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dragon-kazansky · 8 months

Text

Spirit of the sea

Izzy Hands x Reader (GN)

SEASON 2 CONTENT AHEAD!!!

Blackbeard rules the sea. Despite wanting his captain back, Izzy realises his mistake. Protecting the crew is his concern. Protecting you is his life mission. Stede's return brings hope, but there's a lot of work to be done before this crew becomes a family.

{Masterlist}

{Previous Chapter} - {Next Chapter}

Warnings: Spoilers. Izzy's depression spiral. No real unicorns were harmed in the making of Izzy's new leg. Things get a little steamy at the end.

Chapter Thirteen - Loving touch

♡♡♡

Stede had gathered the crew, minus Izzy, to talk to them all. Turns out Ed woke up. You swore under your breath when you heard that. No way is that man going to be happy with any of you.

"What happened to your face?" Pete asked Stede who was standing to a bruise on his cheek.

"Bet Blackbeard did that, didn't he?" Wee John asks.

"It was an accident. Okay? I think Ed just sat up too quickly," Stede says.

"That's what they all say," Roach states.

"As you know, he's gone through quite the ordeal and he does need to regain his strength," Stede explains.

"Yeah. He'll probably get around to killing you after he's rested," Jim says, looking Stede in the eye.

"Yeah, I'd say it's a pretty obvious mistake letting him get strong again," Lucius points out. You nod.

"Kick him off the ship already!" Jim yells.

"We just don't banish people, do we?" Stede says. "That's not us. Let's give him some time, perhaps to rebound a bit."

"Medically speaking, the man can't speak, and his brain is maybe couscous." Roach points out. "Also, gonna need that steak back. It's dinner."

"Right. Yes, aye."

"Maybe we should put it to the vote," Fang suggests.

"Do we have to do this now?" Stede asks.

The crew start yelling.

♡♡♡

Stede got his answers from the crew, that much was clear enough. As you head out, Stede catches up to you.

"You were awfully quiet in there."

"Don't get me wrong. I agree with them, Ed has to go."

Stede's expression falls.

"I know you like him, but that man... he did things. He hurt people like I've never seen before. He hurt Izzy..."

"Ah yes, Izzy. How is he?" Stede asks.

"He's been better."

"Where is he anyway? I didn't see him in there."

"Drinking probably. He, uh, he's stopped talking to me at the moment. He won't talk to anyone."

Stede frowns again. "He's stopped talking to you?"

"I think it's the constant drinking... It's making him... upset. Like, more than before."

"I see..."

You shrug lightly and sigh. "Look, I'm not looking for sympathy. You're the captain, sort this out."

You walk off. Stede watches you go, his heart feeling heavy. Maybe he could have a word with Izzy for you.

♡♡♡

You sit on deck with the wooden sparrow in your hands. After everything that happened it had survived. Izzy had kept it in his cabin. You had found it when you had gone in there to find him. Izzy was nowhere to be seen, but the sparrow was sitting on his desk. There was a slight chip in the wood, right on the wing, but for the most part it looked good.

You sigh as you run your finger carefully over it's little head. Did Izzy even notice it was gone? Probably not.

"The atmosphere around here sucks," Lucius sighs, sitting down next to you. You notice the cigarette between his fingers, but you don't ask. "What's that?" He nods toward the wooden bird.

"Marietta."

"Marietta?" He looks at you with a funny expression.

"That's what I called it. It was a gift for Izzy from me. I dropped the first one in the sea while I was angry at him... so I remade her." You hold the sparrow up. "She's a little beaten, but still in nest condition."

"You carved him a bird?"

"Look, I can't draw like you can. I can't make sew like Frenchie, or knit like Wee John. I can, however, whittle."

Lucius smiles a little. "I like it."

A moment of silence passes while you play with the bird in your hands a little more.

"So, you and Izzy?"

"So, you and Pete?" You reply, sarcastically.

"We're fine," he says defensively. "What's going on with your boyfriend?"

You raise your eyes to Lucius. "Blackbeard abused him. Punished him. Took his leg. He's a little upset at the moment. Rightfully so."

Lucius stands up a little defensively. "We've all been through shit," he says.

You narrow your eyes at him. "I'm not saying you haven't. We thought you were dead!"

"Well, I wasn't." He puts out his cigarette. "I've suffered too and it's all his fault!" He points to where Blackbeard is tied up on the deck.

"He's fucked everyone over, Lucius. Just need Stede to get his ass in gear and do something about it."

Lucius sighs. "Do you think anything will ever go back to how it was?"

"No," you admit honestly. "But I do believe things can get better. In time."

Lucius says nothing. He glares at Blackbeard and then leaves. You sigh and return to holding the bird, caressing it again gently.

"Oh, Izzy..."

♡♡♡

Stede found Izzy at the front of the ship. He was leaning on some of the rope rigging, his wooden leg propped up on the railing. In his other hand was a bottle of rum, of which he was drinking merrily.

He looked a mess.

Stede offered him a smile as he joined him, ignoring the look Izzy was throwing his way. He means over and notices the unicorn is missing it's head.

"He's seen better days, hasn't he?" Stede asks in a lighthearted manner.

"At least he's still got both legs!" Izzy yells.

"Yes!" Stede joins in. "He can't hear you, he's go no head. You've got a head, though, which you should look after."

Izzy down his rum. Stede sighs.

"What do you want, Bonnet?" Izzy asks, not really in the mood for conversation.

"Well, here's the thing. The crew, they're in a bit of a deadlock over the whole banishment of Ed thing and I just thought, seeing as, well, you were the one who kept his body aboard, maybe you should weigh in. You've already murdered him once. Seems like a pretty good payback." He chuckles softly. "So, what do you think?"

"My vote?" Izzy leans in a little closer to Stede. "A rotten let's got to come off."

"Right. Just to confirm, was that a nay or yay on the banishment?"

Izzy just drinks some more.

"Right... I suppose I just mention that our Spirit of the sea is worried about you. You've stopped talking to them apparently..."

Izzy says nothing.

"Don't push them out, Izzy."

Izzy just drinks from his bottle again. Stede sighs and takes his leave.

♡♡♡

"So! We, the crew of The Revenge, have voted and we've chosen banishment, unfortunately." Frenchie states, announcing the result. "So, yeah. Effective immediately. Your complimentary dinghy awaits you portside. Now leave, please."

"Fuck off," Ed hisses, walking past him. You watch him closely.

"Alright, rude."

"Fuck you," Ed laughs softly, walking past Olu.

"First time I've been on this side of a walk of shame," Wee John comments.

"Way to make this awkward, bruh," Archie says.

"Shitty sailing with you." Jim chimes in.

"You're making it really hard to look up to you, man," Pete sighs.

"Hey, made you this sandwich for the trip," Roach says, holding it out to him. Ed slaps it out of his hand and Stede catches it

"You don't want your sammie?" Stede looks sad.

Ed slaps it out of Stede's hand and it hits Lucius in the face. You have to cover your mouth to stop from laughing. Lucius bites back his laughter too. It really isn't a funny moment, throwing someone off the ship, but at least you can find something to laugh about, you supposed.

"Ed, say something at least."

Ed turns his head and looks at Stede.

"You're not a fuckin' mermaid."

You knit your brows together in confusion by that statement. Stede looked equally confused.

"What?"

Ed climbs off the ship and into the dinghy. Stede looks down and watches him, you and Lucius part with the rest if the crew, not hanging about to watch any longer.

Ed was gone. That was that.

♡♡♡

"Is it me or does the energy around here seem off?" Wee John asked.

"By 'the energy,' do we mean him?" Roach nods over to Lucius who was smiling and freaking out a little. "Or him?" He gestures over to where Izzy is still standing at the front of the ship yelling at the unicorn.

"Well, mythical creature?" Izzy yells. You sigh as you watch him from where you stand. He still wasn't talking to you much. "Anything to say to yourself? Fuck you!"

"Or them?" Roach asks, looking at Jim, Archie, Frenchie, and Fang scrubbing the deck of any "possible" bloodstains left over from where Edward had bled out.

"Do you still see blood?"

"Yeah. We'll get it. Just keep scrubbing."

"They're lookin' this way." Fang says.

You tune out the rest of their conversation to watch your stupid drunk pirate curse at the unicorn some more. If only you could talk to him. He would surely listen to you.

It was breaking your heart to see him fall apart like this. Izzy hadn't held you since you got back onto The Revenge. He was shutting you out, suffering on his own.

You hated it.

You try not to let the tears fall as you walk away, letting Izzy do whatever the fuck he wanted.

♡♡♡

Olu had invited you to join the crew for a surprise. Jim had speculated they were planning to kill you all off for being disturbed after sailing with Blackbeard. You thought it was a bit of a stretch, but you wouldn't put it last them either.

You were all guided below deck where the surprise was.

"You gotta close your 'cause it's a surprise." Olu says.

No one does that, everyone sceptical. Frenchie leads you all behind Olu. You find Pete and Wee John waiting.

"Ta da!"

Wee John moves to reveal the surprise.

The crew all jump and startle, hiding the knives they were all carrying behind their backs incase of an attack.

"Fuck!" Lucius sighs, jumpy enough already.

"Guys, it's called a pine-ata." Pete says.

"Yeah. So, you just pull this string and then--" Olu tries to explain.

"And then you hit it with a stick!" Pete demonstrates.

Everyone is triggered. PTSD from the storm, from Blackbeard.

"Time for blindfolding." Wee John tries.

"Stay the fuck sway from me!" Jim yells.

"You won't want to stay the fuck away from this came!" Roach says, brining the cake in.

You feel your stomach churn at the sight of it. It looks like the wedding cake...

"God's sake, take it away!" Fang screams.

You all draw your weapons. Yeah, even you. This is too much, too soon. This how it ends up at a stand off.

"One-half of this room has some serious emotional damage," Jim explains, holding Wee John in a choke hold. "And it's not us."

"Well, it's not us!" Wee John says back.

You have your knife pointing at Olu.

"Right, so, is everybody else's arms and various limbs getting tired?" Frenchie asks.

"Alright, look, look, look, look. I think there's actually an easier way to resolve this." Olu days, eyeing your knife. "Yes? Right. So you all think that we're plottin' against you?"

"Yeah," you nod.

"Which, in hindsight, maybe was inaccurate." Frenchie says. "I don't know, you tell me."

"Okay. So, can we all agree to just not jump the other crew and solve this as fuckin' adults?" Olu asks.

"You're saying this is like a space that is safe?" Jim asks him.

"Yeah, babe." Olu looks at them.

"I love that."

"A safe space."

"Yeah, okay."

You all lower your knives. You take a deep breath. Nearly lost your cool there.

"A lot has gone unsaid," Roach speaks. "I think now is a great time to discuss lingering issues."

"Yeah, yeah, absolutely." Archie nods. "Can we talk about the fucked-up sleeping arrangements?"

"Excuse me, do you even have a name, new guy?" Wee John asks her.

"Yeah, fuck you is her name." Jim starts, drawing their knife again.

"Hey, stupid name for a person," Roach draw his knife on Jim.

"You know my name is Archie," she point her weapon at Roach.

Everyone draws their weapons again. You sigh and point your knife at Olu again, but he doesn't sense any actual malice from you.

The sound of something thudding against the floor draws everyone's attention to the door. You turn and your heart skips a beat at the sight of Izzy. Two wooden legs at his feet.

"There! It's done!" He yells. "Maybe next time he'll think twice about not doing his fucking--" Izzy's peg leg breaks from under him as he raises his crutch and he falls harshly to the ground.

You gasp and drop your knife, hurrying over to him. He shrugs you off.

"Get off me! Fuck off!"

You sit there on your knees as he rolls over and starts crawling down the hall. Your heart breaks watching him.

"Leave me alone! I'm already gone." He mutters. He starts repeating a phrase over and over again. "You're born alone, you die alone. You're born alone, you die alone."

You can feel tears building up again. God, only Izzy could ever make you cry so much.

"Yeah, he's definitely more disturbed than any of us," Lucius says, watching Izzy go.

You try to hide your teary eyes as you get up and leave.

♡♡♡

You're sat up on deck with yours curled up wiping away the tears that were falling. If only you could get that stupid man to talk to you. You just wound to heal his internal wounds, and soothe his external wounds.

