#I actually don’t know why people like he original bug post so much but if it’s bc of the bugification then here :)

[chaotic-minds-think-alike]

Um uh uh um Luna moth Moon

#wow colored art?.?? in how long?? #might do the others #I actually don’t know why people like he original bug post so much but if it’s bc of the bugification then here :) #rainworld #rainworld iterator #looks to the moon #lttm #moth #insect #myart

[silverbladexyz]

Helloo! It is i, the same anon who requested the night and morning routines with the hunting dogs, and first of all i just wanted to say that i really love your writing and how detailed it is!! Everytime i read one of your fics i am literally so amazed at how you write the characters, no matter who it is. So when i saw that you’re requests were open i got so happy, and this time i would like to ask for the hunting dogs (YES THEM AGAIN, I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH) and how they would spend the holidays with their s/o, how they would prepare for christmas, etc. (and of course just platonic with Teruko, like a best friend reader. And also no Fukuchi lol) And once again, feel free to remove whoever you want to because i completely understand if this is too much. Anyways, i hope you have a great day/night!!

-🕯

Omg helloooo anon!!! Welcome back!! Thank you, I'm honoured to know that you like my writing >.< and I love the Hunting Dogs too, so of course I'll write for them :)

The images do not belong to me. They belong to their original owners.

TW: Slight mentions of death

Hunting Dogs spending holidays with their S/O (best friend for Teruko)

Tecchou:

-I feel like the Hunting Dogs don’t get a lot of holidays, however, for the sake of this post let’s say that they do ^-^

-Tecchou wouldn’t really mind spending the holidays in any way really, as long as he gets to spend time with you. You could literally drag him out to do a day-long hike or go shopping at the mall until it was 11PM and he would not complain. In fact, he likes it and always looks forward to going out to a new place everyday

-However, he also wouldn’t mind just spending time at home with you. Do some fun couples activities together! Like baking, playing video games, couples yoga, reading books, working out, anything really! Although please keep an eye on Tecchou when he bakes, because not only might he add some sus stuff into the mixture, he might set the house on fire

-Would probably wake up early just to exercise. I’m so sorry if you’re not a morning person, because Tecchou would drag you to exercise with him everyday at 7AM in the morning, even when it was the holidays. But sometimes, he also likes a good sleep in that includes a long cuddling session

-Holidays with him are either chill or quite adventure-filled. There is never a dull moment that goes by

-Now I feel like Tecchou doesn’t really celebrate Christmas; at the most he’ll bid everyone a ‘Merry Christmas’ and accept gifts from people. But he is more than happy to decorate a Christmas tree with you and just spend a great Christmas with you in general

-Oh but please tell Tecchou that the pine trees that are put up for Christmas are normally fake and could be bought in stores... because Tecchou is going to actually drag a pine tree all the way home to use as decoration. Yes, you heard me. A literal. Pine. Tree

-Even though it’s sweet that the thought’s there, I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t want to be sharing your home with tons of bugs and whatever else lives in pine trees, am I right? Not to mention it probably is illegal to do that

-But other than that, Tecchou is absolutely down to celebrating Christmas the way you celebrate it. He’d help decorate the house, put Christmas lights everywhere, even put on some Christmas songs. Even when his taste in food is questionable, his taste in decoration is impeccable. Because all he wants for Christmas is to have a good time with you :)))

-Buy presents for him!!! He would be a bit clueless on why people give presents on Christmas, but he’ll catch on quickly, and even buy presents for you!! But beware, he’ll buy you a lot of presents, and they are the most random presents you have ever seen. Please educate him on this whole Christmas-gifts thing, because he’s trying :(

-Teach him everything about Christmas, because he would love to learn about it. Tecchou might even dress up as Santa Claus and volunteer at the local mall to talk to the kids, and he answers questions so seriously that the kids are lowkey scared of him lol. Please teach him before Jouno murders him

-Christmas nights are normally spent cuddling in front of the fireplace. It’s dark, the candles give a cosy atmosphere, and cuddling with Tecchou is the absolute best thing to do 💗

Jouno:

-Jouno isn’t really fussed on how he spends the holidays; so long as he isn’t exhausted by the end of the day or has to go to really loud places, then he’s perfectly fine with anything

-He strikes me more of the type to stay at home with you and spend quality time with you. You’ll find that cuddling sessions have increased by at least two times, and the amount of kisses too

-Slow dancing with him in the kitchen at nighttime!!! Even though Jouno’s blind, his other sharp senses and great reflexes make him a really good slow dancer. If you don’t know anything about slow dancing, he will teach you, but beware he might tease you a bit for how cute you looked as you were struggling to learn it. Step on his feet please

-Now that it’s the holidays, Jouno definitely is going to sleep in with you. If you wake him up early to work out with him, he’s going to be a bit annoyed, but he won’t object to working out with you. It might help him be stronger than Tecchou, afterall

-If you wanted to go out somewhere to spend time with him, Jouno doesn’t mind, as long as his senses don’t get overwhelmed. But he would prefer taking nice, long walks in the evening where the sunset is beautiful and there is just the two of you on the stroll

-In the rare moments, he might even link his fingers with yours. Hold his hand back and stroke it! It might catch him by surprise at first, but if you’re observant, you might just notice his thumb lightly stroking the back of your hand. It’s very soft though... so pay extra attention

-Honestly just wants to spend his holidays by being with you as much as he can. I feel like his love language is mostly quality time, so Jouno is going to spend as much time as possible with you

-Now for celebrating Christmas... Jouno isn’t really the type to celebrate Christmas. However, convince him and he will eventually join in with your Christmas celebration. He wouldn’t want the house to be decorated too much though, because he just doesn’t want to spend a lot of time packing them up :/

-But he will go gift shopping with you! I headcanon that Jouno has great tastes when it comes to presents, it’s just that sometimes he’s a troll and gets you something to tease you. However he will be serious and buy you some extra nice gifts for Christmas

-I feel like Jouno would be a bit more romantic on Christmas. Playful kisses, fleeting touches, and just being more romantic in general. If you tease him for being all lovey-dovey and soft, he’s going to tease you extra hard 10x back

-Would definitely whisper to you a merry Christmas on Christmas Eve, probably accompanied by a kiss

Tachihara:

-Tachihara definitely wants to get out of the house and spend the holidays with you

-I feel like he’s more of the hiking and beach type, but if you wanted to go shopping with him he’d gladly accompany you. Just please don’t buy too much stuff because he’s going to trip and fall while carrying them

-Sleeping in and cuddles is a must. Now that Tachihara has more time to spend with you, he’s not losing a second of it, so expect lots and lotsss of affection. He won’t do it every single second, but when he does, you’ll be covered in hugs and kisses

-Also loves taking walks with you. He would take you to actual 5km walks where the scenery is beautiful, and you wouldn’t feel so tired because Tachihara would keep you company. But if you were absolutely exhausted, Tachihara will definitely give you a piggyback ride, maybe even carry you bridal style when nobody’s around xD

-Video games and movie nights!!! I headcanon that Tachihara loves playing Mario-Kart and Fortnite, as well as anything you play. Most of the time you two end up trolling little kids on Roblox, and it’s mighty fun. Even then, it’s very amusing watching Tachihara play, because he always manages to make the gameplay interesting

-Now for Christmas... Tachihara secretly wants to celebrate Christmas with you so bad, because when he was younger his family unfortunately did not celebrate it with him. So go all out and celebrate Christmas in the most fun way possible! Buy heaps of gifts, decorate the entire house with Christmas lights, hang up Christmas stockings, just do everything with him! He’ll love it, and he’ll also fall in love with you more

-Definitely lights up a fire in the fireplace and watches good Christmas movies with you, alongside a nice hot cup of cocoa or hot chocolate. Also cuddles with you wrapped in blankets on the couch, and it’s just really nice and cosy

-Also sings a lot of Christmas karaoke with you. I feel like he would be great at singing if he removed the roughness in his voice. I headcanon he likes singing ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, because it’s such a nostalgic song

-Christmas is his favourite celebration now, because he can spend it with you 💗

Teruko:

-Having Teruko as a best friend means that she’s dragging you to a lot of places to hang out in the holidays

-Most of the time she would go shopping or swimming at the beach. Teruko would definitely swim out to the farthest distance she could, and she will throw a tantrum if people tell her that she couldn’t. If you tell her that the sea could easily sweep her away or if there’s dangerous marine life out there, it just makes her more adamant to swim out. She’ll even wrestle a shark if that meant she could swim as far as she wanted lmao Teruko please don’t

-Teruko is going to buy whatever is on discount. And when I say whatever, I mean whatever. Mostly she’ll buy stuff that she thinks Fukuchi likes, but she’ll also be happy to buy stuff that you like too! Teruko will mostly judge stuff and be picky, but the stuff that she thinks are good are actually the best quality. So always trust Teruko’s gut on which items are good or not

-Working out in the gym together! Don’t underestimate Teruko’s small stature, because she can just use her ability and suddenly turn into a very strong woman. She might even have competitions with you to see who can lift the heaviest weights and who could run the fastest on the treadmill she always wins lmao

-But sometimes even extraverts need to recharge. On those times Teruko is just perfectly happy to chill with you, talking about whatever comes to mind. Or you two would watch a tv show or a movie, sometimes judging the film if it was bad

-Also don’t be surprised if Teruko rocks up to your house and announces that she’s booked a trip to a nearby island for a day. She loves planning surprises, and frankly speaking those islands that she drags you to are pretty nice, with lots of activities to do on them. And she will cover the cost, but it would be nice if you treated her to some food and stuff (dw being a Hunting Dog means you’re rich)

-Amusement parks!!! Teruko loves going on rides, especially the ones that are super tall and big and with a lot of twists and turns. But prepare yourself for a lot of her tantrums, because she’s always too short for the ride lol. Teruko ends up using her ability in the end, but she is very vocal at expressing her annoyance

-And just because it’s the holidays, doesn’t mean that she’ll stop asking for piggyback rides. In fact, her requests for piggyback rides will double. Teruko won’t force you to give her a piggyback ride if you were really tired, but be prepared to give her a lot of piggyback rides the next day

-Now onto Christmas! Teruko would love celebrating Christmas with you, and she normally would go to a restaurant with you to have a Christmas dinner. She might even invite Fukuchi and the rest of the Hunting Dogs, and by the end of it Fukuchi is so drunk, Tecchou mixes a lot of suspicious food combinations, Jouno is ready to murder everyone, Tachihara is close to crying, and Teruko is also drinking with Fukuchi. Good luck dealing with them, but don’t worry because Jouno and Tachihara are surprisingly good at dealing with these stuff

-Teruko definitely invites you over to her house on Christmas. She sets up a pine tree, decorates it nicely, hangs flashy Christmas lights and stockings everywhere, basically just going all out with decorations. If you pay close attention, you might even catch her singing some Christmas songs when she thinks she is alone. Don’t tell her you saw though, because Teruko will threaten to punch you

-You two would also spend Christmas singing Christmas songs and watching Christmas movies. Teruko is definitely in a much more energetic mood, and she will be wishing everybody a ‘Merry Christmas’ before you two go to sleep (Jouno was so confused lmao)

@pixyys @pianotross @yuugen-benni @the-mourning-stars @xxelfmamaxx @nekokinax @catzlivedforbsd @i-just-like-goats

#bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #hunting dogs x reader #tecchou x reader #jouno x reader #tachihara x reader #teruko x reader #🕯 anon #silverbladexyz

[sege-h]

Alright this post has been ruminating in my brain for at least 2 months now and I finally have the time/focus to make it.

And it all spawned from seeing Tristamp fans going ‘Old Trigun fans only hate the new one because it changes so much from the manga, as if their beloved ‘98 version didn’t do that too’ so

As someone that’s never read the manga* (*I’ve started reading it but I’m not really far in) that knows that ain’t it and is proof of it, I’m about to go into why I don’t like the latest iteration of Trigun

So like. If you’re a fan and hate perspectives other than ‘Omg I love this show it’s SO good’, probably don’t read this

Creature design

Putting this in first because it’s probably what could be considered my most minor gripe with the show out of everything.

The creature design for the bugs? Excellent! Love it!

But then you get to...the Thomas Look at this, this is a goddamn Creature

They’ve got fun weird designs, and their heads are actually fukken Tiny-located at the ‘beak’ of their masks, and they don’t even look bird-like under there!

So it’s really disappointing when a studio that’s shown they can do great creature design comes up with....this...

Just. A blue emu. With such low color contrast between the beak and the feathers that it could get mistaken for a ‘base texture’ model. Like. C’mon.

But again that’s what could be considered my most minor of complaints so I’ll just move along to my next topics

The Human Typhoon

So. Vash already has a bounty on him at the start of this series- as he usually does. But like...why...?

He doesn’t really do much gunslinging in this series, he kinda just goes around and helps people-- which yes he does in the original series too, and people in towns already know/like him. But the difference is-- the season finale reveals that all the events in Tristamps first season took place before the events at July. So why is Vash already wanted with a huge bounty on his head? The whole ‘oh people keep mistaking Knives for him’ feels pretty flimsy since they don’t really look or act similar- and whole towns seem to know Vash just from him stopping by. He’s kind of just. Some depressed guy that goes around helping people.

Which is another thing. Tristamps Vash really is just Some Depressed Guy.

Yes ‘98 Vash is depressed too, but he hides all this, along with his rage, underneath the mask of a goofy clumsy doofus. It’s part of what makes him so interesting as a character. You watch what he does, you see all the ‘clumsy mistakes’ he makes that end up saving either himself or others that you KNOW are deliberate moves on his part, you see all the moments where you know there’s anger bubbling under the surface that he never lets loose, all the excellent gunmanship that never turns lethal even though it’d be so easy for him to mow down anyone that threatens him. And you have pieces of what’s lying under the mask that you have to start putting together.

You have a man that’s gotten very good at hiding his feelings, and his past and the things that haunt him.

Which is why it was so jarring that at the end of episode one, Tristamp’s Vash gets asked ‘what are you scared of?’ and just immediately answers ‘I have a brother.’ and in the next episode he’s just ready to answer a reporter’s questions about it and about himself.

I was just like...really??? He just immediately spills this to people he met 5 minutes ago???

There’s just so much of Vash’s nuance that’s stripped away completely from his character here- and he’s not the only one but I’ll get into that later.

And he’s just really...timid. Which- there’s nothing wrong with timid characters. But in Vash’s case it’s another case of this show’s ‘nuance-be-gone’ showing.

Vash is a pacifist, refusing to kill people in a world full of people that’d shoot him dead without batting an eye. And as you get a whiff of that rage of his that lies beneath the surface, you wonder why.

Tristamp Vash just really...doesn’t even get comically angry over things- again because he doesn’t even have the emotional mask Vash usually has. And he doesn’t do much gunslinging either, at least not until the final episode of the season.

He’s entirely too trusting for someone that’s been through the things he has. Vash as a character, at least from my POV, is a bit more complex with his trust. He trusts people with the chance to do the right thing. But he doesn’t trust people with himself- again going back to the fact Tristamp Vash just immediately goes ‘I have a brother’. And while he trusts people with the chance to do the right thing, he doesn’t just assume anyone Would take that chance. So Tristamp Vash just going ‘I know Wolfwood is a good person I see it in his eyes :)’ was equally jarring when he’s only known Wolfwood for like 5 minutes, just like with Roberto and Meryl

And I frankly just miss Vash bickering with someone like Wolfwood, instead of whatever’s happening in Tristamp where it feels like Wolfwood keeps trying to start to bicker with Vash only for Vash to be all ‘Wolfwood... <:)’ at him despite having just met him

It was fun, Vash finding a dude who’s so similar to him that he can spot his fake smile from a mile away, yet opposite in some ways and then just bickering with him was fun

Wolfwood has any nuance taken away from him as well-he was a guy that was sent to keep an eye on Vash and to kill him if he got the order to, that spent enough time with Vash that they end up being friends, and he frustrated because that was never supposed to happen.

But Stampede rushes through it’s own story set up so fast that he’s just left being kind of the edgy guy that hangs around and yells at Vash, and they want us to see them as friends because??? I don’t know, because that’s how the story is supposed to go, and we have no time for ‘show don’t tell’.

Vash and Knives

Speaking of lost nuances in relationships. Knives’ attitude towards Vash is a lot less compelling in this show to me.

I can’t speak on anything that goes on in the manga, so again that’s not even my ‘Old Trigun fan hates Stampede because of this’ issue.

To me it just seemed like Stampede Knives saw Vash as less than him. Like something broken that needs to be fixed, or remade into something ‘better’ and on his level.

Which...I don’t know. To me that’s a lot less compelling-- especially as Stampede Knives still thinks plants like him are  superior to humans! But still treats his brother, who’s the same being as him, as less. He even seems to treat other plants as less, as just fodder for his plans.

That’s a lot less compelling than a guy that thinks plants, any plants, independent like him and Vash or not, as superior to humans. The contrast there is just a lot more fun to me- of Vash, who doesn’t think he’s superior to anyone, and Knives, his twin brother that thinks they’re superior to humans and that Vash should just join him in destroying them already. Knives didn’t think Vash needed to be fixed or that he was less-- he saw Vash as his equal, but just thought he was lost in a delusional phase where he tries to live alongside humans. And he did think it was just a fleeting phase- that one day Vash would see his own superiority and abandon them after he’s had all his fun. It was just that that day wasn’t coming fast enough for Knives’ liking, so he tried to break Vash and make him ‘realize’ humans aren’t worth his time and that he should just join his brother already.

The Plants

This maybe could’ve gone under ‘creature designs’ but it didn’t quite fit because the plants are both creatures but also environments.

I don’t quite mind the designs of the plants as creatures in Stampede.

But I don’t like what they did with the environment they’re kept in at all.

I miss the giant light bulbs that stuck out of the remnants of old space ships, and how they both looked fragile due to their design but were also way too big to make stealing them be just a simple feat.

How there was no way to go into a town and be unaware of them, but any regular person would still be unaware of just what plants are

The plants in Stampede are just...they’re just the tumor device from Homestuck. Which I know sounds like an unhinged sentence so here’s a visual for what I mean

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures

Which isn’t a bad design in general but to me it’s a bad design for something that contains plants

Tropes

That’s what everyone in Stampede is. Just walking tropes without any character actually attached to them-- I keep talking about the loss of character and nuance in this show, and that’s all it really boils down to. It’s not just one or two characters that are stripped of it, it’s all of them. They’re walking tropes, and the writers keep acting like they’re characters with connections that they only ever tell us about instead of showing us or actually developing them like.

Wolfwood is just some edgy guy that keeps being angry at Vash, but no wait actually they’re friends and Wolfwood would go into battle with him.

