#out of context this is me after I've let someone else order for me out of indecisiveness

[bird-inacage]

Only Friends: How Mew criticises Ray VS How Sand criticises Ray

Something I've really noticed since Episode 4 is the increasing distinction between how Mew and Sand school Ray. The scenes in Episode 6 and Episode 7 provide a perfect point of comparison. Both Mew and Sand use the phrase 'love yourself' towards Ray but the tone and delivery is completely different.

Unsurprisingly, what Ray desperately needs in his life is a mother figure. Someone who can be firm and stern when necessary but still caring at the same time. Sand's approach feels better suited to Ray in this respect.

Sand starts by acknowledging that Ray's hurting but it doesn't excuse his behaviour and it isn't going to stop Sand from calling it out. He makes sure to explain why it's problematic, why it's hurtful, why it's dangerous. Sand's words are driven by concern. He's even worried about the guilt Ray would have to shoulder if he did hurt anyone else.

Whereas in the scene with Mew, he makes immediate assumptions (I still maintain that Ray was not high here, he looked pretty darn sober throughout the bathroom scene to me), but that's where Mew's mind goes. His question "why don't you love yourself at all?" implies that Ray doesn't have any self-respect to take care of himself, and so what he's saying sounds driven by disappointment. Mew's tone also carries an air of exasperation, 'I've told you again and again'. @thatgirl4815 does a great job of commenting on Mew's attitude towards Ray in Episode 6 (here).

After Sand has said what he needs to say, he still doesn't want Ray to feel too bad. Sand's little pat on Ray's knee is an attempt to soften the blow, paired with a slightly helpless feeling of, 'I just want what's best for you'.

Now let's observe how Ray reacts when schooled.

Ray may not always implement the stern talking to he's getting, but you can tell that when with Sand, Ray is listening. He doesn't try to deflect, retort or dodge. He usually looks guilty. Guilt suggests remorse. Which means you realise what you've done is wrong. Whereas Ray's initial reaction to Mew is slight shock. This is the biggest indication to me that Ray wasn't getting high here. When he finally responds to Mew, it's brushed off with a laugh - 'yeah, yeah, I'm fine, it's nothing, no matter' - it doesn't seem like any of what Mew's said has really sunk in, just that Ray doesn't want him to dwell on this point any further.

How Mew delivers his pep talk feels authoritative, 'I told you to quit using drugs' (and you didn't listen). Your mistake is not taking my advice. On the other hand, Sand never once says anything along the lines of, 'I told you so, I warned you, I tried to stop you'. It's not about Ray following his orders, it's Sand providing Ray with the context to hopefully avoid making reckless decisions for himself in future.

Mew seems to have accepted Ray's inability to change, and his criticisms are merely a matter of routine at this point. Whereas Sand seems genuinely driven to encourage Ray to do better for both the sake of himself and others around him.

#only friends #only friends the series #ofts #only friends meta #ray x sand #sand x ray #raysan #sanray #mewray #raymew #khaotung thanawat #first kanaphan #book kasidet #sand was definitely giving mother hen vibes this episode #uh gotta love it when the parallels be parallelling

[bellezaycafe]

Get Your Shit Together - Chapter 5

genre: 2024 Season AU

pairing: Romantic! oc x someone ;) . platonic! oc x literally the whole grid.

warnings: lots swearing, mentions of the accident, stitches, alcohol. mentions of crimes.

context: Dude, if you don't know the context, go read the other parts. Here's the masterlist.

----$----

Five Months Later...

"Are you sure, mate?" Max Fewtrell asked as they stepped into the restaurant.

"Danny said it was the best bet," Lando assured him, shrugging.

"Danny isn't from Melbourne, he's from Perth," Max noted.

"Let's just have dinner, bro. We'll be fine even if we are recognised."

It didn't take long for them to be seated and, as soon as Max realised they weren't going to be waited upon, ordered their meals at the register.

"That's new," Lando commented when they returned to their seats.

"It's a small place," Max replied, observing everyone around them. "The locals seem pretty used to it."

Lando shrugged again and began to talk about upcoming Quadrant content. They had proposed a race with Daniel and Oscar around Melbourne, now that it was the off-season.

"Daniel seemed pretty keen, Oscar -" Lando trailed off.

His mind had gone blank, everything stopped by the memory gripping him.

Her voice.

"Thanks, Damon. Let me know if you need it back," she said to a coworker.

Lando's head snapped up, looking across a staircase to the opposite bar area. There she was, pouring a beer, dark brown hair pulled into a high ponytail and eye crinkled from her smile. She said something to the customer, some old crusty white man and laughed at whatever his response was.

Lando couldn't hear anything Max was saying, couldn't feel him nudge his shoulder.

"It's her," he whispered.

"Love at first sight isn't a thing, Lando," Max joked as he turned around.

"No, dumbass. I- I think it's Sadie." Lando shoved his shoulder.

Max turned back to him, dumbfounded. He had never met Sadie but knew exactly who she was. Throughout his recovery, Lando hadn't shut up about her and what she'd done for him. He'd tried to find her, but two weeks after the accident, she left the UK and no one had been able to find her since.

Lewis had even tried to find her, and was unsuccessful.

"Are you sure, mate? She had a helmet on."

"I just heard her talk. I saw her face at Albert Park. I think- I think it's her."

Her voice echoed in his head; I've got you now.

Keep going, pretty boy.

You're going to be okay.

In the blur of the accident and his trip to hospital, she was what he remembered. Her voice, her reassurance, her warm eyes.

"Mate, you're staring." Max waved a hand in front of Lando's eyes.

"I- Max, I think it's her." Lando repeated.

Their food came, a chicken carbonara from Lando and fish and chips for Max.

"Can I get you anything else?"

Max kicked Lando under the table as he said, "no, thank you," with a smile.

Lando dragged his eyes away from the woman across the room. "Thanks," he muttered.

The older woman smiled, politely said "have a lovely night," and left.

Lando tucked into his food and tried to listen to Max. He couldn't stop glancing, trying to work out if it was Sadie. He needed a closer look at her eyes, her reassuring eyes.

Those deep brown eyes that had said we are okay while she had a piece of his car in her leg.

"Hi there, how's the food?" a server asked. He was tall, and standing between the bar area and their table. His green eyes were watching Lando carefully.

"Great," Max said. "Thank you."

"Actually," Lando said, ignoring another kick from Max. "The barteneder over there, what's her name?"

"Uhh, that is Sadie." The sever said, looking over his shoulder.

Max and Lando shared a look and Lando's hand began to shake. He couldn't place whether it was nerves or anticipation.

"Thank you," Lando murmured, his eyes not leaving Max's face.

The server walked away with a tense smile.

"You sound creepy, you know that right?" Max groaned.

"It's her!" he whisper-yelled.

"You don't know that for sure. Finish your food."

Lando rolled his eyes and stabbed a chip with his fork.

----$----

“Sads.” Damon, tapped her shoulder. “I don’t want to scare you but there’s a guy at a bistro table asking about you. Molly said he’s been looking at you all night.”

Sadie groaned. “Ugh, men. What table?”

“Four.”

She stepped to the side, into and where she could view of table four, and froze.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” She whispered, as if he’d hear her.

Damon pulled her back out of sight. “You know him?”

Shit, she scolded herself. Get yourself out of this one, Sadie.

Sadie hadn’t told anyone from work the real way she had been injured, just that she had been in an accident that weekend.

“Remember how I had to take an extra three weeks off that mid-year annual leave?” she whispered to Damon.

“Yeah, car accident right?”

“Well-“ she drew the word out. “I wasn’t actually in a car. I was hit while trying to get him off the, uh, road.”

Road, not racetrack. Road.

Sadie couldn’t risk Damon figuring out that it had been her in that viral video. The less people that knew, the less people who could tell the media circus where to find her. The less danger she'd be in.

“What?” Damon’s face was scrunched in a frown.

“Ah, it’s hard to explain.” She waved off any further questions. “Can you watch the bar for me? I’m gonna go say hi.”

Damon nodded as Sadie stepped past him, more confidence in her stride than in her heart.

She managed to avoid Lando Norris and his gaze on her way to the kitchen. She thanked Molly, the supervisor, the noticing his behaviour and keeping an eye on him.

That was when she decided to surprise him.

Max Fewtrell, who had sat across from Lando, saw Sadie first.

She shook her head. Let me surprise him, she tried to say.

Max, understanding in his eyes, ignored her.

Lando wore no moonboot or ankle brace. Sadie wondered if the fracture reports were true.

"I see the ankle healed nicely," she quipped. "What about the concussion?"

He spun, almost falling out of his chair, and leapt to his feet. Lando wrapped his arms around Sadie with no hesitation. She was glad the tables nearby were empty.

"Oh shit," he murmured into her ear. "It is you. I was right, it's you."

