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enderspawn · 3 years

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dream smp asagao au, aka the very specific high school au

also aka the post thats very self indulgent for me and maybe 3 other people.

in short: its a dsmp high school au based on the game asagao academy, where everyone is part of a gaming club and compete against one another in tournaments. more in depth info about the AU/Asagao itself, as well as more info about the plot and roles of the AU itself.

Asagao Academy Basics

So to start, let’s cover the basics: what is Asagao Academy. ….well, an old Youtuber dating sim game (which, despite unfortunately including some fairly questionable CCs, IS still really good and well written and I recommend it) But what is it for AU purposes?

Asagao Academy is a highly elite world-wide boarding school set in Japan for those who are either rich enough to afford it, or those skilled enough to get scholarships. Within the game, there are two main clubs: Normal Boots and Hidden Block. They’re both gaming clubs, and joining is seen as super exclusive since they’re ALSO the most popular people in the school.

The two clubs compete with each other in various tournament events with specific categories. For example: Satch (from NB) and Jimmy (from HB) both compete in the “Tech and Invention” category, where they have to create/invent something related to gaming and have it judged at the event like a science fair. Meanwhile, Jared (from NB) and Wallid (from HB) both compete in “Dance” aka DDR and the person with the highest score wins.

The other categories featured in game include: Puzzle games (like Bejeweled or Tetris), Video Game Trivia, Pinball, Retro Platformers, a three-person fighting game, and 100% completion speedruns. So tldr; the categories can be kind of fiddled with and be whatever you want them to be, because even the original ones are pretty wack.

Also, there’s no rules against competing in multiple categories— in fact, most of the HB members in game do! It’s more about balancing time and practicing for them alongside school and other activities.

The winner of the competition is the team/competitor(s) with the most total wins.

Another thing to note: despite competing as clubs, they’re all actually pretty good friends. It’s all lighthearted and fun in the end, hell the leader of the opposing club even helps the main character join the main club just because he wants a decent challenge.

Speaking of… the main character! Hana Mizuno! I don’t have any current plans to include her in this AU (a la new dating routes), but I wanted to mention her for a few reasons.

For the main reason: her hair. Even as soon as she shows up, Mai (her best friend and roommate, who can break the 4th wall) immediately calls her out for her hair for looking like a main character which as we learn… isn’t an exaggeration. She’s literally a born protagonist, thus being born with naturally pink hair and a tragic backstory. Not only that, but other people are also born protagonists with pink hair as well— she isn’t an exception.

About the AU -- Revolution Era

A few things to note: in this au, when I first drafted it I… wasn’t looking to include 20+ people. I cut a lot of characters, but instead working with the idea that they’re still THERE, they just… don’t compete? Either they aren’t in the club and are just friends with the members, or they’re members who just don’t compete professionally. It’s nothing personal against those CCs and tbh as times goes they may get added more, but for now they’re just in the BG vibin.

It covers a really basic retelling of s1 for most of the planned au. It starts with One Club: the Dream Team. Members include: Dream (sophomore), Sapnap (sophomore), George (junior), Wilbur (junior), Eret (junior), and Fundy (freshman).

For reasons, possibly just as a goof or spite towards their American counterparts, Wilbur declares independence from the Dream Team and makes his OWN gaming club: L’Manberg. He takes Eret (a close friend from his grade) and Fundy (the freshman he immediately adopted) with him, causing the two teams to be 3v3.

But Wilbur’s got a dastardly surprise up his sleeve: TOMMY, HIS YOUNGER BROTHER (bc I am nothing if not a dedicated crimebros stan), AND TUBBO. They’re both too young to actually attend Asagao yet, but theres no age rules in the actual competitions so its fair play. They’re Wilbur’s secret weapon. After all, a 5v3 where the team with the most wins wins the competition? That’s a massive advantage.

… we all know how this goes though don’t we. Wilbur’s day be so fine, then BOOM, Eret betrayal 😔

In this case Eret feels it’s a LITTLE unfair to blindside them like that, plus Dream promised to make him the Leader of the Dream Team and, yknow, that kind of stuff DOES look good on resumes, so…

TLDR; Eret rejoins the Dream Team crew, as well as informing them of Wilbur’s plan with including Tommy and Tubbo and becomes leader. They’re still letting Dream and Co. basically actually do the leading, they don’t care that much, the title is just nice. L’Manberg cusses her out and promises to hold a grudge, but it’s all in good fun. After all, they’re just teens goofing around and playing. The clubs are again 4v4.

Dream tells the L’Manberg club that they can separate, sure… under one condition. They have to win the competition. If they lose, they have to rejoin the Dream Team club.

L’Manberg accepts, but come competition day… they lose. Tommy outright challenges Dream post awards to a speedrun competition for L’Manberg instead. …which Dream professionally competes in, and Tommy DOESN’T.

He loses, but he puts up a good fight despite having little to no actual practice put in, so Dream “grants” L’Manberg their “Independence”. (In this au, instead of being like… weirdly obsessive over Tommy, it’s a lot more “he sees himself in Tommy and wants to support/mentor him” and a “friendly rivalry” kind of deal bc its a damn HIGH SCHOOL AU)

So L’Manberg can be it’s own club! …Next year, when Tommy and Tubbo actually attend, since Wilbur and Fundy aren’t allowed a two person club.

About the AU -- Election Era

SO time skip! Congrats, everything up to now has been BACKSTORY. It’s now the next school year, with two main clubs (I’ve tried to keep them fairly balanced, which is why not all CCs are featured, sorry!)

