#yes i already posted this but this is the revised version

[deathon1leg]

they would faint on sight

[glitchafton]

Vanessa: Seriously, that's all you need me to do?

William: No, I just needed you to prove you were able to do what you said you could.

Vanessa: Oh. So what would happen if I failed that round of the job interview?

William: I'd find someone better.

Vanessa: To me. I meant what would happen to me?

William: I suppose I'd have to kill you.

Vanessa: William, I might have given the wrong impression with the whole "I will toss myself into the ocean to get rid of you" thing, but I'm not particularly suicidal right now.

Vanessa: Even if I was you saying that, I'll just stay alive out of spite so I hope you can vacate the Vanessa while I'm alive.

William: You didn't notice?

William: I'll leave you something to show how next time I have the chance.

Vanessa: What does that mean?

William: You don't need to worry about it right now. You'll see at some point soon.

Vanessa: You can't just tell me?

William: It'll be more fun if I can show you. And you might take it a bit more seriously if you see for yourself.

Vanessa: I've had to just accept enough insane shit just because you've said it that if you told me I have purple hair, I'd have to go back to the bathroom to make sure it's still brown. I'd take anything you told me seriously.

William: No, you'd believe me, not take it seriously.

Vanessa: What's the difference?

William: How many children have I killed?

Vanessa: At least a dozen, apparently more?

William: And you're just doing what I tell you to despite not believing I could do anything to stop you if you didn't?

Vanessa: I'm sure you can, the last time I tried to snare you I felt like I was being impaled repeatedly. Sorry that I'm not going slowly insane every day we live together.

William: We could go back to how it was like the first week before you worked this system out if you'd like. Let's see who can be more stubborn.

Vanessa: Or you could just tell me what else you want me to do and we can move on?

William: I'll let you know in a few days, no point in rushing things.

[mybrainproblems]

hello, i'm finales georg...

i don't want to further clutter up the notes on this post while responding to the tags below but the persistence of the "finale is short/scenes are missing/extra ad break” conspiracies drives me absolutely bananas when i've watched the finale ten times and have posted about this A LOT trying to clear things up. (disclaimer that yes, i'm a goddamn destiel shipper but i care about Facts above all.)

ok but this is weird because i'd swear the episode was shorter (11 missing scenes!) but okay. maybe we all mandela effected ourselves into #beleving that. because it felt shorter. but i will die on the hill that it had another ad break. i understand this person has the thing #recorded with ads so i am thinking maybe different ad breaks in different idk time zones??? #because the finale did air an hour earlier in canada so maybe idk i am reaching here but maybe different states or whatever had different #ad breaks??? as for the last minute changes - wasn't the cover band asked for permission to use their version of carry on like a week before #the thing aired??? so even if the episode was 42 minutes and had no additional ad break - which i am side eying but lets say all was normal #i will always say they were changing thing until the absolute last minute (carry on my wayward son X 2 #the crew on the bridge which is not only giant 4th wall breaking but also wow they really got all those people in one place in times of #covid???) #anyway. tinfoil hat stays on sorry guys :/ (via @officialmisha)

short and snarky: there are plenty of real and sourced examples of network homophobia and scripted/directed destiel scenes being cut to point to. we don’t need to make this stuff up just bc the finale wasn’t what we wanted. so it’s not the mandela effect — it’s ppl repeating a conspiracy/rumor bc it supports their narrative and it’s easier and more fun to repeat something that supports a narrative they already believe (misha or something destiel was cut) vs the boring act of fact checking.

longer circumspect answer with links bc like many ppl i am in my debunking era and i rewatched "roblox_oof" last night.

like i said. i've watched the finale ten times. i’ve gone over the episode with a fine toothed comb and posted a detailed breakdown of timing marks on my blog. it’s actually extremely obvious where the ad breaks are once you know roughly where to look for them (they have a longer fade to black instead of a quick cut scene change). there’s no room for extra ad breaks and i think this conspiracy/rumor persists in part bc the episode feels so sparse in terms of cast and the fact that the episode’s momentum hits a barn post (and rebar) less than 20min into an hour-long programming block.

also i’m begging ppl to actually look at that timing mark post. it’s very straightforward and i spent a lot of time on it. i don’t care if ppl plagiarize it at this point if it means this conspiracy stops. i've got almost every second accounted for.

the "eleven missing scenes" that you're thinking of are probably from the finale script of questionable authenticity that @spnscripthunt acquired back in 2021 which can be found here. it's dated as the “final draft” from 11 sep 2020 and filming on 15x20 wrapped on 10 sep 2020. as noted at the bottom of this superwiki page "[the] script came from someone claiming to have been the person who did the closed captions for the show in Russia. There are some indications that it possibly may not be authentic, but this has not been confirmed."

if we go with the possibility that this was a transcript meant for subtitles, the "omitted" scenes were probably written but never filmed since it's the "final draft" and not a color revision (blue, green, yellow, etc). unfortunately, i’ve lost track of where i read it and a preliminary duckduckgo search isn’t bringing it up bc there's a program for script writing called final draft, but iirc the “final draft” version of a script is a transcript of what was filmed (e.g. there are parts of that 15x20 script that ended up being deleted scenes on the DVD). spnscripthunt also has an example of a confirmed final draft for 09x02 (funnily enough, also a dabb-penned ep). if anyone can confirm with a source that i have the purpose of the “final draft” version designation wrong, please let me know! i love being proven wrong with Facts.

i do want to acknowledge that the two “final drafts” do look different from each other and the 15x20 one doesn't look like a “real” final draft script since it lacks the revision/versioning dates that a script would normally have on the cover page. it could be that it was intended for subtitles; there's the chance it's been re-typed to anonymize it if there was anything indicating who the "owner" was, tho that seems a wee bit cloak and dagger to me. and again: it's considered of questionable authenticity. there are some things that don't quite line up but oh dear god i don't want to get even further out into the weeds than i already am.

i won't disagree that it's weird as hell that neoni only got asked about using their cover seven days prior to the episode airing (tiktok here). my personal theory is that they were hoping to get a more expensive song (maybe a zepp song, idk) and didn't manage to secure the rights in the end. again: this is pure conjecture on my part! but i could absolutely see someone working on the show hearing neoni’s cover and liking it and then maybe they were using it as a placeholder until it got down to the wire and they had to make a call/send the ep to networks. because yes, it is baffling they played a song and then a cover of it with only a 40 second break between. (i do actually really like the neoni cover! the placement is just weird and i think it could have worked if they had the kansas version at the beginning and closed with neoni's full cover.)

as to the 4th wall break COVID stuff: robert singer talked with variety magazine about filming the last two episodes and the logistics of filming during a pandemic. whether they should have been filming during a pandemic is a separate discussion but their use of office vs set pods, strict quarantining and daily testing meant that they had zero positive tests in the month they were filming (18 aug to 10 sep). so given all that, i personally don’t think it’s totally out of pocket to have everyone standing outdoors on a bridge for maybe an hour to get a drone shot of them together. (i won’t get into incubation periods and viral load, but if everyone tested negative that day and every day for a month prior, it was a fairly low risk scene to film outdoors and for all we know everyone was masked until the last possible second. there were plenty of outdoor masked protests in 2020 that weren't superspreader events.)

and before anyone brings up “but misha was in vancouver!” i know someone who looked into it and they said no dice, nothing matched up between the backgrounds in those pics and places in vancouver. his statements about “us” going back to set over the summer were pretty generic in hindsight and “we”/"us" could be him or the spn crew generally. unfortunately i’m not able to find those tweets but the use of “we” was likely so as not to give away he wouldn’t be returning to set. (bc we were absolutely casbaited!) and bc it comes up a lot: the "onion field pic" was from when they were filming 15x17 and was not taken while filming 15x19 and 15x20.

besides, it would be ridiculous to go through the financial and logistical headaches of bringing someone into the country to film during a pandemic, only to cut their scenes in the end! honestly, the script is pretty tight when the scenes are given so much breathing room! the only thing i could see being further cut down is The Monologue and even then, i don’t think there was any intent to cut it down given it was filmed in fairly long takes.

i’ve said it many times before, but i believe the finale was fucked long before they returned to set. walker got the green light in sep 2019 and it was being marketed heavily as a “follow on” show to spn given jared’s involvement. the demo they were courting for walker has little to no overlap with the demo for destiel fans — why would they want a finale that catered to a demo they weren't interested in courting? we just went through a historic double strike that exposed so much of the rot of business interests overriding creative vision. this isn't completely unfounded conjecture.

i will not apologize for the length of this bc i wanted to be thorough, but i do want to give context that i think the reason these conspiracies and rumors grind my gears so much is because anyone can fact check all of this. the truth is out there and absolutely none of it is that hard to find. the most time consuming/difficult part of this was finding someone who had a DVR’d copy of the finale from when it aired live and they actually found me themselves after i’d been low key asking around for a year!

and like. i get it. conspiracies are fun. but there are so many sourced instances of network homophobia and destiel being cut that it's like. why is this something folks are hanging onto? the cw is notorious for having upper level meddling with finales bc there's a follow-on show they want to shuffle fans along to and spn is no exception.

[kimtaesss]

I LOVED YOU | JK.1

Summary: being friends for 10 years means nothing, especially when he betrays your trust so easily.

Pairing: Jungkook x reader; Taehyung x reader

Genre: angst, fluff, friends to (?)

Warnings: Jungkook being a dumbass and jerk; random people making fun of oc; Taehyung being that supportive friend!; jungkook thinking with his dick; slight smut (jungkook not oc); broken promises; there’s some moments even I cringe (sorry!)

Author’s note: hopefully it’s posted as the revised version because I can’t possibly remember everything that gets deleted once I publish it.

masterlist → I loved you | 01 | 02

“Ma’am, we really need this table. Are you sure your friend is coming?”

“Yes I’m sure, he’s… just in traffic” you argued back, while stuffing yourself with bread. Bread, that soon will run out, seeing as you haven’t stopped shoving it in your mouth every-time a waiter would stop by and ask the same thing.

You couldn’t help it, whenever you happen to be nervous or embarrassed, you would eat anything.

“For 3 hours?” The waitress sassed, as if it were in their job description. Especially with the way she stared at you, up and down. She was looking at you from head to well, whatever she could see.

“Yeah! He lives far away, okay?” You snap, annoyed with the questions that have such obvious answers.

Your worst nightmare has started to become your reality. You were being stood up, and by your friend! It was just too embarrassing to fully process, and confess especially since he made the reservations, as a way to make up for flaking every single time you both planned something together.

It seems like he never learns. You wanted to get up from this uncomfortable chair, but your legs forbid you from doing so. Not because they were tired, or asleep but because they had too much pride. Your legs didn't allow you to admit that you were friends with someone, who clearly did not prioritized or cared for you. Seeing as he didn’t even try to call or text you, to let you know that he was in fact not showing up.

And the staff, that kept bugging you with their stares, and whispers, that were incredibly loud, and cruel.

“Yeah, she’s clearly lying. I mean she’s been sitting for 3 hours! it’s quite pathetic” the brunette, green eyed girl, laughs. Her annoying, identical co-workers followed along. It looked like they were in choir, they harmonized every time they made a joke about you.

“There must be a rule about kicking people out after a certain amount of hours” the taller one interjected.

“Or a rule about employees gossiping rather than doing their actual job” Jungkook chimed in. His face was red with anger, and exhaustion from the lap he had to do to get here on time or well just arrive in general.