He and Livio are adoptive brothers but we are told this rather than shown-- I’m a sucker for story beats like these so you know something’s wrong when it doesn’t tug on my heartstrings as much as it should. Wolfwood seems more ready to kill Livio- his childhood friend and adoptive brother, than he is Vash who he met a day ago and is supposed to be ready to kill.

Roberto is a drunkard that keeps not even using Meryl’s name and keeps mocking her for being a ‘rookie’. But no wait actually he cares for her deeply, like an adoptive father would even, and also she respects him too! It means so much to her when he calls her by name!

Like don’t even get me started on Roberto. I hated him, and as a character made up entirely for this show, what the writers do with all of them is the most obvious with him.

Like he spends the entire show being drunk, constant one liners of ‘rookie the world is a shithole’ and burping and lines that make me livid like ‘whoop, noob down’ in Fucking 2023

And then comes the moment where he dies. And he leaves Meryl with some parting advice, and a gun. And you realize. Oh. The writers wanted us to see Roberto as just ‘the tired dad or maybe tired uncle’. But they never actually did any character development or character moments that show this, or even develop it in the first place. They’re jumping straight from point A to point Z

All the characters are just building blocks or crumbs of who they’re supposed to be. I’ve seen so much fanart and memes from people that have only watched Stampede that would fit PERFECTLY with their ‘98 counterparts. Because the crumbs for what these characters are IS there, and fandom is incredibly good at building entire characters out of any crumbs a writer gives them but....that usually applies to like side characters and background characters. Meanwhile these are your MAIN CHARACTERS! You’re supposed to have more than just crumbs for characters when they’re your main cast, especially after a season!

I could say some things about how shipping factors into this, but I’d rather not get viciously mauled by shippers, so I won’t

Episode 1 is just bait for old fans

Literally from the very first teaser for it. You get everything I complained Vash lacked earlier, and then some, and it’s just in this one episode.

You get fun western-y music. You get Vash showing his skills, and actually firing his guns. You get him being a doofus, and pulling expressions like this

Which is like...God. GOD I miss Vash pulling funny and exaggerated expressions! Especially since this shows us they CAN push the models like that, and it looks so fun! And then they just. Don’t do it again.

They pull you in with ‘yes this is a different show, but still has some of the Trigun things you love in it!’ and then they don’t do it again for the rest of the season. No ‘who the hell even is this guy’ feats of gunmanship, no fun times, no exaggerated fun expressions, and no Vash yelling and being a doofus...which is the other thing

Voice acting

Everyone’s kind of. Subdued in that department. Like they could do more but they just don’t do it. And so does Vash. You get Johnny Yong Bosch to reprise his very first VA role, and then you don’t even let him go all out or really have any scenes that’d LET him go all out? I think that should be a crime

You have scenes here and there where you get to hear him do his ‘a panicked Vash is running’ noises and those are good but it leaves you wishing we had more scenes where he could be a goof

And then in the season finale he finally FINALLY gets to yell and have some emotion but even that feels just a tad held back

But the voice acting issue could be entirely because Crunchyroll especially loves to live up to the ‘Crunch’ in its name which is a whole other can of worms that’s not related to Trigun alone so. I’m gonna let it slide

Jesus, Sege, is there anything you DO like in Stampede?

I like the worm creature design! And I like Zazie. Zazie is definitely the best thing about Stampede and I like that they kinda set up a third party in the whole humans vs. plants thing by just being the insect creatures that have lived on Gunsmoke long before the ships crashed. The planet was theirs, and now they suddenly have two new species on it, and one of the new species is trying to wage war and destruction on the other, so they’re just trying to figure out which one will be more beneficial to them. I think that’s fun.

I also like the animation! I love what they’ve done with the 3D-- before this series whenever I tried to get into a series with animation that’s like ‘its CG but it’s looking like 2D animation’ I just couldn’t get into it. I could never figure out what it was about the style that kinda put me off. But I finally did it with this series!

I...like the final season 1 episode? Maybe? I have issues with it but honestly I think Vash getting to yell, and fire his gun as part of a big fight scene was such a breath of fresh air after the whole season that I just didn’t care

I like the music but it also feels like I have to just listen to the OST to actually get to hear music other than the Jenora Rock Resistance and Knives’ theme, it doesn’t feel very prominent in the show

Conclusion

Stampede is just. Not a good show. Not ‘not a good Trigun show’, just plain not a good show. If I’d never seen ‘98 Trigun earlier this year, I’d still have all the issues with it that don’t have to do with Trigun related things like the Thomas or the plant environmental designs or the character dynamics. I’d still think the characters are just walking tropes and that the writers want the payoff without any of the buildup or development, I’d still think it’s jarring how quick Vash is to trust people with his past, or trust that Wolfwood is good. I’d still be glad Roberto is dead because I’d still hate him.

It’s not just me theorizing on ‘what ifs’, I think it’s the most evident that I’d have the same emotions by how I reacted to the Livio episode. I haven’t gotten to him in the manga, and he isn’t in the ‘98 anime. I have nothing to compare that episode to, but it still left me feeling like the writers wanted payoff without development.

If I’d never seen Trigun ‘98, I’d have probably dropped this series after the first season, if not the first few episodes.

But having seen Trigun ‘98, I’m left morbidly curious as to what the plans are for the story. It’s like watching someone put together a puzzle by mixing the pieces around, and they’re still making an image form so you’re just curious as to wtf this thing will look like once it’s completed compared to the picture on the box.

So I’m kind of just along for the ride now even though the ride keeps crashing every 5 minutes

#Sege rants

[blueper-saiyan]

alright I have a fandom hot take to get off my chest. It rubs me the wrong way a bit when I see people refer to Vegeta as Bulma’s (or occasionally Goku’s) pet. Honestly I’ve made the joke myself and I usually don’t mind it, but I feel a bit guilty/weird about it, and it’s taken me months to work out why. I think first there’s an in-universe reason. Vegeta’s actual backstory is that he was functionally Freeza’s pet for about three decades. And I don’t really want to compare his relationship with Bulma or Goku to his relationship with Freeza in a way that makes it sound like he just changed ownership. I’m pretty sure part of the reason the joke is so common is that Vegeta does call his own redemption(ish) arc “being domesticated.” (At least in English, I’m not worrying about the Japanese original today) It’s absolutely funny that he thinks of it that way, but I also think that Vegeta’s opinion can’t be trusted on anything, especially himself. It’s one of the more interesting parts of the character to me that he doesn’t quite think of himself as a person (a topic worth its own meta). He’s also got the aforementioned history of being dehumanized. Combining that with his internalized idea that the only valuable trait is strength and being kind or merciful or caring is just weakness, it makes sense that he might decide to label his character development as “domestication,” even though that’s not really a good description of learning to find contentment in peace and care for others. So part of why that line is funny is the irony, even if there is some truth to it. Taking it at face value and using it as a joke on its own without the irony sort of feels like it misses the point for me.

Then there’s the half that I feel sort of guilty posting because I know it’s not the intent behind the jokes and it feels like I’m getting upset over something trivial and saying this feels accusatory, but I’m getting my hot take out of my system once and for all regardless. I feel like I see people say Vegeta is a pet either because he doesn’t have a job and he’s just living off Bulma’s money, or because he’s really weird sometimes. And I really don’t like the implications of either of those. Again, I am aware it’s a joke, I know that I’m not supposed to be taking it literally, but. Not working a job sure as hell doesn’t make someone less than human. Being financially supported by someone else does not make someone a pet, that’s spectacularly fucked up. And behaving strangely, even in an animalistic way, also does not make someone less than human or someone else’s pet. (and for the record I can’t actually think of much Vegeta has done that’s animalistic in canon, the closest to that has been eating the bug person, and he did that in a pretty human way. He cooked that bug person first and everything lol. Vegeta being cruel is not animalistic, it’s just a negative character trait. Most animals aren’t even aware enough to be cruel, so it’s a pretty human negative trait at that. I know it’s popular fanon to make him more animalistic but it is fanon. That’s probably a really hot take too but whatever.) Actually this goes for jokes about Goku too, who is the one who actually has some “animalistic” traits in canon. I hate the implication that the way either of them acts would make them the “pet” of a more “normal” human character. It feels really gross. Especially because they read far more as neurodivergent and/or having trauma then they do as true aliens. Part of that is an inherent side product of writing aliens as a human, because you can only really use things that humans are familiar with. But there’s also a whole history of which human traits get used to make an alien seem “inhuman.” I’m only personally familiar with the autism part of that history, but I know there’s lot more than that. Regardless, it certainly has an effect if you have those “inhuman” traits that people say are what makes an alien or robot or whatever into something less than human. So uh, “Vegeta is Bulma’s pet because he’s blunt, aggressive, often confused by other people’s intentions, and doesn’t always understand Earth” does not feel great as a joke. I know it’s not that serious and I know that’s not the underlying intention and I know that caring about this character in particular really does not help my case. But I guess I just can’t quite escape my feelings about it anyway.

#I’ve been brooding on this for at least a year I’m sorry about this one #No hate to anyone who does find the jokes funny #I can see why and some of them *are* funny #And it took me ages to even articulate why it gives me pause #But I guess I think it’s at least worth pointing it out in case anyone else feels the same #I’m sure Goku fans could give their own version of this rant because I see a similar trend there

[archivalofsins]

So uuuh I remembered you mentioning in a Mikoto post how Orekoto seems to refers to Haruka as just "Haruka" whereas boku-Mikoto calls him "Haru-kun". And earlier I was going back through all the Minigrams and in episode 34, Mikoto uses "boku" (僕) AND calls Haruka just "Haruka" so I wanted to know if you had any kind of thoughts on this because atp I'm just lost 😭

The explanations I can think about are : 1) the two alters were co-fronting so the two alters ways of talking mesh together 2) Orekoto just has had an influence on Mikoto as a whole and now Mikoto also adresses Haruka as "Haruka" in general instead of "Haru-kun" 3) it's actually Orekoto fronting but he's"masking" by taking on the host's manners

I guess it's not that big of a deal but it still bugged me slightly and since first heard of Mikoto's alter showing up in Minigram through your blog I thought I'd ask

Yeah, I re-blogged something recently that brings up that idea it's not the first thing to though. Many people have pointed it out over the course of Milgram. I'm assuming the post you're referencing is this one here.

To keep a long story short like you said in your follow up ask I did not write that I just re-blogged it from someone else.

Edit: I have since taken down that reblog and as such have linked to the original post above instead. I prefer not being asked why I did that. (I've also edited this again to fix formatting and spelling errors. 08/22/23)

Again, I'm assuming what you're referring to is this part,

There are other verbal differences between how Mikoto and the other one speaks. Mikoto proper referring to Haruka as Haru-kun is one of the more obvious ones.

We see this illustrated throughout the portal timeline repeatedly,

20/06/05

Haruka: Ah…… ah, u-um, Mikoto-san. The c-communication……? thing, that you were saying was important I-I thought, I’d give it my best…… Um, so, Mikoto-san, what’s your favourite food……?

Mikoto: Ooh? Nice going, Haru-kun~ Yeah, we still have no idea how long this lifestyle will go on for, so it’s best if we all get along together here. My favourite food…… I like pasta and horse-meat sashimi. Also bubble tea, and recently I’ve been big on custard puddings. What about you?

Haruka: ……ah, I, I wonder…… H-hamburg steak, and omurice, a-and also…… what else? Ah. Cotton candy……

Mikoto: C-cotton candy!? That’s the first time I’ve met someone who has that in their top three favourites!? ……man, Haru-kun, you really are hilarious.

22/10/06 (Mikoto’s Birthday)

Haruka: Mikoto-san. Um, are you ok……?

Mikoto: Ah, Haru-kun. It's been a while since we last talked, huh. Yeah, I'm fine. Are you doing ok......?

Haruka: Ah, I’m fine. I’ve been enjoying myself, a lot. Um, I’m sorry, for avoiding you. I was a bit scared. Of you, honestly……

Mikoto: Ahhh, yeah. I’ve been lashing out whenever I go to sleep, right? ……it’s fine. Even I think you’re right to be scared. You know, I kinda just hate that I don’t even know what’s going on myself…… haha. Ah, but despite all that you still came and talked to me because it’s my birthday, right? Thank you, you’ve grown into a good man.

Mikoto is also the one shown and stated to be the one who gives other people nicknames. He is shown doing so off the bat with Mahiru.

20/05/25

Mikoto: ……I’ve really got caught up in some trouble, huh. What even is this place? It’s probably a TV reality show or something. ……but to think someone in this day and age would try to do a project that could land them in so much trouble. Uh……

Mahiru: Ah…… I’m Shina Mahiru! You can just call me Mahiru. And you are……?

Mikoto: Kayano Mikoto. I’m fine with just Mikoto too. Ahh, I’m glad there’s someone here who’s easy to talk to…… It’s nice to meet you, Mappy.

Mahiru: ………… ……Mappy???

He's also the one to refer to the prisoners by nickname in his first trial Interrogation.

"See? Like, Yun-chan and Mucchan, are just high school girls, Haru-kun looks like someone who can't hurt a fly, and Futa would be an umbrella thief at worst."

And states this when asked about it during his first trial interrogation,

Q.09 Why do you give everyone nicknames?

Mikoto: I guess it became a habit when I was at university. Having a nickname for someone that only you call them comes with a lot of advantages, do recommend.

Even though it seems to follow the rules stated within the other post this is not some hard rule. It is just an observation.

We've seen in Milgram through other prisoners that they can switch up honorifics or not use them at their discretion. Just as people in real life can. For example, Yuno with Mu.

Yuno went from only referring to Mu by her name to using chan over the course of Milgram,

20/06/04

Yuno: Huh, so you go to that high school. So, you are from a rich family then~! I mean, you already gave off that vibe though. What year are you in?

Mu: First year…… Kashiki… san…… you’re older than me, right?

Yuno: Yeah, I’m in third year. But you can just call me Yuno, I don’t really like the stuffy formalities. It doesn’t really matter who’s older and who’s younger. If you squint, we’re basically the same age anyway.

Mu: ……fufu, what’s with that? But ok…… I’ll call you Yuno from now on.

Trial 2

Q.11 Which of the other prisoners do you get along with least?

Haruka: I don’t dislike Amane anymore. I’m not scared of small children now

Yuno: I wonder; the ones that are painful just to watch are Haruka and Mu-chan.

The use of honorifics is highly circumstantial. In Minigram 34 Spoiled,

Mikoto is doing a mock job interview where referring to someone by kun might just be contextually inappropriate or disrespectful for the environment he's attempting to simulate. So, he reasonably drops it.

A lot of the Milgram characters do what many people where I'm from would refer to as code switching. Basically, changing their language to fit the environment. People in general do this a lot in their everyday lives. People who are incapable of doing this or have difficulties doing it can run into social issues.

So, to put it simply given the topic he rightfully wouldn't refer to him as kun. He also doesn't refer to the others by name at all. Something common in job interviews, at least group ones.

The best way to come to a simple conclusion is to ask simple questions.

If they could co-front why would Milgram have any issues restraining the other Mikoto or even be unaware of their presence until after trial one? It is likely that there are other prisoners who have dissociative disorders, and their cases haven't been as difficult as Mikoto's. So, from that we can infer that if Mikoto had a more interconnected system or was even aware of the other then Milgram would have been able to better account for their presence.

The other Mikoto having more of an impact on the usual Mikoto would allude to the progression of time when it has been stated by Yamanaka that the Minigrams take place during trial one only.

A bit of a more accurate translation (still not completely accurate though),

"The minigrams are basically going to remain in the first trial timeline forever. It will remain in a relaxed, relaxed manner. There is a lot going on in the main story, but please rest assured to enjoy it."

Although since you can read the minigrams this is more for my benefit.

Because this is the case we will not be seeing any of the prisoners who have injuries with those injuries within the minigrams. This is perfectly displayed through the state we Mahiru is in within the minigrams in comparison to her state within Milgram currently,

Being able to jump rope despite needing a wheelchair in canon.

Since the minigrams take place during trial one chances are Mikoto is still unaware of the other's presence. It isn't completely impossible for the other's presence to be subconsciously impacting Mikoto, but I personally don't think it would be enough to change his way of speaking. Especially if this is all taking place over the course of trial one.

There are much more definitive ways to tell when the alter is in the minigrams the use of ore is one of them. However, just referring to Haruka as Haruka and not Haru-kun is a bit too skewed by circumstantial and contextual factors for me to consider it a reliable indicator.

Something your question has brought to attention here.

This is why I don't use that as the only indication of which personality is out myself. There are a lot of subtle mannerisms verbal and non-verbal that indicate which one is out currently and who has been out the longest. All these details come together to make Mikoto and his situation far more realistic in my opinion.

#milgram #kayano mikoto #mikoto kayano

[napkinzilla]

Godzilla vs. Megalon 50th Anniversary and the Origin of Jaguarposting

I started this account in November when my Godzilla hyperfixation was in full force thanks to a series rewatch I was doing and G-Fest. A lot of that hyperfixation was focused on Anguirus, Baragon, and Jet Jaguar.

I don’t exactly think they’re great characters or anything, I just kind of gravitated towards them for some reason. I know why for all of them, Anguirus having an off-screen reconciliation with Godzilla while forced to live together on Monster Island was actually sort of neat, I don’t like that we never get to see it and are forced to just assume it happened but its also nice to see something interesting and new, especially since this was at a point where the Showa era just kind of felt like it had grown entirely creatively bankrupt (The last truly creative Showa film is Hedorah, ik its a polarizing movie and I think that actually kind of proves my point a little). For Baragon, its that I just found it funny how they paired him with two far more popular monsters for this movie and then had him get his shit wrecked really quickly (he also has the most creative fight in the movie but I’m pretty sure I just liked him cause he’s a jobber). And for Jet Jaguar, its sort of hard to say. I know most of the western fanbase for the character likes him because of MST3K, but I never watched the GvM episode (except the Jet Jaguar song sub but that was after the hyperfixation kicked in).

The only reason I can think of is that he’s just funny to me. He’s basically the star character of this movie he isn’t in the title of and his plot just goes all over the place. He starts the movie as the invention of an engineer who wants to protect the world by piloting a robotic suit (which, considering there is an island full of monsters that is so poorly secured they could just leave anytime they wanted if they can swim or fly (almost all of them can), which they did in the last movie, its understandable why he’d do this). And by the end the suit has gained full sentience, befriended Godzilla, and defeated a bunch of underground men who control a giant bug with a drill head and drill hands. There isn’t that much explanation for most of these things either, they just sort of happen suddenly. Godzilla vs. Megalon is a terrible, terrible movie, and Jet Jaguar is the central character. Godzilla vs. Megalon is also an immensely enjoyable movie that I have subjected multiple people to so that I could see their reactions. I love it, its so fun, and Jet Jaguar is a big part of why the movie is so fun. He’s so fucking silly and stupid, I love him.