Dream Team club:

Dream - junior

George - senior

Sapnap - junior

Eret - senior

Punz - junior

BBH - senior

Awesamdude - junior

Ponk - junior

L’Manberg club:

Wilbur - senior

Tommy - freshman

Tubbo - freshman

Fundy - sophomore

Schlatt - senior

Quackity - junior

Niki - sophomore

Jack - sophomore

(Also fun fact! Their grades are loosely based on the CCs actual ages! …Except Fundy, who got Baby-fied to fit the “Wilbur’s Kid” joke, and Eret bc it fit better to be the same age as Wilbur I thought. Oops HEKANDNSN)

So, for whatever Reason (listen this was an au I made in like one night when plagued with brainrot, it’s not all figured out), L’Manberg holds an election. Maybe it’s related to Wilbur wanting L’Manberg to be meaningfully different from Dream Team, maybe it’s a joke, idk!

…. SOMEHOW, Schlatt wins. Which ticks off Wilbur a lot. It’s his damn club, and the whole point was to avoid Americans, tf?? The two start to feud a lot and it threatens to split the club entirely via ppl taking sides. Worse, it means people aren’t practicing for the competition.

All while this is happening, there’s a new intrigue building. Dream catches word of an infamous player in the area, someone known to win entire competitions against teams of people all by HIMSELF. A man with bright bubblegum pink hair called Technoblade. That’s right, literal universe-assigned protagonist Techno. If Dream could enlist him, there’s no doubt in hell they’d be able to beat L’Manberg.

L’Manberg hears of him too and works to try and enlist him as well, so he basically gets courted by both clubs trying to get him to play for them to mixed results. He’s pretty chill vibin by himself, so what’s in it for him? (….I don’t know, remember how this is a WIP au I worked on once?)

Eventually, a teacher named Phil (who’s been the honorary sponsor of the L’Manberg club) gets pissed at Schlatt and Wilbur’s fighting and bans both from competing (aka this AUs version of them dying). Which fucking SUCKS for L’Manberg. They’re now going 6v8 with a wildcard player who’s undeclared on which side he’ll join, if at all.

… honestly, that’s as far as I got. Theoretically, Techno joins L’Manberg to reflect Pogtopia and they win. I never had plans to go into s2 due to its darker theme, but there are definitely changes that could (and might?) be made for the s1 plot just so it flows better.

I already had to shift Wil and Schkatt’s “deaths” to fit, unless I were to have them LITERALLY make a new club. Maybe Schlatt uses his power as Club President to make them work with Dream Team (to the point it basically merges the clubs). Sure, they might be guaranteed to win now but it removes the competition and fun as well as the spirit of OG L’Manberg. So then Wilbur rebels and makes his own club AGAIN, calling it Pogtopia with the intent to get L’Manberg back. Then Techno, intrigued with this group of like 2-3 ppl going against a team of like 13ish people, decides to join them. Idk! Alternative possible plot based more closely on s1 I guess!

I’m gonna add a list of characters in full with their age, their club, and what they compete in (if it’s already brainstormed, most ppl are unknown) below

Character List

dream (DT) - junior - speedrunning

george (DT) - senior - coding/tech and invention

sapnap (DT)- junior -

eret (DT) - senior -

wilbur (LM) - senior - rhythm game/guitar hero-esque

tommy (LM) - freshman - (possibly pick up speed running during election arc?)

tubbo (LM) - freshman - chess

fundy (LM) - sophomore - coding/tech and invention

schlatt (LM) - senior - he never actually declares what he plans to play and then gets banned anyway, aka no game kekw

quackity (LM)- junior - dance

niki (LM) - sophomore -

jack (LM) - sophomore-

punz (DT) - junior -

bbh (DT) - senior -

awesamdude (DT) - junior -

ponk (DT) - junior

technoblade (SOLO) - junior - multiple categories

FINAL BIT

here’s some scraps for ppl who know Asagao already as well as small bits I didn’t bother to write up any further

- Karl, much like Mai, is ALSO aware of the 4th wall and has time travel powers because of it.

- Purpled (undecided if he’s a solo player like Techno or has his own team he competes with that’s not a formal club) plays Literally Bedwars in competitions

- Callahan is the Dream Team club sponsor, Phil is L’Manberg’s club sponsor

- Karlnapity is real and canon bc I say so

- both for balance/laziness, every person only competes in one category. also bc it makes Techno that much more Protagonist-y that he does

- I made this AU in like February man idk I’m just vibin

- Fuck I never even included Ranboo huh

#dream smp #mcyt #asagao au #og post #pwease read this you dont have to know asagao that much i swear #anything you do i explained plEASE fjdskfjl #asagao academy

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darlinvandijk · 4 years

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Hickey Prank

Concept: another prank on ruel but instead of pregnancy it’s the hickey prank since I love the idea of pranking him and making him freak out before being all cute with him. Like usual dm me or whatnot for a request. Also don’t worry I’ll be doing a pt. 2 for him doing the prank as revenge (Sorry that this is so long lmao, do y’all like long imagines? Or should I shorten them in the future) Hope you enjoy :)

“What’s going on whores? Y’all requested I do another prank on Rueloff, so I decided that the pregnancy prank wasn’t enough, it’s time to up the game. And you know what that means... HICKEY TIME” I screech at my camera sitting in front of me with a giant smile.

I continue my intro and what I’m going to do, before introducing Coco as my professional makeup artist for the fake hickey, both of us laughing since we know it’s going to be a good video. We joke around and film while she starts applying the eyeshadows on my neck.

“Honestly I’m so good at this, like I could be a professional. Ruel could never leave a hickey as good as me, like fuck real ones, we only rocking fakes ones from here on out bitches” Coco cheers as I laugh. Trust her to be the only person to ever say something like that, but I mean she is the best Van Dijk for a reason.