“Oh! We weren’t-“

“Doing your job? Yeah, I noticed” he scoffed.

“I apologize sir” the brunette hair girl, slightly bowed hoping this would excuse her poor behavior. She kept looking at Jungkook, to see if he was willing to show her mercy. She side glances the other coworkers, and nudges them to also ask for forgiveness.

“Yes! We are extremely sorry” they harmonize again.

“Yeah, well you shouldn’t apologize to me. I’m the asshole who showed up 3 hours late. The one you should apologize to, is over there looking beautiful” he points towards you. The girls eye each other, trying their hardest to resist rolling their eyes.

They simply nod and walk towards your table.

You noticed them all come together like a flock of birds. You reach out to the basket for the bread, and notice that you have already finished all of it again.

You attempt to sit up, trying to fix your posture. Especially since these girls are making you feel inferior, as if they were better looking than you. The worst part was that they were.

“Good evening ma’am. We would like to apologize for the words that came out of our mouths”

You turn your head left and right, and try to spot any cameras or microphones. Were you being punked right now? Because it sure felt like it.

But through your inspection, your eye caught a man with a smile to die for. His bunny teeth softened his look, especially since he had just finished his meeting, meaning he had his well ironed suit on. There’s no doubt that the clothes someone wears helps their appearance, but with him, it was slightly different. It didn’t matter what he was wearing, because his face and body made him rock anything.

You try to fight back the smile that was about to sprout. You almost want to wave the waitresses off, but by the looks of it, this was Jungkook’s doing.

“And what exactly were the words that came out of your mouth? You know, to be fully aware of what I should be accepting forgiveness for” you make an insane amount of hand gestures, because that’s just how you express yourself.

You felt in an oddly satisfying way, proud and confident. There was just something about karma. You hated it when it meant you getting the short end of the stick, but right now, it was the best thing ever made.

“Um”

Everyone stayed silent. No one had the courage to admit to what they had said. It made no sense, not even a minute ago they were tearing you apart and now they couldn’t think of a single thing?

“Yes?” You questioned. “Did you need me to remind your boss? Because I can easily give them the list of horrible things you said to me. I mean I was just minding my business, and there you were” you glanced towards the area where they had their “meeting”.

“No! It’s- we are very sorry for calling you pathetic, a liar and….loser”

You nod your head, while your lower lip is tucked behind your upper lip. The employees continued staring at you, and you couldn’t resist it anymore. You burst in laughter, and you hear that deep but gentle laugh getting closer. The vein on your forehead was becoming visible, and that just meant you could hardly breathe.

Jungkook grabbed the chair, and moved it backwards to give himself enough space. He stared at your hysterical state, and couldn’t help but laugh along with you. This was not a joke, but it was so damn hilarious.

“You guys can leave” you shoo them away. “So you won’t tell on us?” They instantly questioned.

You and Jungkook gave each other a look and shrugged.

“Nah, you work at a minimum paying job, I shouldn’t throw you more obstacles by getting you fired” they all growled at your accusations. They were doing fine, so who gave you the right to tell them they weren’t?

“I would leave if I were you. She’s hungry and angry, it’s not a good combination” Jungkook whispered, as a wide smile began to spread.

You were sure that they wanted to cuss you out instead of walking away, and they might even possibly spit in your food but you didn’t give a fuck. You had a splurge of energy, confidence. You felt like you were on top of the world.

But your eyes caught a glimpse of the reason for your current outburst of confidence. You fiddle with the spoons, as you prepare for Jungkook’s lame excuse.

“I really didn’t forget about you!” He waved his hands in front of you. His eyes filled with terror, they widen the second you were alone.

“Look. I might not have called you out in front of them, but I’m over it— this. Jungkook you can’t keep promising something, and then breaking it like nothing” Your voice sounds more like a whisper, due to the exhaustion of reminding someone everyday to do better, and instead receiving worse.

“Do you think I want to break my promise? Answer honestly, I won’t get mad” he clenched his teeth, already showing you that he was preparing to get angry.

“I don’t know,” you mumble. “But it doesn’t seem like you care too much for it. I mean you break them every single time. I can’t remember a time where you actually followed through” you shake your head, annoyed at the fact that you actually couldn’t  remember the last time he actually did something for you.

“Y/n…” he tried grabbing your hand, and you pulled away instantly.

“Don’t… if you can’t keep whatever comes out of your mouth, then don’t” you nibble on your bottom lip, attempting to hold the cries that are trying to break out.

“I’ll change. I will”

They shouldn’t hold any significance to you, especially when he hasn’t given you a single reason to believe in them. Yet still, you interlock your hands with his, and give him a gentle smile.

He knew he wouldn’t, you knew he wouldn’t,but still you both chose to lie.

The hardest part about loving someone or more like loving him was that he didn’t love you back.

You could give anything-everything, and still you came out shorthanded. The worst part was that you blame yourself, over and over again. Why did you keep failing? Why didn’t he love you back?

“She’s gorgeous” he introduces his devilishly handsome, and perfectly angled smirk, his wine glass slowly reaches his mouth, while his hand, his veiny hand wraps around the cup. He sips his drink as if he were some rich man, pfft he was anything but that.

You knew he was allowed to feel the way he did. After all, who were you? Just a friend, a friend he relied on or more like used but you let yourself so, can you really blame him.

“Yeah she is” you play with the handkerchief that was handed to you seconds ago, due to your random nosebleed. Maybe, it was the loss of blood that made you feel all jiggly, or maybe it was the fact that his attention always lands his eyes on some beautiful, tall and thin lady, even her tan was perfect.

Your nose bleeds kept streaming down, and straight to your mouth, but still the main attraction of that night was that beautiful, or gorgeous lady as Jungkook said. His eyes were only focused on her, and she knew it as well. In fact, she kept bending down, her back— or more like her ass— was facing Jungkook, and it was clear to anyone with eyes that she was doing it to grab attention.

You couldn’t help but scoff and roll your eyes at her attempts, and yet it bit you back in the ass when Jungkook fell for every single one of her attempts. He stood up and walked directly to her, despite asking you not even a second ago if you wanted to leave and take care of your nosebleed.

The worst part of this night was the humiliation you had to face. First, he arrives three hours late, which made the waitresses laugh right in your face. And sure he defended you, but what was the whole point of doing that, if he was planning to ditch you the whole night. He ended up proving them right and you wrong.

He also kept making up the worst excuses possible to leave you, and then come back marked up, and not in the mood to even talk or respond to you.

“Where are you going now?” you stare at him, as you spin the wine in your glass.

“The bathroom?”

“Again?!” you answer louder than you intended, gaining you a couple stares of the couples, and people in that very room.

“Yeah?” He laughs it off.

Guess it’s another night where you walk home, while he takes the random beautiful girl home.

Maybe someday you’ll be his first option

“Did he actually show up?” your coworker asks. It wasn’t even you who told him about your friends' occasional absences, he witnessed it himself.

“Yeah, he did” you respond rather quickly, to avoid suspicions. However, you might have answered too quickly, Taehyung brings his eyes closer together, squinting, and observing your facial expressions.

“So why are you moody”

“I’m not moody!” You argued immediately.

“You can lie to yourself all you want! But to me, that’s just messed up” he pouted, saddened by the mistrust and lies you were trying to feed him with.

“Okay! I’m sorry. It’s just— never mind it’s stupid”

You shouldn’t say it.

“Well, when you put it like that” he rolled his eyes.

“Okay, if I tell you, you have to promise me to listen and not talk” you raise your pinky, getting ready to avoid all the voices in your head that tell you to stay quiet.

“Give me more realistic options”

Just like that you were regretting your choice. Your face went blank, there was not a single emotion present. But that’s what happens when someone tries to be funny, and doesn’t succeed.

You glared at him.

“Sheesh, eat bread or something”

You glared again.

“Fine! I’ll shut up” he ran his finger across his lip, ‘zipping’ his mouth completely shut. He even threw the fake key, to show his determination.

You nod along and continue speaking. “So after we talked everything out, he kept paying attention to anything but me,” Taehyung nodded along as you told your story. “Like out of nowhere, he just kept going to the bathroom”

“Food poisoning? That’s the story you’re giving me?”

“Just shut up and listen,” you continued.

“Well, the first couple times I tried convincing myself that it was that. But then he started coming back with hickies, and his zipper was always undone”

“This is getting interesting! Let me serve myself some wine, you want some?”

You immediately agree.

He pours you some, then him. He went to his sitting form, which was just one leg over the other.

“Anyways, back to the story. Every time he left to “pee” he started to take longer to come back. I was obviously annoyed, because I had already waited 3 hours for him” you put three fingers up, emphasizing the wait time.

His eyes darted between his phone and you. He wanted to be a hundred percent present, but his phone kept buzzing and steering him away.

“What happened next?” he sips on the wine.

“He never came back,” you groaned. You cover your face with your hands, as you bend down, attempting to cover every piece of you. It was far too embarrassing.

You get splashed with wine all over your face. Spit landing inside your wine glass, and well practically all over you.

“What?! He didn’t?”

“He didn’t” you continue to drink the wine because at this point you could care less about anything.

“Have you texted him or called him?!”

“Why would I? He ditched me, if anything he’s the one that should be contacting me”

“Has he?” He crossed his arms, while his left eyebrow arched, and slowly the right one followed along.

Taehyung couldn’t explain it himself but he was filled with anger. He wanted nothing more but to beat the living crap out of Jungkook.

You look down, and shake your head.

“He didn’t” you shrug. “It’s nothing new so… It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have expected anything else”

“You shouldn’t have to expect something from him. He should just be a good friend, and have human decency”

“Yeah…. well” you drag on while looking away.

You knew if you admitted that Jungkook had anything but human decency, you’d be in another lecture. And the lectures always consisted of things you knew, but don’t plan on changing anytime soon. So what’s the point of telling him?

Except Taehyung wasn’t an idiot, and because of that he always knew what to ask.

“Tell me, how did you get home?”

“It was perfect weather for a walk” you commented, or more like tried to joke. The joke being that you were in fact forced to walk all the way back while your friend was god knows where.

“He made you walk?!! Oh he’s done for” he shouted.

His whole face looked like it was about to explode. The redness scared you, it almost looked like he couldn’t breathe or was out of air. He was angry, and well he had every right to feel that way but still, you didn’t want to hear it.

“Taehyung! Taehyung!”

He ran out the door. You could have easily ran after him, but your feet prevented you from doing so. You had finally come to terms with what happened last night.

He broke another promise. You expected it, so why did he hurt so bad?

“Your friend won’t tell, right?” She heavily breathes, as she attempts to take off her extra small, and extra tight shirt.

Jungkook knew it was wrong of him to keep leaving you alone every given time, but he couldn't help it either. His dick was doing all the thinking, which clearly was none.

He was already hurting you by paying attention to a different woman, but if you knew who he was hooking up with now, you’d be wrecked. Only he could be turned on by the waitress that was laughing at you, not so long ago.

“Nah, she’s over it” Jungkook places kisses on her neck, leaving love bites behind. He was able to take in her perfume. The scent of flowers came to mind, and he was stuck in a trance. He knew he had to go back to you, but it was so hard to do so, when he was hard himself.