I said its hard to say why I like Jet Jaguar as much as I do, but its not impossible, in fact I basically just did. This overly long post has been mostly me saying why I like Jet Jaguar. But I haven’t really talked about Jaguarposting. Why the fuck do I post this guy? Because he’s funny to me, I made Baragon my Discord pfp for a while because he’s funny to me to. Its not super complicated, I am a very simple man. I main Blanka and Faust because they’re goofy guys, and in the same vein, I fixate on Jet Jaguar because he’s a goofy guy. The legacy of Godzilla vs. Megalon is that its a stupid fucking movie. Jaguarposting is a celebration of that movie’s stupidity, the idea that a post is funny solely because it features a character from the film.

I didn’t realize March 17th was Megalon’s birthday, I didn’t see any posts about it on the day and didn’t have the date committed to memory. So this post is late. But I still want to wish GvM a happy 50th. Maybe go watch it in it’s honor and hopefully see what I’ve been rambling on about for this long.

If you don’t know what Jaguarposting is, don’t worry, I’ve only ever used the term once and made like 5 posts in the genre across all social media. However its my first post on Tumblr, so I felt it was about time to explain myself.

#godzilla #godzilla vs megalon #jet jaguar

[gffa]

I'm pretty new to the sw tumblr fandom, would you mind telling me what the pro/anti jedi "discourse" is about? absolutely understand if you don't have the time for that of course haha

Hi! Oh, I’ve tried like five separate times to write a short summary of What Jedi Discourse Is About, but it’s hard for me to put into a nutshell, because I really want to try to be fair and objective, but also I have experienced a lot of shit in this fandom and I’ve lost a lot of patience for it.  (This is not aimed at you!  This message was totally fine, I’m just still disgusted with some people’s behaviors towards other fans..) As short as I can make it:  While people run the gamut from “the Jedi were monsters and a cult and they hated Anakin and it was their fault he fell and Order 66 was totally deserved” to “well, the Jedi were pretty awful, but the babies didn’t deserve to be murdered, I guess” to “the Jedi did some things wrong and some things right” to “the Jedi were right and their decisions were understandable because there just weren’t any good choices”, and many people are incredibly insufferable about it along the way, whether anti-, neutral-, or pro-, as all subsections of fandom are, and there is a very common tendency for pro-Jedi fans to get bombarded with people trying to argue with them. (There was a time when I literally could not make one single post about the Jedi without someone trying to tell me how wrong I was.  This is why my anon is off and why I block when people are only here to argue.  Things are calmer now, but sometimes people still get a bug up their ass and won’t leave us alone--sometimes for literally A YEAR they’ll keep badgering someone.) The discourse is usually centered around the definition of “attachment”, whether or not the Jedi were a cult, the idea that the Jedi suppress emotions, the Jedi were baby thieves, the Jedi were totally cool with slavery, the Jedi were corrupt and stagnant and bad for being drafted into the war, the Jedi were super mean to Anakin and it’s their fault he fell, the Jedi weren’t blood families so they don’t really count as family, the Jedi kiiiiiiinda deserved their own genocide because they weren’t nice enough, etc. There are plenty of people who are chill about their Jedi criticisms and I usually get along pretty well with them (babes, this post isn’t about you guys, I promise), but there are a LOT of people whose behavior is fucking atrocious towards pro-Jedi fans and that has kind of poisoned the water between us in a lot of ways, so when we’re talking about the shitty behavior in fandom, it’s about the people who just will not leave us alone or who constantly feel the need to come yell at us on our posts. Basically, it’s about a lot of different issues (I feel like if I listed them all, it’d just be starting things up again), usually centered on whether or not the Jedi were emotionally healthy, whether or not they were corrupt for fighting in the war, and whether or not they were responsible for Anakin’s choices.  Pro-Jedi fans feel that Lucas’ commentary is very “the Jedi are right about the Force and they really didn’t have any better options about joining the war and Anakin’s fall is his own fucking fault” and that a lot of criticisms the Jedi get are bad faith, unsupported by the actual source material, or outright racist because of their Buddhist influences and that much of what gets criticized is those Buddhist origins. But it’s a complex, many-tentacled issue, so that’s the best overview I can give, as well as, you know, I am pro-Jedi so my experiences are from the pro-Jedi side, I register these things far stronger than someone who has a different experience!

#lumi.txt #jedi order

[gayemeralds]

hi! ive liked the project shadow is sonic theory for a while, (mostly bc of your posts) not necessarily believing in it but i DO think its interesting but one things been bugging me about it is shadows memory of marias wish/promise (localization errors.). because like. i dont think gerald wouldve given him that memory? it has no benefit to him, it actively undermines his goal and i dont think shadows brain would just make it up. while hes dead set on revenge. do you hacve an explanation for it?

disclaimer: i don’t think they ever intended for “project shadow” to be sonic’s actual backstory other than maybe a fun “what if?” and i wouldn’t ever want it canonized but i think about it so much

okie dokie ive got three theories here bc this is also something i wonder about.

gerald wasn’t originally going to make shadow a weapon: gerald was going to re-create project shadow under g.u.n., with the same intention of helping the world and being a good guy, until he saw the list of people killed in the raid and found maria amongst them. gerald, who had already given shadow his memories and maria’s soul (a la sonic battle), then altered them to fit his decent into madness, which is why shadow was able to remember

shadow was given maria’s soul/however sonic battle explains it: this innate connection allowed him to remember marias true wish, just as it keeps emerl good, until the very end.

shadow just has a fucking breakdown: shadow didn’t agree with destroying the planet, but that’s what his memories tell him to do, that’s the purpose gerald gives him, so shadow goes through with it. but the worlds about to end and the ark is about to crash into the planet and shadow doesn’t WANT that to happen- he doesn’t really want to destroy the world, despite it all, because gerald still made him a living, conscious, human person despite also being a wmd. so shadow’s brain configured a new memory- to justify his actions of saving the world.

im partial to the first- that g.u.n. lied to gerald about the events of the ark, that maria was held somewhere, perhaps as a hostage to keep him going, so gerald decides to make the second ultimate lifeform prorotype similar to sonic- hoping to create a hero to right his wrongs. but then gerald finds a list of those killed, and his hate for humanity takes hold, and gerald gives shadow black arms dna and alters his memory until he creates the shadow we know today. and instead of righting gerald’s wrongs… he’s going to right all of humanity’s wrongs, by acting as judge, jury, and executioner.

#PONDERING…….. #master emerald brothel

[blossom-adventures]

10 characters, 10 fandoms, 10 tags

Sorry for the delay, I was at work when I was tagged by @bougainvillea-and-saltwater to do this, thank you, it’s about time I post something on here (and not just hide behind a like button) and this is actually a good opportunity to show some of the fandoms I have interest in so here we go…

1. Ulfric Stormcloak, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Honestly… I could put a whole list of 10 of my favourite characters from Skyrim alone, but I put Ulfric, I’m currently writing an OC backstory which will end up in a relationship with him so I have him on my mind a lot at the moment 😅 (also I’m reading an amazing story about him at the moment by @thequeenofthewinter)

2. Guzma, Pokemon Sun/Moon. I don’t think I would have cared as much for this character if I hadn’t read the comics done by @elbdot also his theme music in game is incredible, I like the concept of his character being incredibly powerful despite being a bug type specialist (a notoriously weak typing)

3. Percy, Critical Role (Campaign 1 & Legend of Vox Machina). I started to watch Critical Role when it was on episode 50 of Campaign 1 and managed to catch up by their first live show, and Percy was always my favourite (with Grog a close second) Campaign 1 will always have a special place in my heart as it’s the one I always go back to when I’m feeling down. Percys natural smugness and amazing one liners just works so well, I love it

4. Loghain, Dragon Age. Ok this might be a surprise, most people go for people like Alistair, Anders etc. But my favourite character is Loghain, why? The Novel wrote by David Gaider, “The Stolen Throne” which focuses on the friendship between Loghain, Maric and Rowan during the Orlesian Occupation of Ferelden (sorry if you have no idea what that meant 😅) it’s an amazing book that I read a least once a year

5. Krasus (Korialstrasz), World of Warcraft. Ok, little confession… I’ve never played WoW, but I’ve read a lot of the books and whenever Krasus turns up in one of the novels I can’t help but smile, I’m a massive fan of the “War of the Ancients” Trilogy by Richard A. Knaak (I’d highly recommend them if you’ve not read them, I’ve read them twice since I got them in 2020)

6. Thorin, The Hobbit. I watched the first film of The Hobbit and instantly had Thorin as my favourite character, in the time between the release of the first and second films I read the book (having never read it before) and I won’t lie, I cried at the end, never cried at a book before then (have since… several times) Richard Armitage did such a good job as Thorin

7. Aragorn, Lord of the Rings. I’m that person who will remind you that Viggo broke his toe in that one scene 😆 I tried reading the books but I didn’t even get as far as Moria, but I adore the films and it’s soundtrack (my favourite used to be Legolas, but as I’ve got older it’s shifted to Aragorn) Viggo was perfect for the role

8. Link, Legend of Zelda. I know this is a little vague so I’ll narrow it down, I’ve played “Twilight Princess” & “Breath of the Wild” and I have started several others, I think it’s just the fact that I really enjoy the games so I’ve naturally got the PC as my favourite character

9. Obi-Wan, Star Wars. “Hello there” Finally a Sci-fi character 🤔😆 I grew up watching the original trilogy so Alec Guinness was always Obi Wan…. Then the prequel trilogy came out and Ewan McGregor was amazing, he played the part so well and he is BY FAR my favourite Star Wars character of all time, adding even more with his original series on Disney+ I quote Obi-Wan a lot too, and me and my brother get carried away and end up reciting most of his dialogue for fun. It’s one of the few Sci-fi things I watch (along with Star Trek) and I always watch them at least once a year

10. Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice. I never thought I’d say that one of my favourite characters would be from a Period Drama, I never used to like them, then my mum read the book and asked if we could watch it one day, that was the end of 2020, we seem to watch it once a month now 😆, Darcy is brilliant in the film (I haven’t seen the TV series) and played by a great actor (Matthew Macfadyen) the moment he walks through the fog, when the music picks up 💕🥰💕 (if you know, you know)

Honourable Mention: Lupin, Harry Potter. I love this character in both book and film and I was torn between him a Mr Darcy to put in my top 10

I don’t know enough people to tag 10 so I will invite people who see this to do one themselves as well as the previously tagged @thequeenofthewinter and @elbdot

#pokémon #the legend of zelda #skyrim #critical role #dragon age #world of warcraft #the hobbit #lord of the rings #star wars #pride and prejudice #harry potter

[nageill]

Love or hate the series, but Five Nights at Freddy’s has definitely shaped the indie horror game genre the past several years. The first game was released August 8, 2014, with the newest game having just come out last year in 2021. FNAF has spawned numerous fan games, books, Funko figurines, and just about every other piece of merchandise you can think of.

I wanted to definitely dedicate a night to this series for 31NHV2022, but the only question was how? Watch a playthrough? Fan made animations? Fan theories? Game reviews? Jam out to two hours of FNAF fan-created music?

Then, it hit me. I should review what got me into the franchise in the first place-- Game theories.

I know there are other video game theorists out there aside from MatPat, but it is his videos that got me interested in Five Nights. Currently, he has 50+ videos in his FNAF playlist, so to save my poor wrists and your eyes from writing a review on each and every single one of his posted theories, I’m just going to choose three from his playlists to delve into.

Unfortunately, YouTube has decided when creators do playlists that they should be in reverse-chronological order for some reason? That really bugs me. So, here is a fan made playlist of MatPat’s FNAF theories done in chronological order.

(Also, Game Theory has not posted the specific writers of the scripts or the editors, but MatPat has stated multiple times he does write the scripts on all his channels, just sometimes he has co-writers and sometimes they are solely written by Mat, so I’m just going to label all editor(s) and writer(s) for the videos as The Game Theorists If anyone can give me specific information regarding this (with proof), I’ll be happy to update this.)

Now, let’s get to the theories!

1.) FNAF 1 is based on a true crime.

Season/Episode: [Game] Five Nights at Freddy’s 1. Original Posted Date: October 23, 2014. Directed: [Editor(s)] The Game Theorists. Written: MatPat & The Game Theorists. Summary: A possible explanation behind the inspiration for FNAF, who is the security guard, and why do they keep working at this creepy pizzeria?

Available for Streaming: Yes.

YouTube.

Review: Why not start with the one that first kicked off my love for FNAF and also kicked off poor MatPat into his journey of slowly losing his sanity?

Ah, back when the franchise was so much simpler--there were only two restaurants, two dreaded incidents, and five animontronics...

I don’t think anyone, Scott Cawthon, MatPat, or the Internet at large realized just how much the indie horror game scene was going to change with this one video. This is really the one that kicked it all off.

Yes, some of Mat’s delivery is a bit corny, it was nearly ten years ago on YouTube. Everything was cringe like the 90′s. But he did his research on this theory, lining up all the facts and showing the parallels between the story of this quirky little game and this horrific crime. And there is quite a few parallels.

I appreciate the fact he did handle the facts of the crime with respect, especially to the victims. It’s something I think most people “Well, duh, of course you should be!” And yeah, I think content creators should be, but I’ve sadly seen quite a few that aren’t. And that’s people who are dedicated to true crime content, whereas MatPat’s content is theories on video games. He didn’t have to, but he did, and I’m grateful for it.

Back to the actual theory. Based on what little information we had about the story with the release of only the first game, the theory really does line up. It was a solid theory Mat came up with, and it was enough to pique my interest into the franchise. It’s a classic and one I enjoy re-watching.

Trick-or-Treat: TREAT! Although this theory has been disproven by Scott Cathown with the future games, the similiarities between the FNAF game and this crime are truly uncanny, and MatPat certainly did his research. It is definitely spooky for the Halloween season.

Rating: 10/10 🍕

2.) The Cult of Glitchtrap.

Season/Episode: [Games] Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted VR; Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted VR (Curse of DreadBear DLC); and Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secruity Breach. Original Posted Date: November 16, 2019. Directed: [Editor(s)] The Game Theorists. Written: MatPat & The Game Theorists. Summary: A possible look into Vanessa’s character in the then-upcoming Security Breach game and Glitchtrap.

Available for Streaming: Yes.

YouTube.

Review: The amount of research MatPat pours into his FNAF theories... I know there’s a lot of people in the fandom that get annoyed with these videos, but I really appreciate the amount of research he puts into them, and honestly, more often than not, I agree with his theories.

This theory had the right amount of spooky to it, fit very well into the established lore of the franchise at that time, and it delved deeper than Steel Wool studios did with the concept of Vanny/Vanessa and her ties with Glitchtrap, how it was going to add onto the storyline from FNAF: Help Wanted.

I LOVED THIS CONCEPT! It still bums me out greatly that they didn’t go this route with Security Breach, I think it would have added so much more to the lore of FNAF.

Trick-or-Treat: Although it is not my favorite FNAF theory, I still think this is a treat to watch. And it’s so good for the Halloween season. I mean, you have evil cults, spirits trapped in technology, and child murderers--all the spooky! Personally, I thought this theory was going to turn out to be right, and I am very bummed by the (probable) changes made (I blame Steel Wool) to make it wrong, I still like this story better.

Rating: 9/10 🐰

3.) The FNAF Timeline.

Season/Episode: Five Nights at Freddy’s- the entire video game series, the YA books, and the novels. Original Posted Date: July 29, 2018 / August 5, 2018. Directed: [Editor(s)] The Game Theorists. Written: MatPat & The Game Theorists. Summary: MatPat tries to solve the FNAF timeline-- take 4!

Available for Streaming: Yes.

YouTube: 1 & 2.

Review: Now, yes, I realize this is technically FOUR videos, but this timeline was split up into two videos. It made no sense to me to just only post one and not the other. And yes, I realize at the time of posting this, MatPat has done another updated timeline. However, at the time I originally was going to post this, October 2022, the two I posted were the latest proposed FNAF timeline, so I’m sticking with that.

MatPat always pours his heart and soul into these timeline videos. The amount of media he consumes for just the research, the insane amount of details he combs over... He always put so much work into these videos, while making them coherent and entertaining.

This iteration of the FNAF timeline is very concise while covering all the games up to that point, the books, everything. It is very comprehensive, and while the newest one does detail and have all the things from Security Breach and the newest games, this still holds up very well.

Trick-or-Treat: TREAT! Honestly, MatPat’s timeline videos are always some of my favorite of his FNAF videos. He puts so much research and work into these videos, it clearly shows, and I think it’s a lovely passion project for FNAF fans and for the Game Theory community as well. And to me, FNAF just screams Halloween so much for me. It’s almost as much of a tradition to me when it comes to Halloween as much as The Corpse Bride. This timeline series is just a treat, and it is one you should definitely check out.