“Wait am I doing one, or like one that’s more noticeable than the others with a few scattered around? Like I guess my question is what does my brother do so we can do something he’d know wasn’t his” she questions, fake gagging as she thinks about Ruel giving me a hickey. I instantly burst out laughing, knowing she’s gonna hate what I’m about to say.

“Okay welllll you see he doesn’t usually leave any on my neck because of paps and fans trying to take pics, so he’ll know they aren’t his if they’re above my collarbones” I laugh out, covering my face at my confession, feeling it heat up under my hands. Coco chokes on air at my statement, not wanting to know what her little brother does in his free time with me.

“Wow I definitely did not want to know that but I’ll do one more noticeable one with a few light ones scattered around” she mumbles, continuing on with her makeup application on me, as I turn off the camera, deciding to just start filming again once it’s time. I put on one of my Spotify playlists, both of us just singing along and talking about how we think he’s going to react. I start to fiddle with my promise ring as my hands start to sweat, before deciding to just take it off and set it on the nightstand, making a mental note to put it back on before we start the prank.

“Honestly like I’m really not sure about what he’s going to do, like he’s so unpredictable. The fans never see it but he can get pretty angry sometimes when it has to do with people he loves.” Coco muses while setting the makeup and making sure it looks like it’s my skin and not super fake, knowing he’ll really stare at it to see if he’s just losing his mind. I ponder over what she says, genuinely unsure of what his reaction will be since it’s basically me tricking him into thinking I’m cheating.

“Yeah, I definitely get what you mean. I’m not sure if he’s going to be really sad and hurt or if he’s going to be really hurt but fucking pissed with me” she hums in agreement, knowing that there’s no way to be sure of his reaction, but just hope that he doesn’t lose it completely.

“Well no matter what I’m here, so as soon as shit goes too far , I’ll come down to make my appearance to confirm that it’s a prank since he will still be worked up a little even after you show him it comes off with water” she says, confirming our plan for when we tell him it’s just a prank. We both go around the house setting up the cameras, so that we can get footage in any of the rooms we may go into, during what we assume is going to be him pacing through the rooms completely pissed with me.

“Okay guys, we’re back and ready for this prank! Ruel texted me saying he’s on his way back from the studio, I picked up Coco today so he will have no clue anyone’s here but me since her car is at her apartment” I say to the main camera in our bedroom, placing it so that it gets a full view of the room if we come in here.

“Get ready bitches because it’s show time” Coco smirks at the camera. We both leave the room and I take her into the music room, where Ruel has his instruments and music sheets everywhere. I tell her to just hang in here while everything happens so that she can still hear it all, but will be out of sight. We both highfive and I leave the room to head downstairs to the living room, nervous for what’s about to happen. As I settle on the couch and pull a blanket on me, I hear the jingle of keys as the front door opens, before hearing footsteps head to where I am.

“Hey baby, sorry I got back a little late today. Do anything fun while I was gone?” Ruel mumbles, placing a kiss to the side of my head, before sitting next to me and taking off his shoes to carelessly toss them next to the coffee table. I lean my head onto his chest as he wraps his arm around my shoulders, throwing a quick smirk to the camera hidden in here.

“Nope, saw Coco earlier and had lunch with her, that was why I was really slow at texting you back earlier” I explain looking up at him as he nods his head and listens to my explanation. He grabs my hand and starts playing with my fingers, before taking another close look.

“Where’s your promise ring? You literally never take it off” he questions, completely throwing me off since I forgot I had taken it off when my hands started to get sweaty, but realizing it adds more to the whole hickey thing.

“Huh I must’ve taken it off when cooking this morning and just never put it back on, I’ll put it on once we head upstairs later” I answer, trying to act as calm as possible as he stared me straight in the eyes with an unwavering look.

“You never take it off? Why are you starting to now?” He decides to question me further, making me try my hardest to hold back a laugh, knowing he’s falling right into my plan. I give him a soft smile and kiss his cheek before cuddling into him even more, feeling his arms tighten around me.

“I think because it was a little messy I didn’t want to get anything on it, so I just slipped it off and placed it upstairs” I said trying to convince him, seeing him give me an unconvinced look from the corner of my eyes. I turn to look at him before deciding it’s time to get everything in motion for the big freakout.

“I missed you today” I whisper out, my chin on his chest as I look up into his green eyes, smiling at the soft love filled look he gives me. He leans down and presses his lips to mine, before lifting me up and placing me across the couch, one hand rests on my hip while the other rests on the side of my neck as he hovers over me. I try to keep everything as pg as possible, not wanting to have to cut anything out of the video since this is the buildup to everything. He’s resting between my legs as he starts to kiss around my jaw before slowly making his way down to my neck on one side, before moving to the other side that holds the hickey.

“what the fuck?” He whispers, completely freezing all movement as he stares at my neck. I turn my head to slightly cover it, giving him my most innocent look. I rest my hand on his cheek as he stares at me with complete shock on his face. He pushes away from me and stands up turning on all the lights he can in the living room, since I had it all a little dim so he wouldn’t see right away.

“Stand up.” He slightly snaps out, looking at me with an emotionless face. I hesitantly stand, keeping my hair over my neck and my chin pointed a little lower than usual. He rolls his eyes, before firmly but carefully grabbing my head and lifting it up, completely causing my neck to be exposed.

“Ruel what’re you doing? Stop it” I mumble out, pushing his hands away from my neck as he tilts my head to the side. He watches me with a look of pure betrayal, causing me to freeze up for a second at the pain he was feeling. He lets out a scoff and rolls his eyes, pacing around for a couple of seconds before turning back to me.

