#zero escale spoilers

[deathgamegirl]

[broodygaming]

C2 Spoilers

it drives me NUTS when people say that Taliesin and Matt decided together backstage to kill off Molly. It makes 0 sense and it's ??? just such an unnecessary rumor to spread. People on reddit often spout it like it's just a known fact. Like, as if Taliesin didn't famously complain about having to pull all nighters over a busy weekend to roll and conceptualize a new character cuz he had ZERO backup. As if Molly didn't JUST have a huge lore drop and was clearly building to be a major focus of the next branch of the story. As if Matt didn't have LOADS of lore and planning already done that he had to to redo and reconfigure to fit with the Tomb Takers going and exhuming Molly to continue their plans. Matt said he had this whole thing where Lucien was gonna show up in a different body and hunt down the M9 to kill Molly and take his old body back. He SAID that!

Idk why this drives me nuts. It just feels... almost disrespectful. Like. Y'all. Taliesin isn't a baby. He fucked up. It's okay. He made a dumb choice in the heat of the battle and doubled down and it got his character killed. Things escalated and there wasn't a healer and it's JUST as simple as that. Stop making shit up to justify something that only SEEMS LIKE IT'S ORDAINED because these people are talented story tellers. Blowing all the work they did to reconfigure the story and just HAND WAVING and being like "they planned it ahead of time" is just rude. If it all seems preplanned it's cuz Matt busted his patootie off and reweaved a frayed tapestry into a beautiful work. Happy accidents and all that. CMON.

[bunnakit]

my stand in ep 4 thoughts, feelings, etc

WOW WA WE WAA THAT SURE WAS AN EPISODE HUH - happy to report i went back through the episode slowly this week and took notes and really tried to gather everything i wanted to say (but i will inevitably forget something)

🌸 ok disclaimers because i have a lot of them for this particular episode 🌸

i'm just a silly guy on the internet, i'm not an expert in mental health, psychology, body language, whatever. most days i can't even take care of myself. i'm just saying things recreationally.

PLEASE do not put novel spoilers in my replies, reblogs, or tags without a warning notice. i've got an itchy blocking finger for it these days.

i am treating ming and joe and everyone involved in this show as if they were real life human beings. ming was not born some mustache twirling villain sent from hell to make joe miserable. joe is not some pure angel descended from the clouds to do no wrong. everyone in this show exhibits very human behavior and that can be distressing under certain circumstances. i'm just going to comment on them as humans. i'm not interested in a round table discussion on why a character is irredeemable, the scum of the earth, etc. i'm just putting my thoughts out there and you can take them or leave them.

🌸 alright yucky disclaimer time over 🌸

the episode really just picks us back up where everything left off - and yet joe still made ming breakfast, and ming isn't stupid (well right now at least,) he knows something is off.

i am confused why tong needs to get married on this specific day. and like bro how fast are you getting married? relax. the whole thing is just unstoppable force (trajectory of this producers career) meets immovable object (tong's fuckass stubbornness) and the collateral damage is massive.

and then there's the question of did joe ever want to play a lead? or did he let his impulsiveness and hurt put a target on his back? (only emphasized by the fact that everyone assumed joe would turn down the role)

i DO apologize for all my doubt surrounding wut. he, ja, and may are the only people in this show with any god damn sense. maybe jojo and yim. we'll see.

getting into the confrontation at joe's work, i really don't think it's that surprising when we keep in mind ming genuinely has no fucking clue what is going on. all he knows is joe woke up, was acting weird, didn't come home, and then told him to pack up his shit and leave with ZERO explanation. like, joe's completely in the right, but i'd also be confused as fuck. (i wouldn't go to someone's work about it but, y'know, we know ming acts in extremes.)

and to me this is where it really became obvious that joe has always been able to overpower ming, to get away from him, as we have seen joe's physical prowess, we've seen what he's capable of, but he never uses his body to move ming away from him - that's not who joe is, he's not someone that would put his hands on another person like that. it's just another way ming and joe are the direct antithesis of each other.

it's my thought that the argument escalates because ming is used to getting everything he wants - except for tong, and now joe. when joe begins to push him away and deny him his substitution for tong i think ming lashes out in his hurt with a thought of "it's happening again, why doesn't anyone want me?"

i will say while i do believe sol has good intentions for the most part his white knighting is getting a little irksome. while convenient, it just shows how much he's still hovering and laying in wait for a chance with joe - he, too, is not respecting joe's wishes. no is a complete sentence, sol.

and then things continue back at home and joe finally, finally throws ming's words back at him: if i'm so terrible to be with, if you're so great, why are you wasting your time with me?

and ming doesn't have an answer. what ming DOES have is another back embrace, arms wrapped around joe as he asks "don't you love me anymore?" but is he asking joe or tong?

"although i'm not as good as tong" even now joe's rampant self worth issues are still at play but at least he finally knows he's worth more than whatever this is.

then the phone rings and to me, ming looks skittish. he looks shaken. he's never seen joe so angry and he's scared and as the call progresses that fear morphs into rage when sol calls joe. and the thing is, regardless of who played the main role, ming was never going to be happy. it was either going to be joe or tong playing opposite sol and neither of those things would have been acceptable.

and then i said, out loud, in my quiet office: OH! and promptly lost my shit in the group chat.

ming doesn't look wholly present after his act of violence. his face is vacant, like he isn't completely seeing or grasping what he's just done. i get the impression that ming isn't mentally well; stress and fear and anger have a way of making people do really fucking stupid things and as these things happen you risk falling into the sunk cost fallacy - you've already gone this far, you can't stop now - which all aligns with the obsessive behavior we've seen from ming in the past.

as joe wakes up and they talk once again joe doesn't blame ming, he blames himself for not seeing the writing on the walls even though it was written in invisible ink.

"all these times we were together did you ever love me?"

"you can't tell?"

again, so much of the blame and emotional responsibility of their situationship is put on joe and ming refuses to communicate any of his feelings, perhaps because he doesn't know how to after repressing everything for so long.