You don't hear the door open, but you do hear footsteps coming over. You turn your face away, but you know it's Fang who is now sitting beside you. He has one of the unicorn legs in his hand.

"You okay?" He asks softly. Fang was a soothing presence.

"Spectacular," you mutter.

He look down at the wooden leg and then back at you.

"We, uh, we had an idea for Izzy."

You wipe your eyes again. "Yeah?"

"We're gonna make him a new leg. You wanna help? It would sure mean a lot if you gave it to him after." Fang smiles.

"You want me to help?"

"I think Izzy would like that, don't you?"

You shrug quietly. "I don't know. He's not exactly talking to me right now."

"Aw, listen. He still loves you. He's just hurting, but maybe we can help. Let's do something good for him."

Fang offers you a small smile.

You find yourself smiling back. You reach over and take the leg from him. "Okay. Let me see what we can do."

Less than 30 minutes later the leg is being constructed, the crew are gathered to help. Fang constructs the leg into a strong, comfortable, and practical leg. Lucius had got some gold paint to add something that little bit extra.

You smile as you paint the leg.

"The gold was a gold touch."

Lucius smiles, happy he could help.

You leave the leg to dry and then Fang returns to your side with it. You sigh as you take it, looking it over.

"We sure it will do?" You ask.

"Its been measured and made just for Izzy. It will more than do. Oh don't forget the note." Fang holds out the parchment.

You take the leg and take the note.

"Right..."

"Just leave it outside his door if he doesn't want to talk. I can assure you he'll talk to you again soon."

You nod and make your way to Izzy's cabin.

♡♡♡

As you approach Izzy's door, you don't hear much. It's almost too quiet for your liking. You hover outside the door, the leg in hand. That's when you hear his voice. He's talking to someone.

"And you? What's your excuse?" You hear him say. You lean a little closer to listen, worried about him. "I mean, what even are you?"

You knock on the door hoping he'll answer.

"Fuck off." You hear him shout. You knock again firmly. "Fuck off!" He yells again.

You sigh. Telling him it was you probably wouldn't make a difference. You prop the leg up but the door, tucking the note and Marietta, Izzy's carved sparrow that you still had, into it.

You knock again and hurry away, disappearing down the hall.

"You are harassing a cripple! Fucking twats!" Izzy yells, no longer realising the person has gone from behind his door. He limps his way over and opens it, looking down the hall.

He sees no one.

His gaze drops down to the item waiting for him. He sees the note and the bird. He reads the note first, all emotion clogging up in his throat.

Those little shits.

He cries. Izzy covers his mouth as tears overwhelm him. He looks up down the hall, trying not to break down.

"Fucking cocksuckers."

He sees the sparrow and picks it up. It's then he realises you had been the one knocking. His finger close around the bird and the tears fall freely.

Shit. He's been really shit to you.

Izzy hold the sparrow against his chest and takes a few deep breaths. He grabs the leg and hobbles back inside his room.

♡♡♡

It's the early hours of the morning.

Izzy stands on deck with his new leg on. It's a good fit. Made really well. His hair is slicked back against his scalp, out of his face. His face is a little cleaner. No rum in sight.

In one hand he's clutching the ring he wears under his clothes, hanging from a string of twine. He smiles as he looks down at it.

In his other hand is the note. His eyes drift over to the words written on it. His heart feels full.

'For the new unicorn.'

Izzy smiles.

With the dawn of a new day comes a new Izzy. A healing Izzy.

He's going to be okay.

No. He'll be more than okay.

He just needs to talk to you first.

♡♡♡

The sun hasn't even risen yet when Izzy wakes you. You've been sleeping with the rest of the crew since Izzy stopped talking to you, so he had to be quiet when waking you. You're startled awake by something hitting your face again and again.

You wake up to find little balls of paper being thrown at you. You look up to see Izzy waving you over. You look at him confused. He wasn't talking to you befkre, and now he wants to?

That's when you notice the leg and your heart begins to race.

You climb out of bed and make your way out of the room, not waking a single person. You follow Izzy into his cabin and enter cautiously. He looks tidier, cleaner, more content.

"Izzy?"

He stands there and looks at you. There are several emotions flickering in his eyes, but he finds his words in no time.

"Thank you."

You stand there awkwardly. "I didn't do anything."

Izzy inhales loud enough for you to hear as he looks down at his leg, his hand resting over his thigh. "You did this."

"It was the crew's idea."

Izzy holds up the sparrow. "I noticed it was gone, but there was only one place it could be."

You nod your head softly.

Izzy puts the sparrow down and walks over to you, closing the distance between you both. You find your heart rate picking up as you look into those beautiful eyes of him.

"I love you," he whispers.

Just like that he's reaching out and kissing you. You're in his arms again. You return his kiss, having missed his lips. Having missed him. You reach out and take hold of him.

The kiss is hot, passionate, desperate. It's significance lies with the fact that you two spend all your time wanting each other, but when you're hurting, you don't reach out for one another.

You remove his scarf, taking the ring around it and carefully placing it down. It belonged to his mother and you know he would definitely curse you if you lost it. You begin to undress him, and he, you.

Clothes land on the floor. The soft thud of his wooden foot taps lightly on the floor as he moves you over to his bed.

Doing this right after the emotional rollercoaster you both has been through probably wasn't the best idea, but this time no one could stop you both, and this was long overdue.

You push Izzy down on the bed and take care of him, admiring him. You notice the other ring around his neck. You had seen it before, but it's origins you hadn't known. He was wearing it last time you did this too.

Still, your mind was focused on other things.

Safe to say, both of you are going to be a little late getting up tomorrow.

♡♡♡

@grippleback-galaxy - @askmarinaandothers - @godlikegallagher - @for-fuck-sake-im-alive - @whiskeyswriting - @lxsm2 - @bloody-bunni666 - @the-chocoholic-writer - @bugbugboy - @callmemana - @the-shenny-of-azkaban - @cool-ontherun-world - @outer-space-beech - @ahewi24 - @grace585 - @innertimemachinegirl - @dmitrytherat - @emilynissangtr -

#izzy hands x reader #spirit of the sea #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd 2 #ofmd #dragon writes

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plantsjustwannahavefun · 8 months

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As someone who has kind of convinced themselves Izzy is gonna die at the end of S2, could you share your reasons why you think he won't? I'm sure a lot of us who think he's doomed could use some ideas as to otherwise. And who do you think is being buried in that grave scene in the Behind the scenes video? I'd love to hear your thoughts!!!

Hey, first of all, this is the first ask I’ve ever got, so thanks ☺️

Okay, so, there’s been so many posts recently with much more elaborate and better-argued takes than mine, and I can’t really take credit for anything I’m going to say here because none of these thoughts are original, really… but anyway.

I was surprised how quickly and strongly people seemed to have latched onto the “Izzy’s gonna die” train based on, as far as I'm concerned, nothing more than a couple of vague BTS bits and a general sense of foreboding caused by previous experience with stories like these.

First of all, the BTS pictures and videos. Namely the bit where Izzy seems to be lying down and the one with the grave. It’s a massive stretch at best. I think Izzy’s likely to get injured at some point, but this could literally be anything, we can’t even see what’s going on. This could be a fuckery. At one point Ed is holding out his hand stained with blood, but we don’t even know whose blood it is. Same for the grave. Izzy isn’t the only crew member missing from the ring of people standing around it. We know there’s going to be a big battle in E08, so it's not surprising someone would die, but there’s simply no proof and not at all likely it would be Izzy.

Also, think about it. Izzy’s a sailor. Sailors typically get burried at sea. The only other place I could imagine him wanting to be buried at is next to his family in England, but that might just not be feasible, so he’d most likely get burried at sea. The way I see it, he’d much rather rest on the ocean floor than some random beach in the Republic of Pirates, a place he claimed to hate in S01.

Another thing: the creators of the show know how rabid this fanbase is. They knew we were going to painstakingly pick apart and overanalyse every single frame of every morsel of promotional content we could get our hands on. So far they’ve gone to great lengths to avoid major spoilers. They even changed Ed’s line in the trailer where he said “and, more importantly, no more Izzy” (replaced it with “no more Stede”) in order not to reveal the plotline of Ed shooting Izzy, even though that line was pretty vague and could have been up to interpretation. So how likely is it that they would reveal a major character’s death in several frames of BTS material? Just not very likely at all, I’d say.

Then I’ve seen a few people argue that the writers want to get rid of Con because doing the CGI for the unicorn leg is too expensive and inconvenient. I’m calling bullshit on that one too. Admittedly, I don’t know much about CGI, but Con literally just has to wear a green sock over his boot or something like that, and it’s not that hard to frame it in a way that makes his leg less visible. So far we’ve had a lot of shots with him just sitting there, or where he was filmed from the waist up. I imagine it wasn’t easy for Con to mimic moving like he was missing a leg, but he nailed it perfectly, and he seemed to have an easier time walking around in episodes 6 and 7 compared to ep 5, so he won’t have to keep up the severe limping to the same extent. At this point Izzy is the third major character after Stede an Ed. There’s no way they’d get rid of him just because of a minor cinematographic inconvenience like that.

And then there’s the fact that nobody actually dies in this show except for the villains. David Jenkins took the “bury your gays” trope and turned it into “make your gays unkillable”. This is literally the show that gave us recreational gut stabbing. There’s only a couple of exceptions, but they were all very minor characters or, well, a bird… I really liked Ivan, but he was easily the least important character out of all the crew members, and probably the only reason his death was offscreen was because the actor quit after S01. There’s no indication that Con wants to quit, it’s obvious he’s having the time of his life with this role, so it’s very unlikely he would sacrifice it for some other project.

What OFMD does love, on the other hand, is characters appearing to die, only to end up surviving against all odds. That’s, like, its signature trait by now. None of us really believed Lucius was going to die, even though logically it was extremely unlikely he wouldn't just drown immediately. They didn’t even bother to explain it properly, that’s how little this show cares for realism. And we love that about it. Izzy himself has already had not one, not two, but THREE instances like that: the dream sequence scene, getting shot in the leg, then surviving his suicide attempt. If he happened to actually die for real now, that would just be bad storytelling.

Speaking of storytelling… That’s really the main reason I don’t believe Izzy’s going to die. I know a lot of people are hung up on the whole “his narrative arc is complete and he has served his purpose as a character” thing, and in any other show that might be true, but not this one. OFMD isn’t just a show, it’s a love letter to the queer community. Izzy is now a representation of a queer person discovering himself and being accepted into the found family. He figuratively embodies the spirit of the Revenge. The physical unicorn figurine was destroyed, but the crew managed to use something “broken” and give it a new life. If the show did this only to kill Izzy off right afterwards, that would feel like a slap in the face. It wouldn't complete his character arc, it would undo it. It would be way worse than another show killing off some character that simply happened to be gay. It would feel like killing a character off specifically because they finally found some happiness in being gay, right after reaching the peak of their personal development as a queer character. It would feel deliberately mean rather than merely thoughtless.

And it would make the very first scene of S2 kind of meaningless, too. That dream sequence specifically showed us what was not going to happen. Izzy wasn’t going to stand between Stede and Ed anymore. Izzy and Stede weren’t going to be enemies anymore. Ed wasn’t going to melt into Stede’s arms and immediately forget all that’s happened. And Izzy isn’t going to die. Simple as that.

#oh boy I've done it again haven't I #wrote a sloppy meta commentary novel #full disclosure this is roughly 80% my true objective unbiased opinion and 20% industrial strength cope #but we'll see #this rambly baby is gonna age like like fine whisky #you mark my words #izzy hands #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers

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maxisanangrywell · 2 months

Text

Review & Rant Concerning MW3 Reboot

**This has Spoilers for MW3. If you have not played the full game and care about spoilers, please do not read.**

To preface this, hi!! I'm Max is a Well, and I am a writer. I have not published any novels, but I do have one in the works. I have written for plenty of people, including some pretty big fanfiction authors [past tense] (not as impressive as most, but I quite enjoyed it), and I have written my fair share of fan artworks, and then a few half published WIPs are floating around the internet somewhere. I've been writing since I was like, 12 years old. I've done it for the better part of my life now, and I've turned some heads with my writing. If circumstances were better where I could pursue this passion for full-time, I'd probably be really well off by now. All this to say, I'm very much someone who knows a lot about writing, story pacing, emotions dramatics and the whole 9 yards.