He'd trapped Sadie's arms by her sides and Max laughed at her awkward attempt to hug Lando back.

He pulled back, but kept his hands on her shoulders, as if she'd vanish if he let go.

Fair enough, she mused silently. I disappeared once, what's to say I won't do it again.

"Mate, what are you doing here?" She asked seriously.

He gestured to the table. "Having dinner, I didn't know you worked here."

"Jesus, of all the coincidences to happen," Sadie muttered under her breath then said a little louder. "I have to get back to work, it was great to see you, mate. I'm glad you've recovered."

"You're tense, why are you tense?" Max observed.

"I want to talk, I want to thank-"

Sadie cut him off. "Not here. My managers don't know exactly how I was injured. No one here does and I'd like to keep it that way."

"No," Lando insisted. "No, you are not disappearing again."

Sadie stopped for a moment, paused to let herself breathe.

"How about this-"

"Last time you said that, we both ended up in hospital," Lando joked with a wide smile.

Sadie returned the humour with a small laugh. She ignored the feeling clutching at her stomach.

"How about this, did you uber or taxi here?

Max nodded as Lando frowned.

"Okay, good. How about I drive you back to where ever it is you're staying and we can talk on the way?"

"And after that?"

Sadie sighed and gave Lando a sad smile. "There can't be an after, mate." She was careful not to use his name, just in case. "It's a long story."

"Will you tell me?" His voice dropped to a volume she didn't know he could use. His head tipped down, eyes boring into hers with too many emotions for Sadie to guess his thoughts.

The sad smile didn't leave her face. "As much as I can, but that isn't a lot. Give me half an hour. It's a quiet night, I'll ask to finish early."

Max reached out and tugged on the back of Lando's shirt.

Let her go, the gesture said. Lando did, releasing her shoulders and shoving his hands into his jeans pockets.

"Okay," he decided, "okay."

Sadie glanced to Max. Thank you, her eyes said.

He smiled gently but Sadie could see the concern in his posture and knew it wasn't concern for her. It was about her.

----$----

Twenty-five minutes later, Sadie grabbed her car keys and pulled her name tag off.

"Thanks again, Katy. I owe you for this."

"No, you don't." the on-duty manager waved a hand. "I was going to let some one go home soon, anyway. Have a good night.

"You too, see you tomorrow!"

Lando, who had struggled to take his eyes off her, noted the conversation and rose.

Max rose with him and put a hand on his shoulder. His back to Sadie, she watched as he whispered something in Lando's ear. Lando nodded with a frown.

"Ready?"

"I'm never ready for anything involving you," Lando quipped.

Sadie couldn't help but snort.

They walked to Sadie's small blue Mitsubishi and she ignored the small glance the boys shared. Damn them and their money.

Lando jumped into the passenger seat before Max could say anything.

"Fuck you, dude," Max joked.

Lando only grinned as he put his seatbelt on.

Sadie didn't smile at their antics. She was too busy considering how to tell them the situation without revealing anything that would put them in danger.

“Here’s the deal.” There was no room for negotiation in her tone. “You can ask questions but I’m only going to tell you want I safely can.”

She glanced at Max in the rear view mirror. He was frowning with suspicion and wariness, which Sadie considered to be a good thing.

“That’s ominous,” Lando noted.

Sadie shrugged and pulled out of the car park. “You’re going to have to navigate as well. The Piastri Family home isn’t public knowledge.”

As Lando pulled out his phone and brought up Google maps, he asked, “why did you stay away?”

“You’re a public figure, so are you, Max. Your lives are full of cameras, videos, articles and media. I can’t be amongst all that.”

"Why not?"

"I'm in a witness protection program."

----$----

hehe, whoops. LORE

Hope you like it!

Taglist (never thought I'd write one of these, I'm very happy to):

@snubug

#f1 #formula 1 #formula one #get your shit together #lando norris #f1 x oc #f1 imagine #f1 fic

[sanigopiece]

why uta is a well-written character

reposted from twitter since i saw uta get a lot of hate on there. a lot of people seem to not get her character so i am writing this post in hopes of getting people to see the light. anyways here we go,

1. her motivations are well supported by her backstory. it all began in the tragedy in elegia years prior where shanks took the blame for the destruction of the city and left uta in the care of gordon. this led uta to being forced into a life of loneliness and isolation for the rest of her growing up years.

these feelings accumulate while she studies music until she eventually finds a den den mushi to livestream her performance. here she learns of the harshness of pirates in the outside world and coupled with her resentment towards the red haired pirates for leaving her motivates her to revisit her old dream of starting a new genesis. this is a solid way of story cohesion between uta's backstory and her actions in the present. everything ties in very nicely & its easy to understand & empathize with.

2) i've seen some complain about how uta saying that she knew all along that she had caused the destruction of elegia & called it bad writing. this was actually her way of coping with the years of isolation but also her grief in shanks leaving her.

i speculate that uta realized she caused the destruction of elegia when she learned about tot musica and when faced with this, she chooses to find someone else to blame because guilt ate away at her so she chose to continue believing the lie that shanks did it. so it isnt bad writing because we are given more context on her mental state at the time and it is meant to be a gateway for viewers to empathize with her more but i guess people missed that.

3. she is not entirely evil. yes she is a villain because she believes she is doing whats right in order to achieve her goal however she still has goodness in her heart. she could've easily kept people trapped in the song world after tot musica was defeated.

but she didnt because she realized that what she did was wrong and she changed for the better. yes there's moments in the film where she does upsetting things like tearing shanks's hat but these were done in her mentally unstable state so it is unfair to entirely fault her for her actions. she is merely a misguided and misunderstood lonely girl with a dream so dont be so hard on her. she is good deep down.

4. her character is unique. already a given since we dont have that many music centric characters except maybe brook but even brook's powers aren't linked to music so uta is really special. also her songs carry so much meaning and not only does it set the mood for most scenes but it also adds to the story. i highly recommend checking out the lyrics of each uta song because they really tie in to the events of the story and you might just enjoy her character more.

5. her canonity adds more flare to the story. oda recently confirmed uta to be canon and this means a lot to both shanks and luffy's backstory. it does not detract from their backstories but rather it gives more context like how we understand a lot more about luffy's dream and why he wants a musician in his crew thanks to uta.

as for shanks, he now has more reason of being and we also got some clues to his lineage in the movie. this is really nice since most shoe horned characters have issues when they're added to canon.

alright so thats all. its been quite the long thread but i love uta and i want more people to appreciate her instead of hating or mischaracterizing her. if i missed anything do let me know. thanks and have a nice day <3

#one piece #one piece film red #one piece film red spoilers #uta is well written #uta one piece #im tired of dudebros mischaracterizing uta #imagine hating uta wtf #for the fans of uta #i love uta so so much #shanks #luffy #elegia #UTA MY BELOVED

[kromaticglass]

I've been sitting on this for a while because I'm not usually one for writing out my thoughts on characters in media that I like but honestly I need to yell about just how much I love Wriothesley as a character and how his story is written.

Don't get me wrong, I love Scaramouche, and I love his story arc, but there's something about this absolutely horrific past that Wriothesley grew up in and despite everything that should have made him a bitter person, he's so selfless. Selfless to the point of completely overturning a system that had been working in it's own horrific manner for hundreds of years as a teenager/young adult in order to make it better and actively work on fixing people, not just let them fall between the cracks of a society that sent them away to be forgotten.

Putting this under a read more because I'm going to yell about this a lot.

When we're first learning about Wriothesley we're introduced to the fact that he was an orphan. This brings up questions to start with; how was he first orphaned? By the sounds of things he wasn't willingly given away to the foster family that he ended up living with, he was on the streets or at the very least was on his own for a time before he ended up there. The first thing that my mind goes to is that this means either his parents abandoned him or they died/were killed, which may also be the reason he seemingly was desensitized to death as a kid - I'll get to that point later, it's important.

Just how long he was on the streets before he was taken in by his foster family isn't mentioned, but I'd expect it was at least a year or so, just from some context clues we got from both his story quest and his character stories that you unlock with friendship. When in his foster home, things were supposedly a picture perfect family, a dollhouse where people looking in would only see the perfect picture but as soon as curtains closed it was something very different.

Households like that are traumatising, it's no wonder that Wriothesley's ability to trust in people is shot. The people who were supposed to care for him after promising a good life were nothing but a front and in his eyes he once more was on his own. For a child to decide to willingly orphan themselves a second time is so taxing on the mind, I could only imagine the stress he would've been under.

But what really gets me is the fact that he eventually came to the conclusion that in order to stop the cycle of picking up kids and selling them off to the highest bidder and killing the ones that didn't sell, Wriothesley didn't think about contacting gardes, didn't go to anyone else about it, he took matters into his own hands.

Not just that, but that he had to kill them.