“Are you fucking cheating on me? Who the fuck did that?” He hisses out, eyes going from their beautiful green, to almost black. I give him a fake nervous glance, wringing my hands out in front of me before fake stuttering a reply to him.

“R-ruel you did that? They’re from last night” I say trying to reason with him as I reach for his hands, feeling him rip them away from my grip. He gives me a look of complete horror, that I’d dare try to pin this on him.

“We both know damn well I didn’t do that, I never leave them where they’re visible. Especially not fucking more than one. I can’t believe you’d do this to me” he spits out with so much pain that I start to debate whether or not to stop the prank already. Before I can tell him the truth he takes off upstairs towards our bedroom, causing me to run up after him to see what he’s going to do. He throws open the closet and starts grabbing clothes, throwing them onto the bed. In complete panic I jump onto him and stop him from grabbing more clothes.

“Wait Ruel baby stop, calm down for a second please.” I plead, trying to get him to stop so I can tell him it was just a prank and that I would never cheat on him. I guess he decided to take the angry and hurt route rather than the sad one. He shakes me off of him and tosses me onto the bed so that I land in the pile of clothes. He starts throwing his hands in the air in an exasperated manner, trying to figure out what to say.

“Don’t fucking call me baby, I’m not your baby anymore. You cheated on me, after everything we’ve ever promised to each other, you went and fucking cheated. Who was he? Since obviously he can do more for you than I can” he venomously hisses out, with hurt clear in his eyes, the beautiful green eyes that are starting to get misty with unshed tears.

“Ruel I didn’t cheat on you, give me a second to explain, please I love you and I promise it’s not what you think.” I try to reason with him grabbing his hand and pulling him to sit on the bed next to me. He pulls away from me but remains seated, running his hands down his face.

“Theres no explaining. I can see your neck, I know what it is... you never loved me” he chokes out, a single tear falling down his face. I reach out to wipe it away, knowing nows the time to stop this prank, it’s gone farther than I wanted. I never wanted it to go this way, I truly didn’t think it’d go this way or I wouldn’t have done it.

“I love you. You know I love you and that I’d never cheat on you. No other guy compares to you. Bubs it’s just a prank, I promise it’s just a prank.” I whisper to him, watching his head whip towards me with a glare. He stands up and starts pacing around, making me anxious on his reply.

“It looks real. I don’t fucking believe you. Your ring was off, you weren’t replying earlier, Coco never made a post of you together, and the hickey didn’t come off at all and when I rubbed it. Why’re you lying to me!” He shouts out, completely hurt to believe me, veins in his neck slightly popping out from his distress.

“Ruel follow me.” I mumble out, walking to the bathroom as he follows me, still in view of the camera frame. He stands against the bathroom door as I wet a wash cloth and hand it to him. He holds it and stares at me incredulously.

“I’m not touching you nor am I going to wipe your neck. We should just breakup now to get it over with” he deadpans, still too angry to believe me. I honestly can’t blame him, Coco did an amazing job making them realistic and smudge proof. I feel my heart sting at him wanting to break up, but I just roll my eyes before grabbing his hand and using it to drag the washcloth down my neck. He stands there in silence, moving my hand from his so that he can wiping at my neck, watching as the shades of red and purple slowly wash away. He sets the cloth on the counter before standing across from me and just staring at me, not saying a word.

“Are you going to breakup with me?” I mumble out, terrified at what this prank could have done. I need him, I should have known that this prank was too risky, especially when it comes to someone who puts their all into a relationship. Someone who’s biggest fear is getting cheated on or left behind. He drags his hands through his hair, giving me a slight glare before reaching out and tugging me into his arms.

“I want to kill you right now for doing this, where is she? I know Coco was a part of this prank since she used to make fake bruises to get out of pe in school.” He mutters into my neck, holding me tighter than ever. We both hear shuffling and turn our heads to see Coco standing there with a sheepish smile on her face, also not expecting this to have been the outcome.

“Hello dearest brother of mine, I love you” she says with a big grin, watching as he glares at her and walks into the bedroom. He picks up my ring on his nightstand and beckons me over to him, making Coco and I listen and walk to him. He grabs my hand and slides the ring back on, pulling me in and kissing the top of my head. I pull away and grab the camera, setting it up in front of the bed, as we sit down, ruel sitting in the middle of us.

“Well you guys that did not go as planned, or maybe it did? Like the point was to get a reaction, but I personally think it was a little too far. I hope you enjoy this wild ass prank video and you better like it, you guys almost cost me my whole ass relationship” I groan out to the camera, leaning my body against Ruels.

“You guys are all assholes, I honestly was about to have a heart attack. Not gonna lie I was about to go through your phone and find the guy so I could beat his ass, I’ve never been more angry than I was today” he states with a chuckle causing Coco and I to instantly lighten up, realizing that Ruel was fine now that he saw it was just a prank. I was truly scared this was going to affect our actual relationship.

“Honestly we didn’t think it’d go this far, it was supposed to be a simple prank, but as you can tell shit blew up” Coco states as all of us laugh and agree, knowing it was never the intention for this to all happen when we made the video, no one was supposed to actually get hurt.

“well guys that’s the end of this video and I love you all, don’t forget to leave a thumbs up and subscribe, also comment down below what you want to see next, but please spare my poor baby next time” I laugh out as Ruel nods his head vigorously, before giving me a kiss on the cheek. We all wave to the camera before shutting it off. Coco goes downstairs to shut the other ones off, before coming up to give us hugs and say goodbye, claiming this prank made her too tired to stay and hangout.