I love playing games and immersing myself within what's happening in game, and I got that feeling from MW1 & 2, but 3 was just, a little rough feeling. I can't quite explain it, but it just didn't have the same vibe as the first or second. I enjoyed the narrative although, again really rough story telling. (You're gonna get that in games like this that are essentially propaganda for a certain cause or organization, so I disregard most of it. It's the "look this is cool guys! You wanna do this," kind of thing.)

Then, Price didn't let Soap kill Makarov. Standing from a narrative point of view, we were told this guy 1, is extremely dangerous extremist, and threatening to bring WW3 onto humanity. 2, Brass is worried about this, and if they're worried about it, than we need to be too. (This solidifies that the man is a genuine threat, and that he needs to be treated as such. Often this means, a straight up get rid of this guy.) 3, Price and the 141 have some history with Makarov. Then, to build off this, in the previous game, MW2, we literally were on a to-kill mission for Hassan. So if Makarov is an even bigger threat than Hassan, (and Hassan had MISSILES), then, shouldn't we have killed Makarov when given the chance?

Also to build off this, they are all within the SAS, or have passed SAS selection. They are, narratively speaking, the best of the best within their specific branch. They are more than well trained and specialists when it comes to Counter-Terrorism, which with that would come with knowing things like how to properly debilitate your enemy, knock them out, etc. They would have had done interrogations to get specific information and you can't just bring someone awake to a location to be interrogated. You would have to knock them out or debilitate them prior before moving. Yet, they didn't do any of that. Just, knocked his ass to the ground after a stab to the shoulder.

None of it past a certain point makes any sense narratively, and me as a writer is so fucking pissed. They made Makarov a fucking badass and BBEG for the century, yet they kill off arguably one of the best liked characters? Especially after Neil did so much advertising for the fans and even doing the corny Christmas thing that was all over COD TikTok for a few good weeks afterwards. People were going WILD over the Scot, and Ghost.

One thing you learn pretty quickly when creating content, whether it be games, art, comics, novels, etc... is that you got to feed your fanbase from time to time. You give them an inch, and you'll get a mile. No one needed to die within the third game, especially when it felt so rushed. If they really needed the suspense, then they could have easily injured Soap, and kept us wondering if he was alive, and then revealed him okay within the fourth installment. That would have made people buy the game just to see if their favorite was still around, and who knows, maybe they'd actually enjoy the story and decide to play the rest of the game.

What really pissed me off other than the weird pacing of the stretch of the game is the way they reacted to Soap's death. Now, they didn't have to be horribly torn up at it like Price in the original series, in fact, that would be horribly unrealistic. My mother is a hospice nurse, so she's gotten close to a lot of patients that have passed. Some being really traumatic and saddening ways. She can't cry anymore, but she does grieve, and she grieves hard when it's a patient she's had for a while and gotten close to. You can't look me in the eyes, and tell me these three men who have just spent a year and some change chasing down Hassan, and now Makarov, wouldn't show no emotion when it came to one of their own dying?

Soldiers are friends but more. There's a whole reason there's the saying "brothers in arms" exists. They go through hell and back together, they definitely did in Las Almas, and during Chicago in the second game. So to have barely 2 minutes worth of a cutscene to pay homage to a character that they all bonded so deeply with? I genuinely thought people were seriously joking about it, and then I saw it with my own two eyes and I'm appalled on how they thought that was a good send off both emotionally and narratively. It did nothing. It didn't comfort you, it didn't sound like they were grieving too terribly, it was just, flat. Monotonous. There was hardly any emotion in the lines, and the guys didn't have to be crying, but at least put some emotion in it.

Ghost and Gaz arguably in the reboot are the closest to Soap, so some sort of emotion, like Ghost being just a little choked up on his "Rest in Peace, Johnny" would have been just top tier. You would have been able to gauge so much off of that, and it would have fed the Ghost and Soap fangirls so much. (I know some COD players don't like to hear that, but the fandom shifting is a normal thing to happen, and the new people within the fandom are buying the games to play them just to understand the story and that is absolutely helping the studio and the games preform better. To put it simply, they are now also apart of the integral part of keeping COD alive and well.) Or, Gaz instead of just saying the most generic army farewell thing in the world, instead make a personal promise to bring Makarov to his knees himself. Again, it would gauge so much with his character, how he's feeling, what this death is doing to him, and what his personal goals are moving forwards.

They absolutely, from a narrative position could have done so much better. There are always going to be bugs and glitches in games, especially shooters, but the thing that draws people in and keeps them coming back, is the story and the characters. At the end of the day, this was not only a horrible story decision, but also is probably going to hurt them a lot when concerning the next game release. The newer crowd hardly has a reason to come back to see the new game. If Soap, a beloved character was treated this way, how are they going to treat Price, Gaz or Ghost if they die? I'm incredibly disappointed, they had an amazing story, amazing VA's, amazing graphics and design. The COD fandom was seriously getting a much needed breath of fresh air, new life was coming in, and they just tossed everything out the window.

TL;DR:: As a writer, the decision to kill off Soap was extremely horrible from both a monetary and narrative standpoint. It didn't move the story forwards, create any friction, and he didn't even have a decent send off. This is probably going to kill the new growth the COD fandom was experiencing, which in turn is definitely going to hit the studio's pockets. How much is yet to be seen, but I've seen a lot of new-blood say they weren't satisfied and aren't looking at purchasing the next game. Me included.

#call of duty #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #farah karim #soapghost #maxisawell rambles #cod mw3 #cod modern warfare #modern warfare #mw3 #call of duty mw3 #soap mw3 #mw3 spoilers

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viridiave · 7 months

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A little love post to HORROR JRPGs

Content Warning:

So I'm gonna be talking a lot about some pre-Undertale era RPG Maker Horror games, and this post is gonna contain both spoilers and the discussion of the following:

Blood and Gore

Psychological horror

Child abuse

Sexual assault

Suicide

Violence

Fictional minors being put into very messed up situations, because that's just the kinds of games these are

Other upsetting themes

Hetalia (because I can imagine that all of us have very complex feelings about this fucking franchise. It existing feels like it needs a warning)

This post is a nostalgia trip and exists purely because uh. I have literally no one else to talk to about these games, and please just click away if any of the above makes you uncomfortable in any way. Some of this stuff can't exactly be handwaved as just being products of their time.

I'll draw smthn real quick later just to make up for it I promise

I'm like days late to Halloween but I just wanted to write this after getting a bout of nostalgia lmao

I absolutely fucking love Horror JRPGs - the freeware ones, even though I haven't touched one in a LONG time. I'm talking about the pre-Undertale era freeware games by the way, and in the first place I don't think I can consider Undertale a horror game but that's a topic for another day. OneShot also doesn't count aksjak OneShot gives me existential dread and a nonzero amount of guilt sure, but never terror

But let's dial that back a bit.

To begin with. 'Vir, you're a fucking coward, you run upstairs when you see that someone on TV has a gun. You can't stand watching horror movies. How the FUCK did this happen'

Weirdly, you can thank Hetalia for that. Specifically, the freeware Hetalia fangames that used to circulate on DeviantArt - that shit led me down this rabbit hole. And I guess it made sense, most Hetalia fangames are a coin toss between a horror game and a fantasy JRPG with countries getting isekai'd. I also played the fuck out of those.

For a bit of background, I love video games, but neither me nor my family ever really had that much spending power to buy game consoles, so my selection was pretty limited. Before I turned 18, I remember that we owned a GameBoy, a GameBoy Advance, a PSP, and one of those Fun-Sized Nintendo consoles with built-in games. We never bought cartridges either. I got my first DS from my dad on my birthday when I turned 18, and that's all the consoles that my family has ever owned. Still kinda jealous of my friends who have Switches, but eh - one day.

I just played a lot of Harvest Moon growing up, that's been my object of interest in my elementary days. The most of a horror game that I've been exposed to was watching my friends play Five Nights At Freddy's back in 5th grade.

Then high school happened, and I got new friends and shit - and was introduced to both more conventional horror games and Hetalia. Which is. A really weird combination when I think about it now, but everyone who was alive and kicking around in the early 2010's would know what HetaOni is, and you can see how that slope led to me playing freeware horror games. I'll always be grateful to these games, seeing as I never had easy access to mainstream experiences growing up.

I think I played HetaOni exactly once, on my first laptop. I played most Hetalia fangames exactly once, but they all just stayed on my old hard drive. None of them really had anything interesting going on gameplay-wise, I mean it's RPGMaker and these were people who just really wanted to make Hetalia fangames, but I remember some of them just sticking with me. I'd play them while I was away on trips to my grandmother's house, then watch let's plays on YouTube when I wasn't otherwise occupied with schoolwork. Really when I say Let's Plays I only mean KyoKoon64's - and that's how I was actually introduced to horror JRPGs.

CLOÉ'S REQUIEM

There's been a couple of times where they played some of the more recognizable horror JRPGs on their channel, but the first one I REALLY saw a playthrough on was one called Cloé's Requiem. I don't know what exactly it was about this specific game that stuck with me, and at the time I didn't know that this had like. More warnings than you would usually find on a horror JRPG. Calling it now, please look up said warnings before you try ANYTHING with this game - I can't promise quality and nuance, but I can promise great moments. Those moments stuck with me to this day, SOMEHOW, even after encountering games with better story and gameplay experiences… it's about a cursed 12 year-old boy trying to free a cursed 13 year-old girl, never getting a shot at the normal life he wanted and playing the violin because he can't do much else.

I think this game changed my life. Not in like, any grand manner mind you - but I feel like it's the game that best represented this time of my life as a weird high school outsider who obsesses over games that nobody's ever heard about. I was introduced to a lot of things through this game, it's just this whole volley of firsts that I wouldn't trade for anything else. Baby's first horror game, first jumpscare I ever consented to, first taste of games containing disturbing themes of sexual assault and gore, first trips to Pixiv and NicoNicoDouga - just all the fucking firsts. I wouldn't call it a great game, but it IS important to me.

When I think about it now, it's a game about curses. Michel D'Alembert is a talented violinist at 12, and his alcoholic father milks the shit out of this talent because they're not exactly what you would call well-off. His twin brother Pierre is a pianist, is nowhere near as talented as his brother, and hides his misery over this situation under a big-little brother façade. Cloé Ardennes is a pianist too, she's wealthy, talented, and still plays with her stuffed animals. She is cursed with an insane father who rapes her, and a mother who hates her. Charlotte is a young maid with nothing and tries her best, only to be killed because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unsurprisingly things fall apart for everybody very quickly.

Pierre's frustrations with his spoiled, lazy brother boiled over, and he curses Michel out in a heated moment. This drives Michel to murder their Charlotte by accident, and she becomes his curse - he runs out of the house, kills cats, and finds himself in the dilapidated mansion that Cloé inhabits. Cloé by this point is already dead, and so is her dad, her parents, and the maids. Cloé's father may be her curse but she is the curse of this mansion, and it transforms into something hostile until Michel comes along and saves her from the shadow of her father. Michel plays her a requiem, and resolves to go home to confront his crimes - and back to Pierre, who regrets everything he's done. Watching the sun rise with a disappearing Cloé in the True Ending will likely be the last peaceful moment he will ever have in his life.

That's like. Not everything that happens in this game, but this post is already so goddamn long and I still have a lot of other stuff I want to talk about. But the gist of it to me nowadays is that these children are cursed with loveless lives and the whims of the adults that have power over them. In the end, their lives are all ruined. Cloé and Charlotte are dead, and we have no idea what becomes of Michel and Pierre when word gets out that Michel killed a maid and assaulted several others in the house in a fit of emotional instability. In every other ending, Michel is killed and Cloé remains an evil spirit, so really this is the best that anyone ever gets out of this experience.