It takes a lot for someone to work themselves up into killing another person. If you've never taken a life before, most people will hesitate, they'll be sick, or they'll completely shut down and remove themselves mentally from the situation, there's a very visceral reaction that happens in the human brain when you're pushed so far into stress responses that you'll take another life, and this was a teenager. This is why I feel like he would've been desensitized to death or at the very least gruesome scenes like this from a much younger age.

One can only wonder just what was going through his mind during the time he was away, taking the odd jobs to create that first prototype of his gauntlets that he used to shoot nails at his parents. It may not be as personal as taking a knife to someone, but using a nailgun is a bloody affair, the wounds needed to make that fatal are grievous if done by an inexperienced hand. And from what we're told in the character story, it sounds like his parents fought back, hard enough that it very nearly killed Wriothesley as well.

It makes me wonder just what he was thinking, or feeling in that moment, was it fear? Anger? A mix of many things? Or was he simply numb to it until he woke up in the hospital bed later? From what we hear in his tone during the story quest, he sounds apathetic about retelling the story, but that could be a result of trying to compartmentalize the renewed trauma that was rekindled thanks to the gem he touched.

And the trial, lets not forget that. On the day he wakes up from his injuries, he's served papers to face in court, and given a timeline for his recovery. The character story says the trial went with little fanfare and that he accepted the charges with little to no protest, it makes me think about just what could've gone through his head during the time he was recovering.

Wriothesley states that he knew he was guilty in the eyes of the law, and that his methods were extreme and he knows that. Because he survived his injuries when he expected to die from them, it makes me think that he knew he would be going to the Fortress of Meropide once he got to the trial. Given how much of a lawless land the Fortress was back then, I wonder if this was Wriothesley's own way of putting himself back into the hands of fate again, or maybe in some way, taking it back into his own hands.

Character Story 2 and his Vision story tells us more about his time in Meropide before taking it over, and how chaotic it sounded. He arrived in the Fortress and found his Vision in his pockets when being processed, and the first thing he's told is "hide it well". This was the only warning he got from anyone about how life in the Fortress was at that time, and he took that to heart in order to not lose anything precious to him.

Meropide was a place you could pay for someone to die in back then, among other things like drugs and probably far more things that Hoyoverse wouldn't mention for the sake of keeping things PG. It certainly doesn't seem like a place a teenager would be safe in and yet despite all odds, Wriothesley thrived and amassed a massive collection of credit coupons in order to make his name known.

It doesn't say much about what a feat that is, especially the line where it mentions that he amassed more coupons than anyone else in the Fortress combined. He figured out how the place ticked and made it sing to his own tempo instead of simply falling in line, that's such an impressive feat for anyone to do, let alone someone who would've had to fight tooth and nail to even get the respect needed for people to see him with as much power as he seemed to gain by the time he took over.

When he challenged the former administrator to a duel, the story mentions how Wriothesley was saved from having to get another person’s blood on his hands because he fled from the Fortress instead of showing up. And sure we could gloss over this as he was glad about not needing to fight him in the end, but this also implies that if the fight had've gone on instead of what happened, Wriothesley would've either beaten that man within an inch of his life or taken it. He would've taken another life for the sake of other people, once again.

This is something I've noticed is a theme with Wriothesley. He has either little regard for or at the very least places his own safety below others, so long as it's doing what he thinks is right or protects other people. During his story quest when he's being shot at, Wriothesley does little to protect himself aside from some minimal protection with his cryo vision against the bullets shot at him, but the moment that the gun is turned to the Traveler, he spent absolutely no time in very nearly killing Dougier (if the Traveler hadn't been there, I think there would've been a 75%-85% chance that he would've killed Dougier) and putting him in his place.

We see this again with the Archon quest where Wriothesley and Clorinde fight back the Primordial Sea. He spend his own safety and energy icing over the doors in order to save people in the Fortress from the Primordial Sea until Neuvillette could get there, at the risk of his own safety and very nearly getting trapped and dissolved by the waters.

That's not even taking into consideration the work he did on the Wingalet. We saw so little of it in the 4.2 Archon Quest, I was almost disappointed, but the fact that instead of staying idle about the prophecy, he spent so much time and energy making a ship like that and keeping it a secret from most parties until the time came all for the reason of saving as many Fontainians as possible just kills me.

Wriothesley has been through so much, and instead of that horrible backstory and all that trauma turning him into a bitter and hateful person, he instead uses it to give others a better life than he had just crushes me. He took over Meropide and reformed it into a place where not only does it help people now, but is such a nice place to be that inmates want to stay afterwards warms my heart. Like, for sure there's the fact that people staying down there reintegrating into society would be a challenge but I love the fact that there's even the choice to stay down there after the term is over instead of simply turning people lose and risking them returning back down after repeating crimes.

Anyway what I'm trying to get at here is that Wriothesley is such a well written character and I want Hoyoverse to give us more characters like this. I'm rambling way too much and I'm sure like 80% is incoherent bullshit but I needed to get my feelings off my chest about this lol.

If you made it this far thanks for putting up with my rambling LMAO.

#genshin impact #wriothesley #i have so many feelings about this man #got me wanting to dust off my old fanfic bones to write something #but i havent written a fic in over 8 years and thats such a long time to get back into it #and i feel like i could not do it justice #but ugh #i have feelings #and none of them are okay #long post #im so sorry for anyone who is not in the genshin fandom getting subjected to my bullshit #if you see typos no you dont

[octoshott]

So. Side Order, huh?

I've been chewing on my thoughts over this for a good few days now. Want to spit them out somewhere. Vague-ish spoilers ahead.

I want to preface this with saying that I love Splatoon, I've been playing it since 1, really dropped off near the end of 2. Nintendo made Octo Expansion for me, they released it on my birthday and I love it so fucking much.

Side Order is fun, but lacking criminally in content.

You can argue Roguelites are like this in general, its the core princible to replay them over and over again and as someone who enjoys Roguelites, I agree!

However, a key thing that good roguelites do is continously give you a reason to keep playing- whether that be addictive gameplay or, usually, good story and lacing that in with difficulty that becomes the players goal to lessen- It rewards the player for being curious, experimental and above all else persistant.

I am fully aware that difficulty, due to Splatoon's target audience, in something like a roguelite was never going to be an easy thing to balance let alone pull off but having the main plot resolve itself once you hit the top of the tower was, in my opinion, the first of its blunders.

I feel as if the Splatoon developers know how much the lore and worldbuilding of these games matter to players. Side Order was advertised in very similar veins to Octo Expansion. The trailers had mystery and intrigue with clear connections to the well recieved and loved Octo Expansion to the point of having the same protagonist among other simularities.

They were clearly teasing this to be a successor of SOME capacity to Octo Expansion. And even as I went into this expecting it to be nothing like OE in terms of it's personal weight, I wasn't expecting something so short.

Classically, in roguelites that focus on story, you would gain story beats the more you replay. And techincally you gain this with the keys gathered from each fully cleared palette. But usually your story rewards in roguelites come from clearing or attempting runs and rewards:

With Side Order's story being resolved the MOMENT you step onto floor 30 with no real context unless you've intentionally avoided the top or have genuinely been slowed by its difficult (which I assume is what the devs intended) makes it's climax feel fast paced and lackluster- undeserved, even.

And, yes, I am fully aware that when you climb the tower agani after the credits role, you begin gain more lore about whats going on. But with the actual, main threat neutralized in every possible way it feels as if this lore should've been offered to us much sooner and much more spread out for a better pay off.

It's story feels like its being told out of order and, in my personal opinion, the themes and actual telling methods of Side Order we're a largely missed opportunity to tell something a bit more indepth. Climbing a tower that gives you essentially nothing until you reach floor 30 (which in my experience takes about 35-40 minutes) only to recieve about two scentences of lore is incredibly tiring and feels dissastifying when the main plot is already over.

It's lack of variation in level design, tasks and chips doesn't help with the climb each time if you're looking for the lore or just to 100% either. And you can argue this is a roguelite problem, but Splatoon's scenario's for a tower climb are pitifully small and you will start to seem repeat almost immediatly on your second or third run.

I also feel like it relies far too heavily on the player knowing and caring about Octo Expansion. I'm not saying that I think it was a bad idea to have most of what's going on in Side Order happening because of Octo Expansion's events. Hell, I was happy when they were very blatently showing this early on.

But it does very little with its ties to Octo Expansion, making Side Order feel like its constantly struggling to be its own thing away from the original DLC.

I think I can almost see what they wanted to go for here, and its frustrating, it felt close to something at least telling a decent story.

Every single little beat I've gotten has helped me understand more and more what they were going for, but since the main conflict is already resolved I find it hard to be excited and more frustrated that I wasn't given these during my initial playthrough.

I feel as though the roguelite formula was an interesting idea that they polished the best of their ability and to make work both for casual and experience players- but I think thats where the problem comes in.