“But I was very bad” she raises her pitch, and attempts to speak seductively. She bites onto her lips, almost ripping off her skin. It was not a pretty sight, but if Jungkook closed his eyes and pictured  her body, her smell, and eagerness to fuck him, then he had created the perfect balance.

“Turn around” he speaks in a lower tone, practically growling at her to listen to his command. And she does, faster than she could say his name. Which she was planning to do, a lot.

“I’ll teach you to behave better” a huge sound was heard. He had just slapped her butt with all the force he had, he had promised to punish her, and that’s exactly what he was going to do.

His mind was engrossed in sex and more sex. He didn’t care nor think of what you were doing, or thinking. It sounds horrible, but he knew you’d forgive him and for that reason, he chose sex over you.

You tried calling Taehyung, and every time it went to voice mail. It was simply unimaginable. The scenarios that you were created in your mind, that is.

‘Pick up!’ You voiced.

You wanted nothing more than to confirm that they were both okay, and have not been hurt.

But it felt like you were running out of patience and silly reassuring words, because at the end of the day you didn’t know shit.

You place your phone in your pocket, and start putting your thinking cap on, because anything is better than staying still waiting for a response.

Maybe you should just drive to Jungkook’s place? But.. you didn’t want to see him, you simply could not face him after his little act. Still you managed to convince yourself knowing that this was the only way to confirm Taehyung hadn’t done something dumb and in the process hurt himself.

You hadn’t even stepped out of the car, and you had already witnessed this altercation between the two men you love the most.

You immediately put your car in park, and practically run out of that car, causing you to lose your balance here and there.

“Guys! Stop!” You wave your hands in the air, crossing them in the process.

They both stop and look at you, but when Taehyung was just staring at you, Jungkook uses that opportunity to shove him. He loses his balance instantly, and ends up falling backwards, scraping his elbows in the process.

“Dick!” Taehyung shouts, while rubbing his now scratched elbows.

“Jungkook, what the hell!!”

You run towards Taehyung, and when you’re close enough you reach down to him, stretching your arms out, to give him a lift back up.

“I’m okay, it’s just a little scratch” he softly smiles, in hopes it gives you some reassurance and takes the worried look off your face. He hates nothing more than to see you hurt and worried, because he feels this responsibility of making sure you always feel comforted and safe.

“You’re taking this loser's side” Jungkook scoffs, while crossing an arm over the other. He shakes his head repeatedly to express his anger towards you. Especially since you’re supposed to be his best friend, and you’re taking the side of whoever that person was in front of him.

“Well you shoved him” you snap back, still remaining close to Taehyung.

“Typical” he scoffs. “Well then, I’m glad I chose her over you”

You knew you were never his top priority, in fact he’s made that clear himself. Yet still you convince yourself that deep down he has a soft side for you, that he didn’t just have the title of your best friend but also had actions and words to back his position. But instead you were proven wrong time after time.

You couldn’t even form any words, instead your eyes landed on his. You couldn’t help that your eyes were glossy, and filled with tears. But again it’s nothing that should surprise you.

“You know what, just don’t even bother answering me y/n, stay with him! I’ll just go to her, someone who can truly make me happy!” He spit out with pure venom. It felt poisonous the way it killed you deeply and instantly.

The worst part was, you wanted to hate him but you couldn't do. In fact, you were more in love with him than before. It didn’t make sense to you, and you didn’t want to make sense of it either. You loved him and that was it.

Tag list: @mwitsmejk @bambamsthings @belovedsthings @jamlessstars @bjoriis @jeonzll @oxzie @whipwhoops @driftapart @taeriffic @laylasbunbunny @ellesalazar @boredcatto @bunbunbunnykoo @taeees-world @rainfprest @sparklingprimrose @jossabelle88 @bloodline1632 @neg-l3ct @bbtsficrecs @bloopkook @petalsofink @bliss-1111 @linours @crissteetee67 @starbtslove @laurynne5 @hollyweird0 @fragmentof-indifference @kooliv @halesandy @bloodline1632 @sukunasrealgf

[bardraelyn]

On Disaster Puppies, Anxious Angels, and Applesauce

NOTE: This post has been revised and expanded. To view the updated version, go here:

https://www.tumblr.com/bardraelyn/729218926815379456/on-disaster-puppies-anxious-angels-and?source=share

So the key to understanding the end of S2 boils down to this:

Angel!Crowley = disaster puppy (all enthusiasm, not much sense)

Aziraphale = anxious kid who grew up in a house with plastic covers on all the furniture (this bit is important)

Let’s break it down:

Aziraphale doesn’t warn Crowley off questions because he thinks there’s something wrong with Heaven. He warns Crowley off questions because he lives in a restrictive environment with rigid rules and is terrified of (vague, unspecified) CONSEQUENCES. Anxious children don’t have to have erred or been punished previously in order to be afraid of punishment. In fact, having not been punished (because their anxiety mostly keeps them in line without need for actual adult intervention) makes the fear—not threat, but fear—of punishment that much more powerful because they don’t know what the punishment will be, and the unknown is terrifying. (What’s more, they are desperate for praise and reassurance that they won’t be punished and are doing the right thing, hence Aziraphale’s love language being words of affirmation.) Aziraphale is trying to protect the innocent, joyful angel he just met, even though he doesn’t yet know what he is protecting him from. He just knows you’re not supposed to muss the furniture, and what Angel!Crowley is suggesting feels dangerous.

That also explains why even after the Fall—the punishment—Crowley is willing to bend the rules and “go along as far as he can”: He’s already been punished, so he knows what punishment feels like. He knows where to toe the line and knows what to expect if/when he doesn’t. He’s not a puppy anymore; he’s a old dog with a long memory, who is willing to take a stand to protect those he’s loyal to, even while he still cowers at certain types of threats (“We can run away together!”).

Angel!Crowley was punished and cast out of the restrictive home with all the plastic on the furniture, and the new house he’s been stuck in for the past 6000 years is run by the sort of abusive f*cks who beat puppies and raise them for dog fights. (I have a theory that Crowley was punished less severely than some of the other Fallen. He is, after all, one of the most beautiful demons we see, and that suggests that the person in charge of doling out punishments was more annoyed at him than angry, and so didn’t curse him with the truly nasty afflictions we see on the more repugnant of demons—like Hastur, who delights in pain, or Beelzebub, who had some leadership role in the Rebellion—but that doesn’t matter because his new home was terrible, possibly in part because of that lesser punishment. I bet that prior to the Rebellion, “Lucifer and the boys” delighted in the cliquish equivalent of “throwing sticks for the Disaster Puppy to chase,” and poor Angel!Crowley didn’t realize they weren’t really his friends so much as a different set of abusers who used attention instead of neglect. But after the Fall, they became his keepers, and his eyes were opened to a whole new level of loss and betrayal. Anyway.)

As a member of the Fallen, Crowley doesn’t remember the names of some angels/demons (Furfur, Saraqael, and yes, Aziraphale at first) but clearly remembers others (like the Metatron and Gabriel), even though they remember him. I’ve seen suggestions that this is a trauma response or the results of a partial memory wipe, but I think it has a much simpler explanation: He only remembers the names and faces of entities who stood out to him. That enthusiastic angel who bubbled with joy and absolutely annoyed some of the other angels with his exuberance? Of course, he sticks in their memory! But they barely registered to him because they were each just one in a billion random strangers he played with in the park. The Disaster Puppy enthusiastically plays with everyone. He remembers the ones who had the power to slap him on the nose—and the one angel whose daring and kindness impressed him enough for his name to finally stick after it didn’t during their previous encounters.

At their very first meeting, Aziraphale introduces himself; Angel!Crowley doesn’t reciprocate. Names are irrelevant. He’s too caught up in his nebula to even take note of the introduction. So later, when they meet on the wall of Eden, introductions are needed again: Aziraphale because Crowley didn’t recall his name, and Crowley because he never gave his name at their first meeting (and probably never during any of their chance encounters in Heaven, because remember, Disaster Puppy just isn’t all that concerned with names), but also because even if Aziraphale did pick up Angel!Crowley’s name in passing sometime after their first meeting, he absolutely would not assume that the fallen angel still uses it. Rather than risk dead-naming him, he waits for Crowley (or Crawly, at the time) to tell him what he prefers to be called.

So, it’s obvious why Crowley didn’t remember Aziraphale’s name, but did he recognize Aziraphale at all before approaching him on the wall? I would bet on absolutely, yes, but with the vague sort of recollection of a conversation he probably should have taken a bit more to heart. He sees a being who tried at some point in the past to warn him, whose name he doesn’t recall because it didn’t seem important enough at the time, but who makes him feel comfortable enough to approach: “You tried to help me before, which means you are kinder than those other angels who didn’t, and so you probably won’t hurt me now, even though I’m Fallen. I’m feeling conflicted about this notion that knowledge of Good and Evil is a Bad Thing, and as someone who tried to advise me earlier, I feel like I can talk to you about it.” (What neither of them has yet realized is that knowledge of Good and Evil is the key to recognizing that Heaven and Hell are two ends of the same poison pill, and it’s not only humans who have been kept in the dark; a lot of the Angelic Host are also in need of some applesauce.)

And this is why the memory-wipe theory simply doesn’t make sense. Think about it. Gabriel is the Supreme Archangel, and their intent with him was to perform the equivalent of a full hard drive wipe and reinstall of the base angelic software. They think of him as corrupted beyond repair. If even the highest of high archangels isn’t worth the massive effort of selective file deletion, why would they waste that same amount of effort on Crowley to wipe (and possibly replace) a few select memories from before the Fall? Yes, it’s clear that Crowley was an angel with a reasonably high level of access, given his ability to open the archives, but there’s absolutely no indication that he outranked Gabriel. In fact, his scorn for the Supreme Archangel is exactly the sort of scorn you’d have for someone who used to have authority over you and abused it extremely casually but was mostly the kind of negligent adult who ignored you until you were useful and/or pissed them off.

And that ties back to the question of why angels don’t eat while demons do. Aziraphale eats—with enthusiasm!—so clearly angels can eat, and Crowley mentions “food not that good anymore” in Heaven as part of why he started palling around with the other discontents, so also clearly angels did eat at some point, but now they don’t. Well, yeah. Because somebody in Heaven wants to keep it pristine, so they won’t allow food anywhere near all that Heavenly furniture. I mean, it won’t kill the angels to go without meals, because they are immortal beings, so all the ban achieves is a) starvation, b) loss of pleasure, and c) control. But that’s really all it comes down to: Keeping everything pristine and spotless and perfect. And the Rebellion gave whoever is in charge of those decisions (my bet would be on the Metatron; God seems too self-involved to care about the furniture) the perfect excuse to change the house rules to ban food. And since it’s definitely a cult, all the ones who are deeply indoctrinated just sort of…go along with it.

If Aziraphale feels any guilt over Crowley’s Fall, it’s a mild twinge over the fact that he wasn’t able to convince the Disaster Puppy to stop jumping on the furniture. That’s not the primary motivating factor for why he’s so adamant about protecting Crowley at the end of S2 or at any other time in their long association. Aziraphale and Crowley are both, in their ways, protectors. That is established over and over again, throughout all of their actions and conversations. Protecting is a primary drive for each of them, something that is at the core of their beings, and it often puts them at odds over the exact same objective: Protecting the one(s) they care most about. They withhold information and behave in sometimes appalling ways to protect each other when what they really need to be doing—as they should have learned from the first Armageddon attempt—is working together to protect what they have with each other along with everything else that they love.