WE DIDN'T GET HOT KINKY CHAINED UP SEX THOUGH, WHY DOES GOD HATE ME SPECIFICALLY

but the way joe looks at ming as they linger there in the wake of joe's request looks like a goodbye, the way his eyes soak in every detail of ming's face. despite all of this and the nightmare it has turned into he did love ming, perhaps still does, and he does have some of those good memories he was so desperate to keep.

though like.. joe.... maybe we could consider a different career path??? instead of just jumping to risking our lives? like sure food service sucks, cashiering sucks, etc. but you aren't in danger of falling off any cliffs, you know? and let's be real, he could just go into modeling with those looks.

it's my impression that when ming calls joe he looks haggard, like he's lost numerous nights of sleep (and we really don't know how much time has passed) but either way it does seem like he's at least done some amount of reflecting. his voice comes across soft, subdued, and sincere.

and after everything, back in the present, we see ming. he's still in the apartment, desperately calling joe's name all these years later, still unable to sleep and waiting for joe to come home just like he asked him to years ago.

maybe ming never wanted to enter the entertainment industry before, but he has now. perhaps it was never for the attention or the money, maybe he chose to promote those watches because it was a reminder of the gift from joe. and maybe this job, in this specific industry, is the closest he can feel to joe now. and maybe with new influence and connections ming can find out why he was never able to tell joe he loved him before he lost him.

WHO KNOWS, NOT ME, CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT THO

[ldontgiveafuvk]

l take back what l said about Armand being alice.

why ?. first in ep1 we see Armand and Louis deciding they would become a team against the old man and he isn’t stupid he realizes that. their strategy was to break him to his old self which was easier to control and what better way for that then bringing up his past shortcomings?. so l think they were doing just that but in a good cop bad cop way “spoiler” they are both bad cops . Also when Louis start antagonizing Daniel we see Armand try to de-escalate the situation but in reality he is doing the exact opposite! Telling Daniel that he never proved himself to his pregnant partner is extremely cruel. Also if Armand was talking about himself in that scene he would be more emotional we don’t see that we see a blank face with zero emotion. Anyway Louis and Armand count your days

[inhuman-obey-me]

Okay, I’m just going to say it frankly, but in lesson 11 of Nightbringer, I just wanted to slap Belphegor so badly.

I want MC to be able to ask him bluntly, “Do you think blaming me is going to solve anything? That it will bring Lilith back? Or, are you just jaded about the fact that she chose to save a human life, over loyalty to you, and the rest of the Celestial Realm? Because I am not your scapegoat! Humans aren’t your scapegoat!”

Bluntly speaking, we've never exactly been Belphie stans, just personally, and season 1 was part of the reason for that -- even if he did ultimately turn it around and come to accept MC once he learned the truth of everything. We never liked how it was basically brushed under the rug and moved on from so quickly, and we have always wished that there had been a more proper resolution to him, y'know, violently killing us, than we actually ever got.

(continuing spoilers for Nightbringer)

Unfortunately, this is a return to basically exactly how he was about humans in that very first season of original OM, because of course he would feel that way. Especially with the trauma of war and ensuing loss of his sister so fresh, and therefore also his guilt, which is the true cause of his emotions underlying the hatred of humans (it wasn't about loyalty to humans vs angels), there was simply no way to reveal MC actually being human without confronting this from him again. But unsurprisingly, it's an unpleasant reminder of the events of the very upsetting Lesson 16 in the original.

So, we would have loved for MC to be able to, either figuratively or literally, grab Belphie by the shoulders and just shake him and yell at him this time. But sadly, that's still not what we got here -- and understandably so. The situation didn't really allow for it, what with Beel's rampage and the confusion of the brothers having their power drawn, and considering this Belphegor doesn't know MC like that, whatever MC said would probably have zero effect (or, make him even angrier as he continues to push his own guilt and grief down in denial).

But on a maybe(?) brighter note, perhaps revisiting it and having him get angry and violent at MC again actually will give the opportunity for the devs to resolve it better this time, whenever this current conflict reaches its end -- though, considering this last cliffhanger, it may well escalate to much bigger problems before we get to that. But an actual apology would be nice, whenever we resolve it, and a proper conversation between MC and Belphie talking out his hatred and guilt would be even better. So, here's hoping that they don't forget about it in this mess, which they might, considering past OM writing, and that's all we can do for now.

Seriously, please, because we'd really like to be able to like him more than we did the first time.

[holyshonks]

Halo: Epitaph Review

You got that right! Spoilers below the cut.

I want to start by saying that this book felt like an apology in the same way that Infinite is an apology.

The first quarter to half of the book is just summarizing the events of the Forerunner trilogy, Halo 4, and Escalation, in the form of the Didact slowly regaining his memories. While I definitely appreciated the refresher (I forgot a lot since then), I also couldn't help but wonder who it was for. To anyone who had never engaged with any of that media, a huge amount of the book is just a rather dull recounting of events in a desert setting. To that end, the book feels targeted directly at people who love the Forerunner stories and were horrified by the hasty introduction and death of the Didact. It is, in essence:

"We're sorry we took a pivotal, beloved character with a rich story arc, introduced him to the fandom at large with zero context, and then killed him in a shitty comic. What if we did this instead?"

And is it an upgrade? Well, let's see.

The Plot

The plot of the book is that, after being super-composed (sigh), the Didact awakens in a strange desert, stripped of his memories. He slowly regains them, becoming stronger in both body and mind. He is angry at humanity, and is determined to destroy them. We get caught up with the story so far, as well as some new Didact backstory. He discovers a Haruspis, a Forerunner rate that served as custodians to the Domain, who tells him that they are outside the dormant Domain, which shut down after the Halos were fired. Forerunner souls cannot pass into it anymore because of this, including the Didact. Also, Cortana is there, trying to convince the Warden Eternal, who is guarding the Domain, to let her in. The book becomes about both foiling Cortana, who wants the Domain to herself, and killing the Warden Eternal so that the Domain can be reactivated. Lots of failed attempts, some arguing with Cortana. Along the way, he runs into other souls who are trapped outside the Domain, including, to his surprise, his old enemy, Forthencho. He explains that humans that were composed also come here. They scuffle. Didact gets punched a bunch.

Eventually the Warden sides with Cortana and allows her in the Domain, and she looses her Created upon it. The Didact makes another attempt to enter, and kills some AIs while he's at it, including this one, who has a wine mom personality that I found amusing.

Now we're in the last quarter of the book, where things start to get interesting. All the while, the Warden is chasing the Didact with his millions of forms across the Domain, leading to a Scooby-Doo-style villain chase where the Didact is throwing himself through portals and doors to evade him and eventually find Cortana. By this point, the Didact has softened and he no longer wants vengeance. There's no discussion of the Xalanyn, which I was hoping for. In a moment I don't agree with, the Didact tries to reason with Cortana and says some things that clearly rattle her before he takes his leave. Next, the final standoff with the Warden, with the help of the friends the Didact made in the desert.

