embarrassment. 

Was he seriously that easy to read?!

“Should I take your silence as a 'yes'?” The human girl smiled as the blue banded mutant shyly nodded, still refusing to look at his best friend. “Okay, Nardo…just tell me when you want me to stop…okay?” She said carefully as she gently reached for the other’s side but stopped when the young leader held her wrists. 

“W-Wahait!!! Wahait wahahait A-Ahapril wahait!!!” Leonardo panicky giggled as he blushed more (if even possible). The girl stopped, resting her hands in her lap. The slightly taller teen covered his face with his hands, giggling in anticipation before nodding slightly.

The yellow cladded teen awed at the sight, scribbling her nails against the other’s sides. The mutant pursed his lips together, kicking his legs on the ground. The girl with glasses chuckled at the action as a lightbulb went off in her head, “Wait a sec, Nardo. Do you remember the FaceTime call me, you and Raph went on?”

“N-Noho shihihit…” 

“I do believe on said FaceTime call, Raph mentioned you being more ticklish to squeezes than to scribbles…is that correct?” She asked teasingly, although she knew damn well what the answer was already. 

The blue banded mutant’s giggles raised an octave as he now started to squirm as his friend squeezed his sides…

…Now this could go one of two ways…

He could absolutely make a complete fool out of himself or he makes a complete fool out of himself. Either or. 

“A-AHAhapril!” The turtle squeaked out.

“Yes, Leo?” The human replied casually.

“PleHA— *snort* p-pleheHEASE!!!” 

“Plehease whahat~?”

“I-IHI *snort* duhunno!!” Leo squealed, now hugging his middles as he continued to laugh. The slightly smaller teen wrapped him in a hug with one arm, using her other arm to pull out her phone. She went to her camera roll and scrolled until she found a screen recording…

…A specific screen recording…

…The screen recording April screen recorded while they were on that FaceTime call.

Leo hid in his shell a bit, his laugh echoing in said shell but he did not care in the slightest at this point. The teen girl raised a brow at the action, holding the other’s hand in her’s as she used her other hand to squeeze his hip mercilessly. 

Leonardo squawked in surprise as a loud (totally not expected) snort followed. He hid in his shell even deeper as he full on laughed and laughed. “Woah wohoah! Why are you hiding your face from me~?” 

“I-IHI’M NAHAT!!” 

“Yohou sure? 'Cuz it kinda looks like you are…”

“IHI’M *snort* NAHAT I-IHI SWAHA— *snort* SWEAR!” 

The girl with glasses laughed in amusement, “Raph was right…you really are a liar, huh Gigglenardo~?” 

Leo snorted loudly at the girl’s tease, his laughs becoming more louder and more frantic. And the worst part is she barely even touched the surface of his ticklishness…

The girl wrapped the taller teen into an even tighter hug, using her free hand to scribble her fingers all over his stomach. The taller teen screeched, slumping in her hold as he 'tried' to escape her tickling wrath.

April played the screen recording (on mute of course…she wasn’t that mean), wanting to test something the tallest turtle did that got a good hell of a reaction from the leader in blue. “Nardo…just a quick question…does this happen to tickle by any chance~?”

“S-STAHAHAP! DAHA— *snort *snort* DOHON’T STAHART!!”

“What’s wrong~? I’m just asking if this tickles, Gigglenardo.” She said as she gently squeezed his stomach with one hand, causing the other to squirm despreatley in the hug. “It seems like it does~! Tickle tickle~! Kitchie kitchie coo~!”

“NOHO— *snort* *snort* PLEHEASE DAHA— *snort* DOHOHON’T!!!” The brown eyed turtle screamed before April randomly stopped so the mutant was able to catch his breath for at least a little bit. “Nerdo~! Do you mind getting out of your shell for me, please~?”

Leonardo snorted loudly for probably the umpteenth time today, “NOHO— *snort* *snort* WHYHYHY?!”

“Just 'cuz~! I wanna try something.” She said as Leo poked his head out from his shell. The two made eye contact with one another— Leo glared at her while she innocently smiled back as she tickled the crook of his neck.