Because the reality is that if either one of them sacrificed themself to save the other, that very sacrifice would destroy the other. They are of one heart, and it cannot, WILL NOT live if it is not whole. But neither one fully trusts the other to coordinate a defense because of that same history and past trauma. Aziraphale thinks Crowley won’t listen to him because Angel!Crowley didn’t, and Crowley is still afraid of being kicked if he lets his guard down because he can see how much his beloved is still a victim of the cult programming (and Aziraphale is not above kicking if he feels panicked). Crowley doesn’t think Aziraphale will hurt him on purpose, but rather because Aziraphale doesn’t see all the angles and manipulations and therefore can’t see all of the threats—and in their conversation at the end of S2E6, the angel seemingly proves him right.

I don’t think that Metatron’s intent is to kill Aziraphale. He will almost certainly resort to that if looks like Aziraphale won’t give him what he wants, but right now, he just sees a tool that can help him achieve his goal (provided Crowley is out of the way). Because here’s the thing: the archangels are clueless about some very important things. That has already been established (see: the flashback to Job and conversations about human birth). Metatron is probably a bit less so than most, but there are things the Angels in Charge fundamentally do not understand, and they don’t know it yet, but Aziraphale is one of those things.

Metatron sees an angel who has not only lived on Earth long enough to truly understand humans, but also (and this is key) has collaborated with a demon—a tempter—and then effectively lived in the company of that tempter for the past four years. Metatron sees Aziraphale as someone who can be tempted and manipulated. That’s why he brings him coffee. He’s trying to use that. He wants a tool he can control. But he, like all of the highest of the Host, is guilty of neglect. He has never paid close enough attention to Aziraphale to see the Bastard Angel: the one who pushes back against Crowley, and even against God, who offers his own temptations, who is stubborn and implacable (much to Crowley’s frequent annoyance even while he loves it), and who isn’t afraid to stand firm in the face of Heaven, Hell, and Armageddon to protect the world and the keeper of his heart. Metatron thinks Aziraphale's resistance to Armageddon was the result of Crowley's manipulation, so he figures he'll just get Crowley out of the way or keep him too busy to interfere, and use Aziraphale for himself.

As to why Aziraphale hasn’t fallen yet (and isn’t going to fall, even in S3) in spite of all of his misdeeds and mini-rebellions: it all comes down to the fallout. The Rebel Host—including the poor Disaster Puppy angel running around with them—started a war. In Heaven. They didn’t just individually act up on occasion in ways that could be ignored. They engaged in a violent and bloody act of rebellion. The Fall wasn’t about the small sins; it was about the big one. They messed up the furniture. They had to go. Aziraphale’s not messing up the furniture—yet. By the time he does, it will be far too late for Heaven to do anything to stop him.

See, that smile at the end of S2E6? It’s not pleasure at taking charge, and it’s not determination to fix Heaven. It’s a mask. Aziraphale just spent that elevator ride bottling up his pain and hiding it down deep. I would bet my immortal soul that he put on that smile right when the elevator stopped, before the doors started to open. Heaven is about to learn the hard way why choosing Aziraphale was their fatal mistake. Because the Bastard Angel is broken and angry, and he’s done with their bullshit rules and their plastic-covered furniture. Maybe he pushed Crowley away to protect him. Maybe he really wanted Crowley to come with him to try to change things from the inside. None of that matters. All of the maybes that happened before Metatron came back to collect Aziraphale are irrelevant. Because Metatron doesn’t understand Aziraphale, and he just tipped his hand when he spoke the words “Second Coming.” Aziraphale has long since realized that Heaven is toxic—that’s what he wants to fix—but until that moment he didn’t have the context Crowley had to know why Gabriel left. But he has just learned that his love, his heart, and his world are in mortal danger, and he will stop at nothing to save them. Heaven hath no fury like an angel with a broken heart.

Aziraphale has never worried that Crowley was ever made to forget him. He’s intelligent and observant. He noted that initial un-introduction (and was even a bit disappointed by it), so he knows why Crowley doesn’t remember his name when they meet on the wall of Eden. Their coded-language dance around the depth of their association has never been about fear of rejection over imagined faults but rather the very real threats from their respective Home Offices, which they are too wary to immediately forget even after thwarting Armageddon and their own executions. (They are right not to trust that sense of peace! It has taken them four years to let down their guards even the tiniest bit, and they are still speaking in code—hence the ball: It's Aziraphale's confession of love without saying the words out loud, because it still doesn't feel entirely safe.) And he’s not going to Heaven to throw himself on some sacrificial alter to fix a mistake he thinks he made 6000 years ago by failing to keep an angel who barely acknowledged him from falling in with the rest of the Rebel Host. He’s just doing what he’s always done: trying his best to protect the innocent from Heaven’s caprice.

Only this time, he knows his own heart is innocent too.

[vgperson]

What Did I Do In 2022?

Game Translations That Aren't YTTD: 1. Okay, maybe 1.5.

----

First of all, while I didn't add it until later in the year (not entirely unmotivated by the Stability of Platforms), my site now has an RSS feed for notable updates of any kind! I mention this upfront because I'm mostly just going over the things that are already listed there. It currently retroactively covers everything back to 2020, but I might add more past stuff over time so it can better serve as a general "everything I've ever done" page.

In February, I translated Kenshi Yonezu's POP SONG (and an interview). Noel The Mortal Fate Seasons 1-7 also got a revamped version on consoles (Switch, PS4); the console versions include a new Season 3.5 translated entirely by me, and the rest of the seasons have a revised script which is more thoroughly edited by me than even the redone Steam translation was.

In March, the update adding Kai to Your Time To Shine came out. Yes, he is Kai.

In April, I finally finished up my unofficial Japanese translation patch for Petal Crash. たのしいね、クラッシュ！ It actually just got some extra attention after the Petal Crash run for RTA In Japan about two days ago, which is kind of wild. Is this what it's like to be famous...? (clueless)

In May, I translated Kenshi Yonezu's Shin Ultraman theme song M87 (interview, interview), and the coupling song from the single, ETA. And there was an article about the 10th anniversary of his debut!

Also in May, the Ib remake came out on Steam in English! Told you they'd contact me. It was later announced to be coming to Switch, scheduled for March 2023.

In August, Your Turn To Die was announced to be coming to Steam. It's planned for early 2023, but to be clear, it'll release first in Early Access still with no final part, though with some exclusive mini-episodes and character profile sheets. Apparently once that's out, the actual completion is estimated for 6 to 12 months later... but, you know. Estimates are hard.

In September, I put together a guide for and officially "released" my Custom Translation Engine plugin for RPG Maker MV, the one I made for the Ib remake, and back-implemented into Your Turn To Die shortly after I was contacted about it coming to Steam. It's fancy (in-game language switching!), convenient (minimal direct editing of code!), and you can use it for your own translation projects if you want!

In October... well, I didn't do anything new for it, but I'll take credit for The Witch's House MV coming to consoles. (Switch, PS4, Xbox) I also translated everyone's favorite Chainsaw Man opening KICK BACK, associated interviews, and the single's coupling song Y'all Should Be Ashamed.

Finally, in December, after lots of spending my time elsewhere and indecision about how I should go about returning to doing some dang free game translations, I concluded that what I'd really wanted to do all year was translate Uri's PEDESTAL.

I think some people latched onto specific parts of Uri's original explanation for why it wasn't being translated, such as the cultural aspects (I honestly winced at her blunt remark that the story was "no good at all"), but while Uri indeed had those doubts at the time of release, the only real reason it wasn't translated at the time is that I did a less-than-ideal rushed playthrough that slightly hurt my overall impression of its quality, and I felt too busy at the time to work on something with lots of text that was likely to be divisive. So similarly, me finally feeling up to it was the reason it did get translated. I probably should've come back to it quite a bit sooner (after I was made to give up a certain other translation, say), but as I alluded to in last year's post, I was self-conscious about "my big return to free game translations" being something that might not have wide appeal. Uh, glad to be past that, hopefully.

Oh, and ever since finishing PEDESTAL, I've been working on all sorts of overhauls to my site, but like... not the kind that actually majorly changes any part of the visible design and annoys people (and if something did change in an annoying way, it's probably accidental). Some of it's just better consideration of mobile browsing (stuff like images or tables sticking out of bounds at mobile resolutions), or making things more convenient for myself behind the scenes (did you know I made a program to add "br"s to every line of all lyrics content before considering I could just have the page code do that, and also better?).

Some more major observable changes include general renovations to the lyrics page (bigger font size, buttons that hide individual languages to aid in side-by-side comparison), and more convenient navigation of OSTER's tweets, such that I could actually imagine someone reading through them all the way from the start without it being too much of a hassle.

----

While I'm glad to be over the PEDESTAL hump, I don't... necessarily have any definite plans for upcoming free game translations. I mostly just have some stuff on a list that I may have to make myself check out soon enough. Also, Game Atsumaru (which you may know as The Site That Hosts YTTD's Japanese Version) is ending in June??? So uh, might have to accelerate checking out stuff on there, though I guess it depends on how many creators are able to migrate. (Nankidai does plan to put YTTD's Japanese browser version up somewhere else.)

As I mentioned, Your Turn To Die's Early Access release on Steam should be coming up early next year with those mini-episodes and character profiles, and the game might be completed within the year. No promises. I mean, I don't have anything to promise, it's not my game.

Speaking of my game... also no promises. But I'd really like to release one. We'll see what happens. There's also a different kind of original project I recently returned to trying to make real, which could come early in the year, but who knows. As should be apparent, I'm working on a lot of different fronts here, so I frequently feel bad about neglecting such-and-such type of creative work, which sometimes means nothing actually gets done and released. Ultimately, though, it's probably better to follow what I most feel like doing, rather than force focus on one thing and end up not actually getting much done.

Which is to say: hoping to finish something in the new year!

[dogtoling]

Ok, with Kraken coming what's your explanation for it returning considering the whole debacle from your Kraken post?

incredibly good question. for context, at the end of my years-old Kraken post explaining what the Kraken is (a deimatic display, which was harnessed as a turf war special through the use of cool steroids for fun), I explained that it was discontinued because use of the drug that triggered the special made the body more responsive to the natural, emotional triggers for the Kraken over extended use. That would make natural Krakening easier to trigger over time for people who are already used to Krakening very often, even through unnatural means (the drug), and as the Kraken is a self-defensive reaction to extremely dangerous situations normally, that is Very Bad. So, once cases of this happening became more common and more known over time, the drug and Kraken with it was promptly banned from Turf Wars alongside the other current Specials during the Special Weapon Overhaul. And at the end of that post I specifically said it's VERY UNLIKELY that the Kraken will ever return to the battlefield.

Well, here we are! The Kraken has returned! HOORAYYYYY!

back to the topic at hand. WHY?

There's multiple options, honestly. First off, we're in the SPLATLANDS now. Splatsville is the city of chaos and they clearly don't give a shit about some "special weapon overhaul" over there! They're probably not bound by laws of the Inkopolis turf scene. So this is the theory that Splatsville Turfers Simply Don't Care and the Kraken is still objectively REALLY, REALLY COOL and they want to be Krakens! A lot of Splatsville's turfing culture and weapons seems to have been inspired by Inkopolis' early turfing culture, so it wouldn't be surprising that Kraken made it in eventually - whether they know about its cons or not.