The thing I liked about the last portion of the book is that it finally feels the way the Forerunner trilogy felt: a universe that felt endless and expansive, but also, a classic coming-of-age with unlikely allies. In fact, just as I thought that, the book said this:

It also had that familiar thread of silliness, such as the Didact clowning on Haruspis' hat, and during the last final battle, where, after acquiring a quantum sword, the Didact learns that the Warden has a larger, better quantum sword.

They fight, Didact wins, hooray. He reactivates the Domain and he and Forthencho make a wager to see who can get rid of the most AIs that are still in the Domain. In addition, human souls(?) can now access the Domain. However, as expected, the Didact's final action is to reunite with his wife.

The Thoughts

This book is essentially just a re-write of the Didact's ending, giving him a proper close that I didn't really realize I wanted or needed, but actually? I missed the Didact. I liked the Didact, a lot, something I kind of forgot after Halo 4. I also forgot how nice it is to read from the perspective of a Forerunner with context about the tech. Most of what we see in Halo are people marveling at the mystery of Forerunner objects. Here, the Didact knows exactly what he's looking at, which was refreshing.

This book was very much written for lore-loving Halo fans who were disappointed to see how he was killed off. It had to be, because the people who only play the games wouldn't know who he is, or the stupid way he died. On the other hand, that makes this book pretty dull for the uninitiated. I would not recommend this book to a newcomer.

Cortana absolutely did not need to be in this book. Not in the slightest. It seems like they were just trying to further entrench Eviltana to account for Infinite, while also finding a way to get rid of her army of AIs. I really didn't like the implication in the book that Cortana changed her mind about taking over the galaxy because of the Didact. One of the things I actually liked in Infinite is that Cortana realized that her actions were wrong, and tried to make up for it on her own accord. Having the Didact convince her of the error of her ways really cheapens this moment.

The other thing that kind of fell flat is the Didact's belief that his new calling is to forge his own path:

But that's not true. This choice was the Librarian's, who wanted him to forgive and learn from humanity all along. He, of all people, should know this.

Now, about the Librarian. The Great Manipulator. There's irony in the fact that she is ostensibly the character with the most agency in the entire universe, but is consistently a narrative wisp. She "is" Halo--the course of the universe as they know it unfurled from her plans. Everything that happens, happens because of her.

And yet, we never see or hear from her in any meaningful way. We never hear her story from her mouth. I already knew that she wouldn't appear, save for a big reveal at the end, because Halo novels have done this no less than twice before. It's frustrating to see her consistently presented as this ethereal figure with no real voice.

At least in Point of Light, Spark challenges her a little bit--he accuses her of manipulating him, of abandoning him and then asking for his help, of assuming he will assist her because of her imprinted influence, and ultimately, he does, because that's how powerful she is. I wanted to see some of that, to have the Didact call her out or even just disagree with her, a little. Instead, he spends the book yearning for her (I will concede that his flashbacks are a little cute, alright? You got me there).

The Librarian is complex. She's a hero and a villain. Everyone who knew her would tell you so. But you'll never hear it from her! Sigh.

Also, her choice of words: "Took you long enough, Warrior." Is that a reference to Halsey in Halo 5? We're really drawing that parallel??

To the original question of "What if we did this instead":?

I mean...I prefer the Didact "alive" than dead so, yes? I guess? You really can't be a Halo fan in 2024 without being very forgiving.

In the end, he's still essentially "checked out" making it clear that he's not going to meddle in mortal affairs anymore. So narratively, he's dead. But yeah fine, this kind of dead is better than being super-composed.

The book also slams the door on the (very huge) implications of humans being allowed in the Domain. Is it all humans? Only composed humans? The Forerunners rose to power because of their access to the Domain. Does that mean that humanity will--oh, sorry. Oh, sorry, what? The Domain is fading into obscurity? We're not telling anyone its open so we don't have to deal with that? Got it.

This point also made me laugh because the Didact is satisfied and resting on his laurels because adding humans to the Domain created "diversity", and therefore, balance. Hey, Didact? There's an entire galaxy of intelligent species out there??

Which begs one final question: Do Unggoy go to heaven?

[comfymoth]

(duckspiderbit anon) It can be nightmarish... but the hilarity of their dynamics combined and the sudden unexpected sweet moments they share at times make them perfect. Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on them btw, I'm very interested :D

anon i just want you to know that i have been trying to answer this ask since i woke up, i just apparently cannot talk about these fuckers without writing a novel, i am So Sorry.

i’m gonna try to be as short as i possibly can (spoiler warning it’s still not short IM SORRY) but like, basically. basically. in my head, right, in the version of events that lives in my head— roier and quackity already have a history. not exactly dating, just fooling around “as friends”, but it makes their friendship now very overly-familiar. they’re very touchy, very flirty, but at this point it’s all just playful. they’re just very comfortable with each other, you know? they’re best friends! and what best friends Aren’t this close, huh?

and cellbit isn’t fully aware of whatever they had going on before he knew them, but he knows there’s something he missed, like an inside joke he’ll never quite understand. and it’s not like that bothers him, exactly? because him and roier are completely secure, there’s never been a couple more fucking obsessed with each other, he knows he has zero reasons to feel threatened. it’s more like— he knows quackity is always going to special to roier, in this weird way, so they are just stuck with him. for better or worse. me and you and your friend steve, just a little bit, that’s kind of the vibe.

but it’s not like quackity and cellbit don’t also have their own share of familiarity. not nearly to the same extent, obviously, but they are familiar. cellbit gave him partial custody of his child, they’ve taken each others sides in disputes over how to raise said child, richas calls quackity pa, they are very much already stuck with each other anyways.

so like. what do you even do with that. right? what do you call your husband’s not-quite-ex and your co-parent, what does that make him to the two of you. and how is that impacted by the fact that he’s always desperately hitting on you both?