With Side Order being the same price as Octo Expansion and offering very little in terms of replayability and most especially for me, story, the whole thing ends up feeling like a muddled mess that would've worked better had the roguelite aspect perhaps been dropped in general for a general tower climb.

Missed opportunies feel like they decorate Side Order in a way that leaves me fairly disappointed.

I think, overall, Side Order is a fun time that can be enjoyed but the way it was implimented into the gameplay formula was largely a mistake, especially coupled with the marketing of this being something more indepth with its story when it's not, and I can absolutely understand why I'm seeing a lot of disappointment for it.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #splatoon side order #side order #splatoon spoilers #side order spoilers #i just wanted to spit my thoughts out somewhere #i could've gone more into my grievances with the plot but i wanted to generalize this and its already too long #but i definitely feel mismarketed too #i say this as someone whos enjoying it despite its lack of content #i am DEFINITELY let down in terms of what they seemed to be implying in trailers #and if you enjoy side order thats fine all the more power to you #salutes #scrolls.txt

[perpetualexistence]

An Appetite for Knowledge: An Intellect Devourer Noah AU

So, based on me watching clips of Baldur's Gate 3 and @total-drama-brainrot's false hydra Heather post, I couldn't help but think to myself: 'Why should Heather be the only one who's a DnD monster?'

Hence me making an AU where Noah's an Intellect Devourer. If you know what it is, you know EXACTLY what kind of horrifying implications that has. Though the name itself is also an explanation of what one is.

I've made a whole horror one-shot showing those implications that you can check out here! I highly encourage you to read it first for maximum suspense before reading on where I fully explain what Noah's deal is.

Also, the first pic you're going to see if of a brain with legs so keep that in mind for the kind of tone this AU's going for.

Noah's one of these little scamps:

Intellect devourers are squishy little guys whose whole purpose is someone unlucky enough to cross their path, use psychic attacks to paralyze them, and then consume their mind and memories. They replace the mind they just ate with themselves, and now have a body to use to lure people towards mind flayers.

They can crawl out of their new bodies at will, or else be forced into leaving through certain protection spells. But there is no getting the original person/brain back short of performing a literal miracle.

Typically they work on orders from the hivemind they're a part of. Without orders, they'll be skittering about either following the last thing they were told or keeping themselves alive.

That's the situation that a certain baby intellect devourer finds itself in. The hivemind that it was once a part of got destroyed by an adventuring party. But they failed to do it properly. Rather than killing everything connected to the hivemind at once, they only severed the connection from the main brain to everything else. They had no way of knowing it at the time, so everyone thought the problem was dealt with.

Leaving strays such as this creature without a name to fend for themselves. It's smaller than the rest, and knows staying with a group will make it more likely to be noticed by adventurers that want it dead, so it scampers off on its own to find a body it can safely hide in.

It finds a small child all alone on his way to wizard school, takes over, and names himself Noah. He was lucky to find himself a child genius that's effectively a 3rd level wizard. He's got access to a spell known as Nystul's Magic Aura that lets him still appear as human through magical means unless someone really tries pressing him with magic. Eventually, he'll also get access to Nondetection that'll prevent others from targeting him with spells to find out what he is without first dismantling Nondetection.

Combine the fact that this is the kid's first time in a new country, nobody has any context of knowing that Noah's acting weird. He's hard to detect, and he'll only get worse as he learns more magic.

Luckily for everyone, Noah's lazy thanks to how spoiled he's been with the body he's managed to snag. He also isn't required to kill anyone thanks to a hivemind.

He's fairly content with only snagging as much intelligence with others as he needs. After all, if dead bodies start piling up in a wizard school, life is going to be a lot more difficult for him.

He just needs to be within 10 feet of a person in order to feed from them. He can unleash a mild psychic attack to steal some of their knowledge, but for them it feels more like a headache. His favorite feeding ground is the library. It's easy enough to believe studying and stress are causing a headache and making it hard to remember something rather than an intellect devourer feeding on the knowledge you're trying to learn.

Plus, Noah rather likes reading. Before he got into his human body he couldn't see in the traditional sense. He could only sense things around him, and detect anything with intelligence from 300 ft away. Any knowledge he got had to be stolen. So now that he has the opportunity to learn that doesn't require him putting the work of stealing it from someone else? Of course he's going to take it.

He is capable of a more powerful psychic attack to incapacitate someone, but that's harder to hide. He never plans to use that unless his life was seriously in danger.

He also surrounds himself with people who are physically stronger than him to make up for his own lack of physical prowess. Hence him sticking with Owen, Izzy, and Eva. The wizard school he goes to is either really near or partners with other nearby adventuring school, which is how he meets them.

Does he truly cares about them, or does he just keep them around because they're useful to him?

It's hard to say. He was also the kid-equivalent of an Intellect Devourer when he possessed his first human, who also happened to be a kid. He was cut off from a collective before he was fully formed., Most of his personality is heavily influenced on the kid.

He actually understands what empathy and morality are, which are more than what most of his kind can say. But they make him uncomfortable, so he's much happier to just not think about it. He just knows he likes having his chubby buddy and Team E-scope around, and he's go no reason to feed on them. The only one smart enough for his palette is Izzy, and she's tinged with crazy so he's Not Touching That.

He won't feed on Alejandro either, but that's for a different reason. Alejandro's certainly smart enough to be on the menu. It makes it even tastier that he's got cunning. He's smart enough to figure out that Noah's more powerful than he looks/is hiding something. He's dangerous to be near, but Noah still will.

After all, Noah's got to have a backup plan if anything happens to his current host. He'd lose his ability to cast spells like before, but he'd gain a stronger body, and one with money to boot.

Still, Alejandro's nice company for now, so there's no need to be hasty with the emergency murder plan.

Noah's eventual plan is to be a part of the adventuring party that Owen and Izzy are trying to create with him, Eva, and Alejandro (and possibly Tyler because Team CIRRRRH shall live forevermore in my AUs).

He can travel around, sampling knowledge from across the continent. When they do need to fight monsters for the sake of 'doing good' and getting paid, everyone else can take the hits while he casts magic from the back while remaining unharmed. No one will ever be the wiser.

This isn't going to go exactly how Noah wants because somehow everyone else is going to find out about Noah being an Intellect Devourer.

I'm currently torn between two ways of it happening: Someone is casting Protection from Evil and Good on the whole party and Noah isn't able to get out of it, forcing him out of his body.

Or they get caught by something else (possibly mind flayers), and are put in separate cells. Noah scurries out of his human body in order to get out, consume and possess one of their captors to release them all, and then gets caught by the others when he tries to scurry back into his body.

Either way, it's not going to be fun for everyone else to grapple with the fact that the scrawny little nerd they know has killed, and has no problem with killing again if he thinks he needs to.

#an appetite for knowledge au #intellect devourer noah au #total drama #total drama au #total drama noah #td noah #dungeons and dragons au #dnd au

[grokebaby]

Explaining this scene (from here)

Will mention mouth and throat inflicted violence and dissection. Also will get (slightly) more in detail about what's happening between these two

Context: Pesticinger has Siru come to her neck of the woods at night to perform certain rituals. It claims these are for ~Learning Purposes~ (which they are, in a way). This is related to that thing about folks wanting to learn and gain powers from Pesticinger. Siru's motives for being here, well.. I'll get into it later.

This exchange you see depicted, happens after Siru has cut out the tongue and/or vocal chords off of several animals (which includes birds. This is a crucial bit of info). Before this she also had to catch several of them with occasional help from Pesticinger, so she's a little tired, on top of it being quite a uh. Let's say emotionally challenging? Task? Especially seeing as how she also had to eat said body parts raw after cutting them out..

She's a country girl, she'll manage..

Despite the initial ick, Siru performed all this like a champ! At least compared to alot of humans Pesticinger has initiated into similar activities. This is what prompts the above "She's good at games! Bold, very bold she is!", which is genuine compliments given the situation.

So while Siru did All That™, Pesticinger hopped circles around her, chanting songs and urging her on (is it encouragement or pressuring...? I would say it's both.)

Considering the unpleasant tasks she's had to do, while it simply sang and watched, Siru feels it's appropriate to poke at Pesticinger a little. She has a very deadpan delivery and morbid sense of humor, which is why Pesticinger here is depicted as being taken aback and even unsure whether or not Siru is joking at first. These two have quite contrasting presentations and speech mannerisms.

What did Siru say?

She pulled a little "So, I'm guessing it's your turn next, right? I mean I've been building up with these small creatures so the grande finale's next, and that would mean.. You."

