#yeah actually you know what I don’t blame pc in this one

[lananiscorner]

The Sandman rewatch - Calliope

So I like to do this thing where, if I didn’t consider a show a complete waste of time and if it does have an actual arc spanning the season, I watch the season twice–once as a binge watch and then once more episode by episode, because it helps me notice things I didn’t notice at first, especially in cases like this where I’m almost entirely unfamiliar with the source material.

I apologize that the second part of this episode is coming so late—I got a new PC and had to set everything up again properly, so I didn’t have time for it until now.

Trigger warnings: mentions of sexual abuse and rape beneath the cut.

Also, lots of swearing because this one… is kind of personal for me.

Well, we’re starting off with a statement that’s very relatable to any writer: the character comes first.

Wow, way to crush the soon-to-be doctor’s writing dreams, Richard.

Yeah, this Erasmus Fry guy is not suspicious and unlikable from the start AT ALL.

Ok, so Erasmus desperately wants a bezoar for it’s detoxing qualities. Can I infer that he’ll be dead soon? Good.

So not only does this old bastard keep a muse locked up against her will—he keeps her locked up in a dusty old storage room. The actual fuck.

Ah, the old “I’ll set you free before I die” promise. Yeah, I don’t think that one’s ever been upheld by anyone.

She is literally |this| close to decking him in the face. I wish she had, but there’s probably some kind of spell preventing her too.

And we can add “victim-blaming coward” to the list of descriptors for her captor. Fuck you, Erasmus Fry.

“But I must say I found force most efficacious.” Holy. Kangaroo. On. A. Pogostick!

Alright, so actual props to the writing team for saying “rape” without saying “rape”, but what the actual fuck… Erasmus deserves whatever nastiness is coming to him.

Oh, and we’re using the “she’s not human, so it’s ok” defense? Fuck you, Erasmus Fry.

That little smirk on Calliope’s face though, when he says that all his work is out of print now. We stan.

“Little cow”? What the actual hell…

Wow, this guy even negs his fellow writer. What a specimen.

Okay, Richard, this is where you say “you know what, I don’t like this, you can go”.

But nooo, instead we’re installing a second lock on the door! That will surely inspire trust and collaboration!

“Do you think you could… help me first?” Dude, you literally just took slave ownership of an immortal being AND INSTALLED A SECOND LOCK ON HER DOOR in a clear sign of your lack of trustworthiness, what the fuck do you think? Do you even have a brain?

Calliope’s not buying it. Good for her.

Blinking Cursor Of The Empty Page is honestly the most relatable character in this so far.

Yeah dude, don’t open Reddit, Twitter or Insta when you’re trying to write. That way lies the devil of distraction. You should know better.

Okay, so, I can’t believe I am writing this, but I will give him credit for making an ATTEMPT at the entire wooing thing at least. Should he have asked her first what “wooing” exactly means for a muse? Yes. But an attempt was made. He gets a D for effort.

“An artist prays to the muses. He offers vows of service and devotion to the goddesses in exchange for divine inspiration.” Memo to myself: build small altar to Calliope.

“You gave Erasmus Fry what he wanted.” DUDE… Which fucking part of of the word “force” do you not understand??

Dude… your lack of creativity and poor financial choices are NOT comparable to decades of captivity and sexual abuse. Get your head out of your fucking arse.

Daaaamn, Calliope all but saying “yeah, I hear you and I’ll help you, just free me”. She is way too good for this dude. I would have been like “fuck off back to your empty pages” already.

And fuck you too, Richard Madoc.

Once again, props to the writer and director for making very clear what’s happening without being gratuitous about it—that fade to black, the sound of the lock, Richard’s half-buttoned shirt and the scratch on his cheek are really all we need.

I love that they are referencing the 3 OG muses here in Calliope’s prayer (meditation, remembrance and song). They are so much less known than the 9 Calliope belongs to.

Oh hey, it’s the fates! Please don’t give her some cryptic bs advice that won’t help her at all. She’s already dealing with enough shit.

Alright, so I know that this exposition dialogue about Calliope’s relationship with Dream is supposed to be very tragic, but imo the real tragedy here is that Calliope and Morpheus had a son and named him… Orpheus. You are a literal muse and the king of dreams! You have literally endless inspiration and THAT is what you name your child? I can’t.

Well, at least the fates were not being super cryptic or vague this time.

“I think it probably speaks to the author’s pretension.” YOOOOOO! Go off, random lady!

“I do tend to regard myself as a feminist writer.” FUCK YOU, RICHARD MADOC!

Okay, but this line hits pretty hard upon rewatch, because in my current active franchise (FE3H), we literally just witnessed two users getting bullied off social media by a bunch of Reddit dudes who use their “defense of a feminist icon character” as a moral shield, painting themselves as feminists while harassing RL people, some of whom are women. Like, this is just so fucking vile.

“From the women in my life.” That’s a very nice way of putting “from the woman I am locking up and raping in the room upstairs”, Richard Madoc. God, I wanna strangle him and Erasmus.

And of course he’s now four successful novels into his career and STILL not letting her go.

“Can you not allow yourself to enjoy our success?” Oh, you mean “can you not allow yourself to enjoy me getting rich off of literally raping you for inspiration?” What a pretentious fucking prick.

That tiny smile of hers when she sees that the sleeping sickness is over and puts 1 and 2 together. <3

Ooh, and it’s the melody of the Dreaming making its comeback as she goes downstairs to look for pen and paper! <3

Bwahahaha, he said the name for her. Congrats, Richard, you just fucked yourself.

Richard about Erasmus: “He was… very kind.” As kind as a chain saw to the nuts, you mean.

Ahahaha, he poisoned himself! Serves him right, old bastard. Good fucking riddance, Erasmus Fry!

Alright, now this scene with Calliope and Dream… this fucking scene. There is so much goodness here, especially if you have personal experience with being an SA survivor, which I unfortunately do, so here’s a numbered list before I start screaming into the void:

Note how Dream, who was imprisoned for longer than Calliope, lost his beloved raven, and then had to deal with Joanna, Lucifer, John Dee, the Corinthian and a fucking Vortex to get any semblance of normalcy back into his life, instantly, and without hesitation, states that he thinks that what Calliope went through was worse. It is SO freaking common for men to not take SA seriously, so to hear someone who’s canonically a bit of an insensitive prick who went through plenty of trauma himself STILL acknowledge it for the absolute fate worse than death that it is is just so… validating? Tearjerkingly heartwarming?

“Comparing our suffering only compounds it.” What a raw line from Calliope! No, we’re not here to play Suffering Olympics. We both went through awful shit. The best we can do is try to move on.

Calliope, who said that she despises Dream, still acknowledging that what he went through was awful and she’s glad he’s free (even though she literally is not, right now). No jealousy, just relief. What a queen.

Calliope to Richard: Please free me? Richard: lol nope. Calliope to Dream: Please inspire him to free me? Dream: All that and more. -- Absolute legend.

Calliope pointing out that no punishment could be enough—and you can see in Dream’s face that she’s got a point that he hadn’t considered, because no matter how awful he thinks Richard treated her, at the end of the day, he knows nothing of her pain, her loss, and vengeance will not bring back what he took from her. I wonder if he thought back to his conversation with Death in that moment—about how all he had been able to think about during his own imprisonment was vengeance, but when he finally got it, it wasn’t satisfying at all.

Calliope: Why? Because I was once yours? Dream: Because he hurt you. -- Do I have to explain this one? Like, honestly, one of the worst things about SA is how demeaned and devalued it can make a person feel, and I could only imagine how sharply Calliope must have felt that, given that neither Erasmus nor Richard considered her worthy of being treated with humanity simply because she is more than human, and here is Dream saying “you are enough—I don’t need a selfish reason to want to hurt the bastard—he hurt YOU, and that’s more than enough.” ;_;

Dream asking PERMISSION from Calliope to let him help her. She is the one who called for him, so one could say consent is implied, but after 60 years of her consent being denied, Dream realizes “implied” no longer cuts it and instead asks for her EXPLICIT consent. With a “please” on top! I’m not sure we’ve even heard him use that word in any other episode. Absolute legend.

That look of ice cold murder when she asks him what he’ll do to Richard. CHILLS!!!

And one final word in this scene: note how Dream does not touch Calliope. They were married once. They had a kid. He’s made it clear he still has feelings for her even though it’s been thousands of years and she said she never wanted to see him again… but he does not touch her. It’s such a small detail, but from the perspective of an SA survivor, that’s HUGE.

I just love every second of this entire fucking scene. Brb, gotta find and murder whoever is cutting onions here.

“Be quiet.” Jesus… Tom Sturridge does “unnervingly polite, tranquil fury” so fucking well!

“I will not call any HUMAN agency.” And that is when it probably dawned on Richard that he had fucked up.

The way Dream rose without blinking when Richard tried to weasel his way out of this—perfection! The sheer disgust with which he spits the word “defiled” (for anyone who hadn’t put 1 and 2 together yet)--sublime!

Dream here with the classical punishments—like, this is the kind of stuff you’d legit see in ancient Greek myth. Oh, you wanna see the future? I’ll let you see the future, but I’ll also make sure no-one will ever believe you. You want ideas? I’ll give you too many to handle.

Calliope’s smile when Richard asks her if she’s giving him nightmares now. <3

That moment when he sees Dream in the audience—perfection.

Okay, but most of his ideas are actually rubbish, which is understandable, give whose brain they are springing from, except maybe for the one of a city where the streets are paved with time. I would read that.

Imagine you’re a woman attending a reading by your favorite author and then he starts scribbling stuff on the walls in blood and talking about how he’s keeping a woman locked up in his mansion—like, at that point I’d just leave. Maybe call 911/equivalent on my way out.

And just when you think Erasmus Fry cannot get any worse since he is… you know… dead for several months at this point, we find out that the book he was particularly proud of and wanted to go back into print, was the one with the byline “She was his muse… and the slave of his lust!” FUCK THIS ASSHOLE!

Awww, Calliope’s back in her normal clothes with her traditional hairdo!

And just in case we think Dream’s thoughtfulness was a fluke, when Calliope says she’ll work to rewrite the laws she was bound by, because neither she nor her sisters had any agency in those, Dream assures her he’ll make sure to make those changes in his realm as well. Legend!

“I will not forgive what he has done, but I must forgive the man. Not for him. For me.” Translation: “I do not want to spend the rest of my eternal life feeling angry and hurt every time I think of this dude—I want him to become worm food like he deserves and let his memory fade into the sunless lands.” Kudos, Calliope.

And again, Dream being like “I don’t get it, I think you’re too nice, but it’s not about me, it’s about YOU and if that’s what you want, sure I’ll let him go”.

Meanwhile, in a nice little parallel, Richard Madoc is STILL not listening to a thing the women in his life are saying (i.e. not bothering to answer Nora’s questions).

Also, on one hand, yes, it’s very… Dream… of Dream, to stop the punishment he inflicted, but to do so in a way that’s even more punishing, but I think there’s another reason he did it too: at the end, Richard doesn’t even remember anymore who the woman he kept locked up was, which means he won’t be able to go after her and try to capture her again, he won’t be able to publicize what he did to her as some kind of vengeful, victim-blaming BS (see Erasmus wanting that one particular book to go back into print), and he won’t be able to try to go after her sisters either. He will no longer be able to reap any further benefit of the “gifts” he already took from her either, because he’s in no further condition to coordinate sequels, adaptations, interviews, whatever. Dream has made sure that Richard no longer has any avenue to hurt Calliope further or get further gains from the hurt he already inflicted.

Dream be like: okay, that was enough of an emotional roller coaster for now—the talk about our dead son will have to wait.

And at the end of it all, it is Calliope who touches him, not the other way around. ;_;

Finally, I love that we end this episode not with Richard or Dream, but with Calliope, happy and free. Perfect place to end it.

#The Sandman #Calliope #episode 11 rewatch #no RIPs this time #just trigger warnings for SA #this episode fucked me up #still love it

[cheegu3]

Would you make a yandere treasure reaction to the reader ( s/o ) dating their enemy . I do have a lot of ideas but i dont want you to get annoyed by me requesting a lot ^^

I promise u it’s not annoying I only appreciate you <3 🥺

tw / trigger warning: yandere themes, toxic relationships, unhealthy relationships, abuse, murder

pc: rutoboy, chs.graphy, teunnieeyyy, dont_eat_my_bread, vio722, TRSR_HQ, jes, luigi, watanabejunq, 6ruto, kpopbeleza, trsr hq

pairing: some are g.n & some f.m <3

a/n: Ignore the very bad dialogue lmao, I’m on vacation so I couldn’t proofread or fix it ;-; I’ll fix as soon as I can,,

~ Treasure - reaction to s/o dating their enemy ~

Hyunsuk

I wouldn’t take him long to figure out what was different about you. You falling in love was his biggest fear, but something he didn’t know until he had become really obsessed.

Hyunsuk noticed the way you giggled more, had sparkly eyes and rosy cheeks. How you often went home early if you had had a night out.

Naturally he was nosy and had to confirm his suspicions. Seeing his enemy be the one that was waiting for you made his blood boil. Even more so when you kissed him, right in front of Hyunsuk. How dare you?

Out of everyone, you had to choose his enemy? The one he hated the most in the world. He couldn’t stand one second of it - rational side of him went out the window as he approached you both immediately.

I hadn’t been more than five seconds since he had seen you kissing your boyfriend, till he was right in front of you.

‘‘ Hey, asshole! ‘‘ was probably the last thing his enemy heard in his life.

Jihoon

Surprised you would even dare to do that in the first place. With his overall strictness and sometimes intimidating aura - it would be almost delusional to think you could fall in love with someone while ignoring your notorious stalker.

He was always around. He was convinced you found him attractive. Therefor he foolishly thought he could get you through sleeping with you first. When you fell for his enemy, who he thought was very unconventionally “ attractive “ he was shocked.

You fell for his personality? Really, how predictable.

Now what was your favourite thing about him? Just asking so he can manipulate you by basically mirroring him.

‘‘ Yeah, so we go to paint together a lot. It was actually his hobby that I picked up on ‘‘ you smiled, innocently talking about your relationship, thinking he didn’t have any bad intentions.

Meanwhile, he was listening intently with an unreadable expression on his face - like a robot malfunctioning or reprogramming.

Yoshi

It could go two ways - either he goes completely psycho and kills his enemy, all of that person’s friends and your friends for your punishment - or, he accepts it bitterly for the time being, playing the smart long game instead.

The latter is less likely to happen since he is a violently possessive, ruthless and jealous yandere; who feels feelings very strongly, when he loves he loves deeply and passionately and when he hates he hates mercilessly and sadistically. 

If you rub it in his face with PDA or talking a bit too loudly of your new s/o to his liking, whether he’s near or his guard is spying on you - then your chances of him massacring people are a lot higher.

Basically don’t be loud, pretend you’re not in a relationship.

‘‘ One wrong move and I’ll ruin your life, y/n ‘‘ he sing-sung to himself while watching you from afar talking to your friends with a huge grin on your face.

Junkyu

He would be very sad and feel almost betrayed but then he’d quickly realise that you didn’t even know about his feelings, so he can’t blame you for it.

Maybe it was his enemy’s plan - to make you fall for them to get back at the person they hated the most, aka him.

Even if that wasn’t the case and his enemy actually liked you, which he doubted, Junkyu was still in quite a lot of distress.