so again, in my head, in my head— i think it Has to be a slow burn with them. because quackity has baggage around relationships, right, he’s had a history of chasing romance just because he thinks it will fix him or make him feel something, and he needs time to cool off on that first. now, he never cools off on the flirting, i don’t think he ever physically could, but he needs to be okay with it not going anywhere. and i think spiderbit needs time to warm up to the opposite idea, that it might actually go somewhere. but over time they do. over time, quackity just worms his way into more and more of their life until they’ve basically made him a part of it without saying. they fall into comfortable routines. cellbit gets used to roier and quackity’s teasing, he starts to join in on it. over time, all the joke flirting just stops really being a joke, and all the friendly affection just escalates and escalates until they finally have to acknowledge what they’re doing.

they’re all very stupid about it. cellbit brings it up to roier first, who is somehow embarrassed because he thought they were all just joking and he was the only one catching feelings which he did NOT wanna think too hard about. they have a talk about what this means for them, come to an agreement, bring it up to quackity— who also somehow thought this was a bit and that they were just doing it all to tease him! and then, somehow, they’re both surprised when he says yes, because they couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. morons all around. they do have braincells, they just short circuit when they’re in a room together, it’s very sad and very comical

i actually…. okay, i Actually might’ve started writing the world’s most self indulgent oneshot about them, like… three or four weeks ago? idk, it was before school started so a bit ago, and i’m just never gonna finish it now i’ve accepted that but i Might just turn part of it into a comic. idk. idk we’ll see ahdkdjd if i don’t get too embarrassed to actually do it

anyways i’m sorry i talked so much i just have demons okay i have demons. and i didn’t even TALK about festa junina or “go take care of him” I MADE SO MANY CUTS GUYS I DID!!!!!

[unhelpfulfemme]

CHECKMATE SPOILERS DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ CHECKMATE

Hot take: Francis’s insistence on not being able to control himself in Checkmate is a textbook example of intrusive thoughts and shouldn’t be taken at face value the way so many people do. He has OCD tendencies throughout the entire series (perfectionist neat freak, moral OCD as well), and they’re clearly coming to a head as his mental health deteriorates, so he tries to excessively police his own and others’ behaviour to alleviate the anxiety that comes with the intrusive thoughts. The way OCD sufferers do. (And I mean, you know it’s bullshit because if you actually pay attention to the last couple of pages of the book, he checks in with her or waits to be absolutely sure she won’t pull back before reciprocating or escalating every time. He’s very clearly 100% capable of controlling himself.)

I for one love the Sevigny chapters because I just love vicious cycles where people’s mental illnesses feed into each other and this section is an A+ example of that. You have a person with PTSD caused by sexual trauma and zero non-traumatic sexual experiences and then you have her partner, the only person she’s interacting with, repeatedly and obsessively emphasize how she must always be on alert and on her best behaviour because he’s a disgusting uncontrollable monster a hairbreadth away from basically raping her if she makes the wrong move. Of course she will be constantly MASSIVELY TRIGGERED by this and of course at some point her healing would plateau or even regress. She’s constantly tense, her HPA axis is in overdrive, she can’t relax because one wrong move = more sexual trauma. According to the one guy she trusts and connects with. And of course her lack of progress will feed back into his own issues, because if she's scared and repulsed by his desire that confirms that he is Bad and that he must stop desiring her and thinking about her in a sexual way, which intensifies the intrusive thoughts and his attempts to control them.

And the situation is set up the way it is because one of his fears (as stated during their afterparty fight at his place in Paris) is that they won’t be able to let go even if they become bad for each other. So now you have a situation where they are undoubtedly bad for each other and they do, actually, let go of each other and separate because they deem it best for them both. The structure of Checkmate reminds me a bit of a really nasty game of Tetris where the weird shapes are just stacking up and it seems unsalvageable but actually it was all being arranged for one piece to come in and solve 5 rows at once.

[true-blue-sonic]

What I'm struggling with the most is the reason why Silver had to be involved in all that in the first place if they're just going to immediately eject him from the plot?

It isn't too hard to think of some other reason why Whisper would get suspicious of Duo eventually, and thanks to her and Lanolin just suddenly being unable to communicate for no apparent reason I doubt she would've gotten much further even without Silver escalating things

And by the end of it all he's pretty much in the same spot as he was when he started, so it would've made exactly as much sense for Blaze to sweep him up travelling before all this happened and save us all the hassle

It just kind of reeks of 'this is only happening because this type of plot is just the sort of thing we do with Silver'

Fuck, anon, you are incredibly right and I hate it so, so much.

I mean, this plot is clearly supposed to be a rehash of Archie. Haha, look at Silver the dumbass, he's randomly accusing people of being a traitor based on zero information to go on! But this time he's gonna be in the right, but we can't have everyone figure that out immediately, so we're gonna paint him as a fool who doesn't get taken seriously by anyone and who acts overly hasty and stupid only to have everything go wrong for him!! This is what people who like Silver want to see, right? :D (spoilers: if you like Silver as he is in the games, nope.)

I am incredibly grateful Silver is no longer around the Diamond Cutters if they're gonna treat him like this, but in the same vein, his two-issue presence in 63 and 64 indeed only amounted to ridiculing him and making the Diamond Cutters look various degrees of bad on top. And you are wholly correct in that Whisper could easily have figured out herself there's something off about Duo... Blegh, now I dislike this storyline even more, if Silver is basically all but obsolete and only there to be the dumbass of the bunch. The one good thing is that at least Silver had a decent enough characterisation for the most part in issue 63 in my opinion, and I liked seeing him, Blaze and Sonic together in the second half of issue 64.

"This kind of plot is just the sort of thing we do with Silver" could not be a better description of it all, and I truly do not like my favourite character is getting mangled in such a way, because how he reacts to what happens does not even match the games' or Sonic Channel's characterisation of him in the slightest.

[mongoose-bite]

I have found the best NPC. I love kobolds. Look at this stylish little guy! He's still got the weird dog nose they gave them for 5th edition but I am still delighted with him. I miss my kobold sorcerer. This is like seeing him for reals. Also, while I try to remain vague, there are spoilers unavoidable below. Shulkie don't read this.

So we finally get some answers regarding the prism. Now I know why it was confusing; there were multiple things inside. The only mystery now is why the Sharrans were after it. I tried very hard to kill the Emperor twice. Faye feels like eating the tadpole was the worst decision of her life, but eventually I took the hint and we still remain on its side.

