#at least until I've got a system going lmao

[whetstonefires]

Do you have any opinions on Scholomance?

I do! I like it a lot. I really enjoyed all three books, blitzed through them easily and was much more excited to see how the plots unfolded than I'm used to these days, as a jaded adult, and I also really appreciated them as works of craft.

Especially the first one, I spent the whole time being all 'wow!' at how simple it was. So easy to read, but no waste. You really need to know what you're doing, to get that kind of pared-down elegance of form to work and still fit so much content in.

Like these are dense, there's a fantastic stylistic minimalism that allows El's character all the space it needs to breathe by making absolutely every other thing and person in the whole novel also do character work for her, which is exactly where the first person voice shines.

Also great use of character perspective to make the pacing feel really natural, so the fact that the first book takes three weeks, the second book takes one year, and the third book is like. Five or so incredibly stressful days spread out over the course of a few weeks? Doesn't feel imbalanced.

I actually got distracted from the story a few times by noticing the strength of Novik's technique. 😂 This is a me problem, in itself it's the opposite of distracting. Very low-profile.

I think the Scholomance is a great example of how far you can go in specfic when you aren't cringing from the label 'derivative,' because the Scholomance books feel very fresh ad clean specifically because nothing in them is concerned with standing out as 'original,' whatever that's supposed to mean, only with being well-executed and suitable to its task.

Hm, maybe that's where Liesel was born, the intersection of the efficient narrative style and the vast proportion of the story that concerns the maximization of utility and the instrumentalization of persons by themselves and others, and the forces that incentivize these behaviors. Or maybe she's just the narrative counterweight to Orion 'Head Empty' Lake lmao. How's that for a principle of balance, Galadriel?

I really did enjoy how beautifully it was laid out, over and over, in dozens of shades of humanity, how no matter where you go in an exploitative system almost everyone is being driven by the same survival instincts.

Because I don't think I've ever seen made so cleanly clear why you just can't expect any person or small group of people, no matter their level of goodwill or status, to unmake one of these systems from the inside; how it's not a matter of people being bad but of every single person being very...small.

And then not retreating into the idea of a person who is Big coming and breaking the cruel system from the outside as some kind of panacea, because 1) that is terrible, even if it's necessary and done in the best way possible and 2) that's not a sustainable answer to anything. Getting a balance between the protagonist being able to effect change and not subscribing to the great man theory of history can be really tricky!

Also did I mention, I love El, and I love most of the cast, even the dreadful ones. How am I going around with this many feelings about Li Shanfeng who doesn't appear until the actual climax?

The romance murdered me a bit, but it took up no more space than it absolutely needed to do its job, and I respect that. Also I appreciated Orion as a love interest; Novik has a slight record at this point of a version of that style of male love interest who's like a caricature of Mr. Darcy but old, which was shaping up to be my least favorite thing about her body of work.

...Orion is kind of like if you took the human king from Spinning Silver and gave him an alignment flip come to think of it, so he's not coming out of nowhere. Lmao.

Which reminds me (re: romance character typing) I've heard Novik didn't want it to be known she was astolat, which this series has renewed my sympathies if so. Because if I were a published novelist I wouldn't want people going 'you know, that resolution was really emotionally satisfying! reminds me of that fic she wrote where optimus prime and megatron get stuck in a hole underground and hatefuck about it.'

I don't even like Transformers. That fic almost made me cry. Actually I suspect it reads better if you don't like Transformers because I'm sure it does not give a shit about canon.

Anyway, whoever pointed out that one of the things El has going on is she's Enoby (and we're going to sit down and explore what the true reason to put your middle finger up at preps is, and what are some constructive ways to channel that socioeconomic wrath, and what it means that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism) was right and I'm not entirely over that either.

Fucking love El's mom as a character. Spectacular level of parent relevance and usefulness. A+.

Aadhya and Liu are also characters who fucking delivered.

Re: minimalism though, I laughed at the start of The Golden Enclaves when I realized that none of the enclaver characters who'd gotten development in the the first two books were from London, the enclave El was theoretically shooting for when we met her.

#ask #hoc est meum #Anonymous #scholomance #my sister's biphobia made an appearance when i was reading the second book and tried to tell her about this thing i was enjoying #still mad at her about it #anyway though #good! #wish i could ask novik what she was thinking by making a single-cell abortion work as human sacrifice #like is it just because magic works on intent so if you think the newly fertilized egg #that you couldn't know about without magic #is 'your baby which you are killing' #then it is? #for purposes of hole in reality making? #or does this story have a spot where its politics sharply reverse and human life begins at conception #spoilers #scholomance spoilers #especially in the reblog #lakjfaldkfs seanan mcguire has granted this rambled Circulation oh dear

[yunarim]

╰┈➤ summary : you and your reliable partner grim are the most famous interdimensional travelers under the Official Isekai Association. you're used to traveling into psychological thrillers and horrors. however, this time something goes wrong, and you suddenly turn into the protagonist of… an otome game?!

— characters : jade leech, leona kingscholar | kalim al-asim, azul ashengrotto | lilia vanrouge, idia shroud

⌞tags⌝ : gn reader, fluff at times, occasional angst, typical manhwas tropes, mention of a typical isekai manhwa death by truck hit... yeah, you go from the first route to the last (from jade to idia), hence the parts are connected — w.c. : 4.6k+

⌞notes⌝ : i've been reading too much isekai mangas/manhwas lately and here we go lmao. also forgive me for not writing for so long, i've been experiencing a huge burnout ;; i originally intended to write for dorm leaders but then gave it a second thought and came up with another plan hhhhhh i hope i'll manage to finish other chapters on time but pls be patient with me, i'm preoccupied with too much work lately 😭😭

You sigh and stretch out your hand, looking at it while lying on the bed, and wonder, how in the dimension did you manage to land in an otome game realm. You heard your colleagues complaining how annoying those can be, not to mention many of you forgot about romantic relationships long long ago—when you probably got hit by a truck in your original world?—and to think you somehow appeared in a world which didn’t belong to your department. 

Your specialization was horror and psychological thriller stories, and even if you possess no magic (which is strange, given after transmigrating for so many times, you don’t remember getting magic abilities at least for once, but whatever), you’ve got an excellent, strategic mastermind. And if something dangerous happens, you have your partner and friend, Grim.

“It’s been a while since we’ve isekaed into a high school setting,” you say to yourself, system windows appearing before your eyes. 

“Main goal: TO GET A HAPPY ENDING WITH *name*!!”

Ah really…

You set a reminder and throw a quick glance at already fallen asleep Grim before going to sleep yourself. If you can’t escape the world until you complete it, then so be it.

“Event: TO BECOME A SCHOOL COUNCIL PRESIDENT: success!!”

One mention of a school student council you’ve encountered in many worlds (though possessing not really sweet memories of dealing with many psychological intrigues and schemes), and the local headmaster named Crowley happened to be fairly overjoyed and excited to proclaim you as a council’s president, much to everyone’s indifference chagrin. 

You were quite surprised to realize that the school that large didn’t invent such a common structure. On the second note, it was easy for you to operate and deal with information provided through leading the council. Much to your chagrin this time, you needed to pick a route to escape this world.

It was an otome game. You couldn’t care less at first, assuming you and Grim landed in another horror, however a fantasy atmosphere lingering everywhere made you two slightly confused. And the conclusion was made right after you saw heart-shaped indicators above six people’s heads. 

“Do you remember what our colleagues told us about otome games?..” You asked Grim, sitting in the auditorium that Crowley assigned as the Council’s room. 

“Nah,” Grim yawned. “Not my field.”

“As if it’s mine,” you frowned. “What, not even MC’s words? She ended up transmigrating into a closed apartament and had only 11 days to get an ending…”

“Come to think of it, we have 11 days till the festival.”

You raised your head, turning to the voice’s source, and slightly parted your lips. 

“Jade,” you said, standing up. “Good afternoon.”

Jade Leech, to be more precise. You’ve scanned through his profile when you first interacted with him two weeks ago when you ended up transmigrating here in Twisted Wonderland. As expected of a fantasy world, he wasn’t a normal human being, but belonged to merfolk. You don’t remember having much experience with them, and maybe picking him as your first route wasn’t exactly your best choice.

“Good luck on surviving the event,” Grim said, jumping off the chair he was sitting on, and headed to the exit.

“Ah,” Jade’s feigned surprise made you blink at him questionably. “How unfortunate, you’re supposed to help us with the preparations, Grim-san.”

You saw a system window popping up above your head as a reminder of not forgetting your main goal, and sighed.

“Not this kind of event he meant…” You mumbled, knowing exactly well that Jade heard you. 

“How about we discuss the budget, Yuu-san?” Leech took a seat beside you, to which you nodded. 

Appointed as a council’s treasurer, Jade actually managed his sources with an outstanding performance. Since you had no experience in entering otome realms, it was quite hard for you to predict what was going to happen next. Your fellow transmigrators you barely saw in the interdimensional space used to exchange their thoughts on their journeys before traveling to the next world, and somehow you, who witnessed a ton of horror stories, possessed psyche of a solidity, while otome novels and games travelers happened to be constantly overworked and heavily damaged in terms of their minds.

You never asked why. They’ve mentioned the necessity to go through an endless amount of routes and paths, to make people fall in love with them, and then leave them behind in their worlds. You also heard the system was erasing their memories, so they would live happily after experiencing love and joy of being loved, but the system never really cared about the travelers themselves. 

The department you were assigned to provided you with a psychotherapists’ help if needed after coming back to the office, so you would heal after experiencing terrible things and emotional drainings, but your and Grim’s emotional state has never reached the point of damaged position. 

Some of your colleagues even stated that you were emotionless and—

“Yuu-san?” you found Jade leaning closer to you, his face showing slight hints of a false worry made of politeness. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, I am sorry. Let’s continue.”

“I’ll be honest with you,” Leech stood up and came to the bar counter of the Mostro Lounge you’ve been occupying for the council discussions regarding the upcoming festival. 

“You don’t seem like the type to be honest with people,” you let the conclusion slip of your tongue before meeting his gaze you couldn’t decipher. 

“Then would you like to consider this an observation? A remark of sorts.”

“Alright then.”

“Sometimes it’s quite peculiar how you’re so composed and calm for a magicless person who got here in a school of magic,” a majestic coffee aroma filled the room. “Not to mention we’re fairly… uncommon individuals here.”

“You seem quite normal to me,” you answer emotionlessly, closing your eyes. “But you can say my opinion of what ‘normal’ is may differ from others. Yours, too.”

“Then I would be really willing to know how exactly.”

His voice suddenly appeared really close to your ear, but you didn't even raise an eyebrow, accepting a coffee cup from his elegant hands and looked at him.

Normally you wouldn’t want to have people interfering in your business, but a heart-shaped vitreous icon with a pink liquid in it made you widen your eyes in surprise. 

There was no liquid in it before. 