The longer you were with his enemy, the longer he suspected your feelings were growing and he was losing sleep over thinking of what you were doing with them at all times during the day, every day.

He had to get rid of them, but act innocent to you. He had the perfect plan - one night after his enemy had left the english academy, Junkyu snuck up on them. The place was quite deserted, luckily they had been the last person to leave.

He dragged his enemy to the alleyway and said he needed to talk to them, only to threaten them and their whole family.

‘‘ Who the fuck are you? ‘‘ Junkyu’s enemy stared at him blankly in confusion for a few seconds but when they saw the stare the love-crazed man gave them, they realised he wasn’t joking.

Your partner disappeared without a trace that same day.

The next day when he saw you crying he came up to you, disguising himself as a new student that was empathetic and wanted to be your friend. He quickly helped you get over them by painting them as a bully and an awful person, which made you lose feelings immediately.

Mashiho

Also jealous but calculated. He will try his best to keep his obvious desires under wraps but it’ll prove itself to be a big challenge.

He wants nothing more than to go up right to his enemy and punch him in his face. In his daydreams he did this and you declared him a hero, a man worthy of your love.

But then he’d come to his senses and realise that his enemy hadn’t done anything wrong, to you at least.

He hasn’t hurt or upset you. He had actually proved to be the perfect boyfriend so far. So really if he’d try that, he’d be arrested and be hated by you forever which was less than ideal.

Therefor he befriended his enemy by manipulation and slowly pulled the strings behind the scenes to make him self-sabotage, and just like that you become his not too long after.

‘‘ Hey, I’m Mashiho, can I sit here? ‘‘

Jaehyuk

There’s always something with you, isn’t it? Unlike the others, you knew very well that your now boyfriend was your stalker and borderline bully’s enemy.

‘‘ You’ve really outdone yourself this time, haven’t you? ‘‘ he said as he was passing by you, shoulder pushing you harshly and knocking you off balance.

You had done things in the past to piss him off on purpose so he knew that this was also the case when he found out you’d done the one thing he had warned you not to no matter how much you wanted to hurt him back - date the person he hated the most.

Jaehyuk’s enemy was his childhood best friend who he had a falling out with as they entered high school. He wasn’t popular or had insane visuals like your stalker but he was sweet, nerdy and still good-looking.

Jaehyuk didn’t act out harshly when the news reached him, even though he seethed with anger when he found out.

When some time had passed with you pretending to like his enemy, it slowly became more real and now you knew you didn’t just have to protect yourself, but also your boyfriend, from the hands of the psycho who was obsessed with you.

Asahi

He loved you a lot of course, but he couldn’t accept this, not even for a little bit.

He had offered you so much and you had rejected him so easily - thrown it all away for what, someone like the worst person he knew? Someone who doesn’t deserve to be near you, let alone be alive.

He hated you for having that power over him, to never be able suffocate the strong passion or love he felt for you. He just needed to have you or he’d die.

But he didn’t need to do this, he was rich, and therefor had connections and could have whatever thing he desired.

‘‘ Kill him, and make it painful ‘‘

His bodyguards killed his enemy in mere hours after the news had traveled quickly to him. Although you didn’t know it, you had been officially marked as his - and now, no one dared touch you.

Yedam

Bang yedam was a very strong, fierce and commanding person. So naturally he’d react the same way as say Asahi or Hyunsuk.

His enemy would be gone very quickly. The relationship you thought you had started and was very excited about, would be gone before you could even tell your friends or family; leaving a bigger void in you than you thought it would.

How were you supposed to tell others you grieved a person that had never existed to them?

That’s why he knew he had to do it quickly. To make you go mad and then love him when no one else believed you.

‘‘ I believe you, and I’m the only one who does, y/n ‘‘

Doyoung

He’ll beg and cry, hoping it will somehow make you see him as a better choice or at least - make you break up with your new partner.

Obviously, it didn’t work. What was in his mind a romantic gesture straight out of a rom-com looked pathetic and creepy in real life. He fell to his knees in public, clinging onto your coat and trying to give you puppy eyes.

His eyes quickly turned glossy while the tears ran down quickly down his cheeks. You huffed in complete disbelief. 

‘’ What the fuck are you doing? ‘’ you screamed and pushed him off.

You felt angry, thinking he had a personal vendetta against you and was trying to ruin your life or make you the most embarrassed he could; whichever it was, it worked. 

You avoided him a lot after that which would absolutely shatter his heart. It was so unfair. Why were you so blind to the true love that was right in front of you?

Haruto

There was no doubt that he’d be so mad he would see red. His friends would get worried after he suddenly switched after glancing at his phone and seeing his intel text him you were in a relationship, with his enemy.

He would walk around, mumbling to himself while he clenched his fist so tightly it turned red, as well as biting his lips to the point they turned red too.

‘‘ Haruto? What’s wrong? ‘‘ his friends anxiously asked, tapping his shoulder several times.

His friends would get no response from him whatsoever, because he was waiting for something - news from his driver that you had been successfully taken away in his car.

That was the only logical response he could think of quickly. If he kept you away from your boyfriend, nothing would happen - he might forget about you after some time, but if Haruto is lucky he gets to kill him with his own hands if he doesn’t.

Jeongwoo

Trying his hardest to make you two break up by faking being the wise, supportive best friend. 

This way he could implant thoughts like regret or anxiety but innocently and make your brain get lost, going down a slippery slope until you’re convinced your boyfriend doesn’t like you or treat you well.

Then came the second bit of his plan, implant ideas that he was attractive and really the true person you wanted. He did this by bribing people to ask for photographs, like his pictures on Instagram or give him compliments.

‘‘ Woah, you’re so good-looking Jeonwoo! ‘‘

Any time this would happen, he saw how your eyes immediately darted towards Jeongwoo to then turn into you checking him out, acknowledging the comments to be true.

Junghwan

It would be a tough pill to swallow, but was else was he supposed to do. He felt angry, and pretty depressed which was something that was surprising.

He thought he would’ve acted on it, in anger and immediately - but pleasantly surprised himself by giving in. However, it didn’t feel good. He was never someone to give up and was feeling very much like a failure; that was until you rang his doorbell, a week later.

‘‘ Hey! Can I come in? ‘‘ you said, weirdly cheerily for someone who hasn’t talked to him in a week.

‘‘ Uh...your boyfriend? ‘‘ he asked, confused as to why you’d want to come in.

You blushed visibly.

‘‘ Oh we broke up, he didn’t give me any attention or love, we didn’t even kiss! ‘‘ she smiled while looking at you now, ‘‘ I think I deserve better ‘‘

He was the luckiest guy alive.

#yandere kpop #yandere treasure

[purplesurveys]

1627

As kids, were there any toys that you & your sibling(s) used to fight over? Nah. Toys we never fought over, but pissed each other off and pushed each other’s buttons nonetheless. It was always like, blaming a sibling for a torn curtain or broken plate that caused the fights.

Do you own any coloring books as an adult? What kind(s)? I still have the ones I bought from around 2017 but I haven’t touched them in a couple of years. They’re the adult coloring books and are all city-themed.

Have you ever tried Raspberry Pepsi? Did you like it? No, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one in person.

Do you remember how old you were, the first time you used a computer? I was 3. It was 2001 and my dad used to let me play Need For Speed on his PC complete with the steering wheel and pedal simulators/controllers.

What kinds of ice-cream do you have in your freezer right now, if any? I believe we have a tub of cookies and cream. I always forget we have it, lol.

Do you have any idea when you’ll next attend a wedding? Whose will it be? No idea. That’d be either Angela and Hans’ or my cousin and Kat’s, as they’re the only two engaged couples I know of personally.

Name someone you know who has green eyes. Nobody in real life.

As a kid, did you own any items of clothing with a Disney character on them? Yeah I had a lot of Minnie Mouse stuff before. I also had this cute green Winnie the Pooh dress that I owned when I was 3.

^Do you own any such items as an adult? Nope, I’m like 99.9% positive I don’t own anything Disney-themed now, apart from my Disney+ subscription LOL.

Is there any food in your house that has orange packaging? We have a few packs of Neoguri instant noodles in Mild, and I believe they come in orange, yeah.

Do you enjoy any songs by Phil Collins? Apart from You’ll Be In My Heart, not really.

Have you ever used a walkie-talkie? I’ve tried, but the ones I do encounter are always broken so I’ve never actually used one successfully.

Tell me about the last conversation you had that sparked your interest. What did you discuss, and with whom? My sister and I talked about the films we watched separately last night – I with The Menu, and she with a Korean horror called Unlocked. I was telling her how much I enjoyed The Menu...and what she shared was how she watched Unlocked with the lights off and ended up getting both a nightmare and sleep paralysis last night lol.

Do you own anything that is crocheted? Yeahhh Kata once gave me a crocheted face mask that her mom made, but I’ve since lost it :( I’m sure it’s still somewhere in the house, just became another victim of the family’s tendency to misplace stuff.

Any idea what you were doing at 3PM last Wednesday? Work. What exactly I was doing though, I can’t really remember.

Do you watch any of the dating shows or are they not your sort of thing? Not my thing. Do you own any bath bombs? What scent(s)? No. We don’t even have a bathtub.

Have you ever had an appliance in your home break at a particularly inconvenient time? What happened? Not that I can remember.

Are there any movies you enjoy that are in black-and-white? Roman Holiday is a big big big favorite of mine.

As a child, did you ever do any baking, with your mum, grandma, or another relative? What kind of things did you bake together? I used to bake cookies with my aunt (mom’s sister-in-law).

In the last week, have you had any dreams that were strange or amusing? I always have strange dreams, yeah.

What will you most likely be doing in 3 hours’ time? Watching either Cong’s vlogs or Run BTS. Probably the former though as he’s been my favorite evening ritual these days.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Down Time...

Alright...That should about do it.

*Kuripa, Rantaro and Kibin all sit on the first-floor lounge while Nico on the scaffolding closes down the computer and climbs down the ladder towards them.

The analysis is complete, and now the data just needs to process into the Symettra. I don’t know if it will be finished in time, but...It will most certainly come down to the wire at best.

*sigh* I suppose it will have to do. Thank you, Nico.

Hey, you brought it up before, but...what IS this “Symettra” thing? Isn’t that like...an Overwatch character?

It’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later.

...

...You don’t have to look so grouchy...

So...What happened back then is still playing on your mind?

...Rantaro said he’s answer my questions as soon as we got back...

...You will...won’t you?

...With as much honesty as I can, but since the Symettra is Nico’s secret project, I’m not the one to ask.

But if you wanna rapidfire questions, go for it?

To be honest...Giving it a bit of thought, I only really have ONE. And I’m the sure that you know what that is...

*He leans in.

Why the fuck were Shuichi Saihara and Kaede Akamatsu even HERE?

Akamatsu said that you called her here, but...Kibin told me afterwards you didn’t mean to. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

...Well, that’s complicated...

Then you’d better start making it real simple, real soon...

Alright, alright...I got into contact with Kaede and Shuichi the same way I did you. You went on the ERR0RM3SS4GE website and I initiated a direct call to you.

A couple of hours before that, I had sent an anonymous letter to Club La Vitesse to inform someone that I needed their help. And that to get in contact with me, they needed to use this method.

That “someone” being the person sitting next to you right now.

Kibin!?

...

Yeah. In case you hadn’t already figured it out, Kibin was the one who cleared out half the factory before we arrived. I figured her covert ops skills could...come in handy.

Luckily for us, she agreed almost instantly...as soon as we showed her the pay of course.

Oh, of fucking course it was the money.

Heh...You know how it is for me, tiger. For the right price? I’ll help anyone. Plus, I can’t always rely on you to be my sugar daddy.

Right, but...how the fuck did Shuichi and Kaede get roped into this?

Something happened that I wasn’t expecting. At around the same time I informed Kibin to contact me, Shuichi and Kaede ALSO logged into the website.

Seeing as the source was from Club La Vitesse, I of course, assumed that it was Kibin who had logged in, so I infiltrated the PC and started a call...Only to be caught unpleasantly off guard.

You know, I WAS thinking that this method could easily backfire. For a worldwide hacker organization, this isn’t very smart.

Well, excuse you! It’s one of the only safe and secure ways we can go about our business.

Digital mails, phone calls and video calls can all be tracked by the government and Future Foundation. With the ERR0RM3SS4GE original algorithm, we don’t need to risk that.

Sure, it’s got it’s bugs, but...at least we don’t get interrupted.

Well...you DID get interrupted. By Shuichi and Kaede...

He’s got a point.

Hmph!

But why didn’t you just...end the call?

By that time they had noticed me, and if I didn’t come up with an excuse, they could have easily reported to the authorities or their bosses that ERR0RM3SS4GE was stalking them.

I had to think of something, so...I decided to call them over here to help out.

*Rantaro bows his head.

But as you know, that didn’t work out in the long run. I apologize...and I accept whatever blame you lay on me.

...

Gonna be honest Rantaro...

A part of me wants to lunge at you and tear your head off...but...

That’s less to do with your actions and more because I’m just...SO...ANGRY...right now...

I understand...

I have one more question for you though.

Those kids...they KNEW you...You’ve met them before, haven’t you?

...

But where? And how?

Actually, I think I already know the answer. I just want him to confirm it.

Rantaro...You’re...not from this world, are you?

...

You’re one of the 16 people who participated in Dangarnonpa V3, right? That’s how you know them. You come from the same world they do.

...Yeah. That’s right. Actually, those two have spent the last few years looking for me.

My Ultimate Talent is the Ultimate Survivor...Not only did I participate in Dangaronpa V3, but I ALSO participated in the Killing Game BEFORE that. And I was the penultimate winner.

Seriously...!?

Yeah...But that’s a story for another time.

Aside from me, there’s only one member of the original lineup that’s still missing. And...Kaede and I have a notably interesting history...

Interesting in what regard?

Because for the longest time...Kaede thought that she had murdered me...

...

Elaborate...

*Rantaro takes a few minutes to explain the entire situation, from start to finish.

That’s...wow...That’s a lot to take in...

For real. I’d heard bits and pieces of this story but...not the full thing.

Later on, when everyone came upon my body, everyone was mystified as to why and how I was killed. Due to the altered crime scene and nobody other than Tsumugi knowing what really had transpired, Kaede was shocked and horrified at the thought that she had killed me instead of her intended target.

As a result, everyone was fooled into believing that Kaede was the culprit during the Class Trial, including Kaede herself, and it was made worse by the fact that she was unable to expose Tsumugi during the trial.

That’s so...FUCKING unfair...! Guess Shirogane’s not as inclined to the game as we all thought she was.

I doubt Tsumugi intends to participate in the Killing Game this time around, so it wouldn’t be a worry.

No, she won’t...Because we’re gonna stop Survivor before it happens.

...I like the way you think.

But...on that note, I need to apologize. I believe that I may be partially to blame for Kaede’s actions.

Wh-Why?

Something was eating at her. You noticed it too, right? She wasn’t in her right frame of mind from the moment she showed up. I don’t know what’s going on with her, but seeing me and being reminded of what happened...that guilt she felt...it probably didn’t help.

After the Future Foundation refused to work with me in light of the whole “kill Katagiri” thing, a part of me realized that Shuichi and Kaede might refuse too...

And that’s...fine and all, but...I didn’t think she would attack us and try to steal the drive...

It’s alright Rantaro. I’m sorry I got mad earlier.

Does that mean...?

That our partnership and arrangement is still on? Obviously! I’ve come too far to back out now.