Faye hates that manipulative thing, but I on the other hand am now pretty curious about a squid run. Ngl I always thought illithids were kind of hot, but my inner lorebeard was always 'no it would never make sense for them to fuck.' Thank you, Larian, for suggesting a way to reconcile these things. They're in that sweet spot between 'humans with a coat of paint' and 'what would even count as sex with a sentient rock half a mile across' where it's an interesting challenge, but you've got some places to start.

I, and Faye, still don't really believe its story, but there's no point accusing it of lying. So she humours it, but burned inspiration to keep herself from tadpoling further, and did not offer to hold its hand.

We arrive in Riverton and immediately I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of NPCs chattering. I often don't like city areas in games. Too much going on. I got used to it after half an hour of mindlessly running around and eavesdropping.

Once we arrived in the city Faye started spending money like it was water; to be fair, I needed to gear up Jahira a bit, but a lot of it went on fucking around, metaphorically and literally, because while Faye would never have the nerve to take up the twins' offer by herself, Halsin had invited her out to the woods the night before, and he makes her adventurous, as long as he's with her. That did escalate quickly though, and then again when we went to the circus and aced the dryad quiz. Quicksave unnecessary. She has zero fashion sense and he doesn't see the need for clothes at all; they're fucking perfect for each other. They both project noble gravitas in public and are horny dorks in private. I am pleased with my pick.

What I think is interesting is the story Halsin tells you about his previous experiences with drow. Faye was just 'oh that's awful,' but Dyce would know the feeling. He's enthusiastically consented to things because his other options weren't that great. He'd get it, and probably reevaluate some things himself, which is frankly an impressive feat, because he doesn't do introspection much; these characters are so well-written. That experience might have been formative for Halsin, and feeds into how he approaches relationships, as much as he doesn't like the word. His 'feel free to make other people happy too,' would have Dyce all 'same hat!' as well, which was not something I expected from this character. Sluts with layers.

Speaking of bad options, I spent a good five minutes back and forthing on Raphael's offer before realising he'd told me where he kept Grabthar's Hammer, and luckily Faye was on the same wavelength. Have I also mentioned how much I love Laz'ael? Her 'why you make this difficult? But I think that's admirable' is adorable. Exchanging a queen for a prince feels like a sideways step rather than a forward one, but it proves she can move.

At the time it didn't occur to me that Raphael was talking about somewhere in the Hells, cause I am dumb, but I'm guessing one of his neighbours will sell him out, although who knows what she'll want in exchange.

Next stop, lower city.

[smilingangel582]

Can you escape this, professor?

Ok, ok, I got this crazy new idea for Will, but aparantly, many have creative minds to write such a cute tk fic. Will is a definite lee for me... and Sherly is a sassy fitting ler. Award him for the best ler Oscar! Annny who! Enjoy this moriarty, the patriot fic. Toodles!

Warning spoilers alert

"Liam, Liam... you can't be serious."

Confused, Moriarty took a minute to glance back up at his friend Sherlock Holmes, who was looking at the papers he was grading.

"Mr. Holmes... I beg your pardon?"

He shook his head when he replied to Will, "You are one of the strictest professors I've ever met..."

He heard a slightly airy laugh from the latter and continued marking the final papers "That is Mathematics for you my dear Mr. Holmes..."

He graded another average mark of seventy percent when he continued his words "If I were more merciful, then I have no doubt attitudes will escalate with their blind over-confidence, only for them to later on understand the reality... crumbling at a high speed due to the superiority they possessed by my mercy and kindness lying about their true potential."

Sherlock hummed in agreement, "You make a point, professor. you almost convinced me you had a grudge on me," he commented on his zero percent from his paper.

Will smiled now, almost revealing his taunting facade "Oh but I meant my students, not you, Holmes. You were merely a grudge on my account"

Sherlock gave a pout "Liam that's mean..."

"What are you four?"

"Three perhaps, and I want attention..."

Will couldn't hide his amused grin. He was done with the grading this late at night in his palce and was prepared to blow off the candles. Maybe he could mess with the detective just for a minute.

"Now I'm convinced you're two..."

However, Sherlock did the unthinkable. Will was too engrossed with his reactions that he failed to notice an ulterior motive. Sherlock pinned him towards the bed where his desk had luckily been close to... sending them both sprawling as Sherlock was on top.

"H-Holmes? What in lords-?"

"Liam... Liam, I'm two, so try to understand that children are impatient"

With that Sherlock dug his fingers into his ribs now making Moriarty arch his back with a gasp "Hey!"

"Oh bless my soul... you wouldn't happen to be a tad sensitive, are you professor?"

Will felt his cheeks heated. "By heaven, I'm the Lord of crime... Such a ridiculous trait is impossible!"

Sherlock paused his fingers now thoughtfully and curiously scratching his sides as if massaging them bone by bone close to his ribs. It drove the blond to madness.

"Then... why are you squirming, dear professor?"

'B-because... b-behecause -gah!"

A giggle almost slipped, and Will clamped a hand to his mouth but only expose his right side for Sherlock. "I got you~!"

The moment these numbers fingers of his reached Will's underarm, he squealed. "Ahhahaha damnihihit! Hohoholmes! Mihisteheher Hohoholmes cuhuhut ihihit out!"

Sherlock just feigned surprise "my word, are you perhaps ticklish after all? Lying to your friend... tsk tsk... I ought to discipline you,".

"Youhohohou shouhuhuld prohobably wohohohrry abohohohout my upcohohoming rehehevengehehe!"

But he couldn't even stop himself from breaking into another long whine of laughter, forcing our from his lips. It was cute indeed, Sherlock had to hold in the urge to going overboard.

"Liam, oh dear, you're such a mess..." he poked him now... slowing his tickling down to his stomach instead keeping him in giggles "Get revenge? On me... you must be joking!"

"Ohoho ihihi wihihill... ihihihi ahaham the lohohord oohohof -Wahahahait! WAHAHAHAIT BLOHOHOODY HEHEHEHELL SHEHEHEHERLOCK!"

"Ah so your hips appear to be the weak little spot o was itching to find," a theoretical tone in a silly investigation drove the blond to tears now. He was curled by the bed now ruffling the sheets and struggling for escape.

"Lord of what now...?"

Sherlock stopped now, watching down at Will's plight. His face were bright as strawberries, he had damped long blond lashes sticking to his lids firmly, he wad beautiful for a moment "Ihihi... ahaham the lohord of crihihimee!"

Sherlock chuckled now, his hands firmly gripping Will's as he didn't allow him to retaliate "My word, what a mess we've made, Liam... come, come... -No no I want torture you again,".