(you can see in the drawing, she's lazily pointing at Pesticinger)

I'm paraphrasing, but she essentially implied that to take it to the next level, she should now also cut out Pesticingers tongue and vocal chords, and eat them. Which, Pesticinger was not prepared for. This is supposed to be an initiation progress, and breaking previous limits Pesticingers followers might've had, in order to bring them in deep. In terms of gaining special abilities, this does ofc contribute to that, but lemme just say, Pesticinger losing her vocal components would be a huge blow.

Let me put it into perspective. People ordinarily do not hear Pesticingers speaking voice. When she sings yes, but when speaking normally, it looks like she's just moving her mouth elaborately. If she's not singing, or stealing somebody else's voice, Pesticinger is like watching a silent film irl. She has no voice of her own.

The other Plagues can hear her speech, and so can Pesti's followers, and most people who've heard her special song before. Not everyone, though. It tends to be a special occurrence, bc if someone can hear her speech it tends to mean something is a little wrong.. (ykno, how cursed songs are)

Siru could always hear it's speech, and that's likely due to her carrying some.. (glances at my previous post) supernatural after effects.

Siru eventually broke face and chuckled it away, but Pesticinger, in all honesty, remains a little unsettled by the suggestion. She doesn't let it show of course. Not to Siru, especially.

But, yeah. Maybe a bit of a power move to joke about inflicting it on the scary entity next, who's trying to break your limits by making you do disturbing rituals. As you do

#Siru #Character notes #Pesticinger Tuholaulaja #Lore #Just hashtag girl things ykno teehee #Anyway I just really felt like getting more deeply into this

[aita-blorbos]

(OC)

Am I the asshole for swapping bodies with a girl without telling her exactly why?

Now, for some context, I (19, M) am currently staying at a camp site during school break, me and other 5 kids around my age. Do note, however, that we do not go to the same school. I study at a prestigious private academy, while they come from a public school. They have received their tickets for free from a school raffle, while I paid for mine.

Now, the camp we are staying at is advertised as a very boring place. Not only that, the tickets are just slightly above the average price, so you'd really be better off going to another camp. However, as one of the kids I'm camping with told me, their school seemed to find this specific place to be the closest available, so all in all that's what the principal picked.

I, however, came here for a specific reason, a very important one, which I'll get to later.

Now, I have been coming to this camp for a few years now. Often I am the only one here aside from the two camp counselors, save for the rare occasions where someone else comes here for some reason. During the times I've been here before, I've been building a bit of a secret lab under one of the cabins, where I keep the body swapping machine, which, if you read the title, will be important soon.

Now, one of the girls I'm camping with this year (Let's call her "C") very obviously has a crush on one of her classmates, and also shows signs of severe anxiety and low self esteem. I decided to take this in my favor.

I needed someone to swap bodies with using my machine, and I went to her and made my offer. Were she to help with my experiment, I'd charm the boy she liked and get him to be C's boyfriend while I was in her body, so she'd be his girlfriend when we swapped back without needing to go through the stress of interacting and impressing him herself.

Though C was reluctant at first, she accepted. I took her to my lab with me, and using my machine, we were able to successfuly swap bodies!

Here's where things go south. See, a possible side effect I speculated to be caused by the body swapping would be light memory loss and trouble recalling the order of certain events. After we swapped bodies, I started to think about this possibility, and... I felt anxious. Extremely anxious, like never before! It was C's anxiety that was manifesting within me, as I was now in her body! It was AWFUL. The pressure, the dread, everything felt like too much, and I passed out, and hit my head pretty hard on a nearby table.

I eventually woke up, and things seemed normal at first, until I realized something.

Not only could I not recall how to operate the machine, I also could not remember WHY I built the machine in the first place. I know there's something hidden in this "boring" camp! And I know my machine was a potential way to find it! I know there was a reason I wanted to swap bodies, but I can't for the life of me recall it! My memory is all jumbled...

I believe my hypothesis of a memory loss side effect was true, and that combined with me hitting my head as I fainted has caused the memory loss to become far greater and more severe. The fact that I now have bursts of anxiety every so often does NOT help my case, and everytime I start thinking about... all of this, I start getting anxious. Dangerously so. What if I am never able to swap our bodies back again? What if I am never able to recall what the purpose of this experiment was?! What if I never find out what is hidden within this camp?!

I brought up my worries to C one night, and she berated me. I never told her exactly why I wanted to swap bodies. I believed it wouldn't be necessary, but she says that if I had told her, then at least she'd be able to tell me now what it was. Furthermore, she did say that since she was a participant, she should've been given all the details. When I asked why she didn't pressure me to give her the full story and/or back away, she told me she felt too anxious to do so then, afraid of confrontation, and honestly, now that I feel her anxiety, I don't blame her.

The point is: she says I should've told her. And though I can't say I disagree as I look back on it, there must have been a reason why I didn't tell her? Or did I simply judge it as unimportant? I... I don't know. My memory is jumbled, I'm finding myself confused and anxious often. One side of me tells me I am at fault, and the other tells me there must have been a reason I did not find it necessary to discuss the reason with her, but I can't remember! I don't know what to do, or even what to think!

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

[iwonderwh0]

I can't let it go, so here's another scene of pocket ghost that I managed to put together. This one is out of context and doesn't follow any previous scene in specific, at least for now

The chicken sandwich felt too dry for Hank's taste, but after the five hours it took for him to admit his hunger, he didn't mind it as much. Although he couldn't appreciate it at the moment, now that they were miles away from any stores or drive-thus, surrounded by apartment blocks, he couldn't help but felt grateful that Connor had slipped it into his breakfast takeaway order for the day -- two donuts and a cup of coffee -- nearly eight hours ago.

The two of them -- well, technically only Hank -- were in a car, with two eyes and one dashcam fixed on the entrance of one of the grey buildings, waiting for any action that didn't seem to follow. Given the number of apartments in the building, one might expect the front door to open much more often than it actually did. Perhaps not many people lived in there after all; most of those apartments must still have been empty since the evacuation of Detroit, even though the order had been lifted months ago.

"Hank?" Connor said, breaking the silence of the past minutes.

Hank hummed questioning in response.

"There's some small animal ahead, but I can't identify which one it is."

Hank glanced at his dashcam for a moment before looking ahead, and indeed, a white cat walked on a parking lot, then stopped and lay down in the middle of it, enjoying the warmth of spring sun.

"Ah, this. It's a cat," Hank said.

"A cat," Connor echoed, "I've never seen a cat."

Hank's eyes travelled back. The cat lifted one of its back paws, tongue darting across white fur in a lazy-paced grooming session.

"Really? I thought you saw one when you hacked into my neighbour's house."

"I'm not sure if it was really a cat, the video quality wasn't exactly sharp," he paused, "Do you like cats?"

"I'm more of a dog person, you know," Hank bit into the sandwich, watching as cat stopped cleaning itself and stared blankly into the space.

"But do you like cats?"

"Everyone does," Hank shrugged, "Hell, If I woke up in a thousand years and someone asked me what's going on in the world, I'd answer that humanity is still worshiping cats - it's one of the things that never change," he said. Then he added, "Of course, that's if there's anyone left in a thousand years."

"Why don't you have a cat yourself? If you like them."

"I wanted an animal that would at the really least like me back. Can't expect the same indulgence from a cat," Hank grunted, "That reminds me - I think Sumo actually likes you more than he likes me."

"I don't think that's true. What makes you think so?"

"You need proof? Fine, explain this: when I call him - he doesn't bat an eye, but when you just look at him, saying nothing at all - he's at your feet in no time, as if you telepathically promised him a piece of steak or something. I don't get it."

Speaker rustled abruptly as Connor made some quiet sound, lost in sudden outbursts of the static. A short laugh?

"Did I finally say something funny?"

"No, not really. I'm sorry, I never thought about how that might look. I don't just look at him. I do something else."

"Which is?"

"I make a sound on a higher frequency. Dogs can hear it, humans – not so much."

"You let him in your house and he talks with your dog on a secret frequency. Fuck..," Hank shook his head in disbelief, "Never expected this from you."

"I'll take that as you're impressed," from the tone of Connor's voice Hank concluded he was pleased with his reaction.

"No shit, I've been scratching my head about this for months, even tried to look Sumo in the eyes with different face expressions. Never once did it work, not a single fucking time. Now I know why."

"You could have just asked."

"Yeah, well. What does it matter now anyway," Hank's eyes darted back to the cat, "In any case, my point is – dogs will love you no matter what, but cats can despise the living shit outta you even if you do everything right. With them, it's more of a gamble, y'know?"

"You don't mind gambling."

"Well, not when my heart is on stake. Wouldn't gamble with this crap - never worth it."

"Hank, are you implying that you wouldn't be able to handle a rejection from a cat? That sounds...a little dramatic, even for you."

Hank huffed a short chuckle.

"That's- Even for me, you say. What, am I some kind of drama queen in your book?"

Speakers rustled for half a second, then exploded with the sound of music "Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah!"