Rating: 10/10 🐻

#31 Nights of Halloween Viewing 2022 #31NHV2022- Night 03 #FNAF theories #Five Nights at Freddy's theories #FNAF- Game Theory #(finally finished typing up everything and posting this) #queuing on broken glass

[queer-devil]

I posted 570 times in 2022

12 posts created (2%)

558 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@a-softer-despair

@nottheartblogbuttheotherone

@vhsghostricks

@ministarfruit

@deadmaidclub

I tagged 545 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#edit - 325 posts

#danganronpa - 283 posts

#art :> - 83 posts

#word :> - 74 posts

#nagito komaeda - 73 posts

#korekiyo shinguji - 70 posts

#funny :> - 70 posts

#dgr art - 68 posts

#hajime hinata - 56 posts

#my word - 53 posts

Longest Tag: 121 characters

#when i was younger i thought i saw what i imagined bloody mary looked like in the mirror when i was going to the bathroom

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Take a screenshot of the ship you looked up and tag your OTPs

19 notes - Posted June 21, 2022

#4

See the full post

26 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

#3

I couldn’t find the original post but here’s the photo that inspired this

50 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

#2

Danganronpa Headcanons

General Headcanons:

Maki has several bird feeders, squirrel feeders, and just other foods left outside for animals. She refills these everyday

Himiko has dwarfism

Miu uses slurs because she doesn’t know the meaning behind them, she assumes it’s just another name for a group of people (she got corrected by Kaede and is now working on it)

When Kiyo thinks that someone “would be a good friend for sister”, he really means that he likes them and he thinks they would get along if he didn’t feel like he was cheating on his sister

Angie wishes her name was Angelica

Ryoma has the “Hang In There” poster

Kiyo wears anything as long as he’s covered, gender roles don’t phase him, only gendered terms

Kokichi knows morse code

Kaito and Shuichi have a “secret” handshake (it’s pretty simple and Kaito wants to use it everywhere), Maki refuses to join in on it

Hiro got the scar on his back from playing with raccoons when he was younger, he got along with most of them but sometimes they would attack him and he would cry because "His friends hurt him" (he is the reason his mom smokes /j)

Hiro's mom is from Japan and his dad is African American

Tenko and Kiyo drive each other to therapy

Kiyo, Mikan, Toko, Mukuro, and Nagito all went to an inpatient together and had group therapy, they’re like a weird little family now

In this therapy family, Kiyo and Mukuro act most like siblings towards each other, Nagito is a very protective big brother, Mikan constantly fawns over the rest of them, and Toko likes to pretend they don’t exist because “they embarrass her”

Kiyo and Angie are best friends, it used to be just because Kiyo was fascinated by Angie but they ended up getting along very well

Chihiro knows tons of memes and is very into meme culture

Mondo used to go to plays and musicals with Daiya (they snuck in) and he is a very good actor because of post performance meetings

Mahiru loves taking photos of her friends and has a three whole flash drives full of photos

Izuru loves blankets and soft things

Kaito is scared of the dark and he has a bunch of glow in the dark stars and moons on his ceiling, he also has a bunch of stuffies (a lot of which have astronauts suits or other space related things)

Ibuki has several younger siblings

Kokichi is an orphan and was at the same orphanage as Maki, they just never interacted much

Kokichi and Miu are friends, they just don’t seem like it to most people

No one from V3 kills bugs, they get Gonta to gently remove them from the premise (and sometimes he keeps them in his room)

Hiro has the self-assigned role of dad in their his friend group, he does cringey things like leaves messages in their lunch and talks as if he was like 20 years older than he is

Mikan’s stutter is from nervousness, but Toko’s is a real stutter

Fuyu is lactose intolerant which is why he hates milk, Peko never has anything with lactose in it because their home never had any

This is actually why Peko got sick in chapter 1, she didn’t realize the food she ate had cheese in it and she wasn't used to it so it made her stomach upset

See the full post

52 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

58 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#year in review #false

[purpleyin]

Stranger Things 1-3 thoughts

This is one of those shows I've been into for some time but not quite gotten into fandom for until lately. Used to be I just binged a season by myself and then later on arranged a rewatch with friends. I recommended it to people but the most discussion I did was the IRL rewatching of it rarely. I had feels about Jopper since like the pilot ep and read/lurked those fics a few years ago but otherwise didn’t do much. I think I made precisely 1 ST moodboard in like 2019 for Joyce because I love her character and Winona plays her so well. It wasn’t until I ended up seeing Stoncy (Steve/Jonathan/Nancy) stuff regularly for polyamships that I started to think about that OT3 potential, reading some fic for them and then doing some art for the OT3. I’ve ended up getting more and more into that ship and majorly back into the show + joining the Stoncy server, which meant I had somewhere to go talk about S4, but there are no S4 spoilers in this post. I actually did a s1-2 rewatch back in January and s3 in March when I was doing a lot of Stoncy moodboards for Multiamory March, but I failed to do a post like I intended either time, so here’s some belated thoughts on the first three seasons.

Overall I think the thing that impresses me most about the show is how they pace it and how they always have at least 3 separate plots that converge for the finale. But also, so many good characters. Plus the family feels and the friendship feels - I can’t recall that many shows where I felt like they did friendships justice. S3 wasn’t quite so good on that - poor ignored Will who just wanted to play DnD and nobody wondering where Dustin was for most of it - but mostly it does. Shipping wise, my 1st OTP was Jopper, but I enjoyed Joyce/Bob in S2 too. I don’t often have NOTPs but Joyce/Lonnie would be one, as is Ted/Karen, I hope she divorces him by the end of the show. When I originally watched I wasn't entirely sold on Jancy or Stancy to be honest but as an OT3 I'm here for it.

S1 was very solid so I liked a lot and only really had 2 issues with that I recall. 1 was when Jonathan and Nancy cut their palms to use blood to attract the demogorgon. The theory is sound and it makes for cool scars to hark back to in s2, but you should not be cutting the palms of the hands you need to hold weapons in afterwards. Would’ve been way more sensible to cut forearms or somewhere, anywhere, else than palms. Anyhoo. The 2nd thing that bugged me a lot was Flo’s line to Nancy after Jonathan gets arrested following the alley fight with Steve, the whole ‘only love makes someone that damn crazy and that damn stupid’. Why does it bug me? Because it wasn’t really Nancy’s honour Jonathan is defending in the fight. He holds back until Steve starts on the taunts about Will and his family. Now, I know Flo wouldn’t know that, and she’d just be saying it based on past experience that people are usually being idiots for love (or money, perhaps), but it’s a writing choice. And as a writing choice it feels like it’s dismissing Jonathan being protective of his brother and redirecting it into having a big Romantic Moment meaning to fuel possible Nancy/Jonathan and it rubs me the wrong way since that wasn’t what spurred him to fight.

S2 I remember being so argh at Dustin lying about dart, keeping a secret from the party, because I thought he would know better but I guess he was blinded by excitement and a bit of ego about his discovery and then poor mews paid the price. Poor poor mews. Also the fact that the Nancy/Steve breakup wasn’t really explicit, though it certainly seemed likely after her drunken admission, and then she’s with Jonathan. That felt a bit weird, but then so did the whole Jonathan taking pics of Steve and Nancy in S1 and I think fandom seems to collectively overlook those things mostly so... Love Nancy’s determination to get justice for Barb and give her parents closure but Murray’s meddling with Jonathan/Nancy I just sigh at, least favourite scene of S3. Not exactly fond of the same style returning with Murray’s comments on Joyce/Hopper’s sniping in S3 either. I don’t mind Murray other than that, he’s a bit grating but I’d just like him not to be the writer’s version of a cynical cupid trying to push people together. It would be nice if people just organically realised things or the plot pushed them together instead another characters literal prodding the issue.

S3 plotwise was fun but oh boy the relationship stuff. The kids being bad at it makes sense - though less of the women are mystery creatures narrative would’ve been nice even if it is period appropriate - but Hopper I thought would do better and felt OTT in so many of his reactions. There’s some recent headcanons I’ve been thinking about that I think make more sense of how over the top he was, but it’s painful to watch some of his scenes and made me like Hop less during S3 half the time. Also, I think Karen deserves better than Ted Wheeler but no thank you to the creepy Karen/Billy flirting from S2 that came back with a vengeance S3 for an affair that was only just averted by plot reasons. He’s legally an adult (by S3 at least) sure, but not that much older than Nancy, and it feels like they were playing it off as ‘okay’ because he’s the seducer to play into Karen’s fantasy of being desired by someone again. They even went so far as to make the cover art for her romance novel she’s reading in the bath one episode of S2 to look rather like Billy. Other S3 stuff: Robin & Steve duo was great and I would’ve been onboard for their ship if it had happened but it being ‘straightbaited’ was something of a nice change and yay for an unexpected pleasant surprise to have canonically gay character. Scoops Troop together was fun but Erica really wasn’t wrong about the child endangerment. Felt so much for Will this season since no one seems to be thinking about him and he just gets more and more, rightly, angry at being dismissed. I love that we got a Karen and Nancy bonding moment. Joyce and Hop investigating duo was heart eyes until Hop gets majorly whumped, but lol and wow at Joyce having to drag him out of there after. Joyce figuring out the magnets and going to Scott Clarke also pretty fun too. I keep wanting Joyce to get a new job, because she clearly has skills that are not being used at Melvalds. In general, seeing Steve out of his high school setting was a nice change to see he’s not always on top of things. Alexei was fun too and still sad at him dying. The horror of it, how massively affected the town was by s3, that really stuck out because before then it’d only seemed to affect a handful.

I think the other thing that stood out in S3 was the Jonathan/Nancy argument - that hurt to watch too. But I like it because they are both right, just arguing at cross purposes. Nancy is totally right that the newspaper guys don’t respect her and nothing she does is gonna change it, the game is rigged against her, which Jonathan can’t apparently see. And she’s oblivious to his concerns, because he needs the job, unlike her, because she’s been so privileged to grow up not wanting for anything, not having to a be an adult before her time like he has, working to help his family. Anyhow, I will do some s4 ep thoughts sometime soon, though probably going 1 ep per post because I had so many thoughts on watching those for the first time.

#stranger things #stranger things season 1 #stranger things season 2 #stranger things season 3 #hans watches stuff

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 37

Shout out to @asongeverlasting for beta reading for me and making sure I actually got this out.

Check her writing out on AO3 as Ramblingwren

(Master post)

(Read the fic in a more condensed on Ao3)

(The latest chapter will be up on there once this reaches over 300 notes on tumblr)

_____________________________________________________________

Simularé looked out over the city from the top of the school.  Using her replicated powers, she took the form of Volpina so they'd be able to alter the illusion quickly should something pop out and accidentally reveal the true form of the school. Thankfully the sentimonster didn’t need to do much in order to maintain the illusion; Paris was a surprisingly quiet city.

As far as they could tell, no one in the city outside of the school had any idea what was going on. And that worked out perfectly for them.

“So, this is where Lila has you stationed,” a voice called out, resulting in the faux fox turning around. The figure behind them was a woman clad in dark blue, with blue skin and a feathery fan. She looked confident and the sentimonster instinctively felt that this individual was very much aware of what it was.

Mayura had quickly deduced it was the sentimonster as it was in Lila’s previous akuma form, Volpina. With Lila now Masquerade, it was unlikely she would choose to take such a form. She would likely want to stay in her new form to show it off.

“Do not be alarmed, Simularé, it is your creator. Mayura,” Mayura spoke again.

The shapeshifter leveled a sharp glare at the woman. What made her so certain of that?

“How do I know that is true?” Simularé questioned.

The villainess took a moment to examine the sentimonster. Mayura had to admit that this sentimonster was her finest work to date. The amount of emotion harnessed from Lila to create it made it far more unique, much less of a mindless creature than her previous creations. Amoks were created much like akuma were, locking on to intense emotions before sending off. But unlike akuma, amok can be shaped and tailored with enough focus. Simularé was a special case, as it was made from the conclave of emotions that Lila was experiencing during her breakdown. It had been quite difficult to focus on one specific feeling but Mayura had pushed through. Simularé was sculpted to be Lila’s ideal ally, but it was also so much more than a simple asset. This Amok embodied Lila’s core personality. Her cleverness, her cunning, her mistrust of others, her playfulness, her pride and so much more. To put it simply, this Sentimonster was Lila’s spirit given a new form.

“Trust me Simularé, you would be best not to ask that,” Mayura warned.

The sentimonster felt as if it was being talked down to and clearly did not approve of anyone talking to them in such a tone, save for its master. It charged at the peacock villainess, ready to make contact, But, before it could get close, Mayura stuck out her hand and pinched her fingers together, causing the sentimonster to feel as if some force was pulling its essence out. The pain it felt was indescribable! It felt as if its very being was being ripped out. Mayura was in range to sense the Amok and could easily remove it without difficulty, much like Hawkmoth could with an akuma. Though Mayura had a feeling that letting the Sentimonster know that keeping her out of range of the item was the key to its survival would not be wise. It was best in this moment to display power.

“Stop! Please!” Simularé begged. “I … I believe you! I will do whatever you ask, just please stop the pain!”

The villainess smiled, it seemed there was even more to this Sentimonster than Mayura had anticipated. It had a powerful sense of self preservation, something controlled sentimonsters didn’t seem to have. She took note of that.

“Good. Now, you are going to explain to me your master’s end goal and where Ladybug and Chat Noir are in the building.”

Simularé felt the grip that Mayura had on its essence and held back its burning resentment towards the blue bird villainess. She would behave. For now.

“Okay… I will tell you everything.”

_____________________________________________________________

“Duck!” Ladyice called out as she had Ice Noir lower their bodies to avoid oncoming ice projectiles.

“Surprising that she's only attacking us with ice. She's Stormy weather. You'd think she would be attacking with more, maybe some rain or like a vol....” Ice Noir commented.

“Don't talk about that! Do not give her any ideas!”

The two had skated out of the room and made their way through the now icy hallway while Stormy Weather gave chase.

“I was just saying it seems weird how...mediocre her attacks are.

“It’s like we saw before, the akuma servants are like robots, they can’t react quickly so changing up her powers is likely just as much of a problem. She's probably not as dangerous as we initially thought.”

“So maybe we should face this problem head on now that we aren’t cornered?”

Ice Noir changed direction and began skating towards the umbrella-wielding akuma.

Stormy Weather noticed the approaching cat and raised her umbrella, creating a mighty gale to blow him back and ending him flying past Ladyice to the end of the hallway.

“She can use her other powers… can confirm,” Ice noir commented as he got off the wall, still dazed.

Ladyice skated up to the dazed cat and helped stabilize him. Despite seeming like a wasted effort, the cat’s brash antics actually inspired Ladyice with a way to take her out.

“I just figured out how we can stop her, think you can give her one last charge for me?”

“Why Bugaboo, asking me to rush headfirst into danger? How heartless.” He feigned hurt.

Ladybug rolled her eyes.

“Silly Kitty. Just be ready to hang in there when she blasts you with wind. Don’t get blown back this time.”

“Got it.”

Ice Noir quickly skated across the ice as he drew his weapon. He was ready for her this time.

“Hey breezy weezy! The weather today was supposed to be sunny with a 20% chance of raining Cats and Dogs!” Ice Noir called out, clearly happy with his lame joke.

Stormy Weather saw the cat approaching once again and prepared to send another wind blast at him.

But the cat was prepared this time around and extended his staff to anchor himself to the walls on either side.

“Nice try!” Ice Noir snarked. “But a small little puff of wind won't blow me back again.”

The storm akuma decided instead of creating just another wind blast, she was going to step it up with a cyclone attack! A powerful tornado tunnel would surely blast the cat down for good.

“We were wrong! She can amp up the power too!” Ice Noir exclaimed as he held onto his staff with all his might while his body was being blown back by the massive winds. “This was not well thought out!”

He focused on digging his claws into his staff and doing his best to remain in the wind tunnel. The powerful winds blew into his face and he could see Stormy Weather slowly approaching.

“I don’t think I can hold on much longer, Ladyice!”

He felt his grip slipping. Any second now, he was going to get blown back.

“Don’t worry, Kitty. I got this.”

Stormy Weather didn’t get a chance to react when she felt something tackle her full force and rush her into the wall on the opposite end of the hallway.

The wind died down and Ice Noir was able to land on his skates. He released his grip on his staff and fixed his windblown hair to resemble its original state before quickly skating down the hall to help his partner.

“Nice job, Ladyice.”

The red-clad heroine stood up from her grapple with the storm akuma.

“Actually…”

Ice Noir looked up to see that his partner had shifted power ups. Her skates and ice skater aesthetic were replaced with a suit that had red spacesuit-like plating, a jetpack with retractable wings with red and light blue colors that matches her helmet.

She had changed into her space form, Cosmobug.

“Space power up! Because you can fly through the wind! Genius!”

Cosmobug smiled.

“Well, Stormy Weather is dazed but probably not for long.”

The two heroes noticed her about to grab her umbrella, but Chat Noir’s cat-like reflexes helped him snatch it first.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Ice Noir broke the umbrella over his knee.

“I don’t think she will be as mobile without her powers.”

Stormy Weather tried to stand but slipped on the icy floor she had created.

“Let’s just make our way to the boss,” Cosmobug said. She used the jet on her back to swoop up Ice Noir and fly slowly down the icy hall.

“Just like you to sweep me off my feet. But don’t think I will be a smitten kitten like usual.”

“Oh? Is that so?” The bug heroine raised an eyebrow. “It’s hard to imagine that you haven’t been dreaming about this scenario.”

“It helps that you aren’t riding a horse with the wind blowing in your hair,” Chat Noir joked back, catching Ladybug’s teasing.

Cosmobug quickly moved them to a part of the hall where there was no ice. Both undid their potion transformations, reverting back to their usual hero forms.

“Not keeping the jetpack?” Chat Noir asked. “It is really cool.”

“The room halls are pretty limited, and there's not much mobility, otherwise I might have,” Ladybug confessed.

The two heroes took a moment to catch their breaths and figure out their surroundings.

“We should thank Stormy Weather.”

The cat looked at his partner skeptically, remembering how a few minutes ago, the wind had nearly sent him flying through a brick wall.

“What makes you say that?”

“Lila probably had Stormy Weather out and about to flush out other people in the school and make sure the area was difficult to traverse. She likely sent out a bunch of other akuma to do the same, which means her forces are scattered and we have a better shot of dealing with her with fewer obstacles.”

Chat Noir nodded. He would not have deduced such a thing from one encounter with a weather akuma.

“Good to know, so the plan is to locate her and save the day.”

“No need to figure out where she is, I already have a good idea where she should be.”

Chat Noir noticed Ladybug had already started moving. He quickly followed behind, though he didn’t need an explanation this time. He already knew where Ladybug was heading — to his homeroom class, but he couldn’t say that without revealing what he knew.

_____________________________________________________________

‘This was a ridiculous decision.’

That was the thought running through Chloé’s mind as she ran for her life from a large group of Reflekta clones.

The two or three she had run into early were easy to avoid, but now it seemed like a horde of those tacky clones. And all of the ice that surrounded certain hallways made it impossible to traverse. She was limited in her running space and she was running out. But what made it all worse was that now those Reflekta copies had adjusted to running.

“HOW CAN YOU RUN IN THOSE HEELS!?” Chloé screamed as she ran down the hall.

She just had to try and be a hero. Why was she even doing this? The assistant probably got turned into one of those gross clones or got masked like those other students. She could have just sat back and just waited for Ladybug and Chat noir to find her or let them handle it.

“You can’t run forever” The crowd of clones sang in Rather impressive and creepy harmony.

Chloé took a turn down the hall and went into the door of the nearest room.

She closed the door and locked it before smelling the musty wet air.

“What the… EWW!” She spat in disgust as she realized she had locked herself in a janitor’s closet.

“Why did it have to be in such a gross smelly room?” she moaned.

Unfortunately, her comments caught the attention of the crowd chasing her.

She heard banging on the door.

“You can’t hide, we will find.”

Chloe put her back to the door to keep them out and felt herself slide down it in despair.

Was this how it was going to end? Getting turned into one of those fashion nightmares after hiding out in such a rank smelling closet? She didn’t even save… wait. She did save someone. She saved that old man. It hadn't been glamorous, but she did manage to save at least one person.

“I guess I did do something good after all. May not have been exceptional… but it was something.” Chloé smiled for a brief moment.

She took a moment to look at the positives, Ladybug and Chat Noir would likely come in and save the day, plus there were those other two heroes. Perhaps that would be enough. But she had to admit, finding solace in that was getting harder to do when the smell of the closet was destroying her nostrils. Just then, she remembered she had some nice perfume in her bag that she could spray to alleviate the smell.

