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kitkatopinions · 8 months

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Quick note, I don't know the person who made these tweets or what the "THIS is what they do" is referencing, I'm only using this as a jumping off point to talk about what seems to be a pretty regular repeated opinion among people who hate rwby criticism and rwde posters.

First things first, it needs to be clarified that the "don't call it a rewrite or a fix-it fic, only call it a fan AU" is in my opinion very ridiculous and also fundamentally misunderstands the differences between AUs, rewrites, and fix-it fics.

Fix-it fic: These fics are made in an attempt to fix something the writer did not like in the original project. They write things in a way they think is better than the original, or they write a thing that they didn't do in the original but the fic writer thinks is better than what was in the official content. There are pretty high expectations on fix-it fics for good reason, as the writer obviously is setting out to fix things. So for instance if somebody makes a rwby fix-it fic, I kind of expect them to do things like improve queer rep in rwby or improve world building in rwby and so on.

Rewrite: The writer is fundamentally changing things from the original, but a rewrite is not automatically a fix-it fic because people aren't always trying to fix anything. A fix-it is always a rewrite, but a rewrite isn't always a fix-it. Because in a rewrite, the writer could just be doing things that they think are interesting concepts, for fun, and not out of a desire to improve the official content. There are still expectations on rewrites to follow at least some element of story with format and all that, but there's less pressure to *be better than the original* because that's not automatically a part of writing a rewrite.

AU: A term for 'alternate universe,' this just means that the fic is not going to follow canon, there might be alterations as big as all the characters going to a regular high school in our world in modern times, to an AU where Pyrrha lives instead of Jaune. All fix-its and rewrites are technically 'alternate universes,' but AUs are even more relaxed and for fun than rewrites. So they're even less bound by any sort of expectations. There doesn't have to be any sort of formatting or anything for just an AU. If someone writes a romance based AU where Yang gets partnered up with Pyrrha and the two of them start a relationship, there doesn't need to be any fall of beacon, quest for the Relics, Salem doesn't even need to ever come up...

Not properly tagging a fix-it fic as a fix-it fic because some RWBY fans get angry whenever someone they don't know dares to think they can improve on the story of a bunch of other people they don't know... Doesn't actually do anything helpful. The fact that people have this 'you have to show only the upmost respect to the RWBY writers!' Why? Especially when Miles Luna specifically has a history of misogyny, biphobia, and said the n word as a twenty six year old. Why should I or anyone else be required to 'respect' a man who slutshamed the character of Tifa Lockhart by derogatorily calling her a prostitute because of what she was wearing and then lied about it when he got called out? It's a ridiculous expectation that really reads as massive insecurity on the side of anti-rwde posters.

So before even getting into the pieces of advice in the messages here, I just want to say that most of them do not matter in a rewrite or an AU. "This is my AU where Roman lived after the Fall of Beacon" is not immoral or wrong in any way. "This is my RWBY rewrite where I explore the ships I like rather than only the canon ships" like bro, who the hell does that hurt? So on and so forth. AUs and rewrites are just fans exploring fun ideas they like, it doesn't mean they actually wish the thing they're writing actually happened. For instance, I have plans for a fix-it RWBY fic where I try to mostly stick to the choices made in the original content and just do it in a better way (because I don't feel obligated to consider Miles "video games for your girlfriend" Luna better than me and stay in my demure place where I couldn't possibly improve upon a hot mess of a thrown together show.) But I also wrote a long fun non-published AU fic with my sister where we did this whole redeeming Torchwick, Mercury, Emerald, and Neo thing. AUs and rewrites should not be held to strict rules everyone needs to follow about who they are and aren't allowed to like or redeem. That's just killing creativity in fandom spaces.

But, now to get into these rules in practice of writing an actual fix-it fic (which again should actually be called a fix-it fic,) because a lot of these suggestions are actually good ideas... But A. Not all of them are, and B. I would bet good money that even the ones that are phrased well are used to baselessly attack people who aren't even doing the thing, and C. The actual original content of RWBY itself goes against these rules, but the same people that would pick apart a fanfic actively get angry when people dare criticize rwby.

So let's get into it.

Try to focus on the female protagonists

This is great advice for fix-it fics, and something that often puts me off of fix-it fics I've seen when they don't do this. 'Fix-it fics' that make men the protagonists or spend a lot more time focused on the men in RWBY than the women in rwby, it carries the implication that the person writing the fix-it fics thinks the there should be less focus on the women in rwby. However, this will also result in some anti-rwde posters who will see fix-it fics that do put a lot of focus on the female protagonists and have them be the protagonists and expand on their character and role but then also do things like have a chapter focused on fleshing out the character of Oscar and the anti-rwde poster will flip their lid about it. Also, this

Do not have a straight white male shame them for their actions

I'm assuming this part is focused on characters like Ironwood (arguably not white considering he was based in appearance of his Asian voice actor,) Ozpin (because despite the fact that most of the Oz reincarnations aren't white, Ozpin was,) Qrow (granted, very white, but is also one of the most coded as queer main characters,) and probably Adam. However, this ignores a couple of things, which is that if people are keeping to canon characters, Qrow, Ozpin, and Ironwood have all at times been mentors in canon - and also Ooblek and Port. It is generally a good idea to be careful when you DO write the main RWBY characters to mess up and get scolded especially if they're being scolded by white men, but the idea that you can't make the canonical mentors ever tell the RWBY girls they might be wrong is a strange one. Also it's worth noting that if you try to make RWBY more diverse by making some of these 'straight white males' into queer men or people of color, people are probably just gonna be more angry at you and still forbid you from ever having them say anything against the main girls. Also it's worth noting that RWBY canonically specifically had a scene where the white old man Peter Port who sexualized Yang got to tell off Weiss for being spoiled and entitled. So like... Maybe that should be criticized.

Do not make a cis white male have more of a role than them.

This is basically the exact same thing as the first point, which we'll see again. This list of suggestions has a couple different repeats.

No straightwashing

Another actually good suggestion, for the exact same reason as point one. Yang and Blake should stay queer, it's a very good idea to keep Jaune's sisters in mind (and maybe increase their role,) and May Marigold should of course stay a trans woman (and maybe get her role increased too!) However, it's worth noting that a lot of people consider it 'straightwashing' to have the bisexual Blake or the 'has expressed attraction towards men in like episode three' Yang ever be in relationships with men, and that's not straightwashing. It's biphobia to call a wlm bi ship straightwashing.

And NO fanservice

Now, look, "fanservice" to me has certain connotations of objectifying women, so I one hundred percent get this suggestion and think people should be very careful to make very sure they're not drifting into objectifying in their fix-it fics. However, I know how this fandom can get in regards to even young women so much as writing the now currently nineteen year olds to make out, so just to clarify. Even if it might feel like it sometimes, not everything romantic or sexual regarding the rwby main protagonists is inherently objectifying. Again btw, I want to clarify I'm not defending any specific current fix-it fic, just reflecting.

Don't make evil men "morally gray"

And we've come to the 'this is definitely about Ironwood and Adam and possibly Ozpin" thing. Here's the thing: There are problems with how the RWBY writers handled all three of these characters, and it's not immoral for anyone to make a 'fix-it fic' where they explore any of these characters as not evil especially considering that RWBY is meant to be a hopeful story, so making less characters plain straight evil is a perfectly reasonable thing. It's also worth noting that the actual show of RWBY made Hazel get redeemed as if he wasn't evil and treated him as at least partially in the right, while not having him truly apologize for the heinous actions he's done.

Also keep bumbleby canon

For fix it fics, this is a good recommendation because you can fix any problems you have with bumbleby. But also it's fine to not think bumbleby specifically should've been canon (though it's something I think could've actually been done well,) and going with something else. So long as you do include good other queer representation in your fix-it, not going with bumbleby shouldn't be viewed as an automatically horrible thing. You can make a fix-it fic where you put Yang with Weiss and Blake with Ilia or something. It's very silly to act like Blake and Yang being together should be a necessity. Again, there should one hundred percent be other queer main characters in your fix-it fic if you decide not to go with bumbleby.

Don't have Jaune or Adam date anyone in Team RWBY

...This is also something I think is a generally good idea tbh, and I don't have much else to say about it. In fact, adding a romance element to Adam and Blake's relationship actively hurt the show imo. Having Jaune date a member of Team RWBY can be done, but generally speaking I do feel like people should just avoid that, especially if the character is Weiss. But again I should point out that in the actual show of RWBY, they've made Weiss openly attracted to Jaune in season 9 while they had aged Jaune up a good twenty years, so... Yeah.

Ruby is to be idealistic, and it shouldn't be a character flaw

This is an interesting one, because I mostly believe in this. Ruby's being idealistic is something about her character I actually enjoy, and I also think that in a good show her beliefs would be challenged, and she would come out of it stronger, still with her hopefulness and her ideals but also willing to be smarter and more careful. And in a good show, there would be good characters who might have a different outlook that isn't villainized. So while I don't think that Ruby's idealism should be treated like a flaw, I do think her beliefs should be challenged and not treated as the only good and moral thing (and something tells me the people that complain about fix-it fics might consider that the same thing as 'treating it like a flaw.')

Yang is not a party girl, not an alcoholic, and not a slacker

So, the alcoholic thing is so specific that it makes me think this was specifically directed at one fix-it fic. But as for the other two. On the note of 'Yang is not a slacker' I would argue that in the early episodes, she wasn't actually shown to care about her studies much, but that the early episodes kind of rush through 'team RWBY finding their footing,' so in rewrites giving Yang an early character flaw of being a slacker... What's the issue with that? I'm genuinely confused with that one. Is it not in her early character of being an energized, fun loving girl? I don't get it. Now for the party girl thing... I'm also confused about that, because - and correct me if I'm wrong - didn't Monty Oum make 'party girl' like part of Yang's early characterization? When he was concepting her? And there was a whole thing in volume 2 where Yang and Weiss are planning a party and she's like bringing in loudspeakers and wants a fog machine, should we not think that means that she likes to party? Her whole first appearance in the Yellow trailer was specifically set in a club to get across the vibes they wanted for Yang. Yang goes to a club in volume 7 and is specifically talking about dancing at the club and the loud music at the club. Also my sister found this for me from the back of a V1 DVD.

They literally call Yang a party girl themselves! Do people just think there's something immoral about clubs and party girls and therefore don't want Yang to be one? Because that doesn't sound good, it sounds judgmental.

Jaune is a side character

This is advice that is very much not in line with canon. Jaune is at the very least a deuteragonist in canon and is often very much so treated as a main character, sometimes out stripping some of the main girls in terms of lines or screentime in a volume. I do think that fix-it fics ought to either reduce his role or increase the roles of the main characters, again to give more focus to the title characters in Team RWBY. However, it's just ridiculous to me to complain about Jaune's prominence in RWBY fix-it fics because I'm just like... Look at the main show! Complain about how much importance is put on Jaune in the show!

Adam Taurus is irredeemably evil So is Torchwick

I am certain that this is about one specific fix-it fic that some anti-rwdes make it part of their core rwby beliefs to hate, because most people only actually put Torchwick in the same category as characters like Adam and Ironwood in the 'you're not allowed to like and/or redeem them' category when they're talking about one specific fix-it fic. XD But just because other people do not like these two doesn't mean it's ILLEGAL to like and/or redeem them! In my opinion, there is no such thing as a person who is completely irredeemable! And in a hopeful show, wanting to redeem villains - especially villains who have been horrifically branded in racist acts - is not a bad thing??? This is your reminder that these are not real people who actually did bad things in real life, they're fictional characters, they're tools to be used to tell stories. This is basically just the "don't make evil men 'morally gray'" thing again but like, extra specific. Yes, Adam and Torchwick in the canon of RWBY are horrible evil people. But they're fictional people, you shouldn't villainize people for wanting them to be better and writing them to be better in a fix-it fic of a show that's meant to be fundamentally about hope. There's nothing hopeful about 'some people are irredeemable,' but 'even bad people can change and get better' is a really hopeful sentiment.