Now that you think about it, yes, your colleagues said there were indicators showing your progress, and apparently you really made it further, somehow managing to get Jade interested in you more than he was. 

“You’ve seemed to be spacing out a lot lately, Yuu-san.”

“Now that the festival is almost here, I guess I’m slightly nervous.”

“You don’t seem to be the type to get nervous so easily.”

You suddenly chuckle with a light grin on your face at his reversed pun and sip a coffee he brewed.

“It’s brilliant,” you compliment his work, staring straight at his mismatched eyes and seeing something in there. “May I ask you to brew this exclusively for me when the festival comes? In order to celebrate our successful and thoughtful work.”

“It would be my greatest pleasure.”

You had no idea about how romance works, but you did know you needed to get on Jade’s route as quickly as you could and come back to the office immediately. You wanted to get the detailed information about how you ended up transmigrating into an otome game, so now, sitting in the library and reading mycology books, you hoped to find something useful.

“Aha!” You exclaimed, summoning your transmigrator’s interface and taking a screenshot of a book page containing a mushroom’s drawing. “This is it!”

A mushroom which could be served as a component of a firework supplement, making it iridescent in rainbow colors right in the sky, which also was overflowing when put in soil. You found yourself smiling at the thought of Jade’s reaction, and headed to the mountain near the school.

Unfortunately, you’ve spent all the transmigrator currency you’ve earned during the previous isekai on preparations to the festival, thus you couldn’t afford any equipment for climbing. Well, even if something happens, you still have the system to save your progress, so you could reload and try again. Thinking about the demerits you could get for being not careful and damaging your body made you cringe, though.

You've reached the mountain, and a deep dark forest loomed before your eyes, a cold and moistened fog made you shiver in displeasure. How unfortunate that such a beautiful colorful mushroom grew in such an obscure place.

You made your way further, checking the map with the system tools, and took one more step to darkness. A small iridescent light on the ground made you rash towards it, and you grabbed the mushroom you were looking for.

“Here you are!” You smiled, grabbing more of them, but…

A sudden feeling of ground slipping under your feet made you scream in horror and turn off all the system signs, alerting you about the danger you’ve encountered. 

Who knew there was a cliff?! 

You tried to grab onto the branches of the occasionally falling trees to slow down your uncontrolled flight, but they were more likely to do more harm than good. You somehow felt someone’s gaze on you, but there was no time to think it thoroughly. You were ready to collapse on the damp ground, but a sudden prehensile grip prevented your fall, and you opened your eyes in a daze.

“Are you alright?!”

You could promise a genuine—this time—worry slid over Jade’s confused face, but he quickly tried to regain his composure. You took a look at his grip and wondered if he’s going to let you go, but at your gaze he instead tightened it, holding you even closer.

“What were you thinking, going to the forest unequipped…”

“Don’t worry,” you’ve tried reassuring him, but receiving only a frown. “I would have survived.”

“Falling from this height?” He asked, his voice raising slightly. 

“”... I believe you’re not the type to worry about others,” you mumble.

“What made you think I was worried?” He chuckled, still not letting you go. “Would have been troublesome if you died on the school grounds.” 

“No,” you answered with a suspicious calmness you’d better hide. “You’re worried. Your pupils tremble.” 

“... Let this be at least in theory,” he sighed. “But what made you come here?”

“Oh,” you sigh and finally unclench your scratched fists and hand over only one mushroom you’ve managed to preserve. “Here. I wanted to give you this mushroom. It’s iridescent and can be used for— Huh?”

Jade chuckled, looking into the sky which suddenly shone pretty bright with glimmering stars, and sighed heavily, finally letting you go of his grip, but holding your shoulders nevertheless, obviously scared of you falling. 

“So you did this for me.”

“Yes, I did, but what… Ah.”

You looked up at his head where the heart icon was, seeing the liquid feeling almost to the top, and gasped. 

So he was genuinely worried.

“It seems you’ve realized something,” he said, fixing a strand of your hair and smiling rather wearily. “I’ve never thought you’re the type to risk your life for getting gifts, Yuu-san. Especially for me, given how actually twisted I am.”

You found yourself giggling softly at his remark.

“I’m the twisted type myself. I believe.”

When the festival came, you thought you wouldn't be able to see Jade due to how busy you two were.

He was busy with calculations, and also constantly disappeared in the kitchen due to the insufficient number of workers, but somehow everything went smoothly.

You were greeting the guests by showing them the area and were up all day long actually dreaming of laying down, while Grim helped with the special effects on stage spraying his blue flames along with the rest of the guys.

Finally, it was time for the fireworks show, and you, making sure everything was under control and the visitors were enjoying the show, went to the roof of the school, dreaming of relaxing on the bench alone.

Being in an otome was tiring you out more than you thought it would, and you laughed at how you presumed you would just allure the love interests and get back home. 

You grew to genuinely like Jade maybe not as a love interest, but maybe even someone closer than a character of another world. 

“Resting here all alone?” 

A familiar voice was heard, but you didn’t dare to look, continuing keeping your gaze fixed on the night sky, knowing exactly well who came.

“Ashengrotto has finally freed you from the kitchen?”

“You could say so, even though Leona-san asked for an extra meat dish I’ve created yesterday…”

“Is that so…” You smiled as Jade sat right next to you, lying on the bench. “The fireworks show is going to start soon, right?”

“Not just soon,” he chuckled. “Right now.”

There were loud bangs just after a thin thread of light pierced the night sky and burst into a bouquet of multicolored lights that shimmered in rainbow colors right under the stars, and you released a smile from your lips, surprised at your sincere joy.

“It’s beautiful.”

Jade silently watched the show with you and then bent over your face, covering the view of a clear night sky when the show was over. An unfamiliar expression on his face made you blink in surprise. 

“It is beautiful, indeed.”

“Somehow I feel you’re not talking about fireworks?..” You questioned, chuckling, and gasped the second after.

The heart icon was fully filled, a bright pink light radiating from it and covering Jade’s cheeks with a slight pink hue. Or wasn’t it an icon?..

“You know, Yuu-san,” Jade smiled. “You were right when you said I’m not the honest type, but right at this moment, let me tell you something.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Thank you for your beautiful gift,” he said. “I’ll treasure it. And also… you.”

You couldn’t bring yourself to say something, stretching your hand and touching his cheek, cold because of a night breeze and maybe just because he was always naturally like that, and dared to cover his eyes with your hand. 

“Thank you for appearing in my life. I’ll treasure you too.”

And with that his soft chuckle dissolved in a bright light and system notifications, congratulating you with getting a happy ending.

Happy ending, starting again in your room with a piercing pain in your heart.

“Ah…” You said, seeing Grim sleep peacefully next to you. “So that is why they said otome games are hard to escape.”

Shit, you thought, waking up the next morning. 

You came to the conclusion that it wasn’t really necessary for you to fall in love with the love interest (it was enough just to open up to him?), and weren’t sure if Jade really grew to like you. 

But you definitely came to a realization that it was painful to see him in the hall, talking to his brother and noticing you, nodding in a greeting way with a familiar feigned politeness, a glimpse of warmth, which appeared in your previous walkthrough, was no longer lingering underneath his eyes. 

You found yourself wanting to taste a coffee he brewed for you exclusively, but he was no longer here by your side, his profile image became gray, and a ‘COMPLETED’ line appeared in capital letters in the system interface. 

Was that it? All the feelings both of you developed turned into a finished story without any chance for rereading it? Otome games were unfair. But transmigrating still was your main job you couldn’t decline, and even in thrillers and horrors you used to enter so often there were people who you genuinely liked and treasured.

Still, you knew that once the story ended, you got back into the office and traveled to another world, then another, and another, and… There was no point in developing feelings anymore.

You chuckled to yourself when Jade passed through you, and raised your head, meeting someone else’s intense gaze.

Leona Kingscholar. The system made a melodious sound, letting you know about your next ‘target’. You quickly checked his profile, appearing right before standing in front of you Leona, and wondered, what type of a character he would be. 

Slightly older than his classmates, and he also belonged to royalty, how very interesting. You closed the system interface with a snap of fingers and greeted your next… target.

“Good morning. May I help you… Eh?”

Leona approached you, his face suddenly extremely close to yours, and sniffed your neck, then clavicles and stared at your eyes, allowing you to notice how beautifully the emeralds of his were shining.

“What a strange smell.”

“Excuse me, I took a shower in the morning.”

“Not that,” Leona sighed, a heart above his head being absolutely empty and transparent. “The smell, not of magic, but similar. Also like that fish guy.”

“Fish guy?..”

He was probably speaking about Jade, but how in the world did he manage to sniff that?! Your eyes widened in shock for a brief moment. 

“If you’re talking about Ja… Leech, then maybe it’s because hu just was there.”

“Whatever,” Leona shrugged, sniffing you once more, to which you attempted to distant yourself. “There’s also a dirt smell. And also raining, alcohol, hospital… A blood? What the hell, herbivore?”

Now this wasn’t funny at all. The last world you’ve transmigrated into was centered around a story about doctors, crimes and, well, the usual horror stuff you had to deal with, and how did Leona manage to casually sniff it on you like that?

Naturally, you wanted to get rid of any suspicions and shrug it off, but you also needed to get him on your side and find a way to reach a happy ending with him. A slight fearful thought of collecting people’s hearts like some sort of a hobby slid through your mind, making you nauseous, but you swallowed the feeling and forced a cheeky smile.

“Care to figure it out?”

Leona looked at you with an unreadable emotion and made his way to the exit, leaving you all confused.

“It’s not my business, herbivore. But do something about this smell, it’s disgusting, Savanaclaw students are really sensitive to the smell this strong.”

“As if I can just wash it away…” You mumbled to yourself, following Leona’s distancing figure with your gaze and parting your lips in a surprise way when noticing a little amount of pink liquid in the heart above his head.

So you did pique his interest, after all.

The progress with Leona’s route was incredibly slow and strange. You took the sequence the system suggested automatically, providing you with calculations regarding the difficulty on each walkthrough, and at first you blinked questionably at Leona’s one, seeing only 40%, since now you’ve been feeling all 100%. 

He wasn’t hard to find — the botanical garden was his second alma mater, and yet when his words he said to you the first day of his route lingered in your mind, ‘It’s not my business’ line repeating in your head like an annoying pop song, you almost thought that it really was not his problem at all, as if he totally didn’t care.

You almost convinced yourself, but small steps you took towards him also helped you in discovering concealed aspects of his character.

At first you visited the botanical garden just out of a habit you’ve managed to form in other isekais, and ended up finding Leona there without fail every time. At first you were silent, observing him and his unwavering composure—you thought of that as indifference—but not so long after you took the first attempt to start a casual conversation.

“Leona,” you once said, seeing him sleeping under the tree and knowing he heard you talking. “Do I still, uhm, reek?..”

“I sense the strong smell of that fish guy.” 