“PFFT— *snort* *snort* *snort* NAHAHA IHIT’S SAHA— *snort* *snort* SOHO BAHA— *snort* *snort* BAHAHAD!!!”

“Reheally?” The brown eyed teen mused, “I personally think you’re trying to say it tickles~! It tickletickletickletickles~!” She giggled as she tickled both sides of the turtle teen’s neck with one hand, leaving him in stitches. “KSSTAHA— *snort* *snort* *snort* NAHAHA *snort* *snort* *snort* *snort* *snort*!!!” 

The girl in glasses slowly stopped her tickle attack, hugging him from behind as he caught his breath. “Ohon the FahaceTime call, I rehecall Rahaph saying you snort fihive tihimes if it’s a good dahay~!” She teased lightly as Leo just groaned in response. 

“Whahatever…” Leonardo grumbled as the girl with glasses got up to get him a cup of water from the kitchen. She handed it to him, which he gladly accepted.

And that…wasn’t as bad nor scary as Leo initially thought it was going to be. 

The hazel eyed mutant fiddled with the now empty cup, “Uhm…thahank you for the wahater…ahand..uh, y-y'know…” He trailed off, looking at the ground in embarrassment as the other smiled fondly, “It’s no problem, Leo.” She chuckled, “There’s really no need to be so embarrassed about it. I get it.” 

“I-I know that but— wait. What do you mean you get—“ But the slightly taller teen was cut off by April’s doorbell going off. The two paused, not expecting any visitors besides April’s mom— who was supposed to come later and also had the key to the apartment. 

So…she wouldn’t need to ring the doorbell.

The doorbell rang again as Leo got up and simply stepped forward, opening the door slowly but sighing loudly as he saw who was on the other side. 

It was his brother’s. Because of course it was. 

“So~! How’d the date go~?” Mikey grinned plqyfully.

“It went fine— wait what?! For the last time it— this— is NOT a date!!!” Leonardo glared.

“So in Leo language…I’m assuming that means it went well.” Donnie chuckled, “Happy for you, bro.” The purple banded turtle said almost genuinely as April walked to the open door next to Leo. “Whahat are you guys doing here? And…how did you get here?” 

“Well, I got bored and hungry so I ordered pizza. We decided to come over here so you two could eat with us.” Raphael explained. 

“You got said money from my savings account?” Leo deadpanned. 

“I got said money from your savings account.” Raph grinned, “Now let’s go! If we hurry we could catch the person delivering the pizza!” He shouted as the four teens ran down the fire escape. April grabbed her keys before closing (and of course locking) her apartment door, soon following her mutant friends.

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚𝙵𝙸𝙽˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ 

(𝙿.𝚂.: 𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚌, 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐!!!)

[skitskatdacat63]

Happy 5/14!!!!

Aaaaahh not sure if this is my best work 😭 I just really wanted to draw smth for vettonso day but my brain hasn't really been functioning well LOL so I kept dreading working on this, especially bcs its so important to me, y'know? I hope it's good????? I'm happy with the concept, but I was just so unsure on so many of the angles and it was killing me. I did the color thing bcs I thought it'd add something interesting to it :) since I didn't paint it as I usually would

Anyways! Process!

Now I will explain all of them:

Boy king au is where it all starts of course. I think their relationship is the most developed in this compared to the others, but at the same point, they just start from such a different point, especially affection-wise. All of these kinda have a power dynamic, except the last one, and this is the most imbalanced. Fernando is being subservient, the only part of Seb he may kiss(in public lol) is his hand.

Matador au next. They hurt themselves when they try to be affectionate, because they live in the culture of a sport of violence and death. The sword separates them, their love for the sport keeps them apart, in fear that they hurt each other. Seb, yet again, looks down upon Fernando. Seb haunts Fernando's whole career, the constant overhanging presence. Also aside from that, shame that you can't see his three musketeers look bcs of the black background 😔

2012 core!!! I think this one is pretty easy to understand. Both of them often kiss their trophies, more so than any driver. So they're both trying to claim the wdc trophy by kissing it. Maybe you guys should just get rid of the trophy altogether and claim each other! But yes, just like the sword in the matador au one, the trophy and their ambitions divides, keeps them from ever bridging the vast gap between them, at least at that point in time.