He added when Will flinched with a squeak upon the grip on his waist. He gasped for deep gulps of air, glaring at his friend playfully. "I don't know if you find my suffering sadistically satisfying..."

"Dear Liam," he smirked now gently melting his menacing expression to a fond kind smile "You are outstanding,"

Will straightend up, slightly blushing from the compliment. "As payback, allow me to beat you in a game of strategy since tickle fights is naturally my weakness, how about a game of chess?"

Sherlock felt a little nervous, knowing his insane talents in chess even though he could handle it better in Liam's league.

But first.

He grabbed his thighs now insistent to wreck his friend "Wahahat ihihin gohohods nahahame -Nohohoho!"

"Did you forget our positions Mr. Mastermind? I got the upperhand"

Things escalated quickly to a second round of a one-sided tickle attack. Meanwhile, Will had developed a plot for his vengeance in chess... persistent to take him down after his predicament.

[strangestcase]

SO MANY SPOILERS AHEAD! I find Jekyll’s choice of words when he says he’s not associated with Hyde anymore (“I’m done with him”) interesting since it implies that Hyde is also done with him; ie that he doesn’t need him anymore and that they’ve cut ties, meaning it would be mutual.

Of course to Utterson this only means that Jekyll has cut Hyde off, so to him it isn’t mutual, and in the larger scheme of things that Jekyll has decided to quit being Hyde, that he’s done with him/with his body/with his mind/with his identity/with his personality, after things have gone… sour. So it really isn’t mutual (mostly because you need two people for something to be mutual and Hyde is, while not non-existent, not as much a person as a simple facet / face of a person; see what I did there?).

HOWEVER- if we take it as a “mutual” breakoff (mutual in scar quotes because we all know what is going on here) then it would have begun when Jekyll began transforming in his sleep. Suddenly waking up as Hyde without any sort of warning was a pretty harrowing experience, one that he (correctly) took as a sign that it now was easier to become Hyde than to become Jekyll, and that what he feared -getting stuck as Hyde forever- is more plausible than he believed. It also was what made him realize he had to be one of the two, and he decided he’d rather stay as Jekyll…

…but quitting the serum cold turkey is way, way easier said than done- and eventually he succumbs, takes the potion once again, and all the anger and aggression he had repressed in the two months he had stopped taking the potion just… comes out all at once. And it is Carew who is unfortunate enough to receive it.

From Jekyll’s point of view, Hyde had gone from being a persona he could assume, to a dangerous person that hurt others, to a state of being that threatened to eat away at him, to a sure fire way to be arrested for murder. In a sense, he’s still all of them; it’s not so much an evolution as it is an escalation. Now getting stuck as Hyde isn’t a zero problem thing (he’s going to get to keep all his stuff vía inheritance, remember?) that comes at the price of there being a small possibility he’d miss his past life. Now it is something that would risk his life (gasp!) and his reputation (Jekyll’s reputation) (gasp!!!).

Sure, now Jekyll is cutting Hyde off. For good this time, no relapses. But Hyde had already cut Jekyll off, the moment being Hyde stopped being entirely optional.

(“He meant to murder you.” Well, not, but it isn’t all that off the mark, given the ending of the novella.)

[cosmic--dandelion]

So I have a fairly unique take on Kakyoin's backstory in my own writing. I wrote his parents as straight up toxic, psychologically and sometimes physically abusive, and neglectful. My version of Kakyoin ran away from home years before he met Jotaro, spent some time in a mental institution, and instead of being stalked and kidnapped, deliverately sought Dio out on his own.

Quite a departure from the more commonly accepted "Kakyoin has nice, normal parents who just didn't understand him" interpretation, huh? So why did I write this (other than the fact that I graviate toward angsty backstories) and how does it fit what we know about Kakyoin?

Kakyoin's most obvious feature is his intelligence. All of his friends, who are (mostly) brainy guys themselves, acknowledge that he's the best, most reliable strategist in the group, and a good portion of his dislogue is info-dumping. As expected of an honor student, he's very prim and proper to contrast Jotaro's delinquent image. Yet he's also weird, socially awkward, brutally honest, and emotionally distant. I've heard him described as having no setting in between "uncomfortably polite" and "rude bastard", and damn if that doesn't fit him like glove. In battle, he's probably the scariest, most ruthless crusader and is perfectly capable of straight-up beating the shit out of his closest friends, even if he's also capable of bring the bigger person and forgiving them. Friendship and bonds are everything to him. He's caring and empathetic but has balls of steel and takes exactly zero shit from anyone. He's quite familiar with other cultures' customs and traditions, implying he's an experienced traveler. Kakyoin is very independent and has skills, knowledge, and confidence you wouldn't expect a normal kid his age to have.

I wrote a little about Kakyoin's backstory in the second fanfiction I ever wrote, "Facets" and then in great detail in "In Water". If you haven't yet, please go check them out! They are, in my opinion, quite a bit more interesting that just hearing me talk about them. Now onto spoilers, for both the manga and my own work.

So this is Kakyoin's canonical backstory. All of it. The anime isn't canon, the fighting games aren't canon, the Josuke and Hol Horse spin-off isn't canon. Only this is, plus that 19 page backstory Araki wrote for him thirty years ago that will never see the light of day.

This is it. There's a blurb on his character profile that mentions that his parents are alive, they think he ran away, and they're either "shocked " or "very worried" depending on the translation. Then he dies, and in typical Araki fashion, Kakyoin is never seen or referenced again.

The sheer amount of angst Kakyoin had over no one being able to see his stand, even compared to other born stand users, makes me think there's more to it.

In my version of his backstory, Kakyoin's parents are poor. His dad is a rather unimpressive, unambiguous office worker who's made several bad business decision, escalating tensions between him and his wife. She hails from an upper middle class background and is generally a bit snobbish and image-conscious. Kakyoin's birth just adds fuel to the flames. In addition to being another mouth to feed, he has inexplicably bright red hair and violet eyes. (In my version of the jjba-verse, born stand users just have weird hair and eye colors sometimes.) The husband decides that this means his wife cheated on him with a red-headed foreigner.

Kakyoin is a problem child. He's exceptionally bright and imaginative in a school system (remember, it's 1970s Japan) that doesn't know how to handle gifted children, and he's non-neurotypical with a troubled home life to boot. That conversation with his teacher probably happens around this time. He self isolates, but he's not causing trouble on purpose, and the other kids are intimidated, but not hateful. Yet.