So the theory has one pretty obvious flaw, that being that Splatoon 3 also has Turf Wars that take place in Inkopolis maps. Um, in that case yes, actually the Inkopolis Turf Laws actually DO apply. So, we could extend the meaning of the Order vs. Chaos Splatfest and say that since chaos won, the Special Weapon Overhaul might have been seriously revised or just... undone, and the rules loosened overall. It would make sense given that really powerful special weapons like the Triple Inkstrike and Trizooka are ALSO being used on Inkopolis grounds despite those weapons already being banned once before pretty much, but seems like kind of a huge oversight...

There is also the chance that the drug used to trigger this Kraken is a different, improved one - it's called the Kraken ROYALE now (i think) after all, not JUST "Kraken". I have no idea how they would've made an improved drug that just makes involuntary Krakening not happen over time, assuming the drug itself wasn't the problem... the Krakening itself was the problem. Or they were both part of the problem. But the point is, not sure how they'd manage to make a drug that accomplishes the exact same thing without triggering a third thing that directly correlates with repeated Krakening using an outside trigger. But like, there's the chance that they somehow did?

And, you know, when we're talking about capitalism and monetary gain there's always the chance that the people selling the drug in the first place are trying really hard to push the New Version really hoping that everybody forgot what happened last time. It's been a few years.

Of course, the final theory is not a theory, but the brewing fear that now that the Kraken is relevant again, Nintendo will give a canon reasoning as to what the Kraken ACTUALLY is and I'll have to rewrite all my OC lore.

[onecornerface]

Against Against "AI Art is Art-Theft"

In response to this Facebook post defending AI art against the charge of art-theft--

I’ve occasionally complained that anti-AI-art critics tend to promote sloppy arguments which overstate their case. But now I’m gonna defend the anti-AI crowd—they do raise legitimate concerns, and the OP here is being unfair. The OP singles out two bad anti-AI-art arguments while failing to even acknowledge the existence of better arguments. It fails to refute nuanced versions of the accusation that AI steals art.

My real contention is basically the same as it’s been for a while: The arguments on both sides of this controversy don’t seem well-developed enough yet to justify many confident conclusions, and this goes for the pro-AI side as much as the anti-AI side. The information in the OP is a good overview of some technical details to keep in mind, correcting some common errors on the part of anti-AI-art critics. But the scope of this defense is pretty limited, and doesn’t apply to more nuanced criticisms which have already been made.

Yes, it's true that AI art doesn’t engage in copying-and-pasting images, nor even pieces of images. So it is not equivalent to some more traditional kinds of art-theft. Many anti-AI critics are sloppy and get the facts wrong about how the technology works, and this is bad. But this doesn’t disprove more nuanced lines of criticism.

I haven't checked much discourse on this recently, so I don’t know how many anti-AI critics still make the incorrect accusation of copying-and-pasting. This may still be a common false accusation, or the anti-AI critics may have mostly stopped making it, I don’t know. In any case, some anti-AI critics now make art-theft arguments based on *accurate* descriptions of the technology.

The OP is wrong to treat art-theft as basically equivalent to simple copying-and-pasting, so as to imply that “no copying-and-pasting” guarantees “no art-theft.” The OP does not address the possibility that AI art could be a different kind of art-theft—one which is morally akin to old-style art-theft, but which uses new techniques. There is no comprehensive consensus theory of art-theft, or of related concepts such as plagiarism. There are many forms and variants of plagiarism, and it is entirely plausible that new technologies can enable new forms of wrongdoing which are similar in spirit despite being technically distinct.

There are many forms of wrongdoing which are such that new technologies have facilitated the creation of new subtypes of these actions, in such a way as to NOT meet traditional criteria. New technologies, such as social media, have sometimes expanded the variety of ways in which people can commit crimes or wrongs such as fraud, harassment, and stalking. Sometimes this may be a reason to expand or revise the criteria or standards for these actions—so as to count relevantly-similar technology-enabled versions of these actions, which may not have met earlier criteria.

This does not show that AI art is art-theft. But it would not be surprising if new technologies, such as AI art, may enable new *versions* of old forms of wrongdoing in ways that do not meet all the traditional criteria. In light of this longstanding pattern, the fact that AI art doesn’t involve copying-and-pasting (part of traditional forms of art theft) is consistent with the possibility that it may still commit art-theft in some new way enabled by new technology.

To be clear, I think the burden of proof is on the anti-AI-art critic. It is up to the critic to provide a more plausible account of art-theft and to argue that AI art meets the proposed standard. This may be a harder task than some critics assume. For instance, most forms of art-theft seem to involve stealing particular artworks from particular artists. By contrast, if AI art is art-theft, then it is apparently an unusual sort—one which involves stealing (something like) abstract elements from many artists in a widely dispersed manner. I think more anti-AI-art critics should acknowledge if they are appealing to a revisionary ethical theory or principle, and that a reasonable person may be non-culpably skeptical of the revisionary view.

However, contrary to what OP seems to assume, some critics have attempted to do this. For instance, Trystan S. Goetze’s paper “AI Art is Theft” (2024) develops an argument that, well, AI art is theft—in a manner clearly grounded in a careful and accurate account of how the technology works.

[willbyersabyss]

The Upside Down is Multiple Mindscapes

Are there multiple Upside Downs? Is Brenner the Mind Flayer? Does Will’s connection to the Upside Down start in 1979? Follow me off the deep end. TFS spoilers below.

Before I start, all of my information on The First Shadow is from other people, not my own viewing of the play, so take it with a grain of salt! If you’ve seen the play and see things that are wrong or have more evidence, let me know!

Okay! So I’ve already made many posts theorizing about the possibility of the Upside Down being Will’s mind (highly recommend reading those first here and here), but after the play came out, this theory seemed to fall off. In the play, they reveal that the Upside Down (one of them at least) existed as far back as 1943. Here is my revised version of this theory: the Upside Down is not only Will’s mind, but a mix of minds, namely Henry’s and maybe even… Brenner’s?

The first victim of the Upside Down was in 1943: Brenner’s father, who entered and came back “wrong” after involvement in Project Rainbow (we’ll come back to this). Then Henry also stumbled upon the dimension for a few hours and returned with powers, just like Brenner’s dad. This is why Brenner pursues Henry.

I don’t know what the dimension looked like before 1979, but just the 1979 appearance is suspicious and indicates the possibility of multiple dimensions. Not to mention how Henry didn’t recognize the dimension El banished him to that he supposedly had already visited many years prior. If Henry slash Vecna ends up in yellow dimension via El, how did he end up in the blue dimension we see past 1983? The simple explanation would be the yellow is day and the blue is night, but I don’t think the writers like simple explanations so: the yellow dimension is someone’s mind that eventually connects with the blue dimension. I think the blue dimension is Will’s mind, red is Henry’s, and the yellow might be Brenner’s. We see Max stumble into Vecna’s mind when she’s in her own, so I imagine the Upside Down is functioning in the same way. These different minds are connected, but may not always be visible within the dimension. 

Wait let’s back up… why do I even think the Upside Down is a mind of some sorts? Well let’s listen to Becky here:

So the main goal of the lab was to expand the boundaries of the mind. Hm. Didn’t the play indicate that the real goal was to open a gate to another dimension? Okay but Brenner already opened a gate, the one Henry went through that gave him his powers. So if Brenner already has the solution for a gate, why does he keep pushing El to open them? And how did El open a gate to another dimension, something no one knew how to do, with her mind? How would the mind even open a damn gate if the first gate opened because of electromagnetic energy? Yeah. That shit is a mind. 

More questions: Why does the Mind Flayer want to control other people anyways? It’s just a random smoke monster from another dimension… right? Well no!

So if Henry was possessed by the Mind Flayer this entire time, what was the point of showing him controlling the smoke, alluding to him being the big bad? It’s not like this is something the characters pick up on to later be disproven. Dustin literally states that Vecna is working for the Mind Flayer, not the other way around. This was for us. Maybe they wanted to plant the idea that the Mind Flayer is controlled by someone, just not Vecna… but who?

(Vecna voice) Dr. Martin Brenner. Papa. 

There’s a lot of strange (yes) similarities between Brenner and the Mind Flayer. In the play, the Mind Flayer is possessing Henry and forcing him to kill others. At the same time, Henry is being told by Brenner that he should be killing animals and people to increase his power threshold. Now Brenner… how exactly do you know the same things the Mind Flayer knows? Very weird.  

Take it away ladies:

Exactly! It was all because of HIM. He took them, he killed them. HE DID IT!

Idk it’s just very convenient how the two seasons where the Mind Flayer is the focus, Brenner is nowhere to be found, but when the Mind Flayer isn’t the main villain of the season, Brenner comes back.

More Brenner Flayer weirdness: the Papa nickname. So we know the Mind Flayer is the source of the powers, the father if you will. Brenner is the one who gives all the lab children blood transfusions to gain their powers. In a way, he becomes another “parent” to the source of the powers since he is controlling who gets them, much like the Mind Flayer does with Henry and Will. He’s literally the papa of their powers.

What’s the likelihood of Brenner not attempting to give himself powers via Henry blood? Quite low. So maybe he found a way to control the Mind Flayer…

I find it quite interesting how Brenner woke up after being knocked out RIGHT as El began banishing Henry to the yellow dimension. Did Henry being banished to his section of the mind dimension wake him up? Hmm?

Well there you have it. Brenner felt that Henry was still alive, just like the feeling Will gets when the Mind Flayer is meddling with him.

Maybe the scene of Henry controlling the Mind Flayer particles is not only hinting at a human controller, but symbolic of Henry regaining his authority over Brenner. After Henry disappears, Brenner spends all of his time training El to open a gate again to find him, so Henry is really controlling Brenner’s life now.

But wouldn’t Brenner being the Mind Flayer kind of detract from Brenner’s whole “seeking greatness in others” deal? Not exactly. That’s pretty much what the Mind Flayer does. If the Mind Flayer could use its powers the way its power babies do, why doesn’t it? Why does it need to give others powers to do its dirty work? It flays others because it can’t do it alone. It’s seeking greatness in others the same way Brenner is described to by Henry.

Alright let's move on from Brenner Flayer and onto Will’s connection with the mind dimension. 

Will’s connection started in 1979. I already discussed in my previous Will’s mind theory post how Will got Vecna’s curse symptoms the (possible) night Vecna was banished by El. We all know how Will drew a rainbow spaceship thanks to Joyce’s speech. A rainbow ship? Very convenient how the original contact with the upside down was called Project Rainbow and involved a ship disappearing. Henry began drawing the Mind Flayer shape because he saw it in the other dimension. That memory plagued his mind. The same thing may have happened to Will. Perhaps Will heard rumors of a different rainbow ship and it got miscommunicated along the way. Maybe his mind connected with Brenner’s and he absorbed some of his memories of the project: aliens, rainbows, ships and combined them in his own way. A rainbow spaceship. 

I've said before that I think the Upside Down is stuck in 1983 because Will was trying to travel to a happy memory like Max did, transforming his section of the mind dimension into Hawkins. Henry's mind is stuck in the Creel house memory. Maybe in his possession, he tried to do the same thing, but the memory was already corrupted, creating a broken recreation of his house. The blank yellow parts of the dimension may be the minds of people who haven't attempted memory travel yet.

“All this time, we’ve been building it.” Building what exactly? The flesh monster? “All this time” and the time in question is a week. Unless that’s not what he’s talking about. The Upside Down? 