The conclusion! Aka what I wish we will get at Imola 2024- kidding kidding. But it is 2024. Finally there is no conflict between them, there's no big thing keeping them in conflict, they can finally come together. Finally they can touch, there is no gap to bridge, they can appreciate each other, and appreciate what they failed to in years past.

The thesis is basically that they always have their aspirations between them, and their aspirations happen to be basically the same thing. Until those are resolved, the gap between them is too vast for them to recognize and/or find any commonality. How do you get along with someone when you're both fighting for the same thing? How do you get along when it feels like one of you is winning more? How do you get along when there's such a vast gap?

In boy king au, it's going to take a while before they both feel settled about the issue of the throne. That's what makes that au interesting, they're trapped in this state of non-closure and they have to actually solve their issues without the matter of one of them simply removing themselves from the equation. They have to find a way to get over themselves and their aspirations, because like it or not they're stuck with each other. I think with the hand kissing, it represents how Fernando, at that point, is only willing to play along with the game if it's tradition, and he often won't budge in other ways. Yes, I will show subservience, but only in this detached, formal way that I don't connect personally to. He's still holding his own bitterness over meaningfully appreciating Seb. Though it's not like Seb isn't at fault. It takes a while for him to not hold things over Fernando, and constantly humiliate him. One day they will meaningfully show affection, and it won't be some sort of power play.

I think matador au is pretty similar to real life, and the 2010s era(it's basically just their actual plot line but in the context of bullfighting.) They're forever going to have this big elephant in the room, and it only really gets resolved when one of them leaves the sport. Once they're not fighting directly against each other, they realize what they've been missing out on and what they were not appreciating for so many years beforehand. They finally come together because they can't just rely anymore on the sport keeping them together. They actually have to make that step to be in each other's lives, rather than just taking their presence for granted.

Also the text on the comic. "We keep missing, and missing, and missing, and finally kissing." It's basically: we keep missing the point of it all, we keep failing to appreciate each other presence in our lives and in our own individual grand stories. But when we're not forced together anymore, we have to make the choice to come together again ourselves. We keep missing what we actually need to do. Missing each other in favor of our aspirations. Etc etc. One day we will finally embrace and there will be nothing keeping us apart.

[codacheetah]

It's deeply important to me that Loop kind of sucks

[bacchuschucklefuck]

Can you expand on what you mean by Baron being "too cool" to really fit a horror monster? It's a very interesting concept and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is it that they're too active/involved/tangible and it detracts from their scariness?

I feel like I should preface this with a wall of disclaimers lmao 1/I am a hardcore, down-to-the-marrow, avid, deeply sincere horror enthusiast, esp. horror creatures. this usually means my mileage is vastly different from the average populace's, and my scaredy bone has been disintegrated by longterm exposure. most things in a piece of horror media won't scare me! so I practically never use that on its own as the scale to talk abt horror experiences, but when something does scare me it's always a special occasion to be treasured. 2/canon d20 is never really meant to be horror horror, and for good reasons: it doesn't fit the company's output, it takes a kind of carelessness in production estimation that is always a huge risk, it's often vulnerable in a way that kinda goes against how TTRPGs usually facilitates vulnerability, and for most people it's just! stressful! d20, even with the "horror-themed" seasons, generally just plays with horror tropes and stays focused in its goal of being a comedy improv tabletop theater show. 3/fantasy high's chosen system is DnD, which as I've mentioned before is before all a combat-based game system, which means the magic circle of play is drawn based on stats that facilitate and prioritize combat. want or not this affects every interaction you have in the game, and given fantasy high's concept from the ground up (everyone's going to school of DnD stuff to get better at DnD) it's doubly relevant. 4/This Is Fine I have no quarrel with this. my meters are internal, I do not ask this show to be anything it doesn't advertise itself to be, and what it is is fucking great! I like it! when I expand on this ask's question it will be like a physicist going insane in a lab. that's the mindset we're going in with.