“Well, at least I won’t smell awful when they capture me.”

She put her hand in her bag and felt around for her perfume. As she searched, she felt an unfamiliar object in her designer handbag. She pulled it out.

“What is this?”

She noticed a note on top of it. It was a bit dark to read so she pulled out her phone and turned on her flashlight.

“Return to Ladybug after mission?”

Chloé’s eyes went wide. Could this be what she thought it was? How was it possible? She didn’t have time to question it.

She opened the box and out came a floating bee creature, who Chloé recognized right away. It was real.

“Pollen!” Chloé exclaimed with cheer.

“It has been a while, my queen.” the bee kwami said.

Chloé would have loved to revel in this moment more but she knew that door was going to burst open any minute. She needed to be the bee heroine.

“As much as I would love to talk more, we need to hurry. We have some akuma clones that need bashing.”

“Right away, my queen!”

Chloe put the bee miraculous in her hair.

“Pollen, Buzz on!”

_____________________________________________________________

“It is a good thing there are so many copies,” Ryuuko stated as she leaped over a few Reflekta copies.

Viperion swerved and dodged the replicas of his sister’s akumatized form while avoiding getting caught in the bubbles that froze them and floated them up in the air.

Deadzone had been doing a lot of friendly fire thanks to its single minded obsession.

“After this, I really hope I never have to see my sister take this form again,” Viperion commented.

“Right, Adrien mentioned that you were Juleka’s brother. Older brother, right?”

“Older twin brother. But yes.”

“Really? You seem older.”

“I am a grade ahead of her, but we are the same age,” he explained.

“Could have sworn you were at least a year or two older.”

“A lot of people think the same thing. Even my mom forgets, sometimes. Rose, my sister’s girlfriend, says I radiate ‘big brother energy’ or something.”

“You learn something new.”

“What about you? Any siblings?”

“Sadly no. I was an only child.”

“Too bad, I think you would have made a great older sister,” Viperion encouraged

“A snake charmer, are we?”

“Well I am the snake, and I am not charming myself, so I think the more correct term would be dragon charmer.”

“Change that to fun killer because you killed my fun right there.”

Before Viperion could retort, they had made their way down to the end of the hall and noticed that it was frozen off.

“Dead end,” they say at the same time.

“No, Deadzone.”

The two turn to see the deadly akuma amalgamation pointing its blaster at them.

The two heroes looked at the deadly akuma.

“Any ideas?” Ryuuko questioned.

“Just one.”

Viperion moved his hand to his bracelet.

“Second chance!” Viperion activated his power.

“Now we have some options.” Viperion explained.

The akuma fired a bubble blast at Ryuuko, and she was frozen.

“Second chance!”

Things reset to how they were a few seconds before. Viperion grabbed Ryuuko and pulled her out of the way of the oncoming bubble blast.

“Thanks. For a minute there, I thought that thing had me.”

“It did, but I used my power to stop that. we still have to get out of here.”

“Look out!”

Ryuuko got hit with another bubble as they got up, protecting him from an attack.

“This might take a few attempts…”

_____________________________________________________________

Hawkmoth paced inside his lair.

Mayura was out there, his son was out there… and things were not going the way he planned. Masquerade seems to be building a base for herself and was more concerned with that than getting the miraculous. Adrien is MIA, and Mayura isn’t responding.

“I might need to step in. But there is a lot of risk in this. Far too many variables that I can't account for”

Hawkmoth never liked leaving his lair. It had too many risks to it. After Heroes' Day, he had nearly been exposed. And after that fiasco in Shanghai he didn’t want to risk getting taken out by his own akuma. He had already taken plenty of risks that had blown up in his face. Would this be another one of those times he would need to risk his miraculous?

“But it could also be just what is needed to beat Ladybug and Chat Noir once and for all.”

With an akuma this powerful, the two would likely have to use their special powers multiple times. If he can just locate them and wait for them to do so, he could potentially gain the advantage. Maybe Mayura was on to something with her actions.

Hawkmoth walked to the window.

“There will be a right time. I just need to wait for it.”

He felt an itch in the back of his neck. He wasn’t sure what it was but he could tell one thing, something big was going to go down, and he needed to figure out the right call soon or it could cost him dearly.

_____________________________________________________________

“…And that’s her plan.” Simularé finished. “As for Ladybug and Chat Noir… I am unsure. I lost track of them before I was given a new assignment. But they are in the building and they have not tried to leave.”

Mayura smiled at the information. While it was quite unfortunate that she didn’t have the exact location of the two heroes, it was good to know that they were still in the building, and Lila’s plan was certainly something interesting.

“Indeed, that is quite a clever plan. Ensuring everyone in the school couldn’t escape was pretty smart. You likely had a few escapes anyway, with how clumsy some of the akuma were. You are fortunate that neither one was Ladybug or Chat Noir. Still, though, it isn’t your master’s fault for that. They are basically mindless puppets. But then again, it seems that there might be zero escapes since there seems to be no new reports on the subject of a school takeover.”

Simularé let the peacock villainess muse, analyzing her movements as if trying to figure out any advantage it could handle.

“So, the next step now that all communications are cut is to send out a message that Ladybug and Chat Noir have already been defeated, so as to cause massive despair in order to create even more minions. Sounds a bit derivative, don’t you think?” Mayura mused.

Simularé said nothing. It held its tongue. Deep down, it knew that starting any dispute with this peacock was not wise. Especially given that crazy power she had over their being.

“Still, it is quite a plan. And with all those extra akuma recruited and Ladybug and Chat noir cut off from their guardian, they wouldn’t be able to get any sort of back up. They wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight before all of Paris is under Masquerade’s thumb. I approve of the plan.”

“I am glad you do,” Simularé stated with a forced smile.

Their conversation was cut short when an akuma appeared. Seeing one it did not recognize, the artist akuma prepared to fight. But thankfully the shapeshifting sentimonster stepped in.

“Stand down Evillustrator, this one is not our enemy,” Simularé ordered.

Evillustrator eased and walked over.

“Masquerade has ordered that we start reinforcing the building. She wants this place to be like a fortress,” he parroted.

Mayura looked at the artist.

A fortress? Yes, Simularé mentioned that Masquerade wanted to reinforce the school so that she could ensure Ladybug and ChatNoir would have less chance of escape.

Simularé nodded at the akuma servant.

“Alright, so she wants us to drop the illusion, then?”

“She wants the place to be like a fortress.”

“Go ahead and start,” Simularé motioned. She figured that her master likely didn’t care about the illusion much as she was prepared for stage two. But she would maintain it for a bit.

The akuma moved to the end of the roof and begins working to reinforce the walls

Mayura began moving to the door of the roof to get back down into the school.

“Tell your boss I will be heading to her, and she best be welcoming,” Mayura ordered.

“As you command,” Simularé replied, hiding a large amount of anger and resentment towards the blue bird.

As soon as the blue peacock is out of sight.

Simularé contacts its master.

“Simularé, what is going on? Did Evilustrator reach you?”

“Yes. He is working to make this place a fortress. You want me to maintain the illusion, right?”

“I am about to go public shortly. After I make the announcement. Drop the illusion and make sure this place is a full-on fortress. After that is done, report back to me.

“Yes master. By the way, I had an idea.”

“Oh?”

Simularé smiled sinisterly. She was going to show Peacock why she was sorely mistaken.

“I will report the details to you shortly.”

_____________________________________________________________

“Everything is set up,” Robostus noted.

“Excellent. Let’s do it now.”

The Reflekta camera crew was all set, and Gamer had set it up so the moment they went live, every screen in Paris would show Masquerade.

Masquerade got off her call with Simularé. Something seemed a bit off with her sentimonster but she was intrigued that she had a plan.

“We are live in 5….4…3….2…” the gamer stated before pressing the go live button.

Masquerade smiled.

“Good afternoon, citizens of Paris. You may not know who I am, but don’t worry! You will be very familiar with me very soon. I am Masquerade, and I have decided to make Paris my personal kingdom.”

She paused to let that sink in.

“Now you are likely very alarmed by this declaration and that is normal. It will only be a matter of time before I spread my influence to everyone in Paris.”

She paused to let her words hang in the air before continuing.

“Do not be afraid, I am no monster. I plan on being a fair leader. All I ask is for your undying admiration and absolute loyalty. After that, you are free to live your lives as you normally would. Do not resist and you will have no problems. However, if you do… well, I can’t guarantee your safety.”

Masquerade took a calm breath before finishing.

“This last message goes out to the heroes of Paris, Ladybug and Chat Noir. I know you are here, I know you believe you will stop me, and I know you have allies here. But you will fall to me. Your days of superheroing have come to an end, your miraculous will be taken from you, and I will expose you as the failures you are,” Masquerade finished with venom.

She ended the transmission.

“Now make sure that it is being looped,” she ordered.

“Already is,” Gamer confirmed. “And panic is starting to rise.”

Masquerade smiled. Her plan was already working.

It may have seemed like a simple ego boost, but that speech of hers was a crucial part of her plan. Her charm bracelet could hyper focus on anyone that was akumatized in the past and have their biggest insecurities exposed. But that one by one process took far too long, if the hope of the entire populace of Paris was already demoralized. Then all she needed to do was send out her masks and let them take hold. And all she needed to do was go out there and send the masks.

She could already feel massive amounts of negative emotion from outside of the school. As soon as she headed out of the school, she could easily go and get more akuma soldiers. She could feel her bracelet trembling with all the potential additions.

She was prepared to leave, activating one of the charms to give her black angel wings, but something she remembered caused her to stop.

“Simularé I am moving to phase two of my plan. Get down here.”

It only took a few seconds for the sentimonster to jump from the roof and knock on the window.

One for the Reflekta copies opened the large window to let in what appeared to be Dark Cupid, before it shifted into the phantasm form that was its base.

“Right on cue. So, what is this plan you wanted to suggest?” Masquerade inquired. “And be sure it is not a waste of my time.”

“What if I told you I could get you a Miraculous?”

The sentimonster could feel that Masquerade was very pleased with that idea.

_____________________________________________________________

37 attempts.

It took thirty-seven resets before Viperion figured out what they needed to do.

“Ryuuko, follow my directions exactly,” Viperion instructed. “I know how to win.”

He quickly pulled her towards him to make sure she dodged the first bubble.

The akuma was surprised by the avoidance.

Viperion smiled.

“Your next line is, ‘How did you know I was going to blast at her?'” Viperion stated confidently.

“How did you know I was going to blast at her?” Deadzone parroted in shock before realizing they had said exactly what Viperion had said they would say.

The dragon heroine looked at the determined expression of the snake. She could see experience and certainty in his posture. All her years of fencing taught Kagami the art of reading body language, and the hero in front of her was someone that exuded an aura of confidence. She knew she could trust him.

“Alright, Sassy Snake, I will let you take the reins.” Ryuuko responded.

“Jump to the left in 2 seconds and start running.”

Ryuuko followed the instructions and sure enough avoided yet another bubble attack from Deadzone.

“Head to their left and bounce off the locker at the end.”

Ryuuko dashed past the akuma and jumped as Viperion instructed, perfectly avoiding the barrage of blasts sent her way. Viperion had perfectly mirrored her motion as he explained the next steps.

“Now somersault twice and draw your sword.”

Ryuuko somersaulted as Viperion leaped over her and the dragon turned to draw her sword, now on the other side of the hall.

“Now as soon as it fires a bubble at you, activate your wind! No matter what! I believe in you Ryuuko.”

The last words seemed a bit strange to the fencer. What did he mean by that?

“Will you shut up!?” Deadzone shouted before sending a bubble at Viperion.

“For my final glimpse into the future, you will say, ‘Not so tough now are ya?'”

The bubble contacted Viperion.

“Viperion!” Ryuuko cried out.

The bubble enveloped the snake and floated to the ceiling, taking his frozen form along with it.

“No…” Ryuuko muttered. She looked down in sorrow.

I failed to protect him. He ended up protecting me. He had been backing me up to make sure I wouldn’t do anything reckless.

Ryuuko felt her mind flashback to a few days ago which now seemed almost like it happened a year ago. They had made such a good team back then and now… they get a chance to be heroes again and she couldn’t cover him like he did her.

“Ha, not so tough now are ya?” Deadzone stated with confidence.

Ryuuko’s ears perked up at the statement. That was the line Viperion predicted they would say. That means… Viperion knew this would happen! Which meant his previous statement was to show he planned this. She knew what to do.

Deadzone turned its attention to Ryuuko.

“Don’t worry, you will join him shortly.”

Deadzone fired another bubble right at her, but this time Ryuuko wasn’t moving. She was at the perfect distance to do what she needed to do.

Ryuuko smiled.

“Wind dragon!”

The dragon-themed heroine turned into a cloud and blew the bubble right back at the akuma.

“What!”

The bubble encapsulated the akuma, causing it to freeze in place and then float to the ceiling.

Ryuuko returned to her original form and smiled, seeing how they had finally incapacitated the akuma.

“We did it, Viperion. We took them down. I'm sorry it cost you so much… I won't let you down!”

She raised her blade, upon realizing that her partner was indeed trapped in a bubble.

“Wait a minute…”

Ryuuko walked underneath Viperion’s bubble. She wasn’t entirely sure if this would work, since akuma magic was weird and often unpredictable, but it would make a lot of sense if it did.

“It is a bubble, so this should work right?” Ryuuko questioned as she used the tip of her sword to touch the bubble. She pushed it forward a bit causing the bubble to pop.

Her partner dropped to the floor.

“Ugh… my head.”

“You’re okay!”

Ryuuko hugged her friend, but then realized her sudden action and quickly jumped back up. A bit flustered, she could swear Marinette was rubbing off on her.

“I am glad you are alright, friend. You had me concerned — slightly,” Ryuuko corrected herself.

Viperion was surprised by the quick motions but managed to steady himself.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course. But make it quick, we will need to get a move on.”

“Okay… Who am I?”

Ryuuko froze at the question. She could see the confusion on his face. He was completely serious.

“Oh… that is not good at all.”

_____________________________________________________________

Masquerade is on phase two of her plan and Simularé is starting to make waves.

Who will get to the akuma first, Mayura or our heroes.

What will happen to Viperion now that his memory is gone?

Will Queen bee be the right choice?

Reblog and Comment . Your support is invaluable in keeping this fic alive. And I love hearing your thoughts on it

#ml #ml fic #miraculous ladybug #ml fanfiction #ladrien #miraculous fanfiction #drama #ladybug #chat noir #slight ladynoir #fan akuma #masquerade akuma #ml au

[yjwhatif]

MY (LATE) YJ EPISODE 19 NOTES (spoilers)

I’ll be honest I think most of these notes are me just writing down quotes from the episode and saying that I liked them… let’s do this…

MY BOY FINALLY SPEAKS! It took 19 episodes but we got there and I couldn’t be happier - he is still as awesome as ever! Every line he speaks is just on point - I love the way Jason Marsden voices Bart - there’s so much personality in everything he speaks… Bart we have missed you!

Another thing I’m really loving about this season is how they’re using time - things aren’t just happening all at once because the plot needs to keep moving - the show puts effort into establishing that things do take time to set up and cumulate into something worth actively exploring. This is especially important with the mental health aspect of this season - feelings and trauma can take a while to actually manifest into something noticeable by the people around you. For me it’s what makes this universe feel so real and the characters so complex - time is taken to make them that way. Time doesn’t stop just because we’re not following a certain character - their story’s still moving and developing in the background - just like life.

"That's why you came to me." Bart knows his value to us all.

If Bart can essentially repurpose the legions time machine into a completely new one - does that mean he always had the ability to fix his own but chose not to - he must be getting new parts from somewhere if its taken 3 and a half months to get what's needed? Also what happened to his original time machine - was it destroyed in the cave or was it moved somewhere to be studied - I have always wondered?

"Only a fool goes into a mission blind” - parallels between M’comm and Bart - neither are naïve enough to get manipulated - which actually makes me reconsider my ep18 thought that M’comm’s desperation for Darkseid’s help will blind him to ultimately being manipulated by him.

Also it is ridiculous how many watches of that opening scene it took for me to consciously realise both Bart and M’comm say - “So spill, or we’re done” - that was a serious facepalm moment 🤦‍♀️

KILOWOG! I always liked him in the Justice League Animated Series - him and Flash were always fun together

“You want nothing done - form a committee” - I have definitely heard my uncle say that before

I love a good hug moment!

“It’s as I feared, I am dead” - I already love this dude. Also Kilowog & Razer definitely have sunshine and grouch energy ☀️🌩 I’m here for it!

Tell her how it is Vykin - Raquel you need to look beyond the rage and find the hope - Orion is not a monster! Also this officially answers the question I had about who knows about Orion being Darkseid’s son

I love YJ Kilowog - gotta love the caring friend giving the angry lecture about keeping in contact when they go off into the unknown without word… I can see one of these in the future headed for Bart.

Yeah that deal sounds a bit too good to be true

Forager x Forager’s bug romance is cute - don’t know if I really needed it but I won’t deny they are very cute with each other.

I feel like there’s an interesting post to be made about whether Bart truly perceives everything like some game or whether it’s all just an act…

That’s a lot of food! I do love that it changes with every scene. Also I really liked the idea that he’s carbo-loading ready to go off into the time stream as soon as they finish their story — he’s always thinking ahead - ready for anything

Ahh, inherited hatred - the foil to progress and corrupter of minds.

LOSH vs ZOD — Hope vs Rage. The legion represent hope for the future while Zod embodies rage for the past

That is a perfectly shaped table for the current situation

Yep I still love Orion! I love how blunt and direct he is - but you still get moments of emotion that come through - “You should all be afraid of that fight.” His tone changes just enough to emphasise how serious he feels about a war against Apokolips and how grave his warning is to a ignorant Rocket.

Also there are 3 moments in this ep that really made me laugh and Orion is in all three of them… the first one: “Why are there so many Green Lanterns from Earth?”… basically, Earth sucks. I love when this show directly questions the logic of the original comics.

“And you though that would be enough to revert the timeline… been there, didn’t revert that.” Is that the reason why the future still looked grim for Neut in Bloodlines? Or could it be reference to things like Blue still getting put on mode? Or something else?

What if Bart decides to secretly say his goodbyes to everyone before leaving - most don't notice anything strange about it - but some do - to which Bart just waves off their concerns because everything's fine. It doesn't quell their suspicions...

Bart now knows what happened to Conner and why - could he tell Gar if he bumps into him whilst doing his rounds of goodbyes? Bart has been noticeably absent from all the Gar content - does he see something in Gar that he doesn't want to acknowledge in himself - so he's been avoiding him?

Noble’s a good dad and it’s nice to see!

Metron is such a jerk (I was going to use a stronger word but I thought I'd keep this family friendly) I'd forgotten what he was like in s3 - now I remember and I appreciate the hate all the new gods have for him... Like, Razers just destroying everything and he really couldn't give a damn!