I remember watching a playthrough of Con Amore on YouTube, but I understood none of it because it was in Japanese, and the game itself was untranslated at the time. It follows the cats Noir and Blanc and basically serves as an addendum to the base game - honestly it made me feel sorry for Charlotte, who was nowhere near as psychotic as Michel thought she was. There's also light novels, but international shipping is expensive and I don't know Japanese so. I'll just never figure out what happens to everyone after the game ends I guess

One of these days, I'll buy the remake on Steam - which exists, and I can't say I recommend it if everything I just listed bothers you in any way. But I can't shake the attachment I feel towards this game no matter how many years it's been, nor how uncomfortable its themes are, so you know - maybe one day. I'll go back to it.

So - following that, I got pretty curious about the other games in this genre of freeware horror. Ib is the one that everyone knows the best, both Markiplier and Pewdiepie played it so you KNOW it gets press, but even in Japan this game was a hell of a hit. To me, it's a simple game that I can finish in an hour, but man what an hour it can be.

If you were to play this game right now after seeing how much press it gets (which I think you should, it's on the Switch now! Go get it!), you MIGHT be a little disappointed. It's nowhere near as gory or disturbing as Cloe's Requiem for one and you know - a bunch of blood and guts and ghosts on the walls does not a good horror game make, but make your choices accordingly. Nah - instead this game's staying power lies in its atmosphere. Like how many games can you say take place inside of an art gallery where most of the pieces try to fucking murder you? I mean there's probably a lot, but something about Ib's almost ambient sense of dread and exploration just kind of sticks in people's brains. Everything's a little scarier when the shapes are so close to being discernable but aren't, and I guess that's the appeal and horror behind Guertena's gallery.

Ib herself is a mute protagonist, pretty typical, but she's also NINE, and the game will let you know that no matter how unfazed she gets or how precocious she can be, she is a child all the same - and children break very easily. I personally love how the game barely has to say anything about how shaken she actually is about her situation, because it will show you how - she has nightmares that you can't escape, she sees herself getting hanged, Garry will need to shake her out of her shock when she sees a picture of her parents in the gallery that should not exist. She loses all of her will to live when she loses Garry to insanity. And speaking of Garry…

There's one standout room in this game and it's the Doll Room. 10/10 would NOT recommend it to anyone who suffers from anxiety because WOW I did not think the RPG Maker 2000 engine could ever have been capable of that. Nobody blames Garry if this room fucks him up. I mean come on the dude has to literally rip open the stomachs of dolls to find a paint ball. Those sound effects make it sound like the dolls are made of skin and flesh and all the while the giant fucking doll is creeping out of the goddamn painting while some of the most anxiety-inducing background noise is playing -

Yeah no I don't know why I ever said you'd be disappointed by this game. Or maybe you still would, this is a low-res game made in 2012. But my god does it TRY to scare you in the best ways it can.

One of the best moments in this game I think is the one where Mary and Ib are alone together, and the conversation gets increasingly unhinged with Mary asking Ib questions non-stop with no background noise other than their steps. At this point, they're separated from Garry, and they're trying to find a way back to each other. Garry meanwhile is slowly piecing together the truth about Mary and how dangerous it is for Ib to remain alone with her, all the while still trying to figure out how to get back to both of them.

The section after that is in the Sketchbook which honestly? The vibes of this place are impeccable. Somehow it's fitting that one of the tensest areas in a game about a fine arts gallery is the place made entirely out of childlike scribbles.

Overall, I'd say the experience is well worth an hour or two - I'd recommend it happily over Cloé's Requiem, if only so you can have a taste of what Horror JRPGs were like before Omori came along. Yes I know that Omori isn't Japanese but it's very much in the same vein as these games.

OTHER GAMES

Those were the safe two that planted my feet firmly into the Horror JRPG fandom, but there's a lot of other titles out there, so let's go - lightning round!

Ao Oni is the ubiquitous one, like chances are you've at least HEARD of it in passing at some point in your life. Like this shit made it to the big screen in Japan, that's how much of a deal it was. I've never played the original myself, but it's partly because its formula of stuck in a mansion with a horror that chases you around is present in pretty much every Horror JRPG after its release in 2007. If you want some classic fun with the big blue demon though then you can't go wrong with the freeware version.

Mad Father and The Witch's House are part of what I like to call the Big 3 of JRPGs starring preteen girls experiencing the Horrors™, mostly because back in the mid-2010's I couldn't go three posts without seeing them all together. Mad Father is the only other one of said Big 3 that I've touched, because I was too coward to touch The Witch's House and Ellen's whole deal remains a mystery to me to this day. I think Mad Father got a remake a couple of years ago, so you can check that out if you want, but keep in mind that these two games in particular might not stoke the same kind of magical staying power that Ib somehow retained years after its release, and I know those two rely on jumpscares a lot more than Ib does.

I'll eat my fedora right here by the way, because one of my cardinal sins of being a Horror JRPG fan is that I've never played Yume Nikki. As far as these freeware games go, this is probably one of the more avant-garde ones - it's artsy, atmospheric, and a game best experienced by getting lost in the strange environments it provides. Out of every game on this post, this is the one I'd describe as the most Earthbound-esque, with its horror lying mostly in the surrealist ambience of just… wandering around in Madotsuki's mind. The end is just as quiet as the beginning, but is no less chilling to watch happen. Then you fuck around a little bit on Youtube and you find out what's actually going on, and uh - yeah that checks out, cosmic horror sounds par for the course at this point.

Yume Nikki and OFF are two of the games I think of when I hear about Horror JRPGs being talked about alongside Undertale - and nope, I haven't played OFF either. That's my other Horror JRPG sin. I was a picky teenager, but I've grown now and wow I need to find a time to play these games in peace. OFF actually isn't even Japanese, it was developed by Mortis Ghost and released in French back in 2008, making both pretty old and already pretty weird in the library. The reason I bring up OFF is because it's one of the older examples I know of that also incorporate Earthbound's precision 4th-wall breaks, and that it's a game about judgment and interrogates the player (more you than the Batter you play as, serving more as a vehicle that the game uses to ask questions through) about the choices they make in the game. OneShot is probably the one game in this genre of indie RPG that I know so far that employs this metaphysical idea of the player existing in the game in any kind of charitable fashion (aside from again, Earthbound and to some extent Mother 3), so between it, OFF, and Undertale they're what I'd refer to as the Interface Screw-RPG Trio.

Some other titles that I like are between the same devs, even some that I haven't really played to completion. Cloé's Requiem for example was made by Buriki Clock, and they've made other titles like Fantasy Maiden's Off Hideout and Trauma Traum - the latter I can't play because it doesn't have an English translation rip. Miwashiba is another dev which I think people who have a taste for light lolita goth-pastel colors would like, because my god the character designs in both Alice Mare and LiEat are peak. Don't even get me started on the fashion of 1BitHeart because everything in that game has such an impeccable aesthetic. I think I saw something at one point about 1BitHeart that like. Might count as a shared joke between Xenoblade fans, but I'd be hard-pressed to give context because again… packed schedule, who dis?

Just to talk about Alice Mare a little more, I've actually played this one - it sports a heavily storybook-inspired cast with some unique tastes on the tales. Most of my actual experiences with Alice Mare were from the English Light Novel, which I do still have! I really recommend it to people who have a couple of hours to spare on some light, relatively bloodless horror. Most of these games have Light Novels, come to think of it - hell Ib even has whole audio dramas, one of which was fanmade in English, and from what I remember of it the voice acting for Mary was PEAK.

One last dev I want to talk about is Segawa. I've saved them for last because their brand of horror is reserved mainly for one game, but their other games Farethere City and Tower of Hanoi are no slouches either. I don't know much about Tower of Hanoi (or if it even has an English translation right now), but Farethere City is a pretty cute experience as far as pseudo-horror games go from what I've heard, which is probably good for us because their other standout game is anything but cute.

END ROLL

Ah, End Roll. The last of the Horror JRPGs I've played before school kicked me even harder in the shins and I had barely any time for it. Out of all the games I mentioned on this list, this is the one with the most staying power in my brain - and also the one that influenced me the most.

So, I don't talk a lot about my original works. Nobody asks, so I don't overshare. But some of the prevalent overarching themes of my personal mythos are those of guilt, self-love, and the burdens of love. All of these themes were lifted directly from End Roll - which is to say, End Roll actually only deals in guilt, my brain just ran buckwild with trying to wrap itself around the logistics behind InfoRuss. One of my main protagonists, Rosso, is a dead-ringer expy of Russell - the same goes for Blanco with the Informant. One of the only ways I can describe Rosso and Blanco's relationship is 'selfcest as a metaphor for the painful coexistence of self-love and self-loathing', and how this relationship reached this point was largely thanks to the Informant and his role in Russell's dream.

I don't really know why I've come to associate the idea of self-love with guilt, because that's like. Not what the game is trying to do. The game's express purpose is to tell you the story of a boy who comes to love his victims and self-destructs under the crushing guilt that he carries from killing them. By some weird hand, I've fixated on the Informant and his determination in seeing that mission of the game through - AND his secret boss fight. Actually, I should. Go ahead and describe the build-up to his secret boss fight

You can only access it if you've purchased the optional villa, and if I recall correctly you can only fight him on the last day of the dream. The locked shed next to the villa is revealed to be a library of some kind called the Graveyard of Books and like - sure enough, there's books of every kind just torn apart and scattered about everywhere. The reason for all of this is because of the Informant's jealousy. He is created specifically so he can provide Russell with the necessary information to complete the Happy Dream Experiment, and in this regard he thinks Russell doesn't need anyone other source of information than him. So he does away with the useless other books, except for the strategy guides because that's the only kind of book Russell likes - and thus, the only kind of book that the Informant likes. Notes are scattered in the hallway leading up into his boss room, with the last one sticking out in my mind to this day:

'He thinks he's the most important thing to you.'

Which. I don't know why that line is so important to me. Whether it be because it awakened something weird in me, or because I myself was dealing with my self-loathing in a VERY complicated manner at the time, that line has gone on to dictate the way that I write about my characters even to this day.

It's such a visceral depiction of self-inflicted brutality. Russell Seager is a 14 year-old serial killer who grew up loveless and abused, and has no shortage of things that make every waking moment of his life fucked up. He killed people - some who just happened to be wherever he was at the time, some willingly by his hand - could not feel guilt about any of it, and when he lost Yumi to his drunken father while his nymphomaniac mother watched he snapped and killed both his tormentors. He then turned himself in to the police, a teen on death row. Happy Dream is him discovering guilt through dream versions of the people he killed. Happy Dream is what allows him to manifest the newfound emotions he felt through interacting with the kinds of people that his victims COULD have been. The world he creates morphs into the self-inflicted hell that is his guilt.

Russell has no happy ending, his guilt won't allow him that. Everything around him becomes a reminder of the lives he's destroyed, and how much of a living hell his own life was. Through feeling happiness and love from these fabricated visages of the people he killed, he learned guilt. It's such a weird exercise in sympathy, knowing that you're playing as this remorseless kid going through rehabilitation through extreme means. It either doesn't work, and he's deemed a failure - or it does, and he commits suicide either by confessing his crimes to one of his victims and stabbing himself to death with a syringe, or he stays in the deteriorating dream, never to wake up again.

At some point it honestly just turns into misery porn, if you look at it from a certain angle - this game is set on having Russell die no matter what. I couldn't tell you what EXACTLY it is about this experience was so impactful that it would go on to influence the way I want to spend my life - that is, I want to make games exploring these kinds of themes. Guilt. Sins. If loveless lives can be redeemed and made better. By the time the last day in the game rolls around, it's just a matter of giving Russell closure over his miserable life and choosing for him what his last freedom is going to be.

I think one of the reasons I like thinking about the Informant with regards to Russell is the scene that happens if you choose to go through with the first True Ending. Russell never really much liked the Informant, and the feeling is mutual. Russell is cold to him, and the Informant takes every opportunity he can to rub all of Russell's sins in his face - and that's his job, he represents the fundamental, uncomfortable truths of Happy Dream. If Russell chooses not to leave the dream, he is resigned to its destruction and waits for the inevitable along with the other denizens of Nameless Town. But if Russell chooses to get out of the dream, the Informant returns to Russell in tears, happy that he can finally be back to being a part of him - to this game, it's the ultimate acceptance. Russell then goes on to confess his crimes and the reality of the dream to one of the citizens, and he wakes up when they kill him in tearful retribution by his request.