Then his parents have a their worst fight yet, and Kakyoin loses control of Hierophant due to stress and almost kills his father. The man is traumatized (as you would be if you were possessed by an invisible tentacle monster only you son can see and control) and abandons his own family. The mother knows Kakyoin did *something*, but she doesn't know what. Her resentment deepens, and they continue to drift apart.

Kakyoin's relationship with his mother reaches its nadir, and now he *is* getting ostracized. He's angry at the world and starting to lash out. By age 10, Kakyoin has started seeing counselors. He is misdiagnosed as having a whole host of scary-sounding mental disorders and is forced to take powerful mood stabilizers and antipsychotics every day. After all, he spends all his time playing with someone they can't see and drawing a weird green thing that looks like a cthulhuloid abomination. The mother reaches her breaking point and surrenders him to a combination group home/"special school". This experience defined him probably more than any other event in his life before this point. It's incredibly violating and humiliating, and Kakyoin develops a complex about always having to be seen as the smartest guy in the room.

At around age 14, he runs away, desperate to find more people like him. On his travels, he hears rumors about a mysterious, beautiful man in Egypt with strange powers. The entire "family vacation" to Egypt was a lie he made up on the spot because he didn't want to admit that HE sought Dio out, not the other way around, and that he's a runaway with a checkered past.

So what about his parents? My version of Kakyoin doesn't hate them and would have at least tried to bridge the gap between them if they'd both hasn't so thoroughly cut him out of their lives. He feels guilty on some level for not being a good enough son, and he wants to believe that they still love him on some level. Hence the "I'm sorry for making you worry" line.

Are they worried? Probably. They're shitty parents, not monsters.

(The "mom has dad and dad has mom" line? The former Mrs. Kakyoin had a revolving line of boyfriends and lovers, so Kakyoin started to think of 'dad' as a temporary position in her life rather than a singular person. Growing up in a dysfunctional family with no socialization with peers who had normal ones, he has a warped view of how families are.)

So what about Dio?

This one's pretty easy. In my version, Dio acted like a friend at first, lulling Kakyoin into a false sense of security. He was a little intimidated, but not full on terrified. Dio didn't want to risk destroying Kakyoin's brain, finding it quite useful, so he basically tried to groom him so the fleshbud wouldn't be needed. Then once Dio realized that Kakyoin was going to be harder to control than his other minions, he implanted the fleshbud. Dio being Dio, he decided to scare the shit out of the poor kid, savoring his pain and horror and sense of betrayal.

I think I would probably feel differently giving Kakyoin this amount of baggage if I ever wrote anything canon-compliant. I also didn't add it to make him more of a wobbie or break him so Jotaro could fix him with the power of yaoi.

It means something to me that (my version of) Kakyoin went through all this shit and healed from it and went on to lead a long, happy, successful life.

[thebibliomancer]

Earth X #7

Hulk’s the strongest of the verse, you know him well

He’s finally back to kick some tail!

Iiiiii still don’t know why the Hulk is a gorilla now.

The opening two-page spreads that recap people on Hulk stuff tries to explain it as the Celestial seed in Bruce absorbing so much gamma radiation that it wanted to be independent.

But that doesn’t really work when Bruce needs Hulk to see and Hulk seems to do anything Bruce wants. The two are more dependent than they were in one body.

The opening Hulk explanation also debunks the idea that Hulk’s different personas were any kind of Disassociate Identity Disorder thing. Nope, Bruce’s mental health has nothing to do with it according to Earth X. It’s always just been a result of Hulk absorbing more and more gamma over time.

Let’s just say that’s one ball from Earth X the main verse won’t pick up and run with.

Earth X! It’s Bad Future! There’s a mind control squid and a mind control kid causing a fuss! Humanity has mutated due to reasons unknown but probably not Reed Richard’s fault! The Avengers are dead, the Fantastic Four is disbanded, and the X-Men are all circus performers! Iron Man hides from the world! Thor has been rule 63’d by Loki! Peter Parker is retired but his daughter is Venom! Hulk and Bruce went to see Sorcerer Supreme Clea to visit Mar-Vell in the Realm of Death to ask why Bruce keeps dreaming about him!

There’s a lot going on! Much of it is a mess!

Also, last issue blind Uatu the Watcher bullied Aaron Stack Machine Man into erasing his own brain.

This causes some trouble because Aaron was one of the comic’s narrators and now he has zero interest in anything going on and has to be cajoled by Uatu to still work as his seeing eye robot.

After the six preceding issues where Aaron always had an opinion on things, it’s chilling to have narration that’s now just matter of fact strict recitation of the facts.

You’re a dick, Uatu.

I’m going to get the appendix stuff out of the way now. The stuff that explains in brief what several not-appearing characters are up to.

Doc Sampson: he was the Skull’s therapist when the kid was just a normal kid. Unfortunately, therapy made the Skull’s powers manifest, unleashing the psychic pulse that took out every other psychic in the world. And when his power let him take control of Sampson, the Skull forced him to turn himself inside out, for laughs. That’s not really a survivable process.

General Ross: his crusade against the Hulk eventually escalated to the point where he wiped out a town, wrongly believing the Hulk was hiding there. He was court martialed, because yeah, and killed himself.

The Leader: he was psychic. The Skull’s awakening killed him.

Abomination: he irradiated Betty Ross until she died of it. Instead of killing him back, Bruce somehow cured him of being the Abomination.

Uatu figures that Bruce must have accidentally removed the Celestial seed from Blonsky, meaning there was nothing to allow gamma mutation to take place. And he seems glad Bruce never figured out how he did it because that could really derail the Celestials’ plan.

Nighthawk: apparently at some point he got prophecy eyes from Mephisto and he’s been driven insane by upcoming events.

Gargoyle: Lives with Nighthawk and writes down his insane ramblings. Including a bit that says Captain America’s attempt to gather an army to fight the Skull is doomed to failure. Thanks for the spoiler, jerk.

One last interesting tidbit that Uatu mentions is that though the Skull is an important part of the Celestials’ plans, the mass empowering event happened two hundred years early and Uatu has no idea if things are off the rails or if he just lost the plot.

Anyway.

Last issue, Reed Richards retrieved a Cerebro from the abandoned X-Mansion.