No matter what’s transpiring, and no matter if the Future Foundation comes hunting me down for this, someone HAS to do something. WE have to do something!

But...I am really tired...and sad...and angry right now.

It’s ok. We won’t attack Central Park until tomorrow night. Take a day to rest and recover should you need it.

Actually...about that...

*Everyone looks at Nico.

I’ve decided. We have an arrangement with the rest of our group, so...the place is yours tonight Kuripa.

Don’t break or touch any of the equipment obviously, but if you want to relax here tonight, you’ll have plenty of space to.

Are you sure Miss Himuro?

I think you could use it. Just...take the time to catch up with your girlfriend. That’s ok with you, right Rantaro?

It’s more than fine. See you tomorrow night.

*After packing up, and after a quick pat on Kuripa’s shoulder, Rantaro follows Nico to the elevator. Nico gives on last wave of goodbye before she and Rantaro head down.

...*sigh*.

*Kuripa leans forward, with his head in his hands. Kibin looks at him with worry.

Hey...You ok...?

...No, I’m NOT ok! I’m very...very...VERY NOT OK! Ugh!

*He pauses for a moment to compose himself.

...I...I meant what I said...you know? Kaede and Shuichi, I...I only ever loved them...They’re great kids and...they’re wonderful to be around...And look what I DID! I lost control, I let my anger get the better of me...and Kaede almost DIED!

Not just that...I punched Kyoko...I abandoned Boss and the others...I even forced Maya away!

...

...I’m...I’m pushing away the only friends I’ve ever had...The only people who ever gave me a place to belong-What...

What the fuck am I doing Kibin...!?

*sigh*...

*Kibin pulls herself up the sofa and nestles in closer to him. She rests her head on his shoulder.

I’m gonna be real Kuripa. Aside from Kanjiro and his late wife, I didn’t really have anyone I considered a friend before I met you...So if you want advice then...I’m the wrong person to give it to you.

...But I can damn well try...

...!

*Kibin suddenly grasps Kuripa’s face.

You’re not a monster Kuripa...You’re a hero! You’re just...a hero on a different side.

Not the wrong side...Just...YOUR side...And I’m on your side too.

So is Rantaro, so is Nico...Hell, even Maya is probably still somewhere on your side. You DON’T have to be the mindless, murderous, hostile creature that they think you are. Believe me, that much I know.

Do ya...?

I’m a hitwoman honey. In case you forgot. But now, I spend less of my life hurting people and more time helping them. And that’s because I met YOU.

You have your issues...You have...a LOT of issues, but...you ARE doing the right thing, even if your methods aren’t...let’s say, “morally acceptable.”

And soon, the Future Foundation...if they are the family you think they are? They’ll understand that.

...Heh...Thanks...

*Kuripa hugs her. The two share an embrace for a short while.

Although...Something else just occurred to me...

Now that Rantaro and Nico have left...and they said we had the place to ourselves tonight...I’ve just realized, this is the first time you and I have been in complete privacy together for...well...MONTHS!

Holy shit, you’re right...Hm...

Welp...Since you and me are completely alone...are you thinking what I’M thinking~?

Hmmmmm~? What’s thaat~?

*Kibin pulls her cellphone out of her pocket.

Want me to show you the pictures I took of the stray cats around the club!?

Um! Of FUCKING-COURSE I do!

#danganronpa survivor #danganronpa #oc #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #danganrebirth voices #kuripa kurafto #kibin hatsudoki #rantaro amami #nico himuro #hatsurafto #the monster in me arc

[world-of-tanks-blitz-cheaym]

World of Tanks Blitz codes: August | Pocket Gamer

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Jump to content. Or even just a simple IP ban. If they're just scanning for cheat engine being attached then once I have the code responsible for fps, then I can simply write a. Since you are on pc, can you dig into the game folder and edit the graphics options settings page directly? As to anti-cheat and running some other software to modify parameters I do remember that trick, but iirc rhey fixed it pretty quickly. At least when I tried it 2 years ago it didn't work. Now that I've gained some experience with reverse engineering games, I wouldn't mind trying to get on blitz. In before ban hammer! WMd76, on 21 February - AM, said:. WMd76, on 21 February - PM, said:. Yeah, I'm back. Let's not make a big deal about this. Risottogeddon, on 22 February - PM, said:. The address holds the value of the frame cap in plain numbers instead of a flag like value. So what I did, was just use Cheat Engine and scan for the value of the cap, Then switch to 30 fps mode, and scan for that after a battle since the setting in settings only takes effect after a battle has started. Then scan for 30 after that battle and switch to 60 fps mode, and repeat. Eventually I found 3 addresses, one was a static address. This means it is always the same offset from the beginning of the exe. So I played with this value first and low and behold it was the right one lol. WMd76, on 23 February - PM, said:. WMd76, on 24 February - AM, said:. Your device knows where all the enemy tanks are. Enemy camo would not exist. Let me ask you this though. How are you so sure they handled it that way? I was in the middle of writing a few counter points on how they could handle it, but then I realized that in replays you can see both teams right? It's been a while. If you can, then either you are correct or the server sends you the information post battle. Then saves the replay file with this additional info. I dunno. To add the obvious here, I wouldn't try that because that's actually cheating. Which isn't my goal, it was just to unlock the fps cap for people on PC. Community Forum Software by IP. Does the game check for memory injection? Page 1 of 2 1 2 Next. I'm curious for one main reason. I'm tempted to try to find a way to unlock fps for PC since this game for some unknown reason will not play well with G-Sync, and my monitor is hz anyways. If you don't know what I mean by 'memory injection', I honestly don't blame you. I suck at wording things. To keep it simple, when you run a program it's code, and the variables and flags are loaded into memory, or RAM. When this happens, each byte of RAM the game uses can be accessed via a memory viewer I. Visual Studio or even something as simple as Cheat Engine. When you view the memory addresses, depending on what program you use, you can change the values within the addresses. I'm curious if the game checks for this and will ban, because I'd love to find a way to get fps and I'm tired of waiting for WG to add it. I believe that there is an anti-cheat engine in place in Blitz. I don't really know it's exact extent though. You could always try making a reroll account and testing it that way though. Certified Batignolles Chatillon 25t addict. That was shown to work in the past. I've killed a lot of braincells in my life. Like, a lot. I could use a memory injection. If it burns when I pee, does that mean I wouldn't be a good fireman? Well if I do get banned for 'cheating' let it be known that for the record it was actually very easy, did it within 10 minutes. If I may be so curious, was it a simple edit or did it involve a 3rd party tool, or Edited by acrisis, 21 February - PM. WMd76, on 21 February - AM, said: Well if I do get banned for 'cheating' let it be known that for the record it was actually very easy, did it within 10 minutes. Smh jk. The address that holds your fps cap is wotblitz. Risottogeddon, on 22 February - PM, said: so uh how did you find the address, because i am mildly stupid. You know, sprites, pixies, fairies and maybe even unicorns. WMd76, on 23 February - PM, said: The address holds the value of the frame cap in plain numbers instead of a flag like value. I hate Annihilator spammers I need more tanks Wallet Warrior: Loyal Original M60 owner. Reply to quoted posts Clear. Sign In Username or email:. Remember me. Sign in anonymously.

[mcrmadness]

🎥🩸🕍🏢💻☠️👻👾

WOW, that was a whole bunch of asks in one! Thank you!

Altho I could not, for the life of me, figure out what that blood drop was! I was also struggling with that third one because I did not find it from the list at all (for some reason some of these symbols look different in general?) but because it was a synagogue, I assumed it could have been the question about religion. Feel free to message me again if you remember what those were supposed to be!

---

🎥 Fave film

I have two: Beetlejuice; and Monty Python's Life of Brian.

⛪ What is your religion

None, as I'm an atheist. But of the nicer type who doesn't shove their atheism onto other people's faces. Those are as annoying as Christians who do that with their religion.

🏢 Your job (You don’t have to be specific) or dream job if you don’t work

Currently a student, previously I have been working as a horse groom.

💻 Desktop/Laptop/iPad/other

My PC! I also had to get a laptop because of school and I'm using that whenever I can't use the PC.

☠ Something that angers you

Uhhhh, so many things. Like, I'm not a generally angry person even, and it's really difficult to make me mad cos I'm usually quite chill and won't get mad even when provoked. (I know it annoys those people more to not react than if they got the reaction they're looking for.)

But there sure are some things that make me see red, and I think injustice is one of these things. Like, I cannot stand seeing ANYONE getting in a situation where it's them vs. more than two other people, I cannot stand seeing bullying nor discrimination. Usually if I'm the target, I don't bother doing anything about it, but if I see anyone else facing that... boy do I turn into a different person there, I stop being able to think and I will step in to defend the other person. Hell, I have done this even in my previous job when I knew my coworker was right and our other coworker wrong, and he was just grilling this other person about it and I just snapped and said that "I actually remember the thign as XYZ" and this other person just immediately let it go. Which was a bit of a surprise to me because he usually hated me for reasons I still don't know, and still he just let it go immediately when I opened my mouth.

So yeah, call that the older sibling mood but it's very deep in me to protect others when I sense them being mistreated. So: people who are assholes and treat others badly really anger me.

👻 Do you believe in ghosts

Kinda yeah. I'm still highly skeptic but I just find this world too boring if we don't have even ghosts.

👾 Do you believe in aliens

Yes, but I wouldn't say it's a matter of belief. Space just is so huge place that it doesn't matter what you do or don't believe it, there might very well be life somewhere else too. n fact, already as a teen that was so sick of humanity, I used to believe that "aliens" exist and they probably know about us too but the human species just is so fucked up and horrible that they don't want to contact us, and I honestly wouldn't blame them - I wouldn't want to have anything to do with humans either if I was from outer space :D

Get to know me.

#Anonymous #ask games

[haitaini]

stunt

nahoya kawata x reader

genre: smut

synopsis: you’re sick and tired of your boyfriend yelling everytime he plays video games so you decide to tell him to stop. however, shit did not go as planned.

warnings: spit, he slaps u in the face, calls you a whore, slut, but also lots of praises, you call him sir, not proofread cause im tired, lemme know if i missed something

words: 1.8k

minors PLEASE do not interact, reblogs are appreciated!

you roll your eyes for the upteenth time, nahoya’s yelling reaching you from upstairs. you get him actually, you really do, valorant is a very tilting game. so you dont exactly blame him especially when he’s playing ranked.

imagine playing a game that determines your position in that said game and you get teamed up with shitty players that don’t know what they’re doing? yeah you’d be yelling into the mic as well.

“how the fuck are you difusing?! there’s one last enemy and we dont know where he is! we’re gonna lose you fucking shit player.” you hear him yell again and you decided enough is enough, and go up to him to shut him up.

you slam the door open and he immediately glances at you, mutters a small hey baby and goes back to focusing on his game. “nahoya, baby please,” you walk over to his chair and fluff his curly hair a bit, “you’re so fucking loud, my love,” he nods and puckers his lips, asking for a kiss.

you lower yourself to him and press a soft kiss to his lips and head to your shared bed behind him, lay down comfortably and take out your phone, scrolling down for a bit.

three minutes passed. three minutes passed since you’ve told him that hes too loud before he started yelling again.

you grab one of his pillows and throw it at him, making him completely miss his shot and gets shot instead. He turns around to look at you, an annoyed grin plastered on his face and you feel chills run through your spine.

“once this game is finished, you are not seeing the sun tomorrow.” he murmurs and you visibly flinch at his tone. you look at the door next to his desk and wonder if you can sneak out of the room without him noticing you.

you decide to give it a shot.

you muffle a giggle and get on all fours as you start crawling towards the door, then realize that you gotta go to the other side by passing through from under his desk. you wince and decided to test your luck.

you reach his desk and about to get in when you see him reaching for his pc to turn it off. you widen your eyes and try to turn back before he grips a fistful of your hair and pulls you towards him from between his legs.

you squeal and squeeze your eyes shut before giggling and resting your head on his thighs. “hello, beloved,” you say and he just grins at you. you feel weak with him looking down on you like that, and your boyfriend noticed that, lowered himself to you and smashed his lips onto yours, deepening the kiss right off the bat.

you let out a soft moan and grab at his sweats tightly, his tongue invading your mouth like he’s suck the life out of you. you whine at him and he chuckles at you, pulling away a little bit, lips still touching. “you’re so fuckin’ pathetic, pup,” he murmurs to your lips, “i haven’t done shit, yet you look like a wrecked mess, disgusting.”

your eyes are lidded, looking at him with literal hearts in your eyes as you wait for his next move. he backs his chair so you get more space to be between his legs, starts untying at his sweats and pulls his cock out, stroking it once or twice, letting out soft moans before he grabs you by your hair again and forces his cock down your throat.

“god, fuuuuck baby, you’re so fuckin’ good for me,” he moans as he feels your throat restricting around his cock, his eyes rolling back to his skull. he grins as he feels your throat relaxing and taking more of him into your mouth, tongue stroking the pulsing vein under his cock.

you pull away, a string of saliva connecting your lips to the head of his dick, and look up to him to find him panting and grinning at you. “open that pretty mouth, baby,” he murmurs and you follow his order and open your mouth and stick your tongue out, already knowing what he’ll do.

he spits into your mouth, string of his saliva stretching to your tongue. you let out a loud moan at the action as he pulls you up to sit on his lap, and starts kissing you sloppily, moving to your neck, biting and sucking at that one spot that makes your legs shake.

you let out whimpers after whimpers and they only make him lose himself even more, wanting nothing but to stick his cock in you and fuck you the way you deserve.

he takes your hoodie off of you and quickly leaves more kisses all the way to your chest before you grab his hair and pull, causing him to let out a groan and look at you. you looked like a fuckin’ mess, and he wanted to mess you up even more, so he picks you up, wrapping your legs around his waist and drops you to your shared bed.

he takes your panties off of you and you feel his finger rubbing soft circles on your clit. you gasp at the feeling and he hisses at your wetness, clear liquid immediately covering his fingertips. “what a whore, you got this wet over what? sucking my dick? yikes baby,” he chuckles at you, causing humiliation to creep up on you. you whine at his words and wrap your arms around his neck to bring him as close as you can to you, but he takes both of your hands and pins them above your head. “dont get too greedy, you dont deserve shit yet,” he murmurs into your ears, his breath hot on your ear.

you start bucking your hips at his hand but he was having none of that. he smushes both your cheeks together before slapping you across the face. you let out a loud moan at that, feeling your eyes tear up as you look at him.

he chuckles and grabs your cheeks again, “you look so fuckin’ pretty when you cry, my love, you should do it some more don’t ya think?” he asks you and brings his fingers down to your lips. you open your mouth to bring his fingers into your mouth, tongue immediately swirling around them and sucking at them.

he pulls out his fingers and takes them down to your cunt, slipping back and forth on your slit causing you to whine at his teasing. “‘hoya please, please please do something, can’t handle it anymore,” you beg, voice cracking at your frustration. “please please do somethin,” he mocks your words and chuckles at you, causing you to tear up once again.