He grabs the syringe next to his bed, and stabs himself to death, unable to handle the guilt. That's how the game always ends for me. The Informant succeeded, Happy Dream succeeded - and Russell chose to die as person who could finally feel remorse.

It's a regretful story with themes that really shouldn't be replicated in any fashion in real life, but somehow I found it fascinating in the way it explores the facets of the self. It makes me want to ask more questions and explore that angle of self-reflection to the furthest extremes that I can conceivably reach, and I guess that's one of the many reasons why I respect it so much.

SO… WHAT NOW.

Nah, that's kind of it. Like, OF COURSE this isn't all I have to say about the games that I mentioned, but wow this post is so long and I was just pining for the days of a couple of years ago. These games were present for the most transformative years of my life, and uh - whether or not that was actually a good thing remains to be seen, but I'll always be grateful for their presence in the void that I call my gaming experiences.

Horror JRPGs will always have a special place in my heart for how they tell their stories. Nowadays, I've developed more of a taste for fantastical RPGs that prefer to hide their horror in the margins of the narrative, fridging the terror for when the player wants to step back a bit and think about the implications of certain events in the greater world. Undertale, OneShot, and the Octopath Traveler games all tick that box for me - and all of those games are ones I hold dear. Like I'll probably ramble about OneShot some other day, because that's the other game that really changed my life in a way I felt like I can never come back from - but there's just a lot of special things to be said about these neat little self-contained, 6-hour freeware games. For now I'll close this long-ass post out. Happy late Halloween I guess - the M&Ms in our fridge have never tasted better.

#rpg maker horror #rpg maker #horror rpg #ib rpg #cloe's requiem #end roll rpg #ao oni #mad father #the witch's house #OFF rpg #yume nikki #alice mare #farethere city #cw horror #seriously please read the content warnings

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local-writer · 9 months

Text

Just a post about what I think on totk and what I like to do

Spoilers for totk ahead

Whenever I see Zelda in the sky I can't help but take the time to go and visit her and put her favorite flowers in her hair <3 I wanna make a flower crown for her, but it's probably gonna take a lot of patience

But it's worth it for my Queen <333

I also like to visit Sonia's grave sometimes and drop a few sun flowers to pay my respects. I felt so bad for taking her flowers after finding out it was her grave 😭 left way more then I should have lol. She and Rauru simply did not get enough screen time in my opinion 😔 and the fact that there won't be a dlc with extra memories makes me sad :')

Also, can we talk about how Zelda follows link around hyrule? I noticed throughout my time playing that she'll hover over the next region you have to visit, and once you've visited all of the locations she'll just follow you wherever you go <3 I find it sweet because I feel like she's watching over link, even if she isn't aware of it. It just proves that her love for link is strong, so strong that even without her memories as a dragon, her heart remembers. And her sheer will to protect him and her people amazes me, and it shines bright during the final boss fight when she comes to aid link. Omg I'm gonna cry just talking about it help-

It still disappoints me that we didn't get a hug at the end though 😔 I feel like we got so cheated in the English version of the game, because in the Japanese version, Link's personality shows more I feel like because in the quest log, it's written in his pov, and he even writes his thoughts down too.

I headcanon that zelda and link live together, and no, I don't take criticism.

I really believe that link loves zelda the way she loves him, and sure, I'll probably get shit from nonshippers (or toxic shippers, whichever sees this post first lmfao) for saying this bc according to them, all zelink shippers think this way just because we ship them. But I really feel like their relationship is so much more then what Nintendo shows us, and I wish they wouldn't overlook the idea of giving us just a little look at that relationship.

I hoping that some day, we'll get some zelink content out of them. Whether it's a hug or a peck on the cheek, or even just a simple 'I love you', I'll take it. Also, I'd like a game where we can play as zelda too.

Before totk came out people were spreading a rumor that we'd get to play as zelda too. I didn't believe this ofc, but I still had a bit of hope that Nintendo would consider it. The game would have been so much more badass if we could have played as zelda and explored the past a bit as her. I was a little disappointed, but wasn't surprised after I beat the game that we didn't get to play as her.

Something that ticks me off is that they practically erased all of the shiekah tech from botw. Why didn't the keep a few ruined shrines or towers? Why didn't they leave the divine beasts? I think the divine beasts should have been left alone. At the very least, they could have given an explanation as to where they went and why they're gone. Maybe they did, I could have missed it somewhere, but if I did someone please let me know. Oh, and let's not forget how some of the NPCs in the game don't even remember link. The disappointment I felt when Hudson didn't recognize link was big. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't beat botw again before I played totk, but if that's the case then I'll be happy. I'll have to speed run the rest of botw so everyone remembers link in totk lol

Okay I'm done, sorry about the long post lol. I talk a lot sometimes when it comes to something I love

#totk #botw #zelda #link #zelink #loz #loz botw #loz totk #zelda talk

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tigger8900 · 6 months

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New Who Rewatch: S1E1 - Rose

So, I originally intended to do this back before the 13th Doctor, but I couldn't get my shit together. Such is life. Then I thought I'd do it before the 60th Anniversary Specials, but again, did not have my shit together. But then I thought, it's never going to happen if I don't just do it, regardless of where my shit is or what it's doing. So this is happening.

I'm gonna be starting from 2005, y'all. Some of these episodes I've seen several times. Some I've only seen a couple times. And a few(more in later seasons) I've only seen once before. It'll be interesting to revisit those in particular, thinking about why I avoided them when picking out episodes to watch. I'll be ranking things as I go. Who knows, life might even allow me to get all the way through to the present! Assume that there are unmarked spoilers through the episode being discussed.

S1E1: Rose

Overall Ranking: 1/1

Series 1 Ranking: 1/1

I've never been mad at Rose. Is it my favorite? No. Do I dislike it? Again no, not even when thinking about the CGI effects. I think it's a great premiere for the reboot, but taking the episode on its own merits it's pretty solidly middle of the pack for me. I expect it to shake out somewhere in the upper middle of the rankings. Though the Ninth Doctor is incredible, Rose is not my favorite companion, so that probably factors into it as well.

Thoughts on the episode:

I really like the framing of the Doctor as being someone dangerous. I'd forgotten about that. He comes in when a big disaster happens, and we know that usually he stops it from being even worse, but from the human perspective he's the harbinger!

The Mickey vs bin CGI is not good. Oi.

Christopher Eccleston is so good in this role. As much as I tend to like the episode content that Russell T. Davies puts out, the fact that Eccleston has spoken out about his negative experiences working with RTD(among others) gives me complicated feelings about RTD being back as a showrunner.

Jackie Tyler is so unlikable at the start, even viewed through the context of her being a single mom doing her best. What she has going for her is the fact that she loves Rose very much and wants what's best for her daughter. What she has going against her is pretty much everything else. She's a great character, especially later in her arc, but I'd hate to have to be around her as she appears in this episode.

RIP Clive.

I love that, after literally five minutes of living plastic-induced mayhem, the street is full of fire. It's so ridiculous and over the top.

The chain swing is a really good character moment for Rose. She might not be set up for success by the metrics society typically uses(no A-levels, no job), but she's brave and capable. That's the part of her character that I like.

...but she treats Mickey like shit! He's not a bad boyfriend, from what we see. They're being sweet together and having fun in the opening, and he shows up to help her out repeatedly. He's also right about a lot of things, including the fact that it's kinda sus to go meet some internet stranger at his house. But she's so inattentive that she doesn't even notice when he's been replaced by an Auton. Admittedly she also doesn't notice the Doctor trying to get her attention in the same scene, so this is more of a Rose issue than a Rose & Mickey issue, but that's messed up. And then at the end, when he's having a perfectly normal reaction to what he's just gone through, she just up and lol bye!~ Mickey deserved better.

#doctor who #new who #doctor who rewatch #rose tyler #ninth doctor #mickey smith #jackie tyler

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starrbar · 1 year

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Alright, I was encouraged by the smol family of HeroKel shippers on here, so now that I have my ass in order, here's the Headspace Abuse AU I spawned out of some horny energy last month. xD

CONTENT WARNINGS: Physical abuse, neglect, gaslighting(?), spiders, brocon/incest if you choose to see it ;3 Also spoilers for Omori!

If you stumble across this post as someone who despises this kind of content, I sincerely apologize for that. I don't intend to main-tag this, but I'm not 100% positive how tagging works on Tumblr anymore. The Read More should cover that though. Have a nice day!

In one of the playthroughs of Omori I really like, they have this ongoing joke where Kel is just bullied all the time, especially by Hero and Aubrey. Every time Kel says anything, Hero says stuff like, "Kel, I'm going to BEAT YOU when we get home" or "Ohh Keeeel, I'm getting the BELT!!" and it's just met with Kel screaming, "NOOOO NOT AGAIN PLEASE!" and everyone's laughing about it and stuff. And man, I'm REALLY not usually into any kind of incest kinks (just personally not my thing), but I'd lowkey be fine with an rp/fic where Hero just abuses Kel all the time and has him basically trained to obey and cower out of fear. x'D

Adding onto that, I also had so much fun with the Basil deaths in Black Space, so now I just imagine like Basil is the Kenny of the group, and he just dies horrible deaths all the time and comes back later, and no one even bats an eye beyond giggling or saying, "Oh wow, he's gonna feel that in the morning, tee hee!"

And then when Basil goes missing, Hero and Aubrey start putting Kel through a lot more shit because even they they don't really notice it, Basil's constant deaths and pained screaming do keep them pretty entertained.

Omori isn't phased by any of it ofc, since he's kiiiind of the one pulling the strings here.

I'm not sure how Mari would respond to everything. Maybe it would be funny if she just acted like she always does and almost as if the stuff happening is just silly goofy bickering or stubbed toes, and she'll say stuff like, "Awww, don't worry, Basil! All you have to do for a spider bite is (I don't even know, but like generic advice for a single, non-venonous spider bite)!" And Basil is just like, "-gross sobbing- O-okay...!" while being devoured alive by a billion spiders or chomped in half by a giant one ahahaha.

Then she'll tell Kel, "Aww, Hero got mad at you? Well... you did step on his foot after all. But just apologize and talk it over and I'm sure he'll come around in no time! ^u^" and this is like, what you tell someone if all the angry person did was snap at them or get upset and leave for a bit. But Hero literally broke a branch off the nearest tree and beat Kel with it until it broke lmao.

It's like... ultra horrific tbh? But I kind of love soaking in more of that type of freaky shit. It's almost appealing BECAUSE it's the absolute last thing that should ever be happening??

Kel is an absolute sweetie and deserves the world, Hero is a kind and patient big brother who immediately apologized and improved himself the one time he was ever really mean to Kel, and Aubrey is honestly a very good person despite putting on an edgy face when she got older and trying to push people away. She's never out to truly hurt anyone.

So it's kinda fun to twist them up in this awful way, especially since the game itself kind of already did most of the work for me and all I did was enjoy that and also take a meme from a video series and run with it.

I mean holy shit, there's legit a whole scene in Black Space where Basil's DW friends all beat him to death and then act like everything is normal and fun. It's CANON, and everything I wrote here is of a similar caliber, just with the invitation to view it as abusive shipping if the reader desires.

Basically I'm roleplaying with myself and enjoying the sadistic story I end up with x'D

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khaire-traveler · 10 months

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Ok, I will try not to talk too much about this on here, since this blog isn't really about this type of content, but I need to nerd out to someone, none of my friends are into this, and this is my main blog, so here we go:

***BALDUR'S GATE 3 SPOILERS AHEAD; READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION***

This is mostly just me needing out and gushing, though, lol.

Ok, ok, so for the past five days, I have been fucking binge playing this game. I literally spent the first day I got it sitting around for, like, seven hours (don't be me, and make sure to get up for breaks if you're gonna do the same thing). I was - and still am - absolutely hooked.

I LOVE this game!!! It's the first DnD based game I've played, especially of this quality (even though my laptop runs it like shit and the lag is killer ☠️). I'm playing on Explorer, so it's been fairly easy and very story-focused. I find the lore so intriguing, and I'm so interested in seeing where the story goes! I haven't seen anything past the camp party after saving Halsin, though, so no spoilers please. 🙏

So, I started off with one playthrough, but I came in with the knowledge that you are able to romance the characters and such. I REALLY wanted to romance Astarion (as most people I see talking about the game lmfao), but my bitch ass just could not get his approval, no matter how hard I tried. It got to the point where he actually made fun of me after we saved Halsin and had the camp party. 😭 I honestly suspect he might've glitched out somehow, since I had read online that people have had similar issues with earning the trust and approval of companions. This definitely bummed me out, but I was still enjoying the game a lot.