Hank didn't need to look at the screen to know that that's Queen, specifically last minute of Bohemian Rhapsody. He felt blood rushing to his face, but as he opened his mouth to say something, the song already switched, also starting from the middle.

"-You are the dancing queen,

Young and sweet, only seventeen"

"Connor, go fuck yourself."

Fighting a smile and red in face, Hank took another bite of the sandwich, then glanced back at the front door of the building. Nobody walked in or out of it for the last 20 minutes. He didn't mind - at least he got to eat in peace. Well, almost.

Music got slightly quieter.

"How?" Connor asked.

Hank stopped eating and tried to remember what were they even talking about.

"How? Are you asking me about how you can fuck yourself?"

"Yes, I'm really curious how would you imagine me to do that. Given my... current condition."

"I have no idea. Guess you'll have to figure it out on your own."

"On it," Connor said in his earnest voice, and music got louder again.

This finally got an actual laugh out of Hank. He set the sandwich aside and and covered his face, feeling its heat on his palms and trying catch his breath.

"Just don't hurt yourself," he said, feeling warmth filling his lungs, giving up the fight against his face muscles - he wasn't sure why he had been resisting them anyway.

The cat stretched on the ground, greedily absorbing the sun's rays, resembling a sunbeam itself, as the only white spot in the overall grey area. Hank could see it looking around, as if searching for a better spot to enjoy and not entirely sure why -- more an impulse than a thought-through decision -- Hank took a piece of chicken out of his sandwich and stepped out from the car.

He crossed the parking lot and crouched down a few steps away from the cat – close enough to grab its attention, but not so close as to accidentally scare it away. Then he stretched his hand with a piece of chicken in the cat's direction, and sure enough – the cat came closer, curious. He let it sniff the treat, and just as it was ready to take a bite, started back towards the car. The cat followed.

Cat hopped onto the hood of the car as Hank patted it, and finally received a deserved piece of chicken along with a stroke. It purred blissfully in response.

"See better now?" Hank asked, sitting back into the car.

Car speakers rustled slightly.

"Yes."

#pocket ghost #dbh #dbh fanfiction #and as always quite ambitious but I'll still tag it as #hankcon #Thanks @arcanehackist for helping me with wording <3

[camillescreations]

Has anyone else watched the leaked Archie audition clip from a while ago? Archie is the new female crew member we see next to Jim in a lot of scenes. I've seen one other person do a recent analysis based off of Izzy's amputation. But I just wanted to talk about it, too!

In this clip, Archie is obviously interacting with Izzy, who is likely laying down, Izzy calls her a cunt and twat, and she responds with some snarky remarks back, seeming to knock Izzy out with the belt lol. I'm not sure if every aspect of this audition will play out in the show, but it's worth mentioning. So there is a good possibility we will be getting an amputation scene. It's unclear who the other person Archie is talking to (not Izzy) is. I'm thinking it might be Jim, I think the line "Sorry, man, we got orders" would be in character for them. But that line is worth mentioning, as well. Who are the orders from? It would make sense for the orders to be from Ed. Ed wouldn't want Izzy to die. Whoever it is, the "chopper" must be someone with some sort of medical knowledge. But what's interesting is that Izzy says something along the lines of "just let me die." So has Izzy given up? Did he let his toe infection become worse on purpose? Or, if it's not the infection and another injury that mangled his leg, is this after he maybe realizes how hurt Ed is and he feels like he did the wrong thing, thus wanting to die? I'm dying to know this context and if it happens when Izzy has met up with Stede yet or not! But I'm thinking it might be before, like episode 1.

Then at the end of the amputation scene, the "chopper" says, "well that was um... that was intense." And then Archie responds with "Yeah, super intense...super intense" while staring into the other person's eyes! Sexual tension, anyone? And then Archie softly goes (i think this is what she says), "d'you want..." and looks like she gets pulled by her hand and goes with the other person. That, I'm guessing, is what leads into the next scene in the audition clip, which I'll talk about now.

So the next clip has Archie talking to another person (let's call them Person 2) not the "chopper" I'm guessing, who says "its not about you, specifically. It's about love. All love dies, I'm just hastening the process along. But I must admit, I'm disappointed in you (bro?)" I think the person they're referring to is the "chopper." I'm paraphrasing since I can't understand every word and I don't have context lol. But anyways, then Archie responds with "what happened down there, that was just for fun. That was just eating each other out. That was not love." Then the other person goes "it wasnt?" And Archie says "did you...aw man this is awkward...is that what--did you think that's what that was...?" Then the other person seems to scoff and go "no! (Unintelligible, something about love)"

Then a third person (person 3) chimes in and says " I hate to interrupt this amorous quarrel, but if you don't start fighting each other to the death I'm gonna have to kill all of them, so." (The " all of them" in that sentence implies there are more people in the room than the ones ive already mentioned) And Archie seems to wave to another person (not chopper or person 2, it seems like) and then silently mouth something I can't quite make out, but she seems to be saying she won't do something? There's some head shaking and stuff. Then who I assume is person 2 says "Look man, I'm not fighting Archie to the death, alright, (I'm?) just not--" Then Archie punches them in the face and headbutts them lol.

SO THAT WAS A LOT. I'm gonna give my best guess as to what in the world is happening there and who the different people are (btw, I have no idea if Archie is actually talking to one person or two before the person who says they're gonna kill everyone comes in. I'll touch on some different possibilities.)

My guess is that Archie and another crew member have a "sexual connection," and if Jim is the one who chops Izzy's leg off, then the connection is with them. That would make some sense, considering how close Archie and Jim are always standing in the trailer. Maybe Jim and Archie grow close in Olu's absence.

So then we have the more confusing scene. My guess is that Person 2 is Oluande or some other member of the crew. It could be Ed. Let's look at both possibilities.

So if Person 2 is Olu then he must have somehow walked in on Archie and Jim. Olu is hurt, since this means that Jim cheated on him, which is why he says that all love dies and he's disappointed in Jim. I don't know if that dialogue is all that in character for Olu, though.

I guess it could be Ed, and Ed knows heartbreak so that's why he talks about all love dying and stuff. And I assume he knows that Jim and Olu were a couple if he says he's disappointed in Jim.

Ugh I just don't know who is who! But now let me try to identify person 3.

My first guess is that if person 2 is Olu, then person 3 could be Ed. He makes the murder joke because he's still in his Kraken era and is mad at everything, especially things to do with love. But I don't know about this.

My second guess is that Person 3 is a villain, and that villain has the crew captured or something?

I honestly am so confused by this clip, it's so hard to tell who is speaking because the guy talking in the clip, the womans scene partner who we never see, doesn't switch voices or cadences for each character. It all sounds like the same guy talking, but it's obviously not. Well let me know what you guys think and sorry if this was confusing to anyone!

#ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death season 2 #stede bonnet #analysis #stede x ed

[skelezomperman]

This is in regards to Fe4 which is that though you might prefer one ship to another, you have to often read other lines a character has based on their other lovers just to get a general picture of what that characters story is. Like for instance, Lachesis being told to go to Leonster and seek refuge with Finn can very much be more related to her wanting to visit Ares there which is something only brought up in her Noish lover conversation. This part of her character’s story is pretty much something that can work for any type of pairing you have in mind for her and it is something I wish Fe4 fans would do more often.

An interesting discourse that has recently gained attention. I personally prefer Finn/Lach, of course, but it's not really implied by Genealogy. I think a lot of misinformation comes from people misreading the conversation between Lachesis and Beowulf in Chapter 5 which is something that I've felt for a long time. Below is the conversation in the Project Naga translation:

Lachesis: Beowulf... Beowulf: Look, Lachesis. If somethin' happens t'me, I want ya to go to Leonster fer me. Quan's kids're there with Finn. Help 'em out where I can't, yeah? Lachesis: No! You mustn't say such things! If I go to Leonster, you will come with me! Beowulf: Lachesis... I don't think I've done right by ya. Lachesis: W-what? Why...? Beowulf: I knew how ya really felt all along... Lachesis: ...Oh! Beowulf: Look after yerself, Lachesis. This was fun while it lasted. Lachesis: Wait! Beowulf!!

Let's focus on the emphasized lines because those are the ones at hand. The first thing that Beowulf tells Lachesis is to go to Leonster and help Finn with Quan's children. Notice the context that Finn is mentioned in: he is mentioned in the context of being Leif's caretaker, not as a lover for Lachesis. I would argue that Finn being mentioned is incidental, but the original text does mention him first while PN reverses the order to have Beowulf mention Quan's children first.

The second thing he says is that he "knows how Lachesis really felt all along." What does this mean? It means that Beowulf thinks that Lachesis doesn't truly love him at that point...and that's it. Beowulf doesn't say who Lachesis is truly in love with, just that he thinks that their relationship fizzled out. Any claims that Beowulf was thinking about someone specific requires conjecture - it requires the person to project their own inference onto the conversation. I will also point out that it's not even necessarily that Lachesis moved on to someone else because Beowulf never implies that - he only implies that the relationship fizzled out, or perhaps that it wasn't even real in the first place.