No Forager!! Imma be honest, there was a genuine moment here where I thought they’d fridged Forager and genuinely killed her… and then my video started working again and I realised they hadn't to either point and all was good again.

Now, moving away Forager and onto Forager… hearing Forager so distraught is not a fun experience - it’s something I didn’t realise we’ve never seen before and hope never we never see it again! He doesn’t deserve such pain!

Whilst watching Razer destroying shit in response to his rage for Metron, I realised something… the idea of hope verses rage kinda applies to the stuff I said in episode 18’s notes about the train altercation with Raquel and the old woman verses Jay and Highmothers handling of Orion. Both Raquel and the old woman follow the path of rage, while Jay and Highmother show hope that Orion will reconsider his perspective regarding Rockets tech - as a result one ends in Raquel being the bad guy as the woman storms off in offence, and the other ends with Orion reconsidering his ask and everything carrying on as it was. One was a very negative experience which accelerated unnecessary and definitely caused a lot of emotional distress for many people - including onlookers, the woman, Raquel and Amistad - possibly in a way that he might not even fully comprehend yet. The other avoided all of that. When Razer is trying to attack Metron, the only thing he’s listening to is his rage and the only thing it’s saying is hurt Metron - it blinds him from acknowledging the consequences of such a response. In trying to hurt Metron he only resulted in hurting others - ultimately creating more pain than he quelled - similar to the train altercation. Rage is reactive while Hope is about trust. Jay shows trust in Orion by not criticising him, Highmother show trust in Orion by not making decisions for him - as a result Orion is never made to feel foolish or like there’s something wrong with him for simply being the way he is and possibly making an error in judgment. The old woman shows no hope in Amistad by immediately confronting him and no trust in Raquel by criticising her and ultimately not letting her handle her own sons behaviour. It’s safe to say the train altercation was a total train wreck. I’m gonna guess this hope vs rage thing will possibly continue throughout this arc and I’m intrigued to see where they go with it. (I had intended to do this as a separate post, but because I never got round to it, I figured I’d just leave it here.)

I love that Razer finds balance between rage and hope - there truly is strength in balance as there’s a greater sense of stability and control - instead of having to commit to being one way all of the time. The sequence also looks great. I do think it’s funny that Razer’s had 4 costume changes in the space of one episode - yet they don’t even draw highly depressed Garfield without shoes on in his own apartment.

I love love love the design they go for - especially how his hair become centre parted to match the balanced aesthetic - its a nice touch. Though I’ve gotta say it really makes him look like Wally… also whilst I’m on the topic of look-a-likes - how is it possible that Bart suddenly looks the spitting image of a young Jay - like it makes no sense because neither of them have new designs, yet throughout this episode I was just looking at Bart thinking - you genuinely look like Jay’s offspring - yet that doesn’t even make sense because they’re not biologically related in anyway. Seriously Bart look more like Jay than he does any of Allen’s and they’re not even that distantly related. How does that make sense?!

Metron gets punched in the face AGAIN - he absolutely deserves it!

2nd moment that made me laugh: “Razer was gonna talk to some poozer named Metron” *Vykin and Orion just sigh understandingly* - “say no more.” 🤣🤣 so funny!

I do like how the only one who blames/criticises Razers actions is Razer - it’s also interesting that Rocket never looks on him as a monster after his rage outburst just nearly flattened Forager and destroyed a load of buildings - possibly hurting others unseen

Forager still shows no anger or ill will towards Razer for the mistake he made — truly a good little soul.

The new statue! I hoped he’d do that! A celebration of all! Which leads us onto funny moment no.3: “That’s not how it was before!” Orion complaining about the new statue - possibly more for the fact it’s suddenly been changed rather that because of what it’s been changed to(?) - while Foragers grinning like the Cheshire Cat and clapping with so much joy at being represented along side Highmother and Highfather in such a way. Love it!

Rainbow power Razer - I wanna see that!

“We turned to the one other capable of replacing superboy in our timeline…” “oh, uh, me?” - That is the reaction of someone caught off guard/a little flustered by the prospect of being a symbol. He’s shocked then reverts back to confident goofball.

He was always going to help them - but he was never gonna go in blind - and he’s certainly not gonna let 2 strangers off into the time stream without his supervision — he certainly isn’t stupid.

It’s Jay’s birthday! He’s 102 yet somehow looks young with each season. The bugs have a happy birthday song - does this count as the song of s4. Cute though I’d keep getting it stuck in my head. Also could they not extend it a bit more as to avoid filling the extra space with character sounds that sound a bit cringy and unnatural - especially the Orion line which just makes no sense to be there. Though the image of Orion standing there as everyone enthusiastically sings to Jay is highly amusing.

A really great episode- this is shaping up to be my favourite arc of the season. At this point we’ve only had two episodes and with that I’ve wound up purchasing both the original Kirby run of new gods and the green lantern animated series - all the characters are so compelling and I just wanna know more.

Also to all who have been sending me asks about the episode and all things Bart this week - I really appreciate all of them - it’s been a new experience that’s really kept my brain functioning… and to those who I’ve yet to respond to, I assure you I will get round to them - it just takes me a long time to do anything and the order I’ve been answering them has been totally random. So don’t worry I’m still on with them - I promise!

LB

#I will get back into the habit of posting these on time #young justice #long post #yj spoilers #yj s4 spoilers #my random thoughts #yj phantoms #young justice phantoms #yj season 4 #young justice season 4 #yj #bart allen #kid flash #losh #new genesis #new gods #orion #lor zod #M’comm M’orzz #forager

[thesoulspulse]

Danny Phantom Randomness (All By Myseeeelf...)

Maybe it’s because it’s that time of year, but while we know why Danny dislikes the holidays (or used to anyway) do we ever really talk about Vlad? Since we know so little about his background apart from his former friendship with Jack and obsession with Maddie, there’s no way to tell if he had a happy childhood let alone if he even celebrates Christmas or Valentines Day. Heck, we don’t even know if he has any living relatives left...

Originally this was going to be a post about Christmas specifically, but eh, I’ll combine it with Valentines Day since this is mainly a post talking about just how lonely our favorite fruitloop is. Someday I hope to change that by creating a character worthy of him who can help him through his problems and become a good influence on him. I’ve only seen this done once really well but maybe I just haven’t been looking hard enough. Because like I said, it’s kinda hard to write someone who could even get close enough to Vlad to hope to begin forming a real bond with the intimidating man.

I typically assume that Vlad was an only child growing up and I have a personal headcanon that Vlad has always had a deep respect for his father and that’s part of why he himself aspires to become the perfect father. As for his mother, Vlad has always loved her very much too and she’s the one who taught him how to cook, bake, and to use food swears to replace real ones whenever he gets angry to keep his emotions in check. I saw an adorable piece of fanart about that once but I’m not sure how to find it now sadly.

I’ve written this idea in several of my fanfics, but I feel bad that Vlad doesn’t really have any family left to curb his loneliness. Usually it’s hard to write them in since he’s such a selfish person so I typically say he lost his parents shortly before starting college which is why he took Jack’s apparent betrayal so hard. Near as I can tell, it was hard for Vlad, Jack, and Maddie to make friends given their interest in ghosts which I assume has been a lifelong passion for the trio. And if he ever does have family around, I assume they’re not on good terms since Vlad wants nothing to do with them or wants them asking him for money since he IS the richest man in the world.

That brings me to my next point.

Since Vlad is so rich, I tend to enjoy exploring that a lot more than we see in the show because the sky’s the limit, literally, when you’re the richest and most powerful man in the world. That could be another reason apart from his obsession with Maddie that prevents him from dating anyone. He’s not stupid, he knows most of them are only after his money and connections, they don’t love or care about him, they only care about the idea of him and what he can do for them. Same goes for random people showing up claiming to be his distant relatives or an old friend asking for a favor which he must have found some way to stop from happening.

Ironic given how it’s the same with Maddie. Vlad only loves the idea of her and having the perfect wife as we saw in “Masters of All Time” when he finally got what he wanted but was more worried about appearing to be the perfect happy couple than being honest with her and with himself, even lying about Jack hating them both for the accident since he doesn’t trust she’ll stay with him. We don’t know why he grew attached to Maddie in the first place or when. Was it a childhood crush? Or did he literally only meet her in college? And for the love of god, WHY does he have feelings for Maddie anyway?

It’s never actually stated why, just like how it isn’t with Sam and that bugs me to no end. All healthy relationships are about treating each other as individuals with their own thoughts and feelings, about give and take, about trust, loyalty, the willingness to accept both the good and the bad in a person, the restraint to set healthy boundaries and not try to control them or who their friends are, to give them space when they need it and be there to pick them up if they fall. Basically, the best relationships are friendships first, good ones where you understand each other and enjoy what you share in common as well as respect the differences.

That’s Vlad’s biggest flaw. He’s so wrapped up in himself, in his life being perfect with a loving wife and a son that adores him that he forgets to BE that person, to be that caring and loving friend, father, and husband/boyfriend. He says he wants love, but as we saw in “Kindred Spirits” when he actually had that love and loyalty from Dani and the other clones it wasn’t good enough. Vlad even went as far as to hurt Dani by angrily shouting that she only exists to serve him, proving he didn’t actually see her as a daughter, but as a means to an end even though unlike the other clones she’s half-human too. Even if it felt artificial, all of the clones genuinely loved Vlad, he’s all they had ever known, which what makes what happened to most of them all the more tragic.

All but one of the clones, aka Dani, perished without ever coming into their own which is why I’m doing my best to give Vlad another chance at parenthood in my fanfic “Ghost in the Machine” before it’s too late for him to turn back and choose to change for the better once the love he’s been longing for is within reach. Because personally, I think Vlad wants to be a father more than he does a husband. Part of that is because of his reactions in “Maternal Instinct” when Maddie pretends to flirt with him to get back home since he’s the only one with a phone and transport for miles around.

He seems shocked at the sudden change in her and goes along with it, eventually pleasantly pleased with the result. I hate how he takes no responsibility for being a jerk and says it was Maddie’s ‘mistake’ to marry Jack which is beyond creepy and manipulative. Especially given how he blatantly asked a MARRIED woman with two children to leave her husband to come live with him out of the blue, which is beyond stupid and downright arrogant which is the whole point. Not to mention he doesn’t so much as mention Jazz there which as you’ll recall he left with Jack who he had sent ghosts to go kill, meaning he has no interest in her as a daughter, only Danny as his ‘perfect half-ghost son.’

That’s why when Danny pretends to actually want him as his new dad...while Vlad understandably suspects it’s only a lie at first since he knows Danny better than that, once it seems like his hopes are confirmed, he literally tears up and the pure joy on his face is unmistakable. He wants it to be true so badly he leaps at the chance to get everything he wants, further proving what a selfish jerk he is who doesn’t care about what they want. I mean, did he really expect Danny to turn around and forgive him after he sent a HORDE of ghost monsters to kill him while he was powerless? That is, unless it was only a scare tactic and he had no intention of actually killing Danny and that, right there, is clearly more manipulation on Vlad’s part as he isolates him and his mother to try and make them both his by force.

As weird as it may sound, it was actually this reaction and the affection he showed towards the first Maddie-the-cat later in the series that gave me hope there was a small chance this fruitloop could turn things around, even back when I first watched the show. He might never be able to convince Maddie to leave Jack, but maybe he could finally let go of her and try to meet someone new that could love him for who he is (once he stops the evil schemes mind you or tones them down at least) and not his money. And for Danny, he could be a father-figure or a real uncle and a mentor instead of the villain.

But alas, it was not to be.

Still, while I still feel like Vlad is capable of love, he clearly does not remember HOW to genuinely love someone else. He doesn’t know how to put anyone else first, how to be honest with his feelings, how to accept disappointment, and most of all...how to love himself without it being in a narcissistic way. That’s what makes this all the more tragic. He’s constantly sabotaging himself, losing chances to be a part of their lives in a realistic and healthy way even if it’s not possible for his perfect life with them to exist. And the love he could have found raising Dani all went to waste when he rejected her for disobeying him.

So yeah, this is just my personal take on Vlad so take from that what you will. All I wanted to really say is I would love to see Vlad find REAL love from someone to help him come back from the brink before it’s too late. Despite the awful things he’s done, in the end, he is genuinely lonely and doesn’t have any friends or family that we know of. That’s probably why we love giving him adopted kids so much, because it gives them both a much needed second chance at a happy life with a new family.

#danny phantom #danny phantom theory #danny phantom headcanon #headcanon #dp headcanons #vlad masters #vlad plasmius #maddie fenton #maddie the cat #danny fenton #dani phantom #badger cereal #kindred spirits #maternal instinct #masters of all time #danny phantom episodes #character analysis #fruitloop #danny clones #father and son #father and daughter #father figure #thesoulspulse #thesoul'spulse #the souls pulse #the soul's pulse #long post #all by myself #lonliness

[chipper-smol]

Hollow Knight Telephone Round Two: Relic Coffee Shop

Prompt

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.

.

Prompts:

1: Lemm finds an odd fellow at the Blue Lake. Normally he wouldn’t bother to approach a stranger out of nowhere, but something in his gut urges him to take action. Quirrel, feeling the effects of age on his body, stares incredulously at the bearded face of a stranger who apparently wants to have him over for coffee. 2: Lemm sets up shop in an abandoned cafe. It’s roomy and pleasant at first, but there are _stacks_ of these disgusting old bitter coffee beans clogging up the rooms. It doesn’t help that bugs keep coming in to order a drink even though he’s posted signs to _KEEP OUT!!_ However, once they start offering Geo be begrudgingly takes it as an opportunity to achieve funds to pay for relics. 3: At first, the coffee was just an excuse to get Geo to pay for relics, but Lemm’s begun to notice that bugs who wandered into his shop with the telltale early symptoms of infection no longer have them on their return visits. He tells himself he’s not an altruist. He’s _not._It’s just a waste to throw out old coffee when someone just needs a pick-me-up.

By @bluwails​

------------------------------- By @hydrochlorinate​

“Just don’t. Tell. Anyone. Else.”

Those were the words that came out of the grumpy barista’s mouth that fateful day. One’s that you completely ignored, as you had already been drinking what could only be the drink of HIgher Beings, with just how heavenly it tasted.

Grinning like a lunatic, you give him 45 geo, not a small sum. If anything though, it was hilariously cheap for a drink that was this good. The bug doesn’t complain about the amount though, so he’s probably fine with it. Wings fluttering in excitement, you leave the shop, ready to tell any remaining survivors about the amazing drink shop you just found.

===============>(Coffee Shop AU)

The next time you come in, the store is absolutely packed. Denizens from all across the ruins of Hallownest are here, ranging from some uninfected moss knights to that one ladybug that you had a dance off with a while back. There's even a noble here, and- is that a mantis?

Anyway, it looks like your very subtle method of giving publicity to this cafe by talking about literally nothing else to whomever you talked to over the following week paid off. Good, this place deserves all the atte-

“You.”

Oh? You snap out of your thoughts, and look towards the counter, where the barista is levelling a glare at you that could instantly wither those delicate flowers that have been spreading around recently.

You stroll on up to the counter, a grin stretching across your face. The barista narrows his eyes.

“Didn’t I tell you to keep this a secret? Why is my establishment filled to the brim with bugs? Who are these people?!”

...huh. Did he tell you to keep it on the down low? It seems in character from your limited interactions, but you don’t remember exactly. Oh well, time to play it off. You tell him that, well, what can you say except you’re welcome.

You’ve never seen a bug go from “Irritated” to “Ballistic” as fast as this barista. Usually they make a stop at “Angry” or “Absolutely Livid”.

“YOU’RE WELCOME?!?!”

No, see, he’s supposed to say thank you.

“THANK YOU???”

You tell him he’s welcome, before laughing. No, really, you tell him, look around, the place is packed! Business is booming! The barista (you should really ask for his name) manages to bring his volume under control, taking in a deep breath.

“That’s part of the problem. I’m a relic seeker, not a-” He gestures around the cafe, as if looking for the right words to use. Barista, you suggest.

“Exactly. I’m not made to brew coffee-” Oh, that’s what it was called. “-or to be dealing with customers all day long.”

Sure. That’s why he decided to allow people to keep purchasing coffee, or why he decided to put on a cute green and white visor.

You didn’t just come to check in on your new favorite bug though, you have coffee to order! Taking out a sheet of paper from your bag, you begin to read out both your order, and those of your companions. Even with the end of the infection, the leftover damage to hallownest’s caves and architecture makes it dangerous to travel alone.

As you begin to read out your order, the barista shifts from crotchety old bug to attentive worker. You really wish you had come back earlier, instead of letting some of your other traveling buddies pick up the coffee for you. Something about the atmosphere here is… relaxing, despite the amount of people.

After your order is finished, you leave the cafe. Back to the real world bucko, as an old friend of yours would always say.

...Wait a minute you never got the barista’s name.

===============>(Coffee Shop AU)

It’s been 3 weeks. You think. Time gets a little funky down here, what with the sudden influx of void. Sure, most of it has cleared out by now, but every so often your exploration party comes across a tunnel that hasn’t quite been fully illuminated, the shadows just a bit too thick to be natural.

You enter the coffee shop again. It’s gotten a lot quieter as time went on and bugs started coming in on a schedule. There’s still plenty of other customers here, but it’s nowhere near as packed as the first couple of days. Lemm (yeah, you finally got his name) stands at the counter, still slightly disgruntled, but a lot less so than he was at the beginning. In fact, he’s actually talking to someone right now! An actual conversation too, not just an exchange of witty remarks. You can’t see their face, but they appear to be a pillbug wearing a blue hood. 
As you step up to the counter, you can hear their conversation a bit better.

“...of course, I couldn’t just leave it sitting there right? So I move to pick it up, only to find out that the desk I dropped it on was magnetized! So here I am, trying and failing to pick up this one plant hanger for a solid 10 minutes.”

They both laugh at this, before noticing you. The unknown bug turns to face you, allowing you to see his mask.

“Oh, hello, I don’t believe we’ve met before!”

You greet him back, introducing yourself.

“It’s nice to meet you. My name’s Quirrell. I’m… well, I can’t really call myself an explorer, because I’ve already been everywhere! I’m more of a wanderer, really.”

Ahh, a free spirit, you see. You point out that just because he’s been everywhere doesn’t mean he’s seen everything. After all, who knows what could’ve gone down during Hallownest’s peak. Both Quirrell and Lemm get amused by this, for some reason. Seeing your confused look, Lemm decides to speak up.

"He probably knows more about Hallownest than everyone here, having lived here since before the infection and all."

Your eyes widen, and your wings begin to flutter. Truly? An original denizen, and not someone else trying to piece together its history? Quirrell waves off the words, though.