Along with that, in my original playthrough, I literally forgot to seek out Lae'zel. I had planned on doing it, but I just didn't know where to go, and by the time I had met Gale, I honestly forgot about finding her because I had to get offline at that point. 💀 I felt really bad about it, and I only went to go look for her after saving Halsin because I was reminded of her, and she had already broken out of the cage and killed the two tieflings who trapped her. I felt so bad that I just left her there on her own all that time. ☠️

After realizing that I wouldn't be able to recruit her until a bit later, I just decided to restart my playthrough on different save files. I figured I'd also at least get a proper chance with Astarion as well (love him so much; he is my meow meow 💕), and all while still playing as the character I took quite literally two hours to make (I was very indecisive about them lol).

So far, the new playthrough has been going very well, and I'm actually pretty happy that I restarted, since I had also apparently missed the scene of Astarion sharing his vampiric nature as well as some very key information from, and about, Lae'zel. I'm only about seven hours in right now, but I feel like I've somehow gotten more done in this playthrough than I did in my original which had something like fifteen hours. I've explored places I didn't even realize existed, picked up a ridiculous amount of loot, and even acquired all the companion characters that I know of in the First Act. It's been extremely successful! Not to mention things with Astarion are going very well. 🥰

Anyway, I've been enjoying this game a lot! This is my first ever time playing it; I didn't have Early Access and hadn't even heard of it until my friend told me about it this past Sunday lol. I'm honestly really glad that I got this game, despite the price of it and the price I had to pay for a new storage drive for my laptop in order to run it. It was certainly lots of money spent, but it was definitely money well spent.

I feel like my perspective on the world around me has changed slightly from playing this game (in a positive way). I feel a lot more curious about things than before, and I'm more inclined to take spontaneous risks which has always been a struggle for me beforehand. I also kind of feel like I can talk to other people a lot easier as well, as strange as that sounds. I play a Bard in the game, so my character has high charisma and stops to talk to other characters a lot, and I'm not really sure why, but seeing my character interact so easily with others has kind of inspired me in a way and helped to make social situations a lot more comfortable for me (I have social anxiety, so talking to people has always been pretty tough). As unusual as it may sound, this game has already changed me in such positive ways as a person, and I can't wait to see what other lessons it may have to teach. ☺️

All of that said, I couldn't recommend Baldur's Gate 3 more! It's genuinely one of those games that I think anyone can pretty much enjoy, and I also appreciate how inclusive it is with gender stuff and queer relationships. The other characters even refer to me with the correct pronouns, despite me never needing to enter my pronouns in! It's a very impressive game, and the graphics are absolutely gorgeous (especially when your laptop isn't absolute shit like mine lmao). Frankly, it's just great!

Of course, being so new, it does have its problems. I've personally experienced lots of lag issues - dialogue and animations won't be in sync, characters taking a long time to go from one location to another, environments not loading in very quickly, etc. I've also had the game crash on me a few times, but I honestly believe it's more related to my laptop than it is to the game, and for the most part, it hasn't caused me too much grief.

Despite its flaws, I personally believe this game is very much worth a play. It's loads of fun, and the characters are pretty charming and entertaining. The storyline is interesting with lots of twists and turns, and if you ever get bored of the mainline quest, there are literally endless sidequests for you to enjoy. Exploration is highly encouraged, and as you explore the realm, your map actually reveals the locations you've been to. Fast travel is also a super great feature, although there are some locations I wish that were on there that aren't, sadly.

Ok, I've...talked a lot, so I'm going to stop now. 😂 Thank you to anyone who actually read all this, and I hope you have fun playing or watching someone else play, if you plan on doing either! Take care. 🧡🪽

#off topic #for fun #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #bg3 thoughts #baldur's gate iii

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shelbgrey · 1 year

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Glory of love(Eleazar Denali)

Chapter 8: The field trip

Warning: bride of Frankenstein spoilers!

Table of contents

“make sure your permission slips are turned into me or Mr. Denali before you get on the bus” I said as students passed by and handed in the proper slip of paper.

“here you go, miss. Swan” Tayna smiled and handed both her's and Edward's permission slips. “thank you Honey” I said taking them then walking towrds Eleazar.

“Hey, handsome” I smiled. He smiled warmly as he fixed the stack of paper he collected from the students. “Hola hermosa(hello beautiful), did you get them all?” he asked as I handed my half of the slips.

“yeah I got them all, we'll do a head count once everyone's on the bus” I said.

I looked around the parking lot, making sure everyone was here. My eyes stoped on Tayna as Tyler Crowley walked up to her, I couldn't help but tune in when her gold eyes widened.

“so I was wondering if you maybe want to go to prom?” he asked. I chuckled and turned towrds Eleazar. He heard it too and just shook his head in their direction. “she'd squash him like a bug” he said.

“umm... Actually me and my sister decided we were just gonna go together... I can't bale out on her” Tayna said. You could tell she wasn't actually lying, she did lie like Bella did to Mike Newton.

“oh, that's okay... Family comes first, right? ” he chuckled softly.

Before he was about to walk off but she stopped him and glanced at an annoyed Edward “you know what, I'd love to go with you” he smiled and walked off.

Me and Eleazar looked at each other shocked as the plot twist unfolded before us. After Tyler said his goodbye, Tayan walked up to us with a smirk on her face.

“I don't even want to know” I sighed. “everyone on the bus!” I yelled out getting my 1st and 3rd period classes attention.

~~~~~~~~(.......)~~~~~~~~

“She's alive, alive! The Bride of Frankenstein” the screen shouted. I smiled at the sliver screen when the birde showed her face for the first time. Dispite her being a creature she was truly beautiful.

I looked over to Eleazar as he stared intently at the screen. My heart fluttered when I thought back to our date the other night, but since there was a bunch of students around our touches were limited. That didn't stop me from moving just a little bit closer to him. His hand then fell to my thigh, gently squeezing it.

“this movie truly is depressing” Eleazar whispered in my ear. I shrugged knowing he was right. It was the scene in the movie where the bride becomes terrified of the monster and rejects him, most of the movie was about him not wanting to be alone. This movie humanizes the creature by giving him the need of wanting a friend.

The bride screamed in terror at the sight of the monster and Eleazar leaned in whispering in my ear. “that should have been your reaction” he joked.

I rolled my eyes. “I don't see you as a monster like the bride dose him” I said softly.

“well, I'm greatful for that” he smiled and kissed the side of my head quickly before anyone else could see.

“we belong dead!” the creature growled and the movie ended with him and his bride, along with her creater being blown up to smithereens. The movie ended and theater room lights came on.

“that's how it ends!?” Tyler said flabbergasted.

“you never seen this movie?” Angela Webber asked.

I chuckled as we all stood up. “that's a bunch of bullshit Miss. Swan” I nodded agreeing with him as Eleazar moved out of the way so I could exit the isle of chairs.

“Yes it is... We'll talk about it on the bus” I said.

“ridiculous” Tyler said shaking his head.

Like I promised there was a full discussion on the bus. There was many people confused or pissed about the ending but some had already knew the ending.

“but she was a creature too, so why was she scared of him?” Jessica Stanley asked.

“okay, the way I saw it was the story was trying to symbolize this social change. After the bride realized she has the same scars as the monster, she understands what Victor did to her... She wasn't gonna except”

“isn't that kinda selfish?” Edward asked suddenly. I looked up to where he was setting in the back alone. I gestured for him to continue. “Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Pretorius Damned them both, so why don't they just be together when they relize they're one in the same”

“maybe she was just scared” Tayna responded with her arms crossed. “... Or she's dumb”

“but he wasn't evli” Eric said. “when he befriends the blind guy he becomes more human after all the things he was taught”

I gestured towrds Eric. “this is why we saw this movie, it's gonna help you with your final project”

“that ending sucked though” Mike mumbled.

~~~~~~~~(.......)~~~~~~~~

“how long have you been a vampire Eli?” I asked as we layed in the hammock in my backyard. After school we went to my house where there was a bit more privacy.

“since the mid 1700s” he said.

“dose someone have to be dying to become like you?” I asked. Eleazar shook his head. “no, that's just how we prefer to do it... Carlisle's never turn someone if the had the choice”

“did he turn you?” I asked resting my head on his chest. “I don't remember who turned me... When you turn your human memories becoming foggy, so I never really found out who turned me”

“did it hurt?” I asked softly. I fiddled with one of the buttons on his black shirt.

“the venom was excruciating... But it takes a lot of restaint to turn someone beacuse when we tasted human blood a sort of frenzy starts to happen” he explained. It hurt thinking about all that pain he went through, I only hoped he wasn't alone when it happened.

“did carlisle introduce you to the whole animal blood diet?” I asked.

“no, actually I met Tayna, Kate, and Irina beofer carlisle. They had the same diet... I didn't want hurt anyone so I tried it once I left the vulturi and joined there Coven”

“who are the Vulturi?” I asked. “they're basically vampire royalty, I was part of the gaurd for centuries but then left when I met my first wife” he explained. “remember when I told you Carmen left me for someone I used to work with?”

I nodded looking up at him. “well he was part of the vulturi... The infuriating part is I left the vulturi for her and she ends up joing with her mistress”

“I'm sorry” I said reaching up playing with the ends of his hair at the neap of his neck. He smiled down at me. “nothing to be sorry for... I'm with you now and that's all that matters.”

The sun came out unexpectedly and peaked behind the tree the hammock was attached to. The sun hit Eleazar's face, making him shine like a diamond. I'd never seen anything so enchanting. I staired at him lovingly as I placed my hand on the side of his face.

“amazing” I whispered, stroking the side of his face with my thumb. He leaned down and our lips connected as the sun crawled back into it's cloudy cave.

We parted ways due to my need for oxygen. He placed his hand on my jaw and leaned back in, but pulled back when he heard the back door open.

“Hey, y/n-oops” Bella said suddenly stopping. I set up making the hammock rock a bit. “am I interrupting something?”

“si-”

“no!” I said cutting Eleazar off. “we were just talking, what's up?”

Bella sighed and slapped the side of her thigh. “my truck is acting up again... And we need to meet dad at the dinner”

I sighed and fell back into Eleazar's arms making the hammock almost tip. “I can drop you guys off” he said rubbing my back.

Bella nodded and went to the front of the house where Eleazar's car was parked. Eleazar was now known to drive fast, it didn't bother me until we made it to the diner a lot quicker than I wanted. He parked next my Dad's cruser and Bella got out.