The error is that people think that Finn being mentioned earlier in the conversation means that Finn is Lachesis' lover. But as I stated earlier, Finn is mentioned in the context of being Leif's caretaker. His presence within the conversation is incidental. By the same logic, one could perhaps claim that Beowulf thinks that Lachesis was in love with Quan because if that were the case, it would make sense for Lachesis to want to take care of her crush's children after his death. It's not illogical to think that Beowulf is breaking off the relationship because Lachesis pines for Finn, but a strict critical reading of the conversation does not provide any fodder for or against this assertion. Ultimately, like with many things in this game, the cause of Beowulf and Lachesis' separation is up to player interpretation.

For posterity, here is the conversation in Japanese:

ラケシス

ベオウルフ･･･

ベオウルフ

ラケシス、もし俺になにかあれば

レンスターに行ってくれ

レンスターには

フィンと、キュアンの子がいる

俺に代わって彼らを助けてやってくれ

ラケシス

そんなことを言わないで！

行くときはあなたも一緒です！

ベオウルフ

ラケシス、

おまえにはすまなかったと思っている

ラケシス

え？ 　どうして･･･

ベオウルフ

おまえの気持ちは知っていた･･･

ラケシス

！･････

ベオウルフ

ラケシス、元気でな

短い間だったが、楽しかったぜ

ラケシス

待って！　ベオウルフ!!

And by the old DTN translation:

Lachesis:

“Beowulf…”

Beowulf:

“Lachesis, if anything were to happen to me, I want you to go to Lenster. Fin is there with Cuan’s children. Give him a hand, okay?”

Lachesis:

“How could you say that? When we go, we’ll go together!”

Beowulf:

“Lachesis, I’ve got a confession to make.”

Lachesis:

“Hm?”

Beowulf:

“I’ve known your true feelings all along.”

Lachesis:

“What…!”

Beowulf:

“Take good care of yourself. It was mighty nice while it lasted.”

Lachesis:

“Wait! Beowolf!”

I don't think that this changes the meaning too much, but I will note that DTN translated the first emphasized line as "give him a hand" and not "help 'em out." One might note that the pronoun 彼ら means they, not he.

#fe4 #genealogy of the holy war #jugdral #shipping #lachesis #finn #beowulf #fire emblem

[the-banana-0verlord]

Lilian's Birthday girl vignette <I Wish...>

Tagging @simping-myjob cause you'll probably gonna want to see this

[Part 1] Sora: Happy birthday!!!! Lilian: Thanks! Hey, what's in your hands? Sora: Well, since you're always the one doing interviews on birthdays, and that it's your birthday today, Dad ordered me to interview you. Although I'm doing this because I want to, not because he told me to. Lilian: Pfft, okay. Ask away then. Sora: K so what's your favorite food? Sora:... Sora: What kind of lame questions is that? *Sora throws the paper away* Sora: Forget the article. There's some things I really wanna know and I don't wanna wait any longer. Lilian: A-alright, but please still record it, I don't want the newspaper club to have nothing...(especially considering I'm part of it.) Sora: Do you miss your old world? *Lilian stares blankly, stunned* Lilian: I... Can't say I do. Sora: Why's that? Lilian: Well, I don't remember any of it. I know it has technology, and every vague thing, but when I try to make out the details, it blurs. I can't really miss something I've never known. But there is something... Sora: What? Lilian: When I think of my birthday, I remember something. One scene. I'm in a woman's arms. I must be about 4 or 5, I don't really know. She talks to me, and she says my name. Her voice is soft. On the wall I see a calendar, and the date of november three is circled three times in red. That's all I know about myself. [Part 2] Sora: ...That's sad. Lilian: Maybe. Honestly, it feels like watching someone's else memory, not mine, so it doesn't affect me as much. Sora: Do you ever think about going back even though? Lilian: If we ever find a way, that's probably what I'll do. I don't belong in Twisted Wonderland; I need to go back to where I truly belong. Sora: No other reason? Lilian: Well, I am curious of where I come from, but I'm doing this mainly because it's the right thing to do. Sora: And if you don't end up going back, what will you do? Lilian: I'll probably get a job on Sage's island and I'll live there until I have money to move else where, because there's no chance Crowley will let me stay after graduation. After that, I think I'll travel. I want to see what the world truly looks like. Sora: Bold of you to assume we're not taking you back to Briar Valley with us. Lilian: *chuckle* That's probably where I'll settle in the end, but first I want to figure out who I really am. Sora: But I thought we where making theories on which if you didn't go back to your world? Lilian: Yeah, I meant my present self, not my past. Or rather, who I want to be outside of NRC and in a context no one knows about my conditions. I want to know about my hobbies, what I like, those kinds of things. I'll probably go visit Ace and Deuce too sometimes. Sora: Well, if you need a travel comrade, just ring me up. If you need financial support, too. Lilian: Thanks. [Part 3] Sora: Where will you go during your travels? I'm curious about the places you'll want to visit. Lilian: Hmm... Definitely the Queendom of Roses, and maybe Harveston and Fleur city. I think I'd like to go to each place where one of my friends live. It'll be nice to see them again and I'll be able to travel to more varied places. Sora: I recommand the scalding sands, especially Silk City. Lilia and I went there for our Honeymoon and I've made memories that will never fade. Lilian: I'll take notes on that. Grim: hey, you two! We're gonna serve dessert, come quick! Lilian: We should probably do as he says before he gobbles down my birthday cake. Sora: Right on that. *They walk towards the table where every member of the cast is sitting.* Grim: C'mon and make a wish already so we can eat! Lilian:*Giggles* Alright, alright! *Lilian blows the candles* Sora: Did you make a wish? Lilian: I did. Sora: What was it? Lilian: Don't they say that if you tell your wish outloud it won't come true? Sora: I didn't know you were this sneaky ~ Oh well, you do you. *Sora goes away to talk to the others* Lilian: (I wish...) Lilian: (I wish this moment would just last forever so I wouldn't have to choose wether I leave or not.)

#ayyy i changed my lineart style #i made it a dark red instead of black #it's still experimental but I like it #twisted wonderland #twst oc #twst mc #twst yuusona #yuusona #the banana chronicles #TBCA #the banana chronicles au #twst fanmade vignette #twst vignettes #twst birthday

[jayflrt]

Hello Jayflrt!

Let me tell you firstly how I AM ABSOLUTELY loving the development of Yours forever in 786. It's obvious that you have put in a lot of thought and effort to craft this plot and the story and I love it I love it all.

I just have one point tho - maybe uou can consider it?

So, being a Social Media AU, we normally perceive that things happen one after another in rapid succession because that's how SM works.

So I was a bit thrown off when Jay mentioned how he knew Park Sunghoon the previous semester etc, so other than the Washington vacation as an event, a sense of time passing didn't come through for me . I kept wondering when I missed months and months of issues happening, like, Jay would have probably struggled over assignments, exams and so much more other than his investigation etc.

Like, if a party happened one weekend and the characters meet again for brunch on Thursday, then probably someone was stewing over what someone else said for nearly a week... that's what I meant. A sense of scale?

For future chapters, would it be possible to include a time or date marker (it could be a lockscreen for example) or a subheading in the chapter title so we get a sense of the time that has passed?

If it's not too much trouble.

Thank you again for writing this. You have a highly imaginative mind and we love the privilege of reading it all!

Here's a Jay that our OC could fall for

Love you 🫶

hello hello ml 🥰💘 hope you're doing well !! AHH thank you so much i'm so glad you're enjoying the story !! AND THANK YOU FOR THE JAY PICTURES THATS SOOOO 786 JAY 🫨 especially the last one GODDD

omg i totally get what you're saying !! it was definitely difficult for me figuring out how to incorporate time passing while i was plotting my story too. i'm going by the american semester system so the first act takes place from around august to december, and then act two starts from their winter break and goes throughout spring semester, so that's why jay mentioned meeting hoon the previous (fall) semester in the recent chapter !!

it definitely can be hard to grasp the timeline in this smau!! it wasn't a problem for my other smaus because i don't think the timeline was necessarily as important, but for this one there is a lot of back and forth so i can see why it can be confusing :') since it's a story though i can't really focus on minute details and sort of only have room for the details that are important to the plotline, which is why things jump around a bit. for example, jay doesn't talk about assignments/finals much because his major isn't anything he actually wants to do + he's more concerned about unknown and the order instead of schoolwork BUT you'll notice mc and her friend group mention schoolwork and finals a lot more because they're (real) students 🫠

the reason why i don't include timestamps is because i prefer showing instead of telling, so you would have to rely on context clues more to see how the time is passing. (i've added examples of characters mentioning events to give a better sense of the timeline)

SORRY if this was long winded but ill be more mindful of that and try making it clearer for the future !! 🥰 ty for bringing it to my attention love!!