How in the world did Jade’s lingering scent still remain on you?

“And also that bat.”

“Bat?” You asked, wondering who he meant. 

“Lilia Vanrouge.”

You knitted your brows together at his reply. You saw Vanrouge only once, right before Leona came into the garden one day, and briefly talked to him. Lilia was also listed among your potential ‘love interests’, but a 100% difficulty level was confusing to you, and the one talk you had did really confirm that he’s going to be a tough character to deal with. To make him fall in love with?..

“I see… I wonder how it works for you beastmen, your sense of smell.”

“Like a second skin,” Leona opened one eye and glanced your way. “I don’t get how you humans live with such a short range of smell.”

“I think that’s only about you,” you suddenly said, meeting Leona’s gaze. “No one from Savanaclaw other than you mentioned what I smell like.” 

A short pause stretched between you two, but somehow you didn’t find it unpleasant, more like relaxing and thoughtful. Kingscholar chuckled, tapping on the spot beside him with his tail and attracting your attention.

“Yes?”

“Come here.”

You did as he said, wondering what was that about, and ended up being held in his arms. He sniffed you once again, but with more care and politeness than he did the first time, while you couldn’t tear away your fixated gaze on his bright focused eyes.

“Those strange scents are still on you. What kind of life did you live before getting here, herbivore…”

“And you said it’s not your business, huh,” you grinned and gasped the second after he suddenly laid on your lap. “Hey!”

“It’s still not my business though.” He answered, closing his eyes and resting comfortably. “But don’t get near other Savanaclaws. It’s really a disgusting smell.”

“Which is why you’re on my lap, am I being correct?” You chuckled. “Still, I don’t think others have the audacity to come near me. Or such a strong sense of smell like you do. You’re impressive, Leona.”

For a moment you thought he stopped breathing, but then heard a bitter laugh coming from his lips.

“One day you’ll take your words back.”

Till today you really wondered what he meant by that, seeing no particular reason to actually question his skills. Even despite his poor attendance and self-deprecating lines, he really was an amazing, outstandingly clever person you really did want to get to know more.

And today an occasion came up, when you visited the botanical garden again, now it was more out of a habit, and found Leona with the first-year students you didn’t know, challenging him in chess. 

“Good afternoon everyone,” you greeted them, hearing excited ‘hello’ from other students and receiving a light nod from Leona. “What are you doing?”

“Miserably failing to win Kingscholar-senpai in a chess match,” one of the students answered. “No one has succeeded yet…”

“Check and mate,” Leona announced, when the first year he played cried out of indignation. 

“How are you so talented in chess, Kingscholar-senpai!!..”

“Hmph,” Leona chuckled, but you somehow knew somewhere underneath his ever-so-mighty persona he was genuinely happy to receive those compliments. “Right, herbivore. Come play with me while I’m in the mood.”

You tilted your head, thinking beforehand. You couldn’t remember the last time you played, but possessing a naturally inquisitive and quick-witted mind due to your job, you nodded, taking a seat in front of him.

The match was silent, and if at first you heard first years hitched breaths, during the second hour passing of the match, even those students left, leaving a silence lingering between you two. 

“I really admire you, Leona,” you dared to break the silence, seeing Leona’s hand holding a chess piece stop for a second. 

“Flattery will take you to nowhere,” he replied, performing an en passant of your pawn, to which you pouted. “Huh, you can be cute sometimes.”

“And you can be sweet, I see,” you flirted back. “But… I’m sorry. Checkmate, Leona.”

Two knights endgame, huh. 

Leona was staring at the chess board for a fairly concerning amount of time before bursting into laughs. 

“W-what’s wrong?..”

“Remember I said you’ll take your words back?” He raised his gaze to meet yours. “Take it now. Tell me I’m not impressive anymore now that you’ve outsmarted me.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, feeling annoyed.

“What are you saying.”

“I can’t believe it, huh,” he laughed again. “You, a magicless human, out of people… Hah! What a ridiculously clever herbivore you are. It pisses me off.”

“You know what? Shut up.”

You grabbed his shirt, seeing his absolutely unimpressed expression, and clenched your fists with even more force than you thought you would, and pressed your forehead to his, chess pieces scattering around the table. 

“Even when you have no one to believe in your abilities, even you yourself doubt them…” You took a deep breath. “I myself will be that one person who will believe in you AND believe you.”

You heard a splash, realizing it was the liquid in the heart above his head filling half of it, and then a genuine laughter came from Leona’s chest.

“You’re insane, herbivore.”

You really were insane, indeed. 

To the point you couldn’t even take a quick look at Leona in the past week due to him being anywhere but near you, which annoyed you for sure. You had a whole month planned for you two to spend together in case his route appeared too difficult to reach an ending, so many things to witness, but instead…

Instead you managed to meet Jade thrice or even more, then stumble upon Lilia ‘ku-fu-fu’-ing at you cheerfully and mysteriously, and all those were driving you crazy slowly. You wanted to have a chat with Jade who portrayed no such interest you used to witness in his route, much to your dismay, but you also wanted to finally find Leona and genuinely get to know him more.

“Oh, Yuu-san.”

You were resting at the school yard, students walking here and there, chatting and playing, and you saw Jade approaching you, nodding to him.

“Good afternoon.”

“Oya, isn’t it Yuu?”

… Jade and Lilia. And no signs of Leona or whatsoever. You blinked at them, trying to conceal your honest feelings, and listened to them talking.

“It’s rare to see you all alone,” Jade noticed. 

“Indeed, you could be often seen in Leona’s company. Did you two have a quarrel?”

“We…” Despite how much you wanted to protest, you weren’t sure anymore. 

“We have not.”

A sudden warmth spreading in your chest and a heart pounding faster than it was made you turn to Leona, who appeared behind your back, and you smiled at him.

“Herbivore,” he called you, shoving his nose into the crook of your neck and making you giggle. “One week of me being busy, and you already have such a strong scent of those two. How come?”

“Look who’s talking.”

“My my, do you have a problem with us?” Lilia obviously tried to tease Leona, but the last one suddenly fell silent.

“Leona?..”

“Yeah, I have one.”

His arms enveloping you made you yelp softly, and an unfamiliar burning on your cheeks made you bite your lips and stare at Leona’s cheeky expression.

“I liked it more when you had an aroma of garden’s flowers on you more. And also…”

A kiss he pressed on your lips was bright, passionate, also confusing to everyone else, and very much awaited by you. 

“That way I don’t need to worry anymore. Care for another game of chess, herbivore?”

You smiled at him, wanting to reply instantly, but the heart icon above filled to its max, and splashing beats of bright light covered your watering eyes. 

“Yes, let’s play one more time, Leona!..”

You… 

You really were growing to hate otome games to your very heart.

© yunarim 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝. 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲, 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐲, 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst x reader #jade x reader #leona x reader #kalim x reader #azul x reader #lilia x reader #idia x reader

[onesidedradiostatic]

Hear me out.

I've been thinking about this post : https://www.tumblr.com/onesidedradiostatic/745384039518814208/extremely-cursed-thought?source=share

And like, what if Alastor paid someone to make a mod of it where he's the horse (deer version)?

Like, he knows of Vox's obsession...so obviously he'd use it to his advantage right?

So is it so far fetched of him to have someone make a mod with a spyware that hacks the phone's camera while the game's playing?

Because there's no way Vox wouldn't play the mod, and that would make for some sweet sweet blackmail that Alastor could use to his benefit.

And if the person he pays also manages to make it so Vox's the only one with access to that mod Alastor would only benefit from it since nobody else could fantasize over his Mars Attack Deer edition body.

Hell, maybe it could be a bonding experience organised by Charlie to make up for Lucifer's commissions and Nifty's fanfics.

Lucifer makes the artwork, Nifty changes the plot to her (and Vox's) liking and Alastor supervises (and pukes).

(link in ask)

HELP I mean. I feel like it wouldn't be something alastor would initiate on his own, not because he wouldn't take advantage of vox, but because spyware is more modern technology and I'm not sure if he'd stoop to using modern technology just for this. and also, would he even know what spyware is? and aside from the modern tech, he'd have to agree to letting himself be....... presented in such a manner. not even necessarily the horse-deer thing I mean I'm sure he's presented himself in much more horrifying ways, but the fact that it's a DATING sim. like weigh the pros and cons, entertainment from seeing vox get trampled vs a bunch of things he fucking hates.

oh yeah I think alastor knows about vox's obsession but he doesn't know the romantic/sexual aspect of it at ALL.

but sure, let's take this as one of the hotel's plans post-finding-out about it however they do (as I've said in previous posts, whether it be through alastor recounting the Business Proposal(TM) to mock vox and the hotel being like "OOOOHHHHHhhhhHHHhhhHHh yeah alastor I think you may have misinterpreted that just a TINY bit" or finding out vox has been commissioning lucifer to make zesty art of him), I think it'd be more likely if it was like a hotel initiated plan as opposed to an alastor initiated one cause of the above factors LMAO. so yeah sure "bonding experience organised by Charlie to make up for Lucifer's commissions and Nifty's fanfics"

lucifer and niffty don't only contribute art and writing, they contribute the money going into the spyware development (unless anyone in the hotel actually has enough tech knowledge to develop one. and I was about to search up how to code spyware just for this but I was worried I may end up on a list). and yes alastor pukes.

realistically. I do think vox's digital security is strong enough for him to counter spyware/digital attacks (which is why I think an actual physical distraction for vox while the hotel does whatever is more effective) but I think it'd be funny if he like got so distracted by the surprisingly high quality mod that he didn't realise his system's anti viruses going off until the hotel got a good chunk of him enjoying the game more than he should've (and he gets made fun of for it by velvette forever but also gets scolded by her for not noticing the spyware sooner and he's lucky he didn't leak too much essential vee stuff during it) and he then swiftly removes the spyware from the code and just keeps the mod so he can keep playing it because for some reason the hotel crew got like really into its development and it's actually a very high quality fully-functional mod, and he lets no one find out that he kept it (or at least attempts to).

#ask #osrs.txt #radiostatic #staticradio #onewaybroadcast #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox #vox #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel alastor #alastor #lucifer morningstar #hazbin lucifer #hazbin niffty #hazbin hotel niffty #niffty #hazbin velvette #hazbin hotel velvette #velvette #lucifer's commissions saga #sure. sure.

[toomuchracket]

how about matty convincing d word girlie going to a football match with her?? (Maybe she doesn’t really like football that much, or even at all, idk?)