“yeah, thats the fuckin face i wanna see, look at that pathetic face you’re doing now, so fuckin’ stupid and pretty,” you whine at him and you let the tears roll down your face and his grin widens at you. “so fuckin’ pretty, what do you want me to do, hm?” he asks as he leaves more sloppy kisses to your neck. “fuck me, god please just fuck me sir, i need you inside me more than anything,” he groans at your wrecked voice, “fuck, okay my love, spread your legs for me,”

he gets in between your legs, next thing you feel is his cock stroking your cunt back and forth on your clit, you let out a moan as he lowers his cock onto your hole, watching his tip glisten from your slick. “look at how wet you are, you pathetic whore, what got you this worked up, pretty?” he asks and you just whimper in response.

fed up from the constant whining, he grunts as he pushes into you, your eyes squeezed shut and moans started pouring from your mouth. your hands moving to grab at his arm and the sheets underneath you, “yeah, baby. scream for me, go on,” is all he lets out before he finally bottoms out inside of you.

“do i not fuck you enough? you’re almost as tight as a fuckin’ virgin baby.” he chuckles at you lowers his head to yours and captures your lips into a kiss, distracting you from the intrusion in your cunt.

“move, please sir,” you beg him with lidded eyes and he feels his control snap in half. he pulls out all the way out, tip only inside and slams into you, causing him to groan at the way you’re clenching around him. moans and whines choked up in your throat as he kept on slamming into you again and again until he was drilling into your cunt at a relentless pace.

he’s gripping at your hips with such force you were so sure theyre gonna bruise, but fuck you dont care enough right now. you can feel yourself going absolutely brainless for him from his words. it hurts, but god did you love it, you love it more than anything. you love him more than anything.

“filthy whore, you look so perfect like this, brain melting out of your stupid head, not knowing what to do except for taking my dick like the good whore you are.” he groans out as his cock twitches inside you, signaling his release soon.

he takes his thumb and starts pressing quick and firm circles onto your clit, as his cock drags in and out of you at an animalistic pace. you feel yourself seizing up as the cord in you snaps, tripping over the edge. “‘m gonna cum, hoya fuck, ‘m gonna cum,” you whine loudly at him as he lets out groans at the way you’re tightening up around him.

“f-fuck, go ahead then, cum for me like the pretty little slut you are,” he lets out before you release all over his cock, which caused him to cum inside you spurt after spurt, letting out long moans before crashing down on you.

both of you panting, your legs shaking from the power of your orgasm and you hear your boyfriend giggle at you. he pulls out of you slowly, letting out a hiss at the cold air hitting his cock. “you’re the best babe,” he mumbles, grinning at you as he pushes his face to your neck. “i love you so much, did you know that?” which you nod to and smile at him. “i love you more, nahoya,” you yawn as you pull him closer to you, wanting to sleep with him.

“but please, next time you want to play, dont yell so much,” you murmur and you hear him chuckling at you, letting out a we’ll see.

the ending sucked ass holy shit sorry abt that

#tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers smut #smiley #smiley x reader #smiley smut #nahoya #nahoya kawata #nahoya smut #nahoya x reader

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E129 (March 16, 2021)

Tonight’s guests are Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe!

Matt, on DMing Luc’s Revivify: “That was weird. It’s one thing when it happens because of player action and circumstances and the choices they make. When it’s entirely on me, unintentional, and just realizing different chess pieces you’ve set up, that’s rough.” It was especially rough since this was a child NPC related to a PC. “I was hoping somebody had a spell slot left.” He kept in mind that there are two clerics in the room and that they could resurrect the next day even if the Revivify went poorly. “A good chance, since it’s his first time. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I think we’ll be okay, we’ll see how this goes. It was really stressful in the moment! I did not set out to have that happen, but when I realized what was going to happen, I tried to see it through.” He wouldn’t have prevented a chance to bring him back. “There may have been an offshoot short-run series of games to find a way to bring him back. I would have found some way to correct the circumstance so the players could feel good about moving forward with the story and there was no undue punishment beyond their control.”

Taliesin on Cad’s response: “This is a big thing if you’re a cleric. It was very much coming in like an EMT. Everything should be fine... hopefully. Just focused in and got it done. The minute things started to go south it was like, okay, that’s the next problem.”

On Yeza’s feelings: “It is a very complicated situation. I think he, much like how Veth is trying to figure out what it is that she wants, I think he’s trying to help her find that while also figuring it out for himself. I think Yeza’s also noticing that because Veth’s the more active of the two of them she also takes the weight of the responsibility and the blame for things when they go wrong, unnecessarily. Especially when he himself acknowledges that he’s partially at fault for even dragging everyone in with the Conclave. As much as he’s appreciative for them coming back for him, there’s a lot of back and forth. He’s filled with a lot of regret, too, but he’s very much trying to convince Veth that it’s a burden that she doesn’t have to keep to herself, that they can share it and work through it together.” Matt mentions that, as an actor, he really loves exploring interactions between characters first and foremost. “Especially when you don’t know where it’s going to go.” He also praises Sam as a scene partner - “I really cherish that.”

How does Caduceus feel about Revivify and Speak with Dead? “Speak with Dead is an interesting middle ground, because he knows that it’s not actually speaking with the dead. It’s really just-- it’s almost medical, really. This is just reactivating a brain at a certain point. It’s practically just a muscle twitch at this point. That doesn’t really prod him in that direction. Revivify is interesting, because it had never really come up. At first I thought of it as bending the rules, but it’s not bending the rules. You knock over a plant, you replant it, you don’t stare at it and go ‘Well, that’s over.’ This is just doing the work. No, we can bring this thing back to health. This is all part of the circle of life, that sometimes we can save something. Especially given the stress that he’s put himself through over the past year of being with these people. He’s started to think of himself a bit as a battlefield medic, and triage is just part of the deal, and it’s completely acceptable.”

Did Trent really just want to talk? “Yeah, that circumstance, as it came together, Trent would never have arrived if there wasn’t an indication that there was some kind of infiltration or attack. Even beyond that, it was Jester breaking the concentration on her charm on that one guard when she created her duplicate.” The guards’ job is to inform a member of the Cerberus Assembly, and Trent lived the closest. “He didn’t know who it was, didn’t have any expectation necessarily. The minute he saw the illusion, he knew a powerful magic user was involved.” Seeing Caleb was an unexpected surprise. “I don’t think he wanted to throw down necessarily. He was more interested in figuring out exactly what the nature of this was.” Matt had multiple battlemaps that didn’t get used. “They managed to cleverly out-maneuver him in his surprise of seeing them.” The Nein rocketed up his priority list after that very quickly. Taliesin: “We’re so fucked.”

On Cad being “Uncle Caduceus” to Luc: “It’s the thing he misses most about home, is being a juvenile shit. It’s nice to be able to express that part of him again, as opposed to the serious, life-threatening, constant intensity. I’m very at home just being a little difficult.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Beau! (_rumor_king, photography by kourtyardproductions on Instagram)

On Marion: “Like a lot of people in this whole narrative from the beginning, getting swept up in things larger than her and trying to adapt. This is a circumstance she’s avoided for a long time. She’s having a rough time in some ways, but simultaneously, she’s enduring. Like a mother would. She’s adapting, she’s making it work. Without much of a choice, you just kind of do the best you can and lean on the people around you to help you where they can. Luckily she has a daughter there. She’s probably surprising herself at how well she’s doing given the circumstances.” Matt talks about how weird it is to feel proud of character he’s created. “Of the many things Marion is incredible at, she’s a studier of the human condition. She’s seen and heard the stories of so many. That gives her a very special perspective. She can see elements of that fractured individual within Caleb, and knowing the good that he’s brought to his friends, and knowing he’s possibly saved her life from bad circumstances, she couldn’t not speak up. She very easily falls into that role of maternal comforter, because it’s one of the many things she’s really good at, she enjoys it, and she can see well when people need it.” He’s been enjoying having Marion along for this (despite the difficult circumstances) because he was always a little sad that they only got to see her for short periods of time.

On the Blooming Grove’s safety: “He’s afraid that it’s a premonition. He’s not pinned it down, but he’s happy to let his imagination wander. He at the very least feels like there’s a reason he’s having these thoughts, and that there’s a reason to go there. He’s a big believer that these things don’t just happen. He’s more likely to think that there’s a good reason to go versus a danger to go. He’s had a couple of ominous warnings lately, and he’s not used to them and not a fan. He’s more likely to read something like that as, there is something there waiting for you that you have to discover. There is something that is going to be helpful to you, even if it hurts.”

On Astrid: “While maybe not as readable in overall personality as Trent is, I still want to be careful to not discuss things that are still being discussed within the game and tossed around as possibilities. Astrid is another complicated character, as anyone would be who’s been through the life she has. I can’t say too much. I can say she’s definitely legitimately happy to see Bren/Caleb after all this time.” His reemergence definitely caught her off guard. “We’ll have to see where it goes from there.”

On Cad’s successful Divine Intervention: “He’s definitely hit the ‘on a mission from god’ stage. He’s been that way for the entire campaign of, this, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Even when it sucks a lot, it’s been nice that those things have popped up to remind him, no, no, you’re doing it right, everything’s good. Probably not going to survive the next week, but you’re doing good! Not quite 1 in a 100 chance, but I forget so often to make that roll, and it’s such a great roleplaying roll. I don’t know how at level 20 you could deal with the fact that you can do that every day.” 

On Zeenoth getting his comeuppance: the kidnapping was a concept Marisha brought up for Beau’s backstory, and Matt went with it even though it was opposed to the Cobalt Soul’s philosophy because he knew rooting it out would make for an interesting story. “I felt it was an important beat to bring to her, because it was something that she was wronged by. And to show that there are still some good people out there who are trying to make things right.” After the tentative peace, dealing with this became Dairon’s next focus. “I was glad we finally got to it. So many people don’t have the opportunity in their lives to get that sort of justice and vindication, so if I can bring elements of that justice into our world, even for our own hope, I’m going to do that. Especially for my wife’s character, especially for a character that deserves that.” Taliesin points out that if it had come too early, Beau wouldn’t have believed it.

Cad’s thoughts on the Tomb Taker betrayal? “He knew it was gonna come at some point. There was no way that was gonna last. He was hoping it was gonna last a little longer. He was really hoping they had a vested interest in getting them all the way to the end. Nope, this is apparently as far as we go, and he was not prepared for that.” He was expecting the potential for de-escalation. “Caduceus is the only character in there that doesn’t have a history with Lucien. I think he sees him a little more clearly than everybody else does. They’re all looking for this person that Clay, at least, is of the opinion that he’s just not there. This is a very manipulative, very dangerous infernal human. Just smarter than all of them. Really aware that there is no calculating what the hell is going to happen. Conversation is the only way you can deal with someone like that.”

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Caleb closeup! (rynn_birb on Twitter)

Taliesin on Lucien: “I’m excited he’s the one that’s going to kill us all. Poetic that this is how the game ends.” Matt was delighted when Taliesin handed him carte blanche to do what he wanted with Molly’s past. “I was like ‘shit... oh, wait!’ The character of Lucien was always intended to be an antagonist so that it would have been Molly being chased by the person who wanted their body back. But then it happened that he got his body back.” Taliesin: “He’s so much worse than I ever hoped.”

Matt, on the Holy Avenger: “I hadn’t thought to initially even give that sword.” The good roll was the only reason Kima handed that over. “Well, sure, you get the sword. It was very reactionary, it wasn’t my intent originally. I was like, well, I mean, there’s two avenues she can take with this.” Multiclass into Paladin, or lean into the fact that her subclass is essentially a barbarian paladin. “This really works out in a uniquely beautiful way. Let me see if I can lay out a path for her to earn it.”

On Cad’s attempt at lying blowing up in his face: “He was like that kid that had a really bad day in high school and was like, you know what? I’m going to let loose. This is it. I’m gonna dye a streak in my hair. And then tries to give himself a haircut and ends up with half bangs. Well, okay, obviously I’m not that person. I was feeling a little distraught and I didn’t handle it well. Maybe I’m going dark... no, I’m not going dark. Nope.” Matt mentions how much he relates to Caduceus.

Matt, on the Eyes: “What can I tell you? I’m enjoying the hell out of it. The moment they began to really push to read that book, I was like, okay, this is on you. I’m excited for the point in the narrative where the march continues back to Eiselcross. I am almost impatient - not really - because we’re on the cusp of getting to more of the meat. There’s so much to learn, so much to see, so much to explore. I love instilling my players with absolute terror.”

Thoughts on Jester’s Tarot reading? Taliesin cackles. “Molly made the cards, so. Did it to himself, he did, he did.” Matt: “Once again, another example of things working out unexpectedly and too perfectly for an improvised moment. Fuck.” Taliesin: “Bless the wisdom of chaos.” Matt: “I love that even at this point in the campaign, Molly continues to fuck with people. I’m just so proud. That deeply shook Lucien, for reasons.” Taliesin: “It’s the everlasting gobstopper smoke bomb.”

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

[mammoneymelon]

How the brothers would react to finding out that MC is autistic

before anyone says anything, i’m autistic and just really want some representation

TW for ableism! the boys are doing their best but no NT immediately knows everything about autism

it’s a bit random, but i headcanon that lucifer has misophonia, so it’s only a matter of time before a noisy/verbal stim starts to drive him up a wall

“what in the devildom are you doing?” he’d ask, eyebrows scrunched in frustration

you have no idea what he’s talking about; after all, you’ve just been sitting on your DDD playing some rhythm game

“what do you mean?”

“you’ve been making that noise for hours; cut it out before i have to go find the packing tape.”

you know him well enough to know he isn’t joking, so you nod and do your best to stop, ignoring the feeling of dread beginning to well up in your chest

you go back to your game, and soon enough, you’re back to ‘making that noise’

you see lucifer stand up, bringing your action to your attention.

“oh, sorry! i didn’t realize i was doing it again, sorry!”

“oh?” he asked, looking down at you. 

“it’s stimming. autistic people do it a lot more than others, and sometimes we don’t even notice it.” there’s a moment of silence but you realize you just told him something you hadn’t even told your human friends

“ah, yes, i do remember reading about that in your file. i didn’t want to say anything so as not to offend you.”

you shake your head. “dude! that’s personal business! i don’t like telling people.”

lucifer’s gaze seems to soften. “don’t fret, MC. i won’t tell a soul.”

and he doesn’t.

he also totally buys you quiet stim toys

it’s not long before mammon realizes you are terrible at reading the room

you have a terrible habit of cracking a joke at the worst time or saying the first thing that comes to your mind, even if it was at the expense of others

at first, mammon, mammon thought you were really brave. now, however, he sees that you just have no idea what you’re doing

currently, your knack for trouble had landed you in detention, something you’d gotten fairly used to in the human world. mammon was sitting next to you - he was paying for trying to defend you

“lucifer’s going to kill us. again.”

“and whose fault is that?”

“sorry,” you mumble. “it’s not like i was trying to get us here.”

“really? because it’s startin’ to seem like you are. not that i blame ya, if i were you i’d do anything to spend more time with the great mammon.” he gives you a smile, and you really hope that means he isn’t mad

“i really don’t like upsetting people, i just don’t really get tone? i didn’t even realize the teacher was mad until you stepped in. “

“dude, she was on the verge of killing ya! what do ya mean you “didn’t even realize”?

you pinch the bridge of your nose in frustration. “it’s part of a disorder i have. autism. i just don’t get some stuff that comes naturally to other people.”

“ohhh.” mammon slaps his head, feeling like an idiot. “sorry,” he murmurs, and you barely hear it

mammon, being, well, mammon, will probably forget.

it’s not that he doesn’t care! it’s just not something that comes up in conversation.

of course, when the two of you do talk about it, he picks up on the symptoms pretty quickly. he’s a pretty smart guy, and he’ll do anything and everything for his human

the two of you are working on a co-op dungeon while you talk about your current special interest

“wow, MC, you know a lot about this!”