Ruel pulls me back on the bed with him, having me lean against the headboard as he lays with his chest against my back. I intertwine our fingers and rest them against his stomach, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. He turns his head and kisses my arm before tilting his head to look at me.

“I love you so much, I know you could never cheat on me, but seeing that made me so mad that I honestly couldn’t rationalize anything, like it looked so real” he says, with a small frown, upset with himself that he could even believe for a second that I’d cheat on him. I smile at him and give him a soft kiss, before pulling away to kiss his forehead.

“I can’t blame you, they looked real as fuck. Honestly it’s not your fault, I didn’t know what I’d do if I was in your place, like honestly I’d lose my shit. I’m sorry if it went too far bub” I mumble back, giving him a soft look, feeling terrible that he was in so much distress because of a prank. He laughs and presses his lips to mine, giving me a slow but love filled kiss, before pulling back to give me a smirk as I lay underneath him completely breathless. His smirk never fades as he reaches a hand up and caresses my cheek, before dragging it down to lightly tug on my bottom lip with his thumb.

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t too far. I think you did a perfect prank, but beware love, you’ve started a war. Trust me, karma is a bitch and she’s going to bite you in the ass soon” he smirks, causing me to roll my eyes at his dramatics.

I mean what’s the worst he can do?

#ruelvincentvandijk #ruel van dijk #one ruel #ruel #ruel one shot #ruel imagines #ruel imagine #x reader #imagine #imagines #one shot #free time ep #ruel fanfic

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momestuck · 5 years

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Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim... volume 8!

Welcome back, apologies it’s been a good couple of weeks since the last one of these. Last time, we had a fun entertaining art heist and a fun horrifically traumatising mass murder! What are we in for next?

This episode is called Of Stresses, Song and Otherwise. Our trolls today are...

Tyzias and Chixie. Tyzias looks like a programmer (though so far ‘computer nerd’ stereotypes tend to be yellow bloods, not teal), while Chixie... not sure what her deal’s gonna be! (Watch as I get everything wrong again.) Not sure if Tyzias’s horns are naturally like that or if they’ve been cut.

Tyzias

Tyzias is written by Lalo Hunt, who has previously written Tagora - clearly someone with a thing for teals!

Tyzias’s theme kicks in almost immediately. As now seems to be standard for tealbloods, we have harpsichords.

Our narrator is starting to get the slightest hint of like... restraint about the ‘MUST BEFRIEND EVERYONE THAT MOVES’ attitude. They actually don’t immediately go for like... jumping on Tyzias and trying to forcibly befriend her, but walk past... unfortunately she falls over. Impressively, she keeps her coffee cup level despite tripping over a rock.

Her typing quirk seems to be using lowercase letters, and repeating all uses of ‘w’ and ‘m’ four times. OK...

The narrator convinces themselves that this is the prelude to some kind of teen romance where they’re the cool person who helps the fallen nerd. Uh huh. Our extremely cool protagonist.

So we start helping her out and find she’s a lawyer. That’s like... every tealblood we’ve met now? Canon said they were also civil servants but OK, I guess everyone just loves Terezi. (To be fair, I also love Terezi.)

We get our first choice, prompted by the realisation that she’s a lawyer:

Tradition dictates that one of these is an instant-death option. I can’t help but expect that the ‘obvious’ choice, picking up more papers, will be the one that fucks us over.

...maybe not. We carry on going, and find out our dear friend Tagora has been talking about us, and he may be in a ‘group project’ with Tyzias here...

We spend some more time trying to get her papers together, against the best efforts of the wind. The narration emphasises just how tired Tyzias looks - quite the contrast from Tagora.

In fact, that carries us all the way up to the second choice. We can either suggest a breather, or trying to sort it somewhere else.

Let’s take a breather.

Insufflation sacks! Guessing that’s a narrator improvisation rather than actual Troll terms.

We take her to a ruined tower, which the narrator has apparently been spending time in when they’re not busily befriending every troll who survives long enough to get a portrait. This merits a new background.

She’s not hugely impressed by the idea of urbex (unrelatable tbh, if an alien appeared and wanted to take me to do urbex i would be there in a heartbeat), but the narrator actually shows some backbone and encourages her to climb up anyway. (I guess our broken ribs have healed some by now? I can’t honestly remember if we’ve fixed them all in this particular series of branches...)

Tyzias explains to us a bit about the political order on Alternia - that the Condesce rules, and this used to be a watchtower before she got higher-tech drones and so on. She doesn’t seem entirely happy about ‘her imperial bitchiness’...

We reminder that she’s teal, which uh... gee, narrator.

Looks like we’ve found an Actual Decent Person troll! Wow.

She’s particularly fed up with her whole role in the system, which she describes as the work to maintain suffering - because everyone is guilty, no matter what, and trials are just a formality.

Depressed, exhausted, horrified by her society... this troll is pretty relatable after all actually.

We ask about political parties (lol, good luck) and rebellious movements. She fills us in a bit on what we know to be the Signless/Sufferer’s rebellious movement, and the subsequent rebellion by the Summoner (which someone might have written up an infographic about for you... pssst).

Tyzias keeps going in a spirit of ‘ah, fuck it’. And gets more confident as she does...

Sounds like she’s got some kind of radical law project in mind. To me, the idea of changing the system within is like... kinda obviously never gonna achieve the substantial change needed, but I can totally respect it as a harm reduction measure.

this screenshot is going on my main

We get to telling her a bit about Earth. The protagonist tries to, well...

That’s a way to put it lol.

How romantic!

Damn, this episode’s a bit real lol

As a final kicker we learn that what she’s been drinking out of her mug is... just water. She’s putting on an act to give people a reason why she seems so depressed and tired all the time.