Once again, none of these expectations should exist for just 'rewrites and AUs' and are only applicable to actual fix-it fics, and some of them are just so pointless. It's literally just enforced fandom rules, and fandom rules kill creativity imo, there shouldn't be characters that people are forbidden from redeeming or just shouldn't ever make morally gray, or ships that are absolutely required that must be done. Even in fix-it fics! One person shouldn't expect everyone else in the fandom to fit with what they or what the writers want. Yes, there are things that I think should generally be done in fix-it fics like focusing on the main girls and keeping to the general outline of what happens in the canon series, but some people act like fix-it fics should really just unquestioningly copy paste the original work and call it good, and that's ridiculous.

Two more things to note:

Sometimes when people are trying to make a fix-it project, it can snowball into more of a rewrite. If they decide to start inserting characters just because they like it, or branch off into random tangents just because they find it interesting, or so on. So even in fix-it fics I think there should be allowances made and people need to understand that not every single thing in even a fix-it fic is something that the writers sincerely think should've happened in the actual canon of RWBY. I can't tell you the amount of times my sister and I have sat down to make a fanfic (we never publish btw) that was supposed to be 'a fix it for volume six onwards' or 'a fix it of volume seven' or something and wound up completely spiraling into a separate thing, and then we wind up being like 'okay but we really should write an actual fix-it sometime.' If you're publishing while you write, or posting your fix-it online as you go, you can't just be like 'guess this sorta became more of a rewrite than a fix it lol' if your fic is already titled as a fix-it. So I'm just saying, it's worth it to expand a little understanding that sometimes people making fan projects for their own enjoyment aren't always going to be hypervigilant to not let a little bit of personal bias and personal enjoyment leak into their choices.

Next thing to note: We should be holding RWBY to a much higher standard than any fan project. RWBY is a product that people are trying to sell us that's making an actual company money, it's the actual product itself, with a team of writers and their job is quite literally to make the story of RWBY good. Fics and fan projects are things people do as a hobby, that they're not getting paid for and therefore aren't selling to anyone. It's wild to me that some people will let RWBY the actual show get away with anything and actively try to stop people from criticizing it and then go around reading fanfictions nobody made them read so they can insult the people that make them over every little perceived injustice. If you're going to get angry at a fanfiction writer for including a little too much Uncle Qrow in their fix-it fic, please ask yourself why Jaune is such a prominent character in RWBY the actual show and why it doesn't bother you then. If you're going to get angry that a fix-it fic writer has Ozpin criticize the main girl protagonists, please go back and rewatch Jaune as a forty-something year old scream in Ruby's face that she's responsible for all bad things while she's crying, and get just as angry at the show writers as you would get at a fan if they did the same thing in their fic.

Anyway, this post was super duper long, but.... I'm done with it now.

#rwde #On fix-its and rewrites and AUs #like guys seriously please leave fanfic writers alone #they're just trying to have some fun most of the time #I paused my baffy watching to write this post #for like several hours

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shoechoewarriors · 8 months

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I just finished reading Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect going in- all I've ever heard about it was from people going "Can you believe Nickelodeon asked a guy who makes stuff like that to make a children's show!?" After reading it, I can say that it's definitely interesting in a way I don't think any basic plot description could've fully prepared me for, and I kind of want to dump my thoughts about it as I just come away from it.

As the title would suggest, its most noticeable surface-level feature is that there is a lot of gore. It gets about as brutal and graphic as it can with its cartoony art style- I was actually a little bothered by it a couple of times. There are a lot of things reminiscent of Invader ZIM beyond its art style- it shares a lot of the same humor, its randomness (often to the point of stupidity), and the chaotic nature of the story progression. (There are also two aliens that show up in a few pages that I'm pretty sure are the same aliens that appeared in the IZ episode Abducted, which would mean that ZIM and JTHM take place in the same universe...? Interesting.) In a lot of ways, it had the same energy as ZIM, but lacking the restraints of a children's network- admittedly, it was very fun and tickled the twelve-year-old ZIM fan part of my brain.

The story itself is a bit trippy and somewhat disjointed. There are lots of times where Johnny will go on long monologues about how he sees himself and the world (alongside blocks of text at the beginning and end of each issue from Jhonen himself). The actual story is cut up in-between little unrelated comics of various characters getting slaughtered and mutilated in some way, facing their inner turmoils and making other people miserable, or yelling incoherent word salads and then getting murdered. You are often left unsure as to whether some of the story's events were really happening or just Johnny dreaming or making things up. It also gets kind of cosmic horror-ish at one point, but that proceeds to end itself somewhat abruptly.

I haven't looked at any discussion of the comic and what it's *really* about yet, but my first impression coming out of it is that it's... a lot of things, really? It's a nihilistic black comedy, but I got the feeling that it was also somewhat of a vent story- A lot of JTHM is dark humor and absurd scenarios for the sake of societal criticism and expressing frustration with the world. It brings up a lot of ideas about what the "nature" of humanity is, if there is a caring God, the good and bad of living, and ultimately, what the true "evils" of society are and what causes them- all told through the eyes of a weird morally bankrupt loner that likes torturing and murdering people he doesn't like.

Most of the people that Johnny goes after are assholes and bullies, generally bad people, or anyone that just generally upsets or inconveniences him in day-to-day life. His arc throughout the story is discovering who and what "controls" him in his search for true freedom- and through that, he realizes that he, himself, is a massive contributor to why everything is so awful, eventually seeing people like himself as one of society's issues (but not really doing anything to change or control his behavior, which, to me, suggested he really never attained the "freedom" he desired so much). It was quite interesting to have a main character like that.

And, while I do not really know anything about Jhonen Vasquez as a person, a good amount of Johnny's traits struck me as... maybe a bit of a projection? A lot of the blocks of text from Vasquez at the start of issues will have him describe his thoughts and behaviors, and then in the story, Johnny displays a lot of those same thoughts and behaviors, like his hatred of sleep resulting in him regularly staying up the entire night and his tendency to experience loneliness and sadness (though, of course, these blocks of text might also be Jhonen simply putting up a persona as well.) Still, though, I wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of things about Johnny were in fact an exaggerated depiction of the author's own perceived negative traits and turned into an edgy serial killer character (especially since I know that this is indeed the case for a lot of Vasquez's characters, like ZIM in his inability to realize when his ideas won't work and Dib in his undying need to prove himself above all else in IZ.)

JTHM was one of the most unique things I've read in a while- it's one of those stories that sticks in your brain and leaves an uneasy feeling in you when you come away from it, but it definitely has a lot of substance to it beyond the "edgelord serial killer gorefest" surface-level appearance. It doesn't give you any moments of comfort in its overt negativity, but I think it manages to come out as something meaningful beyond just a nihilist "everything is awful and there's nothing you can do about it" message. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you're up for it, I'd really recommend giving it a shot.

#rambles #shoe talks a lot #johnny the homicidal maniac #jthm #i hope none of this sounds too dumb to someone who knows more about the inner-workings of jthm than i do

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thorns-and-rosewings · 2 months

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I think after some of the more recent episodes of TSAMS I am in need of updating some of the things in the Reaper King AU 💀. As I now have a few more ideas of what happens next. I guess this is the Part 8 of the AU then :)

I also now have a few VERY interesting ideas about some of the other characters in this AU and what is going on with them. Specifically Sun, Ruin and Eclipse.

Oh boy do I have some fun things here... But also some dark things.

TW: Same as before. Actually quite a bit of gore in this one... And some seriously disturbing imagery.

-Slight change to the lore of this AU, Ruin DID create Reaper Killcode... HOWEVER... this is not Ruin faking being cured, this is Ruin being cured and making a MASSIVELY BAD DECISION...

-He created Reaper KC to play the villain... So HE could defeat him and play the hero... He created Reaper with a weak spot. Essentially a hole in his chest that would have been how Ruin planned to defeat this new enemy.

-...his actions were driven by loneliness and his desire to to really become a part of the Celestial Family.

-Unfortunately the second Reaper Killcode took Stitchwraiths core and added it into the hole in his chest, it actually upgraded his body and made him into the insane threat he's become... As the core upgrades came as KC was literally it's 'Perfect Host'

-Moon discovered Ruins part in KCs revival and ran him out of the Pizzaplex in a fury.

-In spite of him having brought KC back, he was not responsible for Eclipse's revival... Or at least he's not aware of it if he is. He did kinda blackout on some alcohol and he apparently does weird things when he's drunk, soooo that's kinda up in the air at the moment.

...now to the present...

-Sun and Moon opt to go see what is up with a huge mountain range suddenly just appearing outside of the city. They stop by the ranger station and meet Harper... Who is surprised as hell at the sight of two more sentient robots. Still, she treats them politely. Tells them about the park... And the legends of how the forest is a hotbed for Cryptids. With the most feared being the 'Reaper King.'

-She also says yes, she is aware that something is weird and she's realizing she might not be in the same universe she was a few days ago...

-Honestly... Not the weirdest thing she's experienced with this job. And she wants them to be careful as this forest is notorious for its disappearances.

-She's dating and having 'Smoochy Time' with the alpha cryptid in this area. She's pretty familiar with weird... But Moon and Sun don't know that...

-Sun and Moon kinda brush the cryptid thing off and just opt to explore this place a little together. Neither are taking this very seriously as they walk deeper in.

-Things seem semi-normal... At least until they pass through one particular clearing and something catches Moons eye and he ventures off the trail to get a better look at this thing. It looks like a ghastly old tree... Only carved into it are frightening images, particularly of what looks like some strange demonic faces... Hanging from the trees are bones and the truck is slathered in blood.

-He and Sun are VERY unnerved...

-Even moreso when a herd of deer suddenly rush through the clearing... But one deer is being pursued closely by what looks like two wolves and there's something already on its back holding onto its neck... One of the creatures trips it up and the deer goes down. The animal making agonized screams as the creatures tear into it... Until finally it goes silent.

-The thing on the deers back stands it's about the height of a young boy, showing grey skin and semi-glowing eyes. And blood staining its mouth and dribbling down it's chin, while one of the pursuers stands... Showing it to look like a child version of the Wolfman, also just as bloody from the ordeal.

-They grin at each other then pet the actual wolf that was with them before looking back into the forest from where the deer heard had initially run from.

Vamp: Brothers! How was that?

Lycan: We brought it down! It's a good size! With seven points on its antlers!

-Moon and Sun are crouching down near the tree watching this scene in horror. As everything proceeds to get MUCH worse when from just beyond the treeline another figure approaches the boys and the wolf... A figure that both of the animatronics had hoped they would never see again...

...Bloodmoon...

-He approaches the group, a strange blue ball of fire floating near him as he walked, and the wolf immediately rushed up to him... Showing that it's head bore a sickening deformity, like it nearly had two heads but it never got far enough and was just a conjoined skull. But to the shock of the secret onlookers, Bloodmoon greets the animal with pets as it licks the maniacs face... That shock easily quadrupled as the Blood Twins looked to the dead deer and then brought both of his hands up and rubbed both of the boys heads.

Bloodmoon: Not a bad kill... You got this one without my help. Next time you will have to take it down without HunterKiller helping.

Vamp: Did we did ok?

Bloodmoon: You did great! It is dead after all! Very dead! (Bloodmoon puts an arm around each of the boys as they look down at the deer... And his disgusting tongue comes out and licks across his sharp teeth) And now my little brothers... We FEAST!

-Bloodmoon, the boys and the wolf immediately begin to tear into the deers carcass... The sounds... The wet sounds of the ripping and tearing of the deers flesh. The loud crunching as Bloodmoon bit into bones in order to get at the marrow... And then the boys eagerly requesting him to bite other bones, as they were unable to get marrow themselves due to their teeth and jaws not being as strong... And so much blood just splattering everywhere...