“thanks,” you respond, and it hits you - you’ve been infodumping almost this whole time

“haha, yeah, blame it on the autism brain,” you joke absentmindedly, not really caring if he knew. you two were good friends, why would being neurodivergent make a difference?

levi, on the other hand, does a double take. being the gamer he is, he’d definitely heard the word used as an insult, but he’d never thought about anyone actually having autism - much less his best friend

“MC, you have autism?” he turns to you looking genuinely confused, his controller sitting, forgotten, in his lap

“um, yeah? it’s not really a big deal,” you say, shrugging

“yeah it is! i mean i knew you were pretty weird, since you hang out with me-” he stops mid-sentence, realizing his mistake. “NOT IN A BAD WAY, OF COURSE! ah sorry, i said something stupid, like always.”

you shake your head with a small smile. you can tell he’s trying. “trust me, i’ve heard much worse. you’re fine, levi.”

he glances up at you, face red from embarrassment, and your smile widens. “i mean, i don’t think like ‘normal’ people anyway, so yeah, i kinda am weird.”

once you leave his room, he’s at his pc, researching more vigorously that he’s ever done for a class

the more he learns, the more annoyed he gets at the complete misunderstanding of the disorder

ultimately, he just wants to make sure you feel supported and understood

you’re sitting in the library, doing your homework while satan looks over your essay, checking for errors

“oi, MC”

“what’s up?” you respond, still focused on your work

“are you scared of me?”

this prompts you to look up, focusing your eyes on his hands

“i was when i first came here, and i definitely would be scared if i really pissed you off, but no, i’m not scared of you. why do you ask?”

“you never look me in the eyes. or my brothers, actually.”

oh. you’d been hoping no one had noticed. “oh, i just don’t like eye contact. it makes me uncomfortable.” you return your eyes to your paper, hoping that was enough.

“how so?” 

so it wasn’t enough.

“i’m autistic, genius. i figured it was obvious by now.”

“oh. that makes sense.” that’s all he says, so you try to return your focus to your homework.

satan is probably the most comfortable talking to you about it. he’ll ask you questions about your personal experiences and make an effort to understand you better

one day you look over his shoulder to find him reading an article on masking on his DDD

he cares deeply for you, even if it’s hard for him to say so

asmo has wrangled you into yet another shopping trip

“MC, look at this!! you have to try it on!”

one look at the article of clothing and your face is already scrunching up

“absolutely not.”

“awe, why not?” he gives you the biggest puppy eyes and you sigh. he knows your weaknesses.

“the material. i hate it.”

“but it would look so good on you~”

clearly, he’s not going to give up unless you explain yourself to him

“sure, for a couple seconds, until i have a complete meltdown,” you remark. “i’m autistic, so some textures just make me feel really bad.”

his mouth makes an ‘o’ shape, and then he goes back to looking confused. “i hadn’t even thought about that as a possibility! you should’ve said something earlier!”

he feels really bad about all the times he’s touched you without warning. he thought your shock was cute (and he still does), but he knows that autistic people sometimes dislike touch - he’s definitely had at least a couple autistic ‘partners’ in the past

he’s quite the observant demon, quickly picking up on sensations you d and don’t like. if you’re bothered by smells, he does his best to lay off on the perfume - granted, it’s a necessary part of his routine that he absolutely cannot give up completely. he lets you play with the dimmer in his room so you can find the amount of light that works best.

occasionally, he’ll have to tell you that he’s trying his absolute best to flirt and you are giving him nothing. you’re just like “oh shit i didn’t realize”

asmo’s just a sweetheart who wants you to be comfortable

beel unfortunately has to learn about your autism because of a situation out of your control

you’re in the gym, keeping him company while he works out

you’re searching his bag and you realize you don’t have your headphones

oh fuck.

you always bring your headphones to the gym; the sounds of televisions, music, people talking, weights clinking, treadmills rumbling... it’s too much

not to mention the stench of sweat and the florescent lights - truly an autistic person’s nightmare

you squeeze you eyes shut, but that only makes the noise worse. you’re surrounded by noise and you can’t stop it. it occurs to you that you’re no longer breathing properly but it’s just too loud and you’re so small

“MC?” beel’s voice is soft and filled with obvious concern. you open your eyes, seeing him kneeling in front of you. your eyes sting, and you realize you’re tearing up. “MC, are you alright?” 

all you can do is shake your head

“do you want to go home?” you nod, biting your lip as he stands up, making you feel even smaller.

he quickly packs his things into his bag and offers you a hand, helping you get up

he quickly escorts you outside, where you practically gulp for air. 

he waits patiently with you while you slowly ground yourself. 

“okay, let’s go home.” you explain sensory overload as you walk, then tell him about your autism

beel, like asmo, is very observant and he learns surprisingly fast. 

he’s also very protective of you. if someone triggers you, he won’t hesitate to tell them off before doing a grounding exercise with you

he’s basically you’re giant therapy demon and you love him for it

it’s becoming way too much. you’ve been masking heavily for months, monitoring your every move while doing your absolute best to thrive in a (literally) completely different universe than what you’re used to

you’re laying facedown on the couch, practically unable to move. you want to go to your room, but your body won’t let you

“mc?” you hear belphegor’s voice. “are you trying to imitate me?” he teases

you simply groan in response, not wanting to bother

for a moment he goes silent. then, you feel a hand on your shoulder

you jolt up, swiping his hand away as you let out a small shout. belphie’s eyes are widened in surprise

“don’t touch me! ...please,” you add as an afterthought, feeling bad for scaring him

he sits with you on the couch, taking care to leave space between the two of you. “what’s wrong?” you don’t respond. “mc?”

“burnout. too much. feel bad.”

belphie has absolutely no clue what that means, but he figures he knows something that might help.

“want to take a nap with me?”

you have to think about it before responding with a “sure” and slowly crawling into his arms (if that’s something you’re okay with)

it’s night when the two of you wake up. you still feel awful, but you can at least cope better.

once belphie’s more awake, he asks you what the hell happened

“two words: autistic shutdown”

“that doesn’t explain anything” - belphie really doesn’t know anything about humans

you do your best to explain - you were born with a brain that works a bit differently than most humans. some of the symptoms are an aversion to change and ‘odd’ behavior that’s difficult to hide. when you get too stressed, you just kinda ‘shut down’

he takes a bit to really understand, but once he does, he does his best to support you.

he falls asleep to your infodumping and you find it endearing

he gets good at recognizing when you’re starting to shut down and he always convinces you to take a break via a cuddly nap

#obey me #obey me headcanons #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me levi #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me asmo #obey me beelzebub #obey me beel #obey me belphegor #obey me belphie #autistic reader #tw ableism #obey me lucifer x reader #obey me mammon x reader #obey me levi x reader #obey me satan x reader #obey me asmo x reader #obey me beel x reader #obey me belphie x reader

[dalishious]

Recently I've stumbled upon this article and it blew my mind: https://levelskip.com/rpgs/Dragon-Age-Origins-How-I-Eventually-Found-Alistair-Insufferable

What's your opinion? My mind was blown away when I saw interpretation of elves being fetishised by Alistair. This character interpretation is so superficial it's almost painful. No wonder people tend to dismiss Ali as being whiny and childish if even someone who romanced him (!) isn't even trying to read him properly.

Anyway I vehemently hate this article and here’s everything I hate about it.

“He was Always Crying!”

I think it’s really gross that the first thing this writer lists as hating about Alistair is that he grieves for Duncan, calling it “over the top dramatic.” Ignoring the incorrect statement that he knew Duncan for only a few months, (Alistair states plainly that he was with the wardens for a year before the PC joins), even if it was only a few months, time does not necessarily play into the impact someone has on your life. (Or for that matter, personal interactions--for example, there is nothing strange about grieving the loss of an actor that touched your life with their work.) And Duncan made a huge impact on Alistair’s life.  Look, I work in hospice palliative care and grief/bereavement is a huge part of what we do. What this writer says is extremely ignorant, inappropriate and disrespectful to people who grieve as Alistair does; which is a lot of people. Not to get into all this now, but I could easily write a whole thing on how his character follows the common “stages of grief” in a very realistic way. (“Stages of grief” is in quotations, because while this was a classic way of looking at how grief works, more modern understandings explain grief as something that does not have a set trajectory, but rather more like a tide of different emotions that comes in and out at varying sizes and varying times.)

“Love is not conditional; it is unconditional.”

Love is, actually, conditional. Alistair is under no obligation to continue a relationship with a warden that makes a decision he is fundamentally against. Alistair does not see Loghain as a “valuable ally,” and you cannot blame him for that; not after everything Loghain has done. If your character’s opinion is otherwise, that’s their decision to make, but frankly this reeks of complaints usually put on female characters; when players hate that characters have their own agency and opinions, not dutifully following every single decision made by the PC. I cannot imagine how boring an RPG would be, if there were never any consequences or different reactions to your decisions.

“This alone made me start turning Alistair into a wandering drunk. He deserves it.”

What a disgusting, disgusting sentiment. “My boyfriend left me so he deserves to be homeless and suffering from alcoholism.” Fuck you.

“Alistair's romance—as well as his friendship—is superficial because it relies on the condition that the Warden always do exactly what he wants.”

Yeah, that’s how the approval system works. It’s not a unique game function just for Alistair. If you want to be friends with a character, you try to gain their approval. If you don’t, then they will dislike you.

You know, like how real life relationships work.

Again, this is sounding more and more like this person is just mad that Alistair has his own opinions, beliefs and morals... character.

“If Alistair really loved the Warden, he would have sucked it up...”

Seriously, what kind of fucked up understanding of relationships does this person have?!

 “Alistair is a Tad Racist”

God, where do I even begin with this one...

Alistair is excited about sleeping with any warden, regardless of race; not just elves. He’s a nervous virgin.

Alistair makes a comment about hoping he won’t get mugged in the alienage--just like how all the other companions make negative comments, even Zevran--after witnessing a mugging. It is part of a larger picture painted for the player that should be criticized at that larger scale.

I have no idea what the fuck this writer is talking about, claiming Alistair hates Zevran because he’s an elf, when he makes it crystal clear he does not trust Zevran because he’s an assassin. Like, in multiple conversations and banters.

Yeah writer, you are wrong--Alistair grew up primarily in Redcliffe, though stayed in Denerim when Eamon travelled there. You are also wrong about “the elves were servants who had to smile and kiss his ass.” Alistair plainly states that he did not grow up with any special treatment. Hell, he more likely stated with the servants, when Eamon had him sleeping in the stables and kennels.

“Unfortunately, Alistair is the exact same way toward mages.”

I can somewhat agree with this part. However, a couple necessary corrections to false statements:

Alistair does not approve of you killing the mages in Broken Circle. As the writer says later, he interjects if the player tries to attack Wynne, and interjects if the player agrees to Cullen’s request to kill everyone. “That's a bit of a drastic measure, isn't it? You don't have to do this.” What he initially says when entering the Circle is not him advocating for an annulment, but him explaining that’s what templars do. He is audibly upset about it when saying this. It is not what he wants.

Alistair does not hate mages. He distrusts mages, which makes sense after his templar training, and it’s something he needs to work over.

“Putting a mage or an elf or even a dwarf on the Fereldan throne might have made Fereldans hate Alistair as their king, but it would have been the beginning of a new era in Thedas.”

Yes, this part I do agree with as well.

It does, however, not weigh enough to make up for all the inappropriate and incorrect parts of the rest of the article.

But you know what’s worse? What’s worse is I made the mistake of looking at this writer’s profile, and finding shit like this:

#alistair theirin #fandom bs #Anonymous #ask #alcohol tw

[paint-lady]

hey, if you don't mind, i want your advice: i'm going to be running a chronicle set in chicago (i am using the chicago by night 5e book) for players who are new to vampire for the most part in a few days and i can't For The Life of Me to come up with an interesting chronicle hook (yeah i have read the hooks in the book). any ideas/suggestions/general advice?

Hiya! I could talk your ears off on how I write my chronicles- so hopefully I have taken all my processes and reduced it down to a lovely World of Darkness jam. 

Here are two good hooks I just came up with- feel free to use them! The third is what I got for my first chronicle, and I just think its a narrative that works very well for new players.

>Option 1: Guilty Until Proven Innocent ”Chicago is a series of paradoxes and transitions, of ever changing paradigms and whimsy,” (CbN 47). Have your coterie be newbies to the city. Ask why they have come to Chicago. Power? A new start? Perhaps this is a political arrangement between the clan of one city with another. Whatever their reason, they have arrived right when a Primogen vanishes- and guess who is first on the suspect list? The fresh faces on the streets >:) The coterie, having barely settled, has to suddenly prove their innocence. And finding evidence lets them uncover something much more sinister....

This one is ideal for new players as it sets everyone on an equal footing. Even if they create a character that has been a vampire for 50+ years and has amassed several dots of influence, herd, status- whatever, they are still new to the city. And being new means you have to start all over again. (This may be frustrating to a player that invested all those points at character creation- but it is on you as the ST to make sure they have opportunities to use those dots and on them as a player to think cleverly.)

Starting the tale off with defending their innocence is actually a very engaging questline. It effectively sets the stage for the political powerhouses. It lets new players know there are rules- and those in power are watching. It also sets the consequences for failure. Understand that the Camarilla probably isnt going to outright kill the coterie if they fail- always make the punishment just harsh and grueling enough to make final death feel like a mercy. Failure isn’t the end of the story.

For new players- I would be lenient with the time it takes for them to find evidence. But within reason. Think like your Prince and Seneschal. Do you really want this coterie running around for a full week, unsupervised, making more messes? No. You don’t. (You might wanna send an npc with them to watch and keep em out of trouble. Your npc is also able to vouch for them.)

This story lends itself to be a Camarilla Chronicle very easily. You can go Anarch, but an Anarch leader suddenly vanishing and blaming the newbies is much more quickly going to end with blood spilled. Thank your local sweeper.

> Option 2: Containment Breach Blacksite 24 (Loresheet on page 264) was temporarily occupied by Operation Firstlight. It has now been transformed into a medical research facility. While most kindred of Chicago know of Blacksite 24, they have zero clue what happens inside other than bad news for them- the less they know the safer they are. The chronicle opens with a car crash. The captured soon-to-be coterie was in transit to this feared medical facility. The crash did kill the driver and the agent in charge of transporting them. The crash did not fully break their restraints, but it did enough damage that first responders are freaking out. They are all at hunger 3. The chronicle is a hunt. The coterie should have some knowledge of what had happened to them and how lucky they are to have escaped. Operatives are already on their way to recapture them. They must hide in this city- and do their best to survive and stay out of sight.

The point of this story is to invoke dread. I highly recommend one player either being a thin-blood (or an npc) with the Daydrinker merit, or a player to have a ghoul. If they decide to not have a daywatch, they increase their chance of being found.

This story also sets up a feeling of desperation. They would be willing to take shelter from anyone- anyone. Eventually the other kindred will catch on that these guys are on the run from something. Any sane kindred would toss them out to protect themselves. A compassionate kindred who takes them in will suffer the final death as a compassionate fool- or join them in captivity. 

This story lends itself to be an Anarch Chronicle much more easily. This is the time the Camarilla will likely be a bit more paranoid and bloody. While they might not outright kill the coterie- they will send them somewhere that is a death trap. They wont dirty their hands with this. After all, you do not want any evidence to fall into the hands of the SI if you hired the hit.