So we know that when Vecna kills, he absorbs his victims. The thing they’re building isn’t a big monster, it’s a collection of minds to gain more power. Every person that’s killed or kidnapped to the Upside Down is helping it be built, it’s shaping it, completing it. They’re taking other minds to build a larger dimension. This is why the current Upside Down looks so different from the one Henry was banished to, it wasn’t built upon yet.

What is the function of these vines? Why does he need them? What if the vines connect all of the different minds that make up the Upside Down. Each vine could be a mind he’s seeking out. With so many different minds, the dimension is likely vast and it would be ridiculous to travel across it all, so the vines are there as a shortcut. That’s what he was doing in that attic! He was physically attaching himself to their minds so he could remote kill. Why wouldn’t the Mind Flayer do remote killings before? Why bother sending the demogorgons to make tunnels? Maybe it couldn’t! It needs physical contact like the vines to actually complete a remote kill.

These vines follow Vecna in his visions. When Max travels to the Snow Ball, it begins to be corrupted with rotting vines. Clearly these vines have something to do with minds. Memories? Other minds? Who knows!

Wrapping this up here… this post was very unorganized, I just wanted to get all of my thoughts out. I really think the Upside Down is a collection of mindscapes merging together and Will's mind is the main source beneath Hawkins. Brenner's involvement may be questionable honestly, but that dimension has to be a mind. It makes too much sense to me!

[cosmicdream222]

Ok ur blog seems to be so good

I saw u r post about time leaping

I am too want to go back in time like 10 years back I want to make my parent happy and rich they suffered a lot I want a protective brother I want all this from 2012 and I want to live from their again

Here are my questions

If I go back in time what happens my present self am I suffer like this

I want a brother from out of thin air is it possible can I wake up with my brother

What do u think about revenge the person who made my family suffered and made us to starve for years

Hey I’m sorry this ask got buried in my inbox and I took so long to reply 😢

So yes, everything is possible and it can happen exactly the way you want it to. You don’t have to stress about details, just script things like “only positive things manifest” or “everything turned out even better than I expected”.

To answer your questions

1) Your present self is just one possible version of infinite versions of yourself available. When you shift, you no longer have awareness of this current reality - just like you don’t currently have awareness of any of the other infinite possibilities of yourself out there now.

These are two quotes that can help explain what happens:

“You are not bound to any identity, appearance, or personality. You can consider every being as 'you' because all are equally valid. The only thing that matters is with which version you are the most comfortable with. And besides that, remember, you only have one 3D. So technically, your 'clone' doesn't even exist for you because the reality you just left doesn't exist physically anymore, at least not for you (again, the 3Ds don't affect each other)." - Vanilla/Love

“There is only one consciousness. Reality changes depending on where we place our consciousness in a world of infinite possibilities. […] In the end, even if consciousness from another reality shifts, the consciousness we see is always here. So no matter what they do, it has no effect on us.” - Kanda

2) Yep it is completely possible! Basically it’s like shifting to a timeline where you’ve always already had a brother. So when you wake up there, it will be like you have always been there (you and your family will have all memories from that timeline). There are tons of success stories with family revision. Here’s one and this is one of the most interesting time travel stories.

3) I’m more of a “revenge glow up” type person, like I’d rather just succeed and forget about them. I personally plan on revising in my past that none of the trauma/abuse ever happened, and like the abuser never existed at all, so they won’t harm anyone else.

I believe there is enough misery and suffering in this world, and one person suffering just leads to more suffering in general. If we are all one consciousness, then doing harm to others is really doing harm to one’s self.

But ultimately it is your reality and you get to make the rules!

[brainysmurfofficial]

Evolution of Brainy Smurf, Part 1: Where in the World is Brainy Smurf?

Years covered: 1959-1965

Hello, hello! I want to do a bit of an overview/analysis of the development of Brainy Smurf’s character throughout the years. This post will start at the very start of the timeline for Brainy Smurf canon, and go from there! Anyone can feel free to add on to this post. Expect more posts in the future as we go through the years!

[Disclaimer: I don’t understand French. I do understand Chinese. The latter is not particularly helpful for smurfs analysis. Huge thanks to tumblr blog schtroumpfcurieux​ for all their help, who does know French.]

Pinpointing what could be considered the very first appearance of Brainy Smurf in print is not nearly as straightforward as one might think. The publishing order at the start here can get a little messy – self-proclaimed smurfologist Matt Murray says so himself in one of his write-ups within the Smurf Anthology books - so you’ll have to try and stay with me here.

We all know the smurfs originally appeared in comic form in Johan & Pirlouit, but that’s not when Brainy specifically first showed up. To try and locate our one and only dear Brainy Smurf, we must first turn our attention to the mini-récits or “mini stories” from when the smurfs started going solo, divorcing themselves from the human characters that gave them a leg-up into the comics world and forming a brand of their own.

Wikipedia lists Brainy’s first appearance in the comics as occurring in Les Schtroumpfs Noirs, which is not correct. Technically. Or, well… It’s complicated.

The mini-récits are, as the “mini” suggests, comics that are very small and condensed. These comics would later be revised by Peyo and redrawn in their entirety in a much bigger and expanded-upon format.

(French!) Wikipedia lists the mini-récits as follows, in order of publication date:

·       Les Schtroumpfs noirs (1959) ·       Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs (1959) ·       L’Œuf et les Schtroumpfs (1960) ·       Le Faux Schtroumpf (1961) ·       La Faim des Schtroumpfs (1961) ·       Le Centième Schtroumpf (1962)

There is no Brainy Smurf to be found anywhere in the 1959 version of Les Schtroumpfs noirs. We’ll circle back to this later and touch on it in more detail, I promise, but for now you just gotta bear with me as we continue our search for Brainy elsewhere. Onward!

What about next on the list, Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs from the same year? (AKA: “The Smurfnapper”).

Would you believe me if I said that originally, Brainy Smurf did not have glasses? Yes, despite his French name literally being “Smurf with glasses”. Because before he was known as Schtroumpf à lunettes, he was Schtroumpf Moralisateur.

So, without glasses as an obvious visual cue, one of the main ways to identify if a smurf is Brainy or not is by his personality… So let’s take a look at Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs.

Here, my friends, is what I have personally pinpointed as the very first appearance of the Schtroumpf Moralisateur, as the smurf in front holding the bag. He already has his trademark admonishing raised finger!

In the redrawn, expanded-upon version of Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs published some years later in 1963, this smurf is indeed confirmed to be Brainy:

Here, the smurf who would be Brainy emerges for the first time in smurf canon out from behind the grass, establishing himself upfront as a character who wants to go by the book, insisting they do as they’re told and admonishing his fellow smurf for considering otherwise.

I love how in the redrawn version from a few years later, Peyo makes a point of making his expression less neutral in this same panel, hahaha:

When the other smurf gets captured, he admonishes them for their behaviour.

Then, at the end of the comic, Brainy Smurf-Without-Glasses pulls an “I told you so!” and finishes with one of his trademark holier-than-thou rants:

In the vein of “If only you’d listened to Papa Smurf / You must listen to Papa Smurf…”

And there you have it: there’s a very solid case to be made that this is Brainy’s first appearance. A smurf that is unafraid to unrelentingly lecture others on what they should and should not do. A sanctimonious moralisateur.

The next mini-story pinpointed as featuring Brainy is La Faim des Schtroumpfs or “The Hunger of the Smurfs / The Hungry Smurfs”, published in 1961.

We can tell this smurf in this comic is Brainy due to not only the speech/style/mannerisms, but also because just like with the previous story we looked at, this smurf is redrawn as Brainy with his glasses in the expanded-upon version.

Showing up and getting all “Papa Smurf says we should do X therefore we need to do X…” makes it easy to connect this smurf as being the same one from The Smurfnapper that we just looked at, and it’s easy to conclude that Peyo had the same smurf in mind when he made this comic as well.

After he shows up and has that one piece of Brainyesque dialogue, there’s not really anything of note Brainywise for the rest of the comic. We can safely assume he’s presumably there among the other smurfs, but with the only way to distinguish him in these mini-stories being when his personality is shown, there’s no smurf among the group designated by Peyo for us to know for certain is Brainy for the remainder of the comic.

Next, we have Le Centième Schtroumpf  - the Hundredth Smurf mini-story comic published in 1962, the final mini-story of this fashion featuring our dear Brainy, and for the very first time, he gets a name! How exciting! Well, I think it is, at least.

There! Now named Schtroumpf Moralisateur, he’s telling off Schtroumpf Gourmand for gluttony.

Nothing of note Brainywise for the rest of the comic, but the name itself really sums up Peyo’s thoughts and approach here when writing Brainy into the comics: he’s preoccupied with judging and lecturing sanctimoniously to others about their actions/behaviour.

We now reach 1963, when the expanded version of Les Schtroumpfs noirs (or “The Purple Smurfs” in English) was published, and we can finally circle back to that kinda-tangent I put aside at the very start.

Brainy, it’s time for you to don your glasses!

There you are, Brainy.

Brainy is the smurf who goes off and encounters the first smurf afflicted by the Bzz Fly, quickly rushing back and warning Papa Smurf.

But wait – in the original mini-story version of 1959, the smurf who does this is just some random smurf with no defining characteristics. Although you could try and make some technicality argument that this retroactively makes the smurf who took this role originally Brainy too, I approach this moreso from the view of artist intent. When Peyo was working on the 1959 version, I sincerely doubt he had Schtroumpf Moralisateur in mind for that random smurf. But for some reason, when he expanded on the comic in 1963, he decided to make this smurf Brainy now. It’s interesting, because there’s no real reason for the smurf to be Brainy – it could just as easily have been any other smurf – but he added those glasses in.

Published alongside the new-and-improved Schtroumpfs Noirs story in 1963 is “The Flying Smurf” (Le Schtroumpf Volant).

Our new glassesified Brainy is in this story from the very first panel! This is the first brand-new story featuring a glasses-clad Brainy, and unlike with Schtroumpfs Noirs his personality readily shows through. Papa Smurf sends Brainy and another smurf into the forest to get walnuts, the other smurf gets distracted by an apple which he goes after…

Back at it once more with the lecturing, the admonishing, and the insistence that they strictly stick to their given instructions.

Also, he abruptly starts singing at the top of his lungs, as you do.

The other trait established about Brainy is that he’s the tattle-tale “I’ll tell on you!” type as well.

Despite haphazardly following his fellow smurf around for the majority of the comic insisting on the walnuts, he never does get around to actually getting them for Papa Smurf. He was too busy pestering his fellow smurf about it instead.

Even when the plot of the comic carries over to the next day, Brainy’s still trying to chase this smurf and insist on it, and then he’s confronted like this in the comic’s final illustration.

1963 also brought us the expanded-upon version of Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs (The Smurfnapper). We’ve already covered the mini-story version so let’s just have a look at any notable changes in this expanded version, other than the fact that Brainy now has his glasses.

We have another instance of the updated comic depicting Brainy with a crankier expression than he had originally for the same panel:

That’s the main change of note that I can see.

Also, around this time, some of the comics were adapted into an animated TV series. You can read more about that in the “The Smurfs (1961 TV series)” article on the smurfs fandom wiki, and also on the Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs page on the Lost Media wiki. One of the stories adapted into animation was The Smurfnapper! Much of the footage from the 1960s series is considered lost media, but some of it survives. Some of that surviving footage shows Brainy’s presence in the adapted Smurfnapper story!