HA yeah ok so you and matty go for a little long weekend up the north-east to visit some of his family, and newcastle are playing at home on the saturday and before you go tim phones to say he's got tickets for all of you - you included. matty giggles when he tells you this, because any time he talks about football or watches it in the house your eyes just glaze over out of disinterest, despite your best efforts to pay attention, and he knows you'll wince at the thought of actually going to a match; you do, but quickly plaster on a hesitant smile and say "ok", and matty's like "you'll go? really?", and you're like "... yes. it would make you really happy, wouldn't it?", and matty kisses your head and says "it would, darlin', it would mean a lot to me if you were there", and you're like "so it's settled. i will go to the football". and matty's like "can you say that again? i need to film it and send it to your dad so he'll believe me when i tell him" - you point at him like "don't fucking push it, matthew", and matty laughs and takes your face in his hands to kiss you like "sorry, baby. thank you for doing this. i love you. it'll be fun", to which you're like "i love you too, and that's the only reason i'm ACTUALLY doing it. and i guess seeing your family will be fun, at least, lol". but as the weekend gets closer, you do actually start to get excited, just because matty's so hyped about taking his girl to see his team lmao (he is such a boy). he's like "try on one of my football tops to see if it fits, and you can wear it to the game. that would be cute", and you're a bit 😐 about the idea; that is, until you pull one of the black and white tops over your underwear and step into the living room to show matty, and he reacts by... literally pulling one of the sofa cushions over his lap and breathing heavily. your jaw drops like "babe you did not just get hard at the sight of me in a newcastle united shirt lmaoooooooo. it's that easy? wow", and matty groans into his hands like "shut up how else am i meant to react? the most beautiful woman on the planet, my beloved girlfriend, in MY football top? this is teenage wet dream material, sweetheart" - you go over to kiss him and say "well, if we have sex now with me wearing it, will that make it better or worse?", and matty thinks for a second like "better. i'll get it out of my system" lol.

and he's right, actually - a week later, when you appear in his cousin's kitchen with the same shirt visible under your coat, all matty thinks of is how cute you look lmao (but he does smirk a little bit when everyone says how sweet you are for wearing it, considering you did some arguably non-sweet things to him in it before lol). the actual day itself is quite nice; you all go for food and a couple of drinks before the game, during which you literally just share really cringe anecdotes about matty with his dad and brother, and then matty takes 948482 pics of you outside st james' park (and makes one his lockscreen) before you go in. he hugs you tightly before the game starts like "this is really special to me, sweetheart, thank you for doing this", and you're like "it's chill i actually am having fun lol". he stays holding you through the start of the game, too, because it's chilly, but pulls back to look at you in bewilderment when you hum along to the local hero theme as the players come onto the pitch; you're like "what? i've seen the film. it's good. so is the tune", and matty kisses you quickly like "you never fail to amaze me, honestly". anyway, the first half of the game is... kinda boring? nobody scores, there's not a lot of action, and the most exciting thing is you nearly burning your tongue on a bovril at half-time lol. it picks up in the second half, though - you spend the first few goal attempts looking and smiling at matty getting really into it, because he's so cute and animated, but then the tables turn and you catch him grinning at you when you swear at a near miss from newcastle. when they finally do score, you both cheer, and matty gets so hyped that he picks you up - well, he tries to, in the limited space between rows of seats lol. you have to ask him to clarify ref decisions at bits (fuck if i know what constitutes a yellow card btw), which he RELISHES doing, explaining them and kissing your cheek when you're like "ok cool. i see". in the end, newcastle win, and when the home support stands go into joyous uproar you're a part of it, hugging matty and tim and all the rest of the family as if you were an avid fan lmao; matty also probably tries to fully make out with you in excitement and just general happiness that you're with him, which you indulge in briefly before being like "come on, we need to move now so the people behind us can get out lol". but you continue the making out in the smoking area of the pub you all pile into to celebrate the win, matty like "this has been one of my favourite days ever, sweetheart. i'm so grateful for you, and even more in love with you, honestly" - you're like "i love you! and i really have enjoyed myself. don't think i could do it every week, in fairness, but i had fun. thanks for bringing me, baby". and matty's like "anytime, darlin'. and feel free to borrow the top anytime, too. in fact, i'd encourage it" lol <3

#mads answers asks #matty asks #fluff asks #d word matty

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

I know cities tens to have more, uh, liberal views or whatever but as someone who spent a majority of my life in rural Iowa, who was then forced to relocate to a city in Minnesota (I would never step foot in this state if I had the choice. its FREEZING) I've never met so many self centered and self serving people in my damn life

i got this coworker who's this white kid from a middle class family who spouts off at the mouth regularly and she says so much shit about rural Iowa if i ever complain about how much I dislike the culture shock here. but it's always "it's so boring" "lol trump?" "weee have the mall of America. there's nothing in Iowa" and im sitting here so uncomfortable bec like

rural areas are regularly forgotten about? we are deep knitted cultural communities bec the government won't Help us? Democrats won't help us. we're uneducated and stupid and ignorant nevrrmind it was systemically created that way for voting. The leftists I've seen (this kid) are full of classism and ignorance

I remember that as someone who grew up poor as fuck in Iowa, we had limited channels. You know what that was? Fox News. We didn't have thr fancy channels and all the 20 different news channels.

Republicans need rural areas poor and divided and angry to get votes. get them mad at the minorities also looking for jobs to keep their eyes off the people further driving up prices. Keep their schools poor and underfunded

Pride in family and community and tradional IS a part of "small town thinking" and a lot of those things are because that is what keeps our towns alive. we have no choice But to help each other. Our pride is our armor and it gets thicker and more bullheaded the more we keep getting called ignorant and stupid

i know there's definitely a lot of problems with rural areas especially for minorities. as a queer person w different pronouns Im hesitant about living in one again and there's also the violence w bipoc and queer communities

and the thing is is that I know a lot of liberals/some leftists here in the city I've seen who will take that struggle and use that as a shield against their own hateful attitudes towards bipoc and queer communities in cities and it takes away a lot of the visibility of the queer and bipoc people who choose to live there

Virginia (unless it was West and I just forgot can't remember rn) was a blue state until Obama came in and took the jobs after promising new and better jobs and communities. Republicans and Democrats both use the Appalachian region and people for their own benefit and Republicans and far right politicians rely on desperation

a lot of leftist things I see are long term plans, that help everyone for the better. these people don't have the luxury of Waiting for Better. Keeping poor folks, in rural areas, desperate is a key tactic from Republicans bec at least they Pretend to care about them. (I have never voted for a republican and I never plan on it LMAO)

you see "pro cop", I see "that's my cousin". you see "pro military". I see "that's my late brother". you see "evangelical church preying on poor people" I see "that's how im going to make dinner tonight"

We didn't get colleges coming to see us. we got the national guard and the army coming to see us. bec the poor, desperate boys wanting an out are the best bet to getting bodies for a war they're too young to grasp

I dunno I just. I hate cities. I hate the shallowness and self centeredness I keep encountering. The unwillingness to help others. the unwillingness to take on an inconvenient few hours to help my understaffed coworkers. and i understand that it's just different cultures and societal expectations but it's really, really lonely. I hate all the buildings. I hate all the concrete and lack of trees and plants and cows and ducks and farms

rural areas are so beautiful and have a lot of nature and I just don't want to give up on my home

#my insomnia is so had ive gotten very little sleep in the last week and its making me really emotional #rural iowa

[crush3dmary]

having a bad day, can you tell me about the pink man

I'm actually having a bad day too because I've got a cold and am feeling shitty but I'm always down to talk about the z man! I hope you don't mind if I publish this because I want it to act as an endorsement of tales of symphonia to my ygo followers lmao. Cross contaminate that shit!

Basically, in my life, before there was Ryou Bakura, before there was Aegis Alver, there was Zelos Wilder. This man has been my personal punching bag since I was 14 years old - that's 15 whole years! If kinning had been a thing when I was 14 I absolutely would have been a Zelos kin back then... Ahhh.

Basically, I'm going to try and keep this as spoiler free as possible in case anyone wants to play the game, but Zelos acts as a parallel to the main female character in many ways, and really, he's what Colette could have turned out to be if she didn't have the support system of her friends growing up. Zelos is someone who has never thought of himself as being worth something, and all the interactions he has growing up only solidify that belief - between a traumatic event that all but severed his relationship with his sister and constantly being treated like he's nothing more than his title, he doesn't really have any reason to think otherwise, at least until he meets the main character and you watch him begin to open up and grow.

I think part of the reason I personally relate to him so much is because of the mask he puts up to hide how much he hates himself, and the way over the course of the game you either watch him tear it down or give in to his self hatred based on how much trust you put in him. So your choices as a player literally determine the trajectory of his growth and his ultimate fate.

I've personally been putting him in Situations since 2008 because I see a lot of myself in him and I feel a catharsis in it. Both when he comes out on top and ends up with comfort, and when it's hurt no comfort (definitely wrote a number of sui fics with him in my day, especially as a teenager when I was struggling with suicidality). He's really just such a fascinating character and both love to hate him and hate to love him.

Might I recommend my fic Ice Palace if anyone wants to know more? (spoilers ahead)

[ryttu3k]

Good Omens season 2, episode 2! Just gonna link all the previous episodes here, too.

Previous liveblogs: Episode 1

Crowley you leave those goats alone!!

You know what I can definitely see Aziraphale's response to the whole… Job thing being probably the closest he's actually come to Falling himself. Just going "No, fuck this." I imagine this might have been when the Arrangement started proper?

Gabriel that is the most unhinged shelving system I have ever seen, and I've seen Sascha's shelving system in the now-non-canon Gehenna novel.

Aaand there's the stakes.

Oh, Maggie :(

The Resurrectionist at 66 Goat Gate. Mm not ominous at all!!

lmao the Pratchett novel. Couldn't make out the title, kinda hope it's Reaper Man.

Oh no Aziraphale accidentally made a fake dating AU.

"A sudden rainstorm forces them together beneath a canopy, they look into each other's eyes, and realise they were made for each other?" "Sounds a bit unlikely." Well, more wingbrella than canopy ;D

Dear god Crowley would watch Richard Curtis XD

Oh shit I want to read about Jane Austen's other adventures.

That Clue was definitely capitalised XD Oh lmao "well at least don't pronounce the capital letter!" it was capitalised!

Man I kinda feel bad for Jim. And yes I'm calling him Jim right now because he's clearly not Gabriel. …The whole, not being able to remember who he is because his mind isn't big enough kind of reminds me of Donna not being able to stay Doctor-Donna, actually? I wonder if Tennant had input there in the script, or if Gaiman based it on that?

The goats!!

"Can I be a blue one? :3" Bless, a baby scaley XD

Oh, Aziraphale. Wait until you discover sushi XD

Whales are pretty cool.

Job and family are having the weirdest days and also what the fuck are those 'ribs' XD

"You have my word as an angel." And thus Their Side begins!

Our car, Aziraphale? XD

Tragically The Crow Road got trounced by The Bad Beginning in the book first line tourney but I still maintain "It was the day my grandmother exploded" is a corker of an opening line.

Paused to take a squiz at the books. I can make out… something, something, No Woman No Cry, The Crow Road, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (ew, loathe that book), Catch-22, can't catch the title but it's Marquez so it's probably One Hundred Years of Solitude, something, 1984, The Big Sleep, the Bible, Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, something, something either by or about Herzog, can't make out the rest.