This story is ideal for newbies without background merits. No allies, no influence, no herd. Let them take more mythic merits such as bloodhound and unbondable (Consider finding some from V20 too! There are some really awesome supernatural merits!). These powers would certainly be more fascinating for a medical team to study- not how many instagram followers they have. This kind of story also lets your players feel more powerful- but out of the loop. It lends itself to them forging alliances and getting caught in one-sided favors a lot more quickly. 

The challenging aspect of this story is that is starts with a masquerade breach. New players may not know how to handle such a blatant breach and thats okay. I would let the crash slide- and the Camarilla in the background handles it. Breaches after the crash need to be handled with proper consequences. 

> Option 3: New Blood This is what my storyteller did to me and my first time players (and its also very close to the plot of CoNY). We were shovelheads. Embraced to make a huge mess for the Camarilla and die quick deaths. We were all thin-bloods. The last thing the pcs remember is the sweet rush of ecstasy washing over them, before clawing out of the earth and driven mad by an insatiable hunger. The thrill of the hunt, and the sweet, warm blood on their tongue, nothing was going to be better. All three will awake next to each other, surrounded by the corpses they drank dry in their frenzy. What a way to play the name game! The players have three nights were they figure out their new condition or coverup their tracks (if they think to do it). They contend with their hunger and hatred of sunlight, wrestle with accidentally drinking their family member dry. After three nights, the Scourge comes knocking. Rather than outright killed, they are dragged to Elysium. For some reason, they are adopted by an upstanding member of the Camarilla- or the Prince orders a political rival care for them (hoping they fail). The players are the errand childer of this kindred, and slowly they figure out what they have been gathering through all these errands....

This one lets the characters all have the moments where they discover their disciplines and powers- and bestial tendencies. It naturally flows to allow players to slowly discover the rules and mechanics as well. All players must play fledglings for this tale. 

This story is much more a personal tale than a political one. Eventually politics makes its way in...but it does not have to be a focus. 

This story has less of a hook and more of a “Figure it Out” survival mode until the errands begin. The story is how the character’s react to their condition. It very quickly lends itself to a narrative of finding your own path in the night, rather than mindlessly obeying.

So here are a few questions that I ask myself when crafting a chronicle story:

1. What kind of story do you want to tell? Not asking for a plot hook, I’m asking for a general concept. Is it a tale of good triumphing over evil? (Not necessarily a wrong answer, but if you wanna play good guys...vampire is not the best game for that). Is this a chase? Is this a race against time? 

2. How do you want your story to make your players feel? Do you want to tell a story that invokes as much dread as possible in your players? Do you want them to feel ultra powerful? Vampire is both a power fantasy and a dread inducing game- it can do both. 

3. If you don’t know what kind of story you want to tell, switch gears to worldbuilding. CbN has so many NPCs with the rumors already written for you. Its your setting, perhaps switch two rumors around with prominent NPCs. Decide which ones are true in your setting- Maybe Primogen Annabell did kill her predecessor. Perhaps the Lasombra are attempting to infiltrate the Camarilla as everyone fears- but no one is able to prove it or stop it. Deciding what is true, false, and undetermined usually blossoms into hooks and stories worth investigating.

4. What is a historical event of the city that the Vampires would have endured/ scars would have remained? For example, in my chronicle set in Richmond, the tale of the Richmond Vampire is true. Depending on who you ask, it is the Camarilla’s best or sloppiest cover up. Have the chronicle coincide with the events and the coterie live through them. No one said this must take place in 2021- you can do 2015, 2008, -hell go back the 1990s. Its actually super fun if you set your chronicle in the 90s and your Malkavian is using phrases from 2020.

5. One of my things I do when writing scenes and moments is play Dread by myself. Dread is a role playing game played with jenga. There are no dice rolls, if you want to attempt something, you have to pull pieces from the tower. If the tower falls, you die. If there is a moment where I really really really dont want to pull from the tower, though the reward for succeeding is so so sweet- I keep the moment. If its really easy to shrug and go eh, I can live without performing that action- go back and rewrite it. If you have no incentive to pull from the tower, why would they?

6. Examine your player’s desires and ambitions- and do not neglect them in your chronicle. The plot wont magically allow all of them to achieve their ambitions. However, provide opportunities for them through the plot. Its on them to strive for what their character wants- its on you to make them struggle but have the path to get there. For example, if a player wants to become a Baron, provide a political opening. Perhaps then by announcing their power, they have made a bigger name for themselves and it has become harder to hide. Perhaps by doing this, the kindred they owe a favor is suddenly much more vocal about it. 

Here are some suggestions for handling new players:

> You are going to have to handhold them through some things. New players to vtm won’t be able to see the cascading political web and how the consequences of their actions will ripple into waves. I like to use Wits+Insight and call it Common Sense. Common Sense was a merit in V20- and damn is it WONDERFUL. All they need is just 1 success (they can take half) to have you explain how whatever plan they just thought of is actually a TERRIBLE idea. 

> Do your RPG consent list. Know what is safe to discuss and what is off the table. I highly recommend utilizing something my Storyteller used for my first chronicle, and subsequently I use for all my ttrpgs now: Invoking the Veil. The metaphor is that you are slowly lessening the intensity of a scene- as if raising the opacity or looking through layers of fabric. Eventually, there is too much fabric and you can no longer see the scene. If something is too intense, the ST or the player may announce they are invoking the veil. Reduce the scene by lowering music, speaking in third person, or avoiding heavy descriptors. You can reduce it further to just dice rolls. Role play stops, and the consequences of the scene are solely dictated by the dice. Or fade to black. If a player is repeatedly fading to black on something- ask to talk to them about it. Clearly something is too intense and they are not having as much fun as they can. Debriefing after a session is also a good idea. Do something silly! Share and check all the memes in the discord chat. Its important to make sure you and your players know that at the end of the night- its all just a game.

> I find the sabbat and new players don’t tend to mix well. You may absolutely still use the sabbat in your chronicle! But the dogma and philosophical ideals of the sabbat can be offputting and downright upsetting to a first time player. You may absolutely build to it- that’s what I did to my players. And in the moment of the truth, they chose to cling to humanity. 

> The taking half mechanic is your friend! V5 says players may announce how many dice they are rolling- and if the dividend is greater than the DC- they auto succeed. This streamlines play. Of course, you as the Storyteller may say this is a roll they are not allowed to take half on. Usually these are contested rolls (combat).

> The three turns and out rule keeps combat intense but not too lengthy. It actually streamlines encounters super super well. 

> My ST used a phrase, “The quickest way to kill Cthulhu is to give it a healthbar.” If Methuselahs and Elders are involved in your game- avoid giving them stat blocks. This cultivates a conflict that new players must find a way to overcome without brute force combat. It makes them think critically and defy these super old antagonists through narrative means. This also gets the notion out of your and their heads, “if they die, its over.” Its never that easy. Never. 

#steph answers questions #thanks for asking! #vtm #vampire the masquerade #vamp tag #storyteller vibes #ghostravens

[mypersonmyg]

director’s cut | kth

pairing:  taehyung x reader

genre: fluff

rating: pg

wc: 623

warnings: n/a

summary: you wonder who taehyung’s competition is OR taehyung still just really wants to finish his show

a/n: this is it, a whole month of drabbles from yours truly, wish i could say i’m gonna miss it; instead you may have a fake tear :’-) this is a sequel to Scene Stealer...

prompt 29. : - It’s Prompt: The Sequel. Write a second part to one of the previous prompts.

november drabbles masterlist

main masterlist

Scene Stealer

“Who do you think would be your competition?” You’re half occupied with the decoration of a plate of cookies, freshly baked and scooped from the cooling rack. Taehyung thought this the perfect opportunity for the watching of his still unfinished drama without your commentary. It’s not that he minds the noise, but your avenue of questioning has breeched the specific and he’s paranoid you have something up your sleeve.

“What are you on about, babe?” He humors, attention still focused on screen.

“There always seems to be a love triangle somewhere in these shows, so the question is, who do you have to fight to win me over…” Taehyung doesn’t engage, still too enthralled with scripted characters to pay much attention to your never ending train of thought. “Hmm, yeah, it’s definitely Jeongguk.” 

This catches attention, Tae’s finger twitching at the pause button before landing with a firm push. “Jeongguk?” 

“For sure, Jeongguk would totally be your competition.” 

“Is this your way of telling me that you have a crush on Jeongguk? If so, we definitely need to discuss that because--”

“No, no, I’m saying that Jeongguk would be the one to fight you for my affections even though my feelings for him dwindled long ago and the only torch I hold lights my path to you in the end.”

“So Jeongguk has a crush on you?” Taehyung seems to have forgotten this was all hypothetical, the slight bounce of his leg disturbing his sleeping pup just inches away. You don’t catch wind of his wound demeanor, too focused on the placement of sprinkles against iced sugar. 

“Yeahhh, he seems the most likely to put up a fight, so you better watch your back.” 

“I can take Jeongguk, no problem. I mean, I am the one you’re dating, right?” The emphasis of end phrase finally draws your gaze to his rapt attention, following the position of his hand still perched atop the remote. Your responding chuckle draws the raise of his sharp brow. “What?” 

“Nothing, it’s just-I think maybe you’re taking me a little too seriously. You know Jeongguk doesn’t actually pose a single threat to our relationship. I’m positive that boy doesn’t have eyes for anything but his camera and his gaming pc and, honestly, who can blame him? He owns one sexy keyboard.” 

“Of course I know that, just humoring you.” Taehyung mutters, lips pulled in pout as he scoops Yeontan and presses play. You both go back to your scheduled programs, though Taehyung is still reflecting on your earlier words. “Why Jeongguk? Why not Jimin or Namjoon.” 

“First of all, Jimin would never do that to you, he’s your best friend and Namjoon is far too kind hearted to just step in and take me away.” You explain with a shrug, “And before you ask, Hoseok would never, Jin is my best friend so that would ruin the whole story, and Yoongi wouldn’t even have to try and that’s just facts.” 

“I-”

“Tae, really, don’t take things so seriously! I’m just having a little fun, I promise.” 

“Well I was just trying to watch my show, so you don’t take things to seriously, babe. It’s just a tv show, not like this stuff actually happens.” He chuckles, realizing himself that his dramatics ridiculous. 

“Mmhm, sure, especially not this one, it's kind of a snooze fest. I mean, there’s clearly no competition.” 

“You haven’t even been paying attention, you don’t get an opinion.” 

“You’re mean when you’re jealous,” You snicker, biting off a generous chunk of decorated dessert.

“I’m not jealous, this whole scenario is made up!” Taehyung cries in pitch, ears heating when he notes the playful curl of your lips, rousing him for your own amusement.

“Whatever you say…”

#bangtanhq #bangtanuniversity #bangtanidx #bangtanarmynet #btswriterscollective #taehyung x reader #kim taehyung x reade #kth x reader #taehyung drabble #taehyung fluff #taehyung fanfic #bts drabble #bts fluff #bts fanfic #bts november drabbles 2020

[tank-grunt]

Hi I just wanted to say you're one of my fav blogs.... I love reading your posts and they fuel my love for this game!! Anyway--I'm actually here to ask if you have any favorite headcanon about Tank or tank/Johnny because I'm always interested in that 😳

awww thanks! as for favorite headcanons, uhh... hmmm. i have different headcanons based on the different games they appear in together so i’ll uh, categorize those i guess (also warning: long. i am very dramatic and thus am prone to waxing poetic about how i perceive a relationship)

sims 2 pc - tank is just a repressed gay with no idea how to cope with it because of ... you know... everything. he can’t recognize his feelings, he doesn’t know how to cope with them, and he’s so frustrated by everything all of the time because of the kind of home he’s grown up in that all the wires are being crossed, and he’s kind of an asshole to people who don’t deserve it because of that. in theory he really, really likes johnny... johnny’s nice, he’s handsome, and likable... but that’s also why he really, really dislikes him and is supremely jealous... he isn’t in a place where he can realize anything positive he feels. tank doesn’t get why his pulse speeds up or his face flushes when johnny’s around, he doesn’t know why he craves his attention - for anyone else it should be obvious, but for him there’s just too much going on. but he knows when he sees johnny surrounded by people who like him, he wishes that he were johnny, and he knows he’s an alien ... tank knows what to do with that.

in theory johnny could have really, really liked tank too - he’s fit, athletic, he can be witty and goofy and creative - but... johnny doesn’t get to see the part of tank worth liking. the parts that he would like, that he likes in others already. tank won’t show him. tank can’t afford to be vulnerable! so because of tank’s issues, he causes issues for johnny and johnny only sees the tank who is kind of a jealous repressed loner. and he’s already friends with ripp through ophelia so he’d already be aware of how tank isn’t exactly brother of the year as golden child to ripps scapegoat. and with no way of figuring out that the way tank’s treated isnt actually any better, johnny’s a bit biased. but johnny’s bio says he dreams of being a hero on a white horse, so i always kind of interpreted that as something of a hero complex - so i imagine he’d soften quickly if he had any idea the full extent of whats going on. 

oh, weirdly, that segues into -

sims 2 psp - not a very romantic headcanon - more about coping with circumstance - but theyre both victims of abuse from buzz and johnny knows it.

but so is ripp. so they’re not close, because johnny can see how the brothers are pitted against each other and he doesn’t like it... but johnny understands tank now, he understands why he’s like that, and he can’t really bring himself to be angry with him or blame him, even when tank is preventing his escape. he still has a hero complex. he sees the way tank has been hurt. he sees the way ripp is hurt, too. but he just can’t be mad. the fact he’s held captive by buzz isn’t the only reason why he hates him so vehemently, so passionately. he hates that he can see a father treat his sons so callously, so cruelly, and can’t do anything about it.

not that he’d put up with tank’s bs... but just sometimes trying to reach out, trying to talk sense into him. and maybe, because the nicest guy he knows is making some good points, maybe tank has doubts. maybe he questions buzz. johnny is very convincing. it’s not his fault!

basically im a sucker for the hurt/comfort of johnny’s kindness and his bluntness and courage helping tank realize that none of whats going on is right, or good. 

sims 2 ds/gba - i believe in ds/gba era tank/johnny supremacy, first and foremost - it’s always good! but there’s just something so nice and comforting about it in ds/gba... from their perspective, things are so different and yet also so similar... and there’s a certain kind of comfort with each other in seeing how different they’ve become, but how familiar they are. how they’ve grown and improved, and forged a healthy friendship and connection... and they know each other better than anyone else in town at that point - everyone is either dead, or left town. 

and the idea that tank just regularly comes into the pawn shop just to see johnny because he’s grown up and he knows how to follow his heart now... and johnny really is all he wants. maybe all he’s ever wanted, really. and johnny likes that. happiness is a good look on tank, and he likes seeing tank. you ever notice how johnny sells lotto tickets with tank’s face on them? i like to think he designed them himself, because he ... you know, likes tank. likes to see him.

when johnny’s not busy at the pawn shop, when tank’s not busy running the medical center he lives in... i imagine theyre supremely cheesy together. i mean, tank totally goes out of his way to help johnny around the pawnshop. i’ve always personally viewed johnny as supernaturally strong without trying, but i mean... us legbets just loooove to watch objects of our affection lifting things, and i can totally imagine tank just casually lifting things to impress johnny. he’s a bit humble but he likes attention from johnny, always has. and yeah, johnny can outbench him, but he enjoys the view.

and i KNOWwww that tank primarily lives in his dumb little medical center bunker he’s running, but i like to imagine that johnny has an apartment above the pawn shop (um, in the ds version anyways, it doesnt seem like the gba version has one but ... you know tank does spend a lot of time with a telescope up there sooo) and they live together, with a cat. its a very nice, domestic life that they’ve worked hard to manage with each other, and they’ve earned it 

sims 4 - they’re gallery sims with no relationship or connection with each other but it’s an alternate timeline so i like to take advantage of the fact :)

you know everything i wrote about tank having a crush on johnny he had no idea how to deal with? i love the idea that it’s the reverse in sims 4 timeline. tank in every other appearance he’s had has been so... insecure, reserved. but tank in sims 4 is confident! outgoing! athletic! ... johnny doesn’t stand a chance. he’s just a useless bisexual and he thinks tank is really cute and doesn’t know what to do about it... but how convenient for him, tank doesn’t have the same problems that really stood in the way of a relationship that he had in sims 2.

lyla’s ghost being around to shape the household post-mortem has definitely had positive effects on the family - the grunt siblings have better relationships with each other, they have their mother to guide them and intervene if buzz is ever unfair to them, and to question his authority... 

tank knows johnny likes him, in this timeline, and he’s a bit smug about it. but its ok! he kind of likes the scrawny green kid too. so what if he shows off a little more lately to get his attention? so what if he gets a little close in the hallways at school? whats a little kissing between homies?

#bulletin board #this is so long i am so sorry. #simpuke

[rllymilerlly]

Taang One Shot

Now I’m not much of a writer so this is pretty much my first fic ever. So please tell me things to fix if something isn’t right lmao. Also this is set in mine and @toph-beifcng WEFA AU. So check their stuff out 😎

———

Aang stared blankly at the computer screen in front of him. A minute passed by and the update progress bar still hadn’t moved. Aang was about to scream. He was pretty sure it was mocking him. His computer had to know that he had a deadline coming up. It knew that he had no inspiration. So it was going to make him sit there and wait, mocking him. Make him stare at a progress bar for an hour because what else was he going to do? It wasn’t like he had any actual ideas for a song anyways. He tried looking at his hundreds of songwriting notebooks, but none of those gave him the inspiration he desperately needed. He even went as far back as to his high school ones-where most of the songs consisted of teenage angst and his old unrequited crush on Katara.

At the thought of Katara, Aang had half a mind to call up her up and give her a piece of his mind. Why did she feel the need to put a deadline on his creative process? The GAang wasn’t even signed to anybody at the moment and nobody else had strict deadlines like he did. Sure they all had at least one solo piece done, while Aang had none, but Aang chose to ignore that. He was now convinced that Katara had it out for him, just like his computer.

He looked at his phone and the time read 2:35. Great, another 5 minutes passed by and the progress bar only moved one percent. Aang thought of himself as a gentle soul, but at this moment he wanted to chuck his PC out of his apartment window. But since he knew he couldn’t afford another one, he settled with pulling his beanie over his face and groaned in frustration.

“Sounds productive in here, Twinkle Toes,” a chill voice said behind him. Aang lifted up his beanie and turned around. His girlfriend was leaning against the doorframe across the room. She was wearing his iconic bright orange hoodie that was so big on her tiny frame that he could barely see her shorts poking through the bottom. Her hair was in her typical messy bun and looked like it was begging to be let down. Any other time Aang would be all over her but right now he wanted to suffer alone.

“Toph, can’t you see I’m busy? I don’t need your snarky commentary right now.” Aang sighed, annoyed, as he turned back to his unchanged computer screen.

“Well I mean I can’t see anything,” Aang groaned at the comment. “But I can practically feel your mopiness throughout the entire apartment. It’s practically oozing out of-”

“What do you want, T?” He interrupted. He really wasn’t in the mood. He could hear her approaching behind him and the next thing he knew a book was in his hand “What do you want me to do with this?”

“Now, and I could totally be wrong, but I’m pretty sure people typically read books” Toph stated with her arms crossed. Aang glared at her.

“Yes. I know that,” he was rubbing his temples struggling to hold back his temper, “but there is no reason for me to read right now. You know I have a deadline coming up. I cannot afford to-“

“I want you to read it to me. I can’t sleep.” Toph interrupted. Now that caused Aang to freeze up, he hadn’t expected that.

“Oh,” was all that Aang could manage out. His frustrations seemed to melt away momentarily. He looked at the book she handed him. It was The Princess Bride one of his favorites, “Hey, wait a minute, I got you the audiobook of this for your birthday.”

“So?” She huffed

“Soooo, can’t you listen to that?” he said looking back at her. Her face turned red as she looked down and mumbled. “What was that, T?”

“I said the guys voice is annoying” she said a little more confidently, but still looking down.

“Okay and? You say my voice is annoying all the time.” Aang said with a smirk. It wasn’t often he got to see his girlfriend so flustered.

“Yeah well he doesn’t do voices. How am I supposed to know who’s, who when his voice is just so monotone,” Toph pouted as she carefully sat down in the chair next to him. Aang was full on grinning at this point.

“I knew you secretly liked my voices” he started to laugh as she playfully elbowed him.

“Yeah, yeah, but don’t tell anyone that. I gotta reputation to keep.” She was still blushing like crazy, but couldn’t hold back her smile anymore. She grabbed his hand, “Now are you coming or what?” Aang looked at her suspiciously.

“Wait a minute is this all a ruse to get me to go to bed?”

“That depends, is it working?” Toph asked as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Aang leaned into her touch unconsciously. She was starting to make him think that going to bed might not be a bad idea. Then he made the mistake at looking at the computer screen. He almost screamed. It was done updating. He pulled away from Toph.

“I’m so sorry, Toph. You know I would love to, but I have to keep working or Katara will kill me. And honestly by extension she’d probably kill you too.” Aang couldn’t bare to look at her as he spoke. He knew if he saw the disappointment in her eyes he would immediately throw away all of his responsibilities and only do whatever she asked the rest of his life. Toph sighed and got up. Aang closed his eyes as she went behind him and wrapped her arms around him.

“I know. I understand you gotta focus. I’ll leave you to it,” she kissed the top of his head, “Goodnight, Aang.” And then just like that she was gone.

Aang sighed at the realization he was alone again. He tried to get to work by researching some of his previous inspirations, hoping that anything would catch his interest. But to no prevail. He was in the same exact position he was when his computer screen was nothing but an update bar. Except now he felt a little colder, a little emptier. He looked at the clock 3:42. He was getting nowhere and felt tears of exhaustion starting to form at his eyes.

Then all the sudden he felt something heavy rest on his lap. Aang looked down and saw two big brown eyes staring back at him.

“Oh hey, buddy” Aang said with a small smile as he started petting Appa’s head, “What are you doing up? Did Toph send you in after me?” Appa’s head lifted up at the mention of Toph and Aang laughed, “I’ll take that as a yes” Appa smiled at Aang’s laughter and apparently thought it was a great opportunity to jump up on the chair and start licking his face.

“Appa, please, get down.” Aang couldn’t stop laughing now as he tried to control Appa. He could barely breath. “You’re too big to be a lap dog. You’re going to make us fall.”

Finally, Aang gently pushed Appa off him. But Appa paid no mind he was wagging his big tail, excitedly.

”C’mon, buddy, you know you’re not allowed to do that while I’m in the desk chair,” he said still smiling while he wiped the slobber off his face. Appa nudged Aangs leg and Aang sighed knowingly, “I’m sorry buddy I’m busy. I got to get this done.”

Appa grunted in response and put a paw on his arm.

“Appa, please” Aang looked down at his fluffy buddy, hoping he’d understand. But he just got a whimper in response. Aang looked back at his blank screen. He was convinced the world truly had something against him. The Music Gods must have cursed him. Maybe he had to defeat all these tempting obstacles in order to achieve the creative inspiration he desired. But then out of the corner of his eye he saw it. Toph must have forgotten to take it back with her. On his desk was The Princess Bride. And in that moment Aang knew he had lost. Aang sighed in defeat as he closed his laptop, his tormentor. “Alright, buddy, you win,” he yawned, exhaustion suddenly catching up to him, “It’s time for bed.”

Appa happily lead the way to their room across the apartment. Aang couldn’t help but realize how messy his home was. He had been practically locked up in the make shift “office” for the past 2 days. So hadn’t been able to upkeep anything, he barely took care of himself. ‘Oh God did I even eat anything today?’ He thought to himself. ‘Oh wait I had Chinese, but I don’t remember leaving,’ he sighed regretfully ‘Toph must have gotten it for me.’

He could see a dim light coming from the cracked door of their room. Appa trotted in before him, pushing the door fully open. Aang leaned on the door frame and took in the sight. He couldn’t stop the smile on his face even if he tried. Toph was sitting up in bed with her headphones in. Her eyes were droopy but she had a small smile on her face as she was petting Momo, who was curled up on her lap, purring. They seemed so peaceful... and so tired. A small twinge of guilt formed in his stomach because he knew the only reason why they were up was because they were waiting for him. Appa jumped onto the bed and Toph’s eyes lit up and she took out one of her headphones. When Appa came over to curl up next to Toph, Aang could see the twinkle in her eyes die out when she realized it wasn’t him.

“You know, I can practically feel your mopiness throughout the entire apartment.” He teased with a small sad smile.

“Oh really?” Toph smirked and her eyes twinkled again

“Yeah it’s really distracting.” He started making his way to their bed. “I couldn’t get anything done because of it.” He sighed over dramatically as he sat on the bed, “But I guess I can’t blame you. I mean I am the best storyteller of all time. I would be upset too if I had to settle for less”

Toph rolled her eyes and snorted, “I don’t think I would consider you the ‘best of all time’, I’d say you’re more tolerable than anything.’

Aang gasped dramatically and put his hand to his chest. “My love, you offend me. Maybe I should go elsewhere, where my services are more appreciated.” Toph quickly grabbed his hand before he could even pretend to walk away.

“No.”

“Admit it, then” Aang teased her as he interlocked their fingers.

“Wasn’t what I said earlier enough,” she rolled her eyes, but scooted closer to him. Aang smiled and couldn’t help himself.

“I’m sorry. You see I suffer from short term memory loss and I don’t recall-“

“Twinkle Toes!” Toph interrupted, but Aang wasn’t going to back down. There was a beat of silence.

“I’m waiting~” He said in a sing song voice. There was another beat.

“Fine” Toph groaned putting her free hand on her face, “you’re the best storyteller”

“Of all time?” He questioned nudging her.

“That I know of,” she smiled squeezing his hand.

“I’ll take it,” he leaned in and kissed her forehead. After he kept his forehead against hers and looked into her pale green eyes and breathed her in. He truly believed in that moment that they were staring at each other’s souls. She was the only one that could ever see through him and he was the only one she ever let see her. He felt tears starting to well up in eyes again as his guilt from earlier overtook him because she looked as tired as he felt. He then wrapped his arms around her tightly as he continued, “I’m sorry about earlier. I’ve been so stressed out and I don’t even know what I’d do without you looking out for me.” Toph laughed into his shoulder.

“You’d probably get lost in that mind of yours,” she teased as she pushed away from him. “Now enough of this,” she gently wiped the tears from his eyes, “You got a story to read me, oh great story teller.” Aang laughed and picked up the book.

“Okay, Okay, gather ‘round folks,” Aang said in a terrible cockney accent. Toph laughed as they both got under the covers, “This tale sure is a doozy.”

“Are you going to use that voice the whole time?”

“You said ya liked my voices. So you better prepare yourself, sweetheart.”

“Oh God, I already regret this.” Toph groaned, but cuddled closer to him. Aang shushed her and began his favorite tale.

“The year that Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette...”

They did not get passed the second page before they were all passed out.

Aang sprung awake suddenly the next morning. It was like a lightning bolt, the moment he had been waiting for finally happened. He was struck with inspiration. He was about to dart out of bed before he forgot it, but then he realized all of his cuddle buddies around him. Toph laid on his chest with her arms wrapped around him, while Aang had one arm around her while the the other still barely grasping the book he was reading the night before. Momo was curled up right between them while Appa rested on their laps. Suddenly he couldn’t even bring himself thinking about getting out of bed. Katara could kill him right now and this moment would say that this was worth it. His cursed computer could wait a few more hours. He took a second to commit the image of all of them together to his memory before wrapping both of his arms around Toph, cuddling closer to her. Letting sleep once again overtake him.

#taang #avatar band au #wefa au #toph beifong #aang #atla #lmao this took forever to write i understand writers now #ppl who write crazy as things in a day #kudos to u

[pestopascal]

While I will absolutely agree that CB2077 isn’t the ONLY game doing all this bullshit, or that other AAA studios don’t deserve the flack CDPR is getting, I have to say that this is absolutely the perfect storm and I think people are FINALLY seeing the problems in modern AAA gaming. CB2077 might be fun to play, may have a good story, but it’s almost impossible to see because of the glaring issues. Which, honestly, is a good thing. I hope games change after this.

under here

AAA studios have been like this and this sort of release has been completely normalised on all accounts by both the businesses themselves and fans because of the inherent reliance on modders (bethesda at the forefront of this), as well as the pushback every time companies actually go ‘uh we need a lil more time’ (although... they just shouldnt announce potential release dates, im even of the camp they shouldnt even start releasing the game until like 6 months out from their official date because they fuck it up every time. borderlands 3 being the only game i know of being in “secret” development and then announcing itself in march for a september release. game itself aside, thats how companies should do it). easily i can remember a lot of 2011 release games which have had the exact same issues as cp77′s release, and then every other game in between since. very rarely do you actually have a game that isn’t a fucked up mess of a pile of pixels. and it is always the customisable character ones that are honestly, genuinely, ugly looking at release. but you can definitely say its been happening looooooong before 2011, with unrealistic expectations, word limits, 11 month time frames, offloading sequels to smaller companies so they can suffer if it fails, etc etc. the entire system has been like this for so long... they dont know any real different nowadays.

i mean look. tlou2 released under crunch conditions this year, and was rewarded. it was ALL over the social media feeds, it was quite the controversy because, surprise surprise, the company promised they wouldnt do it uwu and then. bam ! crunch conditions. literally around that time too, bioware employees came out with a statement saying ‘man we wish dai FAILED so that back in 2014 we couldve proven crunch was a wrong practice’. they say this as well after having to produce da2 in 14 months, which just suffered from fans and journalism for reusing environments, because it was produced in 14 months, and honestly? no one pointed that out back then, bioware themselves pointed it out again this year, 6 years after release, that that game was produced in 14 months. rdr2′s release was hounded by stories of crunch, and they all disappeared into the night because... it was heralded as the best game of all time. that was 2018, 2 years ago.

i think too is that some people get kind of ... morally and ethically concerned. which is understandable. can you consume something when you know it was made under conditions like crunch? and i think one of the most confronting things about it is that 9/10, not only has your favourite company engaged in crunch conditions, they almost actively choose to continue with them. and then that’s a whole other bag of issues blown up over there when it comes to what is able to be consumed what isn’t etc etc

i think also like a mix of marketing, promises and then the expectations of what the game will be like have really had cdpr earn the ire of fans which is just like... you don’t believe what these companies are saying. you never should, esp when it’s their ceo’s saying it who don’t work on the actual floor. bioware itself is the main culprit of doing this to the point they finally came around with all the da4 concept art and teasing to be like ‘ummm but actually dont get invested?’. remember all that qunari lady fanart that bioware management was like ... please dont get attached? yeah. yeah. like at what point as well is there going to be heavy level of apprehension to approach this? and i can’t really talk either, i cracked open the door for mass effect again. i know exactly what kind of shit bioware will pull, i know they are teasing it already on social media, but mass effect is my ride or die series. that’s why people keep opening the door on letting these companies get away with it. and you can’t fault fans entirely either because this is down to a science of how to get money. i mean, fuck, mass effect andromeda’s entire advertising campaign HINGED on the n7 logo. for the nostalgia value. and i see text posts in the same vein of both ‘guys, disney isnt gonna fuck you if you consume every remake for nostalgia value’ and ‘its understandable why people do it’.

so then you have to go ‘well are fans as just to blame’ and then that’s a whole other argument.

i think also like. i personally havent run into aaaannnyyyyyyy of the issues that you see posted online. which is ironic bc 1) i play on ps4 and 2) its an old dusty ps4. in fact a lot of ppl i have spoken to who have had issues have played on pc. does this mean the glitches dont exist? ofc not, the vids and screenshots are right there. but like... ive had a basically unhindered experience so far, and i get where ppl are coming from (i do, i promise) where theyve basically found the game unplayable. is there also a standard of what ppl consider unplayable because ive played most AAA games at launch when they basically rushed to slap the box label on the game and called it a day until they work on patches. when ppl consider unplayable is also just... different per person. some people have a slight blur on the screen when turning too fast even in an MMO and decide the game is horrible and unplayable. some people can have broken quests and npcs not loading and falling through maps and still be fine. there’s no agreed statement of what makes a game unplayable either, which is why you read threads on twitter and someone goes ‘yeah this npc t-posed so i quit in the first hour’ with a dozen replies. everyone has different levels of it.

it’s a mixed bag of issues. im not excusing cdpr, but the ppl who worked on the game are honestly likely not the ones who pushed for a release. you’ve gotta look at sony and microsoft and ceo’s with bonuses coming up and the investors and shareholders and people who sit behind computers and read numbers detailing interest and demand and supply and how every single time they had to delay this game, the loudest (but smallest) bunch of assholes on like reddit and in the twitter threads complained that it was delayed AGAIN even though back in what 2015? they said it’ll come out when it’s ready. and yeah there are times when game delays result in a mismatched half assed sort of story (kh3... p5... ffxv... dai...) and then there are times when, if they need to delay the game... they probably need to delay the game. sometimes delays are bad sometimes theyre good sometimes you are sitting there like whew if you only didn’t try to be like THIS TIME this is the release date.

the ONLY WAY this will stop happening is, quite frankly, unionising. and everyone is allergic to that whole concept so like... this is “the perfect storm” as you put it. but it’s also not. people have been so disappointed over the last 2 years alone for gaming companies, the final product, the attitudes from higher ups, that i think cdpr is receiving a good few years worth of anger. i think theyre also on the receiving end of misdirection from american fans who still don’t fucking get the company isn’t american, because that’s another bag of issues as well. like we’re holding at least 8 bags of groceries out of the back of the car now, and we don’t want to take another trip, because there are so many little bits of this entire situation to look at. there’s so much back and forth.

i think the worst, but most realistic thing is: games won’t change. how they will social media wise will. maybe. assuming bioware gets their heads out their asses but... they’re going to be a lot more careful. i mean, hell, sony offered refunds. that was just a publicity stint. they dont give a fuck if the game was bad. as i said before, if they did, they would make all companies fix trophy problems, starting from like 2010 or whenever the trophy system first came out. they just don’t wanna fall in alongside cdpr being thrown on its sword. but the companies are gonna learn from this, get smarter, still do the same shit to their employees, still pay off journalists, still do media blackouts, etc etc. and we’re gonna be here in another year’s time, with another game, having these same roundabout arguments, and cp77′s issues are gonna fade into just a wikipedia article.

#replies #this got long so i threw it under a cut #i just like wrote as i was thinking too in between ovw sry lol #Anonymous

[akurathereaper]

An insignificant rant on HoT&PoF

As everyone knows, yady yady ya, everyone prefers HoT, whatever

I’m one of those people and I’m about to rant about this too.

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE RANT

I will be talking about story elements and stuff that happens in both DLCs.

I like Path of Fire, I really do, it gave me Elona, it gave me agent Kito whom I wholeheartedly pity cuz he has to deal with the Commander, it gave me more of Aurene (and it gave me Joko on whom I can shit on when I feel bad)

But, it didn’t give me maps I like (and I will tell you why) (please note I am no game designer, or designer in general. In fact, maps designed by me would be probably shit, but I still believe my opinion is valid, because I am a person with eyes that can see)

This is going to be a small rant when it comes to maps, now mark, english isn’t my first language so there may be nonsensical sentences, and I am no professional critic so all of this is coming from my heart, not my brain.

Ready? Let’s go

So I’m going to do a little comparison (nothing too much in depth) of the four maps from each DLC (plus Domain of Vabbi but I don’t have much to say on it if I’m honest).

 We have Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, Tangled Depths and Dragon’s stand from Heart of Thorns, and Crystal Oasis, Desert Highlands, The Desolation, Elon Riverlands and Domain of Vabbi. 

Let me start with HoT, because it makes logical sense.

When you first start the Heart of Thorns campaign, you’re told to go from Silverwastes to... Verdant Brink. You get a small taste of it right before you enter it, in that cave where the injured pact members are talking about it. And then you load in (hopefully, if your pc doesn’t reenact an atomic blast), and first thing you see, when you walk in on that VERY SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED LEDGE

is absolute carnage.

Ships are strewn about, hanging in pieces torn apart by Mordremoth’s vines, smoke and fire is everywhere, that part of the jungle is ravaged not only by Mordremoth, but also by you. Your Pact. And in that moment you exactly realize what happened (if it wasn’t obvious from the cutscene that played before it *cough cough*)

But now you see it. The map tells you a very obvious story, and you don’t need to be a genius to figure it out. It tells you and SHOWS you exactly how strong and dangerous the Dragon you’re hunting is. It shows you what you have to overcome.  (And if you’re me, you’re crying cuz Trahearne got kidnapped)

I’m going to skip the storyparts of this map, but will instead focus on the meta of it (since i’ve done it like trillion times). There’s five main crashpoints. Each has to bring their all to successfuly make this map “safe”. The nobles, the Pale Reavers, the quaggan and her soldiers. Everyone. I’m guessing that after you kill all the five champions, the area becomes safe enough for you to move on, after all, you’re the Commander, and you cannot leave everyone to die in the middle of the Jungle. Once again, the map tells you a story through the gameplay)

And then you move onto Auric Basin (I’m guessing it’s a lot of people’s fav map)

Oh, Auric Basin... The map instantly breathes “something”, something different. You KNOW you’re somewhere else, the whole atmosphere tells you that you’re somewhere forgotten, somewhere where the touches of humans, sylvari, charr, whatever main race, have not reached. 

Your first instance of it is most likely the story instance, so you get introduced to the place pretty quickly. I don’t have to say how gorgeous the city actually is, right?

The whole place is an archaeologist’s wet dream. And again, the map tells you, it shows you, it’s story, it’s history (the Priory people are wetting themselves over the whole thing), and sometimes it’s the Exalted themselves who tell you the story. But you can gauge a lot of it just from observing. It’s not the most effective of cities, I’ll be honest, but it’s a damn impressive one. After all, Tarir was build for Glint’s scion.

And the meta? It’s about PROTECTING the city. Protecting it from Mordremoth, from destroying it, from destroying the safe place for a dragon’s egg. You stop Mordremoth from leaching the place with Octovines (or an exalted does it for you. Kudos to you, immortal and endless exalted), and you don’t rly realize the importance of this place until the whole Aurene thing happens.

And oof, Tangled Depths. 

Tangled Depths, one of the most hated maps in the entire expansion, a thing (imho) that can be very much blamed on the map limitation (I’m talking about your map, where you see where you are and where the waypoints are, etc.) Like, honestly, wouldn’t it be a WHOLE lot easier to traverse if your map made actual damn sense? But I digress.

Tangled Depths is probably one of the lesser impressive maps? Overall, I very like it, although it’s story has to be unearthed and explored actively. It’s more of a bland looking pie with delicious filling.

Tangled Depths is quite...a good map. In a way. Don’t throw trash at me, please. I also hated it when I had to walk through it, but I learnt the shortcuts and then traversed with relative ease, so I stopped seeing the whole map as a nuisance and started seeing it for what it was. 

Such an untouched piece of history... The Rata Novus? Rata Novus? Hello? Asura lived here?

The Ogres, making their village there? The Nuhoch, fighting for their survival with the Zintl hyleks and the Chak? The Chak? Such new and interesting creatures who literally eat magic! In the middle of the jungle, you see such life, such vivacity, even in the midst of Mordremoth’s reign of terror.

And the story of the meta is tying in so nicely to the overall thing! You’re literally tunneling into Dragon’s stand, to reach old Papa Mordremoth, and you’re doing it with the help of everyone on the map! The Ogres, the asuras (well they dead, so their robots lol), the Chak (yeah, Chak bois be helping, not rly it’s just the lane lol), and the useless easy line! You’re charging a thingimajig that blasts a hole through the ley-line empowered wall and bam, you’re in DS. (Excuse me it has been a while since I was in TD) And Chak bois are on your ass trying to eat it cuz magic but that’s so the meta is interesting.

And then... My favourite map. Dragon’s stand.

I played this map... probably more than I should’ve, but... the way it is structured is simply so interesting! Three lines, for three leaders, each battling their way through the jungle to get to the Generals, to get to the Mouth of Mordremoth. And along the way, you gain more and more allies, more and more people to help you fight this noodle!  You get the ogres, the itzel, the nuhoch, the skritt(!), the exalted, the... THE NIGHTMARE COURT? *cough cough* cut content *cough cough*. Yeah, some don’t get an explanation, but you see everything that you have done, everyone you have helped in the previous map, go help you out in this one? You see them and protect them at the last island (and the whole map is just one giant meta and I LOVE IT (it can be a point of criticism as well, since it’s quite hard to explore if the meta ain’t done and the last few pois are impossible to get if MoM isn’t dead)) and it’s just so epic

Everything you did was leading up to this moment, this last battle, this last stand, the DRAGON’S STAND. And the battle was just... epic. Epic, is all I can say about this map and it’s story. (Shame the Commanders/Generals were cut out, as we have no clue who they were, and knowing something about them would make it a bit more meaningful in fighting them)

To conclude.

HoT is focused as hell. You got a goal: Pop a cap in Mordremoth. And you’re going to do it. You got twice the motivation if you’re a sylvari. Each map is designed to give you the build up of the fight, first you see what Mordremoth can do, then you see what’s at stake, and then you gotta fight for it. The fact the maps are gorgeous (If a little (bit a lot) laggy) only helps the overall feel.  Anything and Everything can and will murder your ass, and you gotta be ready for it.

Now onto PoF maps. This segment is going to be shorter, because in all honesty? PoF, I like you, but you’re just... well, you’ll see. Hopefully. This is after all just my opinion lol.

Oh and if you got this far? Kudos lol I ramble a lot. <3

Anyway, PoF maps.

So the opening to PoF is... quite good? It’s a bit out of your control but it does it’s job imo.

You come in on an airship, and you see the land spread before you. You see a pyramind, and you think “Oh hell yeah, pyramids.” I would LOVE to just be able to explore the area, you know, have a chill opening, but PoF is about FIRE and FIGHT so, you fight and try to save the people and it’s very chaotic and everything is on FIRE OH GODS.

So you chase this mysterious person, you get introduced to the raptor village, all goes well or bad, and then you are directed to the city of Amnoon (since we’re still in a story instance), so you go. Amnoon is very pretty, and following the tradition of MMO cities very impractical, but hey, rule of cool. The whole time you’re not rly allowed to explore anywhere or look at anything, you’re focused, sure, but you’re also very distracted, you get me?

You want to look around, you want to explore, but you’ve just been attacked by this Herald woman and you’re tired of politics. The opening of PoF isn’t bad, but it is very different from HoT, as in HoT you first SAW the carnage Mordy did and THEN you went on down to help the remaining survivals, whereas here, in Oasis, you kinda.. live through it? You see it first hand what Balthy is doing, while in HoT you only chased the aftermaths of the massacres. This works differently for everyone, and I personally prefer the HoT approach. 

PoF is very open when it comes to the story, as in you are not AS limited to instances as it was with HoT, sometimes it works to its advantage, sometimes.. it doesn’t. 

The way PoF maps jerk you around is very confusing to me. You explore Crystal Oasis, then you go to Desert Highlands, then to Elon riverlands, and you gotta go back down through the Oasis to get there, so you are already trudging through the land you already know (and since you have mounts they took full advantage of making the maps bigger, but it makes them feel... emptier? Like I get it, it’s the Desert, but still...) so you get to Elon riverlands, you do your thing there, then you go to Desolation, then to Vabbi. Nice. Okay.

In none of these maps, there is a story meta. None. No impressive whole-map meta where you gotta all cooperate to keep the map stable. Nothing. There is no use in me trying to analyze these maps, for they are just... backdrop to what’s happening.  Balthazar this, Balthazar that. Oh no Kralky is awake, and oh look we met Vlast for like 2 seconds and then he immediately ded. 

I’ll be honest... I don’t remember much of PoF before chapter 9 The Departing (because that chapter was fire. Lol. get it), which saddens me immensely. I remember most of HoT. Where what happened when it happened how it happened, I know, and if I don’t know immediately, in few minutes my brain serves me the entire instance. I could probably play HoT blindfolded. 

This is a very shallow look into why I probably don’t like PoF as much as I like HoT. 

To try and conclude my very messy terrible rant essay:

Heart of Thorns used its maps in a way that showed you with gameplay what’s in store for you. It used maps in a way to help you build that anticipation of the fight, of everything you sacrificed along the way. The maps are smartly connected in a way where with each map you delve deeper into the jungle, deeper into the mouth of the beast. Sure, they lag as fuck, but the PoF maps do so too, don’t lie to yourselves. With each map you meet new allies that help you along the way.

In Path of Fire I just... don’t get that feeling. I run from map to map, mindlessly following the green star, hoping I will stumble upon something interesting on the way. In Heart of Thorns it was the opposite. I was walking around the map, breathing in the atmosphere of the place, and stumbling upon the green story star. I feel like the Elona desert did not get such justice as it deserved. I trudge around the maps, I complete the maps to get the reward, then I move onto the story. My interest in the whole thing only started to pick up once I freaking DIED for gods’ sake. 

My hopes for the End of Dragons, which is happening in Cantha, is that I get more of that focused map design. That story in gameplay, that map-wide meta that will have me grind my teeth at 10pm on a work/school night. I don’t need Drizzlewood metas (an inferior Dragon’s stand, mind you) that are like 2-3 hours long. A 30 min prelude and 30 min metas are fine. An hour long meta if you have the idea for it, but... give me map stories, Anet.

Feel free to share your own feels about the different feels between the DLCs. I will GLADLY take in PoF preferrers. What did you prefer in PoF? What did you like in it? Give me your opinions, give me your take on everything. 

And thank you for reading my overly long rant essay, hah.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #Path of Fire #Heart of Thorns #guild wars 2 Path of Fire #guild wars 2 Heart of Thorns #If you open the rant #there is a sort of a tl:dr at the bottom #to try and conclude my very messy terrible rant essay it is called #feel free to reblog and comment on #or just ignore lol