disclaimers done. my stance on horror as a genre is that it's a utility genre rather than a content genre or a demographic genre; it is the discard of narratives. it's the trash pile. horror, above being scary, is about being ugly and messy, it's the cracks on the ground any story inevitably steps over to stay a genre that isn't horror. the genre's been around long enough to develop a codex and a general language that medias and makers and enthusiasts of the genre can use to talk about and build onto, but if you go into individual pieces there's really no unifying Horror Story. one person's beautiful life can be another's horror story, it's just how it is.

this makes The Monster a deeply intriguing piece of the genre. thing is a monster is in a decent percentage of any story - it's just when the antagonist force steps into something past a certain line traced out in the story's world. monstrousness is in pretty much every western fantasy story, it's in any story with a hero and something to vanquish or win; more than anything it's a proxy of that thing up there. the line in a narrative's world. the monster is the guard of the unknown lands, where heroic, civilized people don't tread.

what does this mean in the context of horror? the genre is about that perceived lawlessness, that "unknown land" so to say. we're in the monster's home. that's the literary context that we often walk into a horror piece with; the monster knows more than you about where you are. it may not understand you, but it holds more information than you, and with that it moves swifter than you, has more covered than you, and is more assured in its existence in this context than you. it's a struggle to catch up to it, it's nigh impossible to get one over it, and you're never sure it'll 100% work, because you just don't have the information necessary to.

with that framing you can kinda see where I'm coming from here: horror's often about the breaking of rules. I always think a monster's most effective when it breaks well-established rules of both existence and visual storytelling. think Possum (2018) or Undertale's Omega Flowey or the Xenomorph Queen - unique change in medium, unique change in graphic, unique change in design language, etc. in that sense I actually really like how canon baron plays out: they don't really function like anything else in the fantasy high universe, the bad kids have not managed to kill them when they've felled literal gods, their domain in fhjy literally introduces new mechanics to encompass their existence! from an experience design standpoint they slap mad shit. BUT! I can't help finding their character, like as a character riz (and the other bad kids, eventually) interact with, to be very... coherent? in design. this is kinda hard for me to articulate in words, it's more often a sense you get once you've looked at enough of these scrumptious fuckers, their general design and the way they show up is just kinda too clean, so to say. always kinda newly made? fresh unboxed. it, once again, makes sense for their lore - they are looking for more about themself from riz - and their function - they're an antagonist in a game experience, they're meant to be interacted with in a way that produces results and meshes with the existing magic circle - but that shininess takes away from the implied history they should have dominion over and the person they're haunting doesn't.

from another angle there is kinda something there about how put-together canon baron is as a concept; the domain they call home is riz's deep-seeded fears, extremely vulnerable things he's drawn borders around to quarantine and refused to walk into. things that from his perspective would irreversibly shatter certain pleasant fictions his world is built on top of. canon baron, While Extremely Cool, I feel is kinda too neat to connect with and signify the apocalyticized mess that'd result from this paradigm shift. the part where they're in riz's briefcase and looking through every mirror is Very Cool And Fucked Up! but ultimately the show draws a line around them as well, by making game-physical, tangible spaces they're in (the mirrors and the haunted mordred manor) and put riz and the bad kids there only when they need to confront stuff. riz is meaningfully narratively away from baron's unknown land for most of fantasy high.

with that and all of my disclaimers in mind my conclusion here is if canon baron wants to be a Horror Monster they'd have to cross way more lines. be a Lot more invasive. hence (holds up my class swap baron like a long cat)

[ratbastardman]

every reactionary leftist needs to be handed a dvd copy of deathnote because like if your first step to saving the world is deciding who needs to be protected and who needs to be eliminated my brother in christ you’ve got the moral compass of a fucked up teenager raised by a cop