"It was a nice day." …And that… is Good Omens XD Well that's meta!

A demon who's just a little bit nice, and an angel who's just a little bit disobedient, doesn't sound too lonely together :) Poor Aziraphale, I can understand him feeling freaked, but you know, I think they can make this work!

#good omens #good omens 2

[ac-liveblogs]

Misc. 4.2 Archon Quest Predictions

I'm vaguely aware of how Furina and Neuvillette's little... power struggle? Is going to be resolved thanks to leaks, but until then -

I think the Gnosis is in the Oratrice. It's the reason why Fontaine's Justice system functions Like That, as well as why they can convert Belief into Power. After Sumeru's Akasha system, that makes the most sense to me.

That doesn't account for why Furina doesn't seem like an Archon, since not having her Gnosis didn't really bother Ei, so I assume she also put part of herself (?) or her authority as Archon (?) in the Oratrice as well. I don't know what exactly she did to herself, but it should be related to the Oratrice. Or depending on when the Oratrice was made, the previous Hydro Archon Did Something and Furina is saddled with it.

The Oratrice being wrapped up with the Gnosis and the Hydro Archon this way is why Neuvillette honours its judgments - even when Childe has been found guilty.

I don't expect Navia, Clorinde, Wriothesely, Lyney/Lynette or Freminet to do much more than help the people of Fontaine evacuate when the waters rise. Navia has her weird boat-shaped base, Wrio is building his own Ark, the twins+Freminet have the Magic Pockets. I'd be shocked if we got anything else from them.

I'd be shocked if Charlotte even shows up in 4.2 outside of maybe writing a news article on what happened at the end.

I really have no idea what Childe will do. Leaks from ages ago said he had no speaking lines in 4.1 and 4.2, and while he definitely didn't in 4.1 he was still present and... said things, I guess. He's definitely present in the 4.3 trailer, so maybe he'll just appear in cutscenes to fight whatever the new boss is, help hold it off for a little while or whatever, get knocked out, and then we have to step in to finish the job.

No idea what will happen with the Vision. Maybe he'll fuck off into the Abyss with Skirk and we'll keep holding onto it (lmao). It's such a weird point that we got it. I wonder if it's just to justify the Childe dream-sharing. That feels like a plot element they might want to keep around?

Who knows about Skirk. She might just be a cameo or she might dump some lore and bounce. I don't think she'll stick around after this.

We won't fight Arlecchino. I assume we would have heard something about her boss battle by now if we did. We might just end up teaming up with her entirely in this patch to fight the Abyss.

Despite the hype for the trial in the trailer, I don't think they're going to make us do another one. I hope they don't. I seriously really fucking hope they do not. Please.

So far, I've been really unimpressed with Fontaine. Unlike Sumeru, there are a lot of plot elements present in this region that could have really worked for me but so far they've flubbed every single one.

Ch1 was tedious right up until the trial, and the trial was terribly written; ch2 and ch3 were extremely poorly thought out filler that failed to use the playable cast members in meaningful ways; ch4 was... passable, if an extremely boring way to make use of all the players in Meropide. Though at that point I also just wanted to be out of Meropide.

Fuck Meropide.

I don't really expect ch5 to be a meaningful improvement, but if they can do some fun stuff with Childe I'll at least enjoy that much.

#replies #ac plays genshin impact

[unohanabbygirl]

I'm soo obsessed with FMN I've binged it all in a few days! Poor Luke he truly did not deserve the hand he got, like so many in his situation 😭. Will he ever reunite with his bio mom in this world? Ik she basically abandoned him but if she ever finds out he got taken in by a fam with money I can def see her coming back. Also I remember that one of his foster dads was a major creep, spying on him naked & stuff, did anything further happen with that? Because maybe he can have testify with Alicent by his side to get more abusive ppl out. Daemon is surprisingly well adjusted for the modern era I'm impressed!

I'm so excited to see more of Owen. I'm guessing he's in jail (which is lucky bc Luke's fam can't get to him lol). I think it's very interesting and realistic with how blase Luke is to all the stuff he had to face. I realy get the feeling he knows it's wrong/not normal esp when we see his interactions with the kids. But bc he's essentially been so dehumanized throughout his life it seems like he's really internalized that he has go accept abuse as a normal thing. Does he expect his og fam to ever hurt him once the "illusion" of their dead son breaks? They did kinda back themselves intl a corner with that, at least until hos memories return. Anyways thanks for ur work!

My heart is so full rn 😭💗

The whole situation with Luke and his past foster father who had been spying on the kids isn’t something I’m going any further into until we’re more towards the end of the story. However, it’s implied that night ended in a fight which led to Luke being removed from the household.

Alicent helping get more creeps out of the foster system is such beautiful idea. A lot of healing is going to have to come first before Luke feels comfortable disclosing all of his past experiences in order to make it happen.

Daemon seems, well adjusted…but he’s still the same man who happily put down his life in hopes of winning the war for Nyra at his core. Daemon will always be the rouge prince at heart I’m afraid lmao.

There will be more of Owen, we’re coming up on reaching the halfway point in the story and Luke now has a therapist so expect more background to how that whole situation came to be as well as a deeper look into why Luke feels so much love for him besides what’s already been revealed.

Deep down, Luke knows the things that happened to him weren’t ok, but brushing over it all or even putting himself in a place of responsibility for his abuse is how he copes. Like you said, in the way he interacts with children and cares for their well-being its clear that he knows hurting children in that way is wrong no matter what. There’s a small moment in the pool party chapter where he’s genuinely worried that Daemon has put his hands on little Viserys and feels so protective until he’s assured nothing of the sort ever happened.

Luke fully expects to be left in the dust if he truly reveals his entire being rather than just the “nice” or “cool” parts because it’ll bring Rhaenyra back to the reality that he isn’t Lucerys. Sadly, such immense pressure will only lead to a blow up.

They did in fact fuck themselves by revealing that, but its too late now 😭

Thank you for your sweet words <3

#asks

[greywindys]

show us the neopets! /lh (you don't have to if you don't want to)

Ahhh I'll do so happily!! I've been holding onto this ask because I needed a time where I could sit down and adequately screenshot everything. Warning for Neopets!! I'm probably going to use a lot of jargon that makes no sense to non-players, but that's just how it is. If you have any interest in more detailed explanations about wtf I'm talking about, I would check Youtube! There have been some great videos released in the past month outlining the mechanics of the game, the lore, recent events etc. Anyhow...

This is my Gelert, Lightning (misspelled as "Lighting" because little kid me couldn't spell). He is the very first pet I ever created. I might update his paint job soon to something more exciting, but I also like the simplicity. His petpet (recently painted Spring) is named after my IRL dog. I love them both.

This is Butters, my second oldest pet. Idk what I was thinking when I was naming him. Actually no, I do - my little kid self was edgy. But I can't ever part with him because he's from my childhood. I somehow managed to transfer him (along with Lighting) across two accounts without losing him, he is a relic. That won't be his permanent petpet either. I'm still figuring that one out 🤔

And here we are veering at least slightly on topic - my Lupe, Murdoc. Or Murdocs, since the actual "Murdoc" name was taken. I made him after a long hiatus from the site when I returned briefly (only to leave again up until now). If I truly wanted to commit to making a pet that represents Murdoc, I probably should have chosen a bug or reptilian species...but I don't want a bug or reptilian species ever. His petpet is a reference to the yak he got 2D during P5 fkadlfa. I'd like to ultimately find him one that looks like The Evangelist, but the petpet i have in mind is like, 10 million neopoints, or something insane like that. And I can't get him Cortez. Why, you might ask? Well...

This is Sanemi. His character has been a wolf in canon, but since I already had Murdoc, I opted for a cat instead, which I think is also fitting. He's typically associated with the colors green, white, and black, but his eyes are purple, so Wraith it was. The leaves are probably as close as I'll get to creating a "wind breathing" effect, and I'm working on finding him an appropriate sword (it's not going well jkadal). He has a few pets, but the only named one is his crow, Sorai. I don't want doubles anywhere if I can help it, so no Cortez for Murdoc.

This is Sansa, named for Sansa Stark from ASoIaF/Game of Thrones. Her petpet is Lady, named after her late direwolf (RIP). I couldn't not have a GOT reference somewhere, and I also love Woodland Unis.

This is Rusalka, named after my current favorite song by the Decemberists. I'm probably going to change her color to faerie soon-ish, despite the fact that I chose Maraquan in the first place because of the song and name reference. But they're bringing back the original Faerie Neopet art sometime this year, and I love the way faerie Ixis look, and I always wanted one when I was younger (I was too poor back then).

This is my second-newest pet, Kacchan. He's a Kacheek (Get it? Kacchan, Kacheek lmao). I finally settled on how I wanted my Bakugou pet to look. I still have to get him a few more accessories, namely a mask and a glitter effect, because in case you didn't know, canon Bakugou is literally sparkling right now. I also intend to change his petpet. The one he has now is just filler until I can save up for the paint brush I need.

And this is my brand new pet, 2Doc! Sjfkaldfj. I outsmarted the system - "2Doc" might have been taken, but Twodoc was not. She isn't staying that color, might not be staying that species, and definitely won't be keeping that petpet. She's currently call a "lab rat." It'll take to long to fully explain, but basically, if you collect a certain amount of map pieces, you can unlock the secret lab ray where you can zap your pet once a day. It's completely random and can changes species, color, gender, and stats. I plan on zapping her until it feels right, but I kinda want her to be zap Burlap or Plushie atm. We'll see what happens! In this specific pet's case, it's more about having the name than having an accurate customization.

And finally, this is my Giyuu/Sanemi pet. There aren't really a lot of references here, I again mainly thought it would be funny to have a pet named after a ship, and I created him at a time when I didn't think a 2Doc pet was obtainable. And if we're being completely honest, this ship is better than 2Doc anyways. I also love Plushie pets and the fact that most people probably wouldn't be able to tell that he has a ship name just from looking at the collection of letters. It's stealth lmao.

So, notably missing from this list is a Succession inspired pet. I more than anyone, want, no need to make a Succession pet soon, but the species I have in mind is limited addition, and can only be created on their specific day (the anniversary of the day they were first released). So unless I want to blow through half of my life savings (in neopoints, not actual money), I have to wait until April. Which rn, is what I'm doing unless I'm very fortunate in my dailies or weekly prize.

Anyhow, those are my pets so far!