I’ll link the footage in a reblog, along with other relevant links.

Brainy’s voice has a very high pitch within this animation, likely chosen to be this way due to his very small size. He’s shown lecturing his fellow smurf as he does in the comic it’s an adaption of, and the smurf is shown plugging his ears in response:

(Because that’s another thing the comics have established by this point: the smurfs looking annoyed when being lectured to or not being interested in hearing what Brainy has to say).

But this voice doesn’t have that certain layer of intentional over-the-top emphasis that Danny Goldman’s performance would later bring to the character in the 80s. Here, the voice sounds more cute than anything, and the lecturing sounds more matter-of-fact and neutral than Danny Goldman would play it as.

And whew, now we’ve reached the King Smurf comic, published in 1965. This is a big one for Brainy.

Papa Smurf leaves the village temporarily and unlike the other smurfs, Brainy is not interested in slacking off or playing games. He’s all business.

The other smurfs aren’t interested in listening to him at all, and then Brainy makes this assertion:

Bossy, bossy! His claim continues to be met with pushback from the others who begin declaring individually that, no, they will be the ones in charge. We have not seen any indication that Papa Smurf has actually granted Brainy any sort of authority. This, coupled with the reaction of the other smurfs and their immediate attempts to make the same claims/assertion of authority on no basis suggests that Brainy was likely making this claim to authority from absolutely nowhere, simply trying to forcefully assume the position of leadership and unsuccessfully trying to get the other smurfs to simply stand down and accept it.

And here, it seems we may have the very first instance of the Brainy-getting-hit gag:

Though it’s introduced in the midst of all the smurfs fighting and harming each other.

You know, I somehow doubt that Papa Smurf would say that and play favourites with his little smurfs :P Sounds like you’re saying whatever and talking gobbledegook in a bid to get elected or you’ve misunderstood Papa, Brainy. He then gets referred to as a “bore” by the others.

Mallet joke kicking into gear XD

Also, Brainy gets christened as Schtroumpf à lunettes for the first time! Peyo’s decided to go with that name instead of the Moralisateur one now that he has glasses.

Oh Brainy. Brainy, Brainy, Brainy… So wrapped up in himself and self-assured in his assumption the others would want to vote for him. Not being the brightest bulb here. I love this gag XD. Totally delusional.

Oh, and he tries to commit voter fraud too. The so-called formerly-named Moralisateur is not above hypocritically bending the rules to benefit himself, it seems.

And once the other guy is elected…

Brainy Smurf, shameless suck-up, everyone. A real sycophant.

Ok bootlicker.

His words of “And like I always say to the Smurf King…” are presumably as empty as his claims that Papa says he’s the smurfiest. The total 180 turn that Brainy pulls here in very sudden supposed support of the smurf he was openly opposing just before (but of course, now that smurf has power, which makes a difference, y’see) reveals a serious lack of actual sincerity and conviction to his character. He talks a big game and makes a big show of a lot of things. But this suggests that much of it is merely empty words and empty gestures. It even calls into question just how sincere his support of Papa Smurf actually is, given how similar his words here are compared to when he’s talking about Papa Smurf. At the end of the day… Papa Smurf holds the power as the leader. And this comic tells us that Brainy’s sycophantic as hell.

Not to mention this line Brainy has earlier in the comic, before Smurf is elected, trying to deter the other smurfs from voting Smurf in:

He claims “Flattery is the smurf of fools”, but he absolutely won’t hesitate to stoop to it himself. Because he’s a hypocrite. You could argue it suggests he may not actually care about, believe, or really pay attention to the very words he speaks.

“Long live the smurf king!”, he declares.

But he finds Jokey’s imprisonment to be wrong, and tries to convince King Smurf on this matter - because he does not abide by his fellow smurf’s wrongful imprisonment.

But King Smurf refuses Brainy’s advice about imprisoning Jokey being a bad idea, so he joins up with the anti-King Smurf league. In secrecy, mind you.

He gets caught and jailed, and eagerly awaits the glory and praise for heroism that will come with his surely speedy rescue. And waits. And waits. Finally, he manages to get out of prison... eventually, towards the end. And there we have the King Smurf comic.

That’s really skipping over what happens as opposed to going into more depth, but my aim here is to not so much do plot summaries as it is to try and pinpoint moments of note when it comes to Brainy’s characterisation over the years.

I’ll end off the first part of this post series here for now, though I have far more written up ready to go - we’ll pick up next time, still in the year 1965, with The Smurfony comic. :) Thanks for reading!

[psych-is-the-name]

This post was first uploaded to my Patreon. Please consider subscribing to get access to my original content a week before I put it on tumblr!

Not sure if anyone else will find this as interesting as I do, but this is what each of my super-long-posts look like in my files. 

first up is the first super long post i made, Bee Movie Script:

I made versions with and without text because I thought I'd be using this as a template for future posts (i was already committed to causing pain and suffering)

shortly after this post, tumblr increased the image limit from 10 to 30. Obviously keeping in theme with meme scripts I decided to do Shrek. There's a couple of revised images in this folder that I'll get into at another time.

now up to this point i was working in the image size of the longest image from the original "do you love the color of the sky" post. I have no idea why I decided to stick with that size for so long, but i did eventually realize I could make my images as long as i wanted. 

in comes the internet famous fic: my immortal

this was the first time were i actually felt bad for one of my posts. (but not enough to stop)

shortly after this my tumblr account got terminated (accused of selling accounts???) and all future projects were put on hold. and when i eventually did make a new account i simply reposted my old stuff.

after about 4 months I realized I wasnt getting my old account back, so got right back to being an annoying little shit.

I played around with text format to create a zipbomb/lag file under a "readmore". and created some glitch polls when the function first got introduced.

Eventually I looped back around to my super long image posts. just in time for April 1st! and this April 1st was the 10 year anniversary of the mishapocalypse

the statistics for this post were INSANE. in 24 hours it had reached 20k notes, and hilariously 2/3 of those were reblogs. people LOVED inflicting this on their followers. actually i should say "love" because even though it's May 22nd at the time of writing this, my mishapocalypse post is still getting notes.

and that brings us to my remake of "do you love the color of the sky" the post that originally inspired this whole reign of terror

as some people have pointed out in the notes of this post: yes i did repaint the whole thing from scratch. the original post was so crunchy i couldnt slap text on top of it and call it a day. and while i was remaking this classic post i made some changes (apart from the obvious) I used a watercolor brush I'd just downloaded to create the clouds simply because I wanted an excuse to test it out. and the stars in the night sky were given some fun galaxy colors (the original was only black and white) 

the only nit-pick i have with this remake is that too many people genuinely enjoy scrolling though it. not enough suffering for my liking! 

[dartagnantt]

Illusory Shinanigans

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! You should also follow my new Kickstarter so you can be alerted when it goes live next year!

The last of my potential. How tragic! … err… I mean, the last of my "potential" theme. (saved it)

This week, I delve into my favourite school of magic, the one with the vaguest rules and is either awesome or lame depending on your game master. I've fortunately had some pretty rad GMs who run with my nonsense. So I get a lot of mileage out of illusions. I mostly play with phantasms this week AKA hallucinations but I also throw in some shadow magic for fun. The fleece is getting stretched very thin today.

Daydream

This one seemed like a lot of fun after all of the hallucinating I was doing. Literally trap someone in their thoughts. It's a bit of an advanced single target colour spray.

Mass Phantasmal Force

I couldn't figure out how to scale the power of phantasmal force, as a result it kind of became four spells. This was a version of of the original scaled for additional targets.

Phantasmal Force: Revised

This is the one closest to the original, however, this one is specifically attack focused, hence why it scales the damage. I did do an overall change where instead of just believing everything but still being able to use an action to escape, I make failing a check force the belief instead. As much as I call this revised phantasmal force, I kind of rewrote the entire spell so I could use it for other projects because for some reason, they left my favourite spell out of the SRD >:(

Phantasmal Image

This one is my primary use case of the spell, you'll note that you can be more vague with this. This is borrowed from audiovisual hallucination, a spell from pathfinder and my actual favourite spell. This is also how I both use and run the spell. Because the phantasm subschool is locked inside someone's mind, its weaker in that only a designated creature can see it, but because it taps into their mind you can force belief and use their own knowledge against them. But yeah, as much fun as harming creatures with illusions is fun, the diverse fuckery in funner.

This one scales in size, because I've had to abuse the notion of perspective more than I'd like in a hallucination to get around the size limitation. Tempted to make a 'phantasmal diarama' spell at some point, but that's kind of what the next one is for.

Programmed Hallucination

This I made mostly as a retroactive excuse for what I did to my players in my game (I do this quite often, feel free to judge me) I wanted a hallucination trap, because they needed to enter a crowded room, and needless to say, if they didn't feel the people, then this would fail immediately. But I wanted a more general use case, because fuck yes!

Shared Hallucination

And this is the last variation, scaling the non damaging version for more people. Because you really need to distract multiple people with one concentration spell.

Shadow Duplicate

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! Not called shadow clone, because that would imply its related to the clone spell. But really this is effectively a lesser simulacrum. I was always disappointed that mirror image doesn't give you illusory doubles that can move indepenat from you, kind of like the trickery domain power, and I didn't really want to make a specific spell for it, because silent image and major image can kind of do that already. So instead, a spell that makes a copy, that you can cast from or attack, or whatever. This should probably be a higher level, but I REALLY wanted this is be available for bonus spell lists.

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Concubus Patron

The Siren's Call

Satyr Ancestry

Sanguine Seeker Ranger Archetype

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

[cateringisalie]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @subdee - thank you!

How many works do you have on ao3? 453

2. What’s your total ao3 word count? 1,617,537

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Final Fantasy VII (and some of its associated spin-offs. Okay, I think I have ultimately written for: Advent Children, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. No Before Crisis, Ever Crisis or any of the books), Bravely Default (and Second), Final Fantasy VIII, Avatar the Last Airbender/Legend of Korra

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

After the Wedding (341) – (rated T) – Kya/Lin

This remains somewhat bewildering. Coming as it does as a Tumblr askbox fic and not one I felt I did exceptionally well. I can only attribute this to catching the wave of sapphic output after Legend of Korra’s finale (not that the fandom weren’t already doing that beforehand, but looking at ao3, the demarcation between pre and post finale is startling in what it does to the character and content of the fics (book 4 did admittedly cause an increasing drift, but the change after the finale is dramatic)). I suppose it is a little risqué too…

Healing (320) – (rated T) – Genfic

The culmination of a frenzied writing process and a lot of misgivings of how Legend of Korra tied itself up. In all honesty, a lot of this fic’s popularity is probably slight misdirects of where it (and the two follow-ups) are going - with my own preferences conflicting with @danseru-kun’s in terms of subtext and implication. I am always a fan of alternate universe takes, so this was fun to re-work the series and try and give it more of a sense of an overall plot in a way other than the very make it up as we go feel the series had. As noted a lot, while this was a collaboration, I felt more like the director of photography since the major plotting was all Danseru’s. I had to render it into fic form and added my own flourishes here and there. There are probably a lot of mistakes in this as early on we sped up the chapter releases and it was extremely tough to revise completely in a week’s time-frame.