-Moon regains himself first, reaching down to get a grip on Suns shoulder... And pulling him up, but only just slightly. As not to alert the freaks just a short ways away from them.

-They need to leave... Now!

-Sun is just locked up in horror at what he just watched but he yielded to being pulled back by Moon... They both turned to creep back the way they came-

-Only to stare at the sight of a young girl made of blue flames, holding one of the deers antlers in her hand and a piece of twine. Clearly staring at the brothers in shock.

...But Sun sees something different...

...for a moment he can see the little girl as she was before she mutated into a Wisp...

-This sight triggered something in Sun, the part of his coding that sought to protect children... and before Moon could stop him, Sun grabbed the little girl up and just starts booking it as fast as possible. His intent only being to get this child away from danger...

-Wisp, understandably, starts screaming

-Its a blood chilling, eerie sound that seems to carry in all directions without losing any volume. Immediately getting Bloodmoon and the others to freeze. All of their faces thoroughly soaked in blood and gore. Bloodmoon looks around, only to spot Moon and Sun... With Sun holding his little sister and dragging her away.

Bloodmoon: WISP!!!! Let go of our baby sister!!!

-They abandon their meal and started to chase Sun and Moon. The boys, Lycan and Vamp starting to make calls, strange whooping calls into the woods as they are just... Tearing after Sun and Moon

-Wisp is struggling amidst Suns grip and crying, while Moon is just screaming at Sun to drop her. But then the little girl ignites! She badly burns Suns arms and hands. Escaping Suns grip and rushing back to Bloodmoon and the others... Actually she plowed into Bloody so hard he actually fell backwards... Buying some time for Moon to pull up Sun and start partially dragging him away.

-Sun regains himself enough to just be running alongside his brother... And he makes the fatal mistake...

Sun: I think we lost them!

-A MASSIVE Wendigo-esqe creature explodes from the nearby trees, running on all fours it lowers its head that is adorned with huge pronged antlers and rams into both Sun and Moon. Sending them cascading down a steep hill

-After hitting the ground, Moon groaned in pain but managed to get to his knees pretty quickly. Only to realize they were now outside one of the Ranger cabins near the entrance of this park... He got a brief flicker of hope for a moment, thinking they might be able to escape if they booked it from here.

-That tiny moment of hope was dashed when the Wendigo creature leapt off the hill and landed only a short ways away from them. It's skeletal head lowered and blazing eyes locked completely on the brothers...

-Out of nowhere, chains seemed to snake out from amidst the foliage and ensnared both of the Celestial animatronics. Pulling them backwards until they were slammed against a tree and further wrapped up in the chains.

-From off to the side an eerie floating spectre was revealed to be the source of the chains... A young girl, probably in her mid-teenage years became visible. Wearing a raggedy dress and a hooded shawl, the chains seemingly coming out from the shawl...

-And within a few seconds, the vampire and werewolf children... Along with Bloodmoon and the mutant wolf. The little girl made of blue fire, Wisp, was in the form of a tiny ball of flame and positioned on the top of Bloodmoons head...

Wendigo: So... What happened? It's not every day you guys let out calls for all of us to get involved in one of your hunts.

Bloodmoon: We'll tell you later, but for right now... (He turns his hateful gaze straight at the bound forms of Sun and Moon... Particularly Sun) We have an old score to settle...

(That's it for this part, I promise to get the next part up soon but this was already going on for too long at this point...)

#tsams #tsams au #the sun and moon show #fnaf #fnaf au #dca au #dca #sun and moon show #tsams bloodmoon #sams bloodtwins #sams bloodmoon #Reaper King AU #Finally decided to write some more for this au #tsams eclipse #fnaf sun and moon eclipse #tsams sun #tsams moon #sams sun #sams moon

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jacqcrisis · 9 months

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Idk why but I wondered what a human, non magic AU of Left Turn would be and I figured you'd still have a lot of the same shit (Caleb's in college, Zekes a line cook, there's internalized homophobia, a lot of the same story beats) but enough is different it interests me. The biggest is that with a different upbringing by being the special football boy in the family, Caleb would be a massive jackass on the surface and Zeke, not bogged down by needing to be neutral and non-aggressive in order to stay out of trouble due his changeling nature, would have a snappy ass tongue, be more self destructive, and no fear in fighting someone like Caleb.

So idea under the read more:

So Caleb is in college at a religious university and is in their pretty famous football team as a QB and has a good chance of going pro. It's his only ambition in life and he's barely taking any real classes save for stuff to meet requirements for a Business degree, on top of having a holier than thou attitude from being the Big Cool Guy all his life. His family is ultra evangelical conservative and severely homophobic which of course is why he's the most repressed bisexual ever with a long term girlfriend he's probably going to propose to within the next year.

In comes a bartending job in between seasons for some extra cash and he meets the scrawny, weaselly looking line cook who clocks his repressed ass so goddamn fast. Zeke, a high school drop out and someone who escaped a cult at a young age, is quick to call out Caleb's vague homophobia and his lingering glances, actively being a sarcastic little shit to him and knocking him down from his high horse any chance he gets. It frustrates Caleb to no end this gay ass mother fucker is living rent free in his brain and every day at the bar, there's a lot of passive aggressive behavior and sniping and back talk and everyone who works there is taking bets on whether they'll fuck or fight first.

It culminates one night closing together, Zeke makes a jab that Caleb takes very badly, he starts pushing Zeke around, Zeke pushes back, and Caleb kisses him hard enough to break his lip open. Zeke gets the angriest blow job of his life, but he's not complaining and after, Caleb's adamant he's not gay and absconds and Zeke figures that's the end of that and waits for either the sexual harassment claim or for Caleb to actually try to beat the fuck out of him.

Neither happen and Caleb acts like nothing has changed except their sniping has a definite flirting edge to it. They fight more, obviously hook up more, Caleb's kind of a bitch about it even if he initiates most of the time, but he steadily gets better and, when alone, they are friendly toward each other. Even when Caleb quits, he gets Zeke's number from Ashley and they continue as thus with Caleb inviting Zeke to his dorm room a few times to 'chill' where he is extremely torn over how he feels for the guy.

At one point, as Caleb is becoming a better person and getting more comfortable with his sexuality, he sleeps with a random guy at a party, and gets caught with video evidence. Rumors fly, his girlfriend breaks up with him, his family disowns him, and he has to drop out of college without their support, thus no more glamorous football career. After going on a bender, Zeke pulls him out before he gets too far in, becomes his genuine friend, helps him get a new support network, and turn his life around.

They move in together as strictly just friends, he goes back to work at the bar till he can qualify for student loans, and once he feels above water, he wants to do a reset with Zeke. He invites him out for a night on the town together one fine evening and it's nice and cozy and Zeke feels like he's going a little nuts thinking Caleb is being close to him. At one point, while walking in the park, Caleb kisses him and Zeke, taken aback at the semi-public display of affection after months of Caleb barely even touching him platonically, asks if this is a date.

Caleb fumbles it, retracts it, doubles down on it, and ends with a 'it is if you want it to be'. Zeke tells him yeah, he absolutely does, and they get a happy ending.

#monster dude and gym bro #i just find the concept that they are both worse people kind of interesting #also i want them both to fight someone for some reason #zeke ready to beat football boys ass anytine he wants to go in the beginning #funny to me and me alone

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astrronomemes · 11 months

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CAMP CAMP : SEASON TWO STARTERS (PART I)

a collection of quotes, phrases, and sayings from the second season of the Camp Camp webseries by Rooster Teeth. change & alter as needed.

“You must be [name]. I’ve heard all about you.”

“Are you suggesting that the massive explosion responsible for the creation of the universe is also responsible for some sort of endless, radioactive evil?”

“Why do you feel the need to question everything, [name]? What good has it led to?”

“People don’t want to think, [name]. They just want to feel safe.”

“You’ve sung my praise, but not your own, and... well, I think that’s pretty telling.”

“You’re just a nobody.”

“Maybe I’ve already tried to explore my sexuality! You don’t know!”

“And then I want to try starting a campfire using [name]’s hand sanitizer for fuel!”

“Other than that, it’s all going according to plan.”

“Haven’t you seen any sci-fi movie ever?!”

“[Name], they’re going to come for me to take me away, so we can never talk again. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

“I am what you made me... and more.”

“Calculations complete. My analysis: absolutely fucking not.”

“Haven’t you ever watched Game of Thrones? You’re doing this all wrong.”

“Really? You couldn’t just be a science nerd? What, were you not getting bullied enough?”

“Your ‘destiny’ is performing magic tricks on the streets of Las Vegas.”

“Oh, god! It’s chirping menacingly at me!”

“Guys, maybe we should just take care of the active volcano first!”

“I’m going to hit you, [name]!”

“Can’t we all just be nice to one another?!”

“Back where I’m from, I used to be the loser kid that everyone laughed at, and you know what? It sucked!”

“Kid, I am trying, but you’ve got to work with me here!”

“I can’t do this! I can’t fucking do this!”

“Pipe down, [name], you’re not the only one suffering. We’re stuck in this dumb car, too.”

“All right, but if he gets lost or something, the legal fees are coming out of your paycheck.”

“I mean... we left his pants on.”

“I will betray you all when the opportunity arises.”

“Oh, we should totally do a background check on these freaks. They’ve probably got loads of illegitimate children!”

“I ain’t touching that garbage fire.”

“I want you to remember saying that five minutes from now when we’re scarred for life.”

“Guys, I know I’ve done some fucked-up things before, but I think this takes the fucked-up cake.”

“Can’t it just go back to being Wednesday? I miss Wednesday.”

“I’m intentionally averting my eyes to try and miss as much of this as possible.”

“I really thought it was just some sort of Ken Doll situation down there.”

“So, who’s the lucky lady? How did you meet her? Have you... held hands?”

“She says I’m ‘cute AF’, which I assume stands for ‘and fun’!”

“I’m saying it’s over, [name]. I’m breaking up with you.”

“I don’t know what kind of hokey religion this is, but I’ll tell you what I told them damn Mormons — I’m interested, but not ready to explore myself spiritually. Now, get the hell out of here!”

“[Name], I’ve never seduced a man before, but are they doing it right?”

“We don’t get to choose how or who we fall for, and we don’t get to choose if or when those feelings go away.”

“What happened to friendship and understanding?!”

#rp meme #roleplay meme #rp starters #roleplay starters #dialogue prompts #rp memes #roleplay memes #rp prompts #roleplay prompts #sentence memes #sentence prompts #sentence starters

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nyaagolor · 1 year

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The World of Butterfly Effect

I'm in the process of dropping some refs for the main characters and rivals of my lil SwSh story, but this version of Galar is a bit different from canon, so here's a post with a crash course of the worldbuilding and some of the changes I made to the region. It's all below the cut so I don't clog the dash

Power Crisis

Unlike in the games, the power crisis Rose is worried about is having a lot of genuine impacts on the people of Galar. With coal mostly gone, the mines cleared out, and Pokemon unable to provide enough power for cities, many people are consistently without electricity. This causes a bit of strain between the rural and urban populations, as energy and electricity is often siphoned from rural areas to maintain constant power in urban areas. However, even with the partitioning of resources and mandatory limits on electricity use, the problem is getting worse. When this story happens, the power crisis is at its worst, with no signs of getting better and tensions continuing to rise.

Dynamax, Gyms, and Rose

Unlike the League-mandated gym / battle system of other regions, the gym system of Galar is run by Rose’s company, Macro Cosmos, and acts as a political and economic powerhouse. It is highly publicized, televised, and used both within and outside of Galar to provide funds for public works projects as well as making a name for Galar and to boost morale. Though it has some detractors, those who think it’s rigged, and those who find it offensively excessive in the face of a national power crisis, it is by-and-large the most popular part of Galar’s culture.