#asks. #Anonymous #long post #cringe but free

[nugsanart09-works]

speedrunning my teapot

okay so as my roster's nova, they know damn well on how i go from "gone for literal years" to "bulldozing through every quest available within a day" — the latter being specifically when i spedrun through the liyue quest (that i've been neglecting for years now whoops) for the taste testing teapot event. yep, i have shit priorities and it shows lmao

little note that i believe the aurora bot allows the sunshines what the nova's current status is at the bare minimum unless asked for further information

if your system aurora is a menace, it would report what your current motivation is if its nova don't talk while playing — for extra ammo, it might even go full throttle by telling the sunshines even the most minute detail it can tell them i.e. if you're too busy staring at zhongli's ass and the like

moving on, so after twelve (12) hours of grinding i finally have my teapot at trust rank 4 and im just gonna bullet point it with a bit of chatbox-esque dialogue thingie:

everyone in my main party (lumine, barbara, xiangling and shinobu) are main victims of the entire ride. the secondary team – dubbed as stamina squad – suffered the second half of the day the moment i got the teapot (razor, rosaria, amber and jean)

《— •▪︎{★}▪︎• —》

first half: the archon quest

AURORA [bot]: 【 NOVA [insert username] IS DISTRACTED. PAIMON AND TRAVELER, PLEASE STANDBY AND PAY ATTENTION. 】 Team: *groan* Paimon: not again!

i will admit it now: i was not paying attention the whole time

except for the perfume part. i was relentlessly choosing the fruitiest options possible and having paimon (and likely the other party members) suffer my bs

timeus you lucky bastard– (if you played the recent windblume event then you know why i'm cursing this man rn)

xiangling be going "really? right in front of my stove/dad" the entire time i was with ying'er lol

sorry gurl but ying'er's everything is too hilarious to pass up

TARTAGLIA: nothing personal~ Shinobu, having just released her skill: wait, FUCK—! 【 SHINOBU (LV.20) HAS BEEN SLAIN 】 Shinobu, in the chat: every. damned. TIME. Lisa and Yanfei: *comforting her because they've been through the same thing*

shinobu dies a fuckton and @yeelimso had once stated that the resident inazuman def would not like me for the bs i put her through

take note that she's stuck at the level 20 the entire time that i've been using her

yeah she def hates me lol

no boss battle ends without shinobu at least dying once

barbara desperately keeping the team alive while she herself is on life support

the team suffering my shit coordination with my keys (setting off their bursts at wrong time or the wrong person gets their burst activated) as i lowkey panic whenever i see the ballista's hp going lower than 20%

barely got through that boss battle ngl

fucking fatui

still felt bad for childe tho but eh stinky red poo poo man + such is politics lol rip bozo

《— •▪︎{★}▪︎• —》

interlude: getting the teapot

aka round two of my team suffering my gay ass feat. yanfei

yanfei is so good in this quest like man her big brain holy shit 😳

sunshine yanfei dying inside as her nova gay panics over her earthshine self

there are literally three moods in this quest: (1) yanfei admiration, (2) head empty hours with paimon, and (3) appreciating madame ping's eyebags for some reason

god, im so sorry yanfei 🙇💦

《— •▪︎{★}▪︎• —》

second half: speedrunning the teapot

if you've seen some of my genshin reblogs the past few days then you know that this was a long time coming

deadass prioritized aloy > everybody else

which def would've made her uncomfy if she is self-aware whoops

oh well, at least she has her little outdoor retreat all the way over the corner of my teapot

left my mansion empty until trust rank 2, which caused me to go on a shopping spree

i felt bad when kaeya's lines hit me with "well decorated" and "homey" but there's only a dining set there

now my lobby is filled with bookshelves for days

along with other knicknacks

meanwhile... razor and jean: *material collecting noises in the distance intensifies*

noelle and rosaria are now with him too! because if i do get isekai'd in the "sagau" these people are my to-go to and i need their friendship rank high stat

i fed them so much food you have no idea—

paimon has a room of her own and that is the only other room that is furnished (for now)

she deserves that much after all the bullying i inflicted on her lmao

hmmm... seeing that i never use my sticky honey roast batches so i might as well feed paimon those later

the event is going to end soon so yee imma try to wrap this up to further speedrun

that's it for now. i haven't slept since yesterday and it's, haha, past noon here... yeah, imma continue the gaming later...

i hope you enjoyed!

again, if you want to use my version of sagau, please tag me. other than that, feel free to use it as your base!

#nugsanfiction #nugsandrabbles #nugsanbabbles #novaverse #genshin impact #genshin sagau #team dynamics #genshin traveler #genshin lumine #genshin paimon #genshin au #self-aware au #self aware au #platonic #genshin barbara #genshin shinobu #shinobu kuki #barbara pegg #genshin xiangling #genshin ying'er #does this count as yanfei x reader or??? #genshin yanfei #aloy horizon #genshin kaeya #kaeya alberich #geshin noelle #genshin rosaria #genshin jean #jean gunnhildr #genshin razor

[ask-obt]

Is Dielle an actual meowth in-game, or another species entirely? From what I've seen they're not recruitable until post-game, so I got curious.

// Dielle is a Meowth in-game, and actually one of my Wondermail recruits, listed in my ruleset here!

And you can take a little peek at her profile in game too- with level and stats censored so you can't tell how far she is/gets in the game without dying (you are however allowed to see her IQ because I didn't give gummis to anyone except Rune for the most part lmao)

For the uninitiated, PMD: Explorers has the option to use a system called Wondermail (or Wondermail S for Sky specifically), where you can input a code to get specific jobs. The original intent for this was probably for kids to share jobs that gave them cool rewards with each other, but some folks figured out the algorithm the games use for this function to basically generate anything you want in the game. The website I originally used is no longer up, but I believe the archived version still functions as intended. When I did my first Sky nuzlocke all the way back in 2014 I gave myself the 5 Wondermail code as a mercy because I wasn't the best at the game, and gave myself a somewhat difficult ruleset by disabling the map. When redoing the comic/the run of the game in 2017, I just stuck with the same ruleset, but since then I'd gotten much better at the game and didn't need the Wondermail codes as a crutch nearly as much. So instead, I mostly used them to get recruits I normally couldn't get until postgame, to spice up OBT's roster a little bit. At this time I've used 3/5 of the Wondermail codes I allotted myself, with 2 of them being used on recruits. My gameplay for this run is still not finished, and I know it's cringe to not be done with a game after 5 years leave me alone LOL As for why I chose Meowth? I have literally no idea. I guess I just thought Meowth was cute and wanted to play with it since I never used it for the starters before. Around the time I recruited her I also had two TMs- Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. I waffled on which to give her, as it would influence her design. I wanted to give her a sabre tooth design of sorts, so Thunderbolt meant possibly a Raikou parent, and Ice Beam a Walrein parent!

As you probably guessed, I gave her Thunderbolt in the end. And then I remembered Zeraora existed and dropped the sabre tooth design altogether. Which is kind of a shame, I miss those little teefies and wish I kept 'em around. I did have one recruit who was going to show up as a species other than what they were, but later opted to keep them as their in-game species.

All recruits who show up in OBT will be the same as their in-game species (at least that's the plan at the time I'm writing this), though some NPCs may be swapped around with pokemon! Loudred being an Exploud is one of the more mild instances of this, while Team Charm's Medicham (tentatively) being a Hatterene would be a more noticeable one.

#on borrowed time comic #ask-obt #ooc

[thedeafprophet]

what's this i hear about an imagined timeline for light fingers?? 👀

uh

this ended up being quite long lol. This is basically a summary of light fingers + my commentary, and a few places where i've made minor plot changes. had a lot of fun typing it up.

warnings for a) spoilers and b) this is about light fingers

under cut because of the length

My version of the story begins in 1898, when Alex, my light fingers PC descends to the neath alongside two of my other fl characters. (anyone who knows me, knows who Alex is lol), sometime in February. Imagine the general plot takes abouuuuut a year and a bit give or take. Alex doesn’t begin the Light fingers plot until after being in the neath for a month or two as well (shadowy myn)

Also gonna be upfront: Don’t like the beginning of Light Fingers lmao. Some parts of it are just unnecessary and never come up again esp in regards to the music hall singer. (The earlier stuff comes across to me like they had a few scenes written and then just mashed stuff together to connect them tbh). I ignore a fair bit of that stuff in my ponderings, since the plot didnt explore it and I don’t feel a need to.

( I think from a writing perspective it could have been neat to actually have the player meet up with the music hall singer sooner and cross notes instead of the long search. Have a text option of how much the player actually knew her on the surface, affecting a bit of the flavour text later on depending on the choice.  Talk more about Whats Going On, exchange info, and perhaps learn about her searching for Clara earlier? Before the lead up to her going missing at the violent scene and leading to the part with the bethlem? Though that part was also written weirdly like, what was going on with the manager, this seems like remnants before he was more established as a character- ok no no back on topic XD  Food for thought tho). Anyway, I think that part of the story probably takes a few weeks, maybe a month or so. The following time of tracking down Edward and all that nonsense in the lead up to the orphanage would be another two weeks. 

The actual process inside the orphanage and the searching would probably only be a few days…. But there’s the whole ‘buried alive section’, which makes it longer.  I’ve talked about my rewrite idea for that before. And then BOOM lighting the orphanage on fire. Still one of my favourite scenes. 

And then the situation of Clara being at the players house. I have a very vague idea for reworking Clarabelle’s parts of the story to actually have her be a character rather then a set piece. I think the Acquaintance and conversations system we have in newer plots now would have been a Great idea there. 

Letting her actually talk and do things would have been a major improvement without changing the plot. I think here would be a good first spot for a conversation- i don’t think the plot using the tea leaves as an excuse to not have a conversation is good. She would obviously be worried about her sister and clearly in a state of distress regardless. In my version Alex spends time talking to her and doing his best to help support before the bit of heading off to the university to the find the doctor.

The process of finding Dr Vaughan, zailing back and forth, bringing Clara, getting the items, etc. would be at least another few weeks if not months. And there’s the whole confrontation with Ed (Alex got some nasty bruises from that let me tell ya) and the ceiling part. Thankfully for me the story was already written when i got there, so i think in story the crew would only be there for a few weeks. This is another spot i think would be good to talk with Clara…. At least to establish more that she actually knows whats going on. 

And then the establishment of the basecamp. This is where that conversation idea really forms. Once the team is settled and one gear for preparations, in my timeline there’s a lot more general Talking between everyone. By now i think the timeline would be into later summer 

After that uhhhh well. The conversation with Fires is probably my favorite scene. What can I say but, Villains:™:. I’ve illustrated how that scene went on Alex’s part lmaooooo. 

Oh another thing i have with a headcanon is that edward goes immediately to the fingerkings after fires tells him to go away. This is because we get the uh. Gift. of the skin immediately following that conversation and i believe that since if you side with the fingerkings you tear off and get your own skin from that, its a similar situation with Ed here. 

Following that, the Hybrid is born in the fall (baby. My beloved child. I am so very fond of it.) Alex loved his kid immediately. I could say very much about the complexity of the situation for Alex, and the whole concept of breaking the cycle of abuse…..

I have less to say about the later plot stuff but also because I am getting tired lol. I think the time with the hybrids birth and raising it takes place over many months and takes the majority of time of the plot time tbh. All through the winter at the least. Introduce the baby to hanukkah. 