Return to the Scene of the Crime (226) – (rated G) - Genfic

This is just one of many fics that exist to deal with Zuko going back to Song (the herbalist in book 2) and dealing with his theft of her ostrich-horse. At one stage (not sure if still true) I was told it was the sole instance of Zuko going back as he originally met her and not in his capacity as the Fire Lord. Which just seemed righter to me. Also Iroh is here because Iroh has to be here. I do feel this is weak on re-reads; it feels a lot like I keep checking elements of canon to anchor it more firmly after the series and they feel a little redundant.

Sharing a Bed (211) – (rated M) – Aerti

Borderline smut! Which is not the entire mark of appeal (clearly given the other three fics up there), but the first bit of Aerti smut I wrote. Very much inspired by another fic (diane_b_taylor’s Breath of Firsts (Rated E) – and possibly took far too much from that fic) and also written for a prompt from the fan_flashworks community over on Dreamwidth. Which was ‘trapped’ incidentally (I vaguely remember the other inspiration that kept cropping up for the prompt was The Tunnel by Askerian (Rated E) which…).

Modern Love (200) – (rated E) – Clerith

Just smut. Okay, maybe not purely – there is more here (and a inelegantly edited version lives on fanfiction.net for as long as that site persists). This resulted as part of a conversation relating to dissatisfaction with a whole other fic (the name of which I do not remotely remember). And eventually it lead to a kind of out there question that nonetheless resulted in this: can Cloud and Aeris sleep together during the events of the first disc of the game without derailing canon? The debate turned to yes, but with specific caveats on just how their relationship would work – there are later events to uphold; how Aeris thinks of Cloud has to gel with what happens; how Cloud feels about her has to factor in things like the Highwind scene and all the implications there. The eventual solution was they could be basically sex-friends and take opportunities as they arose. I think this took me like a year to write in the end.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always. Eventually. I like comments and want to encourage more – and it feels like responding (and reasonably fast) should facilitate this. It does not seem to.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

(All fics mentioned T or lower rated – all genfic)

Ahead on Our Way has Sephiroth succeeding in the destruction of the Planet which might count. Metal has a deliberately second-act style conclusion as a setup for Lightning. Wait, its probably Soporific where the Bravely Default cast get addicted to painkillers (this makes… slightly more sense in context)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

On the Way to a Birthday (rated G) – Cloti

Pretty happy I think and one of the only Dirge fics, mostly because somehow Shelke worked for the attempted humour. Another for the pile of Cloti baby fics, though little Charis’s birth is somewhere past the end of the fic. Features cake and Turks and a trip to see an old friend.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

The closest was a comment in Spanish; I think it was a complaint that I had made Tifa have multiple previous partners in Words are Important Too (rated E - see below).

9. Do you write smut?

(all fic rated M or higher)

Modern Love and Sharing a Bed are described above.

Words Are Important Too (Cloti)

My read on Tifa’s mindset in the implied aftermath of the infamous Highwind scene (with desperate justification for why they are back outside as the sun rises and also dealing with the perceived idea of cabins in the Highwind that aren’t depicted literally anywhere in game. It makes sense to have them, just… where would they go?). Its smut but part of why I wrote it was thinking that Cloud and Tifa are at the end of the world and consequences are something to worry about if they live through tomorrow.

Maia Kendall (Aerti)

Owes a lot to a reasonably famous account of a blind-date in the Guardian newspaper, but also took big inspiration from Surprise by Asynca (rated E) (and fusing the two of them together resulted in Aeris and Tifa reviewing sex toys). Coming as part of a sporadically written AU where Aeris and Tifa meet years earlier (and well before the game start) this does veer into not FFVII fanfic territory anymore. Yes, its still Tifa and Aeris, but the setting could be (say) London in the mid-2010s for all the relevance FFVII’s setting has on the fic. The previous parts are more tied to the original setting and the environment and how that affects living in Midgar. But, that fell away in service of the smut.

First Time (Clerith)

Definitely a response to something, but is pretty much pure smut – with the same caveats as Maia Kendall – characters yes, and allegedly mid-canon, but otherwise completely divorced from the setting.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have!

(all fics rated T or lower)

Ignoring Kingdom Hearts (which is a complication all its own, though I will still slightly bemoan the lack of Emperor’s New Groove in the games):

The Second Amnesiac (Genfic)

The somewhat odd idea of Bravely Default only switching Tiz with Cloud Strife – and right after Cloud gets blown up at the climax of Advent Children. Its not exactly doing anything – Cloud wanders a similar path to Tiz, meets Agnes and Airy and then starts slicing cannonballs in half. Honestly this was not going to get any further than this, but it was again written for the fan-flashworks whose whole ethos was getting something written and that was what I came up with for that prompt.

Final Fantasy VII vs Bravely Second: Yuffie Kisaragi vs the World (genfic)

Deliberately silly fic after a Skype conversation way ahead of Bravely Second’s release. Back before names had been localized and the plot was way up in the air. Nevertheless; this was at least fun to do the crack thing and smash the two universes together. And then throw in a whole bunch of others. The point of connection was the Cat Master asterisk in Bravely Second and the cat house in Wutai. From there, if Yuffie gets a little power, the world will tremble! Not even Corvo Attano from Dishonored can stand against her.

Deliveries Take so Long These Days (Cloti)

Somehow came out of the prompt ‘red’. This was majorly inspired by a friend’s insistence so many years ago that Cloud was a consistent character across FFVII, FFT and Kingdom Hearts – that rather than being the same character used three times, he had a larger meta-narrative stringing the games together. This friend would slowly reveal themselves to have lied near constantly since I met them and the flimsy shallowness of said lies were bewildering in retrospect. But, the notion is not without its merits, though I avoided KH again. The major objective was to do the Tactics link which is largely overlooked these days, but it was fun to find people Cloud could deliver to across the FF series (especially Ultros).

Two Independent Contractors (genfic)

The teleporting/time displaced merchants of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Bravely Default/Second meetup and talk. I think the theory for the Adventurer didn’t pan out at all, and in retrospect the way both try to keep the timeline consistent is probably pulled from one of the River Song episodes of Doctor Who.

Betrayal at the Shinra Mansion (Genfic)

Sort of FFVII meets Undertale by way of Betrayal at House on the Hill. The Undertale cast play a version of the board game which is distinctly FFVII themed. Not much more to the idea than trying to interpret a prompt in as unusual a way as possible.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I had some reposted to another site off Ao3 years ago though still under my name. I would be honestly surprised if anyone bothered

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not language-wise, but The Sex Education of Edea Lee (rated G) was read on a Skype group-chat which was fun to listen to. Did underscore how poorly parts of it worked for spoken-word, but I’m glad they enjoyed it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

(all fics rated T)

Say hi @danseru-kun and @materiodic!

With the former I wrote: Healing (as above), Metal (part 2), Lightning (part 3) & Iroh’s Favourite Aunt (prequel)! With the latter I wrote Beneath a Steel Sky – in which Aeris makes an effort to see the sky in Sector Five.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Aerti

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

Inspired by the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, I have a fragment of what Elmyra was doing while FFVII was happening – up to getting Marlene back from Shinra. The intention was to wrap other side-characters through these events (The Illuminatus! Trilogy is convoluted structure-wise and I wanted to do something like it for FFVII). While I got Elmyra pretty far, I’m not sure I can remember who else was supposed to be involved/tying the narratives around each other might be very off-putting if you’re not into trying this weirdo structure.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Hopefully unusual ideas and alternate universe setups.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action I struggle with. Endings are a thing I don’t do often (lot of starts in amongst the fics). Punctuation is very much I get the basic stuff but anything past commas, full-stops and speech marks, I am not sure I am using them right.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I would probably cheat it somehow – either make it indecipherable from the POV character or make it clear enough to third person but have the communication fail. Not something that comes up hugely in the relevant fandoms, but absolutely could.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Mysterious Cities of Gold/Esteban, Child of the Sun. On a typewriter. Said small page(s) has been long since lost to time, but it was an immediate sequel to the series’ ending.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Symbiosis (rated G)

Let’s come up with a weird but somehow plausible reason of why Elmyra lives in a really nice house in the slums of Sector Five (outside of the aesthetics of arriving there being a break from what you have gone through en route and it not meant to be entirely literal. I am not taking any comments on anything that Squeenix has released post-1997 as relevant. You know what I mean), tie in some of the game’s infamous monsters and dabble in some Terry Pratchett-esque humour.

If the idea interests there are two alternates – Symbiosis represents the peaceful way to deal with a Hell House, but Aeris has to learn how to fight with a staff from someone, so maybe the house wasn’t in quite the best of states when Elmyra came to live there. Or an alternate universe post-game idea which could be a sequel to Symbiosis but is part of a vague setup where a key moment in game didn’t happen in quite the way anyone remembers.

Tag 20 people?! Of the ones who haven't been tagged then: @danseru-kun, @auncyen, @komatsujo, @lostchasingsilver and anyone else who would like to answer!

[epic-solemnity]

So excited for the published version!! Thanks so much for the update and glad to hear things are going well! Out of curiosity, are you still working on part V? Or is that on hold until the revisions are complete? Is the plan to just publisher that part all in one go? Sorry for all the questions :)

Thanks so much, Anon! Yes, Part V will be self-published all at once after the revised Part IV. Seeing as there are already revisions to the story for Parts 1-4, there would be continuity errors if I worked/posted Part V now. I’d essentially be writing 5 twice, so to save time, I’m just going to stick with writing it after the other Parts are concluded. 😊

[victoria1676]

Hi Victoria here!

I would like to inform you about regarding my story of 'Leave me Alone And Let Me Build My S**t Interlude' will probably take a bit of delay because I will be studying for my finals and doing other tasks especially I hate make up my grades after what happened with the elections in my country that cause me alot of stress that affected my tasks TwT

However the good news is that The interlude is almost done or rather it's very close to its finishing however I will be revising, changing and adding stuff to it before I post it. It won't be that long as Prologue 2 since its an interlude but we will see once I post it if it's long or not XD

I also am working on Gingko Anon's ask that is gonna be a oneshot of Wilbur meeting them kiddos who had died in my story and so far the progress is good but haven't hit the part of him meeting Mumza. Bear in mind this one is not canon and very much a what if scarnerio okay guys XD

I also have worked on the Prologue of 'A Child's Innocence' of child reader appearing in the Chasm instead of the surface however here's the thing I need you guys to tell me what should the prologue be

Should it be

Child reader be found by miner who entered a secret passage way of the Treasure Hoarders and brought her to the surface only for her to escape and hide in Mondstadt was found by Lumine. After that they will return to the chasm again and you guys already know what goes down in the Chasm after doing the world quest and Archon Quest 😭😭😭😭

Or

Reader stayed in the Chasm for 2 years and later met Lumine, Paimon and Dainsleif on the Chasm with the Archon quest and world quest on going but reader is included in it. Lumine then brought her to the surface and reader meets the Archons and the others.

Yes both versions will have angst thanks to @vault-of-reblogs who gave me alot of ideas so shout out to her XD

Please comment down here on which version you want to see of my Child reader.

But yes I will try my best to finish these stories after my finals and task of my Senior high. I really hope you guys can be patient and understand that I cannot post my story chapters or one-shots yet until I have finished my finals and tasks.

Don't worry I won't fail you guys on my stories and hope to make them good for you guys ^

That is all I can say so Goodnight since its 12 midnight here XD

I'll read your comments once I wake up UwU