And with that, she takes a nap, and we get another friend.

D’aww.

Unfortunately, we lucked onto the best outcome on our first playthrough, so that means it’s all downhill from here. Which is a shame because I care about this troll.

First, for our instant death option, let’s stand around paralysed by the image of a gavel instead of helping with her papers. So rather than the bait-and-switch I was expecting, this plays out in the way most people would expect: she tells you to stop trying to ‘help’.

I thought it was a picture of a gavel, not an actual gavel! But OK. [treacheryofimages.jpg]

Now let’s try the other option: helping her organise her papers someplace else instead of trying to give her a break.

Unfortunately, in the process of sorting her papers, we lose one. I’m sure that’s not a Chekhov’s gun or anything.

This is a Very Good typing quirk.

The bookhive (library) turns out to have, what else, hexagonal shelves.

That’s cute but damn, not gonna be efficient...

This narration turns out to be read out loud. ‘wwwwowwww, harsh’ says Tyzias, but says that’s basically true. (I would motion that nearly every caste in Homestuck, at least going by the characters we meet, is a nerd caste...)

Tyzias mentions a few. Interestingly she says ‘goldbloods’ rather than ‘yellowbloods’.

We learn a bit about her legislacerator training project.

The narrator doesn’t want to hear this, but I’m kind of amused by the ideas of ‘scrolls of evisceration’. On Alternia, they know all to well that the ‘law’ is just a way of describing the ostensible legitimising limits to violence.

Tyzias mentions the difficulty of finding scrolls that haven’t ‘been scrubbed nice and fuchsia’. Which suggests that the Condesce, or another fuchsia-blood has been fiddling with the law?

The narration draws attention to some of the recurring tropes. But to be fair, we’ve only actually had to fight a highblood one time.

But no, it’s time for more interactions between our friends! Hooray!

Are we still wearing his bathrobe?

The guy seems to know a bit about what Tyzias is up to. Uh-oh.

I’m so glad our friends get along so well!

Anyway after Tagora pisses off, we get back to working. And that’s when the missing page comes up.

Figures. We’re in the shit.

Inexplicable product placement. This, of course, leads to a pun: ‘goregle docs’. But of course, that is monitored by the Condesce.

It’s actually quit easy to get onto at least some parts of the darkweb. There’s pages on the normal web which list the .onion addresses of various TOR hidden services. It’s pretty fascinating to have a look around at what’s up for sale for the kind of nerd who actually owns a bitcoin wallet.

Anyway, losing the page scuppers our friendship. She goes to retrace her steps - without us.

Anyway that was neat. Total shock: Bryn finds the exhausted, depressed nerd with radical politics relatable?

Chixie

Chixie’s route is by the ever-prolific Aysha U. Farah.

So what’s the premise for Chixie? Well, it seems to be fashion.

I guess we are still in a bathrobe after all. Also... I would quite like to see the protagonist in one of Elwurd’s jackets. They’d look ridiculous, but it would be cute.

Anyway, we could always go back to our highly fashionable friend Cirava, but I guess our protagonist has other plans.

We seem to have found the ‘Alternian nightlife’. The protagonist briefly speculates whether it should be ‘daylife’ instead, but seemingly not. We pop round the back of a club, which merits a different take on the whole ‘back alley and dumpster’ setting!

Chixie shows up, standing outside a door. The protagonist contemplates a disguise, and we get a joke about cosplayers...

It seems like she’s maybe trying to convince the people behind the door she’s propped open to let her perform. We have the choice of grabbing the door or standing there like an asshole. Let’s grab the door, since that seems like the obvious option. Of course, you never know with this game if the ‘obvious’ choice will cause you to fuck up and accidentally murder someone.

We are still wearing Tagora’s bathrobe. Haha.

So we let her in, and she says thank you... and goes inside, locking us out. Welp. Guess this was the instant death option lol.

So now let’s try the ‘stand there like an asshole’ option.

Her typing quirk is all-lower-case, and separating lines with slashes, much as you’d represent lines of a song. The narration describes her voice as musical.

It seems she is, in fact, a performer of some renown. She presumes we know who she is.

While we might be experts in moisturewave, whatever her genre is... not so much.

Speaking of moisturewave, Cirava gets a shout-out.

She uses ‘they’ pronouns for the protagonist, which is nice. Anyway, she takes us to visit her dressing room, and orders us to put on some actual clothes while she deals with harassment from someone who threw all her stuff out of the dressing room. Well, the ablutionrobe was nice while it lasted.

We end up wearing a dress.

This might be a kind of ‘fuck you’ to the earlier narration which seemed to implicitly mark the protagonist as male. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Anyway I’m all in favour of wearing a dress for the rest of friendsim.

So does the protag! Nice :)

Anyway, we learn what’s up with Chixie. She’s been kicked off the programme because a band with a purpleblood drummer showed up at the last minute. Well, that’s bad enough, but oh god guess who shows up next...

I literally shuddered.

Please can this be the arc where we absolutely beat the shit out of Zebruh? Please Aysha, I’m begging you.

The narrator determines that Zebruh is ‘not the kind of friend they want to hang out with’. Which is putting it mildly.

Zebruh, incidentally, has not changed one bit.

We get to our second choice.

Honestly anyone’s guess which arc is gonna be the positive ending here. But let’s try exploiting our connections, as utterly odious as they may be.

That was absolutely a mistake, lol.

He goes off to go and put her back on the programme. She’s like... for fuck’s sake, protagonist.

Anyway, what Zebruh does in response to our mentioning her missed performance is... literally buy the club out from under the owner, who’s ‘just’ a teal, and makes Chixie the headliner.