It’s into the spring when the whole Big Final Confrontation happens. And the wedding too I suppose. And of course, Catboy hours. There is no reason why siding with the cats *shouldn’t* give you cat ears. I mean, Edward gets snake eyes, it’s only fair. So Alex is a catboy in parabola. For fun. 

Now. You may wonder “Prophet, why would you choose to marry Poor Edward” and the answer is ‘because it was hilarious that it was an option’. And also I find yandere arcs in stories to be fun. We all know I have particular tastes lmao. 

In terms of in character justification ehhhhh its a little loose. Part of it the sway of the dream, but I suppose Alex found it the least violent end. (Wasn’t like he intended on getting married to anyone else lmao). And whilst i’m quite light on the topic in jest a lot I um.

Okay part of the thing I think isn’t talked about with Edward is that its entirely nonconsensual on his part, right? Like yea okay, he does the pursuing and stuff but its not like he’s actually attracted to the pc, its all because of a drug. And we SAW just how much that stuff fucks with people’s heads back at the orphanage, people literally would bash their heads in over being separated from the object of their affection. Like. Idk it just seems more serious to me then just ‘rejecting the advances’ of someone. This is mutually nonconsensual in a way. 

These are in no way his actual feelings. And like yea the dudes terrible and ‘deserves’ whatever is dealt to him or whatever, i’m not trying to woobify or anything, i dont care that much but.  Idk regardless the nonconsensual aspects make it quite weird.

This is a thing that bothers me with the moon milk stuff a lot. For obvious reasons. I often feel like I’m the only person reading it this way sometimes… i saw someone describe the Evil Light Fingers ending as ‘not that bad’ and ‘there’s worse things in the game’ and im just like ????? okay thats subjective whatever but uh???? anyway. yeah ive talked about my discomfort with the moon milk stuff before

Anyway suffice to say I have complex thoughts on the matter which is a whole other post in and of itself. 

So yeah anyway, end of spring, 1899 (the first one)  when the hybrid is freed to the ceiling and everyone says there farewells. I love that ending scene so much ngl,,,, I love the baby so much I’ve said so before but i will say it AGAIN. 

I still believe the team hangs out even after the plot. Alex goes to see Clara’s opera performances when he can, visits Heph in parabola when he’s doing silverer stuff (Alex becomes a silverer after LFs in response of all the weird dream stuff and wanting to have more control, and checks in on  Dr Vaughan at the uni from time to time (I chose for her to stay in London, I don’t care much for the starved men as a concept tbh) .

Annnnnyway yeah thats the whole timeline of lightfingers + my thoughts on it. If you actually read this whole thing thank you for paying attention to me I appreciate it <3

#i was gonna write some more headcanons of the npcs ages and backgrounds i have #but this got very long so I'll save that for another post #...maybe i should make a directory for my light fingers meta lol #anyway thank you for the ask i love talking!!!!! #i get shy sharing my opinions but i really do love chatting with people #thanks for reading through if u do #prophet's fl nonsense #light fingers #oc: alex #asks

[crossf15]

Dragons Dogma 2

Second time trying to write this since I accidentally deleted a paragraph, and attempting to ctrl Z completely broke my post, lmao. Here's a wishlist of things I'd want in Dragons Dogma 2 when it comes out in three to six years.

Class differentiation - The class system is one of the most appealing parts about Dragon's Dogma, the ability to pick up and change classes on the dime makes the game very flexible to how you want to play. My only issue is that some classes kind of come across as unfinished, or too similar to one another. Here's what I'd change about the existing classes, assuming we're getting mostly the same classes in the sequel

Red Classes:

The red classes are admittedly my least favorite, but I don't hate playing them or anything. I don't hate playing any class in this game, which is a testament to Capcom's skill at making punchy, satisfying combat in pretty much every game they make. I just think they need a little flavor blast is all.

Fighter - I think it would be really cool if they leaned into the defensive qualities of fighter even more, perhaps making them a kind of fencer with thin swords and bucklers, and having even more of a focus on counterplay. Maybe each time you successfully parried an attack you received a stacking damage buff that kept going up until you finally attacked, like Royal Guard style in Devil May Cry.

Warrior - While I don't think it's a bad class, it definitely got the short end of the stick. It doesn't have the damage or versatility of Strider, the defensive superiority of Fighter, or utility of Mage, and it's the only class to only have three ability slots, and no real mobility options. Overall it feels really unfocused. I get the impression that it's meant to be a tanky agro-drawing knockdown specialist, but it's kit is too limited to really pull it off as effectively as other classes perform their own specialties.

Personally, one huge thing I'd change about Warrior, would be to give it a big distance clearing move like a big horizontal long jump, or maybe an vertical super jump. It would really put the class' physical strength on display, and let them play much more aggressively like they're intended to. I'd also expand their list of core skills to make up for their lack of ability slots (And also so they can do something other than jumping light attack)

TL;DR, I think Warrior sacrifices too much for too little, and giving them some mobility, and expanding their options in combat would really make the class feel better to play.

Yellow Classes:

Definitely my favorite of the bunch, I've always been a huge fan of the ranger/hunter archetype in fantasy media. Bows and arrows, dirty cloaks crafted for function more than fashion, the wild hunter aesthetic, resourcefulness, the color green. I get the very strong impression that they're the devs' favorites too. The climbing mechanic, a core gimmick of the game, feels like it was made for the yellow classes specifically.

Strider - Definitely the most versatile of all the nine classes. They have the most mobility: dodge-rolls, climbing superiority, double jumps, cutting wind. They have excellent melee and ranged options, and they can even do some limited elemental damage to boot. They're extremely powerful in just about every scenario you can throw them in, in fact, I (And most of the player base) would argue they're a little too powerful. (They also have access to all the specialized arrow types, which are pretty broken in of themselves, especially if you have the coin)

It's fine to have a jack of all trades class, that's actually something I really really enjoy. I love having answers to almost every scenario, and I'm willing to trade off high damage to do so; I think being swiss army knife is fun. However, Strider doesn't trade off high damage, in fact, Strider does the most damage of any class in the game. Brain Splitter is *the* highest damage ability, absolutely no contest. It also has augments that make it even stronger! My solution is pretty straight forward, Strider should trade off damage output for their versatility, plain and simple.

Ranger - Ranger my beloved. I love long ranged specialists in almost every game. I only have a couple of notes. My first note is that I think they're too aesthetically and functionally similar to Strider. Fighter and Warrior are two wildly different classes with different looks and function despite both being red classes, and I think the yellow and blue classes should get the same treatment. The longbow and shortbow are just too similar.

To fix this I'd change Ranger's signature weapon to a heavy, two handed crossbow, or if you're feeling really spicy, maybe even a primitive rifle of some kind. (like a musket, or a hunting rifle) Strider can keep the bow. You could also make it function differently too, such as giving it high burst damage, but giving it a reload mechanic, making each shot feel that much more impactful.

My other critique is that the daggers, and the skills that Ranger gets with daggers feel like they run counter to the class' design. They don't really don't do anything for them other than act as a last resort when enemies get close, and butterfly kisses don't gel with Ranger's kit at all. Personally, I'd give Ranger some new dagger abilities that better fit with the class' design, such as a backstep to bring them further away from the enemy, or a knockback ability that pushes enemies away. That's all, I wuv you wanger <3

Blue Classes:

Also absolutely adore the blue classes, mage is another huge favorite of mine. It's funny because I normally don't like playing magic characters in games, but Dragon's Dogma's magic is different: It's punchy, it's impactful, it has spectacle. The game really makes you feel like your taming something much larger than you.

Mage - Mage is definitely my favorite of the two. Playing mage really makes you appreciate and understand your pawns and how they work. I never used the pawn commands nearly as much as I did when I picked up mage, it's like playing a funky little RTS. My only complaint is that I really wished they leaned harder into the class' support role. The only thing Mage really has going for it that Sorcerer doesn't is healing (Mage is the only class in the game that can use healing spells, and it's just one spell), and couple unique debuffs, and I think that's a huge shame. There's so much potential to make Mage the ultimate team player they're clearly meant to be.

The solution is extremely obvious too, just give the class more support spells. They could cast jump pad sigils that launch melee classes into the air, or buffing sigils that increase attack and movement speed. Or even better yet, there could be spells that inflict the oiled and drenched debuffs for other casters to combo off of. There's so much untapped potential there. Also, why does Sorcerer get Void Spell and Mage get Halidom, it seems kind of backwards that the more offensive caster gets the cure all spell, and the support caster doesn't...

Sorcerer - Makes you feel like you're casting war-crimes, feels great deleting huge monsters off the face of the earth with tornados of pure darkness. The risk reward of long cast times and huge damage also gives a much bigger thrill than you'd expect from just standing there and waiting for your spell to finish charging. Makes you really appreciate your pawns. No notes.

I have a similar critique for the blue classes that I do the yellow classes, where I think their signature weapons are just a little too similar. Since Mage comes across as a little more scholarly, I'd give them a spell book, and let Sorcerers keep the staves. They'd function exactly the same, but I think it would give them both a lot more of a distinct personality from each other. Additional Note: If you're gonna have enemies that are totally immune to magic, please for the love of god give spellcasters a physical attack. Metal golems are hell on earth if you're running a blue class solo.

Hybrid Classes:

The hybrid classes are the most mixed bag of the mixed bags. They vary wildly in quality and feel. They're intended to combine the specialties of the red, yellow, and blue classes for additional versatility. If you like playing strider, and you like playing mage, now you have a class that combines the playstyles of both, and I think that's awesome, there's only one that I actually have problem with.

Mystic Knight/Magic Archer - Honestly excellent, Mystic Knight does literally exactly what you'd expect it to, you do all the same things as fighter but now you can cast spells and your perfect blocks do magic damage. Magic Archer is the same thing, you do the same things as a strider, but now you do magic damage, and it's honestly the most flavorful and unique class in any fantasy open world game. No notes :)

(Besides the staves, which you have literally no reason to use on either class since you're doing all your spell casting with your other weapons, and giving them unique spells really wouldn't add anything of value, just scrap 'em)

Assassin - A completely different story from the other hybrid classes. It's meant to combine Fighter and Strider, and be a jack of all trades, but Strider already fills the niche of being a jack of all trades. The entire class just kind of comes across as Strider 2. It has moves and augments that are meant to encourage stealth and solo play. (Extremely versatile counter moves that let you avoid damage so you don't need a tank or healer, augments that buff you when you don't have pawns, cool edgy abilities like masterful kill and dire gouge), but it just isn't leaned into far enough.