"I wouldn't go that far…" He begins, but Lemm cuts him off before he can go any further.

"Hah! Next you'll be telling me that you weren't the head assistant of the kingdom's best scientist!"

Giving off the equivalent of a blush, Quirrell rubs the back of his head. Lemm turns back to you.

"I'm sure you didn't come in just to chat, though. What can I get for you?"

It's nice to see him making friends.

------------------------------- By @schyrsivochter​

Lemm wasn’t a sociable person. That was a fact. He wasn’t good at talking, or at being friendly. (It wasn’t like he needed it, anyway. It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed conversing with another bug.)

No, Lemm was much more of a person for reading. Deciphering the journals of the long dead, the writing and languages, was something he thoroughly enjoyed. Other artefacts spoke differently: the materials from which they were made, the way they were worked, the artistic style. It was a different kind of reading; some might say a more figurative one. But it was just as interesting.

Of course, architecture was part of that. It had not been a coincidence that Lemm had set up camp in Hallownest’s abandoned capital. When he’d arrived, he hadn’t dared to think that he’d ever finish exploring and finding new things. And it was true; he’d only explored a little bit before he’d realised that collecting and gathering relics was no use if he never took a proper look at them, instead letting them gather dust on the shelves, the tables, and the floor of the long-abandoned shop he’d moved into. So he’d decided to stay there, poring over his collection. His picture of the world of Hallownest in times past grew ever more detailed, more complete.

He’d opened the shop because people did not seem to stop wanting to sell him relics, and it never hurt to appear a little professional. And it had been a reliable source of new artefacts; new knowledge. He’d never sold anything, of course. His collection was his, and his alone.

And then came the dark. The cleansing void. It had taken him by surprise; he’d been working, and only noticed that anything was amiss when the light dimmed and he was finally bathed in darkness. He must’ve fallen unconscious at that point, and there’d been no telling how long it had been until he’d awoken. It hadn’t been until later that he’d learned that this was what had obliterated the plague, leaving in its wake hundreds of confused survivors and thousands of dead. No, the next thing to happen that told him things were not as usual was that a bug had come in, asked if he was open, and, upon his affirmative answer, asked for a hot drink, holding out a piece of ten.

Taken by surprise, he’d offered to make tea. He’d immediately regretted it, since it meant the bug would be staying for a while, probably without selling him relics, but it was easy enough to do and would get him geo, his supply of which had been running low. So he put a kettle on and took the money. The bug had thanked him profusely, while he had elected to remain quiet.

Not long afterwards, the same bug and four others stood in the doorway. Whether they had relics for him, he’d asked. They’d looked amongst themselves, and one had asked, ‘Is this not a coffee shop?’

‘I suppose it might’ve once been,’ he’d said. ‘Now it’s mine.’

More confused looks and standing around, and then the bug he’d seen before asked if he’d make more tea. He’d said no, not unless they paid him twice as much as the last time and stayed quiet and didn’t disturb him in his work. To his horror, the five bugs had agreed, and so he’d dug out cups from the coffee shop’s former stock and afterwards found himself a little richer in geo but with a significantly worse mood.

He had his peace afterwards, though. At least for a while. Now a bug had arrived, taller than the others, wearing a headscarf. Lemm had mentally prepared for the bug to ask for coffee, but the bug had halted in front of one of the tables that Lemm had repurposed for his collection of relics.

‘Admiring my collection?’ Lemm asked.

’Yes, quite!’ the bug answered, chipper and friendly. ‘I’m curious how you managed to get a hold of so many texts in such diverse languages! These are journals, are they not?’

‘They are,’ Lemm acknowledged. ‘From all over Hallownest.’

‘But most of them aren’t any Hallownest language.’ The bug put a hand on his mask. ‘I suppose they’re from travellers that came to the ruins and perished?’

‘Quite right,’ Lemm said. He had to admit, begrudgingly, that the bug standing before him was sharp and knew his history. A trait not many others shared.

‘Can you read all of them?’ The mask turned towards Lemm, inclined in question.

‘No,’ he answered truthfully, making his way around the counter to stand next to the bug. ‘I haven’t had the time to decipher all of them yet. But I’ll get around to it eventually.’

‘Interesting,’ the bug said. ‘I can—huh?’

He turned towards the entrance, and Lemm followed his gaze. Lemm was about to ask what the problem was, when a bug appeared in the entrance. The one that he’d made tea twice for. Ah yes, he thought. A customer. Two of them, in fact; one of the others from before had joined the one who’d taken a fancy to paying Lemm to make tea.

‘I don’t suppose,’ Lemm said, ‘there is any way to convince you to find tea somewhere else?’

The bugs shook their head.

Lemm sighed, and muttered an apology to the tall visitor. Time to get it over with.

He went to the back room to prepare the tea, and overheard the two visitors conversing in the front.

‘What’s this, anyway?’

‘Historical documents. Journals of travellers.’

‘What’s it doing here?’

‘I think the shopkeep collects them.’

‘That’s correct!’ Lemm called. ‘I’m always buying, if you have anything of historical value.’

He grabbed the cups and walked back to the front. ‘That’s fifty geo. Unless you have relics.’

The bugs complained under their breath, but paid up, and Lemm could direct his attention back to the visitor.

‘So is this what you do?’ they asked. ‘Opened the coffee shop again and collecting relics in your free time?’

Lemm was dumbstruck for a moment. Then he remembered to be outraged. ‘No! I am not opening this place as a coffee shop! People just keep coming and demanding tea and I cannot let an opportunity to earn easy money go to waste!’

‘Relic business not exactly booming, then, I assume?’

‘I’m—’ he spluttered, ‘It’s not a business! I don’t sell my relics, they’re mine!’

‘So you wouldn’t have any income if you weren’t selling tea?’

Lemm had the distinct impression that the bug was making fun of him. He didn’t answer, but simply walked up to the table, grabbed a random journal, and took it to his desk to try and get some work done.

He had not yet prepared his quill and ink when he was interrupted yet again.

‘You know,’ the visitor called, ‘that one is from a traveller from Greynest. Came here looking for his brother, never found him. No doubt said brother also perished in the ruins.’

Lemm turned around to see the bug standing in the doorway, having followed him halfway. ‘And how do you know this?’ he asked.

The bug shrugged. ‘I read it.’

Lemm regarded the bug. They didn’t seem to be joking.

‘You mean to tell me,’ Lemm began, slowly, ‘you know this language?’

‘Yes,’ they said nonchalantly. ‘I think I’ve been to Greynest? Must have been a while ago.’

‘Are you a traveller, then?’ Lemm asked. ‘You don’t seem the type.’

As soon as he’d spoken the words, Lemm became aware how utterly ridiculous it was of him to make observations about people. He didn’t like people, he wasn’t interested in people—

The bug laughed. ‘I am, in fact. I have travelled far and wide.’

‘Hmph,’ said Lemm, unsure what else to say. He turned back to his work, looked at the angular shapes carved into the stone, but now it seemed senseless to try and make sense of it when he knew that it was no mystery to the bug standing behind him.

At some point, he looked up and found that he was hungry and the visitor was gone. Oh, well. Time for a meal, then, and afterwards he might be able to find something else to do.

* * *

The next time the tea-drinker returned, they asked for tea and then asked Lemm about the relics, and he was in a favourable enough mood to talk about them. They asked some fairly stupid questions, but it seemed to come out of a genuine interest in the topic, so he indulged them. Plus, he had to admit that he enjoyed having a reliable source of geo. Not that he needed it much for buying relics, these days, but he supposed that his supplies of food – and of tea – would not last indefinitely, and he didn’t particularly fancy having to go back to scavenging, now that there were actual people living in the vicinity again. No, he’d rather find some place where he could buy what he needed fair and square.

The traveller with the headscarf returned, and it was an odd sort of feeling Lemm had about them. Like he actually liked having them in his shop and talking to them. And the perplexing thing was that the bug also seemed to enjoy conversing with Lemm. Which one one hand was absolutely preposterous, on the other … it was a refreshing change.

The bug introduced himself as Quirrel, apprentice to Monomon the Teacher, and Lemm could hardly believe it. Monomon the Teacher, one of the most brilliant minds of Hallownest? It couldn’t be! And yet it was not all too difficult to imagine. He’d seen stranger things in these lands.

Quirrel also was the one who later suggested Lemm officially open the shop as a coffee shop again. Lemm had thrown him out at that and gone back to work.

Now, a short while later, he looked up and Quirrel was back, standing at the counter, watching Lemm silently.

Lemm rose and went to the front, choosing to stare back equally silently. Lemm was good at that. Probably.

‘So,’ Quirrel said at length, his voice still as annoyingly friendly as ever, ‘have you thought about it?’

Lemm kept staring.

Quirrel held up his hands. ‘You need money, you don’t have much else to do, and besides’ – Quirrel shrugged. – ‘people like your tea.’

‘I certainly have enough to do,’ Lemm started. ‘These texts don’t decipher themselves. What’s so funny?’

Quirrel stopped his giggling and said, ‘They sort of do. Have you forgotten who stands before you?’

‘You don’t read all of these languages.’ Really, Quirrel’s ego was getting on Lemm’s nerves.

‘But most of them,’ Quirrel said, shrugging, ‘and most of the Archive’s records are intact. And we do have a nice section on language and writing.’

Lemm was silent for a moment, mostly because he could not think of a good comeback. Quirrel had a point, and Lemm did not like that in the slightest.

‘Let’s make a deal,’ Quirrel said. ‘I help you translate your texts and catalogue your artefacts, and you’ – Quirrel jabbed a finger in Lemm’s direction – ‘you sell your tea officially.’

‘Out of the question.’

‘You’re already doing it.’

‘I am not!’

‘Yes, you are.’ Quirrel said this with absolute certainty and no anger, and there was a voice at the back of Lemm’s mind that said: You really sort of are. And you could use the help. You don’t like the busywork anyway.

‘All right,’ Lemm grumbled. ‘Deal.’

‘Thank you,’ said Quirrel, audibly grinning.

‘I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?’ Lemm asked under his breath.

‘I don’t think so,’ Quirrel said. ‘I’m curious – what else can you make? Tea alone is a bit boring, don’t you think?’

‘Shut up,’ Lemm said, ‘or I change my mind.’

* * *

Lemm did not change his mind, even though Quirrel didn’t shut up. It had been a while, and Lemm hated to admit it, but he enjoyed doing something different for a change. Customers were now plenty, and Lemm had a menu with more than one item, and his relic collection was no bigger, but more orderly and better understood than it had ever been, thanks to Quirrel’s – and the Archive’s – help.

Another thing that Lemm was not quite ready to admit was that people could be nice. The more he talked to customers, interacted with them, observed them, the more he began to appreciate them. He used to be content in reading historical texts and artefacts, preferring to learn about people that were dead and gone. Living bugs had never really interested him.

Nowadays, however, it seemed that people could be just as interesting to read as anything else. And, as Quirrel entered, greeting him, and he could not help his mood being lifted just by the prospect of learning something new and interesting that Quirrel learnt on his last trip to the Archive, Lemm supposed that sometimes, very rarely … people were something he could enjoy.

------------------------------- By @gardening-clown​

------------------------------- By @buglife​

Lemm was five seconds away from throwing someone through the window.

His shop was now occupied by five bugs of various species, talking, laughing, and sitting around when he could be in the back doing literally anything else. It took weeks of bugs thinking that his relic shop was a coffee one before he simply gave up and made peace with it. At least he got some geo from it to pay adventurers that did come by to sell legit relics. How they mistook his shop for a coffee one, he would have never guess.

All he had was a little brewer that was barely put back together that he scavenged from some random shop, but other bugs seemed to like it, for some strange reason. It wasn’t even good coffee he was making, but they seemed to accept it. After all, who else in this dead kingdom was even selling coffee? He had looted plenty of shops and took as many sacks of beans as he would when he first arrived, and there was no way he could drink them all, so he might as well do something with them.

But he was steadily losing his patience with the amount of bugs around him. They were talking and loitering. Loitering was probably the worst of it all as it made the loner bug feel his shell crawl with the forced social interaction. He just wanted them to leave. He couldn’t stand the feeling of a crowded space, which is why he went to a dead kingdom in the first place.

Hell, he had to take his beloved odds and ends down from the shelves to keep some curious bug from touching them all up with their dirty fingers and breaking something.

He found himself dreading the sound of the bell above his door, and when it rang he wondered if someone else was coming to ask him for some random drink or be an annoying thorn in his side.

To his hidden delight however, it was the little wanderer. They looked like a grub, to be honest, with a black body and a stark white horned shell for a head. The nail on their back seemed to be a little put together the last time he saw them, perhaps they visited the Nailsmith? He never asked for their name, he didn’t want to learn it to avoid attachments, but he found them oddly endearing. They liked to listen to him ramble about his theories on various relics they bring him, so they can’t be too bad. Plus they were quiet and polite, something he was immensely grateful for.

They bounced inside the door and came to a stop, looking at the five other bugs sitting around and chatting. They tilted their head to the side, watching the bugs for a moment before looking at Lemm. They stretched out a stubby arm from under their cloak and pointed at him.

Lemm sighed. Of course, the little Wanderer had been gone for a while, and obviously didn’t know what had become of his beloved shop. He gestured for them to come over, which they did and looked up at him expectantly.

“Bugs keep thinking that this is a coffee shop.” He explained. “So here they are, drinking coffee that I make on a terrible little brewer. I gave up trying to kick them all out all the time, it stopped being worth the effort.”

The little wanderer blinked a few times, looking somewhat confused. They pointed to the cup being held by the beetle on one of Lemm’s chairs and mimed the action of drinking it.

“Yes, that’s coffee they are drinking.” He raised a brow as he looked down at the grub. “Haven’t you ever seen coffee before?”

They shook their head.

“Really now? Hrm…” He wasn’t sure where the little wanderer had come from if they never saw coffee before. It was a fairly common drink besides tea. They must have grew up in a rather isolated place If they never saw it. He decided he might as well explain it, it would be better to do it now than later.

“Coffee is a drink that bugs like to drink to give them energy.” He saw them perk up a bit at the ‘energy’ part. “It’s rather bitter, so some like it with sugar. I like it plain. It keeps me awake when I am working.”

They somehow made a face when he said it was bitter, tilting their head and angling their eye holes to look affronted. Lemm squashed down a laugh at the expression and decided to get to business.

“Anyway, they trade me geo for it, which lets me compensate bugs that get me relics. Do you have any for me today?” He hoped they did, he needed something to brighten up his day.

The wanderer nodded, reaching under their cloak to pull out a black orb. Lemm recognized it immediately to be an arcane egg. He loved working with those. Peeling back each layer revealed new information and new discoveries. He was in fact, still working on the one he got weeks before. He needed to be careful with them, and he reveled in the intense focus and work it needed to discover it’s secrets. His day instantly got better.

“Very nice, I’ll be glad to take that off your hands for the usual price.” The old beetle held out his hand and the wanderer gently placed the egg it in. They held up a hand once it was free and shook their head, pointed to a cup sitting on the counter.

“Ah, you want to trade this for a cup of coffee?” He wasn’t going to say no to that. If the wanderer was okay with it, it was a perfectly reasonable business transaction. His suspicions were confirmed when they nodded and bounced in place, looking as excited as they were able to. “Well I can certainly do that.”

Thankfully, the two bugs occupying the chairs in front of the counter left, leaving behind their dirty cups and a few geo for the mess. They thanked him and he grumped out a ‘have a good day’ as they left, seemingly indifferent to his mood. Oh well, at least it brought down the occupancy to a more manageable level for his social batteries. He pushed the dirty cups out of the way and gestured to an open seat. “Here, sit down and I’ll get you a cup.”

They bounced upwards to take a seat, swinging their legs back and forth as they waited. It didn’t take Lemm long to throw some ground up beans and water into the grinder, watching the brewed coffee pour into a clean cup. He carefully carried the hot cup down and set it in front of the wanderer. “Be careful, it’s very hot. I’ll bring you some sugar, you didn’t seem to like the ‘bitter’ description.”

They nodded and watched as he pushed over a bowl of honey sugar and a spoon. It was the least he could do after they got him another arcane egg.  “There you are, help yourself.”

They bowed their head in thanks and took up the spoon, poking it into the bowl.

“Excuse me,” One of the bugs by the window got up, the one with a bent antenna and holding their empty cup. “Could I get a refill, please?”

Lemm held back a sigh and nodded, taking the cup and heading back to his brewer. He had to smack it a couple times for it to start working again, but in the end he got a passable cup of coffee out of it. He returned just in timed to hear said bug exclaim, “Woah there buddy, you must really like sugar!”

He looked to the wanderer, who had added so much sugar to their cup of coffee, that he could hear the sugar that couldn’t dissolve scrape against the ceramic as it was stirred. It looked like fresh cement, there was only a bit of brown to denote that once, it was indeed a cup of coffee.

He wordlessly handed the other bug their coffee, who took it and retreated back to sit by the window. He was about to say something to the wanderer, when to his horror, their head tilted backwards. A maw of sharp black teeth opened wide, and he watched, astonished, as the mix of sugar and coffee oozed into their mouth and to who knows where. A long black tongue lashed out to get every last bit of sugar out of the cup, before the mouth closed with a quiet click. They must have felt him staring, because they turned to look at him with their fathomless, dark eyes. He stared back, wondering what the hell was actually sitting in front of him.

They then bounced in place and gave him a thumbs up. They made a shape of a heart with their hands, a way that they say ‘thank you’. They seemed rather happy.

“Um…you’re welcome?” He managed, after he gathered his composure again.

They sat still for a moment, seeming to ponder on what they had just consumed. He figured that they were probably trying to figure out if they liked it or not. He doubt they even managed to taste the coffee from the sheer amount of sugar in that cup.

Then, to his horror, they began to vibrate. At first it was a few twitches, and then it steadily became more and more severe, until they were a literal blur. The chair rattled under the stress and the bugs that remained in the shop turned to look at the commotion.

It was then, Lemm realized he fucked up.

They suddenly dashed away, slamming into the shop door with such force that it caved outwards. There was only the short sound of shattering glass and the scream of metal before it flew off it’s hinges and rattled down the hallway. He could hear the hurried pitter-patter of the wanderer’s tiny feet, now fast enough to blur into one continuous sound, race down the hall and out of sight and hearing.

He just stood there, looking at the wreckage of his shop door, wondering where the hell is he going to get a replacement, if there even was a replacement. He looked at the three shocked bugs, standing and looking at the wreckage, and then he got himself an idea.

“Hey fellas,” He said, as he turned and looked at the bugs next to the window. “How would you all like some free coffee if you find me a door?”

------------------------------- By @radical-mudkips​

------------------------------- By @unregisteredcookie​

Lemm's 'shop' was empty.