Of course, this is obviously him just trying to get sexual favours of some kind from someone who can’t say no. Like so obvious it probably doesn’t even need to be said.

There we go. Can we please put this fucker through the mirror or something.

Chixie knows exactly what this is and she’s understandably not pleased. We’re gone.

Yeah that’s like... pretty fucking deserved.

Now let’s try the route where we like... don’t do that horrific shit we just did. Hey, finishing on a happy ending... hopefully.

Please leave, Zebruh.

She seems to like... actually like us, which we haven’t really done anything to merit, but here we go. She even invites us to follow her chittr.

She admits we doesn’t know we aren’t creepy, and we assure her we’re less creepy than Zebruh, which like... low fucking bar!

Anyway, the band that scooped her comes on stage. The narrator muses on whether trolls are forced to dress in their blood colour by law or tradition.

Wow, that is cruel.

She sings along...

Apparently like... all troll lyrics are black metal lyrics?

We get a second branch! How extravagant.

So, because I’m curious, let’s try ‘you should do something!’ I see this going badly, but let’s give it a shot.

She goes and puts on a phantom of the opera mask, and grabs a mic - which I guess is wired in and has its levels turned up? I don’t know...

That is a raw look though.

Time to interrupt their set. I am hype to see this, even though we’ll probably end up getting culled.

And she starts a friggin... rap battle?

It’s a rap battle that’s also a limerick! Yeah. That’s something.

Anyway, Chixie does... very well at the whole rap battle thing. (Only the first five lines are a limerick). Makes me wish there was voice acting, if only for this bit!

I strongly suspect this is mostly a parody of like, existing rap songs, which I’m too culturally ignorant to see. All the same, the scene is well written and satisfying.

We escape outside, and Chixie freaks out a bit. And then gets simultaneously relieved and disappointed that she can’t be identified because of the mask. But, since she hasn’t changed clothes, someone catches her... and praises her performance.

Ooh, diamonds huh?

So that was in fact the good outcome. Which means after that epic rap battle, we now have to see the branch where we go to a bar and get miserable. Yep.

Of course, on Alternia, we don’t have alcohol... but Faygo.

And it actually makes her drunk!

She speaks on matters of fame...

And of course, this is mediated by blood colour. Lowbloods must be hypervigilant, while highbloods will get praise regardless.

Again, the metaphor layer is paper thin here.

Come to think of it, nobody does seem to have a job in Alternia. It’s like... fully automated luxury imperialism.

Anyway Chixie passes out on the pile of clothes and we get a... well actually it’s given a ‘victory...?’ label, but it’s clearly less victory than the awesome rap battle.

So yeah. That’s an outcome.

And there we go! That’s the end of the episode. I have a... perhaps unfair feeling that like... if Hussie was writing, this wouldn’t be nearly so on the nose about like, oppression. But who knows.

Fun episode I think. This game’s grown on me a lot now we’ve gotten used to the format. Or is it just that if you spend enough time with a massive sprawling multimedia webcomic, you get a little obsessed with it, even if it’s not actually... good?

#momestuck #lets read hiveswap friendsim

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dissillusioneduniverse · 7 years

Text

Luck Has Nothing to Do With It - Chapter 3

Summary: Or rather 5 times Betty and Jughead kissed and the 1 time they meant it.

Previous Chapters: 1, 2 of 6 | AO3

She’s known Ronnie long enough to know that she was up to something. Well, she might have only know Ronnie for a few months but she sure as hell did know her best girl friend.

Everybody had their tells and Veronica was no different. She knew based off of first-hand observation that when V was upset she would get snarky and make more literary insults than usual or when V was mad she would touch her pearls, play with hair and roll her eyes a lot while simultaneous saying “whatever” or when she was ecstatic she would throw around new nicknames —Even nice ones to Jughead— in every sentence.

So yeah, Betty definitely knew the Veronica Lodge was up to something. The minute that Veronica spotted her, her whole demeanour changed. She had an air of mystery surrounding her that was indecipherable but exciting enough for people, namely Cheryl, to take notice.

Glancing around her, she could not help but sign knowing that whatever scheme Veronica was sure to involve her in had no present escape. Juggie was currently working on some English assignment due later that day and Kevin was probably trying to get rid of Moose or something. God, where was her saviour?

“What do you got there, Betts?” Called Ronnie’s cool voice, breaking her out of her own little world of trying to come up with an escape route.

Looking up at her friend, she shrugged as she flashed her the cover.

“Ah, The Great Gatsby, a classic but not a love story.” Watching Veronica’s face breakout into a smile, she could feel herself become weary. “Speaking of love? Where is your Romeo, Juliet? I would’ve thought he’d be here sitting next to you and at least be going over the amount of imagery in that book. There is just something about you two with a book in hand and sitting under a tree that seems like it would be a match made in heaven.” She rambled.

“He has a paper to write and I decided to take the time to get out of my head and my family to just…” She paused, watching Veronica’s expression soften. “…get lost in the world of literature.”

Fiddling with the current page she was on, Betty barely noticed how Veronica situated herself next to her until she plucked the book right out of her hands.

“And is it working?” V asked her softly.

She shook her head. It really wasn’t working, at least not without Jughead. It was just so much more easier sitting next to him as they read separate books together, even before feelings got mixed into their dynamic. Then, somehow, they’d just end talking about some abstract notion from either book and would argue about it for hours. Now that was fun and distracting. And he was currently holed up in the library busy working on his paper — which she didn’t blame him for with everything happening in his life with his father. She just hadn’t realized how dependent she had become of him until—

“You’re missing your boy, aren’t you? Your very own Di Caprio.”

She smiled in reply. She did miss him.

“So are you two official since the last time we talked after the arm-around-your-shoulders-incident?” Betty couldn’t help but blush at that.

“No, we’re not yet. We’re taking things slow or at least to our own pace.” She shrugged, a large smile on her face.

“So he isn’t your boyfriend? You’ve at least been on one date, right?” That’s when she heard that thing return in Veronica’s voice. She was up to something.

“Well, no, not yet but everything has been—“

“—complicated. I get that, I do, but going out on dates helps define a relationship—“

“—we do have a relationship. We have a friendship and we’re just working on how we move on to a different level.” She tried to explain, trying to look for the right words to say.

“So you’re basically single?”

“Well, no, not exactly—“

“— well, I’ll take it. Great! we can have a girl’s night just like I planned. First thing we’re doing is going speed dating. How perfect and fitting that is for the both of us.” Suddenly, Veronica was on her feet and was pulling Betty up with her.

“We’ll go to my place and get ready. Polly could probably help us out too. Hair, makeup and the whole shebang. Show these men these boss ladies.” V continued to ramble.

“Veronica, I’m fine. Really, I am and I don’t think it’s right for me to do that especially since I really like Juggie—“

“Non-sense. He shouldn’t have left you alone. Now let’s go to my place.” ________________ She knew from the minute that she let Veronica drag her to her place, she was screwed.

Within a few minutes of their arrival Veronica had handed her a brand new outfit that was perfectly her size with the tag still on all the pieces. This confirmed every suspicion Betty had about Veronica deliberately planning to do… well something she still was not quite sure of.

After being shoved through the bathroom door, she was given only a few minutes to change before both Polly and Veronica barged in and began to pull her hair out of her ponytail.

“Is this really necessary?” Betty asked as she swatted away her sister and friend’s hands. No one touched her ponytail like how no one touched Jughead’s hat unless they wanted to pick a fight.

‘Of course it is Elizabeth. Just look at you, you look amazing!” Her sister encouraged just long enough for Veronica to take some scissors and cut Betty’s hair tie.

Glancing over at herself in the mirror, she could not help but think that she looked good. These were clearly not her usual clothes — they were much too dark for her mother’s taste. Sexy, tight and…confident? Well, damn right she did feel pretty confident especially since the green top brought out her eyes.

“Well the shirt does go nicely with my eyes so I won’t kill you for cutting my favourite hair tie.” She said quietly as she watched Veronica quickly flip her off with a playful roll of her eyes.

“See? It isn’t so bad. I’m sure Jughead will just love it—“

“Okay, Polly that’s enough. It’s time for hair and makeup.” And with that the duo quickly worked on making her look presentable before she, well, ended up at some run down cafe full of hopeful and desperate singles.

“…And that is how pandas ended up as my favourite animal over kangaroos. So what is your favourite animal? Miss? Are you there?”

Blinking a couple times to snap out of her trance, she flashed her ‘speed date’ an awkward smile.

“I’m sorry do you mind repeating the question?”

Waiting for the guy to reply, she looked over his shoulder to see Veronica giving her a thumbs up and mouthing “go for it” from across the room. How long had she been with this guy for? These dates were like five minute long and guessing by the clock, she had two minutes left. Great.

“What is your favourite animal?”

Looking back at her ‘date’, she could not help but notice the lack of dark tresses or blue eyes. There was no sarcasm or warmth in his tone. No looks that was reserved for just her or between them. He wasn’t even wearing a hat.

“So you like animals that have dark hair, blue eyes and wear hats? If we’re playing a guessing game, well I don’t know what to tell ya lady. I’ve never heard of an animal like that.”

Crap, she actually said that.

“I-I was referring to—“

“She was referring to me. Tall, dark-haired guy with blue eyes and has the best hat around town. I’m basically a party animal.” Turning to look up at the owner of that voice with just the right amount of sarcasm, she could not help but beam up at him.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me—“ Without any prior warning Jughead tilted her chin up and planted a very, very passionate kiss to her lips. He was probably making it a show for the other guy but she really didn’t mind especially when he swiped his tongue right over her bottom lip — and where did he learn that from? And since when did she grab a fistful of his hair? What was even happening—

“If you’ll excuse us, we’re going on a date.” Still dazed from the kiss, she barely registered Jughead’s words or the fact that he threw his arm over her shoulders and was preceding to lead them out of the cafe.

“Thank god you showed up. How did you know I was here?” She asked after she had a few moments to collect herself.

“Veronica sent me a text. She said something about how all the deemed 'single' River Vixens had to participate in speed dating at Riverdale’s worst cafe. I knew I had to come in and save you.” Judge replied, arm falling from her shoulder to grab her hand.

Now everything was starting to make sense with what Veronica was doing.

“She said that?” She asked suspiciously.

“Yeah, she also added in some insults about my favourite movies so I knew she meant it.” He shrugged. “By the way, I really like that top. It gives me a really nice view of your— of your eyes. It really brings out your eyes and nothing else.” He said quickly, a blush covering his cheeks as he pressed a quick peck to the tip of her nose.

So maybe she wouldn’t kill Veronica for this.

___________

“So do you think they’re official yet?” Asked the redhead.

Shaking her head, Veronica replied with, “They’re both stubborn and Jughead is the type to not do labels. I think my initial guess was right and this just ensured that they’ll be official by Monday morning. I honestly can’t wait to see you pay up.”

“That’s what you think, Lodge.”

#bughead #riverdale #betty cooper #jughead jones #veronica lodge #cheryl blossom #betty x jughead #jas-writes

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