Personally, instead of trying to be both a jack of all trades, and an edgy, skill expressive, solo duelist, it should go balls to the wall with the latter. I think Assassin would really benefit from having a unique weapon like the other two hybrid classes, one that replaces the daggers/sword, instead just giving you the choice between the shield/bow for when you want to be more defensive, or offensive. Perhaps a light curved sword (Like a katana, sabre, or a scimitar) or maybe twin swords, packed with all the cool edgy I-frame/teleports-behind-you moves that normally would be split between the sword and daggers.

THE MOON - Ever since I found out that the stretch of the game was originally going to take place on the moon, I've been obsessed. I always get a kick out of when I tell my buds who haven't played or are new to the game that the reason why there isn't a moon in the sky at night is because it's cut content; I personally think it's one of the funniest pieces of game trivia out of context.

My biggest hope is that either their original plan of having the moon be the final area finally gets implemented, or it's the big post game expansion dungeon ala Bitter Black Isle. Just imagine, you activate a mysterious rift stone, a cutscene plays showing a beam of light piercing the clouds in the night sky, and you're on the moon babey!

You could be fighting your way deeper down into a dungeon complex underneath the moon's surface to get closer to the truth, or better yet, the moon's surface could be an alternate overworld with it's own hub area, towns, NPCs, and quests. There'd be new super bosses and challenges, maybe even celestial and extra-terrestrial themed enemies. If they wanted to go the extra mile, lowered gravity could even allow you to pull off some crazy stunts involving jump attacks or ranged trick shots.

Conclusion - I am very easily amused, and honestly I think I'll be happy as long as the game's like, actually finished on release and it captures the general vibe of the original. These are just my hopes for the sequel. I didn't make any predictions for new classes, because honestly I expect whatever new playstyle they throw into the mix to be a banger regardless of what it is, and I'm already happy with the nine classes tbh, I just want some minor balance and flavor changes. Either way, I'm very excited for DD2, which makes me happy because I have a hard time being excited for new games now-a-days!

When you're the baddest bitch in Gran Soren, and Gregory steals your heart so now you have to kill him :/

#dragons dogma #dragons dogma 2 #cw suggestive #cw partial nudity

[incarnateirony]

*pretends to be man of the people*

*uses ‘pleb’ as an insult*

Yeah, it's not The People I'm correcting. It's the man who class jumps by ripping tens of thousands of dollars out of people's pockets with lies and playing great information pretender after more than half a decade of failure. (2po and the collective leak fail history of all his friends that endorse his behaviors in spnscripthunt)

Him.

He's a pleb.

Also, Man of the People? I'm a Man of the Truth. Fuck people. People suck. It's where creatures like you come from. Your entire problem with me is that I'm NOT a media plebian like yall, and that no amount of your cool girl socialite club bullshit of rumors and pay passes has ever been able to touch me. You guys actually think everyone ELSE are plebs, and it drives you insane when I shatter your reality bubble and like. No, you're plebs too, maybe more plebian than the people you look down on.

Yeah. You know what. You're a pleb too. Thanks for helping me realize that.

And yknow, that's why the few times over several years I've used the word Pleb or Plebian, you pearl clutch like this. Because you do, in fact, always consider everyone else plebian compared to your social circle, then I remind you that social circle is just a plebian consumer illusion, and you all piss your pants, because now the plebes are telling you that you're actually plebes, and how dare you, to misguided paypass upper class bitches, that's like, the worst insult imaginable, I guess. Then normal people are just "lmao. plebe"

it's like yall trust fund babies and married-rich nobodies literally can't take "you realize you're just normal people and consumers" without letting out pterodactyl noises of offense. Your parents lied to you. You're not special. Society lied to you. Not everything can be answered with money.

Experience, ingenuity and labor always win out on actually *accomplishing things*, even if it takes years while people like you kick your feet up. Since y'all never know where to go without a consumer announcement of where to spend your next money. the rest of us had a path, sorry.

And even some of them are Poor People, but they're not plebs. That's not what this is. You know what this is. It's that, for the first time in your lives, you're the plebs, and the Small Name Fans and Unknowns just ran circles around you for years and took everything from you.

I'm not even a true BNF. Y'all treat me like one because you're so threatened by me, but I've never cared about the size of my following, and The Truth was never popular in any lane until S15 or here. I got like 3500 followers after 6 years. By now most of those are idle accounts. I'm like. A Mid Name Fan at best. I'm the Big Name Fan of Small Name Fans who has never had to pay a dime for what I accomplish and teaches others how to do the same in what's joked as CIA grade operations people learn, and it drives you fucking bananas, because you can't stop us.

While you're at it, you guys are really attacking the wrong person again-still. Like, guys I meant it when I said I'm out of putting in the aforementioned labor. I've created an entire system to Not Be Involved. There's new rooms and methods and a new crowmaster (Crowmaster in training? Ig? Since sometimes I still have to say where to send things).

it is what it is but you're just basically yelling at a rando that knows things that you hate being real, now. If you wanna bother the actual messenger these days, you're in the wrong box.

Now feel free to be haunted by looking for crows at your conventions forevermore. Or at least till the end of February, where I imagine most of you will begin like a 2 month long dramatic ragequit.

[agravaineoforkney]

I mean obviously mordred if he's still available, but also literally any orkney. or all of them.

Asjkdl thank you for the excuse to talk about the orkney kids! I love them.

Mordred is the character who got me into Arthuriana and I love him. Like I was sixteen, randomly got the idea to write an Arthurian story, decided to make it about Mordred, and I've been hyperfixating on Arthuriana ever since. So he definitely holds a special place in my heart.

Man, there really is nothing like a character you project onto when you're a teenager, though. Like the whole magic system in that book was a blatant metaphor for my OCD and sleep issues. I autistic-coded Mordred and didn't even realize until I read up on autism a bit and went, "huh. Weird that he comes across that way when I am definitely not autistic" and then didn't think about it until I realized I was autistic three years later. It's so funny to me.

I did have some kinda weird takes in that story, I think, but one take I had that I still like is that almost all of the family problems go back to Uther (I mean, a lot of Arthur's problems also go back to Merlin, but definitely the trauma of learning what Uther did to his mother fucked him up). Morgan, Morgause, and Mordred really were all out here trying to kill Arthur as a form of therapy in that story and I think that was very funny of them. Anyway I think the idea that Mordred is processing trauma through committing treason is very valid and also funny. Honestly I think 'everyone is attempting to process their trauma through murder and it's not working' is a valid reading of Arthurian legend as a whole.

'Wasted potential' is only for Malory, btw (well, and for basically every single Mordred in a modern adaptation that I've read for some reason, but you know). I find it really funny that Malory sets up SUCH an interesting villain--Mordred has every reason to hate his father! He doesn't have a reason to hurt Literally Everyone Else, though. I really like villains where they've got a good reason to do what they do, but also they're still murdering people. And then Malory just doesn't do anything with the setup he's created and Mordred is evil in Le Morte D'Arthur just because. Le Morte D'Arthur gets a pass in regards to its Mordred characterization ONLY for the scene where Mordred plunges Arthur's spear deeper into his chest in order to get Arthur into stabbing range. Iconic. That was the scene that made Mordred one of my favorites. What can I say, I adore characters who would murder me in real life.

What else uhh I think the fact that he and Agravaine are friends is SO cute and I love that. Characters who are pretty mean but are still really nice to each other are just *chef's kiss* Also this is a pretty unpopular opinion, but I kinda like the versions of the legends where Guinevere commits treason with Mordred mainly because my sister bullied me into writing it when I was younger lmao. Also I LOVE fucked up evil women who commit treason and I think Guinevere deserves to commit treason. Like genuinely I'm not even sure that I ship Mordred/Guinevere so much as I think Guinevere deserves to get the chance to kill people. Anyway I need to stop talking about this before I get off track and start talking exclusively about Guinevere, but suffice to say that I think my favorite (platonic or romantic) relationship dynamics to put Mordred in are when both characters are at least a little awful, but they really do love each other a lot and try to do the best they can for each other.

Also I love the Alliterative Morte Arthure and the way it portrays Mordred. Mordred is like weirdly sympathetic in that one?? He honestly comes across as in over his head and it's really interesting.

Anyway, man, I realized my childhood writing impacted how I view Arthurian characters a lot, but I feel like I didn't realize exactly how much until I wrote this post for some reason. Huh. Also I've made myself want to get back to that Arthurian retelling.

In conclusion, I love Mordred <3 He is so transgender and mentally ill and I adore him. My favorite Arthurian character is probably either Guinevere or Lunete, but Mordred is definitely up there.

I'm going to use this as an excuse to talk about Agravaine real quick because *gestures to username* I love him. Also he was one of the characters who was really pulling his weight as far as getting me through queer Christian kid-flavored childhood trauma. I don't know WHY I decided this character was sympathetic and also queer, the workings of my teenage mind are a mystery to me. This wasn't a decision that was influenced by anything that I can think of?? I'd never come across a sympathetic Agravaine before. Anyway I have no idea why I looked at this character and decided to have queer headcanons, but I do think I made the objectively correct decision. Anyway he has SUCH middle child energy. Sure, he's a jerk, but I simply think that it's impossible to be normal when you have Gawain for an older sibling and, as a middle child, I think that middle children have the right to be kind of mean.

I think Agravaine is just self-aware enough to realize that things around him are kind of Bad and people are doing bad things, but he's not self-aware enough to actually change anything or remove himself from the situation in any way. So instead he's just sarcastic and mean and people don't like him, even though honestly there are people around him who are way worse morally speaking (didn't. Didn't Gawain slaughter his way through an entire castle for no reason in this one Dutch romance. I love Gawain and I love when he murders people but he needs help). And then when Agravaine DOES finally stop being passive and make a choice for himself, it's completely the wrong one. No!!! Don't expose Lancelot and Guinevere's affair!! It's pointless and helps no one and you will die!! But he ignores all the good advice he is given, decides instead to listen to his definitely mentally stable little brother who is definitely making good decisions at the moment, and then he dies. Agravaine is my pathetic little man who I adore.

Also, I really like siblings who are also friends AND I like siblings who dislike each other even though they also love each other. So Agravaine and Mordred, and Agravaine and Gawain, respectively. I find Agravaine and Gawain to be kind of interesting, because even though they are very different and I'm not sure they get along too much, they're also very much cut from the same cloth? They both care a LOT about their family (which is a trait all of the orkney siblings share, tbh. In most families, that would be a good thing, but in the hands of the orkney siblings it turns into Gaheris killing his own mother because she fell in love with the son of the guy who killed her husband. I'm sorry these guys are just batshit and I can't stop thinking about them). They're both way smarter than they look and use that for evil. I think Gawain and Agravaine sort of dislike each other but also can't help but see themselves in each other, even when they don't want to.

As much as I would love to do all the orkneys at once, this post is already getting very long, so I'll stop here. Although while I'm talking about the orkneys, I will say that Clarissant is Best GIrl. Thanks so much for the ask, I loved the opportunity to ramble about my bad Arthurian opinions!

#Mordred #Agravaine #So I really like characters who are awful awful people but still really tragic