“I'd offer you to join us but you don't eat” I smiled. Eleazar only shrugged and pressed a quick kiss on my lips. “see you at school tomorrow”

Eleazar shook his head sadly. “tomorrow is gonna be sunny, we can't go out” he grabed my hand and kissed it. “but all call you when you get off work”

“okay, bye Eli” I said leaving his car.

~~~~~~~~(Cullen residents, Eleazar's pov)~~~~~~~~

“you did what?!” Irina shouted. I rolled my eyes and walked into the living room.

“I thought you were smarter than this! This is could end so badly” she continued. I whipped around causing her to take a step back.

“I wasn't gonna lie to her, and it won't end badly” I confirmed.

The whole family heard the ruckus. What started out as a small conversation between me and the three blonds I call family turned into a screaming match. And once Irina knows, the whole house knows.

“Irina you knew this was coming” Carlisle said coming up behind me. “you two have been friends for centuries. Are you really gonna be mad at him for being happy?”

Irina sighed and gave me a apologetic look. “What if it puts her in danger... Or you?” she asked me. I crossed my arms and looked her in the eyes. “then I'll protect her”

She nodded, excepting that. Esme then came up behind me with her hand on my shoulder. “well, we can't wait to meet her... Why don't you bring her over tomorrow after work”

I sighed, I could only imagine how they'll act when I bring her home. I loved my family, but there was always something happing. Rather it be a prank or Rosalie and Edward trying to kill each other. But I couldn't say no to Esme and y/n was special enough to were I want my family to get to know her like I have.

“okay, I'll ask her” I smiled softly at Esme. “great” she smiled and left to finish up somethings around the house.

“I'm happy for you El” Carlisle smiled and padded my back.

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springsaladgaming · 1 year

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Progress Update 2/1/23

I said I'd have a more comprehensive progress update before the month was out, but I'm a dirty liar! We get a February 1st update instead! In my defense, I get confused about whether my sister's birthday is on the 30th or the 31st sometimes, and that confusion made me confused about what day it actually was too.

So here's the more official first progress update of the year in which I'm going to talk about my current thoughts on Ninelives and what I will be working on for the foreseeable future.

It will be a year in March since the last official update to Ninelives, and for that I'm so sorry! Last year was a struggle in multiple ways. After such a long stint of lockdowns, quarantines, and travel restrictions (self-imposed or otherwise), people began going on vacation like crazy last year, and I was very busy with work. The work itself is not super time consuming, but the instability of it (I'm constantly driving around and sleeping in different places) certainly didn't help my focus. And then the depression hit me pretty hard the last few months of the year. It was all I could do to finish the first chapter of my other project and didn't leave me with much energy to think about Ninelives.

All that aside, I have a pretty serious helping of time blindness to go with my ADHD. Sometimes I will think it's only been a few days or weeks since I last worked on my writing, and then I turn around and realize months have passed. It's something I'm trying to be better about, but sometimes I just have to accept that I'm gonna slip up a lot.

I could sit here and make excuses and apologies all day, but I'm not going to! 🙆🏾‍♀️ I'll just finish this segment with a big ol' thank you for being patient with me! So let's continue on!

Regarding Ninelives as it currently stands, there are some things about the layout and UI that I'm not entirely happy with. There's a strong chance in the future that I will transfer all the work to a completely different template. I also think I've learned a lot more from working on my other project, so there might be general improvements to the way I've coded some things in the background. These aren't necessarily things that will be super noticeable from an outside perspective but will improve the efficiency of the choices and passages.

However, I've also been getting better about working on the drafting and coding separately. The last time I worked on Ninelives in earnest, I was performing both tasks simultaneously, and this was causing me to hit a lot of unnecessary speed bumps along the way. As such, I've been focusing on the two more separately with my other project, and I know now that's what I need to be doing for Ninelives too.

So any improvements and changes to the layout, UI, and anything coded up to this point isn't something I plan to worry about right now. The immediate priority is Chapter 3, and I want to talk a little bit about why Chapter 3 was always going to be such a big hurdle.

I've mentioned before that certain parts of Ninelives are getting rewrites from the original ChoiceScript version that I started with. Chapter 3 is going to have the most significant changes, going so far as to be a large chunk of completely new content. Some parts of the original Chapter 3 are getting carried over, but a lot of it is getting cut to make way for some events that I think will better lay out the greater plot.

To go into detail, while still keeping things mostly spoiler-free: The new Chapter 3 involves a party. This party will be an opportunity to gain more insight into what's going on with Sungjae, meet the ??? RO that I've been talking about all this time, and establish some more of the character skills a little bit earlier in the story. Oh yeah, it's also a party the MC is most definitely not supposed to be at. (How good is your MC at talking their way into a formal event?)

It's also a much-needed revamp of the inciting incident, because, let's be honest, the original inciting incident was way too random. (That's what plotting by the seat of your pants gets you.)

I think the revamped Chapter 3 is going to do a lot for the story that the original Chapter 3 simply did not do, so I'm excited to finally get it into a written draft.

So the first order of business is writing Chapter 3, no coding included. Once it's written, the process of coding it is a lot shorter. I don't have an ETA, but Ninelives is my full focus right now. I'll keep y'all posted with progress updates!

Thanks for sticking with me!

#progress update #ninelives progress update

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frostedpuffs · 2 years

Note

hi! you don't need to answer this if you don't want to bc i know it seems silly haha i just wanted to ask you something

three months ago i accidentally got a spoiler from the bible and i'm not going to tell you which one for obvious reasons lol the point is i got really upset bc i wanted to watch this season as blindly as possible and so i decided to just. pretend it didn't happen

but i was still super anxious and turns out ignoring anxiety for months only makes it worse. very adrien agreste coded of me i'd say. and it became hard to enjoy the show and for quite some the only thing i could think about was the spoiler when trying to engage with anything miraculous related

i kept consuming fanon content bc i didn't want to let go of it and it was fun but also it felt like everything was covered with a layer of anxiety and regret and overthinking

this last last month has been better bc i started to work on my anxiety and i'm even enjoying the show but it's still not the same. i wish i could go back to feeling the same way i did before i got spoiled. and it annoys me bc so many people read the whole bible and they seem excited and unaffected by it

i want to stop freaking out and enjoy the new season properly bc i think i'll regret it if i don't and then it turns out the spoiler i got isn't even a major thing. i remember that you also accidentally read a spoiler from the bible around three months ago. so. could you please tell me it's not a big deal? at least by your posts you seem so unbothered by it

and thanks for the mlp au it's one of my favorite things in the fandom now 🫶

oh no im so sorry that happened!!!!!!!! it's totally understandable how that can ruin enjoyment of something. im not sure which spoiler you saw (and respectfully i dont want to, to preserve the mystery for myself) but the spoiler i saw was one that was....idk how to put this....kind of obvious that it was going to happen? like we knew this would happen Eventually kind of thing, so that's why it didnt bother me all that much. bc i knew the show was gonna do it at some point so it's not exactly a surprise. so while it still didnt feel great to have that spoiled the expectation that it was going to happen was already there

it's still possible to enjoy things even knowing they're going to happen! because whatever has happened (probably) hasn't aired yet, you still dont know exactly how that situation is gonna go down....so there is still a bit of mystery left to it :) as for spoilers go, use it as a way to get excited about what's to come instead of perceiving it as ruining the surprise! i know it sucks and it's rough that you were spoiled :( but i would suggest still watching the show, bc there's probably a lot of things you dont know about that are gonna happen and are going to be so much fun to see!! ♥

and for anyone reading this, keep the bible leaks to yourself or tag them appropriately if you are going to talk about them. not everyone wants to be spoiled!

(also thank you, im glad you like the au <3)

#ash answers

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tsuki-sennin · 9 months

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Kamen Rider Gotchard, Episode 2! It's felt like months since last I saw our boy. Man, I still can't believe this show is real, it's so goddamn cool. If I were a kid, I'd be losing my goddamn mind like three times as hard.

Spoilers, I guess...

-Houtarou-kun befriended the Chemy Hopper1, and with his help becomes Pretty Cure- I mean, Kamen Rider~!

-Okay, you're a person of higher authority in a Kamen Rider organization, that means you're definitely hiding something, Minato-sensei.

-Fun fact about me, I used to be super into studying alchemy as a belief system, and it's all because of the ol' massive Gnoggin Pokémon conspiracy theory of a franchise reboot, which was basically just an excuse for them to unload every cool interpretation about certain Pokémon they could parse.

-...and in a weird way, that reboot ended up being true.

-Shout outs to Lockstin tho, fr, makes fantastic content.

-Never heard of cram school, my dude?

-What do?

-Do alchemists get paid real money, or does Houtarou have to spin lead into gold?

-Oh, opening!

-All these goofy ahhh characters we'll get to know over the next year.

-Ooooh, he says Henshin in sequence!

-Who's this person with their face censored, I wonder?

-Skebows...

-Golddash...

-The Alchemist Academy uniform feels very Golden Sun-y.

-Ohhhhh...

-Traitor, I see.

-Poor Kudoh. Her Dad is under the "traitor" curse.

-The Alchemist of Dawn...

-This is so magic school manga, holy crap.

-Kamantis is a thicc boy

-"Change the weights. Balance them perfectly."

-Hello, Ma.

-Wow okay

-Dad didn't die, he just dipped.

-Skateboarding~!

-Oh hello, Ryo.

-SKEBOW

-I love them

-Skebow~!

-Kid's got the moves.

-Oh shit, robbers.

-...why did you stop in front of a playground, are you stupid or something?

-Malice.

-Houtarou's having a bit of a hard time parsing the material.

-Holy shit, that play structure looks so cool.

-Wish my town had budget like that.

-Kudoh, are you sure you wanna perform out here?

-To create... life...

-It seems our new Malgam's a bit of a tricky dicky.

-Malgam Nation.

-These're some damn creative monster designs.

-Money, money, money, money~!

-Free the Hopper.

-Man, I hope we're gonna see Rinne keep being cool. We're 4 for 4 on Reiwa seasons with great female leads, I hope we can hit 5.

-"You will not evade me, Skateboard Fairy!"

-Violence time.

-Lots of kick flips.

-Gotchanko!

-OdoriMantis~!

-Oh no you don't~!

-...oh yes you do!

-Hello, Minato-sensei!

-GoldDash...

-"Dash! Dash!"

-Oh hello

-That must be Mr. Spanner.

-Spinout!

-That's one way to go around!

-OH INSERT SONG?

-HELL YEAH LET'S GO

-OH FUCK BEVERLY IS THAT YOU????

-Oooooh, right in the trucks.

-Hop, hop, hop~!

-God, this is so cool.

-Skebows~!

-MY MONEYYYYYYYYYYY

-Later, pal.

-Balance~!

-If it works, it works!

-Ring~!

-That means you're part of a

-BIG SHOT

-Alchemy~!

-New people.

-Oh fuck, speaking through a tablet. It's Banno 2.

-"Kamen Rider? Not Funny, Didn't Laugh."

-AppareBushido~!

-Valvarad comes.

-See you all around, I suppoooooose.

#Pull Another Gotcha! 101 Dreams to Catch!#kamen rider gotchard #gotchard spoilers #kr gotchard #kamen rider

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brokeneos · 2 years

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HIIII!!!!

I have been a long time fan of "whump", but I never knew it had a name! I didn't know it was like, an established thing that other people enjoy! I've just been sitting by myself, writing stories that I thought I could never share with anyone because of the sensitivity of their content, thinking that there was something wrong with me or something. But lo and behold, there's more out there!?! AMAZING!

A little about me: I'm a transgirl living in Michigan. I've been writing stories since before I could form proper sentences. Back when my e's were all written backwards, and I spelled circle with an s. I basically came up with the idea whump independently from this community as a way to cope with my bad brain juices. I shall now share my shit here!

Nothing I've written already can be... translated... to tumblr. Not in the way I'd want to anyway. I like the idea of a series, which I've seen others do from what little browsing I've done already. So I shall start my own. I have a couple characters that I'll introduce. A lot of what you see from here on will be a bit spoiler-y, but none of these characters are identified. These are just some picrew teasers of what's to come. 5 of them are whumpees, and one is a caregiver. (The last one is the caregiver, hence she isn't beaten or bloodied in some way, shape, or form.)

Now, as the series goes on, you'll probably start to figure out who each of these people are, considering that they all have pretty identifying characteristics.

I'm going to be making a series! It's essentially a fantasy whump series set in a fictional city in the real world. Urban fantasy for the win! I actually have very little experience writing urban fantasy. What I like out of whump is a good WHUMPING, but also a good bit of caregiving. It's not all about the torture, but it's not all about the love and healing, either. Shit goes up and down and all around.

The only thing I will offer about the above characters are their genders. In order you have:

Transgirl

Demiboy

Cisgirl

Has no idea, but goes by they/them

Cisboy

Cisgirl

I AM GONNA START WRITING NOW, OKAY THANK YOU BYE

EDIT: Picrew sauce! Yes! I forgor:

picrew.me/image_maker/434686

picrew.me/image_maker/168508

picrew.me/image_maker/54346

picrew.me/image_maker/207627

picrew.me/image_maker/480390

picrew.me/image_maker/6453

#whump #whumpee #whump caretaker #whump writing #whump stuff #caretaker #whumpee oc #magical whump #fantasy whump #whump intro #whump blog #whump community

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cogito-dreams · 11 months

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How did Basil create the mirror I cannot be teased like this

WONDERFUL QUESTION THANK YOU FOR ASKING

this is already getting long so im gonna put it under a read more LOL

allow me to give some context and talk about basil even more than ive been asked for regarding basils origins! for starters, basil originates from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, named after none other than Basil Hallward from the novel. In the original, it's heavily implied (honestly it's just text its not even subtext please go read picture of dorian gray its wonderful) that basil is absolutely in love and head over heels for the titular dorian, and paints the titular picture of said titular dorian. now (spoilers for a 150 year old book) this portrait basil painted is... pretty odd, and either because of the amount of himself and his love for dorian that he put into the portrait OR because of a wish dorian made that he would always stay young and beautiful, the portrait winds up looking more old and cruel etc etc as dorian goes down his path of depravity etc etc. basil had made many portraits of dorian before this, but none quite as successful (he'd tried to paint his muse in other styles, but this portrait in particular came about when he finally tried painting dorian exactly as he is), and none of his later portraits were as enchanting either. more things happen to basil later on in the book, but i'll leave that for another post because then i'd have to get into some content warnings because it gets A Little Fucked Up.

so! how does this translate into the world of project moon and specifically limbus company, you ask? great question!

essentially, basil is consistently putting too much of both himself and his subject into all of his paintings. i'm stretching the worldbuilding a little bit here so its not Really super canon compliant, but we know that abnormalities dont just come from people, they can be made like the tool abnormalities! so essentially, in his quest to create this perfect portrait of dorian, basil inadvertently created a few other abnormalities along the way. this includes the Portrait of Another World we find in Lobotomy Corporation, which could in itself have initially been inspired by the same novel that basil is from!

the limbus!dorian to go with my basil is... considerably fucked up in a lot of ways, in particular how he interacts with basil, so while basil was painting dorian their conversations wandered in sometimes pretty messed up directions. while painting the portrait of another world, they discussed what it would be like to never feel pain and never suffer hardship, and basil (a little more down-to-earth than the then-naive dorian) understood that suffering would never really go away, it would just be someone else suffering. that idea is where the portrait of another world started getting its abnormality characteristics, and the reason that the painting is unfinished - and therefore open for people to put themselves into, as we see in lobotomy corporation - is because basil would up growing too upset with the topic (thanks to some needling from lord henry wotton, who i havent yet discussed but the characters im adapting from the novel for basils canto need a whole post of their own) and never actually wound up painting dorian into the portrait. which is probably pretty good, because then we'd have TWO abnormality paintings centered around dorian, and frankly he's gotten way too much power from just the one.

all in all, it's probably for the best that basil quit painting, even if he still doesn't know quite the extent of what he accidentally created.

#THANK U FOR ASKING ILY IM HAVING SO MUCH FUN SHARING ALL THIS #cog answers #cog posts #oc: basil #limbus company oc #proj moon oc #i really should make a whole post about how im adapting the entire novel into this #but it would be So Long #basil haunts me ive never grown so attached to an oc so quickly #also this is propaganda. everyone go read picture of dorian gray

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saffronapplemanga · 1 year

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Tenjou Renka: Kin no Oujo to Hi no Kusushi - 天上恋歌～金の皇女と火の薬師～

HISTORICAL, ADVENTURE

Tenjou Renka ~Kin no Oujo to Hi no Kusushi~ by Aoki Tomo

(6 volumes, ongoing)

JP only - English summary in this post

Links to my other manga posts here

I can't remember where I first saw this, but Tenjou Renka caught my eye a while ago with this cover. Look at it — it's gorgeous. Like I said in my Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch's Life in Mongol post, I've been really getting into historical fiction so this manga looked like something I'd enjoy. I'm currently reading Yona of the Dawn, which Tenjou Renka has some similarities to (ye olde Asia, princess on an adventure, etc.), and I've been having the best time! I plan to give my thoughts on that too, but there's a lot more content with that series and I've been taking my time reading it.

The full title of Tenjou Renka roughly translates to Heavenly Love Song ~The Princess of Kin and Medicine Man of Fire~. I was excited to read this manga because it seems we have a cool falconer princess with some lovely art! So, how did it do?

Twitter reading thread here. Thoughts after the summary.

***SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE***

In the first few pages, we see a precession from the country, Kin, making its way to the allied country, Sou. Here we meet our nomadic princess, Aira.

There are rumors that Aira is to wed the prince of Sou... except she herself doesn't know this??? Awaiting the arrival of their allies, Sou greets them with a show of fireworks. Aira, however, runs straight over to one of the fireworks craftsmen and gives him a big old hug... before saying a word to the royals... when she's supposed to be an ambassador of sorts from Kin... and there are talks of her marrying the prince that's literally standing right there... uh...

What are you doing... She said, "I didn't get the chance to thank you! I'll never forget that night!" GIRL, YOU'RE GONNA GET THIS MAN EXECUTED!!! He's gonna get guillotined! He's gonna get the noose!!!!!!!!!!!

We go back in time a few days, and long story short, Aira and company got attacked mid-journey which led her to fall off a cliff and into a river. The fireworks craftsman, Hakurinshi (or as Aira calls him, Rinshi) finds her washed up. He takes her to his hut to treat her and her falcon. When she wakes up and says she needs to meet back up with her brother. Rinshi tells her to follow him so he can show her something. He lights a firework, which Aira had never seen before, and signals her brother to their location. Reunited, Aira turns to thank Rinshi, but he's already gone. Flash forward to the current day, she sees her savior and takes the opportunity to finally thank him... by aggressively hugging him... in that situation. *sigh*

If you see me spell something wrong, no you didn’t. Twitter, where’s my edit button???

Unsurprisingly, this is bad. Rumors start spreading, some Sou royals and citizens are not happy, and Rinshi gets called in by higher-ups to explain himself. Aira has completely fallen for Rinshi but ends up getting scolded by her brother Uju. He tells her to forget it and that Rinshi is from a different country and class. And he FINALLY tells Aira that there were talks of her being wed to the Sou prince, Kouou, but it's been tabled for now. (Why tf was Aira the last person to find this out?!) She's shocked at this information but Uju says that they wouldn't go through with it if she didn't want to. It isn't until she mulls over the new information and what she did at the palace does she realize, "Oh no, I was super rude to the prince and made an awful first impression!" ...UM, DUH?

*Deep breath*

Prince Kouou shows Aira and Uju around and he reveals that he's a two-faced jerk to only Aira just like I expected. (Aira, why didn't you tell your brother that Kouou wasn't to be trusted?! WHY WON'T ANYONE COMMUNICATE???) Apparently, he thinks the marriage is still on and that it doesn't matter what they want. It's their duty to go through with a political marriage if that's what's decided. Aira has to continue doing ambassador/goodwill duties for the next few days at the Sou palace so they'll be in town for a bit longer.

The last bit of volume one has the people of Kin falling ill from poisoned food. Aira is one of the few who hadn't eaten yet and was spared, thus leaving her to take charge and care for the sick. She goes looking for Rinshi for help since he was able to take care of her and her falcon before. What was weird to me was that she asked him to teach her how to care for the sick instead of asking him to come with her to where they all were. Rinshi is the one who said he was coming with to help, and Aira was surprised by this...

Instead of wasting time at his place learning how to play doctor, take him with you dummy!!! Also, the Sou palace knew what happened but they were like, "Oh no, it's getting late and it'll be morning by the time the doctors come to help!" DON'T YOU GUYS HAVE DOCTORS AT THE PALACE??? WHAT??????

The resolution to this section of the story was also annoying. Plus, no one was at risk of dying. They just threw up and felt sick.

Why THE HELL would you, the cook who prepares everyone’s food, including the Kin royals, use some random plant you don’t know??? Fire him immediately. This isn't poisoned food, this is food poisoning smh.

***END OF SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE***

I usually try to give manga a few volumes, but honestly? I made it halfway through volume 2, skimmed the rest of the volume, and gave up. I'm going to mention minor spoilers here btw.

It doesn't make sense. The setup for the drama doesn't make any damn sense. I can't even be mad at Aira, at least not completely, because I blame her family/handlers for not teaching her ANYTHING before sending her off to be an ambassador and putting her in these situations! Literally, her handmaiden was teaching her things about the Sou royals she should've already known while they were at the Sou palace... Like... excuse me? I also don't like how there are info dumps.

Aira's handmaiden is teaching her info about Sou AFTER she just did a ceremonial thing at the palace. You should have taught her this stuff before!

We do find out that Aira's tribe recently won independence 8 years ago, so they're kind of "new royalty" but they should still know to tell her to watch herself in Sou. If there was some Sou custom they weren't familiar with that she messed up, or was awkward because she wasn't a princess from birth/comes from a more "primitive" country, then okay. But that's not what's happening here. I mean, even if you weren't promised to the prince, YOU'RE A PRINCESS WHO'S AN AMBASSADOR IN AN ALLIED COUNTRY!!! You didn't even greet the prince and king!!!!!!!!! That's just Manners 101!

And I’m a nobody!

I don't want to compare to Yona of the Dawn, but it's a little hard not to. I'm very early on in Yona of the Dawn (mid vol 5) but even then we see that while Yona is extremely naive, scared, and sheltered, she's not stupid. And in her case, she wasn't prepared for the events that resulted in her life being turned upside down. For Yona, it came out of nowhere. But for Aira, they planned to go to Sou. They knew this was happening. She should have been more prepared to do her duties as the princess of Kin, yet she fumbled it within seconds of her arrival at the palace. It doesn't make her funny or charming. It just makes her look dumb.

There are some parts that DO make sense. Aira being able to stand her ground adds up because she comes from a nomadic tribe.

Action scenes!

A lot of people in Sou, both noble and peasant, call the people of Kin savages/barbarians. Some nobles ask ignorant questions like, "I heard your people live in caves? Is that true? What, you can move your homes? How strange." And honestly, that's realistic. I cannot tell you how many times I've been asked if my family lives in tents and rides camels to school/work.

The start of the show here is Rinshi, hands down. He's known as the local weirdo who collects random plants and rocks and the like.

Mood, tbh. Throwback to my Yotsuba&! post about how me and my friend drove all the way from Tokyo to the Sea of Japan just to go rock collecting.

In reality, he's just a quiet guy with unbound curiosity. He wants to travel and see new things, learn new things, and collect new things so he can learn about those too. Rinshi wears tinted glasses to protect his eyes from light damage, which happens to a lot of craftsmen. But they’re are an unusual thing that no one's ever seen before and just adds to his "weird" status. I swear this man is ahead of his time.

Dreaming of all the cool stuff out there in the big wide world. I'm rooting for you buddy.

He also just seems like a genuinely sweet guy and would make for an awesome male lead!

The author, Aoki, clearly has a great love for Chinese history. This isn't even their first manga with this setting. On Aoki's Twitter, you can see all the research they do. They even get recreated armor/clothing to take reference photos!

Mad respect.

Remember kids, reference is important!

Tenjou Renka is amazing for seeing historical clothing and settings, as well as culture. However, I feel like these things take priority over the actual story.

We love well-researched historical fiction!

I was curious to see what other readers thought of the story, and while unsurprisingly there were people who really enjoyed it, some reviewers share my sentiment.

This reviewer is basically saying how Aira doesn't realize her own position/the situation she's in and just causes so many problems.

This person says that the girls feel immature/juvenile and it's a real shame because the historical aspects are well-researched.

But yeah, this was a title I was excited to get into, but it just left me frustrated and disappointed. I mean, listen — a foreign princess betrothed to the prince falls in love with a local weirdo and they both want to travel the world and learn new things? It’s so frustrating because this manga has the recipe… Tenjou Renka had so much potential, but the contrived drama annoyed the hell out of me. So much didn't make sense or could have been avoided, and that really soured any good it had. I can see a lot of people enjoying this, but unfortunately, it's just not working out for me. I would like to flip through the later volumes if only for the clothing and setting design.

Not even best boy Rinshi can make me keep reading. I hope you collect all the stuff your heart desires.

-----------------------------

If there's any Japanese-only manga you want me to check out, let me know! No promises, I'll only read what I'm interested in, but I'll take suggestions into consideration. Preferably, shorter manga or newer manga with a few volumes out since I like to take breaks from longer series I'm reading :)

#Tenjou Renka: Kin no Oujo to Hi no Kusushi #天上恋歌～金の皇女と火の薬師～#manga #manga recs #manga recommendations #manga discussion #shoujo manga #少女漫画 #漫画 #おすすめ

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