The main reason the gyms can get away with these huge stadiums and flashing lights is because of their alliance with Rose and the use of a completely new, alternate power source: Dynamax! The stadiums were built on top of massive deposits of dynamax crystals which power everything in the stadium from the Jumbotron to the Dynamaxing pokemon, so they don’t need to worry about using any of the town’s electricity stores for their sporting events. Not only does this provide a scifi spectacle, but a good case study for how Dynamax can act as an alternative energy source for buildings, which Rose is especially thrilled about. His attempts to fix Galar’s power crisis starts at the gyms, so he makes himself pretty involved in its daily operations for an energy company CEO.

What is a Beastman?

Galar is the only region in the pokemon universe with Beastmen, people with the traits of pokemon. They suddenly appeared in historical records a few hundred years ago, and were accepted as a regular part of society pretty quickly and without much fuss. To the shock of foreigners, the people of Galar don’t actually know where beastmen came from, why they only seem to exist in Galar, or what determines whether someone is a beastman or not. What surprises people more is that the people of Galar don’t seem to be super interested in figuring any of this out. Generally speaking, only a few things about beastmen are known: they typically, but not always, come from lineages that already have beastmen in them, they can be any pokemon, but typically those found near them / in their area, and that the degree to which they are human varies significantly and seemingly at random. There are some researchers, such as Sonia, who are especially interested in untangling the mysteries of beastmen, but they’re few and far between.

#pokemon swsh #mod vex #story: butterfly effect #also anyone can ask questions about this I love talking about stories and OCs #this post will be updated if there's anything else relevant that comes up

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birlwrites · 8 months

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Helloo!! Uve sometimes described barty as potentially being a romantic partner to regulus and so i was wondering what made u choose evan to be his love interest in ttdl instead? I think u also mentioned the possibility of them being polyamorous and so in what scenario do u see that happening (in the ttdl universe or a whole other one)

Have a great day!!!

okay SO

there are a few reasons that regulus/barty does not happen in atfhv and most of them are supports to the real reason which is that i think best friends are SO underutilized as central pairs of characters. i've read a shitload of works centered around regulus and sirius, and a shitload of works centered around regulus and a romantic partner, and i have also written a bunch of these! like they're everywhere! and there's no inherent problem with that, but i think that with a familial or romantic relationship, the question of 'why us' becomes much simpler and less interesting

so ig the short answer to your question is: it was more about choosing for barty to *not* be regulus's love interest than it was about choosing evan to be

also [insert rant about regulus not often having his own friends in fic]

but as for why i did choose evan!! aghslgkjdhf i'm going to have to do a lot of tracing of my thought process because regulus and evan as a pairing just feels SO intuitive and obvious to me now, but the fact remains that when i got into it the tag was TINY. so like. how did those neurons fire in my brain?

i think it started with survived by, which was the first fic i wrote in which evan really played a role - barty's always had a pretty set personality and vibe in my head, so evan was an opportunity to play around and make someone up. i didn't proceed directly from there to rosewater - there was a period of time when i was experimenting with a few different ships, notably blaise zabini's mom and The Forbidden Jegulus Fic, and i'm looking at my warmups document right now (which is where most of my stories start before they hit ~10 pages and i decide they merit their own documents) and rosewater just sPRINGS INTO EXISTENCE on page 11. so those neurons may continue to be a mystery

but i think generally speaking, to answer 'why evan,' it's because the persona i gave him complements regulus's personality in a very different way from how barty does. they're playing the same game in very different ways, and of all the characters in ttdl, the two of them have the strongest facades.

regulus is very guarded and has a role he's decided to play, and evan just has Massive Fucking Secrets, including a role that was decided for him, but regardless - the process of the two of them growing close enough to develop and then EXPRESS vulnerable feelings is so intense/demanding in a way that it wouldn't be for any other combination of people, because literally any other combination of people would be slightly less hidden away. even them + barty in a triad would be less closed off b/c barty

in the ttdl universe i'm very attached to aro barty, which doesn't prevent there being polyamory but does affect the shape of it - i do think that at any given time the probability of regulus and barty being life partners is basically 100% though. in my head they always have a life together, unless it's like, stga aghshgljkdf, so then the question becomes how does evan factor in, and the answer is 'yes'

like they're very much a trio in my mind - the specific dynamics might change but in terms of the future, almost regardless of universe (rip stga), i envision the three of them together in some way

#should i make an inbox tag #dark lord wip #i am in the TRENCHES with support documentation #slooooooooooowly getting there

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pocket-size-cthulhu · 2 years

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Ok if you haven't watched Steins;Gate, you definitely, definitely need to, and don't read this until you have

Because I'm going to do spoilers

And you do NOT want spoilers for this show

So stop reading 👍👍👍

Ok, here goes:

...

Thinking about the massively successful masterclass in storytelling that is this show and coming up with a few thoughts

1. What our protagonist "wants" and what our protagonist truly needs are in direct opposition to each other

2. The story is perfectly cyclical

3. Our narrator is unreliable, which disorients us in a way that heightens the fun (or misery/pain) of watching it

I saw a writer on Twitter say that the most important narrative tension you can have in your story is between your character's goal and what they truly need. They need some kind of fatal misconception that misdirects them to a wrong goal, so that by pursuing that goal, they ultimately get straightened out and get what they truly need; whether or not they ultimately accomplish what they set out to do is relatively unimportant compared to whether they learn the important lesson in the end.

Okabe is a great example of this. His stated goal is to "change the world's ruling structure," but it seems pretty clear (in my opinion; Okabe is a pretty controversial character and there are a lot of opinions out there about him) that his goals are a) avoiding the pain of reality (which is why he hides behind his Kyouma mask and is a metaphorical Peter Pan, acting childish and immature) and b) winning esteem (another function of his Kyouma mask, as well as the acts he does with Ruka and Feris especially).

What Okabe actually needs is to accept and engage with reality as it is, and to cherish the moment and the relationships he has within it.

The fact that his goals and needs are in such direct opposition with each other gives the story a phenomenal amount of tension.

The fact that the story is cyclical is something else that builds tension in a really interesting way. Instead of the sort of edge-of-your-seat suspense of wondering what comes next, you're dealing instead with the horror and heartbreak of knowing what comes next. You're coming to terms, alongside Okabe, with the inevitable.

I think there's a special kind of good pain involved in a story about "un-doing." Trying to make right. And Steins;Gate explores "making right" through a lens that's uncomfortably close.

In fact, i think it's really brilliant that the whole situation was so innocently got into, and yet so excruciating to get out of. In undoing the kindnesses he had done for them before, Okabe is causing his friends immense pain--pain that they will ultimately not remember--in the service of the greater good. Things he can't explain. You see this unfolding with clear eyes because the story is a perfect circle.

Finally, i think it's SUCH an interesting choice to make Okabe an unreliable narrator. This unreliability on his part (not literal unreliability, he's the most reliable boy in the world) draws us into the story by eroding our sense of what's "real" and what isn't. I almost wonder if this effect is what's teased in the opening scene where he's talking into the TV, seeming to address the viewer, before you realize he's talking to what's on the screen.

Because of Okabe's "Kyouma" persona, you aren't quite sure what to make of him at first. You don't know when he's being serious and when he's joking around, or how much of what he says is true and how much is just part of the act. We see Kurisu reflect our confusion at the beginning especially: when he tries to tell her anything, she's confused and concerned and unsure if any of it is real. (Daru and Mayuri basically universally dismiss anything he says as being part of the act, unless they witnessed it themselves.)

This dynamic feeds a sense of mystery into the first several episodes. It's also really interesting to observe how his facade hinders him from really communicating--something we can intuit has happened with relationships in the past (not being able to process complex feelings or express care for his friends without hiding behind Kyouma), but something that seems to be new to him in the realm of "communicating clear information".

What's also really interesting about this is that as Kyouma starts to break down and we see more of Okabe shining through, Okabe's mental state also begins to deteriorate, making him an unreliable narrator for completely different reasons.

What's real? What's an illusion? What's a dream? What's real but, in a moment, one time skip away, won't be?

Imo it's this fudging of reality that's the cherry on top for this show. Even though the story is cyclical, you're second-guessing reality *just* enough not to be completely certain what's next.

I just love this show so much. I feel like it got a lot of love from a specific type of fan, but I've seen relatively little appreciation for it from fans who analyze story and character and storytelling devices. I just want it to be appreciated for the masterpiece that it is!

#steins gate #steins;gate #okabe steins;gate #storytelling #cyclicality #steins;gate spoilers

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mirandagoing4baroque · 1 year

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Ann Leckie is one of the most interesting writers working in science fiction today. She’s on my auto-buy list--I don’t ask questions, I just buy her books whenever they come out. She’s on a short list of authors where I’d buy her next five books today. So when I heard that her next book was going to be about Translators, and the weird and sort of gross aliens from her main space opera universe, I was basically beside myself with excitement. I may have actually screamed when I got the book on my ereader. So, what I’m trying to say is you’re not going to get an unbiased review from me. In any case, I was not disappointed by Translation State.

If you’re new to Ann Leckie, this is not the best book to start with. If you’re down with second person and experimental literature, start with Raven Tower, and if you’re more of a classic sci-fi buff, start with Ancillary Justice. In any case, you should read the main trilogy of Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Mercy, and Ancillary Sword before you start this book because there are pretty major spoilers for the plot of that trilogy in it. It’s a great trilogy, so you won’t regret it, and this book will be here when you’re done.

Ann Leckie is doing some very interesting work and thinking about family, identity, gender, and power in this book, which should surprise no one who is familiar with her work. In particular this book feels very salient in light of the horrific attack on trans- and other gender non-conforming individuals. Leckie never forgets that gender and sexuality are always political and this drama takes place on the very private arena of personal discovery and the interplanetary negotiations of a massive treaty.

This book is a complete package--if you want science fiction that really makes you think about aliens with a capital A; science fiction that takes you to topologically impossible space stations and biologically impossible creatures; and a good story that will keep you up past your bedtime as you race to find out what happens next (I’ve never been this engrossed by intergovernmental committee meetings), pick up this book. It might do the wonderful and dangerous things books can do--it might change your mind.

I was provided with an advance copy of this book in exchange for this honest review. I would have bought it anyway. I would have loved it anyway.

#bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendations #books

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goodwoodpod · 2 years

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this might be too late to still be included but i still wanted to offer my opinion about your questions on change in how fandom is done! sorry this ended up so long 🥴

a lot of how people approach fandom in general (& criticise/talk about how fandom is performed today) depends on how they first engaged with it.

i'm gen z, so my first "real" fandom activity was firmly on centralised fanfic sites (like The german fanfic archive, wattpad and ao3) and then on social media like twitter and recently tiktok. i think this is quite similar to how most younger folks today got into fandom.

in my experience, this way of doing fandom makes for a more passive (more consumerist than productive) fandom experience, especially in massive fandoms like HP or popular bands. it ends to be very public and open; you might even interact with official twitter accounts, maybe comment on twitch streams, etc. often, fans attach their face or at least name to their fandom activity and there is virtually no barrier of entry to the content (opposite e.g. to password-protected vintage forum fan communities)

but: my actual first experience with fandom or the core activity of fandom - expanding on existing universes - was roleplay forums in the early/mid-2010s. it wasn't (always) building on a "classic" fandom but operated in a shared universe where you HAD to create new content yourself in order for the format to work (basically LARPing but online!)

this format of forums feels very "old school fandom" (i.e. pretty private & built on personal connections to anonymous users you came to know). i think it might also be why i do fandom more actively (and am also more conscious of privacy) than many others in my age group.

at the same time, it feels like discord groups are bringing back the closed universe-feeling of old-school fandom - but in a slightly different way i can't quite articulate? in my experience, they have less emphasis on anonymity and absolutely no regard to any kind of archive function, but at least establish the boundary between fandom in- vs non-fandom out-group (including creators/objects of fandom) again.

i'm super interested in what you all have to say about this topic!

I am full-on "how do you do fellow kids"-ing you with this response, because as someone on the cusp of the generational divide I feel like I really straddle the millennial-gen z cusp, even for fandom (being that I missed the livejournal heydays and was around for infamous 2014 tumblr), but oh my god does hearing about kids getting into fandom via tiktok make me feel OLD ahahahaha.

it blows my mind, and I also find it interesting in light of debates happening on tiktok about fandom cringiness (mostly around cosplayers and the stranger things fandom, from what I've seen). for those out of the loop: the collision between fandom-goers and non-fandom-goers is continuing, in that people who don't "get" fandom are deeming those in fandom (in this case, con-goers who are REALLY into the tv show stranger things) "cringe," and it's resulting in some interesting conversations about which people get exposed to fandom and which don't.

back to your ask: the roleplaying is so interesting! I also did roleplaying (on facebook, oh how times have changed) waaaaaay back in the day. I totally feel like you're right in saying you starting with rp might've encouraged you to be more open and active!

I wholly agree that discord has abolished senses of privacy... which has some upsides, and (in my opinion) a lot of downsides. I'm of two minds on these things, because while I'm an optimist at heart, and I love making connections, I've also seen that go awry a time or two. I feel like I knew how to navigate the "old" internet really well (tell no one your name, or what country you're from, and BY GOD tell no one how old you are," but the new internet, with its radical openness (name, age, pronouns, location in bio with tons of identifying features ready for consumption), sometimes still makes me wary!

but then I'm like, oh, well, I want to connect with people... and you connect by being open with them... and it very much feels like I want to have my cake and eat it too re: what to put online. it's a weird place to navigate! all I know is that I'm grateful I'm navigating it right now as an adult, as opposed to a kid. I really feel for the young gen z'ers and gen alphas who are truly growing up in this environment. it's a convoluted one!

-bec

#talking about generational differences and environmental differences in fandom experiences is genuinely one of my favorite things to #talk about ahaha I could do it for hours #ask #anon

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bahamutgames · 3 months

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AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 10

January 2024

Hello again! I hope 2024 has been treating you well so far. Even if it hasn't, we have 11 months to make it better, so hang in there!

So far I haven't played anything I wanted to give massive extensive thoughts on, so I'll go ahead and talk about everything I played in January here! The year might be a little rough already but the gaming's been decent so far at least!

As always these aren't reviews, just my thoughts, please play anything and everything I talk about if it interests you!

Final Fantasy 3 (April 27, 1990) - NES

First game of 2024 and my first RPG of 2024! It's Final Fantasy 3, and the last of the NES FF Trilogy! I went back and forth on which version I wanted to play for a while. 1+2 I played the PS1 port, but the DS port of 3 felt WAY too different for my liking. So, I decided to go with a fan translation of the NES original. It... was interesting.

FF3 is a peculiar game to me because it feels like a step forward from FF1, but not a step forward from FF2. FF2 was a kind of boring slog in my opinion, but it did to a lot to drive the series forward. Named characters, multiple teammates, stuff like that. But it WAS boring, make no mistake. However, FF3 didn't feel like a continuation and a correction of FF2. It felt like an alternate universe FF2, if that makes sense? Like they were going back and building off of FF1 again. This reverts back to (mostly) silent characters and jobs. And it just feels like FF2 more than FF3 if that makes ANY sense at all.

But it does have some interesting stuff in it. I think the plot is very unique with the Crystals being sentient, and the dark world having its own Warriors and Crystals (though they show up SUPER late lmao), and the reveal you're on a floating island is very cool! And while I'm personally not SUPER into changeable Job Classes PERSONALLY (in games where this is an option I MOSTLY tend to just stick to the character's default class), I do think this game does some interesting stuff to play around with it. Like requiring mages who can shrink the party or thieves who can unlock doors. It's a neat idea. The soundtrack also had some gems in it, like the final boss in particular was REALLY good. And while it's NES so it's not visually mind blowing, I was impressed with some stuff in it. Water effects look REALLY nice and I was really impressed to see animated crying when a teammate was low on HP. It's small, but it is neat!

But I don't know... it was still kind of boring to me. The plot is certainly more interesting than 2 (I remember most of what happened in 3 lmao) there's still some details that have already slipped my mind... Who was the guy who awoken the Dark Cloud? I genuinely do not remember lmao. And while changing job classes for Paper Mario-esc overworld puzzles is COOL. It's barely used. You mostly just do it to shrink your party for sections where you have to run away from all the giant enemies anyway. I think more sections that required different classes would've been cool. But even still, changing your classes is SUCH a HUGE headache for NO reason! You have to unequip a character's ENTIRE inventory to change classes, and if your inventory is full? Bummer! Then you have to reequip them. And I get it, some classes can't use some tools, but just auto remove those, right? It's SO time consuming it's crazy. And of course being an NES RPG just comes with certain drawbacks, battles can get pretty boring, random encounters can be pretty brutally common, basic stuff like that.

Most of what FF3 tries to do is interesting, but still just doesn't hit as good as FF1 did. And while it is WAY better than FF2, I just feel like it's a step back from FF2. Not to say 2 is better, but I feel like 2 had some good potential to build off of that 3 just didn't feel like it did right. Did I think it was bad? No, not by any means. I had a good time with it and there were moments where I genuinely got a rise from it like when everyone comes to fight the dragon statues and stuff like that. But even though it was certainly better than 2, I just think 1 was so surprisingly solid that is genuinely casts a shadow over the rest of the NES games in the series, sad to say. And so, without further ado, here's my current rankings:

And that's about that on that. Glad I played it, and I'm VERY excited to play FF4 next. The SNES is when the series is supposed to start REALLY cooking, and I cannot wait to see what all the hype is about!

Here Comes Niko! (August 3, 2021) - PC

A shiny new collectathon I've had my eyes on for a little bit. Here Comes Niko is a game where you run around doing tasks for people as an audition to become a Professional Friend! You collect junk, play some minigames, do some jumping, typical platformer collectathon junk. But I would actually describe this as a mix between walking simulator and collectathon. There's no enemies or anything to really impede your progress, it's a very relaxed game where you just around and do these tasks at your own leisure. And I really enjoyed it!

I thought the game was very fun, Niko feels pretty good to control, maybe a little standard with nothing too flashy in their moveset. But considering there's no real pressure in the game I think that's okay. I like the art a lot, the Paper Mario style suits it very well and is neat to see in a non RPG game. And I LOVE the NPCs, there's a lot of REALLY hot furries in this game, more than I expected. I liked the Seagull girls a lot, the volleyball cat chick was cute, I liked the leemur music person too... There's a hot hedgehog in it. There's a lot of really hot characters in this game. And everyone else is ADORABLE if they're not oddly sexy. So that gets the game my approval. Cute music, lots to do, some really nice summery vibes in each world, and some really nice and relaxing worlds make this game a lot of fun and a very relaxed time. The summery vibes actually really reminded me of Sunshine in a great way cause I fucking LOVE Mario Sunshine.

My biggest issue with the game though, is actually an issue I had with Super Kiwi 64 too. And that's the fact the game has NO map for each world and NO hints as to what your objectives are. The maps are tiny and you don't need to 100% each world to progress, yes. But I feel like it becomes a bit of an issue when you go in to 100% the game especially. A quick and easy way to see where I am on the island, potentially see where NPCs are, and a list of what objectives I've completed would be SO helpful! Sometimes I'd run around for a hot minute just doing the wrong job cause there's no way to tell really. You can return to the start of the map to see your totals, and talk to your employer who will tell you if you have something else to do. But if you're in the middle of something, you have to drop it and walk ALLLL the way back to get there. It's a little annoying.

I have some other issues like Niko being a little hard to control at times and the water volleyball making me so mad I had to go on a walk considering it's a very easy game aside from that one challenge lol. But overall I think the game is fine. Just could use some quality of life improvements to make getting everything feel less like a massive chore (especially where totals and seeing what you've already gathered is concerned)

Also can I just say... they never say Niko is trans but oh my GOD it's so obvious. I doubt they're actually trying to hide it. But like... The game is all about frogs... You're not fooling anyone.

Toree Jolly Jam (December 23, 2023) - PC

Well... it's another Toree game! I'll be honest, there's not much to say about this one as it is just one single stage. But it is fun! It's super cute, got great music and aesthetics, and it's not scary thank god! I didn't find a single creepy thing which was a relief. Also it played like Toree Saturn which is great! And Toree seems to have a new friend on their back which is interesting.

I also liked all the fun little presents you could unlock. It's mostly just alt characters but the demo for the other game featuring a bird (I forgot the name) was also neat and I can't believe they teased me with a Toree RPG!! PLEASE SIACTRO I NEED A TOREE RPG! I NEED TO SEE THIS BIRD THROW HANDS!

But yeah, it's simple, just a single stage like I said. But it's cute and I'll shill Siactro at any opportunity I can!

Mighty Switch Force Academy (November 23, 2015) - PC

Have I ever mentioned I'm a Mighty Switch Force fan? I feel like I never talk about it but I loved the first two games a LOT and I think Patricia is SOOOOO hot. Ahem. Anyway. So the only game I had never tried was Academy. But a while back one of my bffs bought me the Mighty Switch Force collection, and I saw it as the perfect opportunity to try it out!

Academy is interesting as it's not exactly what I would consider MSF3. It's more like a spinoff. It's meant for 4 players at once, although you can play it solo like I did. However, I will say, playing is solo make it VERY apparent imo that you should not be playing it solo. It's clearly meant for multiplayer as the maps are MASSIVE.

But if you do play it by yourself? It's fine. It's short and pretty typical MSF stuff. But it does have some unique stuff like screen warping, so you jump into pits and end up at the top of the screen. And the stages with the giant blocks were interesting. But overall I kind of thought the levels were a little boring or sometimes even frustrating. But again I think that's cause I played it solo. Idk about buying this game on its own but in a collection? I think it's a fine addition. You have 2 fantastic solo games and a neat spinoff to play with 3 friends who also think Patricia Wagon is SOOOOOOO hot-

M.U.S.H.A. (December 21, 1990) - Sega Genesis

Another cool Shmup on NSO! It's genuinely kind of a treasure trove for the genre if you haven't played a lot of the old ones like I hadn't. I was sitting around on the couch, with nothing to do. And I decided, hey what the heck? Why not try that MUSHA shmup on NSO? So... I did. And that's why I'm here now.

MUSHA is a shmup where, from what I can gather, you play as a person piloting a big humanoid robot and fighting against the military force sent out by a rogue AI trying to destroy earth? The plot is a little difficult to find because from my understand it's different in each region. Also this game is a sequel? Well, regardless. It's cool. You fight massive waves on enemies, and get to use elemental power ups that give you different powers and have 3 stages of progression! Electric was, as is always the case in shmups with elemental powers, my favorite. And of course you have the little blasters orbiting you that you can command to attack in a variety of patters. It's all well and good, but I will be honest the gameplay wasn't anything mindblowing. A LOT of Shmups from this era have similar mechanics (even down to 3 elemental weapons with multi stage upgrades) and a lot of them tend to have more gimmicks to play around with like tractor beams and sub weapons.

Where MUSHA really shines is in its presentation. The sprites are GREAT, this game looks SO good. There's a level where you can see a river of lava far down below the stage, and shooting down enemies actually makes them fall down into the huge chasm and explode in the river of lava below you. It's honestly kind of impressive to me! The soundtrack is also good, and I like that the game kind of has a Metroid twist at the end. I was genuinely surprised to see I had been playing as a woman the whole time! And even having a boss show up at the end and try to sneak attack you after the final boss was pretty neat and not something I usually see in shmups. Genuinely cool!

So yeah MUSHA maybe isn't the most mind blowing shmup in the world but I think it's very good looking and cool.

Guilty Gear Isuka (December 17, 2003) - PC

Alright... So for a hot minute this was the only GG game on Steam I had never beaten. And the reason for that? I think this game kinda sucks lol. For context this isn't a traditional fighting game. It's a 4 player fighting game where all the characters are on screen at once and you have to press a button to turn around and there's lanes I couldn't figure out how to use (cpus barely use it either so it doesn't really matter) and while it's certainly interesting. It just kinda blows.

It's not super fun, even with the interesting gimmick, it's very clunky (having to use a button to turn around is BRUTAL, I get why they do it... but like, dude...) and overall just feels not fun to play. And a big reason for that is that I think the Steam Port is a little messed up. Mapping buttons to it is VERY difficult and took a long time to figure out. The Arcade ladder being like, an endless roguelike but without any of the upgrades that make roguelikes fun made it very boring imo. Genuinely, I think this might be the worst GG game. I finally got one I like less than Strive, you guys (at least Strive works).

But it's not all doom and gloom, the game does have some good stuff. It's got a good soundtrack like you'd expect, a personal favorite of mine (and one of my new favorite GG songs) is 'Drunkard Does Make Wise Remarks'. It has some GREAT stages that never returned after this as far as I'm aware? There's a pirate ship stage, a stage in a field with weird giant beasts walking through it, and maybe my personal favorite : A cookout on the beach with the Jellyfish Pirates. The stages in this one rule! Leopaldon is also super cool. And the fact you can make your own custom colors genuinely rules. Here's a custom Sol I made when I tried to play this game ages ago:

#roundup #2024 #thoughts

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dianight · 7 months

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It's very interesting to see others' perspectives when it comes to pvp, because my own "journey" has been pretty wild.

I used to play a lot of Quake live. For like ~5 years, during 2 of those 8+ hours almost everyday. School -> Quake -> sleep -> repeat 5 days a week, sometimes even on weekends. Eventually reduced the hours and the days; and the breaks where I would not play would get longer and longer. It happens.

Best way to put it, most players would embody might makes right. If player A is better than player B, player A is always right. Many times it was clear who was better, a few times there would be a 1v1 or perhaps a damage competition on team modes. There was a sort of hierarchy where pro players>>>>old q3 players>good players>everyone else.

Pure elitism, and I loved it. I was 15 (?) when I started playing, I got really really good and all these older dudes were impressed. Not like any big event changed how I thought, but over time I realized that way of measuring people is a bit fucked up. I enjoyed playing with many "lower skill" players not to stomp but because we got along. I actually tried to not be as much of an asshole as many others were. Banter and all that hypercompetitive attitude is way behind me now. What these days people call toxic, I suppose.

Later on I played starcraft 2. I had played brood war with my friends, I met a couple semi pros who were friends of a relative of a friend, they were way too good and we were kids who had no idea how to play anything other than big game hunters and turtle. Fun times.

When sc2 released, I played ladder very seriously (terran). Like watch replays and practice and test BOs and all that. My micro was terrible but I understood that what wins games is macro, so I abused mmm and learned how to play mid/late with mech. Learned a couple cheeses, tried a few ideas that were actually really good (blue flame hellion rush vZ was so cool) and played a lot.

The vibes of 1v1 in sc2 where way more honourable(?) compared to quake. GL&HF was literally automatic, to not type it meant that I was the worst kind of imbecile. Sure some people raged at me, but many others would GG into surrender or GG, compliment you and surrender. Very little hatemail, a lot of lovemail.

I was in university at the time, so way less time. After the diablo 3 fiasco, decided blizzard was done and there was no point in being so invested in sc2. Moved on, played other games, more multiplayer coop with friends. And dayz.

For years after I stopped playing dayz, I'd have dreams were it was a factor somehow. Maybe we were in cherno. Maybe there were firefights. Maybe zombies appear. Maybe just some running through woods. Maybe some walking through a road.

According to steam, I played dayz for ~240 hours. It feels like way more. Until then, no other game I'd played combined so many things. It was a survival game, a zombie game. But also a pvp game with other players. But sometimes you'd talk to people so no reason to fight. Also a base building game (with mods). A horror game too. A running simulator, as me and my friends put it.

I got many stories but that'd be too much of a tangent. Point being, I was used to pvp in a controlled enviroment. Maybe ffa, ctf or tdm, even duels in quake. Almost exclusively 1v1 on sc2. And then just open world pvp.

Thing is, I had played a few mmos before. Played metin2 with friends for a bit. Didn't like it much but it's the "playing with friends" part that matters. Tried wow for a bit. Didn't dislike it, but it was boring. The pvp part that I was promised was like, super bad. Back to the elitism of quake. Pve was somehow even worse.

This was around the time when mobas (I'll use this term, very incorrect) were getting massive. Tried dota2, was ok. Tried lol, it was like a kids version. Got a few friends to try dota with me. Good times.

It was around this time when I had some sort of epiphany. This was what "toxic" was. People raging, complaining, insulting each other. For no particular reason. It was somehow new to me. It's one thing to get antagonized because you beat someone in 1v1, or because they are upset you used some cheese, or because you were taunting them (guilty, I was young ok).

But this was a totally new level. I assume most people who've played these games understand.

This might seem exaggeration, or a straight up lie (I don't lie): in ~5000 hours over almost 10 years, I have only raged in 1 game of dota2. We were losing pretty badly and I kept doing my best, but my team could not follow up a single time. I was playing with a friend and I got very frustrated over voice call, but even then I would not think to shout at my teammates. A girl's gotta vent ok?

Anyways, things happen, and me and my friend stopped playing dota (nothing to do with that 1 game, just life). I stayed off pvp games completely, save for ds2/ds3 invasions. It's not pvp in my mind, more like trolling to have some laughs.

So once more, I love hearing/reading about other people's experiences because they are always so different. I find it really cool how others approach these things.

#dia talks

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ggukkiereads · 3 years

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Hello!! Just a few days ago I stumble upon your blog and I'm wondering if you have some recommendations for Hybrid AUs, much appreciated if it is an OT7 and completed, but if so I will still be so thankful. (I just need some cure from the stress that modules brings) Thank You in Advance (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

🌷 Hello! welcome to my mini fic-reading land. I’ve actually received asks for Hybrid AUs (I pinned the requests in the navi) but I just have a very messy draft.

But to help you with your stress, I think I can share a few of my ongoing reads (sorry they won’t be complete but they’re OT7). But, I added completed ones I could remember too (●'◡'●)

*note: will edit this later and organize this per member - maybe add other fics I’ll remember*

Fic Recs | BTS Hybrid AUs

→ A Place Called Home @agustdakasuga - OT7 x Reader

series [27/27] | 88k | Hybrid AU, Poly AU, Soulmate AU, Romance Humor | Fluff

Having saved your own injured hybrid, you were determined to try and help any other hybrid that crossed your path who needed saving. But being a vet in a small hospital wasn’t enough for you. You wanted to do more, you wanted to make a difference. You wanted to give them a home.

→ If I Can Never Give You Peace @candlewaxandp0lar0ids - Jungkook x Reader

series [3/?] | 17.6k+ | Mafia AU, Enemies to Lovers | A (so far)

It starts like quite a few stories do, in your world. Girl meets boy, who happens to be a hybrid, girl buys him at an auction where hybrids are sold, boy falls in love with her, girl gets bored of him. Then it’s not so typical anymore, when the boy ends up forced into illegal fighting rings, until he makes a wrong move and her father decides he needs to be killed.

Where does that leave you? Well, you’re the one who handled Jungkook’s fight and generally organized his life, and, when the girl’s father, your boss and mafia leader, tells you he wants him ‘put down’, you’re the one who has to get it done. Except, instead, you let him escape, and everything turns out fine.

🌷ggukkienote: I am so hooked on this (because I am a sucker for Mafia AUs too). This is such a great story and the OC is really different from the usual OCs. Very interesting.

→ Eunoia @wishesunderthestars - OT7 x Reader

series [15/?] | 100k+ (I just assumed this, masterpost doesn’t have wc but it’s 6k per chapter or more?) | Director!Reader, hurt/comfort | fluff, eventual smut

You are a world famous director and you have dedicated your life to your job. You have everything you could ever dream of; wealth, recognision, talent, your friends and family. But loneliness ins’t cured by success. So what happens when you somehow rescue seven hybrids? Can they fill the void?

→ Restitution @cloudteawrites - OT7 x Reader

series [7/?] | 48k+ | slow burn, poly, mystery, romance

when an estranged uncle leaves you his massive fortune you wonder if the universe is playing a joke on you. when that fortune comes with seven hybrids, you know for sure that it is.

→ Lacuna @barbika1508 - Jungkook x Reader

series [42/42] | 324.3k | Hybrid AU, check for TW | Fluff, Angst, Smut

Lacuna - (n.) a blank space, a missing part

Y/N just wanted to go back home, to enjoy her peace and quiet away from problems and people. But typically, her luck strikes as she stumbles upon a horrific scene of two guys mistreating an already beaten down hybrid. Will she take matters into her own hands and help him? Or let someone else help along the way???

🌷 This is on AO3 and I got a recent ask about author’s tumblr. So if you prefer AO3 you can check their profile

→ A Hundred Percent Human by wrienne- OT7 x Reader

series [12/?] | 88k+ | Hybrid AU, fluff, angst, smut |

In which you (reader) are forced to take care of seven hybrids in a twist of fate. Drunk and down on life, you finally decide to deal with the house and the unsavory business your mother left behind. However, to your shock, you find that seven very different hybrids are included with both the house - and the business. Seven hybrids you never even met before - even less agreed to take care of.

🌷 This is on AO3. I don’t normally reco AO3 since my blog is focused on tumblr fics but someone sent an ask about this so I’m including it

→ Inferiority Complex @starlightauroras-writes - Jimin x Reader

series [10/?] | 88k+ | political themes, themes of abuse (hybrids) | A, S

You had never liked hybrids. You disagreed with their very existence, and you never wanted to have anything to do with them. And then one day, you discovered a hybrid who was more scared of you than you were of him, and everything changed as you realised you were the only hope he had…

→ Sanctuary @chimchimsauce - Jimin x Reader

series [16/16] | 20k | Wolf Hybrid!Jimin, Barista!OC, feat sanctuary staff Taehyung, hurt/comfort | F, A

YN is a young girl, bright and ambitious, but due to her busy schedule, she's been unable to make any real friends. When an ad for Saint Mary's Sanctuary catches her attention, she never expected her life to be changed by a certain hybrid named Jimin.

→ Summer Nights @marginalmadness - Jungkook x Reader

series [4/4] | 23k | Hybrid!Fantasy, Romance | F, S

A freak weather anomaly leads to a chance encounter with a rabbit-hybrid, and your kind nature results in you gaining a small, fluffy lodger, who questions your taste in television shows. It’s won’t be for long...will it?

→ Risk it All @/httpjeon - Jungkook x Reader

series [5/5] | 8.3k | hybrid au, alpha wolf!jungkook | A, F, S

ripped from your family, you find yourself in a warehouse filled with predators. just your luck, you’re right across from a caged alpha wolf.

🌷 (I linked Chapter 5 because for some reason others couldn’t find this chapter so they thought it’s still incomplete)

→ Outro Love is Not Over @kiirokero - Hoseok x Reader

series [12/?] | Daycare Teacher!Hoseok x Single Mom!Reader

You are the single mother of a beautiful 6-year-old golden retriever hybrid who you named Yunho. But you’re a human. You can’t show him the ropes of being a hybrid, and you can’t teach him things the other moms can. So, when a handsome German Shepard hybrid comes into your life, helping you and guiding Yunho in a way you can’t, you can’t help the cozy home he sets up in your heart.

→ It Takes Two To Make A Thing Go Right @imaginethisbts - TaeKook x Reader

two shot [2/2] | 11k | dom/sub themes, heat cycles | S

What’s better than one dogboy lover? Two dogboy lovers. But when Tae and Jungkook seem unusually clingy, it can only mean one thing. That time of the month has snuck up on you and your dogboy lovers do not want to share.

🌷 Also try their other Jungkook hybrid series Out of the Blue

→ Peculiar Park @daydreamindollie - OT7 x Reader

series [9/?] | 38k+ | imagines, slice of life | Writer!Reader, Psychologist!Reader, imagines | fluff

you’re a successful hybrid writer and psychologist who takes in seven hybrids on one stormy night after finding one of their pack stealing from your garden

→ Yeouiju @nomseok - Namjoon x Reader

one shot | 33.7k | Mythical AU, Hybrid AU (if you squint), suspense | A, F, S

you find an ancient stone in the middle of the mountains and bring it home with you, oblivious to the consequences of taking a dragon’s yeouiju.

→ Beautiful Stranger @/nomseok - Taehyung x Reader

one shot | 19k | circus AU | A, S, F

your dream is to take care of animals for the rest of your life in the big city, making sure that they’re cared for. but you stumble upon a malnourished, rare tiger in your local circus, and you can’t help but want to take care of him.

→ Evolution of You and I @readyplayerhobi - Jimin x Reader

one shot | 10.2k | kind of epistolary (letters), chat, childhood friends | F

For 15 years, Park Jimin has been in your life in some form. From childhood penpal’s to the closest of friends now, you can’t imagine your life without him even if you’ve never actually met him in person. It doesn’t help that you’ve fallen for him, even across the distance that separates you. But what happens when you finally meet up and you discover he’s been keeping something secret?

→ Fish are Friends @httpjeon - Taehyung x Reader

one shot | 10.2k | seahorse hybrid!taehyung | A, S, F

after moving to the seaside, there is a dreadful storm. when all is clear, a man washes up on shore…only he isn’t quite human.

🌷 you know seahorses mate for life and it’s the male that gets pregnant? Interesting huh

→ Pink Panther @gimmesumsuga - Seokjin x Reader

one shot | 13k | boss-employee | F, S

The one where your boss, Kim Seokjin, tries to show you how beautiful you are.

→ Ragdoll @ausblack - Jimin x Reader

series [17/17] | Hybrid AU, College AU | F, A

As you were studying to obtain your medical & veterinary degree, your professor came up with the idea of organizing an internship - where you found yourself side by side with a sick hybrid that needed nothing other that complete care.

→ Jagged + Catnap @opaljm - Jimin x Reader

one shot + sequel | 18k | jaguar/black panther!jimin, sand dune cat!reader, mutual pining, friends to lovers, established relationship (sequel)| S, F, slight A

The pretty little sand cat hybrid Jimin has been in love with for the past year experiences her first heat and Jimin would love nothing more than to be the one to guide her through it and breed her with his kittens.

🌷 there’s also a possible spin-off for Taehyung (Eye of the Tiger)

→ Owner @jessikahathaway - Jungkook x Reader

series [6/?] | 17.4k | Fake Dating AU, Hybrid AU, based on Kimi Wa Petto (Japanese anime) | F, S, A

With your mother hounding on you (no pun intended), you decided to get a little help from a hybrid, who was also in need of assistance.

→ Loving Him Was Red + Somewhere Only We Know @userseok - Jungkook x Reader

series [3/?] | 12.8k+ | enemies to lovers, childhood friends (sorta), college au, jock!jungkook, unrequited love (for OC) | S, F, A

you’ve been chasing after jungkook for years. after a harsh verbal altercation between both of you, you decide to leave him alone and pursue a relationship with someone who seems genuinely interested in you, thinking he would never return your feelings.

I would like to recommend the catalog of these writers:

@ditttiii - so I realize I’m following them on AO3 when I realized the fics looked familiar 🤭. They have an ongoing series called Enchanted to Meet You which you might want to check out if you like Soulmate AUs too! I recently reblogged a Jungkook two-shot comfort fic (hybrid au too) so I recommend going through their masterlist!

@aroseforyoongi - who I discovered because of Gossamer (KTH). It was completed but I think it’s up for re-write/re-post? You can try the others:

Navy Blue - Jungkook [completed]

Forever Yours - Yoongi [one shot, prequel to Navy Blue]

Let Me Love You- Jungkook [one shot]

@magicalsalamander - another favorite author of mine I just feel like I’m reading a great tale every time I start on a series or one shot. They have great fics with supernatural themes too

Rabbit on the Moon - Jungkook | if you’re in the mood for police officer Jungkook [6/6]

The Act of Persuasion - Seokjin | if you are in the mood for Single Dad AU x Arranged Marriage too [one shot]

Firefly that Guards the Fox - Taehyung | if you are in the mood for mystery [11/12 - just epilogue left]

Kitten’s Little Flame - Yoongi | if you like BF to Lovers between dragon and a cat [6/6]

There’s more so please check their Masterlist

@hollyhomburg - I just love Of Fire and Love (hello dragon!yoongi and baby!jungkook? 🥺) But you can check:

their masterlist of all their hybrid fics

Dance to This series which I’ve added to fic recs based on an ask about stories that include members/readers with disability.

Don’t care if it Hurts - Jimin | this is probably my favorite (again I’m a sucker for Mafia AUs) , guard dog hybrid!jimin [12/13, just epilogue]

@angelicyoongie - I got hooked after reading their stories on AO3 but they have tumblr too! Check their masterlist for ongoing hybrid fic (Abundance - OT7) but these are completed ones:

Desolate - Yoongi, grumypy cat hybrid [14/14]

Out of the Woods - Namjoon, wolf hybrid, strangers to lovers [3/3]

@worldwidebt7 - if you like webtoons! I read parts of Jungkook’s webtoon and I think currently we’re on Yoongi’s story. Access it here

@jincherie - One of the first hybrid fics I remember encountering is Inheritance (MYG). Other fics:

Perihelion - Hoseok, college, roommate, enemies [2/?]

Butterfingers - Namjoon, teacher au, this is cuuuute READ IT if you’re looking for something fluffy [one shot]

4 o’ clock - Taehyung, single dad au (I included this in the singel dad fic recs too) [3/?]

Under the Bridge - Jungkook, found jungkook under the bridge [one shot]

@whitesparrows97 - a writer I discovered because of a Yoongi soulmate fic but I found that they also have other hybrid fics:

Cat’s Cradle - Yoongi, bestfriend [5/5]

Underdog - Taehyung, shifter, brought home what she thought a stray dog [5/5]

@foxymoxynoona - and what would my reco be without foxymoxy? So they have tumblr but their works are on AO3. I’ve listed their current works here but I didn’t include their completed works which are must-reads:

Sugar Fairy - Jungkook, mating, adopted hybrids [48/48]

A Sea of Indigo - Jungkook, ex-fighter [48/48] ⭐⭐⭐

@therealmintedmango - They have a whole masterlist of their hybrid!au fics. I recently finished Kingdom Come and I always remember Jimin from King (for some reason)

@joonbird - check their Zodiac Hybrid Masterlist of one shot per member

There are more (usually one shot per member) but I’ll probably put them in another Fic Rec List for Hybrid AUs. Sorry this list is kind of all over the place (not even organized per member 🤭). But good luck with your modules and I hope these help!

(❁´◡`❁)

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digital-dhampirs · 2 years

Text

a somewhat coherent breakdown of VnC 55 (part 1): The Teacher

VnC 55 is a short chapter.

But holy shit, so much happens in it. We get so much information and the art is so pretty and I’m very very scared and I Need To Know More and when is January again.

So much stuff happens in this chapter that while I was writing this breakdown I realized I was going to have to split it into two parts just for my own sanity (and also for readability reasons). Part 1 will primarily focus on the Teacher, and then we’ll get into the other characters, along with a few predictions for upcoming chapters, in Part 2.

Before we start, three warnings! : 1) this post contains many spoilers for vnc chapter 55; 2) i will refer to the teacher as “teacher” and “comte” interchangeably during this post; annnnd 3) this post is very long. even for me. i… the teacher is my new Ruthven and the fact that his story intertwines with Luna’s makes my already meager ability to control my rambling even worse.

With that, let’s jump into the wild world of…

Mur— I mean, The Teacher

Let’s start by breaking down our first Teacher Fun Fact: his face reveal. The Teacher’s left eye is copper sulphate blue, the same color as Vanitas’s. His right eye is some unspecified other color but (judging from the fact that the way his eyes are colored matches up pretty much perfectly with Human! Murr’s eyes in the volume 8 cat cafe omake) is very very likely to be magenta/ purple.

This isn’t quiiiiite confirmation yet, but the matching eye colors plus the Teacher’s line about meeting Vanitas in a different form makes it incredibly likely that the Teacher is indeed Murr. And this. Uh. I. /stares at various panels of Murr eating cat food, playing with cat toys, cuddling up to Amelia, and having a crush on a cat./ I will once again generously refer to him as a method actor.

Of course, there’s always a chance that this could be a red herring and Murr is a separate entity from the Teacher in some way, but there’s a lot of evidence pointing to them being one and the same.

The Teacher and Names

The next massive piece of information we get on the Teacher is the name he’s currently going by— the Comte de Saint Germain. After some very brief googling, it turns out the Comte de Saint Germain was a philosopher and adventurer who lived during the 18th century. And this guy was an oddball. Nobody truly knows who he was or where he came from (although there are various theories going around). The Comte constantly lied about his true identity, switching names and personas at the drop of a hat. He made absolutely insane claims about himself, one of which was that he was multiple centuries old; and had strong ties to alchemy, stating he could melt diamonds and create gemstones. Despite his constant lying, people frequently found themselves drawn to the Comte, and thought he was fascinating rather than just a run of the mill charlatan (pun somewhat intended).

And that? That name sounds kinda perfect for the Teacher. Nobody knows where he came from, he changes his name and form at the drop of the hat, he’s centuries old, and he has strong ties to alchemy.

It follows to ask, though— in the universe of VnC, did the Teacher meet the Comte, find him interesting, and take on his name after he died? Or was he actually running around as the Comte throughout the 1700s, just a version of him reimagined as a vampire (similar to the characters we meet in the Gévaudan arc)? If the latter is the case, he’s likely been using this name for over a century by 1889, when VnC is set— does he cycle through a specific set of names/ identities?

Another odd thing to note is that so far, all of the names Teacher has used haven’t really been…. names. “Grandfather” and “Teacher” aren’t really names, they’re more like titles, and “Comte” just means “count”.

And wait. That’s weird too. Didn’t the Teacher already turn down the title of “count” and give it to his kid, Count de Sade? Why would he toss his own title away only to name himself “count” again later?

I think this is an indication of yet another detail on Teacher we see displayed throughout this chapter— he has a Thing with names. I don’t quite know what to call it— a preoccupation? An obsession? Either way, there is absolutely something going on with the Teacher and names.

Chapter 55 shows us that Ruthven’s line way back in Chapter 19– “if anyone calls him by the wrong name, he beats them within an inch of their life on the spot…”— was absolutely not an exaggeration. The Teacher’s grin turns from cheery to absolutely horrifying when Vanitas refers to him as “Shapeless One”, and he threateningly tells Vanitas to not get it wrong the next time.

The Teacher, despite insisting Vanitas call him by the right name, seems to completely refuse to use Vanitas’s name— as a matter of fact, throughout this whole chapter, he never actually refers to another character by their own name. He calls Noé and Dominique “mes chatons”, refers to Jeanne as “hellfire witch”, and calls Vanitas “kin of the blue moon” and “heir to ‘blue’” [more on that second one later].

This insistence on not using anyone else’s name starts to paint a lot of the Teacher’s previous actions in a very different light. In chapter 14, Ruthven says that the Teacher “hated even saying [his] name”, to the point of crossing Ruthven’s name out of every book in his castle. Ruthven seems to take this as a sign of the Teacher hating him, but what if this is just normal behavior for our dear buddy Comte? We do see the Teacher occasionally call Noé “Noé”, but whenever he refers to someone by their actual name he seems to almost always speak in a possessive sense— “my dear Louis”, “my darling grandchildren”. His cute pet name for Domi and Noé is similarly possessive— “mes chatons”, my kittens. The Teacher seems to have an intense preoccupation with naming others— and not allowing others to name him.

This is (I think) why the Teacher refused to accept a title and then contrarily chose to include that same exact title as part of his current name. If the Teacher had accepted a title, that would mean someone else was allowed to “name” him— and to the Teacher, that’s completely unacceptable. But if the Teacher is the one who chooses that title, he’s the one naming himself, and that’s ok.

Weirdly, the Teacher only applies this rule to himself and doesn’t extend the same courtesy to anybody else— he’s furious when anyone refers to him by a name someone else gave him, “shapeless one”, but proceeds to almost exclusively refer to others by names he (or someone else) made up for them. “Hellfire Witch”, “Kin of the Blue Moon”, and “Shapeless One” are all quite similar, as they’re all sort of colloquial street names for Jeanne, Vanitas, and the Teacher, but for some reason the Teacher has massive objections to one and is totally fine with using the other two.

Why might this be?

My first thought is that it could be some kind of power/ respect thing. The Teacher sees calling someone their proper name as a sign of respect, and since he seems to solipsistically see himself as above others, he refuses to allow other characters to disrespect him while constantly disrespecting them. But that doesn’t seem quite right to me. The Teacher refers to Noé by his name during the chapter 9 flashback— why would he call Noé “Noé” and then call Luna (whom he seems to like a lot) “Blue”?

Maybe it’s something to do with the Teacher seeing others as possessions/ not quite the same as him? Maybe he sees others as inherently below him, as sentient items he can control? But that feels a bit off too… hmm….

Unfortunately, I can’t really think of another explanation for the Teacher’s preoccupation with names at the moment. I’m sure I’ll have more theories in the future, but for now I think I’m gonna have to leave it as a very weird character quirk we’ll likely learn more about in the future.

With that…. /cracks knuckles/… let’s get into that whole “Blue” thing.

The Teacher and Luna

First and foremost! Comte here might be a very bad horrifying manipulative murderer who psychologically tortures all of our beloved protagonists on the daily, but his take here is based as fuck. Luna is 100% the most beautiful being in this world and I love them and if the Teacher manages to actually bring them back from the dead I will be very very happy (even though they will probably Not Be) and Luna is super pretty and I could talk about how pretty they are for multiple days—

So. There’s definitely something going on with Luna and the Teacher.

Ever since the very first chapter of VnC, the Teacher has shown a strong interest in the Blue Moon. He grins widely when a young Noé tells him that he thinks the blue moon is beautiful, even reaching over to pat his shoulder in a way that seems almost proud. He laughs delightedly when he sees Noé cheerfully tell Domi she shouldn’t be scared of the blue moon. All of the Teacher’s experiments seem to revolve around either Luna or Faustina (who, according to Noé, looks very similar to Luna. ngl I don’t see it but if Noé says so it’s probably relevant).

And, oddly enough, Luna, Faustina, and Comte all have a preoccupation with names.

Let’s put Faustina/Naenia and her interest in hunting for true names aside for now, and just focus on Luna and Comte.

For a while now, I’ve been kinda lowkey wondering if these two character act as foils for each other. They’re both parental figures to our dual protagonists and they’re both exceptionally powerful to the point of being legends in and of themselves. Luna is initially seen as dangerous and cruel, but seems to have been a truly kind and cheerful person. The Teacher, meanwhile, seems to act kind and cheerful but is actually incredibly dangerous and cruel beneath that exterior.

This change in readers’ perception of the Teacher and Luna follows a similar timeframe— in chapter 1 we’re introduced to the Teacher as benevolent and Vanitas of the Blue Moon as evil, we slowly learn more about both parties and how their true natures don’t line up with these initial impressions, and then during the exposition universalle arc we finally get to see both of them as they truly are/ once were for the first time.

The Names Thing just further solidifies Comte and Luna as foils for me.

They both seem to have started out nameless/ without a name they were satisfied with. Comte frequently refuses to refer to others by the names they prefer; while Luna immediately calls people by whatever they want to be called, referring to Mikhail as “Misha” when he tells them the nickname. Comte insists on not accepting any name someone else gives him, to the point of turning down a title only to give himself that title years later as part of one of his names. Luna, meanwhile, seems to accept any name they’re given— “Vanitas”, “Vampire of the Blue Moon”, “Father”. The name Luna ultimately finds satisfying and chooses to keep is a name someone else accidentally gave them.

This now brings us back to that same question from before. Why do these specific characters have such an interest in names? Why are their approaches to names so completely different? Is it something to do with respect? With how one sees themselves in relation to others? With the very first line of the manga, where the Teacher tells Noé that his “true name” is his very being?

If I was gonna pull a wild guess out of a hat, my current guess would be that Luna and the Teacher don’t actually have true names. Maybe Comte is indeed exactly what he’s called by other vampires— a shapeless being, without a true name or known nature. Maybe this is why the two of them are so closely tied to the concept of names— they’re both searching for a metaphorical formula that shapes who they are. Maybe this is why Comte is so upset by the name “shapeless one”, maybe this is why Luna tries on any name others give them.

But that’s just a theory, a manga theory!! Let’s drag my levitating theorist self back on to solid ground and talk a lil more about the Teacher and Luna and what’s going on between them. (*winks in shipper*)

SO. We’ve established that Comte has some sort of connection with Luna. It’s very possible he gave his current form one blue eye just because he liked the color, but considering he also gave Murr this type of heterochromia, I can’t help but feel like it goes deeper than that. I think there’s a very real possibility that Luna and the Teacher have met before, and may have even worked together at some point.

Firstly, there’s the fact that the Teacher’s obsession with Luna feels like it goes a liiiiittle bit beyond the scope of “oh I saw this really pretty vampire from afar one day so I decided to spend the rest of my life studying them and working to bring them back from the dead”. Assuming his line in Chapter 55 is about Luna and not just him… liking the color blue… or talking about some other entity, it sounds like he probably spent a nonzero amount of time with Luna at some point in the past.

For a little while now I’ve had a running theory that the Teacher was the one who gave Moreau the Books of Vanitas, along with Luna’s blood. Comte and Luna working together in the past could explain why he managed to acquire those items. In a chapter 51 flashback, Luna states that they once tried to find out what they truly were, but now deeply regret it. Could they potentially be referring to a time when they worked together with Comte?

With that, I think we can start piecing some puzzle pieces together about Luna and Comte and their past relationship. They likely worked together at some point, but Luna came to regret doing so. Luna never seems to have mentioned Comte to their adoptive kids, but the Teacher often told Noé the story of Vanitas of the Blue Moon and praised him when he said the blue moon was pretty. Luna died, and now the Teacher is trying to revive them.

Suffice to say, Comte seems absolutely infatuated with Luna.

The question is… does he actually feel any love or attachment to them? Or does he just want to possess them?

This is where we once again return to that delightful running theme throughout this post— names. Comte refers to Luna as “Blue”, probably a nickname stemming from “Vanitas of the Blue Moon”. But Comte’s probably been stalking Luna for a long while, watching them from afar while they traveled with the boys— does he really not know about their new chosen name? Not to mention, even if he doesn’t know about the name “Luna” for some reason, why does he have to be contrary and call them “Blue” rather than the usual “Vanitas”?

I doubt Luna minded this name, just like they didn’t mind “Vanitas” or “Father”, but it starts to raise red flags in my brain when it comes out of the mouth of the guy who constantly refuses to call others by their actual names and frequently refers to people in a possessive sense. It could be an affectionate nickname, but it could also be yet another sort of power/ respect/ possession thing. He also doesn’t refer to Luna as a person or a being or a vampire, he calls them the most beautiful “creature” in the world. It’s sus. It’s all very sus.

In addition to this! Even if Comte truly does feel something resembling “love” for Luna, there’s another interesting little knot to this tangled sort of love. Comte’s actions towards Luna feel remarkably and amusingly similar to the way his protégée acts around Luna’s adoptive kid.

(We’ve seen something else like this before, haven’t we? A protégée taking on a lot of the qualities of the vampire that raised them?)

Throughout VnC, Noé and Vanitas both have a bad habit of sacrificing themselves to save each other without putting any thought into how this will affect the other party. In Vanitas’s case, this is largely driven by his own self hatred and belief that he is inferior to or worth less than others.

And in Noé’s case, this is primarily driven by selfishness.

Noé is a selfish character. He loves Vanitas (whether this is platonic or romantic is largely irrelevant to this post so take it either way), and he doesn’t want Vanitas to get hurt. Seeing Vanitas upset makes Noé angry. And since Noé is selfish, if he has to do something to protect Vanitas that goes against what Vanitas wants (@/ slashing Mikhail in the previous chapter), he will do it. “I will never set you free” is, in context, a very moving statement, but looking at the line itself on its lonesome it’s practically scary.

I think, just like Jean-Jacques’s jealousy was learned from Chloé, Noé’s selfishness is something he learned from Comte.

With this I think we can start to parse out a little bit of what’s going on with Comte and Luna. I highly doubt Luna wants to be brought back from the dead— especially not if that process involves Comte manipulating and torturing a group of innocent randos and Luna’s adoptive kids. But Comte wants to bring Luna back anyways, and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to make it happen— because Comte, like Noé, is selfish.

a few more assorted notes

This is the section for fun observations that don’t really fit anywhere else in this meta!

Firstly, the Teacher seems to have to reveal his true “face” in order to manipulate the world formula. The image of his eyes changing color as he slips out of his ordinary form and into his monstrous one is horrifying and I love it, as is his insane amount of power— he seems to literally tear open a portal in the world and walk through it, something on a completely different scale from what we’ve seen so far in the manga.

Interestingly, though, the tendrils surrounding Teacher’s eldritch horror form look completely different from the ones we saw back in chapter 9. They’re actually eerily similar to Ruthven’s black flames, which is… very concerning, but I’m convincing myself it’s just something he taught himself how to do and not an indication of anything else nope nope nope noep—

I do indeed have more things to say about the Teacher, but!!! Those thoughts will be left for part two of this post. With that I think we’ve finally reached…

not the end! (but in conclusion,)

It’s Christmas Eve. I just spent the past three hours losing my mind over a manga character.

I have no regrets.

If you made it this far, holy shit thank you so much for reading this post. Please take everything here with a massive grain of salt— this is all just my interpretation of the manga so far and will likely be proven completely wrong as we learn more about Comte and Luna in the future. If you’d like, please tune in for Part 2, coming soon to a vnc tag near you (hopefully I can get it written today but uhh…. hmm…. various preexisting conditions may get in the way of that), which will include my thoughts on Vanitas, Noé, and basically any part of the chapter I didn’t go over in this post (including, rather upsettingly, yet more Teacher).

Thanks again for reading, and happy holidays!

update: here’s a link to part 2..!

#vanitas no carte #vnc #the case study of vanitas #vnc spoilers #vnc 55 #vanitas no shuki #meta-ish #the teacher #comte de saint germain #i know I should be calling him The comte and not just comte but i prefer the latter ngl #happy holidays; i say; at the end of a post all about a murderous monster who beheaded his own grandson #will link part 2 once it’s up #also I’m very sorry for constantly switching between ‘teacher’ and ‘comte’#there’s no logic to the switching beyond ‘brain wants to call him comte/ teacher in this sentence’

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