Actually, no, that… that wasn't right. Lemm's shop wasn't a shop in the first place--it was a haven for relics and ancient knick-knacks, and the shelves were filled to overflowing with stone tablets and peculiar eggs that held unimaginable information. Not that Lemm was ever able to crack into the eggs' shells, but he knew--he knew there was more treasured information sleeping beneath. If only he were able to open it up without risking that information being damaged.

And that wasn't right, either. The shop being empty, that was. Right now, the shelves were empty, but that was less because of the absence of relics and more because they were all stowed away in the back room to be sorted. He had a notebook he was combing over, quill in hand as he scribbled out little bits of information that might relate to one another.

'Might', because Lemm wasn't really from Hallownest. So he didn't know for sure whether this smooth L-shaped contraption was a door handle or a piece to a lost work of art.

It was while Lemm was scribbling about in this journal bound in parchment (hand-made and flimsy, using the paper he found around the area that was clean and allowed to dry) that he heard it: The distant clattering of the elevator. There were about seven options he could think of off of the top of his head, each more dreaded than the last. It could be that scarcely-seen Nailsmith who seemed to know more about the history of this ruin than he let on. It could be the peculiar little silent bug that stared up at him now and again, the one that sometimes passed by with a relic to sell. It could be that talkative windbag, droning on and on in his droning voice, so grating and persistent that Lemm struggled to ignore him. He was probably the worst.

Lemm stopped writing, tilted his head, and listened for the telltale sound. The rattling stopped, and all that he heard for a while was silence. And then.

Ding.

He sighed, getting to his feet. A customer it was, then. How delightful. Here's hoping that the customer wasn't 'Zote the Mighty'.

He had a small moment of dread when he saw the horn, a critical blow of dismay that tempted him to retreat back into the back room and pretend to be out for a walk, but then he saw the second horn and breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, it wasn't the Zote person after all. It was… them. The other little one.

They looked up at him as he approached the register and looked down at them. Their eyes were vacant as ever, face impossibly unreadable. Lemm doubted that he'd ever get used to it.

Lemm liked this little bug, if for no other reason than they were quiet, kept their hands to themself, and brought him relics to purchase. They were the only one willing to sell these relics, and they were the only reason Lemm often said what he said next.

"Cup of coffee, or looking to sell?"

He never had much company in this place until the Nailsmith (Lemm never caught his name, never bothered asking, really) first came in looking for materials for his smithing. Almost took one of Lemm's Pale Idols from under his beard while he was noting in his journal. After the initial yelling that followed and a cup of coffee, the Nailsmith apologized by paying for the cup. And he did it again. And again. Until the mapmaker came in, saw, and bought a cup himself. Until the hooded pillbug came in, hummed, and bought one for himself. And then--

Well. And then he had a coffee shop.

Lemm wished he could say that he hated it, and he did, at first. But over time, he found the company rather pleasant. Besides, the geo paid for this little bug's relic collection well enough, so he wasn't complaining.

So. Did they want a cup of coffee, or did they want to sell their relics? Lemm didn't get an answer. Instead, they looked around at the empty shelves for a moment before turning their empty eyes back onto him, tilting their head to the side slightly.

It took Lemm a moment.

"Oh, I moved the relics into the back room," he said. "I've been needing to work on sorting them out and writing notes about them. Never would I have thought that I would have so many to study."

Satisfied, they reached into the confines of their cloak. Lemm leaned forward a little, watching as they rummaged about for a moment, heart skipping a beat as he pondered what sort of relic they were going to sell this time.

And then they withdrew their small hand, reached up, and dropped a fist full of geo onto the counter.

Lemm blinked and stared at the geo for a moment. Something wispy and thin clung to them, and when he picked it up and opened the register, it was sticky. Was this webbing? Lemm wasn't aware of there being any spiders in Hallownest, aside from maybe that red-cloaked bug he saw very rarely flitting about outside his window.

So. No relics today. Fine, at least he'd have more money to buy another one later.

"One coffee coming up," he murmured, rummaging around behind the counter. Underneath the register was where he kept the coffee pot, which he refrained from moving just so he could be prepared if a 'customer' came by. He busied himself with it for a few moments, filling the filter and checking the water, before clicking the button and letting it steep. Granted, he didn't know what kind of coffee they'd drink, but they didn't make it clear anyway, so he doubted that it mattered.

Besides. They seemed a little preoccupied by something else at the moment. After a few minutes, the coffee was finished, and Lemm poured them a cup. He chose a caramel-like flavor, because they seemed about the size of a child and a little bit of sweetness never hurt anyone. Lemm reached over the counter and held it out to them, which they took in their hands and stared down at for a moment. Lemm was about ready to head back into the back when it happened. A crack. It almost sounded like something breaking, but when he turned to look behind himself at the small knight, they still stood there. Another crack, one that made his fur stand on end and his body stiffen, and Lemm caught the glimpse of something sharp and white shifting beneath the bottom of their mask.

A mouth?

They tilted their head back. A jaw opened. Many layers of teeth glimmered in the dim light, cracking as they did so, the noise chilling him through his chitin and making his hemolymph freeze. Lemm stood there, stock still, as they lifted the cup up to their face, jaw extending outwards to drink it, and then-- --they set the scalding hot coffee in their mouth, cup and all, closed it, and crunched.

Lemm had never seen a bug eat a cup of coffee before. He could still hear the crunch, crunch, crunching, muffled and quiet and growing quieter, noise sounding like a particularly crunchy tiktik being eaten.

Lemm shuddered. When the knight looked back at him, he turned around quickly and went into the back room.

Okay. Suddenly they weren't the second most welcome sight for sore eyes. Suddenly Lemm wished that it was that talking, yapping Zote fellow who came in instead.

------------------------------- By @doodle-chris​

------------------------------- By @payasita​

There was no shortage of open real estate as far as the City of Tears was concerned. But that certainly didn't make every option an equally viable living space.

First, Lemm wanted something enclosed away from the rain, and insulated enough to stave off the humidity. That discounted anything open to the outside, as he wouldn't risk his relics to even the threat of exposure. A leaking roof dripping down onto crumbling tablets or fragile spider silk could devastate hundreds of years worth of history, so that also discounted any room without a few protective floors above it.

Next, it had to be out of the way of any and all shambling husks and infected critters. They weren't the brightest of creatures, so a room only accessible by elevator was ideal. He'd never seen anything plague-cursed have enough wherewithal to operate one, and the noise of it would give him plenty warning of visitors otherwise.

Lastly, he wanted someplace with plenty of shelf space. He needed little in the way of actual living space, so long as he had ample storage room set up in such a way that things could easily be organized.

All of these qualities described, in his opinion, the ideal relic storage and research dwelling. And in the end, he was lucky enough to find it.

Unearthing the previous tenant's belongings informed him that it also, apparently, described the ideal setup for a small café. On his first day in his new residence, he'd uncovered an antique coffee machine and a few other ancient tools, kept miraculously free of rust and wear. The room's conditions must be far better than he thought.

He'd dusted his findings off and set them back up on the counter, having quickly deduced where they'd once been put to use through old nicks and rings left on the shellwood by years of service. Lemm had felt a small swell of pride at finding this small bit of the city's history, and began a set of notes on his theories about this tower complex and its surrounding culture from everything he found around. Perhaps the whole place had been a shopping centre.

On the second day, he pried open the crates in the back room, and they had spilled forth bags upon bags of beans and teas. There were so many of them that he was able to rationalize cutting one open and examining its contents without much guilt. The beans were coffee, that much was obvious at a glance.

Biological samples weren't exactly his area of expertise, but smell and texture alone all but convinced him that they'd been perfectly preserved in their airtight prisons, well dried and perfectly edible.

Most likely.

For the sake of research, and because the bag was already open, he put them through the machine. He committed some time to studying the machine beforehand, as he was afraid mishandling it may destroy it. But an hour of trying to figure the damn thing out was frustrating enough that he finally reasoned that if he did break it, he could at least take it apart and examine its insides for anything interesting. Lemm was a relic keeper, not a tinker. So he winged it with a bit of rainwater and the beans, and got wet beans and hot murky water all over the counter to show for it. He figured out the grinder and filter after his second attempt, and by the third, he had a mug of fresh coffee to show for his efforts. The scent that filled his shop and the outside corridor must have been nothing Hallownest had experienced in centuries. Lemm had little taste for the stuff himself, but in his experimentation he'd gone and made a whole pot. So he supposed he needed to acquire a taste for it rather quickly.

Luckily for his health, that turned out to be unnecessary. The smell, perhaps amplified in the ever-present petrichor, quickly attracted guests of the still-living variety. There turned out to be far more travelers and treasure hunters bumping around this old city than he'd initially expected, prone to tucking himself away in solitude as he was. Introverted or no, he happily gave the coffee away rather than waste it or risk giving himself a coronary. There were even a great deal of disposable mugs stacked away that just made it all the more convenient.

Just over the course of an hour, Lemm was graced with a fair amount of odd characters intruding on his doorstep. There was a surly fellow wielding a metal shield of some foreign make, who announced his intentions towards finding and conquering Hallownest's old colosseum. He was convinced it was still in operation somewhere. Lemm decided that if it was, the place was more than likely not populated with the sorts of honorable warriors this poor bastard was looking to prove himself against, but he kept his thoughts to himself and sent the boy off with a steaming cup of acrid bean water. Next came another traveller who gave off a more scholarly air than the first had, and who carried a more conventional weapon at his hip. The pill bug certainly acted more like a student than a warrior, all bright-eyed and curious and talkative. But no doubt he must know how to use that nail of his to have survived this far down and still be so cheerful. His stay wasn't entirely unpleasant; the two actually talked a short while about Hallownest's history and their shared learnings. The bug even tried to insist on paying, but Lemm was adamant that his reliquary wasn't a damn breakfast nook, thank you, keep your geo. But if he really wanted to pay, Lemm would certainly take any interesting artifact or trinket the bug happened to pick up on his travels. They eventually came to an agreement: A journal pilfered from a shrine somewhere in Greenpath for an extra cup for the road. Lemm's next visitor was, of all things, a cartographer. This one was far too involved in his work for much conversation, which was fine by Lemm. But he did manage to barter a cup for a map of the city. It was incomplete and bare of any landmarks, much to Lemm's disappointment. Finally, an odd little wanderer walked in almost soundlessly. They did not speak to Lemm, nor did they give any indication that they were here for any specific reason. But they had acquired an old city crest and a King's idol on their path, and Lemm had a more typical exchange of geo for relics with them. And then because it was the last of the coffee in the still warm pot, and because the little wanderer did not refuse, he sent them off with a cup on their way out. Thankful to be rid of all the blasted coffee and done with the uptick in social interaction, he then washed the pot and continued with his normal studies. It was nice and quiet, now.

But then the next morning, the pill bug returned. And he was surprised (and clearly disappointed) to see the coffee pot empty. It was a shame, he'd said. For he'd gone and found himself another journal, and considered a relic he couldn't use for a hot morning's drink to be a fine deal indeed. Lemm was inclined to agree, for how it saved him his geo in case of a more potentially significant find down the line. He turned the machine back on at once at the prospect. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to brew just one cup, and was still rightfully intimidated by the old, fussy contraption, and not inclined to mess with what worked. So he made another full pot, and talked shop.

The pill bug wasn't the only one to return that day. The would-be gladiator came back, still not having found his destination, and had the gall to just expect another drink. After the deal he'd just made, Lemm was feeling markedly less generous than he had been the day before, and informed his nasally guest that he'd have to barter something old and interesting for it.

The ant grumbled and left, but returned a few minutes later with a guardsman's crest. He'd apparently seen old treasures all over the place, but had found it beneath him to go and pick them up." A warrior has no need to weigh himself down with baubles," he'd sneered over his cup. Lemm privately thought that the plague-crazed beasts who were doubtlessly running the colosseum now would soon show this haughty kid what they cared for his warrior’s creed in due time, so he said nothing.

The silent wanderer came later. This time when they held up an ancient journal, they made no move to take the geo held out to them. They only stared at Lemm, with their little mask so perfectly unmoving he could easily think them a sudden corpse. Then his hand drifted towards the pot, and the creature set the journal down on the counter.

"...News of a relic keeper bartering goods for coffee has already spread among your lot, then? I suppose even wanderers must have a rumor mill," Lemm talked to himself while pouring their cup. Predictably, they padded away without an answer, drink in hand. Lemm would soon learn how right he was.

- The coming days were more lucrative than his business had ever been. All the travellers he'd met before all came back with various oddities found around Hallownest, as did anyone new. Though not everyone quite understood what constituted a relic, and Lemm had to turn down more than a few shiny rocks and petrified lake detritus. But they all got the routine down soon enough. And, well, Lemm did have an extraordinary amount of coffee that'd just go to waste for another thousand years otherwise, so, may as well.

The pill bug, Quirrel, came to be his best "customer", though Lemm would be twice damned before he ever said the word aloud. Either way, Quirrel often stayed long enough just chatting to warrant a second cup.

"I ought to have you bring double the treasure," Lemm griped once while handing that second cup over. Quirrel's response was a good natured laugh.

"Perhaps elsewhere, that'd be fair. Coffee was a luxury in some lands, and remains so to this day, but by my understanding it was quite in abundance here. Though I couldn't tell you where in the world they must have been growing it," he mused. Lemm raised a brow, wondering once again where in gods' names this bug was educated. But as asking would be an invitation to hear his life story, Lemm deferred.

"Is that right?" he asked instead, "I don't care for the stuff myself, luxury or no." "Really? Not an uncommon opinion, I suppose. I picked it up as a habit at one point... Though, I couldn't tell you when, now that I think of it," Quirrel trailed off, adjusting the oversized mask over his head. Lemm found it an odd choice of protection from the rain, though he supposed it was better than nothing. He only shrugged, "I hear many students do make a habit of caffeine. Your sorts can never get enough hours out of the day."

Quirrel stared at him for a brief moment, and then huffed a laugh again. "Student? You mistake me, sir. I've only ever been a traveller for as long as I can remember."

Lemm didn't bother to mask his surprise, and Quirrel's eyes crinkled. "You're right on that second part, though. So much to see, and never enough time." He took a sip.

-

The mapmaker came back one day with an order for two drinks. He had no relics, but offered an extra inkwell and quill instead. Lemm found equipment for keeping good notes was lucky to come by, and reluctantly made the trade, much to the old bug's gratitude.

"Thank you, the second is for my wife running our shop surface-side. It was her suggestion you might want materials for your research."

Lemm cleared his throat, blustering slightly under his beard.

"Ahh. Hm. I can appreciate that, then."

"Oh, on that note, have you any sugar you can add in for her?" The bug peered over Lemm’s shoulder, which rankled him for some reason.

"...I did find a jar back here somewhere, I think." Though he couldn't promise it was good. Could sugar go bad? It still just looked like white sand.

"Thank you. ...Err, actually, is that a box of tea on the shelf, there?"

Lemm paused in his rummaging, and looked back at the open storeroom door. The room now made a good home for his relics, though he never bothered unpacking the open crates.

"...It is," he eyed the bug neutrally.

"Ah. Iselda enjoys her coffee, though I quite prefer a good cup of tea myself. ...Erm, if it isn't too much trouble, of course," the bug grinned politely over folded hands.

Lemm, to his credit, did not sigh. There was indeed a kettle back there, too. And at least he knew how to brew tea without making an entire day's worth of it.

He brought up the jar of sugar, and leveled the bug with a grumpy look.

"Fine. But next time, you bring relics."

The cartographer acquiesced immediately, and that was the point where Lemm realized he'd invited them both to expect a "next time".

-

The silent wanderer came back again, on the tail of a group of treasure hunters who came in and left up the elevator. Shortly after, there was the sound of struggle above them.

This had become commonplace. Anyone who showed up had to contend with the violent husks above and beyond the shop, and some were more prepared to deal with the dangers of Hallownest than others. Lemm only poured the wanderer's cup in bored silence, tuning out the thumping and shouts above. "You know this stuff stunts your growth, right?" Lemm asked flatly. The wanderer only ever stared.

"Dehydrates you, too. You active types probably ought to stick to water. Imagine having to deal with the horrors of rotting sentries and whatnot with a diuretic sloshing about in you." Unbothered, they leaned forward and took their cup in both hands, still staring up while he spoke. Lemm honestly had no idea if they even understood him, and considered the possibility that their muteness was compounded by a language barrier. But they at least always made the effort to appear attentive.

There was a thundering crash above them that made Lemm flinch, and then a silence that kept him tense. The voices started up once again after a few seconds, and the sound of footsteps hurrying away as fast as they could. By his guess, his last customers had just had a very close encounter with a belfly. He'd likely not be seeing them again.

He turned his attention back down to the wanderer with a sigh.

"...Let me see what you have, then."

The tiny thing set their cup carefully down by their feet, and fished a genuine void egg from the depths of their grubby cloak. Lemm was struck with the brief impulse to give them the entire coffee machine for it.

-

There was a new visitor one morning, just as Lemm brewed the pot for his regulars. He rarely got anyone so very early, and was guiltily nursing his own cup of acrid sugary heart disease before anyone would be around to see. Alright, so he'd acquired the taste for it. It was hardly unreasonable with how much time he spent around the smell, and it helped him make up for lost time studying his relics later in the night. Perfectly understandable, and so he definitely did not freeze mid sip like he was caught in a crime when the door opened unexpectedly. The red-clad stranger who walked in wore a wicked-sharp needle slung across her back, and fixed him with an even sharper gaze.

"...I hear you sell tea." Her voice was quiet enough, but cut clear without the normal hesitant lilt of a question.

Lemm slowly put down his mug, and the soft thunk it made against the countertop sounded awfully loud in the morning lull.

"...I don't sell anything. I buy," he insisted.

The altogether frightening lass glanced between him, the full coffee pot, and the kettle sat next to a stack of assorted loose leaf teas. Then back at him.

He grunted, hiding an inane flush of indignation behind another swig of his drink.

"...I seek artifacts. Relics of this place's past, and anything that may help me understand it, for geo. ...Or for a cuppa, for those who'd rather." He shifted behind the counter, nearly trailing off into a mumble. But at this point, there wasn’t much use in fighting his reputation.

The girl just scrutinized him until she seemed to come to a decision. She then turned and left without saying anything else, opting to hop down the elevator shaft rather than waste a moment calling the lift.

Lemm rolled his eyes and gulped down the dregs of his coffee, vaguely annoyed. By this point, he was used to the rude and half feral sorts of vagabonds that only came by out of curiosity. At least she was quick about leaving.

All the better for him, as far as he was concerned. He doubted such a young thing would have anything of note to share with Hallownest's foremost historian.

#telephoneknight #hollowknight #hollow knight #RelicCoffeeAu #lemm #tiso #ghost #quirrel