He teleports to New York and is reunited with Ben after all this time.

That’s nice.

Of course, Reed being Reed, he’s not here to reconnect with his best pal. He’s on a mission and he needs some notes he left with Ben.

Reed has a Cerebro but you need to be a little psychic to use Cerebro, some of the times. Reed isn’t psychic but at some point he took extensive notes on Charles Xavier’s brain.

So with the notes, Reed can just

Stretch his mind. To use Cerebro.

(I don’t know for sure but I think Earth X is the first to explicitly say that Xavier’s mutation was a physical change in his brain. So Earth X gets a tally for things that inspire the 616 because Red Skull later grafts Xavier’s brain to his own to get psychic powers.)

Meanwhile, over at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Thor has joined this side of the plot between issues with no explanation.

And Clea creates a portal to the Realm of Death which Bruce sends Hulk through.

In the past times I’ve seen Death’s Realm, it’s been a rather generic wasteland. In Earth X, it’s a ruined looking New York and the inhabitants are in inverted colors and horizontally flipped?

They act out what they were doing before death and seem unaware they’re dead.

Aside from the people we already knew were dead, there’s also She-Hulk. Meaning there’s nothing left to save from the Hydra. That’s sad.

Also, Phoenix is here but Jean is alive? Odd.

Hulk doesn’t find Mar-Vell but he does find Dr Strange’s dead astral form.

He tells Hulk/Bruce not to say anything. Then he reads the letter Hulk is carrying and tells Bruce that Mar-Vell is on his way to see him.

But that Bruce is in danger! Because the one that betrayed and killed him was Clea!

Dangit, Clea!

Although that does explain why she tried to get Hulk to turn back when he was getting close to Strange.

Thor rushes into the portal to retrieve Hulk when Clea warns that he may get trapped in Death’s Realm forever. And Bruce accidentally lets Clea know he knows when he begs Thor not to leave him alone with Clea.

Surprise, Clea and Loki are in cahoots. Kissing cahoots.

I have no idea how this ties into the mass empowering event, the Celestial plan, the impending destruction of Earth, the Inhumans looking for their missing prince, the Skull, or Hydra.

We now just have a Loki plot on top of all that.

And weirdly, ghost Strange suggests that Loki’s scheming may save Earth despite himself.

What a tangled web of plot and subplot.

Elsewhere, the Skull’s army arrives outside New York… oh, I’m sorry, New New York.

I don’t remember if a previous issue called the city New New York. And this issue came out a couple months after Futurama’s debut.

There’s a slim but non-zero chance that Earth X copied Futurama.

Wild.

And seven issues in, plotlines converge as Captain America and the circus X-Men Cyclops was training all arrive at Ben Grimm’s place.

I have to wonder what Cap’s plan is. He came up with one between issues and sent the circus performers to Cyclops for training and then booked it back to New New York.

How do you beat a kid that can mind control tens of thousands without any real effort? Reed could probably make a doodad. If he has Xavier’s brain on file, maybe he has Magneto’s helmet schematics?

Cap, please talk to Reed while you’re here.

[strangenewwords]

So that was a thing. I have major mixed emotions about it and it's tumblr so I can sit here and spill them all out so that the people in my life don't get super sick of hearing them. All the spoilers for Subspace Rhapsody.

I was not looking forward to this episode at. all. Hard core decades long treker, love me some camp, but I admittedly also hate musicals in general so this sounded all sorts of cringe to me.

I changed my mind about three minutes in. It started off as a fun, campy romp where I was so utterly impressed by the talent of everyone in the cast.

Some of these songs were surprisingly moving and brought about some pretty excellent character growth.

But then the thing with Christine happened and I stopped liking this.

I mean, I haven't been a Chapel/Spock shipper ever before other than recognizing random poignant moments in TOS. But okay, they sold me on them becoming friends, and getting closer, and Spock wanting to explore his humanity with her. And they sold me as Chapel as a Stand Up Kick Ass woman who could fight Klingons in hand to hand and battle her own emotions. And sure, the Spock/Chapel thing escalated quickly, but thats totally true to real life.

BUT OH MY EFFING GOD, she's just like whelp, I need space and I got this job and I'm okay with this all ending baaaaaaaaai.

And I want strong powerful women who don't need to be held back by male counterparts. But holy crap, like, it was so callous. And while Christine has always seemed capable and independent, callous is not what I've gotten from her. Cavalier, maybe. Not even talking about the singing thing, just like, when she gets the acceptance she's "I need to talk to Spock" and then bam, she's drinking champers with other people on the crew without having talked to Spock.

So that just tasted really bad and totally ruined the rest of the episode for me.

The tie in for Wrath of Kahn was pretty on point.

Anson Mount apparently can't sing because they gave him like zero air time.

The Klingons were The Best. Litteral loud squealing/clapping when that happened.

[dear-mrs-otome]

Short Question:do you think Gilbert is a sadist Also thanks for translating Chevalier's Prince Report

You're welcome! And with regards to Gilbert, my answer is...sort of? I mean, by Ikemen standards definitely, since they stick to Diet Kink. S&M Zero Sugar.

(Spoilers for Gilbert's fake lover epilogue after this...)

We know for sure he likes biting. A lot. And biting to the point of causing pain, where Emma cries out or says it hurts - both in the event story where he bit her fingers repeatedly and in the epilogue where even as lovers he bit her lips and her ear hard enough to hurt.

He's also sadistic in the sense of being manipulative - he'll gaslight and pout in the epilogue until she does exactly what he wants her to. If she holds his hand he'll say, just that? And escalate one by one as she moves through hugging him and stroking his hair and kissing him. Put on a fake sad face when she's reluctant to kiss him again until she gives in.

He'll kiss her until she's hot and bothered and then stop and be all, oh right you were sleepy let's quit here...and purposefully wait until she's clinging to his back and begging him to go on. He taunts her that him hurting her turns her on (legit he waves his wet fingers in her face after fondling her) though she sets him straight that it has nothing to do with the pain and everything to do with him - only for him to laugh at her embarrassment and say he'd just done it all to make her say that. His idea of rewarding her is to only mark her 'gently'...or at least as gently as he can, he says.

So, by the standards of: Enjoys inflicting pain, maintaining control and dominance over her and the situation, and derives amusement from her shame and humiliation....I'd say yes, Gilbert seems very much the sadist.