#💌 : love notes #sumzysworld #series: yours forever in 786

[12percentspider]

No you know what, I'll slap it together.

So our first bit of evidence comes from the new blog itself.

Now if you compare to the other insulin scammer I've looked at, this one acts a lot more like that paypal-jumper scammer from a while ago. About that time, though, I got an angry anon (lol) to mind my own business. Funnily enough, I had at the time assumed it was from the insulin scammer that was going around then, but actually, I may have been hit by "apollo's dodgeball"...

The cipher at the bottom of the reply?

"But Spidermod, that doesn't-" Hold on. Let's get back to the current scam for a second. [And here's where I put a cut, because it's going to get long and very uh, "Charlie in the mailroom".]

So the first thing of note here is that it's the same exact scammer. But I didn't go looking up Key's post until AFTER I had found the old URL. I needed the url in order to do that. See, it turns out that my twitter investigation turned out a reply that upon donating, someone got harassed by money requests. The user denied this and claimed to be unable to do so. [Reminds me of someone!]

I had a name to work with from the twitter and stumbled across this. Of course, the OP was deactivated. So uh, that's when I decided "I bet Key's got it archived". CORRECT. So if you look at the original version of the post with the archived "old paypal", a smashed-in version of the name given looks a lot like uh... wanngera.

Which happens to be another scam blog that I tracked to a twitter with an extremely similar twitter-matching situation. It just so happens that this time someone called out the scammer for spamming, and I was able to see that before it was deleted. This previous one though, that went down really fast before there could be any further slip-ups.

So I think it was last Tuesday 11/7 when a blog had the exact same scam as the wanngeras blog up. I had not registered the url in my mind and there wasn't proof yet so I didn't make a proper post about it until I remembered it was familiar. I also uh, was out for the count that day. HOWEVER. The only blog that didn't have THAT good of proof yet was 'milkydonutsh'. //Laura admitted to being milkydonutsh.

Below link: LONG AS HELL but it has a detail that I further want to take into consideration. It's important and probably a helpful read but the whole thing isn't immediately relevant to this post, most of it is context at this exact moment.

So there was the "cancer girl that didn't get very far" and that blog was deleted very quickly. I propose that that particular blog was wanngeras. Laura's known for taking her crap to twitter.

I propose that since the widelys blog (also Laura) whose story mirrored a twitter I found and the fact that I was able to get the exact same situation for the wanngeras blog, AND the fact that the same thing came true for the current scammer... the current insulin scam is in fact Laura Deramas.

If you research/know Laura's general tactics/behaviors it matches up actually pretty well. To the point where even if anyone else were to admit to this [extremely likely not], they'd have to be absolutely hellbent on copying her for some weird reason or another, and I doubt anyone would attempt that.

#case update #well anyway keep your eyes well peeled

[ghost-proofbaby]

hiii, hope your well <333

so i got all the way to the very start of act 3, romanced astarion (or so i thought) just to have him reject me !!!!

for added context, he propositioned me at the celebration (i obviously said yes), helped him get raphael to explain his scars AND let him drink my blood. it says his approval is very high aswell. so i have no idea where i went wrong :|

hello love!! im doing pretty good <3 and oh nooo.

(spoilers for games. y'all have been warned.)

did you get a confession scene towards the end of act 2? to solidify the romance with any companion, there will always be a cut scene where the explicitly say "hey, we're doing this. we're a couple." there's specific things you have to do in order to trigger them. (and if you're doubting if you got that scene, once you have solidified the romance, you will have the dialogue options to ask for a kiss and ask what you are to that companion! every time you talk! endless astarion kisses if you so please!)

astarion has a few variations, below the cut.

1: you went to moonrise, encountered a drow named 'araj', and didn't make him drink her blood. plain and simple. most people resort to triggering the confession this way. it will be a cut scene that triggers during a long rest, and not an exclamation point. usually within 1-2 long rests, depending on if you have a backlog of camp events since you haven't been long resting much!

2 (my personal favorite and the most popular to be posted online): you completed his quest with raphael and the deal regarding his scars. this one has been trickier for others to accomplish. you can't encounter the drow first, and i usually avoid moonrise altogether to get this confession. it's the iconic "i had a nice, simple plan" confession. cut scene just like #1, where it occurs once you go to bed at camp. if this didn't trigger for you after the raphael encounter and killing yurgir (spoilers lol), then that's the same issue a lot of people have! i've only sought out this confession with exceptional approval. maybe the approval affects it? who knows. also, i have no idea if it's related, but i had friendzoned every other companion when i got this one, to avoid being in a double romance type of situation like the option below...

3: you begin to romance someone else in tangent with him, and are given an ultimatum between that character and astarion, and choose him. i've never done this path. i do not know the specifics to triggering it. i know it's common when you romance both gale and astarion specifically, but from what i've seen, it's very sweet and cute because he gets surprised you would choose him lol (also sometimes it appears to happen in late act 1??? like i said, i've never done it. when i set my sights on my boy, it's over for everyone else. even halsin. which, if you're curious, you can have a poly relationship with halsin and astarion. you just have to talk to him about it, which halsin brings up automatically. it's only available once in act 3).

if none of these works, try long resting back to back like all hell!! it'll literally be the tik tok audio of "night time, bitch! night time, bitch!". certain scenes just won't trigger out of order. <3 #1 has been confirmed by the community as the simplest way to get the confession, definitely used as a fail safe, because it always happens immediately the first long rest after that encounter.

also, some choices will lock you out, but you would know. astarion makes a very dramatic mess of the 'breakup'. usually, it's if you made him drink the drow's blood. higher approval leads to options to talk to him about it and stop the breakup, but also some really fucking awful options (do NOT try and have sex with him after he says he doesn't want anyone to view him in terms of sex, in case that wasn't obvious).

hopefully this helps? i just recently saw this start to be an issue for people haha. also finding the drow is a bit tough, she's in a side room. i recognized her voice from videos i'd seen on tiktok so... that's how i found her. and no, you can't fireball her into oblivion. i tried. multiple times. she won't take damage while at moonrise, fuckin cunt.

#ghost plays bg3 #thank u ily #the drow is in a room to the left of the main room in moonrise #don't fight her it aggros the entire tower :\ #even if you get the second confession or third i recommend finding her #there's more interactions with her in act 3!! only really available if you give her *your* blood aha. you'll see

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for pretending to be an alternate dimension version of myself?

I apologize, as there's quite a bit of context to this story. For starters, I am an archaeologist, and in the course of my research, I discovered a hidden time capsule of sorts, in which there was, apparently, a letter from myself from an alternate dimension! I understand it sounds outlandish; I wouldn't have believed it myself if the note weren't in my own handwriting and left in the location of my childhood home! Apparently, this other me (I'll call her K from here on out) was sent into our dimension as well as back in time thousands of years, and she requested that I follow her instructions to build a time/dimension hopping machine (I know, right?!), travel to the past to pick her up, and bring her back to her own dimension and time.

Now, you'll have to pardon my language here, but I got the impression from her note that she was, well, a huge bitch. I certainly didn't want to meet her, much less fulfill her wishes, but I was intrigued by her time/dimension travel device, so my husband and I decided to build it and visit K's home dimension on our own.

Now, K's descriptions implied it was some kind of godly realm (she herself claimed to be a goddess), so in order to fit in, I tried pretending to be her. Seeing as she had recently been literally banished from the timeline, I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that acting as her landed me in a bit of trouble and got me imprisoned for her crimes (also, contrary to her description, there were only one or two gods there). Despite this, I convinced the apparent highest authority figure around to allow me to participate in the fighting tournament K described, which was part of the reason why I was interested in visiting her dimension.

Throughout this experience, I met a few people who apparently knew K well, and all of them met me with suspicion or anger (except for one who was apparently quite fond of K and was very affectionate towards me, which was flattering, but not really wanted as I have a husband), but during the tournament, I met and fought against someone who had been severely hurt by her and was enraged by my appearance. After we fought (and I admittedly let him win to let him have some catharsis), I finally explained who I really was.

The people in this dimension have thankfully been more welcoming since I explained my situation, though I can't help but feel guilt for causing distress for the boy I fought in the tournament and everyone else who K caused harm to. My husband has said it's not my fault that K was "some kind of interdimensional war criminal" (I've since learned the extent of her crimes - unethical experiments, kidnapping and trying to usurp a goddess, and being a terrible parental figure to the beings she created, among other things) but, well, I knew she wasn't the most pleasant of people and I still pretended to be her. How can I best make amends for my alternate self's wrongdoings?

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality