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gallusrostromegalus · 8 months

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so if Yachiru Kusajishi is older than Shinji and still looks like a small child, while Tetsuzaimon Iba grew up from in utero to a full adult while the Vizoreds were in the living world, what determines the rate of maturation for a particular soul in AEIWAM?

Short Version: Hell is Clogged, and the Demons are desperately trying to keep powerful souls OUT until there is room for them, AND trying to yank powerful souls in ASAP when an opening becomes available, and this makes Powerful Souls age funny.

Slightly more complex version:

So in AEIWAM, the Exit from Hell is currently being blocked by God's Dismembered Ass.

This means that there is an ENORMOUS Queue of Perfectly Reformed Souls trying to get out, and there *is* a constant steady trickle of souls out of Hell, but Nowhere near enough, and worse, once a soul is reformed, it doesn't give off spiritual energy to feed the Life Machine anymore.

So Hell is in the VERY Precarious Position where they NEED powerful souls to enter Hell so they can off-gas spiritual power to keep the machine that generates reality going, but if they get too many too strong souls too fast, they risk blowing a hole in the side of the hell dimension and, ah.

Well, All Hell breaking Loose.

So the demons in Hell are constantly making complex calculations about who actually get to enter- Souls that have good Karma, even if they're powerful are typically booted to the Spirit World until there's an opening (like a former captain finally returning to baseline power and reincarnating), and Souls with Bad Karma but not much spiritual power can get sent to the afterlife they don't actually deserve because they're so far back in the triage. At the same time, they're constantly giving extra life force, get-out-of-death-free cards and other chicanery to exceptionally powerful souls to keep them "alive" until there's room.

...And also yanking them down the SECOND there's an opening to fill because they absolutely cannot let the Life Machine's battery get any lower.

This power-scramble is responsible for a lot of Bizarre Aging and Dying Phenomena:

Tetsuzaimon Iba was born, aged at a normal human rate until his 26th birthday and then just. Stopped. This happened to his mother too. She's been 29 for 342 years now. That's not the only form of Delayed Aging that hits Spiritually powerful people: Some people just age at a slow but consistent rate- 1 year for every 5 lived is pretty common for rank-and-file shinigami. Yamamoto had gone through several slowdowns- as a young man he was aging 1-for-10, but once he founded Soul Society it slowed to 1-for-25 and ever since The Divorce he seems to have stopped aging at 'A Ridiculously Ripped 80-something'.

Hisana Kuchiki was struck down with Sudden Incurable Wasting when one of the smaller power slots opened up and a Demon tried to pull her in with a quick accident and accidentally caused her to *linger*. The Demon is PROFOUNDLY sorry, takes very good care of Hisana down there, and lives in terror of the day Byakuya gets down there and kicks it's ass.

Demons are not actually malicious, though they can be really unpleasant. Demons are essentially the Social Workers of the Wheel of Samsara, helping damaged or dangerous souls become better people before they reincarnate. The relationship between the average soul in Hell and their assigned demon ranges approximately from 'your benevolent and genuinely helpful therapist' to 'your overworked and jaded parole officer'.

The exception is for souls with good karma that are there to vent power- A Demon assigned to one of those cases is essentially the Soul's Personal Assistant/babysitter to make sure the soul doesn't break anything down there. "Shinigami Supervisor" is a DEEPLY coveted position in hell- You get all the spiritual sustenance you can handle, very little paperwork, AND you get to have fun adventures with a cool person who (largely) has their shit together! So the competition for the Next Opening is ferocious. Shinigami scientists have noted that there is often an uptick in seismic activity, the appearance of hot springs, and unusually hot weather all over the living and spirit worlds in the month leading up to the death of a Captain or other powerful soul, but aren't sure why. The reason is Demon Job Promotion Thunderdome, held in the time leading up to the 'retirement' of a captain or other powerful soul as they finish giving off all the power they can to the Life Machine and enter the reincarnation queue.

The utterly crackheaded "returned to life" science used to bring back Rose, Kensei and Matsumoto during TYBW only worked because a pack of Demons on the other side were MAKING it work.

Mayuri is actually an escapee from Hell that WAS aging drastically fast (he looked 32 when he was 14) because the demons were trying to reign him back in, but he learned just enough about life-force management from his internment in Hell to keep himself alive(ish) and Hale (Kinda).

Most of the souls in Soul Society age normally, and the indicator that you DO have spiritual power is that you 1. Age slower than anticipated and 2. feel EXTREME levels of hunger. (Frankly, nothing about 'souls don't feel hunger' makes sense. It'd be a post-scarity society if that was the case, not feudalism. Nearly all Souls in AEIWAM feel hunger a normal amount, but those who would make good shinigami feel 'I will eat drywall or carrion to stop the cravings' levels of hunger).

One of the things that happens before you become a seated officer in the Gotei-13 is that your captain is supposed to take you aside and explain that the reason an officer's commission pays so well and takes care of so much is that if you take it, you are at DRASTICALLY higher risk of going to Hell when you die. If you become a Lieutenant, it's all but guaranteed. It's not the office that grants it per se- but one you're a seated officer, you WILL be exposed to situations that will make you grow as a person and become a stronger fighter and thus, a more powerful spirit. maybe you'll squeak under the power limbo bar, but understand that that's a risk.

The reason Shinigami can't assign people to at least the same district their relatives are in is that assignment is done by Hell- it's determined by "area of lowest ambient spiritual power in spirit world at the EXACT time you die" and you HAVE to go there. It does help alleviate the pressure in Hell by a significant amount, and if you move districts after arriving in your assigned one it doesn't cause a problem. It's only recently that Soul Security Numbers have been introduced, and your ancestors can opt to put in their address if you want to look them up when you cross over.

Yachiru however, is an unusual case. She's one of the slowest-aging people in Soul Society (aging approximately 1 year for every 50 lived), but it's not the contrivance of Hell. There's actually a lot of Wailing and Gnashing of teeth about Yachiru in Hell, because she's actually got a case of Secondhand Deification from her father, and frankly, Hell doesn't know what it's going to do with either of them.

#AEIWAM #an elephant is warm and mushy #bleach #bleach fanfic

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superectojazzmage · 2 months

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X-Men works best, I feel, when writers understand on at least some level that it's really basically a cyberpunk/biopunk horror story that just happens to also be a superhero comic.

X-Men is the story of the world entering a new epoch where any random person on the street might randomly get superpowers - ranging everywhere from green hair to mind control - simply because they happened to win(?) a genetic lottery as part of a cosmic process programmed into humanity in ancient times by ineffable star gods. All around you are people who are ostensibly still people, but are also inhuman entities with alien powers who are gradually developing their own subculture that tells them they are the future dominant species destined to replace mankind. Many of them are just normal folks... but just as many see you the same way ancient homo sapiens saw neanderthals.

X-Men is the story of fear and hatred rising in the hearts of men in the face of that new epoch. Corrupt humans and mutants alike use bigotry and xenophobia to divide the two peoples, pushing them into a war not just for politics, but for evolution and the planet themselves. Mankind begins altering themselves and building machines of death to keep up with the mutants, in the process creating a third race of humanity; transhumans and robots, that in time come to be no different from the mutants, superpowered monsters of society's own making that see the humans as flatscan wastes of genes at best, oppressors to be destroyed at worst.

X-Men is the story of humanity fighting amidst themselves in their senseless darwinistic war while their world tumbles through a swirling universe of terrifying eldritch threats. Out in the stars and spiritual dimensions are alien empires once like us now advanced beyond comprehension, legions of magical wonders and nightmares in equal measure, lovecraftian machine hive minds that eat planets, demons that feast on our sin, cosmic entities that have as much in common with us as we do ants.

And above it all, X-Men is the story of how recognizing each other's humanity, of embracing love instead of hate, may be the only thing that ensures even a hope of survival in the face of the unimaginable, mind-breaking horror of a world entering a new era whether it's inhabitants like it or not... or perhaps, the only thing that decides whether or not we deserve to survive.

The best X-Men writers are the ones who recognize this. Chris Claremont, Johnathan Hickman, Grant Morrison, Kieron Gillen, etc.. The writers who recognize that there's something profoundly and utterly, existentially TERRIFYING about what the series really boils down to (a self-defeating war between mechanical and genetic evolution with normals caught in the middle that may be the extinction of all three races) and reflect that in the aesthetics and tone by emphasizing a cyberpunkish vibe.

Emphasizing that this is a world where people - willingly or not - alter their bodies like mechanics alter cars and any random person you see on the street might be a mutant or Sentinel or something that can kill you with a look, and that random person is probably hiding from something even worse that wants to kill them just for being born.

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

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Halloween prompts no. 14

Danny gets thrown into the Blue Exorcist universe, saw how Rin was being treated and straight up kidnapped him when no one was looking and took him to another dimension/reality/whatever to keep him safe.

Rin, as you can imagine, doesn't take kindly to being kidnapped and tries to roast Phantom. The fact neither understands the others language did not help. Danny, taking a gamble, dropped his phantom form and raised his hands in surrender.

Rinse eyebrow twitched and he asked wtf he thought he was doing. Danny got an idea and raised a finger ask if asking one moment please before bringing out his phone and typing into Google Translate.

Things go better after that, Rins still kinda mad and demanded to be taken home but Danny refused, saying he wasn't going to send him back to a place that would treat him like that! The fight escalated until Danny confessed he died because people ignored the abuse and neglect from his home situation and he terrified Rin will face a similar fate. This finally took the wind out of Rins sails. Rin comforts Danny who may or may not be crying.

This is when the local heros show up because it turns out they landed in the dc universe. They realize they've pretty much melted part of the city they were in during thier fight and scram before anyone can get a good look at them. They're branded as mysterious villains almost immediately.

Danny and Rin take to stealing in order to survive and start teaching eachother thier language so they don't have to keep relying of the translation app. (Also they can't reliably recharge the phone) They're bonding and building up eachothers self esteem. Rin enjoys having someone who let's him protect them as a big brother should and Danny enjoys feeling safe and protected for once in his afterlife. They both start wearing masks and start stealing bigger marks as supervillians in order to survive.

The Justice League Dark is absolutely freaking out because why is a Gahena demon and some kind of Lazarus Pit child working together?? Demons from Gahena never come here cause they shouldn't even be able to and they had no idea Pit People even existed up until now. And why are they stealing such strange things? The bank robberies they understood but the baby food incident? (They stole a bunch of baby food to help the homeless and low income population) The lab thiefts? (Danny recognized the type of machine they were making was designed to be a portal when the press conference about it said nothing about portals. So he stole it and destroyed it cause it was sus.) The JLD knew they were missing something.

Batman himself eventually tracks them down and finds out

1. They are 14 and 15 year olds.

2. Both are traumatized

3. Black hair blue eyes

4. Both have supernatural abilities they can't fully control

5. Both are very sweet and are being more vigilante than villain

Bruce has already mentally signed the adoption papers.

Unfortunately, Danny has bad memories of another billionaire who kept trying to adopt him and is avoiding both him both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. The boys run in to Harley Quinn and she figured out these kids needed help. She aids in thier language endeavors and if the only reason she knows Japanese as well as she does is from her binging anime for a few months during a quarantine caused by Scarecrow then thats her business.

Anyway, she gives them not-therapy since she can't ethically give them therapy therapy and in exchange they pay her with cash they stole. Neato. Rin eventually gets onto an ADHD medication that suits him and he's doing so much better. He uses a lot of the coping skills aunt harley taught him and its like hes a totally different person. Granted Rin has to take an ungodly high dose for it to work due to his demonic heritage but they make due. They already rob banks, whats a few pharmaceutical companies?

Ivy and Harley pseudo adopt Rin and Danny and sometimes the boys would just come over to Gotham to hang out or play with the pets. Rin loves cooking and has taken over the kitchen in his and dannys safe houses. He does most of the cooking and keeps the kitchen spotless. Danny does the laundry and dusting and they share most other chores. Rins used to having Yukio sleeping in the same room as him so sometimes he sneaks into Dannys room in the middle of the night to sleep on the floor.

Danny keeps waking up and moving him to the bed. Neither say anything about it and Rin assumes he slept walked into the bed and flees before Danny can be woken up and weirded out. Miscommunication! Yay!

Meanwhile the birdie brigade are on thier tails and watching/spying on them every chance they get. They're already making preparations in the manor for two more people.

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halfusek · 1 year

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man. batdr archives. what

i hate them

sorry im gonna go full on hater mode here because oh my god? oh my god

i’ve got a sneaking suspicion that this came out now as damage control for the AI thing because 1. it wasn’t included in the game all along like BATIM’s archives were and 2. this tweet

like was it thrown together in such a rush that they forgot a whole ass character?

or it is a joke and was a planned action half a year after the game came out but eh who knows

either way this is not what i’m here to rant about (cuz im sure this is gonna turn to a rant)

it’s about bad writing, bad exposition and bad game design. buckle up!

i see what they mean with the smile being a challenge to create, you can see in countless animations for fansongs how different artists tackled that and for one i think they did that very well

however. why the clothes exactly? is it just a meta reason with no reasoning in-universe whatsoever?

and look i’m not a fan of the ink demon having a voice (though i respect the craft behind it, the voice actor is very talented, it’s just a personal preference) BUT if you made the ink demon talk you should by logical extension either make toon bendy talk as well or explain why the hell he’s talking? i can see it being distracting but there are characters that have squeaky annoying voices in games and they’re fine (and it’s not like toon bendy is around the player for a super long time)

i dunno what logic this whole thing operates on anymore but if joey commissioned the ink machine then it should be his and arch gate got all his shit after he passed away so idk what retrieve is supposed to mean here

but it could just be badly written sentences and the archive is full of those (once again making me think that the thing was done in a rush)

that’s fair i guess

yall did make him look like a generic demon tho

i mean... it could be worse? if the goal was to make him look out of place then it was achieved but idk if it’s actually a good thing

i do like the bit about Wilson influencing how things look under him being in control of the cycle (though they have a very silly definition about what the cycle is but more about that later)

dude. the beast bendy design was already bad in BATIM and they made it even worse in BATDR like what TToTT

its just an angry mountain of muscles, the batim design at least had that leg injury thing going on which made moving with front arms make more sense, this dude right here is just a big inky gorilla (and not in a good way)

playing as the final form in on itself isnt a bad idea, does sound quite fun, personally tho i did not enjoy the very ending on the game

i dunno it just felt weird and all the other characters randomly appearing and the lost ones attacking being so awkward and ink demon acting as if they could kill you... nah man i wasn’t feeling it

okay so lets get this straight

cycle = a series of events that repeat

breaking the cycle would mean doing something different and stopping the cycle from continuing (so what... wilson was doing actually)

saying that making it restart again is what breaking it means is just??? no?

“satisfying face reveal” welp. each to their own XD

i see their purpose theme and thats neat and all but man do i hate how henry in this game is just. there and how some stranger is the person helping him get out of his horrible fate like its sooooooo unsatisfying

yeah she got more personality ill give her that

but she’s not a beacon of hope. she’s a beacon of tearing away the satisfaction of defeating a villain that we as the player worked hard towards

and uh... isn’t getting thrown into a horrible dimension full of monsters that audrey isn’t familiar with and is supposed to be freaked out about a bad moment to introduce a familiar face? like from a writing perspective, because it happens nearly instantly as chapter one starts

shouldn’t audrey be unmotivated then and struggling to figure out the world on her own? the player should also be haunted at this world, like it’s a horror game bestie ! don’t make me comfortable

well glad to hear the confirmation on that batds is happening in pararel to batdr

but his involvement in the main story is honestly such a nothing burger

is he there just so you can put batdr on the “can you pet the dog” site?

oh ok so what you’re basically putting down here is that he’s a boring perfect extremely rich guy, wasn’t even a bad father, completely stripping wilson’s arc of depth, cool, was afraid there would be something of substance powering the backbone of the plot of this game

and saying that both joey and wilson are worse people because theyre cringefail at business XDDDDDDDDDDD

ok here is something that im glad they addressed because ive been wondering about it - how audrey forgot that joey was her dad and how did she end up working at arch gate then

i suppose it implies that there’s something we might still learn/theorize about it, like for example if it was the machine drawing her in or gent wanting to get the machine back and manipulating things into place from behind the scenes

i really wonder how you can enter in and out the ink realm unnaturally but good to mention why he looks like that if he’s supposed to be nathan’s son

you cant just say that a character was important to the story, its not gonna happen from words

how is she important exactly? she just talks and uh.. helps audrey make the drink that makes you fall asleep? man that section of the game was Weird

i do want to like her, she seems nice and there could be interesting things to her backstory but as for the plot she really didn’t do much, sorry, betty

if you wanna say that pushing the plot forward by giving audrey that drink and then alice appearing outta nowhere and kidnapping here is a good big contribution then idk what to tell you... its such a bad way to make the plot progress, it was so confusing because characters were behaving as in forced to do Things to Progress the Plot (especially Audrey drinking that thing at all like seriously girl?? and Alice appearing comically at the last sip like wooooooow are you for real)

ah. so they were attempting a redemption arc

[saying this he didn’t threw aside the large rock. he was right to be holding the large rock]

this sucks man! what did joey help correct exactly? created more ink people to suffer eternally? wow, dude, thanks

also lmao what learned from his mistakes, did you HEAR his dialogue at the end of batim?? (an audrey can be heard right after that scene as well so isnt his whole change of heart supposed to be happening around here + allison has already been added to the squad)

it’s just... it’s just such bullshit man

you can make us like joey as a character but don’t you fucking dare make us like him as a person

bad. just bad

(aaaaaand this is the part that made me realize i wish the archives just. weren’t added! wow! i’m even surprised with myself with how much I Don’t Like them)

WHAT flaws??? hello??? please give it a big thinking and tell me what flaws does Audrey have im shaking and crying

also is her “deep dark past” supposed to just be like bEINg JoEY DRewS DAUghtER OOOoooOOo? lmao. wow so dark wow so deep

i dont know why this story needed a fresh pair of eyes because the story is that audrey is joeys daughter and that wilson is nathan archs son and that bendy is bendy. wow so deep so dark and complicated!!!!!!!11!!111

also whats the point of fresh eyes if you welcome us with familiar faces?

also sorry to break this to you but its not hard to stand out from the kinda cast that is presented to us in this game. sorry i cant decide if i care more about audrey or random employee number 24 with a random problem that i have 0 reason or time to get attached to. i seriously cant decide

suuuure we were so muddled xD oh you got us so good you sneaky little cheeky little quirky little

cant fucking believe we almost had a proper nathan arch jr and a secret one eyed villain that there was so much hype about and theories that they obviously tried to deliever here

its speculative but. knowing that they take inspiration from fan theories - they admitted to it and ex employees said so, i think we would have to be in some serious denial to think that @lucky-dreamfisher‘s one-eyed bendy theory wasn’t meant to be represented here with wilson’s character

ALSO THIS NARRATIVE. THIS NARRATIVE HAS ZERO- NO, NEGATIVE AMOUNT OF COMPLEXITY

GOD

this story makes so much LESS sense based on what you said! aaaaaaaa we were so close to greatness

what is so wrong with not resetting the cycle then?

not that im a fan of how wilson was approaching things, he very clearly wanted to make himself the ruler of this realm and have power over everyone but sounds like that sure beats living under ink demons reign?

but also idk if this is entirely true like in batim chapter 5 we can see that lost ones were capable of making that lost harbour and sammy is later mentioned to have mastered a special ability too so??

i wish we learned more about the pit because it sounds quite interesting and we were working hard towards getting there and finally didnt get to see it at all (a shame! very unrewarding to the player)

im not gonna comment on reverting here cuz its a serious mental thing im not knowledgable about

i haaaate this

you... this is not how exposition is done!

show don’t tell?? how about SHOW don’t TELL??

what in the goddamn. you can’t just pull that outta your ass and say yep. this is how it is. bro. dude.

im referring here to the ink machine bit, the previous sentences can actually be seen in the story

but the design does not reflect what is written here

and they are doing so much of that in these archives, this telling of the story in a place that is not meant for telling of the story, you do that IN the STORY. rarghrgrh

surprise i found another nice thing: confirmation on that alice was the one who mutilated the butcher gang, cuz i dont think that was ever confirmed before but at least you can find implications of that in the game so its fine to outright confirm that here, good job about that

i dont know what theyre on about carley, she doesnt really look like that to me and ive looked at her model in the archives, in the files and at peoples renders of her and i just dont see it

but i guess it might mean it was like a suit that someone got stuck in- FNAF?!>!!>!?

no way. no fucking way

we got robbed what ToT

he was removed in favour of WHAT???? AMOK????

dude there ill be real. there’s barely anything that is worth keeping there instead of having him play a bigger role

and im not even that big on sammys character! hes one of my least liked characters personally even! but at least there is something more to him and just man after 5 years you could have given him more than just a dumb wilhelm scream joke, that almost feels like a spat in the face lmao

thanks for again confirming something though with that flow thing, as we noticed sammy uses gaps in the wall in batim chapter 2 to travel around the place

why not have him teach audrey the flow ability? imagine how could that would have been

im just baffled this exist but sammy apparently had to be cut out

lol

lmao

moving on

my brother in christ why are you making it a mystery if she will appear, she literally appeared in every game so far with quite major roles

also... what layers? sure in batim with her story (susie’s story) there sure been some layers, susie’s story in batim is probably aside from joey’s story the deepest character arc they got

but alice in batdr? she’s there to play a stupid game she set herself up to lose, get mad at that (eh?) shoot you and die

what layers, really

gender

but also idk i found the fight annoying and random, you could throw it out and not much of value would be lost, put sammy back in

YOU MADE HIM NOTHING

YOU TOOK A PERFECTLY FINE ENEMY AND GAVE IT ANXIETY THATS WHAT YOU DID /j /ref

idk if id describe the ink demon as putting the player on edge because he doesnt actually roam the place

you see a grey overlay on your screen and you need to hide or you die... which gets tiring fast and annoying

you totally could still have lurker (even if just restricted to some areas) as a free roaming monster

and the unlikely ally thing is just so bland like yeah he’s there, we know nothing about him aside from that he eats hearts, incredibly charming fella

not thrilled by his design either but that issue i already had with the first trailer but i guess they just sticked with that

bendy devs not use mental illnesses as derogatory terms challenge

i like the crab boy design, he’s sillay

bro forgot a texture tho

so yeah not. happy with the archives

sorry if im like overly negative but ive honestly tried to give this sequel (because despite what they were saying it IS undoubtedly a sequel) my best assumptions and it turns out its nearly all the worst assumptions

its annoying, im annoyed

they should hire a writer to help them get this mess together, maybe get adrienne in on it, i dunno, because clearly if they need to be specific and not leaving things open like in batim, then they arent managing very well

they even fucking killed harold

#bendy and the dark revival #bendy and the ink machine #batdr #batim #halfpost

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udretlnea · 1 year

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A Conundrum at Cotea Cafe

Inspired by @kunichigo (Owner of the Cotea Cafe concept. Go follow them. They're cool...!)

Prompt: A customer arrives at the Cotea Cafe just before closing time, and he brings a message.

A/N: Hey, been a while, though for those following y’all know I'm still active. Fyi btw you can expect more of these shenanigans prompts in the future; I just want to try to write for fun while getting checkpoints on my growth at the same time. Anyway, enjoy.

“Don’t go dimension hopping soon,” he said with utter seriousness. “Or else you'll end up hurt.”

You widen your eyes. Your hands suddenly felt limp as you processed the threat-no, it was a warning.

///

20 minutes earlier…

You relaxed into your seat as your eyes scanned the page in the light novel; it was about a samurai who was thrust into the future where Teyvat was taken over by a demon with a robot army. You pictured the samurai facing off against an army of Ruin machines with nothing but his magic sword. The scene felt so vivid you thought you could see it in your mind.

You turned the page to continue when you heard the bell rung. Somebody had entered the cafe!

You placed a bookmark in between the pages and got up. You stretched your legs, feeling the circulation return. Making your way to the front, you frowned.

Who could be here at this time? Last I checked, the sun was nearly setting…

When you opened the door to the dining area, you expected to see the Traveler and Paimon. A teenager in a white and gray hoodie looked at you with brown eyes. He had black hair and youthful features; he put on a friendly smile while inertinghis hands in his pockets.

“Hello po,” he said in a meek voice. “Is this…a cafe?”

You nodded. “Yes.”

He put a hand on his chest. “Um, are you open?”

You smiled amicably. “Of course! Would you like to look at a menu?”

He nodded, but his hand didn’t fall to the side. “My name is…Aaron. It’s nice to meet you.”

He took a seat at one nearby one of the windows. You grabbed a nearby menu and handed it to him; while he was reading it with interest, you couldn’t help but stare at him. He didn’t appear to be from any of the nations, at least judging from his clothing. It looked like something one might wear at home. Furthermore, he seemed to know about this place despite the remoteness of this location.

“Excuse me, but do you happen to have…peach mango pie?” His question snapped you out of your thoughts.

“Yes! Would you like that?” He blinked shyly and shook his head.

“No. I was just curious,” he clarified. He pointed at a line of words. “I’ll have a halo-halo please.”

“Sure!” You turned towards the kitchen, deciding to pick up your train of thought after making his dish. Ten minutes later you come back with a tall glass cup full of halo-halo.

“Sal-salamat po…thank you.” He nodded to the glass. You set it down in front of him; he takes a moment to silently observe it. A happy smile slowly forms on his face. “Ah, it looks delicious.”

He gave a brief prayer before picking up the spoon and mixing it.

You decided now was the perfect time to leave him and fiddle away your time; it usually didn’t take long to finish Halo-Halo so you went back to the kitchen to reorganize.

You tidied the kitchen up by cleaning the tools you used to make halo-halo. When you just about finished, the sound of the spoon clattering in an empty cup made you look up.

“I’ve finished,” Aaron announced almost proudly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch. He put it next to his empty cup and you heard the sound of Mora clinking; he got up and turned to the door. You made your way to where he sat. The Mora pouch was moderate-sized. A quick calculation told you that he overpaid. You were about to stop him from leaving, but you saw that he was standing a couple feet from you. He looked at you as if he could peer past your mask.

“...Pardon me, but you’re like me, aren’t you.” Aaron put a hand on his hip. “You’re also a...Creator”

You felt the urge to suppress a wave of panic. “I-I’m sorry?”

“Well, they call them Creators. You probably know them as writers. Self-inserts,” he explained. He shook his head. “My apologies for the strange question, and for offending you, if I did. I just thought I finally found someone to talk to. I…can leave if you want. It’s no trouble.”

Rather than tell him to do just that, you waved him off. “It’s fine. Are you one as well?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

You examine his form, searching for anything that could tell that he’s lying. When you found none, you shrugged. “...Sure. Although I’m currently living out my cottage-core fantasy at the moment. I don’t care for the stuffy paperwork that comes with being in charge of an entire continent."

“Same. And cottage-core is cool, but I never can find the time to do that. Not that I-not that I deserve anything good,” A moment of silence passed as they let that information process. Internally, you felt a strange sense of kinship beginning to form in your gut. It was certainly strange to find another being like yourself standing in front of you, but given that he was similar, or perhaps greater in power than you it made sense to desire to travel to other branches of the SAGAU multiverse.

“Well, with pleasantries out of the way, um…I actually came here to deliver a message for you,” he said. He raised his hands in the air as if he thought it would ease the anxiety in the atmosphere. “Not-not from any of the Archons, I mean. From me.”

“Eh?” This suddenly turned interesting. What could he possibly have to tell you? He took a deep breath and stared into your eyes.

“Don’t go dimension hopping soon,” Aaron said with utter seriousness. “Or else you'll end up hurt.”

You widen your eyes. Your hands suddenly felt limp as you processed the threat-no, it was a warning.

Aaron bit his lip. His eyes darted from side to side as if he were engaged in an intense internal debate. After a couple seconds, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of flash cards. He flipped through them until he stopped at one “No, but for your own safety, I advise not traveling to other universes in SAGAU until They give you the signal that it’s safe. That's all. Thank you for your time, and the food. I hope your story has a happy ending.”

He put away the flash cards and turned around. Then, he placed a hand on the door knob. But he couldn’t leave yet, not when your interest was piqued!

“Wait,” you interrupt. He turns his head back at you with a surprised look “This…thing that’s going to happen? Call it intuition, but I can't help but feel like it'll be terrible, especially for you. Are you.. alright?”

Aaron simply smiled knowingly. His eyes were glossy. “Thank you for your concern. No, but I will be soon. Ingat po…goodbye."

He opened the door and stepped outside; just as it shut there was a flash of light. When you opened it again to look for him, Aaron was gone.

Something hung in the air, but you weren’t sure what it was. Was this regret, awkwardness, or ominousness? Perhaps it was a mixture of all three.

With nothing else to do, you took the empty glass back and cleaned it. Then you flipped the sign to CLOSED before making your way to the backroom. You reclined back into the comfy chair, settling into the plush cushion. You picked up the book, opened to the bookmarked page, and resumed reading.

///

The next day you wake up and found posters plastered in front of your door; they informed you that several AUs and ATs were missing and that creator deities had been displaced. Furthermore, it advised everyone to stay calm and continue their routines while this incident was sorted.

Suffice it to say you were grateful when the Traveler brought Paimon, Yae Miko, the Raiden Shogun, Arataki Itto, and Gorou with them. A distraction was just what you needed. They kept you busy, dodging questions and cooking them food. They left and you closed the cafe for the day.

When you woke up, the posters you collected were gone, replaced with a single white sheet of paper with the words, "THE PRIOR INCIDENT HAS BEEN RECTIFIED. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO FOLLOWED DIRECTIONS." -M.

You wondered if Aaron was alright and if whatever happened yesterday was related to him. It was clear you weren't getting any answers soon. With a sigh, you head back into your cottage to get ready for the day.

#sagau #genshin sagau #genshin fanfic #self aware genshin #genshin impact sagau #genshin imagines

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sa2-astral · 7 days

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I have sooooo many ideas for a hypothetical new skillset for ashe in s3. Like

ive been cooking like crazy n rambling to my friends. Like the only thing they could do is give ashe cool tech stuff. He'd either be the guy in the chair or have cool tech like cantrip. I think story wise it makes since for her to be the guy in the chair but playing wise if yakko did return i feel like thatd get boring after a while, like if he was staying in the show longterm eventually the whole guy in the chair setup would probably get very limiting roleplay wise

so i just. Went crazy thinking about cool tech stuff they'd have

-big mechanical arm. mechanical equivalent of the big demon arm bcuz it was cool

-short distance teleport to easily withdraw from combat / switch between inperson and guy in the chair. professor cross already had the temporary long term teleport machine im sure he could figure out something like this especially given williams literal dimension crossing new ability they can research that a bit im sure they could figure it out

-more guy in the chair abilities. he has hologram panels and does cool stuff hehehe

-bonus! With the hc of her using mobility aids i thought of a super cool way to like. Build them into the tech. so i was doing forearm crutches before but like what if it was like those mechanical spider legs some characters have they just attach to the wall and hover there you know. so its kinda like that but more like a crutch without the hand usage so they can still mess with the panels n do things whatever they need to do. its like an extra mechanical limb that specifically is like strong enough to support her without putting too much stress on his body if that makes sense ? and then they move it around with a controller. Like. Like gaming.

Its literally just motion controls. and then the buttons are for like controlling slash messing with all the panels n things whatever he can do mechanic wise with that. as well as just movement. idk does that make sense. But i am so normal about the idea of it literally just being gaming its literally gaming its just motion controls and i love that LMAO

-another bonus. this ones more self indulgent but as you may know. i am the #1 water fairy enthusiast so i say. that post i made of will finding water fairy in spirit world and giving them back to ashe is canon and so water fairy helps ashe in combat too :)

-ice spears, can do stuff with water a bit, and ice, maybe they can make like a sorta fog slash mist like a rlly cold mist like with the ice ability ? maybe steam?? Idk the fog aesthetic with ashe is so cool

-ashe still has his heelies she has great movement. bonus heelies can switch to ice skates to skate on ice water fairy creates >:)

-maybe water fairy can make like an ice spear but an ice SCYTHE??? or some other cool ice weapon for ashe to use

-also ashe has wings! Idk if they would or wouldnt be able to fly but if they could then thats a whole nother thing she can do thats movement based >:))

#astral chatting #jrwi #jrwi prime defenders #ashe winters

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sanctum-of-ramshackle · 2 years

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Continuous adventures of the MC/Yuu variants

[Synopsis]: Just some MC/Yuu variants in their respective universes.

[SCP-TWST-2020: Dr. MC/Yuu (SCP!MC/Yuu)]

[Dr. MC/Yuu’s office/laboratory]

SCP!MC/Yuu: *Standing still with a blanket wrapped around them*

Leona: Huh? Herbivore, why are you-

SCP!MC/Yuu: *Shushes at him* *Whispers* Don’t say anything. Grab me that T-Bone over there.

Leona: *Finds the steak at their desk and grabs it*

SCP!MC/Yuu: Hand it over slowly and carefully.

Leona: *Annoyed* You’re acting weirder than usual.

[As Leona hands them the steak, the blanket reveals its massive mouth filled with rows of razor sharp teeth.]

Leona: What the hell?!

SCP!MC/Yuu: *Quickly stuffs the meat in it’s mouth and proceeds to yank it off of them* HIYYAAAHHHH!!!

[They swung it back and forth, hitting it against steel walls and banging it on the ground. (*Cue cartoonish sound effects*)]

Leona: *Backs away* Kill it with fire!!!

[Dr. MC/Yuu neutralizes it with a mini flamethrower they carry with them. The blanket shrieks in agony and turns into a pile of ashes.]

Leona: *Traumatized by the sudden encounter* What was that?!!

SCP!MC/Yuu: SCP-799: The Carnivorous Blanket. Good luck sleeping in peace.

[SCP!MC/Yuu touring Epel around the site.]

Epel: Walkin’ around sure can make a fella thirsty.

SCP!MC/Yuu: You’re in luck. SCP-294 just restocked.

Epel: SCP- what?

SCP!MC/Yuu: I’ll show you.

[Cafeteria]

SCP!MC/Yuu: *Typing on the keypad of SCP-294*

Epel: What’s with the guards?

SCP!MC/Yuu: This vending machine is a special one. Which is why it needs to be heavily guarded.

[Then the machine dispense some fresh apple juice.]

SCP!MC/Yuu: Here. I know it’s not the kind back in your family’s farm. I promise you it’s not bad.

Epel: *Drinks the juice* …

SCP!MC/Yuu: Epel? Hey, are you okay?

Epel: This is half as good as Gran-Gran’s juice.

SCP!MC/Yuu: Jesus. Don’t scare me like that.

[Oklahoma]

SCP!MC/Yuu: Crowley, this is a terrible idea to join me.

Crowley: Nonsense! Your world is not as bad as I thought it would.

SCP!MC/Yuu: That’s because you never experienced true horror. Only I was supposed to observe an anomalous object until you decided to tag along.

[A bus rolls in front of the school at 3:20 p.m.]

Crowley: Oddly enough. Why are we at a school?

SCP!MC/Yuu: Just aboard the bus.

[Ten minutes later]

Crowley: *Already traumatized from the bus having to travel into a hellish dimension*

SCP!MC/Yuu: Welcome to SCP-3583: The Tragic Schoolbus…Crowley?

Crowley: *Shaking and hiding his face behind SCP!MC/Yuu* When will this be over?

SCP!MC/Yuu: A half hour? An hour? I don’t remember. *Injects amnestics in Crowley*

Crowley: *Falls unconscious*

SCP!MC/Yuu: This is gonna be a long ride.

[Hazbin Hotel x TWST: Demon Lord!MC/Yuu]

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: *Sighs*

Trey: MC/Yuu? You look rather down. Is everything okay?

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: No. Everything is quite alright, dear Trey. I just have intrusive thoughts of my inner demons.

Trey: Oh. What are they saying?

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: *In their demonic voice* Feed on the flesh of the innocence~

Trey: *Disturbed* …

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: The problem is I refuse to do so since I can’t bear my humane thoughts telling me of your human diseases.

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: *Showing pictures to everyone* Oh hoo! This is the time when Charlie had to chase after Vaggie who was also chasing after Angel for doing something stupid back at the hotel.

[They swiped to the next image.]

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: This is Husker. Passed out drunk.

[Then swipes again.]

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: Whoops. *Closes their phone*

Ace: What was that?

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: …My brother giving me the evil scheming eyes. He somehow made the image cursed after Angel dared me to snap a picture of him without noticing. He noticed.

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: *SNIFFS* *SNIFFS* Ugh. You boys reck of sins.

Azul: *Confused* For your information, this is an all-boys school of villains.

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: Yeah, yeah. I know. Somebody around here smells the worst.

[Then another Overblot incident occurs.]

Static Demon!MC/Yuu: AHA! I knew it!

💫Please reblog for more content✨

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your-old-sins-tournament · 2 months

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12 YEAR OLD OCS; SIDE A

Cupid [@onitekka] (she/her)

Cupid is like every normal middle school student, a pink-haired half-vampire totally not crushing on her girl best friend, seemingly born from every weird twelve year olds innate wish: make a video game.

Cupid journeys through the depths of hell to rescue her "girl best friend" (very subtle) from the evil Dark Overlord Xanata, who sealed her best friend into a crystal because she Also wants to be Cupid's "girl best friend".

she boasts a variety of super cool barely vampire related attacks that involve just straight up yelling at enemies! this girl has a sonic screech that can shatter glass, bulletproof bat wings, and a literal gun! you can practically hear angel with a shotgun (nightcore) blasting in the background.

why is the embodiment of love a vampire? because vampires are now ostensibly fallen angels. why is she fighting hell if she's a fallen angel? because it's cool.

Description: A beginner's illustration of Cupid. she has messily coloured short pink hair with two longer strands in the front, red eyes, a fuschia top, and a green skirt. she is also wearing black boots, and part of her bat wings are coloured black as well. there is blood dripping from her mouth.

Ash [@changeling-ash] (she/her)

She is so cool. My little self insert. My baby. Epic powerful magic.

Ash was part of a secret subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens dimutus) which could shapeshift, which she used to grow huge black wings or turn into a black leopard or look like a monster to scare enemies, anything as long as her brain stayed the same size or got denser to fit smaller. When she shapeshifted she would release green and blue fire from the power of the transformation (cause she has lots of copper in her blood that burns green. To protect against cancer, you see. Shapeshifting has lots of cancer risk so copper is sooo important)

She became one by genetic engineering at 15 so the dimutus could get more soldiers and spies for a war with the demon-like psyuedos (child soldier lol). She could come back to life because she had a failsafe that would activate where she would shapeshift away the wound and her brain would jolt back online. The only way to kill a dimutus was to kill the brain.

Like other dimutus, she could also dimension hop, so she'd travel the multiverse, from tv show to tv show or to the universe with dragons or with cool landscapes. She was good with a sword and something called a bladed quarterstaff, which is basically one of those two sided lightsabers but a blade. She was mentored by one of the most powerful dimutus of the war and is super powerful too compared to other dimutus.

Propaganda from the old post

Okay time for my propaganda once more!

Ash is my girl, my baby.

She has TWO dragons. The first one is Flicker, who is strong and agile with black scales and a violet belly. Ash rides on her back and she speaks dragon at her. Her other dragon is Zephyr, who she raised from an egg and he looks like a blue sky with white patches like clouds, and random little flecks of gold scales. He's lithe and fast and so agile. She can summon them from their alternate universes by calling out "Tul Lüg" for Flicker and "Zep-iagh" for Zephyr, and they leap from portals to fight.

She can speak so many languages. The language of Dimutus is actually Modernized Latin. She knows English, Spanish, French, Latin, Italian, ASL, and has the best translators.

She made friends with a shadowy wolf companion called a Shadowlupe who accepted her as part of the pack. She runs with him in hunts as a wolf.

She can do a double backflip. Enough said.

She would fly with huge black wings, it was her favorite thing to do. Knew how to do all the tricks. She is dimension hopping miles in the air just to fall for ages, then fly at breakneck speeds. And she was terrifying in battle, she would dodge and weave and slash as she passed, an airborne killing machine.

She could give herself big springy legs to jump so high and do crazy tricks. She adapted herself to move fast, bounce and parkour her way at insane speeds. She could traverse so well.

She also did normal parkour. It was a fun challenge to try with minimal modifications. Pretended a lot of parkour POV vids were her.

She had two cats trained to infiltrate bases cause they are kitties and can fit through the vents and no one suspects the kitties. Baya was a Bengal and Shadow was a beautiful medium hair black cat.

She could also dimension hop in a way that was like astral projecting. She'd just be floatin, near invisible. She'd keep her wings in that state to pull them from the dimension fast to use them quickly. Her friends would chill there and comment to her while she was doing boring things.

She had a ragtag best friend and copilot partner Katie that was the mostest important person to her. Her brother in arms, her guy in the chair, her support, and Ash was the same to Katie. They were ride or die, and they died a lot for each other. (I basically made a QPP a decade before I myself ended up in one. Probably an early sign I was aro.)

She lost her arm sometimes, and she'd have a badass prosthetic if she couldn't shapeshift it back right away.

So much trauma from being a child soldier will come later. Her future character with me a decade later is somethin.

#cupid #ocs #polls #bracket tournament #old sins #side a #ocs you made when you were 12 tournament #ash

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arrowsperpetualcringe · 4 months

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Okay I might get yeeted for this

Because I love the little mute ink baby as much as anyone else

but let's be so for real

Bendy and the Dark Revival was FUCKING AWFUL.

Like nothing in that game made sense

Complete lack of subtlety to the point everything was fucking CHEEZY

The ink demon has a voice now, are you fucking serious? Just COMPLETELY erasing whatever silent horror the concept of a monster stalking you has, also his voice is so cheesy sounding

and— I feel like they tried to make Batim make sense while simultaneously making the current game make NO sense.

"Joey created a paper dimension to torture Henry endlessly because he felt betrayed in the real world?" Ok sure, I guess that can explain SOME things.

If Joey was so remorseful and moved by Allison's friendship why didn't he just destroy the machine or the dimension he created

Why didn't he move on

Why are we here

Why the fuck does the creepy janitor have access to it.

OH YEAH DON'T GET ME STARTED ON WILSON.

The least subtle villain with the shittest backstory and motive I have EVER seen

This elderly ass man is still so heavily affected by his daddy issues that he creates a cult in this paper dimension, and wants to kill a young woman to make his OC come to life, are you KIDDING me

The reveal of his shit stain of an original character as a plan to save the ink dimension is fucking laughable, LIKE I LITERALLY LAUGHED MY ASS OFF, THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SERIOUS MOMENT?

HELP.

If you think your dad is beyond saving why are you still trying to impress him!!! What is the point of this mister man?!

And it's so infuriating because on the video of Wilson's cutscenes people thing he's such a good villain and I can only pray it's irony because holy shit he is NOT.

I'm a villain enjoyer, but this is just silly.

And the reveal of the protag being Joey's daughter, I...

God...

There are so many reasons why this doesn't work for me, but I think the main one is "this man has been the main villain of the series for how long? He creates this dimension where he dooms his friend and coworkers to eternal suffering, and all of a sudden, off screen, he supposedly turns a new leaf and has a daughter and I'm supposed to GIVE A FUCK"

Maybe I'd care if I didn't find Audrey to be so goddamn boring.

I JUST....

I'M SORRRYYYY, I LIKED BATDR BECAUSE IT'S BENDY AND I LOVE BENDY, BUT LET'S BE SO FUCKING FOR REAL, THIS SHIT IS BAAAAAADDD

#rambling #batim #batdr #bendy and the ink machine #bendy and the dark revival #and this isn't to say you can't enjoy it ofc you can but for me personally? so bad. so fucking bad fr.#i just had to get that off my chest like holy shit :')

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annyankers · 2 years

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also hot take (?): but vampires DO have souls. the creation of a vampire in btvs lore is literally that a demonic essence/spirit/spiritual energy (in this instance a vampiric one and not some other kind of demon) enters a human corpse and parasitically latches on, altering the human corpse to better suit it with an initial burst of spooky evil demon magic (which is part of why i never think any lore that says vampire can't do magic makes sense like, how do you think they even function fam?). it then uses the info and identity of the former inhabitant that's all still locked up in those dead synapses to help it acclimate to the new dimension and build a sense of identity. you can argue that the vampire is not your dead friend but what is a person if not their memories and thoughts? all of which the vampire now shares too. so that's a fun little thing to puzzle on in philosophy class.

vampires in the buffy world are pretty explicitly a manufactured creature built of a demonic essence/entity grafted into a human cadaver which merge to make a new species which is why they're so low on the demon hierarchy. they're the most mongrel-y of all the half-breeds. what is the soul if not a spiritual essence that fuels and motivates the body? the metaphysical component that makes the system complete? what is the vampire of not a perversion of the human condition? does it not then stand that the vampire soul is the twisted mirror of the human one?

the thing is that while this is Kinda Common Sense when you sit down and just look at objectively how the vampire is made it's a dangerous concept in universe and we fall pray to believe the same propaganda built to ensnare our characters.

the slayer was made in almost the exact same process as a vampire only with a living subject-- a demonic essence grafted into a human host. there is no magic leash on a slayer, there are no words that can be chanted to bring her to heel, the watchers have to use standard psychological manipulation to control her. a slayer who realizes that she has more in common with vampires on a fundamental level than she does humans (tho not on a moral or motivation level obvs) is very dangerous to their control and to the concept of "slayer as sheepdog" as a whole. conditioning them to see vampires as animals and not sentient humanoid beings with thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams, who have souls that while demonic are no less valid in their existence then any human one is integral to keeping the machine working and keeping your young emotionally/mentally vulnerable weapon from having a nervous breakdown because she just you know, massacred a whole bunch of people. fangy people, but people none the less.

btvs and the watcher council mentality the main btvs cast is tainted by is incredibly human centric, watch even a little of ats and it becomes glaringly obvious. ats is extremely flawed but one of it's strongest points was letting us see the expanded world of demons and non-human culture. the issue is then that buffy and co come off as rabid human-centrists because of how they talk about vampires and demons as a whole. there's a reason tara didn't want them to know she was half demon when she thought that line was true. the scoobies spout anti-demon rhetoric like it's their jobs. the way they treat anya is horrendous and it's because she has the Taint of demon and neurodivergence coding (which is a whole different kettle so).

the continued talk about spike like he's a subhuman while he's either at their mercy or on their side is galling. you cannot be called the good guys and then treat other sentient creatures like animals and vermin to be killed or mocked for your amusement. full stop. you cannot claim a moral high ground and behave like this which is what the scoobies consistently claim. they believe they are in the moral right and have the moral high ground consistently. when in reality they are pretty fucked up and have done repugnant immoral shit multiple times (hello all the various scoobie caused invasions of personal autonomy!). you can be a protagonist and have uh... Dodgey Morals™ (ex. the punisher) but when you claim you are better because you have better morals but also refuse to see the other side as even worthy of being seen as a truly living creature with like feelings and shit now i'm treating you with contempt.

there are people who will say that buffy was the sole victim of the toxicity that is s6 spuffy but if you believe that you also are tacitly agreeing that her belief that spike is an "it", an animal with no bodily autonomy to respect or feelings to hurt or be manipulated is true. and why? because he's a vampire? he has a soul, a demonic soul. he literally would not exist if a metaphysical entity/force hadn't entered william pratt's fucking corpse and make it theirs. this is an inherently repugnant act and even if we all sit down and agree she did nothing else to contribute to this toxicity she still looked another sentient being who she knew had some kind of feelings for her, used his want and his desperation to abuse herself with and spent the entire time considering him as something between cattle and a lamp. i'm sorry but that's wildly fucked up at it's core and if you can't see that i worry for you.

what if she was dating a nice half-bracken guy and she did all that shit to him? if he tried to stop her from turning herself in for a crime she didn't commit and then beat him bloody and called him an it, a thing, not a person, not real? are you still okay with that because he's a demon? are humans the only species in your eyes with the right to personhood in this universe? do you, like buffy and co, prefer to take the words of a group known to manipulate everything and who treat girls like buffy as things themselves over the evidence you see before your eyes on screen and the actions and words of the demons themselves? buffy's actions towards spike from s4 to s6 are repugnant because they're no longer enemies and she's no longer the council's attack dog but she still refuses to give him the basic decency of personhood.

and you can get into all kinds about shit about how vampires are evil and he's done terrible things and i will not respect you for using any of that to try and say it's okay to treat someone who you relay on or are in any kind of relationship with like they're a thing. otherization and depersonification are tools used to make it "okay" to commit atrocities. for every spike who you say it's "okay" to treat like an animal, there's a harmony who isn't really all that bad and happily switches to bagged blood and integrates pretty peacefully into human society when given the chance. and she will get put right next to spike as an animal to be killed because she doesn't matter. using his past actions to deny him the right of personhood is a lazy tactic to divert the discussion and absolve buffy and co of moral failings.

the nazis are also evil, but i will not deny they are people. doesn't mean i wouldn't take the shot if i had one if i was put in that position. it just means i acknowledge i ended a life that probably meant something to someone. and that's my issue with buffy and co. that's my issue with "vampires are soulless" and buffy's treatment of spike in s6 and how people talk about it. regardless of literally anything else either of them did, denying another sentient being the right to be acknowledged as one while still demanding things from them is inherently a core repugnant act. she is willing to use his feelings and body for her advantage but also refuses to respect them as real and just as valid as hers. again, how would you feel if she treated lorne like this? if she demanded things of him but didn't respect his basic right to be seen as a valid sentient being just like her?

in btvs vampires have souls, demons have souls, and they all deserve the basic decency to have that acknowledged. even by the slayer. especially by the slayer frankly since she is also in her own way One Of Them and if she's going to hunt them down and kill them she can at least acknowledge that she ended a life and didn't just flip an off switch. if you can't get with this whole concept of the validity of non-human life in a universe where the MCs humanity is frequently questioned and the Other and Otherism is frequently a theme then i really am not interested in talking to you.

#meta #gOD THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN I'D PLANNED #but i have VERY strong feelings about this #vampires have souls argue with the wall #no cut we die like men

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gallusrostromegalus · 11 months

Note

Mayuri broke out of hell and his sword is his parole officer??? I need elaboration immediately, I have such a morbid fascination with Mayuri he's my horrifying little torture meow meow

So some important things about Hell in AEIWAM:

I haven't read any of Kubo's newer work and I do not have plans to unless someone can vouch that it's really, really cool

They REALLY don't want anyone to stay there, because Hell is functionally Rehab.

See, the function of Hell in AEIWAM is to act as a sort of repair shop for damaged souls- souls that harm others don't produce as much energy when they move from one plane to another, and prevent other souls from completing their cycles and that's bad for The Life Machine, so it's in The Machine's interest that those harmful souls Stop That ASAP. So in hell, a Soul that has say, done a bunch of murder is meticulously taken apart and examined by Demons, who figure out Why He Did That, and then come up with a treatment program to Make Sure He Doesn't Do That Next Time. Sometimes it's therapy, sometimes it's hard labor to undo the spiritual pollution you caused, sometimes they have to uh. vivisect a soul and remove an unhelpful segment of soul. There's no BAD souls or soul fragments, according to the Demons of Hell- what's dangerous egotism in one person is a healthy level of self-esteem in another person and you just gotta... swap the spiritual organs, as it were. The demons really, really want you to get better!

3. They also don't want you to stick around because Hell has a bit of an overpopulation problem.

See, when the Four-to-Five Noble houses dismembered the Soul King and used parts of his body to black off the spirit world according to political preference rather than any kind of functionality, they tried to block off Hell entirely, perhaps to evade the fate that awaited them.

But they fucked up, and now the only part of Hell that's Blocked is THE EXIT, and it's blocked by God's Divine Ass :/. Now, there is, technically, An Exit built in, as it were, but it's very small compared to the original exit, and now there is a Queue To Get Out.

This has created MANY problems for Hell- The Demons have a running Metric for "Does this soul REALLY need to go to rehab?"*, and even with it stripped down to the most generous assumptions of "this was probably more circumstances than your fault" and most limited definitions of "Harm" and "Danger", there's still a steady stream of souls entering Hell, and it's larger than the stream escaping out. So now the majority population of Hell is Perfectly Fine people who completed their Rehab, but can't leave because the airport is closed.

*The reason soul society doesn't attempt to reunite people in the afterlife is that they actually cannot- who goes where after death is the provenance of Hell, and shinigami don't have any input on the process, save to occasionally herd someone back into the afterlife queue via Konsho.

It's getting. Crowded.

It's getting crowded to the point that Hell is actually starting to Burst at the seams- which is a solution and a problem- these crack represent the dimension literally unravelling, but it's also an opportunity for The Ruler Of Hell to stabilize those cracks and make new exits and move a bit more of that Queue along.

It's during one of these stabilization projects that Mayuri makes his escape.

(Continued under the cut)

The thing is. Mayuri wasn't even in that much trouble! He'd been the Medieval Japanese equivalent of a Fry Cook in life and uh. Poisoned a few people trying out new recpies, mostly involving novel culinary mushrooms. His fault, if you had to pick the main one, was an overabundance of curiousity relative to his sense of caution and a minor problem of not being able to imagine the interiority of others. None of those are EVIL. Dangerous, sure! But entirely fixable! and Mayuri had been quite young when he died because he had gotten a little too curious and tried his latest recipe out himself.

So Mayuri had been assigned to Jizo. In Real Life, Jizo is a pretty cool religious figure- he's the Bohdisattva who's whole thing is that absolutely no-one is incapable of becoming a better person, and refused to achieve Nirvana until all the hells are empty. He's the last guy out when the universe ends, and the particular patron of dead children and orphans. He is associated with caterpillar imagery because he wears a long cloak that all the lost souls of children can take shelter under, and when they all trail out behind him, it looks a bit like he's a centaur with a caterpillar body from all the little legs sticking out from under him.

...Which is why Mayuri's Zanpaktou looks like that.

Jizo seems like a WEIRD spirit to be hanging out with Mayuri imho, unless Jizo was originally Mayuri's Guardian/therapist/parole officer, and Mayuri did something shitty.

I think Mayuri HAD been making a lot of progress in terms of "the scientific process is a PROCESS for a reason" and "Other beings have feelings too" and "Harming others is Bad", and he's a clever lad who could be doing a lot of good if pointed in the right direction, so Jizo advocated for Mayuri to be put on one of the Hell-Crack stabilization teams to give him a good outlet for his restless mind.

Unfortunately for Jizo, he miscalculated how much progress mayuri had actually made vs his desire to not go to rehab, and Mayuri pulled some sort of stunt that bound Jizo to a sword like an Asauchi, and absconded with him to the Spirit world through the crack, promptly got arrested for More Science Crimes in spirit world, got sent to the Maggots Nest, and eventually caught the attention of Urahara, who saw the Chemistry Brilliance of Mayuri and exactly NONE of the Red Flags.

As it stands Mayuri is... Sort-of the captain of the 12th division.

Sure, on paper he's The Captain, he gets to wear the Haori and has to go to the meetings, but R&D is only a fraction of what the 12th actually does- rememer, Urahara is the guy that STARTED Research and Development. Before that, I think the 12th division was 100% devoted with being the gotei-13's SUPPLIER- food, uniforms, medicine manufacture, weapons repair, gigai, soul candy, maps, communicators- if you got it for work, it was made in the 12th division.

I think Mayuri is aware of maybe 12% of what his division actually does, because the people who are in charge of manufacture were around before Urahara, took one look at that man and went "...Nah" and started quietly Not Telling Him About Things. When Mayuri took over, they went "Absolutely Not" and have been engaged in a century-long farce to prevent the captain of the 12th from knowing what his division actually does. Fortunately for them, it's extremely easy to lie to Mayuri. He's a suspicious bastard, but he LOVES good news, especially the kind of news that is good because it means he doesn't have to go to another boring-ass meeting. So things are JUST FINE down in manufacture, your latest improvements were TOTALLY IMPLEMENTED and are going GREAT. Everyone remarks on how much better the MREs are since we started adding live beetles to them Sir. Your Genius is Much Praised- Whoops Is That The Time? Gotta Go- the science never stops!

He's going to run into a bit of a stumbling block in Las Noches though. Not Sayzel, though Sayzel doesn't help. He's going to run into the consequences of a Former Experiment that are REAL FUCKIN' MAD AT HIM. No, not Uryuu, though Uryuu is FAR FROM PLEASED. Mayuri is going to have to face the consequences of a much worse experiment- one based on the procedures of disassembling and reassembling souls he learned while he was in Hell. Mayuri will have to face The Wrath Of Kon

#AEIWAM #an elephant is warm and mushy #Bleach #Bleach fanfic #bleach mayuri #mayuri kurotsuchi #jizo #Bleach Kon #yes that is a pun :)

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grailfinders · 1 year

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Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #15: V1

today on Grailfinders it’s our first Viewers’ Choice build in Pathfinder 2e, V1 from Ultrakill! the long and short is: he robot, he go to hell, he shoot everything there. he’s like the Doomguy, if the Doomguy ate hell as he went. or if the Doomguy had an official dakimakura of him in a schoolgirl’s uniform.

yeah, Ultrakill gets weird at times. anyways, V1’s a Pistolero Gunslinger to pull of sick trickshots with his pistol, but he’s also getting the Sterling Dynamo dedication to pick up some extra literal arms from his brother and he’s an Occult Witch to pick up some figurative arms from hell.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

unlike wotc, Paizo realized that there’s more than one kind of robot in the world, so we actually have some choice this time around. that being said, we’re making V1 an Automaton, both for its combat capabilities and because it too is the last vestiges of a dying civilization. You get a stat boost in Strength and one ability of your choice like Dexterity, and you also gain access to Low-Light Vision. as Something Wicked taught us many painful times, V1 does not have true darkvision. because of your Automaton Core, you’re not really a construct, and can be healed and damaged like a normal humanoid. while that removes some resistances and immunities, it also means you won’t instantly die at 0 HP, so checks and balances.

on the plus side, you still have a Constructed Body, so you don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep. you still need to take a long rest, but you’re not unconscious for the 2 hours it takes. really frees up the ol’ calendar for some speedrun practice.

while your punches are pretty powerful, this is a first-person shooter, so you’re starting off as a Sharpshooter Automaton. this gives you the Automaton Aim action, reducing the accuracy penalty for firing your gun at a longer range. trust me, nobody wants to be up close and personal with a Sisyphean Insurrectionist.

if you do fight in close quarters, you’re going to want something better than a regular old fist to fight with, right? the Automaton Armament you get gives you a Claw attack, dealing slashing damage and using your dexterity to aim.

at level 5, your Arcane Safeguards let you Resist Magic as a reaction, adding +1 to your save against a spell, and also increasing the odds of a critical success against arcane spells. most of your adventure is in hell, so failing against a plane shift would be really awkward.

at level 9 your wings finally do something, thanks to Arcane Propulsion. once a day, you can fly for up to five minutes. I know you technically can’t fly in Ultrakill, but have you seen some of those speedruns? you can fly enough.

at level 13 you get a Rain of Bolts, letting you fire shrapnel in either a cone or in a circle around you once per day. man, that minigun has a worse recharge time than I remembered…

at level 17 your Astral Blink gives you sick gamer reflexes, so you can Dimension Door once an hour at 4th level. grappling hooks- always cool.

oh, and of course you’re a Warrior. not much else for a literal killing machine to be, really. boosts to Constitution and Dexterity, training in Intimidation, and the Intimidating Glare feat. I don’t think V1 even has a mouth, so this’ll help a lot.

Levels

1. okay, first up the proficiencies: trained in Will saves and Class DCs, Unarmed, Simple, and Martial attacks, as well as Unarmored, Light, and Medium defense. you start off trained in Occultism, Acrobatics and Religion to fight demons and know what you’re fighting, and as you level up your intelligence you get training in Athletics, Arcana, Medicine, and Diplomacy. you’re an expert in Perception, Fortitude and Reflex saves, as well as Simple and Martial firearms and crossbows. we’d prefer firearms, but if you gotta fit in, you gotta fit in.

as for your actual level, your Key Ability as a gunslinger is Dexterity. you also get an Ability Boost off the bat for some more Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. be prepared for 0 boosts to Charisma, V1 just straight-up does not talk.

if you get attacked, you can Hit the Dirt! and leap out of the way, giving you a bonus to your AC and knocking you prone when you land. that’s a combat slide baby!

you’re also trained in the Way of the Pistolero, training you in Deception (though I still want to use Intimidation as the way skill), and giving you a Raconteur’s Reload. that means you can demoralize or create a diversion and reload in the same action!

you can also move Ten Paces as a free action when combat starts. you get a plus 2 to the initiative roll, and you can draw your pistol at the same time. you can also step up to 10’ away as a free action at the start of your first turn.

your Singular Expertise gives you a +1 bonus to all damage from firearms and crossbows, at the cost of reducing your proficiency with other weapons. they’re all trained, and they can’t be improved until your gun skills do. it’s not a huge deal since you don’t use that many regular weapons anyway, but it’s something to keep in mind if you intend to modify this build at home.

2. a level 2 you can make a timely Pistol Twirl as an action to feint an opponent nearby. if you succeed they’re flat-footed against your ranged and melee attacks, if you critically fail, you’re flat-footed against all their attacks. it’s not quite a charged shot, but you’re more likely to get a critical hit, so I’ll count it.

you can also Cat Fall, reducing all your falling damage. I don’t think Ultrakill even has fall damage, right? Either you live or you don’t.

I guess we’re facing off against V2 now, since you’re already getting your Sterling Dynamo dedication. with this, you can replace a limb or add a new one, though you can’t get an extra hand this way. yes, sadly we won’t be quadruple-wielding this build. I know, now it’s unplayable.

the good news is that it’s silver, so it deals extra damage against devils, and the Power Driver Dynamo you get deals more damage (a d8) than your stock hand while also shoving creatures around. You have to keep a hand free to use this, but you’re not really getting any two-handed weapons anyway. The one other downside is you need to keep the whole thing wound up, spending a minute to wind it for the next 24 hours. this doesn’t sound bad, but enemies can disable the thing to cut down the timer, and later you’ll get abilities that spend windup time. there’s a reason most of your fights only last a few minutes.

3. at third level you become Fleet, giving you an extra 5’ of movement speed. it’s no monk movement, but that does speed you up enough to change your leap to a max of 15’ in a go. you’re also better at Occultism now. it’s not useful yet, but you need to know a lot about hell in order to get down there. without dying, I mean. getting to hell is real easy if you don’t mind being stuck down there.

you’re also Stubborn, improving your Will Saves and you can save more often against being controlled. I doubt there’s that many people in hell with 1337 hacker skillz, but it’s better safe than sorry, y’know?

4. at level four you kind of get your shotgun, allowing you to perform a Black Powder Boost. Whenever you leap, you can spend some ammo to go an extra 10’. so yes, now you can move as much as most player characters can in an action as a reaction. you’re not super-fast, but god are you hard to pin down.

when you land without taking damage, you can make a Rolling Landing as a reaction to step away from your landing point. this will also improve as your acrobatics does- as an expert you can stride up to half your speed, as a master you can move at full speed, and as a legend you don’t trigger reactions.

finally, you tinker around with v2’s arm a bit to make it a Modular Dynamo. I’m sure he won’t mind. now you can swap your power driver for Entangling Barbs or vice-versa as an action, giving you a short-range grappling hook for enemies. we’ll get the real one later, don’t worry.

5. at level five you get another Ability Boost in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. your Gunslinger Weapon Mastery bumps up your proficiency with all your weapons, and you’re an expert in Acrobatics for better movement tech.

6. at level six we finally get a shotgun proper thanks to Scatter Blast. I mean you can always just buy a shotgun (and you need to for this action to work) but now it’s Ultrakill-tier, with a longer range and a wider scatter shot. it even explodes now! directly on you, with a critical failure! this is why most people don’t punch their own guns.

you become an Underwater Marauder, preventing you from being flat-footed while swimming, and you can use your fists without penalty. hey, the water level’s going to happen eventually, might as well prepare for it.

you can also Piston Punch with v2’s arm, attacking two creatures at the same time at the cost of two actions and an hour of winding.

7. at level seven you can Skitter while prone, crawling up to half your speed when you move. it’s hard to match Ultrakill’s movement in a turn-based game, but at least you can slide around wherever you want now.

you’re also a master in Acrobatics now, giving you even more space to move around with, and your Vigilant Senses make you a master in Perception. finally, your Weapon Specialization adds extra damage to all the weapons you specialize in. currently, that’s a +3 to most firearms, and a +2 to your unarmed attacks.

8. at level eight you can Leap and Fire when you hit the dirt, letting you take a shot at whoever triggered the reaction mid-leap. this is about as close as we’re getting to a true parry system, but you deal more damage with your guns anyway, so… close enough.

we’re not done upgrading your reactionary dodges though, since with Kip Up you can stand from prone as a free action without triggering attacks. now you can finally boost dodge, something you could do since… the first level in-game. this is going a bit out of order, sorry about that.

we also finally get your Witch Dedication, which will let us start filling out the rest of your arsenal. we’re picking an Occult patron, since that’s probably what devils count as, right? At least I assume it’s some kind of devil leaving guns all over the place in hell…

you get trained in occult spellcasting, and you also get trained in Survival. to be honest, most of these skills aren’t really something we need for the build- turns out a silent murder machine isn’t that complicated. still, we had to pick something.

as a witch, you get a familiar, which is basically a living spellbook. they come packed with a couple cantrips, but you can only pick one per day, so we’re only going over one or two spells per level. Warp Step will greatly increase your speed, giving you an extra five feet of movement for a turn and letting you stride or fly twice as part of the two-action spell. if you’d rather focus on looking cool, Musical Accompaniment will give you that sweet sweet Ultrakill soundtrack in the background, giving you a +1 bonus to performance checks for a minute, and possibly some other checks as well, as deemed appropriate by your DM. all this comes at a cost to your stealth checks, which- yeah, duh. it’s hard to sneak with a boombox on your back

9. at ninth level your advanced deed, Pistolero’s Retort unlocks. with this, you can react to someone nearby critically failing an attack on you to take a shot on them. again, not quite a parry, but the spirit is there.

you also have Gunslinger Expertise, which does what you’d think, and you’re now a master in Occultism. we’re still not at the point where we can invade hell yet, but we’ll get something nice next level for your trouble.

10. finally, tenth level is here! bump up your Strength Dexterity Constitution and Intelligence again, then grab Deflecting Shot to parry a wider range of attacks- if a nearby ally would get hit, you can fire a shot to add 2 to their AC. and don’t worry, you’ll know if the +2 will make a difference, since you can use this after the attack is declared.

your sliding also gets boosted thanks to Nimble Crawl. Currently, it’s the same as skittering, but as you improve in acrobatics, you can crawl at full speed, and as a legend you won’t even be flat-footed, allowing you to finally have a proper shootout sliding around like a greased pig, just the way god intended.

you also get access to Basic Witch Casting, giving you one spell slot per day for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells. Gravitational Pull is a first level spell that pulls a creature up to 20 feet closer to you if they fail a fortitude save, knocking them prone on a critical failure. sadly, this doesn’t pull you towards them on a success, but that would be cool, huh? you could also grab a Kinetic Ram to push creatures away from you like v2’s arm should.

for your second level spell, Inner Radiance Torrent is a must have for your railgun. you can spend two actions to two rounds on this spell, making it either a 60’ or 120’ line. if you spend two whole turns charging it up, you deal extra damage and irradiate yourself for a minute. you can also Shatter for your shotgun’s alt fire.

finally, your third level spells! Vampiric Touch is a must-have, finally letting you drink the blood of your enemies for healing! you deal negative damage to an enemy in melee range, gaining temporary HP out of the deal for 1 minute. you can also grab Ghostly Weapon to fight Mindflayers. I think they’re ghosts? I don’t know.

11. eleventh level gunslingers get Evasion, mastering your reflex saves and improving your successes with them. you can also Siphon Life by spending two actions now! I know you have to get dropped to 0 HP by a negative enemy first, but I mean. it’s hell. there’s going to be negative enemies there. and if you’ve managed to do a deathless run of Ultrakill so far, that’s as impressive as it is unlikely.

still, this means you can deal extra negative damage when you punch a living creature, forcing a fortitude save against them and healing you based on how much damage takes.

you’re also more Athletic now, congrats.

12. at level twelve, your Ricochet Shot finally lets you bounce a bullet off a coin to ignore cover. I know this is the second gun you get in the game, but to be fair you don’t have to buy it right away.

you can also Quick Jump, so now your black powder boosts can be added to your High and Long jumps as well, while also packaging everything into one action.

finally, you take a Basic Lesson in Witchcraft, learning the Lesson of Calamity. you learn the Stumbling Curse hex to mess around with your enemy’s movement via creative usage of grappling hooks, while your familiar learns Ill Omen. if their target fails a will save, they get disadvantage on at least one attack roll or skill check next turn. this way you can still mess around with the grappling hook, even if your enemy is too heavy to move that often.

13. at lucky level 13 you become a Gunslinging Legend, improving your training with all weapons once more. you also gain Medium Armor Expertise, improving your armor training. you’re also an expert in Intimidation now. I mean you can basically intimidate for free every time you reload, you might as well be good at it, right?

14. as a 14th level gunslinger you can perform a Dance of Thunder, spending all three of your actions to just viciously abuse the action economy. You can now step, strike a nearby enemy, and reload, repeating the three actions each time you successfully hit your target up to two more times. all this comes at the cost of making your fatigued for a minute afterwards, reducing your AC and saves, but it won’t matter much if your enemies are all dead, right?

you know what we need? better boosts. with Powerful Leap, your leaps can move five feet vertically, or an extra five feet horizontally. that means you can now move further than most people can move in an action as a reaction, shoot the guy who tried to attack you, and finish it all off standing. now I’m pretty confident we’re matching ultrakill in terms of movement. maybe not the weird momentum stuff, but we’ve still got six levels to go.

you also learn some Expert Witch Spellcasting, improving your occult spell training and giving you a fourth and fifth level spell now, with a sixth level spell to come. with your fourth level slot, we can finally use everyone’s favorite weapon, the drill! Dimension Anchor can keep an enemy from teleporting for up to an hour, but if you’d rather have a bunch of blood and damage the Vampiric Maiden can help out. it deals damage, gives you temporary HP, and can immobilize an enemy for a round.

for your fifth level spell, grab Repelling Pulse to really knock a creature around and deal damage at the same time.

15. another Ability Boost, this time into Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom to shake things up. you also become a Titan Wrestler, allowing you to shove and grapple creatures up to two sizes larger. I’m pretty sure this means King Minos is still out of your weight class, but I’m sure we’ll figure out some way to parry him later.

you now have a Grim Swagger while wielding your gun, making an intimidation check against the will dcs of all creatures in 30’, frightening them or making them flee on a success. I know it’s tempting to use an Ultrakill meme for this, but fight the urge! you can do it, I believe in you.

you also have a Greater Weapon Specialization, and the greatest skill in Acrobatics. you now take no falling damage from any height, can move up to 30’ when you hit the ground without causing an attack, and you can slide around at full speed with no downside.

16. at level 16 you can parry ranged attacks with an Instant Return, catching a bullet out of the air and firing it back at the poor son of a bitch who tried to shoot you.

you’re also better with speed tech now thanks to Aerobatics Mastery helping you maneuver in flight.

you can also use Murksight to see through fog, mist, rain, and snow. you’re just as accurate in Wrath as you are anywhere else, and given how much blood you get on you on a daily basis, that probably counts as rain too.

you also get that sixth level spell slot I was talking about. Suspended Retribution lets you get a real counterattack off if you read your target right. You pick a specific trigger, and then for the next minute the target will take 70 points of damage whenever they activate the spell, though they can also waste a whole turn to remove it. either you restrict the enemy’s attack pattern, or you get a free turn. either way, a fun spell.

17. you’re now a Juggernaut, making you a master of Fortitude and improving your successful saves. robots! pretty tough. they should make armies out of the things.

your Shootists Edge makes you a master of your Class DC, and your mastered firearms can now completely ignore the range penalty when firing them. that’s the great thing about robot gunslingers- no breathing or heartbeats to affect their aim. you’re also Legendary in Occultism now- it’s a secret tool that’ll help us later.

18. it’s later! you now know Master Witch Spellcrafting, improving your spell power again and giving you a seventh level spell! there’s just one we want this time- the spell Plane Shift. Now you can finally invade hell, just like you always wanted! So I guess we haven’t played any of the game yet? Kind of makes sense, Hell is a tough place to invade. don’t ask where we got the arm though.

you can also use Bizarre Magic to make it harder for people to recognize or identify spells you cast. turns out, it’s hard to translate binary on the fly, who knew?

you can now Reach for the Stars when you use a black powder boost. for each dose of power or piece of ammunition spent, you can add another 10’ to your leap, up to five times in a single jump. that means you can leap up to 80’ as a reaction, changing direction with each piece of black powder used. now we have matched Ultrakill in terms of stupid momentum bullshit.

19. for your 19th level, your True Perception gives you a permanent True Seeing spell. now you see the world for what it truly is, a… visual novel? weird. you can get that thanks to your Incredible Senses making you legendary in perception. you also have Medium Armor Mastery, improving your armor training to master. you’re also a master in Intimidation now. I know this isn’t as ridiculous as last level, but I wanted you to have plenty of time to enjoy blowing yourself up.

20. finally, you hit level 20. you get one last Ability Boost in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom, and your Slinger’s Reflexes give you an extra reaction each turn for counterattacks.

now that you’ve filled out the in-game encyclopedia, you have Assured Identification, making it easier to identify magic. thank god.

one last thing before you go- you learn the Lesson of Death as your final witchy bonus. sure, the Curse of Death is cool, dealing tons of damage and killing an enemy in 3-4 rounds, but the real reason we’re here is so your familiar can learn Raise Dead, because Gabriel knows you aren’t getting through this game without it.

oh right, one last thing before the pros and cons- your eighth level spell, Devour Life. force a fortitude save on a target, dealing 60 negative damage and healing you for half that in real HP. excess is temporary, and if this takes a target to 0 HP they instantly die. simple, effective, and very, very bloody.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

your positioning on the battlefield is super important in Pathfinder, and V1 is one of the best builds we’ve done to date when it comes to controlling his own position as well as his enemy’s. He’s relatively fast, can slide around and fly, and most importantly he can move reactively, which saves his actions for attacking while also giving him a better idea of where to move, and that’s all before we talk about how he can push and pull enemies like he’s taking their turns for them.

He’s also great at abusing the Action Economy, with Hit the Dirt effectively giving him an extra move and attack action from pretty early on in the build, plus his Dance of Thunder letting him take three turns in one go to cap off a fight.

a lot of times, damage focused characters have issues with longevity, especially when it comes to healing themselves. V1 does not have that problem, with his vampirism allowing him to patch himself up without losing out on damage.

Cons:

unlike Ultrakill, you have limited ammunition in Pathfinder. maybe. obviously it depends on your DM, but when you’re using five bullets per reaction they’re going to cut you off eventually. you also have limited ammo in terms of your spells- only having one slot per level seriously limits how often you can cast stuff.

you’re great in combat, but you’re practically a dead fish when it comes to socialization. you have almost no skills except for threatening people, and even then you have the lowest charisma score possible. there’s a reason you’re a silent protagonist. and alone.

a lot of your abilities don’t become useful right away. we barely use intimidation at all, and your occultism uses up a lot of skill improvements despite the fact that we use it for almost nothing beyond unlocking spells in the second half of the build.

#ultrakill #pathfinder 2e #pf2e #v1 #gunslinger #witch #sterling dynamo

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inkdemonapologist · 1 year

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Howdy, do you think Joey wrote dctl? Maybe this is obvious but I just had a big lightbulb moment bout it. Idk I think it’d be nice if they confirmed who all was in there since there’s at least 2 real world people who got put into the cycle in batdr and according to dctl so would Sammy and Buddy if we take it at face value. If it is part of the elaborate revenge fanfic that’s chill but you’re smart with this stuff and I feel like I’m missing something. -Love, long term follower hiding in anon

Omg, thank you for the kind words anon!

So, I’m sure it would be possible to interpret this all kinds of ways, but my primary feeling on the books, in light of the revelation of “in the canon of BatDR Henry is an inky construct created by Joey and BatIM takes place in a pocket dimension,” is that we have no reason to believe the books aren’t intended as real accounts. Like… JDS historically existed in the real world of BatDR. The Ink Machine is real to humans outside the cycle in BatDR.

If we assume the books are genuine accounts in the world of this franchise, that DCTL really happened and the Ink Demon really existed – that would track with Memory Joey’s statement that Joey Drew “created life” when the demon came to be. Audrey and Baby Bendy are able to exist in the real world just fine in BatDR, so there’s reason to believe the Ink Machine can actually make IRL 3D toons like we always thought it could.

But there ARE things to question.

Did Buddy... actually end up in the cycle? Did Sammy even end up in the cycle? Or was Joey just inspired by real events and real people when he made the cycle as his torture dimension for Henry? Mister Drew likely knew what happened to Sammy and Buddy – he was directly involved with Buddy, and knew about Sammy skulking around murdering folks – so maybe when he created the ink construct versions, he based them on a true story. We’ve suspected that the Boris we meet thought he was once something else, but it's also possible that the real reason he doesn’t remember his human self anymore is because he’s an imperfect copy created by a man who never really knew Buddy that well – there’s no actual human self to remember.

Narratively, it’s a bit of a scorched earth approach to making inconsistencies make sense, bUT IT DOES DO THAT… BatIM Sammy begging the demon to set him free from an inky body he hates seems sorta at-odds with DCTL Sammy chugging 50 bottles of ink because he believes the demon wants him to and smiling happily at the results, and I have to admit, “they’re not the same person; Joey just made that first person up” has a stronger argument in BatDR canon than “Sammy completely changed his mind for reasons we don’t get to see and must invent for ourselves.” In that light, the distinctions between the two become interesting – in DCTL, Sammy indirectly calls the demon a god, but doesn’t have the same worshipful, religious language in the way he speaks of it. He’s not desperate to be noticed; he believes he’s been chosen already and is acting on given instructions… so what if all of BatIM Sammy’s desire to be noticed and overtly religious language were added by Joey? After reading TIoL, I commented on how suspiciously on-the-nose Joey’s “who does a god worship” conversation with Sammy felt… well, that makes a lot of sense if the BatIM version of Sammy was actually created by Joey! That’s what he wanted to see in Sammy, and so that’s the Sammy he constructed. Also it’s kind of funny if Joey looked at an employee who seemed to be going mad from an actual cosmic horror experience just offscreen and was like “lets make a version of this guy for the cycle and make him a real loser, just the most pathetic man. Also buff.”

Imo, it’s entirely possible that every single character we meet in BatIM could be a copy, though some, like Sammy and Susie, could really go either way with the evidence we have – there’s not a conclusive answer (I guess we’ll see if Fade To Black gives us any additional evidence one way or another, haha). But whether the cycle contains any human souls at all, or just Joey’s created copies based on real events and how he imagines they would’ve turned out, the books can still be real accounts of things that happened in the world of Bendy.

And while I guess there’s no direct PROOF THE BOOKS DEFINITELY HAPPENED, there’s a few reasons I prefer to believe they did:

If the books didn’t happen in the world of Bendy, they actually are pointless as far as their effect on the world. BatIM’s characters may be copies, but they’re still aware, sapient beings who exist; they’re still real and a story about them is still a story that really takes place in the world. Everything we see happening to Ink Henry in BatIM really happened, even if it happened in another dimension, to an inhuman man who never really worked for JDS. But if DCTL and TLO were just stories made up by Joey, then they aren't real and they’d have no impact on the world at all.

Why would Joey invent these stories? Henry has no access to these books, and the reason Joey created the world of the cycle was, according to Memory Joey, somewhere between revenge and regret, angry at his failures and blaming Henry, creating a world that told his messed-up story in order to punish his partner for not being there to stop him from destroying himself. DCTL would not really add to this.

I don’t think Joey could write DCTL. Joey grew up in humble circumstances, but I don’t think he knows the kind of poverty Buddy experienced and I don’t think he’s self-aware enough about that privilege to write it, to write its emotional consequences. I don’t think the man who obliviously smooth-talked himself into believing he was always destined to be successful can write this kid who’s so deeply angry and ashamed at society’s injustice after eating a meal in a restaurant.

TL;DR:

As far as I can tell, it’s still possible for DCTL and TLO (and, obviously TIoL, though I think that one's less in question lmao) to be real accounts in the world of BatDR, but that doesn’t mean that characters who suffered inky fates necessarily ended up in the cycle. We know that the Allison, Tom, and Henry of the cycle are all inky constructs, but characters like Sammy and Malice and Boris are up to interpretation – there’s clearly meant to be an implication that they could have been human once, but whether they’re copies like Ink Henry with misplaced memories, or the actual original transformed human souls, we don’t know. The originals of Sammy and Susie especially could Just Be Dead (as is now implied with Norman), with Joey making up an alternate ending for them in the cycle. I don’t see any compelling reason to believe that DCTL was invented by Joey, nor is there any real reason for Joey to write this story.

Anyway i hope somewhere in this absurd essay I’ve answered the question you asked. xD I don’t think this is the definitive interpretation – you can decide all the books are, in-world, complete fiction if you want, and I don’t think any evidence contradicts you. This isn’t even the interpretation I’d pick to play with every time -- I like playing with the idea that everyone in the Cycle is a copy, and I consider it to have strong evidence in canon, but there's still something really compelling about folks in the Cycle genuinely being transformed employees whose existence tells us an indirect story about the fate of the studio. Ultimately a lot of things could go either way, but this is kinda, a few of my thoughts on the evidence we’ve got.

#'is everyone a copy or not' is the biggest reason i like having a concept of like #BatIM-canon vs BatDR-canon #batdr #bendy and the dark revival #we all write on the walls #dctl #i know you have questions you always do #the books technically contribute details to the thing that breaks the timeline but the actual thing that broke the timeline was the tours #i think the JDS tours and Allison working for Archgate are the two most difficult-to-reconcile details in terms of the timeline as a whole

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